The aim of the study is to conduct a statistical analysis of population changes in Poland's municipalities in 2021 compared to 2011 using national censuses data. Population changes in cities and ...their surroundings play a crucial role in shaping urban environments, economies, and societies. Monitoring these changes is essential for various reasons, including urban planning, resource allocation, and environmental conservation. Firstly, understanding population trends empowers city officials and planners to make well-informed decisions that promote sustainable urban growth. Secondly, effective resource allocation is dependent on accurate population data. By tracking the changes in the population, city administrators can ensure equitable distribution of resources, such as healthcare, education, and public safety. Thirdly, monitoring population changes enables cities to gauge the economic and social impacts of demographic shifts. The conducted study takes into account the analysis of changes in the population in two dimensions. The first is the analysis of population changes in relative terms. The second dimension refers to identifying patterns in population changes. Determining the main directions of population shifts will identify those areas where an influx of population will be associated with challenges for local authorities related to new investment needs in public infrastructure, and areas where a decline in population will be associated with a decline in income for local authorities and difficulties in implementing both current policies and future investments.
Scholarly interest in the relationship between public investments and residential displacement dates back to the 1970s and the aftermath of displacement related to urban renewal. A new wave of ...scholarship examines the relationship of gentrification and displacement to public investment in transit infrastructure. Scholarship has generally conflated gentrification and displacement; however, this review argues for a clearer analytical distinction between the two. Although the displacement discussion in the United States began with the role of the public sector and now has returned to the same focus, it will be necessary to overcome methodological shortcomings to arrive at more definitive conclusions about the relationship.
Although the necessity for hamlet-scale demographic analysis has been repeatedly pointed out, there has been little research due to scarcity of data. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to ...explore the feasibility of hamlet-scale demographic analysis using the population census and (2) to examine the merger of hamlets from a demographic perspective using a cohort analysis. Thus, we chose the merger of three hamlets in the Fudo district of Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, in 2020. The results follow. (1) The population of hamlets after 1965 could be ascertained from censuses by interpreting census enumeration districts as hamlets, but it was not possible to similarly use censuses after 2000. (2) Fudo Elementary School became independent and expanded in the 1950s because of the large population of the cohort born during 1946-1955, i.e. the “independent-school generation.” In the post-2000 era, as a response to the declining birth rates and subsequent closure of elementary schools, there has been a call for this generation to forge a new bond. (3) The population of people aged in their 60s and 70s who serve as district officers peaked in 2015 and has been declining since. In summary, this hamlet merger was conducted by the “independent-school generation” who were old enough to be designated as district officers and had prepared for a future population decline. Future tasks are to examine the life of each of the “independent-school generation” and to improve hamlet-scale demographic analysis considering gender and social mobility trends.
Migration is a major engine of demographic change for towns, regions, and whole countries. Traditionally, migrations have been divided into those caused by push or pull factors or classified by ...events that triggered them. In other words, push and pull factors are but one way to classify migration movements. This work distinguishes between life course and structural migrations. Life course migrations are linked to important events in people’s lives such as graduation, marriage, having children, job promotions, discharge from the military, or retirement and the motivation comes from the migrant. Structural migrations are caused by changes in the economic, social, political, or natural environment and, therefore, externally motivated. This classification scheme is compatible with and complementary to existing classifications and particularly those based on push and pull factors. It yields some additional insights for policy making, empirical research, and migration modeling.
Abstract
To elucidate the effect of Pleistocene climatic fluctuations on the historical distribution and geographical genetic structure of temperate Japanese species, we performed phylogeographical ...and demographic analyses using mitochondrial gene sequences obtained from the stonefly species Kamimuria tibialis, sampled from four main islands of the Japanese Archipelago (i.e. Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu) and Tsushima Island. We detected three main clades with distinct geographical distributions, including the Tsushima, Kyushu and Hokkaido–Honshu–Shikoku phylogroups. These groups were estimated to have diverged from one another 0.54–2.02 Mya, suggesting they have undergone several glacial cycles in different refugia. Our results showed that during the glacial epochs and with a fall in sea-level, gene flow was limited among Tsushima and Kyushu, and among Hokkaido and Honshu, probably because the straits between these islands are deep. The population in Kyushu and Shikoku, the southernmost islands, exhibited high genetic diversity, with two distinct haplotype lineages occurring sympatrically. These results suggest that the population division into multiple refugia and the existence of stable southern refugia have contributed to the high genetic diversity of the species in this region.
Statistical shape models are widely used in biomedical research. They are routinely implemented for automatic image segmentation or object identification in medical images. In these fields, however, ...the acquisition of the large training datasets, required to develop these models, is usually a time-consuming process. Even after this effort, the collections of datasets are often lost or mishandled resulting in replication of work.
To solve these problems, the Virtual Skeleton Database (VSD) is proposed as a centralized storage system where the data necessary to build statistical shape models can be stored and shared.
The VSD provides an online repository system tailored to the needs of the medical research community. The processing of the most common image file types, a statistical shape model framework, and an ontology-based search provide the generic tools to store, exchange, and retrieve digital medical datasets. The hosted data are accessible to the community, and collaborative research catalyzes their productivity.
To illustrate the need for an online repository for medical research, three exemplary projects of the VSD are presented: (1) an international collaboration to achieve improvement in cochlear surgery and implant optimization, (2) a population-based analysis of femoral fracture risk between genders, and (3) an online application developed for the evaluation and comparison of the segmentation of brain tumors.
The VSD is a novel system for scientific collaboration for the medical image community with a data-centric concept and semantically driven search option for anatomical structures. The repository has been proven to be a useful tool for collaborative model building, as a resource for biomechanical population studies, or to enhance segmentation algorithms.
We examine changes in online consumer spending during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we compare consumer spending on various product categories before the pandemic started to after. Unlike ...previous work, we not only look at the different consumer demographic profiles but also different product categories, providing a better understanding of spending behavior. E-commerce has been a favorite way of shopping for consumers before the pandemic, while some demographic groups were reluctant to use e-commerce. However, as pandemic-related restrictions on physical shopping were put in place, consumers found e-commerce the only way to shop for many essential products. As such, consumer online spending changed. We employ freshly released Canadian Perspectives Survey Series (CPSS) data on consumer spending by Statistics Canada. We examine the association between various demographic factors and the change in online spending empirically. Our findings indicate that, compared to their counterparts, younger consumers are more likely to have increased online spending on product categories related to internet connectivity and streaming services. Female consumers exhibit increased online spending on similar products, in addition to online learning services and home exercise equipment. Consumers living in urban areas exhibit a higher probability of increased online spending on computers, smartphone devices, internet connectivity, and food delivery services. Consumers with at least one child exhibit a similar trend. Larger households exhibit a considerable increase in the probability of increased online spending on food delivery services. Lastly, consumers with higher education exhibit a higher probability of increased online spending on products related to online learning and streaming services.
Abstract Objectives The objectives of this study were to estimate prevalence of low back pain, to investigate associations between low back pain and a set of emerging workplace risk factors, and to ...identify worker groups with an increased vulnerability for low back pain in the United States. Methods The data used for this cross-sectional study came from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey, which was designed to collect data on health conditions and related risk factors from the US civilian population. The variance estimation method was used to compute weighted data for prevalence of low back pain. Multivariable logistic regression analyses stratified by sex and age were performed to determine the odds ratios (ORs) and the 95% confidence interval (CI) for low back pain. The examined work-related psychosocial risk factors included work-family imbalance, exposure to a hostile work environment, and job insecurity. Work hours, occupation, and other work organizational factors (nonstandard work arrangements and alternative shifts) were also examined. Results The prevalence of self-reported low back pain in the previous 3 months among workers in the United States was 25.7% in 2010. Female or older workers were at increased risk of experiencing low back pain. We found significant associations between low back pain and a set of psychosocial factors, including work-family imbalance (OR 1.27, CI 1.15-1.41), exposure to hostile work (OR 1.39, CI 1.25-1.55), and job insecurity (OR 1.44, CI 1.24-1.67), while controlling for demographic characteristics and other health-related factors. Older workers who had nonstandard work arrangements were more likely to report low back pain. Women who worked 41 to 45 hours per week and younger workers who worked >60 hours per week had an increased risk for low back pain. Workers from several occupation groups, including male health care practitioners, female and younger health care support workers, and female farming, fishing, and forestry workers, had an increased risk of low back pain. Conclusions This study linked low back pain to work-family imbalance, exposure to a hostile work environment, job insecurity, long work hours, and certain occupation groups. These factors should be considered by employers, policymakers, and health care practitioners who are concerned about the impact of low back pain in workers.
Using a nationwide online survey ( N = 534), we investigate how individual-level characteristics and past actions are related to support of affordable housing at the neighborhood level. Several ...demographic characteristics, past actions, federal government trust, personal exposure, racism (symbolic racism scale), and affect (emotional connotation) are found to be significant predictors of support. We provide evidence for racism and affect being mediating factors acting in series to shape support of affordable housing. In addition to racism, individuals’ affect can potentially help explain the shift from support of hypothetical scenarios to opposition of real affordable housing development proposals and warrants continued study.
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