•Conservatives show lower risk perceptions of COVID-19 than liberals and moderates.•Confidence in political leaders can reduce risk perceptions of COVID-19.•It also can mediate the effects of ...political ideology on risk perceptions.•Attention to news about the outbreak of COVID-19 is positively correlated with risk perceptions.•Perceived quality of media coverage can lead to heightened risk perceptions of COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented risks to the well-being of Americans. To control the pandemic, a sufficient proportion of the population needs to be vaccinated promptly. Despite the proven ...efficacy and widespread availability, vaccine distribution and administration rates remain low. Thus, it is important to understand the public behavior of COVID-19 vaccination. This study aims to identify determinants at multiple levels that promote or inhibit one’s vaccine uptake. We combine individual-level data from a national survey conducted in the summer of 2021 with corresponding state-level indicators. Findings of multilevel logistic regression show that political orientation, social network, and economic recovery altogether have significant influence. We articulate that individual decision to take the vaccine are a function of their personal characteristics and are also rooted in their home state’s political, public health, and economic contexts. These findings contribute to the literature and have policy implications. Knowledge of the profiles among people who take/refuse the vaccine provides essential information to leverage certain factors and maximize vaccine uptake to mitigate the pandemic’s devastating impact.
Climate change is a major challenge facing the United States today. Recent years have witnessed a surge of extreme weather events that brought devastating impacts on the economy and environment. One ...major contributor to climate change is CO
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emissions produced from fossil fuel consumption. Promoting renewable energy is one practical pathway to mitigate these emissions while also meeting energy demands. This study investigates the driving forces of U.S. renewable energy consumption. The data are a balanced panel that includes indicators for 50 states and Washington, DC, from 1997 to 2019. The time-series Prais-Winsten regression is adopted for statistical estimation. Results show that states consume more renewable energy when they have less carbon-intensive economies and suffer more climate change impacts. Also, the renewable portfolio standards represent an effective policy instrument to promote renewable consumption. The findings complement existing literature and carry policy implications. Notably, states become supportive of renewable energy when their economies are less intertwined with fossil fuels and relevant policies are in place to provide incentives for renewables.
Abstract
This study aims to estimate the pediatric COVID‐19 vaccine uptake and the impact of social network and Biden approval. A national survey was conducted by Qualtrics from September 26 to 19 ...October 2022, and respondents who identified as primary guardians of children under 18 are included in this study. Findings show that parents are more likely to vaccinate children between 12 and 17 than children between 5 and 11 or below 5. The means of measures for social network and Biden approval for parents who have vaccinated children across different age groups are significantly higher than the corresponding means for parents whose children remain unvaccinated. Structural equation modeling results suggest the social network and Biden approval positively affect parents' decision to vaccinate children. The former predictor also mediates the latter on the outcome measure. The findings are significant when analyzing the sample of parents with children over five. These findings contribute to the literature and have policy implications for leveraging interventions and optimizing vaccination for children.
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented impact on Americans for over three years. To control the damage, a booster shot becomes increasingly necessary because the efficacy of the initial ...vaccine is waning and new variants of the virus are emerging. This study aims to understand factors at both individual and state levels that influence one’s decision to take the monovalent booster. We merged data from a national survey administered in the Spring of 2022 with state-level indicators of the political climate, income inequality, and public health conditions. Multilevel logistic regression is adopted for statistical estimation. Findings show contrasting effects of the social network. More vaccinated people in one’s network promote booster uptake, while more family members and close friends who contracted the virus in one’s network inhibit booster uptake. In addition, residents of states with more votes for the Democratic candidate in the 2020 general election are more likely to take the booster. Meanwhile, residents from states with high income inequality are less likely to become boosted. This study identified multilevel determinants of the individual decision to receive the monovalent COVID-19 booster. The results imply the need to leverage the social network, weaken partisanship salience, and reduce income inequality to encourage booster uptake.
•This study investigates the effects of state-level predictors on changes in COVID-19 vaccination rates, Apr 2021-Jan 2022.•Analyses of panel data show Biden’s approval and COVID-19 death are ...positively associated with the growing vaccination rate.•Inflation and economic recovery are negatively associated with the vaccination rate during this period.•COVID-19 mortality has a more substantial impact on elevating the vaccination rate among states with stronger Biden’s approval.•The findings complement the literature and provide fresh insights to promote the vaccine rollout.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought an unprecedented impact on Americans for over three years. One effective strategy to mitigate the pandemic’s damage lies in the vaccine. This study aims to investigate the effects of state-level predictors that vary month-by-month on changes in vaccination rates. Panel data of state-level indicators are built for all 50 states from April 2021 to January 2022. The dependent variable is the monthly increase in vaccination rate, and the independent variables include measures of Biden’s approval, inflation, economic recovery, and COVID-19 mortality for each month of this study period. Fixed-effects regression is adopted for longitudinal statistical estimation. Findings show that over time Biden’s approval and COVID-19 death are positively associated with the growth in the vaccination rate, while inflation and economic recovery are negatively associated with the vaccination rate. Significant interactions are identified among these predictors. The findings from analyzing panel indicators at the state level complement the current literature dominated by examining cross-sectional data and provide public health officials with fresh insights to promote the vaccine rollout.
Perovskite solar cells have recently drawn significant attention for photovoltaic applications with a certified power conversion efficiency of more than 22%. Unfortunately, the toxicity of the ...dissolvable lead content in these materials presents a critical concern for future commercial development. This review outlines some criteria for the possible replacement of lead by less toxic elements, and highlights current research progress in the application of low-lead halide perovskites as optically active materials in solar cells. These criteria are discussed with the aim of developing a better understanding of the physio-chemical properties of perovskites and of realizing similar photovoltaic performance in perovskite materials either with or without lead. Some open questions and future development prospects are outlined for further advancing perovskite solar cells toward both low toxicity and high efficiency.
DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that has essential roles in cellular processes including gene regulation, development and disease and is widely dysregulated in most types of ...cancer. Recent advances in sequencing technology have enabled the measurement of DNA methylation at single nucleotide resolution through methods such as whole-genome bisulfite sequencing and reduced representation bisulfite sequencing. In DNA methylation studies, a key task is to identify differences under distinct biological contexts, for example, between tumor and normal tissue. A challenge in sequencing studies is that the number of biological replicates is often limited by the costs of sequencing. The small number of replicates leads to unstable variance estimation, which can reduce accuracy to detect differentially methylated loci (DML). Here we propose a novel statistical method to detect DML when comparing two treatment groups. The sequencing counts are described by a lognormal-beta-binomial hierarchical model, which provides a basis for information sharing across different CpG sites. A Wald test is developed for hypothesis testing at each CpG site. Simulation results show that the proposed method yields improved DML detection compared to existing methods, particularly when the number of replicates is low. The proposed method is implemented in the Bioconductor package DSS.
Recently, a chaotic image encryption algorithm based on information entropy (IEAIE) was proposed. This paper scrutinizes the security properties of the algorithm and evaluates the validity of the ...used quantifiable security metrics. When the round number is only one, the equivalent secret key of every basic operation of IEAIE can be recovered with a differential attack separately. Some common insecurity problems in the field of chaotic image encryption are found in IEAIE, e.g., the short orbits of the digital chaotic system and the invalid sensitivity mechanism built on information entropy of the plain image. Even worse, each security metric is questionable, which undermines the security credibility of IEAIE. Hence, IEAIE can only serve as a counterexample for illustrating common pitfalls in designing secure communication method for image data.
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