Within the last four years, Lithuania has faced different foreign policy challenges due to geopolitical situations such as the Ukraine-Russia war, the migration crisis on the border with Belarus, and the conflict with China. After opening a Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius, China downgraded diplomatic relations with Lithuania. The purpose of the article is to assess the impact of the changes on international economic relations between Lithuania and China. The paper employs descriptive statistics, correlation-regression, sensitivity analysis, and agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis. The research is based on the impact of international economic relations on international trade by analyzing separately imports and exports. Our research fills a gap in international relations and globalization theory by focusing on international collaboration between small and large countries, while the large country implements economic sanctions. In the context of Lithuania, exports to China and imports from China comprise a small percentage in the structure of international trade. Lithuania’s GDP level reacts sensitively to changes in export and import data only if they change drastically (over 50%).
E-cigarettes pose a significant public health concern, particularly for youth and young adults. Policymaking in this area is complicated by changing consumption patterns, diverse user demographics, and dynamic online and offline communities. This study uses social network analytics to examine the social dynamics and communication patterns related to e-cigarette use. We analyzed data from various social media platforms, forums, and online communities, which included both advocacy for e-cigarettes as a safer smoking alternative and opposition due to health risks. Our findings inform targeted healthcare policy interventions, such as educational campaigns tailored to specific network clusters, regulations based on user interaction and influence patterns, and collaborations with key influencers to spread accurate health information.
This research aims to delineate the ecocity indicators from the local perspectives in urban communities in the Northeast of Thailand. The research was quantitative survey research. Data was collected from a sample of 400 people who live in Khon Kaen Municipality and Udon Thani Municipality using a questionnaire. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and factor analysis. We found that the eco-city indicators from the perspective of people in the urban communities in the Northeast of Thailand were divided into three main criteria: a) economic perspectives; b) social perspectives; and c) environmental perspectives. When considering each aspect, it was found that the economic perspective had a total of 9 issues with an average of 3.06 out of 5.00, the social perspective had a total of 16 issues with an average of 3.76 out of 5.00, and the environmental perspective had a total of 14 issues with an average at 3.00 out of 5.00.
In recent years, the construction of Jiafeng (家风)has become an important research topic in the field of street-level governance. A systematic literature review method is used to review 504 journal articles sourced from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The research overview is presented from the perspectives of overall research characteristics, highly cited literature, theoretical foundations, and research methods. The research systematically elaborates on the results of literature analysis from the perspective of the connotation and extension of Jiafeng, the practical mechanisms and related suggestions for Jiafeng construction. The research has found that the practical mechanisms of Jiafeng construction includes institutional support mechanism, theoretical consolidation mechanism, collaborative mechanism, social education mechanism, application innovation mechanism, and efficiency evaluation mechanism. On the basis of constructing a framework for the study of Jiafeng, this article provides prospects for future research: consolidating the theoretical foundation of Jiafeng construction, defining the connotation and extension of Jiafeng, refining the practical mechanism of Jiafeng construction, enriching the research methods of Jiafeng and measuring tools for governance effectiveness.
The nighttime economy has always been an important part of tourism in Thailand. The alcohol industry contends that lifting alcohol restrictions will promote tourism and, consequently, generate additional income. Endogenous Growth Theory, however, emphasizes on investing in human capital, innovation, and knowledge as the most important factors that affect economic growth for a nation. Alcohol consumption incurs opportunity costs, as households lose financial resources and time that could be invested in children’s development. Relaxing control measures to promote alcohol consumption should impede economic development by diminishing the quality of human resources. The paper, therefore, aims to estimate the impact of alcohol consumption on economic growth by using 1990–2019 annual data from Thailand. By adopting Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, the results reveal that alcohol consumption has significant and negative effects on economic growth in the long run. The statistic tests demonstrate no presence of serial correlation, heteroskedasticity, as well as, endogeneity problems. The finding has been corroborated in international studies, in which alcohol consumption contributes to substantial social and economic costs of the society.
This study investigated changes in lifestyles and psychological anxiety among Koreans during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic using the 2020 data from the nationwide Korean Community Health Survey. The study outcomes were psychological anxiety about the infection and death, due to COVID-19. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate the relationship between psychological anxiety and lifestyle changes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people who practiced healthy behaviors and followed social distancing and quarantine regulations experienced increased psychological anxiety for infection and death. Daily life changes during the COVID-19 pandemic were not associated with psychological anxiety. The result of this study can provide baseline measures for further study on psychological anxiety during re-infection of COVID-19 and future pandemics in Korea.
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