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Editorial: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Socio-economic systems in the post-pandemic world: Design thinking, strategic planning, management, and public policy
Copyright © 2022 Klimczuk, Berde, Dovie, Klimczuk-Kochanska and Spinelli. Overview:
The declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, led to unprecedented events. All regions of the world participated in implementing preventive health measures such as physical distancing, travel restrictions, self-isolation, quarantines, and facility closures. The pandemic started global disruption of socio-economic systems, covering the postponement or cancellation of public events, supply shortages, schools and universities' closure, evacuation of foreign citizens, a rise in unemployment and inflation, misinformation, the anti-vaccine movement, and incidents of discrimination toward people affected by or suspected of having coronavirus disease. Attempts have been made to protect the oldest age group at risk, but in many cases, this has led to over-restriction and age discrimination.
The rationale for working on the Research Topic “Socio-economic systems in the post-pandemic world: Design thinking, strategic planning, management, and public policy” was the need to start reflecting on resilience and lessons learned from this public health event that revealed the global unpreparedness in critical areas. Also, the pandemic triggered both top-down (e.g., policy tools toward labor markets) and bottom-up (e.g., social and technological innovations in education) responses that needed more in-depth analyzes.
This Research Topic covers interdisciplinary contributions addressing new thinking, challenges, and transformations required for post-pandemic global, national, regional, and local realities. The presented Research Topic combines studies focused on recognizing the actions and interventions leading to the recovery of socio-economic systems during the tail end and after the pandemic. The studies delivered recommendations regarding, among others, the care of vulnerable, planning socio-economic restart, and imagining the “new normal.”
The presented Research Topic includes 27 articles prepared by 113 authors from all continents. This set of texts contains seven types of papers covering: 14 original research articles (Beno and Hvorecky; Bhandari et al.; Bjursell et al.; Breitenbach et al.; El Deeb; Ferchiou et al.; Kieslinger et al.; Liu et al.; Musango et al.; Poppe; Rasul et al.; Rivera-Rodriguez and Urdinola; Suomi et al.; Chen et al.), two perspective articles (Lee and Kang; Takewaki), four review articles (Contreras et al.; Kumar, Malla et al.; Singu et al.; Hamid and Mir), one study protocol article (Marston et al.), three opinion articles (Lever and Safra; Sciacchitano and Bartolazzi; Vlacha and Feketea), one conceptual analysis article (Auriemma and Iannaccone), and two brief research reports (Kumar, Kodidela et al.; Sun et al.).
The editors have identified six themes underpinning and linking together the finally selected papers. The identified macro themes help to distinguish the main contribution focus and the areas of application of the published research. However, these studies are also a testimony of the pandemic's impact on each and every significant aspect of our societies
A combination of methods needed to assess the actual use of provisioning ecosystem services
Failure to recognize that potential provisioning ecosystem services are not necessarily collected and used by people may have important consequences for management of land and resources. Accounting for people's actual use of ecosystem services in decision making processes requires a robust methodological approach that goes beyond mapping the presence of ecosystem services. But no such universally accepted method exists, and there are several shortcomings of existing methods such as the application of land use/cover as a proxy for provisioning ecosystem service availability and surveys based on respondents' recall to assess people's collection of e.g. wild food. By combining four complementary methods and applying these to the shifting cultivation systems of Laos, we show how people’s actual use of ecosystem services from agricultural fields differs from ecosystem service availability. Our study is the first in Southeast Asia to combine plot monitoring, collection diaries, repeat interviews, and participant observation. By applying these multiple methods borrowed from anthropology and botany among other research domains, the study illustrates that no single method is sufficient on its own. It is of key importance for scientists to adopt methods that can account for both availability of various services and actual use of those services
Traditional knowledge and cultural importance of Borassus aethiopum Mart. in Benin: interacting effects of socio-demographic attributes and multi-scale abundance
ResearchBackground: Eliciting factors affecting distribution of traditional knowledge (TK) and cultural importance of plant
resources is central in ethnobiology. Socio-demographic attributes and ecological apparency hypothesis (EAH) have
been widely documented as drivers of TK distribution, but their synergistic effect is poorly documented. Here, we
focused on Borassus aethiopum, a socio-economic important agroforestry palm in Africa, analyzing relationships
between the number of use-reports and cultural importance on one hand, and informant socio-demographic
attributes (age category and gender) on the other hand, considering the EAH at multi-scale contexts. Our
hypothesis is that effects of socio-demographic attributes on use-reports and cultural importance are shaped by
both local (village level) and regional (chorological region level) apparency of study species. We expected so
because distribution of knowledge on a resource in a community correlates to the versatility in the resource
utilization but also connections among communities within a region.
Methods: Nine hundred ninety-two face-to-face individual semi-structured interviews were conducted in six villages of
low versus high local abundance of B. aethiopum spanning three chorological regions (humid, sub-humid and semiarid)
also underlying a gradient of increasing distribution and abundance of B. aethiopum. Number of use-reports and
score of importance of uses of B. aethiopum were recorded in six use-categories including medicine, food, handcraft,
construction, firewood, and ceremonies and rituals. Data were analyzed using Poisson and ordered logistic modelsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Canagliflozin and renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes and nephropathy
BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to <90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area and albuminuria (ratio of albumin [mg] to creatinine [g], >300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years
Supporting conservation with biodiversity research in sub-Saharan Africa’s human-modified landscapes
Protected areas (PAs) cover 12 % of terrestrial sub-Saharan Africa. However,
given the inherent inadequacies of these PAs to cater for all species in conjunction with the
effects of climate change and human pressures on PAs, the future of biodiversity depends
heavily on the 88 % of land that is unprotected. The study of biodiversity patterns and the
processes that maintain them in human-modified landscapes can provide a valuable evidence
base to support science-based policy-making that seeks to make land outside of PAs
as amenable as possible for biodiversity persistence. We discuss the literature on biodiversity
in sub-Saharan Africa’s human-modified landscapes as it relates to four broad
ecosystem categorizations (i.e. rangelands, tropical forest, the Cape Floristic Region, and
the urban and rural built environment) within which we expect similar patterns of biodiversity
persistence in relation to specific human land uses and land management actions.
Available research demonstrates the potential contribution of biodiversity conservation in
human-modified landscapes within all four ecosystem types and goes some way towards
providing general conclusions that could support policy-making. Nonetheless, conservation
success in human-modified landscapes is hampered by constraints requiring further
scientific investment, e.g. deficiencies in the available research, uncertainties regarding
implementation strategies, and difficulties of coexisting with biodiversity. However,
information currently available can and should support efforts at individual, community,
provincial, national, and international levels to support biodiversity conservation in
human-modified landscapes.National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.Chair in Conservation Ecology at CERU.http://link.springer.com/journal/105312015-08-31hb201
Effect of SGLT2 Inhibitors on Stroke and Atrial Fibrillation in Diabetic Kidney Disease: Results From the CREDENCE Trial and Meta-Analysis
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Chronic kidney disease with reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate or elevated albuminuria increases risk for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. This study assessed the effects of sodium glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) on stroke and atrial fibrillation/flutter (AF/AFL) from CREDENCE (Canagliflozin and Renal Events in Diabetes With Established Nephropathy Clinical Evaluation) and a meta-analysis of large cardiovascular outcome trials (CVOTs) of SGLT2i in type 2 diabetes mellitus.METHODS: CREDENCE randomized 4401 participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease to canagliflozin or placebo. Post hoc, we estimated effects on fatal or nonfatal stroke, stroke subtypes, and intermediate markers of stroke risk including AF/AFL. Stroke and AF/AFL data from 3 other completed large CVOTs and CREDENCE were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis.RESULTS: In CREDENCE, 142 participants experienced a stroke during follow-up (10.9/1000 patient-years with canagliflozin, 14.2/1000 patient-years with placebo; hazard ratio [HR], 0.77 [95% CI, 0.55-1.08]). Effects by stroke subtypes were: ischemic (HR, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.61-1.28]; n=111), hemorrhagic (HR, 0.50 [95% CI, 0.19-1.32]; n=18), and undetermined (HR, 0.54 [95% CI, 0.20-1.46]; n=17). There was no clear effect on AF/AFL (HR, 0.76 [95% CI, 0.53-1.10]; n=115). The overall effects in the 4 CVOTs combined were: total stroke (HRpooled, 0.96 [95% CI, 0.82-1.12]), ischemic stroke (HRpooled, 1.01 [95% CI, 0.89-1.14]), hemorrhagic stroke (HRpooled, 0.50 [95% CI, 0.30-0.83]), undetermined stroke (HRpooled, 0.86 [95% CI, 0.49-1.51]), and AF/AFL (HRpooled, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.71-0.93]). There was evidence that SGLT2i effects on total stroke varied by baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (P=0.01), with protection in the lowest estimated glomerular filtration rate (<45 mL/min/1.73 m2]) subgroup (HRpooled, 0.50 [95% CI, 0.31-0.79]).CONCLUSIONS: Although we found no clear effect of SGLT2i on total stroke in CREDENCE or across trials combined, there was some evidence of benefit in preventing hemorrhagic stroke and AF/AFL, as well as total stroke for those with lowest estimated glomerular filtration rate. Future research should focus on confirming these data and exploring potential mechanisms. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT02065791
Kidney and Cardiovascular Effects of Canagliflozin According to Age and Sex: A Post Hoc Analysis of the CREDENCE Randomized Clinical Trial
Rationale & Objective: It is unclear whether the effect of canagliflozin on adverse kidney and cardiovascular events in those with diabetic kid-ney disease varies by age and sex. We assessed the effects of canagliflozin among age group categories and between sexes in the Canagli-flozin and Renal Endpoints in Diabetes with Established Nephropathy Clinical Evaluation (CREDENCE) study.Study Design: Secondary analysis of a random-ized controlled trial. Setting & Participants: Participants in the CREDENCE trial. Intervention: Participants were randomly assigned to receive canagliflozin 100 mg/d or placebo.Outcomes: Primary composite outcome of kid-ney failure, doubling of serum creatinine con-centration, or death due to kidney or cardiovascular disease. Prespecified secondary and safety outcomes were also analyzed. Out-comes were evaluated by age at baseline (<60, 60-69, and >_70 years) and sex in the intention-to-treat population using Cox regression models.Results: The mean age of the cohort was 63.0 & PLUSMN; 9.2 years, and 34% were female. Older age and female sex were independently associ-ated with a lower risk of the composite of adverse kidney outcomes. There was no evidence that the effect of canagliflozin on the primary outcome (acomposite of kidney failure, a doubling of serum creatinine concentration, or death from kidney or cardiovascular causes) differed between age groups (HRs, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.52-0.87], 0.63 [0.4 8-0.82], and 0.89 [0.61-1.29] for ages <60, 60-69, and >_70 years, respectively; P = 0.3 for interaction) or sexes (HRs, 0.71 [95% CI, 0.5 4-0.95] and 0.69 [0.56-0.8 4] in women and men, respectively; P = 0.8 for interaction). No differences in safety outcomes by age group or sex were observed.Limitations: This was a post hoc analysis with multiple comparisons.Conclusions: Canagliflozin consistently reduced the relative risk of kidney events in people with diabetic kidney disease in both sexes and across age subgroups. As a result of greater background risk, the absolute reduction in adverse kidney outcomes was greater in younger participants.Funding: This post hoc analysis of the CREDENCE trial was not funded. The CREDENCE study was sponsored by Janssen Research and Development and was conducted collaboratively by the sponsor, an academic-led steering committee, and an academic research organization, George Clinical.Trial Registration: The original CREDENCE trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with study number NCT02065791