Industry choice by young entrepreneurs in different country settings: The role of human and financial capital

Entrepreneurial entry happens as a consequence of a general choice of an individual to become an entrepreneur. While most entrepreneurial entry studies rarely consider an entry into a particular industry to be an aspect of entrepreneurial decision making process, we address this issue taking into account individual, industrial, and country specific attributes. Using data from the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (2013-2014) on young and active entrepreneurs and extending it with objective indicators derived from World Bank, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and International Property Rights Index datasets, we investigate how various factors influence entrepreneurial industry choice on an aggregated level of industrial typology: knowledge-intensive and capital-intensive industries. Drawing on the RBV and contingency approach, we link an industry choice with the level of human capital development and an access to financial capital and test for possible country-specific moderation effects. Our findings indicate that both types of capital have a significant impact on industry choice by young nascent entrepreneur. Our results also suggest that specific country environment serves as a moderator in this relationship. Thus, our study contributes to entrepreneurial entry research stream extending the understanding of entrepreneurial entry decision making nuances relate to individual access to resources and both industry- and country-level contingencies.Research has been conducted with financial support from Russian Science Foundation grant (project No. 14-18-01093

The “Physical Culture”: Conceptual History of the Term

Исследование посвящено анализу динамики представлений о понятии «физическая культура» его семантических изменений для продуцирования гипотезы об их природе и характере на основе историко-генетического, хронологического метода и метода концептуального анализа понятий. Репрезентация понятия «физическая культура» развивалась в соответствии с изменениями в общественных отношениях с нач. XIX — XX вв. Возникнув как выражение античной традиции, физкультура отражала суть гуманистического подхода к воспитанию совершенного человека. Дальнейшая эволюция представлений о физической культуре выражалась в усложнении и расширении ее социальных и культурных функций. Несмотря на то, что последовательность дискурсивных практик, связанных с концептом «физическая культура», сложно выстроить хронологически, идеологическое и функциональное многообразие физкультуры способствует ее пониманию как самостоятельного социокультурного феномена.The study is devoted to the analysis of the dynamics of representations of the concept “physical culture” with the fixation of its semantic changes to produce a hypothesis about their nature and character based on the historical-genetic, chronological method and the method of conceptual analysis. The representation of the concept “physical culture” evolved in accordance with the changes in social relations from the beginning of the XIX — XX centuries. Having emerged as an expression of ancient tradition, physical culture reflected the essence of humanistic approach to the upbringing of a perfect man. The further evolution of the concept of physical culture was expressed in the complication and expansion of its social and cultural functions. Although the sequence of discursive practices associated with the concept of “physical culture” is difficult to chart chronologically, the ideological and functional diversity of physical culture contributes to its understanding as an independent socio-cultural phenomenon

The 2017 Oslo conference report on neglected tropical diseases and emerging/re-emerging infectious diseases - focus on populations underserved

BACKGROUND: In 2017, the Centre for Global Health (CGH) at the University of Oslo in collaboration with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) held a meeting to discuss together with leading figures in disease control, research and development the issue of neglected tropical diseases and emerging/re-emerging infectious diseases. This commentary has taken up this discussion and the conclusions drawn at this meeting to make a case for the opportunity the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide in highlighting the interconnectedness of factors that are relevant in the successful fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and emerging infectious diseases (EIDS). MAIN BODY: Despite NTDs being endemic and EIDS being epidemic, in order to prevent both disease groups effectively, it is important to appreciate that they share essential health determining factors, namely: neglect, poverty, a lack of access to clean water and sanitation facilities and an absence of or severely limited provision of healthcare as well as in many cases a zoonotic nature. Instead of looking to "simple disease management" for the answer, the SDGs help to understand the interplay of multiple priority areas and thereby help to promote a more holistic approach to addressing these two disease groups. CONCLUSIONS: Their commonalities mean that the Global Health community should leverage opportunities and efforts in the prevention and elimination of both NTDs and EIDs. Doing so using a One Health approach is considered to offer a "public health best-buy". Concrete solutions are proposed

Efficacy and safety of ultra-low dose inhaled melphalan in the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19

Background. One of the most important components of COVID-19 therapy is the suppression of the hyperergic immune response. There is an urgent need of creating the optimal tactics of efficient and safe anti-inflammatory therapy. A new method of treatment of COVID-19 with inhalation of ultra-low (non-cytotoxic) doses of the alkylating drug melphalan is proposed, based on previous experimental, preclinical, and clinical data on its use in severe bronchial asthma.The aim. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of inhalation of ultra-low doses of melphalan in hospitalized patients with COVID-19-associated lung damage.Materials and methods. A prospective, open, controlled, blind for the central expert study was conducted. Sixty adult patients were included, 30 patients were consecutively admitted to the hospital and received nebulized inhalations of 0.1 mg of melphalan for 7 days. Thirty patients of the control group were selected by an independent expert retrospectively using the computer algorithm for selecting «close» patients based on the «case-control» principle. The primary endpoints were the dynamics on the WHO Clinical Improvement Scale and the dynamics of dyspnea according to the modified Borg scale, secondary – assessment of adverse events, dynamics of indicators of clinical, biochemical blood tests, lungs computed tomography data from the beginning of inhalations in the melphalan group and from the corresponding day in the control group.Results. Inhalations of melphalan led to a significant improvement in the clinical condition of patients according to the WHO scale, decrease in the intensity of dyspnea on day 7 of treatment and by the time of discharge, a significant anti-inflammatory effect. Adverse events and dynamics of laboratory parameters did not differ from the control group.Conclusion. The method of treatment of COVID-19 by inhalation of ultra-low doses of the alkylating drug melphalan is safe and leads to a significant clinical improvement of hospitalized patients with COVID-19-associated lung damage

Study of risk factors forming occupational respiratory morbidity in the repair and mechanical shop at the copper smelter production of Uralelectromed JSC

The purpose of the study is to study the risk factors that form the occupational morbidity of the respiratory system in the mechanical repair shop at the allergenic production of JSC "Uralelectromed" according to the sanitary and hygienic characteristics.Цель исследования – изучение факторов риска, формирующих профессиональную заболеваемость дыхательной системы в ремонтно-механическом цехе на аллергоопасном производстве АО «Уралэлектромедь» по данным санитарно-гигиенической характеристики

Social and moral psychology of COVID-19 across 69 countries

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all domains of human life, including the economic and social fabric of societies. One of the central strategies for managing public health throughout the pandemic has been through persuasive messaging and collective behaviour change. To help scholars better understand the social and moral psychology behind public health behaviour, we present a dataset comprising of 51,404 individuals from 69 countries. This dataset was collected for the International Collaboration on Social & Moral Psychology of COVID-19 project (ICSMP COVID-19). This social science survey invited participants around the world to complete a series of moral and psychological measures and public health attitudes about COVID-19 during an early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (between April and June 2020). The survey included seven broad categories of questions: COVID-19 beliefs and compliance behaviours; identity and social attitudes; ideology; health and well-being; moral beliefs and motivation; personality traits; and demographic variables. We report both raw and cleaned data, along with all survey materials, data visualisations, and psychometric evaluations of key variables

Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multi-national data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social and Moral Psychology of COVID-19 (N = 51,404) to test the predictive efficacy of constructs from social, moral, cognitive, and personality psychology, as well as socio-demographic factors, in the attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic. The results point to several valuable insights. Internalized moral identity provided the most consistent predictive contribution—individuals perceiving moral traits as central to their self-concept reported higher adherence to preventive measures. Similar was found for morality as cooperation, symbolized moral identity, self-control, open-mindedness, collective narcissism, while the inverse relationship was evident for the endorsement of conspiracy theories. However, we also found a non-negligible variability in the explained variance and predictive contributions with respect to macro-level factors such as the pandemic stage or cultural region. Overall, the results underscore the importance of morality-related and contextual factors in understanding adherence to public health recommendations during the pandemic

National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = −0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics

Author Correction: National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic

Correction to: Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27668-9, published online 26 January 2022