An Analysis of Liberia’s Vulnerability to Climate Change in the Context of Least Developed Countries (LDCs): A Review

Climate change is an alarming global challenge, particularly affecting the least developed countries (LDCs) including Liberia. These countries, located in regions prone to unpredictable temperature and precipitation changes, are facing significant challenges, particularly in climate-sensitive sectors such as mining and agriculture. LDCs need more resilience to adverse climate shocks but have limited capacity for adaptation compared to other developed and developing nations. This paper examines Liberia’s susceptibility to climate change as a least developed country, focusing on its exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. It provides an overview of LDCs and outlines the global distribution of carbon dioxide emissions. The paper also evaluates specific challenges that amplify Liberia’s vulnerability and constrain sustainable adaptation, providing insight into climate change’s existing and potential effects. The paper emphasizes the urgency of addressing climate impacts on Liberia and calls for concerted local and international efforts for effective and sustainable mitigation efforts. It provides recommendations for policy decisions and calls for further research on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

First experience in laparoscopic surgery in low and middle income countries: A systematic review

BACKGROUND Laparoscopic surgery has reduced morbidity and mortality rates,shorter post-operative recovery periods and lower complication rates than open surgery.It is routine practice in high-income countries and is becoming increasingly common in countries with limited resources.However,introducing laparoscopic surgery in low-and-middle-income countries(LMIC)can be expensive and requires resour-ces,equipment,and trainers.AIM To report the challenges and benefits of introducing laparoscopic surgery in LMIC as well as to identify solutions to these challenges for countries with limited finances and resources.METHODS MEDLINE,EMBASE and Cochrane databases were searched for studies reporting first experience in laparoscopic surgery in LMIC.Included studies were published between 1996 and 2022 with full text available in English.Exclusion criteria were studies considering only open surgery,ear,nose,and throat,endoscopy,arthro-scopy,hysteroscopy,cystoscopy,transplant,or bariatric surgery.RESULTS Ten studies out of 3409 screened papers,from eight LMIC were eligible for inclusion in the final analysis,totaling 2497 patients.Most reported challenges were related to costs of equipment and training programmes,equipment pro-blems such as faulty equipment,and access to surgical kits.Training-related challenges were reliance on foreign trainers and lack of locally trained surgeons and theatre staff.The benefits of introducing laparoscopic surgery were economic and clinical,including a reduction in hospital stay,complications,and morbidi-ty/mortality.The introduction of laparoscopic surgery also provided training opportunities for junior doctors.CONCLUSION Despite financial and technical challenges,many studies emphasise the overall benefit of introducing laparoscopic surgery in LMICs such as reduced hospital stay and the related lower cost for patients.While many of the clinical centres in LMICs have proposed practical solutions to the challenges reported,more support is critically required,in particular regarding training.

The Implications of Urbanization Processes in Developed Countries for Africa

Urbanization is the inevitable path of national economic development,and the level of urbanization development in most African countries is still low.By analyzing five typical developed countries in the United States,Britain,France,Germany,and Japan,this paper discusses the promoting factors and problems of the rapid urbanization development in their specific years,as well as the experiences and lessons that Africa can learn,so as to prevent Africa from taking the detour in the urbanization process of Western developed countries and promote the balanced regional development of various African countries.

Nutrition impacts of non-solid cooking fuel adoption on under-five children in developing countries

This paper examines the nutrition impacts of using non-solid cooking fuel on under-five children in developing countries.We draw on data from more than 1.12 million children in 62 developing countries from the Demographic and Health Surveys(DHS).Results from both fixed effects(FE)and instrumental variable(IV)estimates show that using non-solid cooking fuel significantly improves the nutrition outcomes of under-five children.Compared with their peers from households mainly using solid fuel,children from households mainly using non-solid fuel exhibit a lower probability of experiencing stunting(by 5.9 percentage points)and being underweight(by 1.2 percentage points).Our further investigation provides evidence for several underlying mechanisms,such as improved indoor air quality,induced reduction in children’s respiratory symptoms,benefits on maternal health,and reduction in maternal time spent on fuel collection or cooking.Heterogenous analyses suggest that the nutrition benefits of using non-solid cooking fuel are more prominent among boys,children above three years old,and those from households of lower socioeconomic status,rural areas,and Southeast Asia.

Digital psychiatry in low-and-middle-income countries:New developments and the way forward

Low-and middle-income countries(LMICs)bear the greater share of the global mental health burden but are ill-equipped to deal with it because of severe resource constraints leading to a large treatment gap.The remote provision of mental health services by digital means can effectively augment conventional services in LMICs to reduce the treatment gap.Digital psychiatry in LMICs has always lagged behind high-income countries,but there have been encouraging developments in the last decade.There is increasing research on the efficacy of digital psychiatric interventions.However,the evidence is not adequate to conclude that digital psychiatric interventions are invariably effective in LMICs.A striking development has been the rise in mobile and smartphone ownership in LMICs,which has driven the increasing use of mobile technologies to deliver mental health services.An innovative use of mobile technologies has been to optimize task-shifting,which involves delivering mental healthcare services in community settings using non-specialist health professionals.Emerging evidence from LMICs shows that it is possible to use digital tools to train non-specialist workers effectively and ensure that the psychosocial interventions they deliver are efficacious.Despite these promising developments,many barriers such as service costs,underdeveloped infrastructure,lack of trained professionals,and significant disparities in access to digital services impede the progress of digital psychiatry in LMICs.To overcome these barriers,digital psychiatric services in LMICs should address contextual factors influencing the delivery of digital services,ensure collaboration between different stakeholders,and focus on reducing the digital divide.

Research on Developing an Assessment Scale for Tourism Experience Elements of Ancient Shu Road Heritage Trail

Cultural ancient roads,known in Chinese as gudao,serve as heritage trails that carry historical exchanges across various regions in China.Due to their extensive preservation,wide geographical distribution,diverse thematic variations,and considerable tourist appeal,these paths have emerged as representative heritage trails,increasingly transforming into a novel tourism product experience that is highly favored by tourists and recognized by government authorities.However,research on ancient roads for tourism in China currently lacks a systematic theoretical framework,as well as relevant policies,regulations,and standards to guide their practical development.Therefore,there is a pressing need to draw upon international best practices and conduct foundational research to develop an experience element system that aligns with the perceptions,behaviors,and consumption characteristics of Chinese tourists,thereby advancing theoretical exploration in this field.This study focuses on the representative Ancient Shu Road as a case study and employs a mixed-method approach that integrates qualitative and quantitative research.It aims to construct a tourist-centric scale for the experience elements of ancient road tourism while analyzing the interactive relationship between these experience elements and tourist needs.This study addresses a significant gap in the development of indicator systems for domestic studies of ancient road tourism experiences.Ultimately,the study establishes a comprehensive scale that encompasses three core categories—trail resources and environment,facilities and services,and modes of tourism activities—along with eight primary dimensions:core resources,surrounding cultural environment,surrounding natural environment,tourism reception facilities and services,infrastructure and support services,information facilities and information services,and outdoor and recreational activities.This scale consists of thirty-two specific items,providing a robust reference for future research endeavors.Additionally,the study proposes specific development strategies related to key mechanisms,spatial configuration,and facility construction to enhance the overall development of ancient road tourism.

Food Security in Developing Countries: Factors and Mitigation

Since 1976, eradicating hunger has become one of the priority objectives of the United Nations, which is included in the Charter of Human Rights;the right to get adequate food. The qualification of food security in time and space must analyze not only the three components it covers but also the relationships that these three components maintain. Climate change contributes to food insecurity, but it is not the only factor. To address food insecurity in various forms, greater food security must be combined with improved sustainable agricultural practices with minimal strain on the environment. This review of literature insists on the principles of food security, which in particular allows a better understanding of food insecurity in developing countries and favors a greater contribution of agriculture and food systems in general to nutritional progress.

Challenges to establishing and maintaining kidney transplantation programs in developing countries:What are the coping strategies?

Kidney transplantation(KT)is the optimal form of renal replacement therapy for patients with end-stage renal diseases.However,this health service is not available to all patients,especially in developing countries.The deceased donor KT programs are mostly absent,and the living donor KT centers are scarce.Single-center studies presenting experiences from developing countries usually report a variety of challenges.This review addresses these challenges and the opposing strategies by reviewing the single-center experiences of developing countries.The financial challenges hamper the infrastructural and material availability,coverage of transplant costs,and qualification of medical personnel.The sociocultural challenges influence organ donation,equity of beneficence,and regular follow-up work.Low interests and motives for transplantation may result from high medicolegal responsibilities in KT practice,intense potential psychosocial burdens,complex qualification protocols,and low productivity or compensation for KT practice.Low medical literacy about KT advantages is prevalent among clinicians,patients,and the public.The inefficient organizational and regulatory oversight is translated into inefficient healthcare systems,absent national KT programs and registries,uncoordinated job descriptions and qualification protocols,uncoordinated on-site investigations with regulatory constraints,and the prevalence of commercial KT practices.These challenges resulted in noticeable differences between KT services in developed and developing countries.The coping strategies can be summarized in two main mechanisms:The first mechanism is maximizing the available resources by increasing the rates of living kidney donation,promoting the expertise of medical personnel,reducing material consumption,and supporting the establishment and maintenance of KT programs.The latter warrants the expansion of the public sector and the elimination of non-ethical KT practices.The second mechanism is recruiting external resources,including financial,experience,and training agreements.

Challenges Brought about by Rapid Changes in Chinese Diets: Comparison with Developed Countries and Implications for Further Improvement

Given developments in urbanization, agricultural, and technological practices, the diet and lifestyle of developed countries has changed dramatically over the course of the last century[1].

Women’s Awareness and Attitudes towards Labor Analgesia Influencing Practice between Developed and Developing Countries

Childbirth experience is one of the most intense pain that majority of women will endure during their lifetime. Concerns about pain in labor remain a hot topic, and its popularity gets more common day by day as more women become aware of their rights to achieve a better quality of care during labor. There are various non-pharmacologic (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, hydrotherapy, intradermal water injections and acupuncture) and pharmacologic treatments (nitrous oxide, opioids and regional analgesia techniques: spinal, epidural and combined epidural analgesia) available today. Among these, epidural analgesia offers the most effective form of pain relief and is considered to be the gold standard of labor analgesia. Despite having labor analgesic services, most women still go through painful labor due to lack of knowledge regarding it, particularly in developing countries. The main source of information regarding pain reliefs is from friends and relatives, revealing the lack of information from caregiver’s side. So this study reflects that there is a wide gap in the communication between pregnant women and obstetricians. It supports the fact that obstetricians through the practice of routinely offering labor analgesia can significantly improve the maternal and perinatal outcomes of pregnancy. Provision of standardized epidural analgesia information at an appropriate time in their pregnancy may benefit them by the practice of mutual decision-making. Thus, it may prevent women from making a difficult choice of cesarean section to avoid the fear of painful labor.

The Development Trend of Developed Countries to Invest in Education of Disadvantaged Groups and the Enlightenment to Our Country

Educational investment is the material basis for developing intelligence and educational cause and also an important factor for the development of economic and society.This paper argues that educational investment is an important strategy to solve the problem of disadvantaged groups in our country,and hopes that through the analysis of the structure and the trend for educational investment in developed countries,and it can provide reference and valuable suggestions for our country.

Construction of Talent Training System in Marine Cultural Industry in Developed Countries and Its Enlightenment to China

Construction of talent training system in marine cultural industry in developed countries was introduced firstly,and then the enlightenment of talent training in marine cultural industry in developed countries to China was analyzed,such as changing the development consciousness of marine cultural industry,strengthening the construction of professional teaching staff in marine cultural industry,and innovating the talent training modes of marine cultural industry.

Does Quality of Care Differ When HIV Patients Are Treated by Non-Specialist and Specialist HIV Healthcare Providers in Developed Countries? A Systematic Narrative Review

Introduction: In developed countries, HIV care is mostly provided by trained specialist healthcare professionals. Due to the increasing demand for HIV care, pressure on healthcare providers to reduce cost and the current global economic constraints, many developed countries are searching for alternative HIV care models. This review aims to consider whether HIV treatment and care can be provided as effectively and safely by doctors and nurses with no HIV-specialist training compared to those with HIV-specialist training. Methods: Three electronic bibliographic databases MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library were searched for studies conducted between January 1996 and March 2015. Manual searches of reference lists of all relevant reports retrieved from the electronic databases were conducted. All comparative studies examining the quality of HIV care provided by different types of healthcare providers in developed countries were included. Results: Nine observational studies involving 27,015 patients were included in the review. Eight studies were conducted in the USA and one study in Switzerland. Healthcare providers with HIV-related expertise and or training and those without HIV-related expertise or training who collaborated with providers with HIV-related expertise and or training outperformed other healthcare providers in many virological, immunological and ART-related outcomes. Conclusion: This review found moderate quality evidence that HIV care can be provided effectively by non-HIV specialists if they have access to HIV specialists or experts for advice and support.

Modem Economic Diplomacy： Evidence from Developed Countries

Nowadays, globalization has become an essential tool for cooperation in the world and it is remarkable in many aspects, characterized by economic interdependence of states. Economical diplomacy became a precious element in foreign mutual relation. This paper discusses the evidence of modern economic diplomacy within an environment of economic interdependence and how it is seen in third world countries. The paper investigates also the relation between Africa continent and the rest of the world as well. The predominant actors in this modern economic diplomacy are developed countries. As we may all expect, countries will expect that their economic diplomacy and commercial diplomacy will serve their national interest in the economic and business sphere. With the increasing complexity of international economic relation, the traditional state-to-state diplomacy is no longer accurate and has been fragmented making more complex due to the growth of non-state actors in the international economic relations. What is the role of those non-state actors in international economic and diplomatic cooperation？ The participation of these non-state actors in the modern economic diplomacy will be discussed in this paper as well.

A Summary of the Developments Regarding the Economic Regime Implemented in Developed and Developing Countries

Since the developments regarding the economic regime in developed countries follow a different path as opposed to those in developing countries, in this article, these two groups of countries will be examined separately. Priority will be given to investigate the economic regime in developed countries due to historical and theoretical reasons. Today, both in developed and developing countries the economic activities basically are taken up by the private sector, nevertheless the government contributes to these activities through intervention, guidance, protectionism, and investment. Still the level of government intervention, protection and public investments in developed countries appears to be at the minimum. The role of government in developing countries, however, seems to be more significant. The gravity of the government＇s role depends on the degree of development for the countries concerned In the countries where the level of development is low, the role of government increases, in other words, the improvement in development decreases the role government.

Feasibility and Challenges of 5G Network Deployment in Least Developed Countries (LDC)

Growing client population, ever-increasing service demand, and complexity of services are the driving factors for the mobile operators for a paradigm shift in their core technology and radio access networks. 5G mobile network is the result of this paradigm shift and currently under deployment in many developed countries such as United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, and China—to name a few. However, most of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have very recently been implemented 4G mobile networks for which the overall role out phase is still not complete. In this paper, we investigate how feasible it is for LDCs to emphasize on a possible deployment of 5G networks at the moment. At first, we take a holistic approach to show the major technical challenges LDCs are likely to face while deploying the 5G mobile networks. Then we argue that various security aspects of 5G networks are an ongoing issue and LDCs are not technologically competent to handle many security glitches of 5G networks. At the same time, we show that most of the use cases of 5G networks are not applicable in the context of many LDCs (at least at the present time). Finally, this paper concludes that the start of the 5G network deployment in LDCs would take much longer time than expected.

A Panel Granger Causality Test of Investment in ICT Capital and Economic Growth： Evidence From Developed and Developing Countries

This paper applies the Pairwise Panel Granger Causality test to examine the relationship between ICT （information and communication technology） expenditure and the rate of growth of GDP （gross domestic product） per capita. This is accomplished by using cross-country time-series data for a total of 70 developed and developing countries for the period from 2003 to 2008. The study reveals that the existence of causality and its direction differ across different income-group of countries and over the number of lags included. ICT investment expenditure as a percentage of GDP appears to cause the rate of growth of GDP per capita for the high income group and all income groups combined with lags higher than one year. However, for the upper- and lower-middle income groups, the study detects causality in neither direction. Also, when only one lag is included, the study suggests no causality in either direction for any of the income-groups of countries.

Tax Policy and Planning:Lessons From Developed Countries

One of the fundamental issues in developing countries is how to evolve tax policies that can generate sufficient revenue for government activities.Consequent upon the above,this study examined tax policies and planning in developing sub-Saharan African countries.It adopted table content analysis and descriptive statistics in its methodology.The study observed that aggressive tax planning which the Multi-National Corporations execute through royalty payment,interest payment,strategic transfer pricing and treaty shopping,among others,has caused countries around the globe huge revenue losses annually and has become a matter of serious concern to both the developed and developing economies.The implication of this is that achievement of objectives of tax policies and their reforms will remain a mirage in sub-Saharan African countries.The study concluded that the prevalence of illicit financial outflows in the form of tax evasion and avoidance in the guise of aggressive tax planning by multinational corporations,however,makes Africa’s tax policies worse.It was recommended that the Organization for Economic Corporation and Development,and the G-20 should involve developing countries in the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project as they are the worst victims of these activities.

Development Strategies of Tea Culture Tourism in the Age of Experience Economy

Experience economy is the fourth development phase following the agrarian economy,the industrial economy and the service economy.In terms of tourist economy,travelling itself is a kind of experience activity,thus such an attribute determines that tourist products should satisfy the individualized needs of tourists.This study proposes that the theory of experience economy can be applied in the development of tea culture tourism to explore the functions of tea culture which could be experienced by tourists,such as leisure experience,health experience,culture experience and so on,and meanwhile,gives strategies of developing tea culture tourism in the age of experience economy.