Has the Global South become a playground for Western scholars in information and communication technologies for development? Evidence from a three-journal analysis

Scientometrics - This study analyzes the role of the Global South countries and the representation of scholars from the Global South in three top-level journals in the area of information and...     

Do national funding organizations properly address the diseases with the highest burden?: Observations from China and the UK

Scientometrics - Recent years have witnessed an incipient shift in science policy from a focus mainly on academic excellence to a focus that also takes into account “societal impact”....     

Distraction and driving: Results from a case–control responsibility study of traffic crash injured drivers interviewed at the emergency room

Background

Use of cellular phones has been shown to be associated with crashes but many external distractions remain to be studied.

Objective

To assess the risk associated with diversion of attention due to unexpected events or secondary tasks at the wheel.

Design

Responsibility case–control study.

Setting

Adult emergency department of the Bordeaux University Hospital (France) from April 2010 to August 2011.

Participants

955 injured drivers presenting as a result of motor vehicle crash.

Main outcome measures

The main outcome variable was responsibility for the crash. Exposures were external distraction, alcohol use, psychotropic medicine use, and sleep deprivation. Potential confounders were sociodemographic and crash characteristics.

Results

Beyond classical risk factor found to be associated with responsibility, results showed that distracting events inside the vehicle (picking up an object), distraction due to driver activity (smoking) and distracting events occurring outside were associated with an increased probability of being at fault. These distraction-related factors accounted for 8% of injurious road crashes.

Limitations

Retrospective responsibility self-assessment.

Conclusions

Diverted attention may carry more risk than expected. Our results are supporting recent research efforts to detect periods of driving vulnerability related to inattention.     

Do digital inclusive finance,innovation, and entrepreneurship activities stimulate vitality of the urban economy? Empirical evidence from the Yangtze River Delta,China

This research empirically analyzes the impact of digital inclusive finance on urban economic vitality in Yangtze River Delta, China. The findings are as follows. 1) The development of digital inclusive finance significantly boosts the economic vitality of urban areas. 2) The promotion effect of digital finance on urban economic vitality varies regionally, as such vitality is more strongly impacted by the overall degree of digital inclusive finance development in core areas than it is by that in non-core areas. 3) The economic impact of digital inclusive finance has a clear spatial spillover, whereby an increase in digital financial inclusion in one region boosts the economic vitality of neighboring regions. 4) The total levels of innovation and entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial activity, and innovation activity all have a double threshold effect in the threshold model, indicating that digital inclusive finance has a leapfrog-promoting influence on urban economic vitality via an increase in innovation and entrepreneurship levels. Future developments in digital technology should therefore be fully embraced, and the state of inclusive digital finance should be enhanced. Governments and relevant authorities can target to advance the leadership roles of innovation and entrepreneurship and raise the contribution of mass entrepreneurship and innovation to urban economic growth.