Questioning Resilience: An Examination of the Effects of and Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic in the Peripheries of Brazil

In this article, we assess the effects of and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Brazilian peripheries by relying on resilience theory and the experiences of peripheral actors during the first year of the pandemic. We consider these experiences to examine whether the initial responses to the crisis had the potential to bring about long-term positive change. We rely on thematic analysis of 80 interviews with leaders of grassroots organizations of different nature all over the country between October 2020 and January 2021. We argue that we cannot speak of resilience and system change unless we engage with the voices of those most affected by adversity. While in its first year the pandemic brought important traces of structural violence to the surface, providing an opportunity for structural change, peripheral views at that moment cast doubts about the extent to which those changes could lead to long-term structural changes. © The Author(s) 2023.

Characterizing data patterns with core–periphery network modeling

Traditional classification techniques usually classify data samples according to the physical organization, such as similarity, distance, and distribution, of the data features, which lack a general and explicit mechanism to represent data classes with semantic data patterns. Therefore, the incorporation of data pattern formation in classification is still a challenge problem. Meanwhile, data classification techniques can only work well when data features present high level of similarity in the feature space within each class. Such a hypothesis is not always satisfied, since, in real-world applications, we frequently encounter the following situation: On one hand, the data samples of some classes (usually representing the normal cases) present well defined patterns;on the other hand, the data features of other classes (usually representing abnormal classes) present large variance, i.e., low similarity within each class. Such a situation makes data classification a difficult task. In this paper, we present a novel solution to deal with the above mentioned problems based on the mesostructure of a complex network, built from the original data set. Specifically, we construct a core–periphery network from the training data set in such way that the normal class is represented by the core sub-network and the abnormal class is characterized by the peripheral sub-network. The testing data sample is classified to the core class if it gets a high coreness value;otherwise, it is classified to the periphery class. The proposed method is tested on an artificial data set and then applied to classify x-ray images for COVID-19 diagnosis, which presents high classification precision. In this way, we introduce a novel method to describe data pattern of the data "without pattern” through a network approach, contributing to the general solution of classification. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

Estonian population and regional development during the last 30 years—back to the small town?

This article reviews the socioeconomic factors that have shaped Estonia's regional population development during the last 30 years. In the 1990s, primary and secondary industries declined and massive urbanization started, depopulating rural and old industrial areas while suburban sprawl developed around the capital Tallinn. Urban growth accelerated in the 2000s, and the 2008 global financial crisis prompted migration from the peripheries. Since 2015, Estonia's population has been growing thanks to returning emigrants and new immigrants. Recent years have witnessed the spread effect and spatial oscillation boosted by COVID-19 and the Ukrainian war. Additionally, a growing number of people live temporarily in multiple places, including remote rural localities.

The International tourism and the pandemic. A comparative analysis of Cancun and Mallorca

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a major crisis in international tourism. The restrictions imposed after the WHO declaration gave way to a selective opening of the borders, with the intention of recovering the economy and tourist travel. The objective of this article is to carry out a comparative study between Cancun (Quintana Roo, Mexico) and Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain), through the analysis of their tourist data and the restrictions dictated by their respective governments. This case study shows how the recovery has been driven by the interests of the industry, which is trying to rush back to the old normal, disregarding academic advice that encourages structural change based on sustainability and resilience. The pleasure peripheries of the Turner model continue to define the main movements of international tourism, despite the pandemic.

Care coalitions in times of health crisis: moral and political empowerment in working-class neighborhoods

This article explores the processes of politicization of care brought about by mutual aid initiatives that emerged in working-class neighborhoods during the Covid-19 crisis. The concept of « care coalition» is used to designate the networking of agents who provide care in vulnerable urban communities in a situation of emergency. The health crisis provides these coalitions with the opportunity to advocate for a revaluation and redistribution of care among political authorities, both through direct confrontation with institutions, and by making care visible in the press and on social media. Such politicization « from below» questions the articulation between private initiatives and public policies, and opens up avenues for a right to the city that takes into account care-related dimensions. © Association Féminin Masculin Recherches. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays.

Why do they go to the peripheries? Studying the relations between the real estate market and coworking spaces in the peripheral areas of Germany

Purpose>The study was designed to investigate the bidirectional causation between the real estate market characteristics (residential property prices/rents (including PTR), office rents) and the rise of coworking spaces (CSs) in the peripheral areas of Germany.Design/methodology/approach>Based on the desk research, the authors constructed their own database of 1,201 CSs. The authors gathered data on the residential and office prices and rents on a district level. To identify real market differences between districts with and without CSs, the authors applied the t-test for independent samples.Findings>The second-highest number of CSs were found to operate in the office market peripheries. This phenomenon should be explained by a search for lower office rents, which CSs seek. Most CSs in the peripheral areas of Germany were only recently established in tourist-oriented regions in the south and north of Germany. In this paper, the authors confirmed that the strength of peripheral CSs lies in the hybridity of their operations: for the majority of CSs, running a CS is a non-core business. The authors argue that the role of CSs is rather limited in attracting real estate investors and boosting the real estate market in the peripheral areas of Germany.Practical implications>The research shows that peripheral locations are attracting CSs to significant extent. The study shows that CSs can be part of corporate real estate or workplace strategies. As the majority of peripheral CSs are located in tourism areas, the subletting of vacant spaces could be a lucrative business model for hotels, particularly in the times of pandemics. Therefore, further research should focus on the role of tourist areas in the implementation of CSs model.Originality/value>The focus of this study (CSs in peripheral areas) is original. Additionally, applying the real estate perspective to study the location of CSs is novel as well.

The Significance of Subpleural Sparing in CT Chest: A State-of-the-Art Review.

The subpleural sparing pattern is a common finding on computed tomography (CT) of the lungs. It comprises of pulmonary opacities sparing the lung peripheries, typically 1cm and less from the pleural surface. This finding has a variety of causes, including idiopathic, inflammatory, infectious, inhalational, cardiac, traumatic, and bleeding disorders. Specific disorders that can cause subpleural sparing patterns include nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), organizing pneumonia (OP), pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP), diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH), vaping-associated lung injury (VALI), cracked lung, pulmonary edema, pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP), pulmonary contusion, and more recently, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. Knowledge of the many etiologies of this pattern can be useful in preventing diagnostic errors. In addition, although the etiology of subpleural sparing pattern is frequently indistinguishable during an initial radiologic evaluation, the differences in location of opacities in the lungs, as well as the presence of additional radiologic findings, patient history, and clinical presentation, can often be useful to suggest the appropriate diagnosis. We did a comprehensive search on Pubmed and Google Scholar database using keywords of "subpleural sparing," "peripheral sparing," "sparing of peripheries," "CT chest," "chest imaging," and "pulmonary disease." This review aims to describe the primary differential diagnosis of subpleural sparing pattern seen on chest imaging with a strong emphasis on clinical and radiographic findings. We also discuss the pathogenesis and essential clues that are crucial to narrow the differential diagnosis.