Drivers and Ideal Types towards Energy Transition: Anticipating the Futures Scenarios of OECD Countries

This study aims to identify the ideal types of energy transition of the thirty-five Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and to explore their implications using the fuzzy-set ideal type analysis. It then anticipates the futures scenarios of OECD member countries towards energy transition by placing the ideal type results. In particular, looking at the possibility of the futures towards energy transition, this study attempts to set up the comprehensive measurement framework of energy transition embracing the three key drivers (energy system (E), energy citizenship (S), and digital technology (T)). As a result, the eight OECD countries, including Denmark (fuzzy score 0.889), UK (0.800), and Norway (0.788) belonging to Type 1 (E*S*T) with the all high features of three key drivers, are expected to have ‘Outlier (super-potent) Futures’ of energy transition. The twelve countries of Type 2 (E*S*t), 3 (E*s*T), and 5 (e*S*T) with two high features of three ones will belong to the ‘Best (reformative) Futures’. The five countries of Type 4 (E*s*t), 6 (e*S*t), and 7 (e*s*T) with one high feature among three ones will be located in ‘Business-As-Usual Futures’. Finally, the ten countries, including Hungary (fuzzy score 0.881), Greece (0.716), Israel (0.679) belonging to Type 8 (e*s*t) with all three low features, are expected to have ‘Worst (declined) Futures’ of energy transition.

Association between health-related quality of life and work status in older Korean adults

AIM

Employment status has consistently been associated with health-related quality of life. This study investigated the effect of age on the association between work status and health-related quality of life in Korean adults using a large, nationally representative sample.

METHODS

We used data from the Korean Health Panel, and ran a series of random effects panel models to test the relationship between quality of life as measured by the EuroQol five-dimension questionnaire and work status. The moderation effect of age on the relationship between quality of life and work status was also tested in the same model.

RESULTS

Overall, Korean adults who were employed reported a higher level of quality of life than those who were unemployed. Furthermore, the relationship between quality of life and work status was stronger for those who were aged ≥60 years compared with those who were not.

CONCLUSIONS

Employment status among older people was found to have a greater association on quality of life than among younger people. Thus, it is necessary to carry out further research for employment status of older people about the relationship with quality of life. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 1629-1633.

Gender differences and socioeconomic status in relation to overweight among older Korean people

Background

The ever-increasing older population and its association with serious overweight problems have garnered much attention. The correlation between being overweight and socioeconomic status factors could be helpful for understanding the inequalities among the overweight population. We examined the correlation between being overweight and some key variables, such as demographics, socioeconomic status, general health status, and health behavior in a large sample of older individuals, by each gender.

Methods

We used data from the 2008 Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging and it included 8,157 participants who were 45 years or older. To understand the relationship between the overweight participants in accordance to demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health status, and health behaviors, a weighted chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were conducted by separating variables related to overweight, according to the genders.

Results

The number of people in the normal group was 6,347 (77.8%), while the people who were considered overweight were 1,810 (22.2%). Women (n = 4,583) constituted 52.7% of the subject, 24.9% of whom were classified as overweight. Meanwhile, 20.6% of the 47.3% (n = 3,574) of the sample who were men were classified as overweight. Participants between the ages of 45 and 64 with chronic diseases were more likely to be overweight. Men in the 4th quartile of household income were more likely to be overweight than those who were in the 1st quartile, in contrast, while unemployed women with lower education levels and urban residents were at greater risk for being overweight.

Conclusions

Among the men, health status and health behavior appeared to show a correlation with being overweight; however, among women, socioeconomic status factors were strongly related to being overweight. These findings appear to support the association of gender-specifics with the prevalence of being overweight.

An fMRI study of semantic processing in men with schizophrenia

As a means toward understanding the neural bases of schizophrenic thought disturbance, we examined brain activation patterns in response to semantically and superficially encoded words in patients with schizophrenia. Nine male schizophrenic and 9 male control subjects were tested in a visual levels of processing (LOP) task first outside the magnet and then during the fMRI scanning procedures (using a different set of words). During the experiments visual words were presented under two conditions. Under the deep, semantic encoding condition, subjects made semantic judgments as to whether the words were abstract or concrete. Under the shallow, nonsemantic encoding condition, subjects made perceptual judgments of the font size (uppercase/lowercase) of the presented words. After performance of the behavioral task, a recognition test was used to assess the depth of processing effect, defined as better performance for semantically encoded words than for perceptually encoded words. For the scanned version only, the words for both conditions were repeated in order to assess repetition-priming effects. Reaction times were assessed in both testing scenarios. Both groups showed the expected depth of processing effect for recognition, and control subjects showed the expected increased activation of the left inferior prefrontal cortex (LIPC) under semantic encoding relative to perceptual encoding conditions as well as repetition priming for semantic conditions only. In contrast, schizophrenics showed similar patterns of fMRI activation regardless of condition. Most striking in relation to controls, patients showed decreased LIFC activation concurrent with increased left superior temporal gyrus activation for semantic encoding versus shallow encoding. Furthermore, schizophrenia subjects did not show the repetition priming effect, either behaviorally or as a decrease in LIPC activity. In patients with schizophrenia, LIFC underactivation and left superior temporal gyrus overactivation for semantically encoded words may reflect a disease-related disruption of a distributed frontal temporal network that is engaged in the representation and processing of meaning of words, text, and discourse and which may underlie schizophrenic thought disturbance.