Calls for the Welsh Government to back reform of veterinary legislation.

At our annual Welsh dinner, BVA President Anna Judson called on the Welsh Government to support urgent reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act and prioritise the delivery of key animal welfare legislation.

The impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on urban green technology innovation: Based on government and public perspectives.

Global climate change has caused a series of environmental problems, green technology innovation is necessitating strategic responses, but the impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on urban green technology innovation is unclear. Based on panel data from 285 Chinese cities during 2005-2022, this study employs the Difference in Difference method to examine the impact of low-carbon city policy on urban green technology innovation. The results show that (1) The low-carbon city pilot policy promotes urban green technology innovation. (2) The low-carbon city pilot policy promotes urban green technology innovation through government green input and public engagement. (3) New infrastructure enhances the impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on quantity of green technology innovation. (4) Compared with the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the low-carbon city policy has a greater influence on urban green technology innovation in the Yellow River Basin.The findings provide policy insights for the construction of low-carbon pilot cities.

Effectiveness of public health spending: Investigating the moderating role of governance using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

BACKGROUND: The link between public health spending (PHS) and population health outcomes (PHO) has been extensively studied. However, in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the moderating effects of governance in this relationship are little known. Furthermore, studies have focused on mortality as the main health outcome. This study contributes to this literature by investigating the moderating role of governance in the relationship by simultaneously assessing three dimensions of governance (corruption control, government effectiveness and voice accountability) using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) as a measure of outcomes. METHODS: The study applies the two-stage moderation approach using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to panel data from 43 SSA nations from 2013 to 2019. The study also uses domestic general government health expenditure (DGGHE) as an independent variable and disability-adjusted life years (DALY) as the dependent variable in this relationship. RESULTS: The analysis reveals that DGGHE affects DALY negatively and that governance improves the effect of DGGHE on DALY, with bigger improvements among countries with worse governance. CONCLUSION: These findings provide evidence that good governance is crucial to the effectiveness of PHS in SSA nations. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries should improve governance to improve population health.

Perceived social fairness and trust in government serially mediate the effect of governance quality on subjective well-being.

Governance quality refers to how well the processes and institutions of public governance function and is widely recognized as having an important influence on human well-being. We developed and tested a theoretical model that elucidates the relationship between governance quality and the subjective well-being of residents in China by revealing the serial mediation effects of perceived social fairness and trust in government. Using data from the nationally representative Chinese Social Survey conducted in 2021 (n = 5019), we performed structural equation modeling to empirically examine our hypotheses. The results indicated that governance quality exerted a significant positive fully indirect impact on subjective well-being through perceived social fairness, trust in government, and their serial mediation effects. This study contributes to the literature by providing valuable insights into the determinants of subjective well-being and highlighting the serial mediating roles of perceived social fairness and trust in government in the relationship between governance quality and subjective well-being. The findings also provide practical insights for policymakers, as they indicate that promoting perceived social fairness and fostering trust in government are essential to translate governance quality into subjective well-being.

Coping with drug shortages: A study of government-enterprise option cooperation stockpiling strategies for drugs in shortage considering API surrogate stockpiling subsidies.

Drug shortage is a global problem, and the development of government-enterprise cooperative stockpiles of drugs in shortage, combining physical and production capacity, has become one of the most important means of coping with drug shortages. However, existing studies have tended to overlook the fact that shortages of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) have become an important constraint on production capacity stockpiling and that the lack of incentives and provisions for coordination of benefits have led to a double marginal effect of joint stockpiling by government and enterprises of drugs in shortage. Accordingly, this study introduced the option contract to the drug supply system composed of government and pharmaceutical enterprises and used the subsidy of API storage in lieu as an important initiative to incentivize the reserve of APIs, to construct a model of shortage drug reserve under the government's leadership. This study aims to improve the effect of government-enterprise joint stockpiling of drugs in shortage, which is of great theoretical and practical significance. According to the classification of production license types of pharmaceutical enterprises, this study established a three-level supply chain decentralized decision-making model consisting of the government, formulation enterprises, and API enterprises, and a two-level supply chain centralized decision-making model consisting of the government and API Formulation (API-F) integrated enterprises, respectively. By solving the inverse order derivation, the government-enterprise option cooperation conditions and optimal decision-making strategy were derived. The study results showed that: (i) The addition of enterprise API stockpiling mode can help the government conventional reserves, and enterprise production capacity reserves, broaden the way of drug reserves, and improve the effect of government-enterprise option cooperation; (ii) when the probability of drug shortages is high, the government should prefer the cooperation of API-F integrated enterprises, which is conducive to reducing intermediate links and government costs and improving the supply responsiveness to shortages of medicines; (iii) Setting appropriate government subsidies for API storage can incentivize enterprises to stockpile APIs and improve drug production capacity and physical supply response capability. This study took the problem of socialized stockpiling of drugs in shortage as an entry point and explored the problems and solution strategies in the government-enterprise cooperative stockpiling of drugs in shortage, which not only made some theoretical contributions to the application of options contract in the government-enterprise cooperative stockpiling of drugs in shortage but also provided new ideas and theoretical basis for the improvement of the stockpiling work of drugs in shortage.

Design and pilot evaluation of a brief intervention to reduce transphobia and improve attitudes of government officials to address legal gender affirmation needs of transgender people in Peru.

Legal gender affirmation - legal name and gender marker change - is an important health-promoting health determinant for transgender people. In Peru, the state's failure to universally recognize transgender people's legal identity limits standardized legal affirmation procedures, including the paucity of government officials trained in gender affirmation strategies. This project, in partnership with Registro Nacional de Identificación y Estado Civil (RENIEC) and transgender communities, designed and piloted a group-based intervention to sensitize government officers to the importance of gender-concordant identity documents. Between August 2017 and February 2018, three in-person group intervention sessions were held (each 3-4 hours) with 51 government officers. Guided by Gender Affirmation and Structural Violence Frameworks, the intervention utilized Adult Learning Theory and applied storytelling and testimonials as pedagogy. Pre-/post-test surveys were administered (19 true/false items, summed to create an index score measuring knowledge and attitudes toward transgender people). Within-person changes in pre-/post-intervention scores were evaluated using paired t-tests. Pre-/post-test data were available for 41 participants. After the intervention, there were improvements in knowledge and more favorable attitudes toward transgender people (pre-test mean = 14.09, SD = 2.33 vs. post-test mean = 15.62, SD = 1.82; difference = 1.53, 95% CL = 0.60, 2.67; t-test = 3.30 [df = 46]; p = 0.002). The intervention was feasible to conduct and garnered high acceptability. The results suggest the promise of this brief intervention for future research and testing before potential later implementation and scale-up to increase the capacity of government officers to address legal gender affirmation for transgender people in Peru.

Main findings: A brief group-based theoretically informed intervention designed and piloted by a multidisciplinary cross-sector team in partnership with transgender communities was feasible to conduct, garnered high levels of acceptability, and significantly increased knowledge and favorable attitudes toward transgender people for government officers responsible for identity documents in Peru.Added knowledge: Legal gender affirmation is an important determinant of mental health and wellbeing for transgender people; this evidence-based intervention increased the capacity of government officers to meet health-harming legal gender affirmation needs, specifically legal name and gender marker change, addressing a structural barrier to legal gender affirmation for transgender people in Peru.Global health impact for policy and action: Findings underscore the promise of this intervention for future research and testing before potential later implementation and scale-up in Peru, and for adaptation in other countries and contexts to address the training and capacity of government officials to effectively process and implement legal gender affirmation, a structural barrier to legal gender affirmation for transgender people.

[Considering the Professionalism of Pharmacists from the Perspective of Pharmacists Working in Government and Industry].

Through many years' experience in pharmaceutical administration, we believe that when pharmacists active in various workplaces are involved in research and development (especially clinical development) and post-marketing (especially proper usage and safety measures), they can better meet patients' hopes and expectations based on actual conditions in clinical practice and other settings by means of mutual communication and collaboration. The International Pharmaceutical Federation believes that for the benefit of patients, pharmaceutical researchers and pharmacists should work together and that the three pillars of research, practice, and education are closely and inseparably integrated. In today's rapidly evolving society, it is necessary-and beneficial-for pharmacists working in both government and industry to be better connected toward achieving better health care.

Can market-oriented and government-led spatial agglomeration of factories reduce carbon emission intensity? Evidence from China.

Both market-oriented and government-led spatial agglomeration of factories profoundly affect China's carbon emission intensity. However, few studies have comprehensively examined the effect of spatial agglomeration of factories driven by different motivations on carbon emission intensity, and often ignore the moderating effect of local government attention to the environment. This study attempts to incorporate market-oriented and government-led spatial agglomeration of factories into the same analytical framework and examine their interaction effects on carbon emission intensity. We first calculate an Agglomeration Index based on the geographic coordinates of micro-factories to measure market-oriented agglomeration of factories, and take development zone policies as a proxy for government-led agglomeration of factories. Based on city-level data from 1998 to 2013, we empirically analyze their impacts on carbon emission intensity and further explore regional heterogeneity and mechanisms. The results show that both the market-oriented and government-led spatial agglomeration of factories can significantly reduce carbon emission intensity through scale effect, innovation effect and structure effect. However, the agglomeration of factories caused by government forces has weakened the original effect of market-oriented agglomeration of factories in reducing carbon emission intensity. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that government-led agglomeration of factories is more effective in reducing carbon emission intensity in less-developed regions. Furthermore, the improvement of the governments' attention to the environment can further exert the positive effect of spatial agglomeration of factories on carbon emission intensity. Our study deepens the understanding of the effects of spatial agglomeration of factories caused by different motivations, and provides a reference for China and other developing countries to formulate relevant policies for reducing carbon emission intensity.

Tax structure, government debt, and the relative power of local education supply.

Policymakers are increasingly focusing on structural adjustment and efficiency to cope with the pressures that the economic downturn has placed on local finances. Accordingly, the Chinese government should shift from using standard passive investments to high-quality active investments for its social guarantees, such as education. Based on panel data of 274 cities from 2010 to 2019, this study conducted the first examination of the impact of tax structure and government debt on the relative power of the local education supply (LES) in China. The study found that, first, in general, increases in the tax structure-represented by the proportion of personal income tax to budgetary revenue strengthen the relative power of LES, which is more sensitive in the southern region with a more developed market economy system. And the impact of government debt-represented by the urban investment debt ratio on the relative power of LES is initially negative and then positive. Second, the study revealed that the tax structure can stimulate the relative power of LES through the intermediary channel of an increase in the urban consumption rate; however, the mechanism of promoting the relative power of LES by encouraging localities to attract more floating populations is not obvious. Third, excessive investment in local governance adjusts the positive effect of local debt on the relative power of LES. Therefore, the government should pay attention to the promotion of personal income tax status, standardize their debt risk management, improve the efficiency of governance, and emphasize the pull of urban consumption, so as to enhance the ability to support livelihood and fully mobilize initiatives for local education development.

Experiences of Governments and Public Health Agencies Regarding Crisis Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Digital Age: Protocol for a Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies.

BACKGROUND: Governments and public health agencies worldwide experienced difficulties with social media-mediated infodemics on the internet during the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing public health crisis communication strategies need to be updated. However, crisis communication experiences of governments and public health agencies worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic have not been systematically compiled, necessitating updated crisis communication strategies. OBJECTIVE: This systematic review aims to collect and organize the crisis communication experiences of senders (ie, governments and public health agencies) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our focus is on exploring the difficulties that governments and public health agencies experienced, best practices in crisis communication by governments and public health agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic in times of infodemic, and challenges that should be overcome in future public health crises. METHODS: We plan to begin the literature search on May 1, 2024. We will search PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Communication Abstracts, and Web of Science. We will filter our database searches to search from the year 2020 and beyond. We will use a combination of keywords by referring to the SPIDER (Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, and Research type) tool to search the abstracts in databases. We intend to include qualitative studies on crisis communication by governments and public health agencies (eg, officials, staff, health professionals, and researchers) to the public. Quantitative data-based studies will be excluded. Only papers written in English will be included. Data on study characteristics, study aim, participant characteristics, methodology, theoretical framework, object of crisis communication, and key results will be extracted. The methodological quality of eligible studies will be assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal checklist for qualitative research. A total of 2 independent reviewers will share responsibility for screening publications, data extraction, and quality assessment. Disagreement will be resolved through discussion, and the third reviewer will be consulted, if necessary. The findings will be summarized in a table and a conceptual diagram and synthesized in a descriptive and narrative review. RESULTS: The results will be systematically integrated and presented in a way that corresponds to our research objectives and interests. We expect the results of this review to be submitted for publication by the end of 2024. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this will be the first systematic review of the experiences of governments and public health agencies regarding their crisis communication to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review will contribute to the future improvement of the guidelines for crisis communication by governments and public health agencies to the public. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42024528975; https://tinyurl.com/4fjmd8te. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/58040.

Governance in times of war: Public procurement in Ukraine.

Wars increase the importance of government functions, yet they also constrain their ability to fulfill these functions. In particular, wars hinder economic activity, thereby limiting governments' capacity to raise the revenues required to maintain stability and meet the heightened needs of citizens. Effective governance is therefore severely undermined in times of war. However, empirical research on how wars affect government procurement is limited. We address this gap by exploring procurement dynamics using over one million public purchases of goods and services in Ukraine between January 2021 and October 2022, corresponding to the Russian invasion of the country. We document a large fall in the total number of purchases since the invasion and an increase in the share of successfully completed procurements. This higher success rate comes at the cost of efficiency, with the government paying more to source their goods. This can be attributed to the decline in the share of government purchases via online auctions and the reduced competition. Thus, the prioritization of the quick acquisition of goods and services forced governments to sacrifice cost-effectiveness. In summary, the war did not lower the successful purchasing of private goods and services, and transparency was not decreased. However, the trade-off of speed and transparency for greater costs may become increasingly problematic with the growing budget constraints resulting from the war. This article contributes to our understanding of the Ukrainian government choices during the early phase of the war. The results also highlight the importance of ensuring procurement efficiency and transparency when the war ends as reconstruction efforts will require substantial increases in government procurements.

How can the recycling of power batteries for EVs be promoted in China? A multiparty cooperative game analysis.

While electric vehicles (EVs) are developing at a high speed in China, the power battery market is facing a decommissioning peak. The problem is that the recycling situation of domestic power batteries is not ideal, partly due to neglect by consumers. By considering the recycling system, mode, and policy of China's EV power batteries, we construct a tripartite evolutionary game model of the government, consumers and EV manufacturers; analyse the stable strategy adjustment mechanisms of tripartite participation in this recycling cooperation game; and simulate the tripartite evolutionary game. The results show that when the initial willingness of the government, consumers and EV manufacturers to recycle power batteries is not strong, the government takes the lead, driving EV manufacturers and consumers to participate in power battery recycling. When the government, consumers and EV manufacturers have medium or high levels of initial willingness, the government evolves and chooses a nonregulation strategy. In addition, by simulating the impact of changes in consumer-related influencing factors on this tripartite evolutionary game, we find that subsidies for recycling power batteries are a key factor affecting consumers' strategy choices and that boosting recycling compensation for consumers can improve their enthusiasm to participate in such recycling. Therefore, to improve the recycling of power batteries for EVs, in terms of both efficiency and percentage of deployment, the Chinese government should strengthen public education on power battery recycling, further integrate informal recycling channels, and balance the distribution of profits among consumers for recycling compensation.

The realization logic of rural revitalization: Coupled coordination analysis of development and governance.

BACKGROUND: Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new stage. The principal social contradiction is the uneven development of urban and rural areas. The rural revitalization strategy has emerged as time has required. The realization of rural revitalization not only requires development to lay the foundation of the countryside but also requires governance to lead the development of the countryside. Development and governance are two indispensable aspects of rural revitalization. However, China's rural areas have long been in a state of development without governance, and this situation must change. Therefore, systematically exploring the relationship between development and governance is the key to solving the current shortcomings in rural areas. METHODS: Based on the data from the statistical yearbook, the study constructed a set of evaluation indicators for rural development governance and revitalization and verified the model's effectiveness.The entropy method and the assessment model were used to calculate the comprehensive score of rural development, governance, and revitalization. The relationship between rural development and governance was analyzed using a coupled coordination model. The regression analysis model was used to explore the relationship between the coupling results of rural development, governance, and rural revitalization. RESULTS: From the comprehensive results, both development and governance show an upward trend, but the upward trend of development is better. From the analysis of coupling coordination between development and governance, the C value is in good condition, the T value fluctuates wildly, and the D fluctuates with the fluctuation of T. Judging from the comprehensive score of rural revitalization, it also shows an upward trend year by year. Judging from the regression analysis results of coupling coordination degree and rural revitalization comprehensive score, coupling coordination degree will significantly impact the rural revitalization evaluation value. CONCLUSIONS: The study found that current rural development and governance present a spiral coupling coordination relationship, and the degree of coupling coordination significantly correlates with rural revitalization. Based on the research conclusions, the study further proposes three paths to promote the coupling and coordination of development and governance. The first is an organizational isomorphism, which builds a coupled coordination system for rural development and governance. The second is to tilt resources and improve the supply of connected and coordinated factors for rural development and governance. The third is the operating mechanism to optimize rural development and governance's coupling and coordination path.

The role of government in the achievement of medicines' security: A preliminary exploration of stakeholders' views and experience.

Medicines are essential commodities that form the cornerstone in majority of processes and interventions aimed at assuring optimal healthcare and wellbeing for any population. Apart from being saddled with the responsibility of providing medications for this purpose, the pharmaceutical industry has the potential to catalyse socioeconomic development such as job creation and revenue generation. This study aimed at assessing government's role in driving development in Nigeria's pharmaceutical sector. Questionnaires were administered to healthcare practitioners that participated in an event targeted at developing Nigerian pharmaceutical sector. Data collected were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. A total of 76 respondents participated in the study. Two-thirds of the study participants (69.7%) were males, slightly above a third of the study participants (38.2%) were aged 51 and above, and close to a quarter of the participants (21.1%) were doctorate degree holders. About half of the study participants (51.4%) indicated that Nigerian pharmaceutical sector was not adequately regulated, whilst almost all (97.4%) indicated that engaging the legislature was critical for the development of the sector. A strong majority of the study participants (87.5%) indicated that existing drug laws should be reviewed so as to protect the pharmaceutical sector. Also, majority of the participants (56.3%) were not satisfied with government's efforts in developing the pharmaceutical industry. Although this study explored a small cohort, its findings have revealed novel insights regarding factors limiting the requisite prioritisation of the Nigerian pharmaceutical sector. The emergent evidence can begin to underpin proactive policy and practice reforms aimed at achieving medicines' security in Nigeria. Further studies can build on these preliminary findings to enable robust and comprehensive sectoral interventions that improve access to healthcare, whilst also catalysing socioeconomic development.