IKEA

Международная сеть IKEA

У главного мирового производителя мебели и товаров для дома насчитывается 498 магазинов в 61 стране мира (а ещё пару лет назад была и 62-ая страна...)

Больше всего магазинов в Европе: 55 в Германии (первое место в мире), 36 во Франции, 30 в Испании (4 и 5 места в мире). Второе место по числу магазинов занимают США: их там 52; третье - Китай с 37 магазинами IKEA.

Меньше всего представлена IKEA в Африке: там всего 6 магазинов, по 3 в Марокко и Египте

to be precise

Если быть точным: преступность, демография, гендерное неравенство, судебный парсер

В Ингушетии сильно завышена численность населения. В Чечне занижена статистика убийств (погибших считают пропавшими без вести), а очень низкие средние доходы населения завышаются в Дагестане. На Кавказе люди массово разводятся ради ежемесячной выплаты для родителей одиночек в 5000 руб (около $50). Гендерная сегрегация в России не уменьшается: в традиционно "женских" отраслях зарплаты низкие и растут медленнее, чем в "мужских". Эпидемия ВИЧ в России побеждается только на бумаге, а в Кемеровской, Тверской, Самарской и Томской областях ВИЧ есть у примерно 2% беременных. Уязвимые группы тестируются реже, лекарств не хватает, - поэтому число новых случаев уменьшается. В 2024 году в России будет установлен антирекорд по рождаемости, но демографической катастрофы, которую прогнозировали некоторые демографы, не случится.

Это только некоторые из последних разборов замечательного проекта "Если быть точным" (сайт, телеграм). Исследование гендерного неравенство делалось совместно с РЭШ. Одним из его результатов стала игра, где надо трудоустроить Барби, которой будет очень трудно достичь медианной зарплаты из-за гендерного неравенства. А еще на сайте есть 8 датасетов, в частности:

- данные о загрязнении атмосферы в 220 российских городах с 2007,
- данные об объектах-загрязнителях и вырабатываемых ими веществах,
- 500 социально-демографических показателей по регионам за 20 лет,
- данные по учреждениям уголовно-исправительной системы: кто там работает, по каким статьям сидят,
- засекреченная ФСИН информация о смертности и заболеваемости среди заключенных,
- данные о российской преступности по типам и количеству правонарушений за 2011-2022: портал правовой статистики генпрокуратуры перестал обновляться с начала 2023.

А еще есть судебный парсер, позволяющий искать и выгружать судебные дела по любой статье (подробнее о нем см. тут). Вот здесь можно записаться на презентацию парсера, которая пройдет вечером 19 декабря.

Поддержать "Если быть точным" можно через Boosty или Patreon. А если вы можете помочь в сборе все еще доступных открытых данных по России (их становится меньше с каждым месяцем), напишите в бот "Если быть точным". В команде проекта работают замечательные журналисты и data-аналитики, и они делают невероятно полезное дело.

source, тут все ссылки

Where Can the Most Chips Be Manufactured?

Even with semiconductors being integral parts of the automotive and computing industries for decades, the race for AI dominance and more and more of our digital infrastructure moving to the cloud greatly exacerbated the need for high-capacity data centers and chip production by companies like Intel, Samsung or Taiwan-based TSMC. But even with U.S. companies taking the lead in global revenue share, the country lacks production capacity.

According to data from semiconductor lobby organization SEMI, about 70 percent of total manufacturing capacity lies in South Korea, Taiwan and China, with the Americas ranking fifth after Japan, which boasted a 13 percent share in 2022. The picture was decidedly different just a couple of decades ago, with the United States covering 37 percent of fabrication capacity in 1990, Europe a further 44 percent and Japan came in third at 19 percent. The latter was considered a semiconductor powerhouse in the 80s, making up 51 percent of worldwide chip sales in 1988. The bursting of the island nation's economic bubble in the 90s led to it losing its technological leadership role to Western economies.

To reclaim at least parts of its former manufacturing dominance, the Biden administration passed the CHIPS and Science Act in August 2022, allocating around $280 billion to push the lagging domestic chips industry in terms of research and production. Whether this measure is enough for the United States to squeeze past its biggest economic competitor, the People's Republic, remains to be seen.

The data used for this chart is based on one of two annual Fab Outlooks by SEMI. Even though 200mm wafers are still widely produced and used, the chart focuses on 300mm wafers, which were introduced in 2001, can house more chips and are thought to be more cost-efficient. In 2022, the new standard and its predecessor exhibited similar levels of production volume, but these figures are estimated to change drastically over the coming years.

For 2026, SEMI forecasts a monthly volume of 9.6 million 300mm wafers, while 200mm wafer production will allegedly stand at 7.7 million per month. In the latter category, China leads in terms of fabricating capacity, with Japan and Taiwan coming in second and third, respectively.

On the origin of the early Magyars

О происхождении ранних мадьяр, об их миграции из Северо-Центральной Азии существует несколько научных теорий. Пестрый этнический состав венгров эпохи обретения родины доказан археологическими и историческими источниками. Когда они пришли в Карпатский бассейн, через восточноевропейскую степь, территорию Хазарского Каганата, в их составе были разные народы. Исходная территория, направление, хронология миграции мадьяр до сих пор считаются спорными вопросами среди историков, лингвистов, археологов. Наши исследования раскрывают археогенетический аспект этой проблематики. Мы изучаем раннесредневековые (6 – 10 вв.) популяции в Карпатском бассейне и на Урале, на тех территориях, которые, возможно, связаны с миграцией мадьяр. Данные территории связаны друг с другом и мадьярами. Население Кушнаренковской и Караякуповской культур отождествляется с мадьярами, их первые памятники появлялись на Среднем и Южном Урале. В наших исследованиях мы изучали образцы с восточной (Уелги) и западной (Бояново, Бартым, Шухой Лог) сторон Среднего Урала, их полный митохондриальную ДНК. Продолжая эти исследования, мы изучаем Волжско-Камский регион, особенно материалы Больше-Тиганского могильника. Данные митохондриальных ДНК, поступающие из этого памятника, позволяют обновлять нашу базу данных, и используя их, мы можем получить более точную картинку о пути миграции мадьяр в контексте генетики.

Out of Office

Fresh rumors about a possible bankruptcy of WeWork sent shockwaves around the commercial real estate market last week, leaving office landlords around the world trembling with fear at the prospect of losing one of their largest tenants. Especially in prime markets such as New York City, San Francisco, London and Paris, WeWork played an outsized role in the office rental market, occupying large swaths of premium office space.

The reports of WeWork’s imminent demise come at the worst possible time for landlords, who are already struggling to find tenants, as many companies are reducing their office footprint to reduce costs and adapt to the post-pandemic world of hybrid work. According to real estate specialist Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), office vacancy rates are higher than ever, reaching 21 percent in the U.S. and Canada in Q3 2023 and 16 percent globally, i.e. in the 100+ markets analyzed by JLL Research. In both cases, that’s an increase of 60 percent compared to pre-pandemic vacancy rates, which stood at 13 and 10 percent in North America and globally in Q3 2019, respectively.

At the end of June, WeWork operated 906,000 workstations in 777 locations across 39 countries, with total (current and long-term) lease obligations amounting to $14.2 billion. While it’s unclear what will happen to these locations in case of bankruptcy, landlords look certain to lose out on a large chunk of their agreed-upon leases and to end up with even more excess supply of prime office space.

cadres

Число научных сотрудников в России за последние два десятилетия сократилось примерно на 25%, заявил секретарь Совета безопасности РФ Николай Патрушев на выездном совещании в Томске.

"Серьезным препятствием к достижению технологической независимости является дефицит квалифицированных научных, инженерных и рабочих кадров. Общая численность персонала, занятого исследованиями и разработками в России, за последние 20 лет сократилась на четверть", - указал он.

При этом, продолжил Патрушев, "на фоне роста числа студентов, обучающихся по приоритетным специальностям и направлениям подготовки, отмечается снижение уровня трудоустройства выпускников по полученной специальности". "Это свидетельствует о сформировавшихся в системе подготовки кадров существенных диспропорциях между спросом на квалифицированные кадры и предложением со стороны системы образования", - считает он.

AI investment

Общемировой объём инвестиций в ИИ снизился в 2022

Продолжим тему ИИ: за весь прошлый год в разработку ИИ по всему миру было проинвестировано 175 миллиардов долларов - большая сумма! Но если сравнить с 276 миллиардами годом ранее, всё уже не так радужно. И можно даже предположить, куда пошли "лишние" деньги в прошлом году...

В целом же, за период с 2013 по 2021 - всего за восемь лет! - объём инвестиций в разработки в области искусственного интеллекта увеличился в 16 раз!

AI per capita

Количество выданных патентов в сфере ИИ на душу населения в разных странах мира

В относительных цифрах абсолютный мировой лидер по патентам в области ИИ - это Южная Корея: там за 2020 год было выдано 158 патентов на миллион жителей страны! В занимающем вторую строчку Китае на миллион жителей пришлось 45 патентов (хотя с учётом населения Китая - это очень много!), в замыкающих тройку лидеров США - 44 патента на миллион человек

У нас на миллион жителей приходится 0.5 патента в области ИИ - то есть, порядка 70 патентов на всю страну. Примерно такой же уровень, около половины патента на миллион человек, зафиксирован, к примеру, в Бразилии

AI

Какие страны активнее всего развивают ИИ

Безусловный лидер в гонке ИИ - это США: там сейчас работает больше 4.6 тысяч стартапов, занимающихся разработками в области искусственного интеллекта, с суммарным объёмом инвестиций в 249 миллиардов долларов!

В идущем на втором месте Китае обе эти цифры заметно скромнее: 1337 стартапов и 95 миллиардов инвестиций; в замыкающей тройку лидеров Великобритании и вовсе 630 компаний, занимающихся ИИ, с суммарными инвестициями всего в 18 миллиардов

Из интересного: небольшой, казалось бы, Израиль вышел на четвертое место: как по числу стартапов, так и по объёму инвестиций, обойдя почти все страны Европы, высокотехнологичную Японию и огромную Индию; а десятое место занял крошечный Сингапур

PF вне десятки

Ист.

Apple in the Smartphone Market

Win Where It Matters

Thanks to strong iPhone sales and its ever-growing services business, Apple reported better-than-expected results for its second fiscal quarter on Thursday. The company posted $24.2 billion in net profit on revenue of $94.8 billion for the three months ended April 1, 2023, beating expectations on the top and bottom line.

“We are pleased to report an all-time record in Services and a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment,” Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said, as the company’s services revenue climbed to $20.9 billion for the quarter. More importantly though, Apple defied headwinds in the smartphone market, reporting an admittedly modest increase in iPhone revenue in a quarter where global smartphone shipments declined by 14 percent year-over-year.

According to estimates from Counterpoint Research, Apple’s iPhone shipments were down 2 percent to 58 million in the past quarter, which was by far the smallest decline among the top five brands, with main rival Samsung seeing shipments drop by 19 percent year-over-year. “Apple outperformed the market due to several factors," Jeff Fieldhack, research director at Counterpoint said, citing the stickiness of its ecosystem, users’ willingness to spend more for longer-lasting devices and its popularity among Gen Z consumers as key reasons for the company’s ability to “weather economic and other fluctuations better than its rivals while enjoying unflinching loyalty.”

In the past three months, that ability translated to a global market share of 21 percent for Apple, second only to Samsung. Looking beyond sheer volume yields an entirely different picture, however, as Apple is winning where it really matters. Thanks to its high average selling price and its healthy profit margins, Apple captured 50 percent of global smartphone revenues and more than 80 percent of the industry’s profits in the first three months of 2023.

More Phones Than People

Today [неделю назад] marks the 50th anniversary of a momentous phone call. On April 3, 1973, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper was standing in a street of New York when he made the first ever call on a true mobile phone, calling his chief rival at Bell Labs, Joel Engel, presumably to gloat. The call, made on a prototype of what later became the Motorola DynaTAC, was brief, as Cooper later recalled. "I said 'Joel, this is Marty. I'm calling you from a cellphone, a real, handheld, portable cellphone.' There was a silence at the other end. I suspect he was grinding his teeth."

Cooper's call was a pivotal moment in the history of mobile communication, as it marked the beginning of a new era. Today, mobile phones are ubiquitous, with over 5.4 billion people worldwide having at least one mobile subscription, according to GSMA. In fact, there are now more mobile subscriptions than people on the planet, as the former overtook the latter in 2016. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there were more than 8.58 billion mobile subscriptions in use worldwide in 2022, compared to a global population of 7.95 billion halfway through the year.

Where Students Choose STEM Degrees

Graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics - STEM for short - are sought after globally, but are often in short supply. Many countries have tried to bolster enrollment in STEM to aid important growth industries like medtech, digital services, mobility or computer sciences. However, countries have had varying success in the matter.

According to numbers collected by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, tertiary students in Malaysia and Tunisia are among the most likely to graduate in a STEM field, with between 43.5 and almost 40 percent of students there receiving a respective degree, out of all countries where recent data was available. India, with a still high share of 34 percent of students picking STEM, is however producing the most graduates in total in the field due to its population of around 1.4 billion people - the largest in the world.

UNESCO did not publish data for China. In 2016, the World Economic Forum said that China actually produced 4.7 million STEM graduates a year, which would actually exceed India’s number. Yet, according to the National Science Foundation, China classifies engineering and science fields quite broadly, leading to a lack of comparability in the data. The U.S. government agency counted 1.6 million Chinese science and engineering graduates in 2014, which would be fewer than Indian graduates.

Other countries with a strong showing of STEM graduates are the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Belarus and South Korea – all producing more than 30 percent STEM graduates. In general, countries that have managed to produce a higher share of STEM graduates than elsewhere are more likely to be found in the Arab world, in Eastern Europe and also in East Asia. After Tunisia, the share of STEM degree recipients is also upwards of 29% in Algeria, Mauretania and Morocco, all due to the prevalence of computer engineering in the region. The Arab Gulf - a place that has recently been pushing to innovate its economies - is producing an above-average number of STEM grads in some places, namely the UAE and Oman.

With the exception of Germany, Western Europe is not a STEM hotbed, however. Only 26 percent of UK graduates come from STEM courses, as do 25 percent in France and 23 percent in Spain. Even fewer graduate in the Americas, with shares of 19.6 percent and 17.5 percent in the U.S. and Brazil, respectively.
РБ таки вхолит в топ-5, но по доле 

innovations

с пришипётыванием

тыцабельно

Самые инновационные страны мира в 2022

Самой инновационной страной мира в этом году (12-ый год подряд) была признана Швейцария! Второе место - с большим отрывом! - заняли США, а замыкает тройку лидеров Швеция. Из не-европейских стран в топ-10 также вошли Южная Корея и Сингапур

Мы в этом рейтинге заняли 47-ое место, разделив его со Словакией и Вьетнамом и на 0.1 балла отстав от Маврикия. Да, Маврикий в этом году инновационнее России...

Важно заметить, что этот индекс - комплексный, и учитывает не только вещи, непосредственно связанные с инновациями, но и качество инфраструктуры и институтов и развитие человеческого капитала. Ну, и как и любым индексом, им конечно же можно манипулировать в любую сторону - но, тем не менее, бенчмарком служить он может

но нас этим не проймёшь

THE GROWING IMPACT OF THE DIGITAL GENDER GAP

Equity Considerations for Digital Technologies for Family Planning During COVID-19 and Beyond

The race to adapt to COVID-19 has resulted in a shift to virtual formats for health care training and service provision. This has amplified reliance on digital technologies. What does this mean for women seeking services but lacking the knowledge of and access to these technologies?

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital solutions in family planning programs, moving many services to digital formats on mobile phones and other devices (often known as mHealth or digital health). Many successful approaches and adaptations will likely become embedded in family planning implementation, data measurement, and monitoring, even when the pandemic’s hold on our day-to-day lives lessens. While these innovations can help sustain program progress (see Applications of the High Impact Practices in Family Planning during COVID-19, 2020: An Adaptation Crash Course, this recording from a session at the International Conference on Family Planning, and A Pandemic within a Pandemic), we cannot forget how these approaches intersect with inequities in global health. The race to adapt to COVID-19, and the resulting shift to virtual formats for health care training and service provision has amplified reliance on digital technologies. What does this mean for women seeking services but lacking access to and knowledge about these technologies? Have we allowed for the digital gender gap to become even more exclusionary? We discussed these questions with a few experts in this field. They shared tips implementers can consider as they adopt digital solutions for family planning in the context of the digital gender gap.

The Digital Gender Gap

We know a digital gender gap impacts women’s access and ability to use digital technologies, including smartphones, social media, and the internet. This problem also exacerbates existing inequities, including poverty, education, and geographic access. The digital gender gap is worse for women who have lower levels of education, low income, are older, or are living in rural areas. Across low- and middle-income countries, those in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia face the most significant challenges connecting to digital technology. In South Asia, there is 65% mobile phone ownership, with a 23% gender gap in ownership, leaving up to 203 million women unable to access a mobile phone and associated digital services (see the figure below). In addition to gaps in mobile phone ownership, there is also a gap in mobile internet usage. For example, in Bangladesh, there is a 52% gender gap in mobile internet use. This usage gap is 29% in Nigeria and 48% in Uganda (GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report, 2020).

Figure source: Page 15 of GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report (2020). Click for an accessible version.

A variety of potential factors including social norms and affordability, among others, contribute to the digital gender gap. For generations, social norms have designated men as responsible for technological aspects of daily life, relegating many women to non-technological household roles. Social norms that influence whether a woman receives higher education or can maintain employment outside the home also impact digital technology use.

In general, social media may not be the most welcoming space for women due to unchecked harassment in online spaces where gender norms and violence are perpetuated. In India, 58% of women report experiences of online harassment, and 40% reduced their device use or deleted accounts as a result as shared in this Gender & Digital Webinar. A presenter at this webinar, Kerry Scott, associate faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (JHSPH), reminds us that the cost of maintaining a phone line can be prohibitive. In some cases, women may regularly change their mobile numbers to get cheaper rates, which can lead to disconnection from relevant services and resources.


Relatively lower phone ownership, internet access, and social media presence mean women already have limited options to access and share information as it relates to their health. The problem is only compounded when this barrier intersects with other factors, including:

• Income.
• Geography.
• Education levels.

Limited digital access translated to barriers in accessing family planning information. For example, Onyinye Edeh, founder of the Strong Enough Girls Empowerment Initiative, observes from working in Nigeria that younger girls may be forbidden by their parents from using social media. This causes them to miss out on important information and knowledge related to family planning among other topics.

The digital gender gap further enforces inequity in knowledge management for global health. Digital platforms themselves reflect gender biases: Men are the primary stakeholders in their development and design. Women are not necessarily intended to be the target user. This, when combined with the obstacles to accessing these platforms, can have a snowball effect that perpetuates the gap. The digital gender gap extends across many fields and populations, posing a serious challenge to program designers and implementers.

The Digital Gender Gap and COVID-19: What Does This Mean for Access to Family Planning Information and Services?

While many family planning programs had already adopted digital technology to support some service delivery tasks, such as counseling, follow-up, and referral, this shift accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Are decision-makers considering the gaps in access to and use of digital technologies as this shift continues? The mHealth researchers and practitioners we spoke with warned that programs, policies, and general COVID-19 adaptations can do more to address the digital gender gap. For example, a common adaptation is phone-based hotlines to discuss family planning options with a counselor, but are those hotlines accessible by rural women? By women who don’t have much training on how to use a mobile phone? By women whose husbands control their phone use? These are important questions for us to think about when implementing a digital adaptation.

Digital health innovations will best serve clients and support providers only if steps are taken to ensure equity in implementation. Recognizing how your family planning program can integrate gender-equitable concepts and strategies will help lessen the exclusionary effects of the digital gender gap.

Program Spotlight: Digital Literacy to Dismantle Gender Inequality

The Strong Enough Girls Empowerment Initiative (SEGEI) partners with a non-governmental organization in Nigeria on the “Girl Advocates for Gender Equality” project. Together, they are training 36 adolescent girls across Nigeria to participate in bi-weekly WhatsApp mentorship sessions on topics including:

• Sexual- and gender-based violence.
• Girls’ education, financial literacy.
• Women in leadership.
• Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

The girls use their phones to capture pictures and videos of outreach to other girls outside of the program, creating a cascade of learning in their communities. See some of their posts on Instagram.

Digital Health Amidst a Digital Gender Gap: How to Adapt Effectively

Here are some other short- and long-term changes your program can make to integrate gender considerations with mHealth. (Francesca Alvarez, IGWG; Onyinye Edeh, SSGEI; Erin Portillo, Breakthrough ACTION; and Kerry Scott, JHSPH, contributed to these tips.)

Short-Term Changes to Make/Considerations
Long-Term Changes to Make/Considerations

So, has the digital gender gap become even more exclusionary? We would argue that it has. The digital gender gap itself may not have expanded (many women may have more access to digital technologies today than they did five years ago), but the nature of the gap has evolved so that the impact of not having access creates greater disadvantages than before. Now, not having a phone or knowing how to use it could mean that a woman has fewer opportunities to gain information about family planning services in her area, while those who can fully participate in digital spaces can better address their reproductive health needs and goals.

The experts we spoke with reminded us that mHealth is not a “silver bullet.” Digital health, if implemented alongside larger health systems strengthening programs, can be transformative. But the full benefit of this transformation will only come if the digital gender gap is accounted for and steps are taken to mitigate its impact on women’s access to and use of digital health technologies. It should be part of a solution, capitalizing on existing relationships and strengths, not an isolated innovation.

Old means good ?

«Аборты будут делать по старинке»: в России возник дефицит препаратов для прерывания беременности на ранних сроках

В российский больницах и аптеках ощущащется нехватка препаратов для медикаментозного аборта, рассказали The Moscow Times источник, близкий к руководству Министерства здравоохранения, а также подтвердили два собеседника из фарминдустрии.

Субстанция, из которой производят отечественные препараты для фармаборта — мифепристон — поставлялась из Франции. Если в ближайшее время наладить поставки не удастся, россиянкам начнут делать так называемое выскабливание, то есть механический аборт по советской технологии.Дефицит препаратов для медикаментозного аборта связан с отсутствием поставок сырья для производства препаратов, сообщил высокопоставленный источник издания в Минздраве. Медикаментозный аборт применяется на ранних сроках беременности и считается щадящей процедурой. Собеседник отметил, что ситуация ухудшается второй месяц, и в ведомстве пока нет понимания, каким образом будет выстраиваться импортозамещение таблеток для прерывания беременности на ранних сроках.

В России препарат от нежелательной, но наступившей беременности производился такими фармкомпаниями, как «Изварино Фарма», «Московская фармацевтическая фабрика» и «Обнинская химико-фармацевтическая компания» под разными названиями: «Мифепрекс», «Миропристон», «Гинестрил», «Женеале» и другими. Объединяет все эти препараты одно и то же действующее вещество — мифепристон, которое не производится в России. До недавнего времени его закупали во Франции.

«Просто для фармкомпаний было невыгодно производить его самим. Привозили из Франции субстанцию. Они нам одни компоненты, мы им другие. Но это были другие товарно-денежные отношения. Сейчас, я думаю, свое все делать начнут», — рассуждает главный врач одной из частных клиник.

Нехватка сырья, говорят представители двух фармкомпаний, связана с невозможностью оплатить контракты на его поставки и с логистическими проблемами. В марте о похожих трудностях с субстанциями писал «Коммерсантъ». По данным газеты, проблемы с логистикой обрушили не только поставки из Европы, но и из дружественных России Китая и Индии, на которые приходилось до 80% общего объема импортируемого сырья. По разным оценкам, запасов у фармкомпаний осталось на три-шесть месяцев, писали журналисты.

Заменить препарат аналогами собственного производства или другим действующим веществом не получится: мифепристон — это единственное вещество, применяемое при проведении медикаментозных абортов, утверждают собеседники издания. О том, что мифепристон является единственным сертифицированным препаратом для выполнения таких процедур также говорится в рекомендациях Минздрава. Второй препарат, указанный в списке — «Мизопростол» — используется в схеме вместе с мифепристоном. Его, по словам главного врача частной клиники, могут самостоятельно производить отечественные фармкомпании. Однако специалисты объясняют, что отечественный препарат должен применяться в комплексе с импортным, без которого аборт невозможен.

«Мизопростол используется на втором этапе медикаментозного аборта. Сперва идет мифепристон, который останавливает развитие беременности, а потом, спустя 48 часов, дают мизопростол, чтобы вызвать сокращение матки, чтобы произошел выкидыш, — объясняет акушер-гинеколог одной из частных клиник. — Если действительно поставки прекратятся, то будут по старинке медаборты: вакуумом или кюреткой. Мы движемся в том направлении, где фармаборт — это роскошь».

По данным на 11 мая, на сайте eapteka.ru представлены всего три позиции препаратов, содержащих мифепристон. Самый дорогой препарат, «Гинестрил», обойдется в 7249 рублей. Два других средства для аборта — «Женеале» и «Гинепристон» — можно приобрести за 536 и 776 рублей. При этом на складе интернет-аптеки осталось всего по одной упаковке каждого препарата.

В начале марта «Новая газета» рассказывала о растущих в цене и в то же время пропадающих с полок магазинов оральных контрацептивах, которые используются не только для избежания нежелательной беременности, но и для лечения, а также профилактики различных хронических заболеваний. Как и в случае с препаратами для фармаборта, большинство оральных контрацептивов производятся за границей, в частности в Германии. Отечественные аналоги, сетуют собеседницы «Новой газеты», могут не подойти из-за индивидуальных особенностей организма.

mobile help

Mobile phones protect women from intimate partner violence (in low- and middle-income countries)

Luca Maria Pesando

In low- and middle-income countries, mobile phones can be viewed as empowering devices for women, says Luca Maria Pesando. Among other advantages, they frequently, although not always, protect women from intimate partner violence.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have improved in recent years and are now diffused widely across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This massive global social transformation has led scholars and policymakers to increasingly consider the potential of ICTs to empower marginalized communities and improve the lives of economically vulnerable individuals across multiple domains. Among these technologies, mobile phones have played a crucial role.

In LMICs, mobile phones serve a range of functions that may ultimately be associated with improved social development outcomes. With the maturation of the technology and the expansion of mobile data networks, the capabilities of mobile phones have expanded from enabling communication to expanding community outreach, providing rapid information, and delivering remote services (Aker and Mbiti 2010; Pesando and Rotondi 2020). A recent global-level study suggests that the expansion of mobile phones has bolstered sustainable development by narrowing gender inequalities, enhancing contraceptive use, and reducing maternal and child mortality, with biggest payoffs among the poorest countries and communities (Rotondi et al. 2020; Billari et al 2020).

Building on the increasing evidence that mobile phones may serve as vehicle for attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in a recent paper I examine whether mobile phone ownership is associated with instances of intimate partner violence (IPV) within the household (Pesando 2022). While it is reasonable to expect mobile phones to serve a “protective” role for women by boosting communication, providing access to information, and expanding community outreach (mobile phones as “empowering”), it is also possible that individual phone ownership by women threatens the idea of male dominance within the household and challenges rooted patriarchal norms, in turn resulting into heightened violence on the part of male partners (mobile phones as “disempowering”). I try to reconcile these two views using data from Demographic and Health Surveys from 10 LMICs covering the period 2015-2017 combined with big data from external sources merged at the geospatial level. What I find is that women’s ownership of mobile phones is associated with a 9-12% decreased likelihood of emotional, physical, and sexual violence experienced over the previous 12 months, with robust findings observed across seven out of the 10 countries. Overall (except in specific contexts, such as Angola), mobile phones can be viewed as empowering devices.

Why mobile phones matter for IPV

Social scientists have extensively demonstrated that radio and television have the potential to shape dynamics of gender equality, socioeconomic development, and demographic change by spreading “transformative” content that often transcends national boundaries and ultimately leads to attitude and behavioral change (Jensen and Oster 2009; La Ferrara, Chong, and Duryea 2012). Despite their potential, radio and television are monological sources of information, while mobile phones enable a two-way (dialogical) communication that may affect IPV through many and diverse channels. Among these, mobile phones may affect women’s likelihood of experiencing IPV by streamlining communication, mitigating their sense of isolation from family and non-family members, enabling them to discuss private matters with other women, promoting community outreach and participation, boosting their decision-making power within the household, offering them the opportunity to access reproductive health services remotely (and privately, provided they have sufficient autonomy from their partners) and connect with shelters more swiftly. At a more systemic level, the diffusion of mobile phones may also shape both men’s and women’s attitudes towards women’s roles and responsibilities in society (Varriale et al. 2022).

 

Women’s ownership of mobile phones and IPV over the previous 12 months

Figure 1 (left panel) shows that women owning a mobile phone are 2.6, 2.7, and 1.3 percentage points less likely to have experienced emotional, physical, and sexual violence over the previous 12 months, respectively. In relative terms, these figures correspond to decreases in the range of 9-12%. These findings are observed in seven out of the 10 countries analyzed, are not driven by differences in socioeconomic status between individuals and households, and are also observed at the community level independently of the level of development of the specific community.

The (likely) underlying mechanisms

Given the available data, I tested whether, on average, the decision-making power within the household of women owning mobile phones differs from that of women without phones. Also, I investigated whether mobile phone ownership among male partners is associated with favorable or unfavorable attitudes towards IPV. Results are clear-cut and suggest that two mechanisms are consistent with the observed findings:

i) Women owning mobile phones hold, on average, greater decision-making power within the household relative to their counterparts without phones (Figure 2, top panel);
ii) male partners owning mobile phones hold, on average, less favorable attitudes towards IPV relative to their counterparts without phones (Figure 2, bottom panel), suggesting attitudinal shifts towards higher gender equality among male partners owning mobile phones.

Policy implications

Solo female ownership of mobile phones is overwhelmingly associated with lower IPV. The predictive power of mobile phones matters above and beyond socioeconomic progress for explaining variability in women’s IPV outcomes, and mobile phones matter more than radio, television, or landlines. Findings from this study align with other evidence from the African context suggesting that simple SMS-based communication can amplify the participatory features of monological media, creating new spaces for dialogue and public discussion around critical issues, such as IPV (Abreu Lopes and Srinivasan 2014). Mobile phones may constitute a relatively cheap policy lever to attain SDG number 5 (“achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”). Nonetheless, this can only be an effective policy strategy conditional on broader investments in cheaper, equitable access to technology enabling independent use and ICT (information, communication and technology) skill development, alongside strategies to close digital divides by gender.

These findings may be especially important in the COVID-19 era. During a pandemic that imposes lockdowns and movement restrictions, women and their abusers are bound to share the same space for long periods of time, thus increasing women’s risk of experiencing IPV. In such situations, women with mobile phones might be more likely to report IPV by accessing online services, by joining online forums and networks, or through recently developed mobile apps for help-seeking. The downside of this is that lacking a safe space and facing men who engage in more controlling behaviors, women might find it even more difficult to access individual mobile phone ownership.

 

References

• Abreu Lopes, C., & Srinivasan, S. (2014). Africa’s voices: Using mobile phones and radio to foster mediated public discussion and to gather public opinions in Africa (CGHR Working Paper No. 9). Cambridge, UK: Centre of Governance and Human Rights.
• Aker, J. C., & Mbiti, I. M. (2010). Mobile phones and economic development in Africa. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(3), 207–232.
• Billari, F., Kashyap, R., Pesando, L. M., Rotondi, V., & Trinitapoli, J. (2020) Putting mobile phones in women’s hands spurs sustainable development, Neodemos, https://www.niussp.org/gender-issues/putting-mobile-phones-in-womens-hands-spurs-sustainable-development/
• Jensen, R., & Oster, E. (2009). The power of TV: Cable television and women’s status in India. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124, 1057–1094.
• La Ferrara, E., Chong, A., & Duryea, S. (2012). Soap operas and fertility: Evidence from Brazil. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 4(4), 1–31.
• Pesando L. M. (2022). Safer If Connected? Mobile Technology and Intimate Partner Violence. Demography (online first) https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-9774978
• Pesando, L. M., & Rotondi, V. (2020). Mobile technology and gender equality. In W. L. Filho, A. M. Azul, L. Brandli, A. L. Salvia, & T. Wall (Eds.), Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Gender Equality. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature.
• Rotondi, V., Kashyap, R., Pesando, L. M., Spinelli, S., & Billari, F. C. (2020). Leveraging mobile phones to attain sustainable development. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, 117, 13413–13420.
• Varriale, C., Pesando, L. M., Kashyap, R., & Rotondi, V. (2022). Mobile phones and attitudes toward women’s participation in politics: Evidence from Africa. Sociology of Development. Advance online publication.

Russian Attempts to Censor the Internet Skyrocket

The Russian government has in the last couple of years increased their attempts to censor the internet’s front page, Google. Since 2016, requests to remove content from Google Search, Google News, the Google app store, and YouTube, among others, have soared, reaching highs in 2018 in the wake of stricter cyber laws being implemented and in 2020/2021 in the aftermath of the poisoning of opposition politician Alexey Navalny by Russian government operatives.

In the first half of 2021, the latest available from Google Transparency Reports, Russia filed close to 19,000 requests for more than 200,000 items to be removed. Depending on national law, governments can approach Google in regard to items that they want removed from the web. Reasons can include copyright infringements, defamation, fraud, hate speech or content deemed obscene. Yet, which specific offenses fall under these categories again vary depending on the legislation in the respective country. A court order is another way in which governments can approach Google to ask for content to be taken off the web.

The Russian Information and Communications Authority has been filing the overwhelming majority of requests to Google from the country, showing the organized nature of Russia’s attempts to remove content from the internet. Most recently, 96 percent of requests from the Russian government body were heeded by Google.

Russia is by far the country with the most filings for Google content removal, but this actually shows that its government has not yet gained a full grasp on internet censorship. Regimes that already restrict the internet much more rigidly, for example, China and Iran, do not file many Google removal requests as they have centralized internet control mechanisms in their own countries. In China, one crucial mechanism is often called the Great Firewall, but countries like Iran or North Korea also have so-called internet gateways or chokepoints that bundle all internet traffic coming in and going out of the country.

Russia, on the other hand, has been described as a place with decentralized internet infrastructure, sharing many connections with neighboring nations, making it harder to assert control. In a 2018 study, the Russian internet was identified as having less chokepoint potential than that of the U.S., Germany, or the UK. A reason for this might be the country’s earlier adoption of the internet compared to other restrictive nations, like China, India, or Egypt, which built their infrastructures with censorship of the web 2.0 already in mind.

Nevertheless, Russia is progressing down a path toward heightened internet censorship. In 2019, another set of far-reaching cyber legislation was passed. The so-called sovereign internet laws aim to centralize Russian networks as well as implement the technology of Deep Packet Inspection, which allows even encrypted messages to be intercepted based on their sender and recipient information. Finally, the country has been planning to launch its own national Domain Name System, which is a directory for computers to find websites. It would enable users to still find Russian domain names even if they had been excluded from the centralized global DNS. This move has been demanded by Ukraine after the Russian invasion of the country but was denied by the international coordinating body ICANN.

Нет худа без добра, с одной строны, отвлечемся от интернета, с другой — подтянем компутерную подготовку.

The World's Largest Smartphone Markets

Having been one of the first major tech events to be canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak in early 2020, Mobile World Congress 2021 was one of the first events to bring back in-person attendees in June/July 2021, albeit at reduced capacity. With pre-pandemic attendance typically around 100,000, last year's hybrid edition of the wireless industry trade show counted 20,000 in-person attendees along with 100,000 daily viewers of virtual events. This year's event-themed "Connectivity Unleashed" returns to its pre-pandemic date and format, as tens of thousands of visitors are expected to make their way to Barcelona.

And as the mobile industry is showcasing the latest trends in mobile technology this week, we’re taking a look at the world’s largest smartphone markets. According to estimates from Newzoo, China is far ahead of all other countries in terms of smartphone users. With more than 950 million users, the Chinese market is larger than those of India, the U.S. and Indonesia combined, illustrating why it’s so important for companies like Apple to cater to the needs of Chinese consumers. You will find more infographics at Statista

The State of 5G

With smartphone markets maturing and breakthrough innovations becoming increasingly rare, the switch to 5G could become the biggest growth driver for the smartphone industry in the coming years. And while the rollout of the faster wireless standard has been remarkably quick – the GSMA expects 5G connections to hit one billion this year – there’s still plenty of room to grow for 5G and it will take years for it to overtake 4G.

According to the GSMA, 5G accounted for 8 percent of global mobile connections in 2021, with the share considerably lower in most parts of the world. By 2025, one in four mobile connections is expected to be on a 5G network, with 4G expected to still have a dominant lead at 55 percent of connections in 2025.

As the following chart, based on GSMA estimates, shows, Greater China is currently leading the race to 5G with 29 percent of mobile connections in the region utilizing the new standard. North America is a distant second with 13 percent adoption and Europe is even further behind at 4 percent of all mobile connections. By 2025, 5G is expected to become the predominant standard in Greater China and North America, while the rest of the world is still expected to rely heavily on 4G for the time being.
за звёздочкой — лучше бы перечислили, а то — неизвестно
в СНГ — голубенькая врят ли получится :(

Healthcare Industry Study Puts Berlin in Top 3 Worldwide

An international study of the healthcare industry shows Berlin-Brandenburg as being world-class.

Coming in third after Boston and London, Berlin beats Singapore and Copenhagen in the ranking of leading locations for the healthcare industry, putting the German capital top in the EU. Small wonder, with more than 600 established companies from the biotech, medical technology, and pharmaceutical sectors. Add the 145 regional hospitals, around 40 research institutes in the field of life sciences, and 30 institutions of higher education, that makes for a strong industry-specific cluster in Berlin-Brandenburg.

The commissioned study by the WifOR Institute and SNPC analyzes among other things the thematic focus on the cluster in the cities studied, technology transfer, financing and start-up activity, digitization, networks and cooperations, as well as economic data.

A detailed SWOT analysis reveals the following strengths of the Berlin capital region:
distinction of the relevant players, be it from business or science
excellent networking of the players within the healthcare industries cluster
Berlin as a city is a magnet for industry-related talent
prominence in global health
infrastructure

Corporate and funding structures were rated as particularly good.

Berlin ranks among the world’s leading healthcare industry clusters – © Berlin Partner

According to the benchmark study, the Berlin-Brandenburg cluster has what it takes to catch up with the two top clusters in the Boston and London regions. “It should be emphasized here,” they write, “that the comparative clusters selected are the world’s top clusters in the life science sector.”

“The World Health Organization (WHO) has just opened the ‘Global Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence’ in Berlin,” Dr. Stefan Franzke, Managing Director of Berlin Partner, points out. “A global data ecosystem is being created where everything revolves around pandemic and epidemic intelligence. Startups are also doing well, with companies like Caresyntax, Ada Health and T-Knife announcing funding rounds of $300 million in recent months.”

Peter Albiez, Cluster Spokesperson HealthCapital Berlin-Brandenburg and Lead Patient and Physician Engagement, Pfizer International, comments, “We have been confirmed in our assessment that the Berlin-Brandenburg capital region is in the Champions League of the most important healthcare locations. This confirmation is an incentive for us to do even better. This applies in particular to technology transfer and attracting venture capital. We must work on this together – politics, business and science – in the coming years. To turn our vision into reality: to set new standards in life sciences and healthcare in Berlin-Brandenburg.”

To find out more about Berlin’s Health Industry read our story on AI Applications in Digital Health, an Interview with Peter Albiez, Country Manager, Pfizer Germany, or about Berlin’s famous health tech district Buch.

Visit the website HealthCapital Berlin-Brandenburg.

Text: Olaf Bryan Wielk, ideenmanufaktur