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Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Governance of Opioid Crisis in the United States
Get PDFContext: For two decades, opioid-related overdose fatalities have surged among White, non-Hispanics in rural and suburban communities across the United States, often seen as the face of this epidemic. However, urban minority communities have also experienced a significant rise in opioid overdoses, a trend not fully addressed in the literature.Methods: We used the CDC’s WONDER platform to obtain age-adjusted drug overdose mortality rates per 100,000 population for Hispanic and non-Hispanic individuals between 2010 and 2023. The data showed significant differences in mortality rates over the years, underscoring the changing nature of substance abuse crises. The analysis was conducted by year, state, drug type, and race and ethnicity.Results: We observed the racial and ethnic disparites in the governance of Opioid Crisis in the United states. According to CDC data, from 2010 to 2021 in the United States, White, Non-Hispanics experienced the highest rates of opioid overdose deaths amongst any ethnic group. However, greater increases have been reported for Blacks during the same timeframe, with AARs rising from 3.5 overdoses per population of 100,000 in 2010 to 12.9 overdoses per population of 100,000 in 2021, highlighting a troubling escalation in opioid-related fatalities within the Black community. This paper shows that deaths among non-Hispanic Black men appear to account for the disproportionate increase in rates of opioid overdose deaths for all older adults since 2013. Simultanoeusly, we observed different patterns across race/ethnicity groups for opioid and stimulant treatment rates among males between 2010-2021. Racism may be associated with these disparities. In terms of racism, many potential factors could contribute to higher fatality rates among the non-Hispanic Black population in general and among men in particular. These factors include the consequences of structural racism, such as disparate access to SUD treatment; bias in addiction treatment; residential concentration in low-resource communities with limited access to good schools, health care, and healthy foods; medical mistrust; and raially biased drug policies. State-specific data from 2023 further reveal that the mortality rate for Black people in some states has far exceeded that of white people. For example, in Michigan, the Black death rate was 70.0 per 100,000 people, compared to 24.0 for white people. In Washington, D.C., the Black death rate was 58.0 per 100,000 people, also significantly higher than the white death rate of 20.0 per 100,000 people. The death rate for Hispanics and American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/AN) in some states also exceeded the national average (23.7 per 100,000 people). These data highlight the severe impact of the opioid crisis on minority communities.Conclusion: Over the past two decades, the face of the opioid crisis has been one of White middle class prescription users in contrast to the War on Drug’s minority heroin users. Inaccurate portrayals of opioid use have led to different policy approaches, with minorities viewed as addicts rather than victims in comparison to their White counterparts. Punitive versus rehabilitative policy approaches can have long lasting negative and devastating effects in disadvantaged communities. While opioid-related overdoses have predominantly affected rural and suburban White, non-Hispanic communities, there has been a significant rise in deaths among Black and Hispanic minority communities in recent years. Despite this, the media often portrays the epidemic as a crisis primarily impacting White, non-Hispanic rural and suburban areas. Consequently, the governance including intervention strategies and policies have failed to adequately address the severity of the problem in minority communities and to provide culturally adaptive prevention and treatment options. This paper will examine the impact of the Opioid Crisis on Black and Hispanic minority communities. It will compare the current U.S. government’s approach to the epidemic in rural and suburban White America with its past criminal justice response to drug crises in urban minority communities. The paper will also discuss cultural adaptive policy recommendations to mitigate and offer treatment options for the opioid epidemic in these minority communities. This paper suggests that ‘Whitewashing’ this epidemic has led to the neglect of rising death rates in minority communities. To rethink policy implications, the U.S. government must change its approach to ensure that everyone affected by the opioid epidemic, regardless of race or ethnicity, is included in the dialogue to address this crisis
Research on Digital Economy Empowering Urban Low-Carbon Transition
Get PDFAmidst the challenges of climate change and ecological degradation, China's "dual carbon" goals (carbon peak and carbon neutrality) have emerged as a critical imperative, with cities—as primary carbon emission sources—playing a pivotal role whose low-carbon transition efficacy directly determines national target attainment. This research examines how the digital economy empowers urban low-carbon transformation, positing that through innovation and application of digital technologies driving the digitalization, networking, and intellectualization of economic activities, it furnishes novel momentum and opportunities for this transition. Specifically, the digital economy facilitates industrial structure upgrading at the macro level while empowering enterprises to enhance energy utilization efficiency at the micro level; concurrently, it reshapes resident consumption patterns and lifestyles, promoting green consumption and low-carbon living. Mechanisms such as optimized resource allocation, industrial restructuring, technology-driven innovation, and consumption behavior guidance effectively reduce urban carbon emissions and foster optimized energy structures alongside green transformation. The study further explores three enabling models: technology-driven development, industrial integration, and regional coordination, while identifying practical challenges including insufficient digital infrastructure, data security and privacy concerns, and barriers like the digital divide and technology diffusion impediments. Finally, recommendations propose strengthening digital infrastructure, refining data security regulations, bridging the digital divide, and implementing policy guidance and institutional innovation to safeguard the integrated development of the digital economy and low-carbon transition
Research on Urban Low-Carbon Economy
Get PDFThe urban low-carbon economy represents a development model focused on decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions, emphasizing the integrated application of technological innovation, institutional innovation, and industrial restructuring. This paper examines development pathways through policy guidance, institutional innovation, technological advancement, industrial upgrading, public participation, and awareness enhancement. Governments should refine policies and regulations to strengthen support for low-carbon development. Technological innovation serves as a critical driver, necessitating increased investment in low-carbon R&D, encouragement of corporate green innovation, active cultivation of emerging industries, and industrial structure optimization. Public engagement and awareness are fundamental safeguards, requiring education to promote understanding of low-carbon concepts and lifestyle adoption. Cities develop distinctive models based on socio-economic characteristics and resource-environmental endowments: Wuhan established theoretical foundations integrating sustainability principles; Langfang leveraged its geographic advantage within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei strategy to achieve transformation through industrial and energy restructuring; resource-based cities like those in Shanxi succeeded by shifting development paradigms, enhancing policy frameworks, and optimizing energy consumption, offering replicable solutions for overcoming resource-environmental constraints
Research on the Construction of Core Professional Literacy System and Professional Improvement Path for Career Guidance Personnel
Get PDFThe professional quality of career guidance personnel directly determines the quality of career guidance. The professional qualities of career guidance personnel should include good professional ethics, process guidance awareness, active guidance awareness, innovative guidance awareness, the concept of lifelong learning, multidisciplinary cultural knowledge structure, professional career guidance knowledge, good language expression and communication skills, precise information collection and processing ability, keen perception and prediction ability, and good consultation and guidance ability. To enhance the professional qualities of career guidance personnel, it is necessary to strictly enforce the access qualifications for career guidance personnel, strengthen their continuing education and on-the-job training, and improve their scientific research ability
Financial Control in the Lebanese Public Sector and Employees Performance
Get PDFFinancial control is the process that includes procedures designed to protect the assets of any entity and ensure that all financial transactions are accurately recorded, thereby deterring and reducing mistakes and fraud. Financial control aims to provide a framework that guides the allocation of resources in a well-managed and efficient manner (Note 1).This study aims to determine the extent of existence of financial control in the Lebanese public sector, to analyze the performance of financial control institutions and financial employees, especially in light of the increasing sectarian and political interferences that affect the reliable work of audit institutions.This study is conducted to explain the concept of financial control and the concept of the public sector, the importance of financial control in the public sector since the public sector administrations and institutions are responsible for the well expenditure of public resources in the form of services to citizens, so, in result, maintaining the economic growth of a country.In Lebanon, lots of problems continue to aggravate in Lebanese public administrations prior to the civil war, 1975 till now, due to the sectarian and political hassles that gnaw at the public sector work and affect the reliable work of public administrations and institutions that resulting in financial corruption (Note 2)
Research on Cost Management of Old Residential Area Renovation Projects under EPC Mode
Get PDFUnder the strong impetus of the current urbanization renewal policies, the renovation projects of old residential areas across the country are showing a rapid development trend characterized by large-scale and high efficiency. To effectively control investment risks, construction units generally choose the EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) general contracting model as the core contracting mechanism for old area renovation projects. Although this model helps significantly reduce the financial risks for the construction party, it also poses higher requirements for the general contractor to implement cost control in the complex and ever-changing old area renovation projects. Given the dual constraints of the government's strictly approved budget framework and the expected social and economic benefits, cost management has become the primary control link in the project management of EPC general contractors. This study, with the EPC model as the research background, selects the D old residential area renovation project as a specific case. Through a research approach combining literature review and questionnaire survey, it systematically identifies the multi-dimensional factors influencing the cost management of such projects. Based on the research findings, the research team has constructed a scientific and standardized evaluation system for the cost management factors of EPC model old residential area renovation projects, aiming to accurately identify and screen out key influencing factors, thereby providing theoretical basis and methodological support for the subsequent refined management implementation. This research achievement has significant practical significance for improving the cost control level of the EPC general contracting model in old residential area renovation projects. Finally, corresponding management strategies are proposed based on the identified key construction cost influencing factors
From Touch to Voice: The Role of Smart Devices in Enhancing Navigation and Interaction for the Visually Impaired
Get PDFSmart devices integrate haptic feedback and voice interaction technologies to provide innovative solutions for navigation and information interaction for the visually impaired. This paper explains the fundamental principles of core technologies such as sensors, voice recognition, and haptic feedback, as well as the architecture of auxiliary navigation systems. It analyzes the integration patterns and optimization strategies of haptic and voice interaction, and explores the challenges faced by current technologies in terms of recognition accuracy, latency, and battery life through practical applications such as outdoor and indoor navigation. The paper also proposes targeted improvement measures to provide technical references for enhancing the efficiency of navigation and interaction experiences for the visually impaired
Ethical Dilemmas and Identity Construction in Artificial Intelligence (2001): An Analysis from the Perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism
Get PDFUtilizing the framework of ethical literary criticism, this study analyzes Steven Spielberg’s Artificial Intelligence (2001). The film depicts a climate-ravaged future where David, a childlike robot, is adopted and then abandoned by a human family. His quest to become a “real boy” via the Blue Fairy serves as a narrative core to examine human-robot ethics. The analysis investigates the characters’ ethical predicaments and choices, and explores three core ethical issues: the “human-object” dichotomy framing robots as commodities; human suspicion and hatred toward robots driven by economic competition and existential anxiety; and the subversion of ethical identities as robots assume familial roles. Key findings reveal that: first, despite robotic anthropomorphism, the human-robot relationship remains a hierarchical “subject-object” dynamic; second, the subversion of traditional ethical identities leads to an unresolved ethical predicament in human-robot relationships; and third, David’s choices—from imitation to asserting uniqueness—constitute genuine ethical selection, marking his transformation into a being with emergent self-awareness. This research not only expands the application of ethical literary criticism into science fiction film studies but also provides valuable reflections for addressing ethical challenges in real-world AI development
Research on the Integration of The Analects of Confucius and Ideological and Political Education in Universities
Get PDFThe Confucian classic The Analects of Confucius is a work that has influenced Chinese thought and culture for thousands of years, and its many core ideas such as “benevolence” “righteousness” and “propriety” have inherent compatibility with the core values of Chinese socialism. This article takes the core connotation of The Analects of Confucius as the theoretical basis, explores its modern value and the pathway of integration with ideological and political education in universities, proposes the “three in one” application model which refers to integration into the ideological and political curriculum system, integration into cultural practice, and integration into campus environment. This will aim to provide a new idea of traditional cultural empowerment for ideological and political education, and give reference and guidance for the innovation and development of ideological and political education in universities
Analysis of the Review Criteria for Obviously Improper Administrative Acts
Get PDFDue to the expansion of the power of administrative organs, their discretionary power has also increased. This phenomenon has led to frequent abuse of power by administrative organs and unfair handling of cases, and the frequency of such situations is still rising, showing a trend of getting worse and worse. This not only seriously infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of the administrative counterparts, but also greatly undermines the credibility of administrative organs, bringing extremely adverse effects to the entire administrative management system. “Manifestly improper” as a means in judicial review, its core goal is to ensure that the administrative acts of administrative organs are both reasonable and legal. The current Administrative Litigation Law together with its judicial interpretations have not provided a clear definition of what constitutes an “manifestly improper” administrative act. This article aims to establish a set of scientific and reasonable judicial review standards to accurately identify and effectively regulate