`Natural' Disaster, Conflict and Aid Allocation

This paper looks into aid allocation in the response to multiple crises, focusing more specifically on the cases of concomitance between so-called `natural' hazard/disaster and conflict situations. Over 150 natural disasters have occurred alongside complex political crises in the past seven years alone. Yet, the fields of conflict and disaster research remain largely isolated from one another, and in fact, no aid related research has addressed the issue of the concomitance of conflict and disaster. We exploit a large panel dataset that includes official development aid, and information about the victims from natural disasters and conflicts for 112 developing countries over a period of 35 years. For eight different donor countries and groups of donor countries we find that while conflict does not affect their aid allocation patterns, the occurrence of natural disasters does. The econometric analysis demonstrates that aid allocation needs to be analyzed in a disaggregated fashion -for each donor individually- as donors clearly have different agendas. Applying GMM techniques we account for the endogenous nature of the control variables such as per capita GDP. In addition we use the relative size of the youth cohort as exogenous instrument for conflict.Disaster, Conflict, Aid Allocation, Longitudinal Panel Methods, GMM

Rigor Mortis and News obtained by the Body\u2019s Scientific Reconstruction of the Turin Shroud Man

After various tentative to artistically build a tridimensional form of the Turin Shroud (TS) Man, the authors faced the problem of the scientific construction of a 3D model of this Man with an accuracy of the order of 1 cm. It is well known that the TS wrapped a human body heavily tortured, but it is not easy to build a 3D model starting only from the 2D information shown on two body images visible on a linen sheet and on the hypothesis that these images really corresponds to a real man wrapped in it. The study showed that, while the two TS body images (frontal and dorsal) seem to appear not coherent with the image of a human body because distorted in many parts, these two images are perfectly coherent with the distortions provoked by a man wrapped in this linen sheet. This model confirmed the evident rigor mortis of the human body and evidenced the particular posture corresponding to the position on the cross that also showed a rotation never detected previously of the human body around his spine. The study of this 3D model partially confirmed previous results but also evidenced interesting news, like the position of the exit hole of the nail posed on the palm of the hand. The Gospels place the Resurrection in the early hours of Sunday, at least 36 hours after death. The effect of the preservation of rigidity up to this moment may be not consistent with the thanato-chronological alterations expected in a man in the same pre-mortal clinical condition, but this problem has been solved by the \u201cmixture of aloe and myrrh\u201d that allowed the preservation of the corpse, thus prolonging the rigor mortis for tens of hours. In fact, this body seems not to have undergone any significant putrefactive phenomenon

O percurso patêmico do eu em "a terceira margem do rio"

"A terceira margem do rio", conto de Joao Guimaraes Rosa, é objeto de análise deste trabalho, que se utiliza do referencial teórico da semiótica francesa que, desde os anos 1980, constrói uma semântica da dimensao passional dos discursos e passa a considerar a paixao "como efeito de sentido inscrito e codificado na linguagem". Nosso texto focaliza os estados de alma do sujeito da história, que, projetado no presente da enunciaçao, ao rememorar o passado, já entrado em anos, toma consciência da anulaçao de sua existência, que foi marcada pela ausência do pai. Focalizamos o percurso patêmico do "eu" narrador, como sujeito do enunciado, em cenas enunciativas do texto nas quais se manifestam variantes da paixao da cólera , tendo em vista o modo como Jacques Fontanille (2005) a descreve em Dictionnaire de passsions Littéraires. Nossa hipótese é que o eu nao teve consciencia da raiva e da revolta que sentiu em relaçao ao distanciamento do pai e, nesse sentido, observamos como essa revolta, ao final, provoca-lhe o sentimento de culpa e de medo. Logo, o estado afetivo de medo o impede de seguir o percurso do pai ao final da históri

Influence of equilibrium time in Cd, Cu, Ni e Zn adsorption on sludge-amended soil samples

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito do tempo de agitação no equilíbrio de adsorção em amostra de um Latossolo não tratado e tratado com lodo de esgoto da estação de tratamento (ETE) de Barueri, coletadas na camada 0-0,2 m. A influência do tempo de agitação na adsorção foi avaliada através da adição de 20 mL do eletrólito suporte Ca (NO3)2 0,01 mol L-1, em 2 g de terra, agitadas por 1 e 24 horas em triplicata contendo concentrações crescentes de cada metal. Os resultados foram avaliados através do teste de comparação de curvas (Teste F). De maneira geral, as amostras agitadas por 24 horas adsorveram mais metais que as amostras agitadas por 1 hora. Pelos resultados, permite-se concluir que para as amostras de solo estudadas o tempo de agitação de 24 horas é o mais adequado para a obtenção da adsorção real dos metais estudados.The objective of the present paper is to evaluate the influence of equilibrium time in metal adsorption on sludge-amended soil samples (0-0,2 m) collected in a sewage sludge trial. Soil samples (2.00 g) were shaked during 1 and 24 h with 20 mL of Ca(NO3)2 0,01 mol L-1 solution containing increasing concentrations of Cd, Cu, Ni and Zn. Adsorption isotherms for 1 and 24 h were compared using the F test. In general greater amounts of metals were adsorbed when a 24h-shaking time was used except for cadmium in sludge-amended sample. It is recommended a 24-h shaking period for equilibrium

Landmines

This paper estimates the causal impact of landmines on child health and household expenditures in Angola by exploiting geographical variations in landmine intensity. We generate exogenous variation in landmine intensity using the distance between communes and rebel headquarters. As predicted by our theoretical model of rebel mining, landmine intensity is found to be a decreasing function of the distance to a set of rebel headquarters. Instrumental variables estimates, based on two household surveys and the Landmines Impact Survey, indicate that landmines have large and negative effects on weight-for-age, height-for-age and household expenditures. We discuss our results with respect to the costs and benefits of landmine clearance.civil war, landmines, instrumental variables, household expenditures, height-for-age, weight-for-age, Angola.

'Natural' disaster, conflict and aid allocation

This paper looks into aid allocation in the response to multiple crises, focusing more specifically on the cases of concomitance between so-called 'natural' hazard/disaster and conflict situations. Over 150 natural disasters have occurred alongside complex political crises in the past seven years alone. Yet, the fields of conflict and disaster research remain largely isolated from one another, and in fact, no aid related research has addressed the issue of the concomitance of conflict and disaster. We exploit a large panel dataset that includes official development aid, and information about the victims from natural disasters and conflicts for 112 developing countries over a period of 35 years. For eight different donor countries and groups of donor countries we find that while conflict does not affect their aid allocation patterns, the occurrence of natural disasters does. The econometric analysis demonstrates that aid allocation needs to be analyzed in a disaggregated fashion - for each donor individually - as donors clearly have different agendas. Applying GMM techniques we account for the endogenous nature of the control variables such as per capita GDP. In addition we use the relative size of the youth cohort as exogenous instrument for conflict

A comparison of melatonin and α-lipoic acid in the induction of antioxidant defences in L6 rat skeletal muscle cells.

Aging is characterized by a progressive deterioration in physiological functions and metabolic processes. The loss of cells during aging in vital tissues and organs is related to several factors including oxidative stress and inflammation. Skeletal muscle degeneration is common in elderly people; in fact, this tissue is particularly vulnerable to oxidative stress since it requires large amounts of oxygen, and thus, oxidative damage is abundant and accumulates with increasing age. Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) is a highly efficient scavenger of reactive oxygen species and it also exhibits beneficial anti-inflammatory and anti-aging effects. This study investigated the susceptibility of rat L6 skeletal muscle cells to an induced oxidative stress following their exposure to hydrogen peroxide (50 μM) and evaluating the potential protective effects of pre-treatment with melatonin (10 nM) compared to the known beneficial effect of alpha-lipoic acid (300 μM). Hydrogen peroxide-induced obvious oxidative stress; it increased the expression of tumour necrosis factor-alpha and in turn promoted nuclear factor kappa-B and overrode the endogenous defence mechanisms. Conversely, pre-treatment of the hydrogen peroxide-exposed cells to melatonin or alpha-lipoic acid increased endogenous antioxidant enzymes, including superoxide dismutase-2 and heme oxygenase-1; moreover, they ameliorated significantly oxidative stress damage and partially reduced alterations in the muscle cells, which are typical of aging. In conclusion, melatonin was equally effective as alpha-lipoic acid; it exhibited marked antioxidant and anti-aging effects at the level of skeletal muscle in vitro even when it was given in a much lower dose than alpha-lipoic acid

La responsiveness dei sistemi sanitari: un’analisi empirica sull’assistenza ospedaliera nel Servizio Sanitario Regionale dell’Emilia Romagna

The release of the World Health Report 2000 has brought to the fore the concept of responsiveness as an indicator of health system performance. Responsiveness relates to a system’s ability to respond to the legitimate expectations of potential users about non-health enhancing aspects of care (Valentine et al. 2003). A few studies have investigated how standard socio-demographic characteristics (such as income or education) have an influence on the evaluation of responsiveness by health care users (Puentes Rosas et al. 2006, Sirven et al. 2012, Rice et al. 2012). However, we are not aware of any study investigating the relationship between the frequency with which patients use health services and their evaluation of responsiveness. This paper narrows this gap by using data regarding a sample of patients hospitalized in 9 hospitals of Emilia Romagna, a Region of Italy. The data have been collected by the Agency for Health Care and Social Services of Emilia Romagna between January 2010 and December 2012. We investigate a representative sample of about 2500 in-patients, who have been asked to evaluate 29 different aspect of quality of care which refer to 6 domains of health system responsiveness (communication, social support, privacy, dignity, waiting times and quality of facilities). We make use of this structure of the data by adopting a panel data regression model. The adoption of a panel model helps in controlling for individual heterogeneity, which otherwise could bias our results. Given that responsiveness is evaluated on an ordinal and categorical scale (going from “very dissatisfied” to “very satisfied”) we estimate a panel ordered logit model. Our results suggest that if patients have already been hospitalized in the same ward over the last 5 years they evaluate responsiveness more positively compared to patients who have never been hospitalized before. However, this effect is statistically significant only if patients have been hospitalized in the last 6 months. More generally, the use of a proper methodology to investigate responsiveness at hospital level can allow a better identification of area of intervention for investments in staff training; moreover, it can allow to modify hospital characteristics which have a negative impact on patients’ reporting of responsiveness

Development of NASH in Obese Mice is Confounded by Adipose Tissue Increase in Inflammatory NOV and Oxidative Stress

Aim. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the consequence of insulin resistance, fatty acid accumulation, oxidative stress, and lipotoxicity.We hypothesize that an increase in the inflammatory adipokine NOV decreases antioxidant Heme Oxygenase 1 (HO- 1) levels in adipose and hepatic tissue, resulting in the development of NASH in obese mice. Methods. Mice were fed a high fat diet (HFD) and obese animals were administered an HO-1 inducer with or without an inhibitor of HO activity to examine levels of adipose-derived NOV and possible links between increased synthesis of inflammatory adipokines and hepatic pathology. Results. NASH mice displayed decreased HO-1 levels and HO activity, increased levels of hepatic heme, NOV, MMP2, hepcidin, and increased NAS scores and hepatic fibrosis. IncreasedHO-1 levels are associated with a decrease in NOV, improved hepatic NAS score, ameliorated fibrosis, and increases in mitochondrial integrity and insulin receptor phosphorylation. Adipose tissue function is disrupted in obesity as evidenced by an increase in proinflammatory molecules such as NOV and a decrease in adiponectin. Importantly, increased HO-1 levels are associated with a decrease of NOV, increased adiponectin levels, and increased levels of thermogenic and mitochondrial signaling associated genes in adipose tissue. Conclusions.These results suggest that the metabolic abnormalities in NASH are driven by decreased levels of hepatic HO-1 that is associated with an increase in the adipose-derived proinflammatory adipokine NOV in our obese mouse model of NASH. Concurrently, induction of HO-1 provides protection against insulin resistance as seen by increased insulin receptor phosphorylation. Pharmacological increases in HO-1 associated with decreases in NOV may offer a potential therapeutic approach in preventing fibrosis, mitochondrial dysfunction, and the development of NASH

Landmines

This paper estimates the causal impact of landmines on child health and household expenditures in Angola by exploiting geographical variations in landmine intensity. We generate exogenous variation in landmine intensity using the distance between communes and rebel headquarters. As predicted by our theoretical model of rebel mining, landmine intensity is found to be a decreasing function of the distance to a set of rebel headquarters. Instrumental variables estimates, based on two household surveys and the Landmines Impact Survey, indicate that landmines have large and negative effects on weight-for-age, height-for-age and household expenditures. We discuss our results with respect to the costs and benefits of landmine clearance