Empowering Women: Policy to Chip Away at Money’s Glass Ceiling

The Texas Orato

Disease Surveillance Networks Initiative Asia: Final Evaluation

The DSN Initiative was launched in 2007 under the new strategy of the Rockefeller Foundation. The initiative intends:[1] To improve human resources for disease surveillance in developing countries, thus bolstering national capacity to monitor, report, and respond to outbreaks;[2] To support regional networks to promote collaboration in disease surveillance and response across countries; and[3] To build bridges between regional and global monitoring effortsThe purpose of the DSN evaluation in the Mekong region was twofold:[1]To inform the work and strategy of the Foundation, its grantees, and the broader field of disease surveillance, based on the experience of DSN investments in the Mekong region. More specifically, the evaluation will inform future directions and strategies for current areas of DSN Initiative work, particularly in Asia, and will highlight potential new areas of work and strategy; and[2] To provide accountability to the Rockefeller Foundation's board, staff, and stakeholders for the DSN funds spent in the Mekong region

Derivation of consistent hard rock (1000<Vs<3000 m/s) GMPEs from surface and down-hole recordings: Analysis of KiK-net data

A key component in seismic hazard assessment is the estimation of ground motion for hard rock sites, either for applications to installations built on this site category, or as an input motion for site response computation. Empirical ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) are the traditional basis for estimating ground motion while VS30 is the basis to account for site conditions. As current GMPEs are poorly constrained for VS30 larger than 1000 m/s, the presently used approach for estimating hazard on hard rock sites consists of “host-to-target” adjustment techniques based on VS30 and κ0 values. The present study investigates alternative methods on the basis of a KiK-net dataset corresponding to stiff and rocky sites with 500 < VS30 < 1350 m/s. The existence of sensor pairs (one at the surface and one in depth) and the availability of P- and S-wave velocity profiles allow deriving two “virtual” datasets associated to outcropping hard rock sites with VS in the range [1000, 3000] m/s with two independent corrections: 1/down-hole recordings modified from within motion to outcropping motion with a depth correction factor, 2/surface recordings deconvolved from their specific site response derived through 1D simulation. GMPEs with simple functional forms are then developed, including a VS30 site term. They lead to consistent and robust hard-rock motion estimates, which prove to be significantly lower than host-to-target adjustment predictions. The difference can reach a factor up to 3–4 beyond 5 Hz for very hard-rock, but decreases for decreasing frequency until vanishing below 2 Hz

Capturing geographically-varying uncertainty in earthquake ground motion models or what we think we know may change

Our knowledge of earthquake ground motions of engineering significance varies geographically. The prediction of earthquake shaking in parts of the globe with high seismicity and a long history of observations from dense strong-motion networks, such as coastal California, much of Japan and central Italy, should be associated with lower uncertainty than ground-motion models for use in much of the rest of the world, where moderate and large earthquakes occur infrequently and monitoring networks are sparse or only recently installed. This variation in uncertainty, however, is not often captured in the models currently used for seismic hazard assessments, particularly for national or continental-scale studies. In this theme lecture, firstly I review recent proposals for developing ground-motion logic trees and then I develop and test a new approach for application in Europe. The proposed procedure is based on the backbone approach with scale factors that are derived to account for potential differences between regions. Weights are proposed for each of the logic-tree branches to model large epistemic uncertainty in the absence of local data. When local data are available these weights are updated so that the epistemic uncertainty captured by the logic tree reduces. I argue that this approach is more defensible than a logic tree populated by previously published ground-motion models. It should lead to more stable and robust seismic hazard assessments that capture our doubt over future earthquake shaking

A comparison of metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk factors in Filipino women and Filipino American women: A pilot study

Objective: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in women of Filipino ethnicity. The objective of our work was to determine if metabolic syndrome (MetS), a modifiable CVD risk factor, differs in women as a function of country of residency and to determine if, CVD prevention strategies need to differ for these groups of Filipino women. Design: Data were collected in community-based health screenings for this cross-sectional study. Participants: Participants were recruited at places of worship in southeast United States (n=60) and Central Visayas, Philippines (n=56). Main Outcome Measures: Prevalence of MetS and its component factors as defined by the International Diabetes Federation criteria. Results: The prevalence of MetS in Filipino women (FW) and Filipino American women (FAW) groups was similar (52% vs 55%, P=.08) although the prevalence of elevated waist circumference was greater for FAW (78% vs 59%, P=.03). Conversely, the percentage of FW women with risk -associated high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels was higher than the FAW group (84% vs 42%, P\u3c.001). Other MetS component factors (blood pressure, glucose and triglycerides) did not significantly differ between groups. Conclusion: Similar high rates of MetS were observed in Filipino women regardless of the country of residency although the FAWtended to have higher rates of central obesity while the FW tended to have higher rates of risk-associated HDL levels. Further research should examine the cause of these differences in order to develop better cardiovascular screening and intervention strategies

Northern Triangle Act: Facilitate Grand Endings to Grand Corruption

The Texas Orato

Política fiscal y desarrollo rural en Centroamérica

El foro: «La reducción de la pobreza y la desigualdad: el doble reto de la política fiscal» se llevó a cabo el 30 de marzo en la ciudad de Tegucigalpa, en cuya actividad se presentaron los hallazgos del estudio «Incidencia de la política fiscal en la desigualdad y la pobreza: Honduras» elaborado por el Icefi con el apoyo del Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA). El estudio concluye que en Honduras la acción de la política fiscal es mayor sobre la desigualdad que sobre la pobreza. Este efecto se genera por un efecto distributivo que tiene más impacto en las zonas rurales. Sin embargo, se observa un incremento de la pobreza rural en el país el más alto de Centroamérica- tanto por la deficiente recaudación de impuestos como por la falta de inversión pública. En el sector rural hondureño, la pobreza extrema se incrementó de 32.1% a 35.5% y la pobreza total pasó de 49.7% a 54.2%. Al respecto, el estudio demuestra que las personas pobres reciben en concepto de transferencias y subsidios de parte del Estado, menos de lo que pagan en concepto de impuestos; especialmente impuestos indirectos, ya que por su carácter regresivo tienen una mayor incidencia en quienes tienen menos ingresos. El estudio fue presentado por Ricardo Castaneda, economista investigador del Icefi. Asimismo, se contó con la participación de Estuardo Morán, del Commitment to Equity Institute (CEQI), quien se refirió a la incidencia de la política fiscal a nivel internacional. Además, Rocío Tábora, sub-secretaria de crédito e inversión pública de la Secretaría de Finanzas; Eugenio Sosa, de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras y Hugo Noé Pino del Icefi sostuvieron un diálogo en relación a los retos de la política fiscal hondureña para la reducción de la pobreza y la desigualdad. El estudio del Icefi utilizó como base la metodología desarrollada por el proyecto «Compromiso por la equidad» (CEQ, por sus siglas en inglés) para obtener los resultados. Ricardo Castaneda afirmó al presentar los datos que «vivir en el área rural no debería ser sinónimo de pobreza».Presentación realizada en Hondura