Gender Bias and The Indonesian Financial Crisis: Were Girls Hit Hardest?

We analyze how the financial crisis affected a wide range of investments in Indonesian children and children's outcomes including school enrollment, immunizations, and mortality. Our dataset is the National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas), a large nationally representative sample. We build on past research by differentiating outcomes for boys and for girls, and by separating regions heavily affected by the financial crisis from others that were relatively unhurt. Along most dimensions, children were well protected. Contrary to some theory and press reports, girls did not fare worse than boys during the crisis.

Gender Bias and The Indonesian Financial Crisis: Were Girls Hit Hardest?

We analyze how the financial crisis affected a wide range of investments in Indonesian children and children's outcomes including school enrollment, immunizations, and mortality. Our dataset is the National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas), a large nationally representative sample. We build on past research by differentiating outcomes for boys and for girls, and by separating regions heavily affected by the financial crisis from others that were relatively unhurt. Along most dimensions, children were well protected. Contrary to some theory and press reports, girls did not fare worse than boys during the crisis.

Discrete Mechanics and Optimal Control Applied to the Compass Gait Biped

This paper presents a methodology for generating locally optimal control policies for simple hybrid mechanical systems, and illustrates the method on the compass gait biped. Principles from discrete mechanics are utilized to generate optimal control policies as solutions of constrained nonlinear optimization problems. In the context of bipedal walking, this procedure provides a comparative measure of the suboptimality of existing control policies. Furthermore, our methodology can be used as a control design tool; to demonstrate this, we minimize the specific cost of transport of periodic orbits for the compass gait biped, both in the fully actuated and underactuated case

Schooling and Parental Death

Loss of a parent is one of the most traumatic events a child can face. If loss of a parent reduces investments in children, it can also have long-lasting implications. This study uses parametric and semi-nonparametric matching techniques to estimate how one human capital investment, school enrollment, is affected by a parent's recent death. We analyze data from 600,000 households from Indonesia's National Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS) during 1994-96. We find a parent's recent death has a large effect on a child's enrollment. We also use this shock to test several theories of intra-household allocation and find little differential treatment based on the gender of the child or the deceased parent.

Managing mood disorders in patients attending pulmonary rehabilitation clinics

Background: There is good evidence for the positive benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in the prevention of hospital admissions, lower mortality, and improved health-related quality of life. There is also increasing evidence about the impact of PR on mental health and, in particular, mood disorders. We aimed to identify how depression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients in Victoria, Australia, is being managed in PR, to identify the prevalence of depressive symptoms among COPD patients who attend PR, and to determine whether patients with depressive symptoms or anxiety symptoms dropped out of PR early. Method: Of 61 PR clinics, 44 were invited and 22 agreed to participate. Telephone interviews were conducted to see how depression and anxiety in COPD patients were being recognized and managed in these clinics. A total of 294 questionnaires were distributed to patients by clinic coordinators to determine the prevalence of anxiety/depression, as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Coordinators were contacted to provide information on whether respondents dropped out of rehabilitation early or continued with their treatment at 2–4 months post program. Results: Seven clinics were not aware of local guidelines on assessment/treatment/management of mood. Four clinics did not use any screening tools or other aids in the recognition and management of depression and/or anxiety. Overall, eight clinics participating in this study requested advice on suitable screening tools. The patient survey indicated that the mean depression score on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was 5.0 (standard deviation 3.0, range 1–13). The mean anxiety score was 5.5 (standard deviation 3.4, range 0–18). There was no evidence of a link between failure to complete rehabilitation and depression or anxiety scores, as only three of 105 patients failed to complete their rehabilitation. Discussion: Awareness of management guidelines for depression and anxiety in COPD patients was variable across the clinics recruited into our study. We found no link between compliance with rehabilitation and depression, but our sample had limitations. Conclusion: Future research needs to investigate how best to encourage more use of available guidelines regarding integrating psychological and psychosocial support to supplement the exercise and education that are currently offered routinely by all PR clinics studied in Victoria, Australia

Guest Artist Recital Series: David Zerkel, Tuba; Liz Ames, Piano; September 12, 2023

Kemp Recital HallSeptember 12, 2023Tuesday Evening7:30 p.m

Ruminal effects of Rumensin during cold stress

Two trials were conducted to determine the effects of Rumensin in cold-stressed cattle. Steers fed diets with and without Rumensin were exposed to cold stress (0 C) and thermoneutrality (20 C). Rumen volatile fatty acids and rumen vault gases were sampled to monitor rumen fermentation. Although not statistically significant, Rumensin decreased rumen acetate to propionate ratios and increased CO2/CH4 ratios in both thermal environments. Such a methane decease should improve feed efficiency because less energy is wasted. Thus, Rumensin appears to support a more efficient rumen fermentation in cold stress as well as thermoneutrality

Off-axis reflective optical apparatus

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a simple apparatus and a convenient and accurate method of mounting the components to form an off-axis reflective optical apparatus such as a collimator. In one embodiment, an off-axis reflective optical apparatus comprises a mounting block having a ferrule holder support surface and an off-axis reflector support surface which is generally perpendicular to the ferrule holder support surface. An optical reflector is mounted on the off-axis reflector support surface and has a reflected beam centerline. The optical reflector has a conic reflective surface and a conic center. A ferrule holder is mounted on the ferrule holder support surface. The ferrule holder provides a ferrule for coupling to an optical fiber and orienting a fiber tip of the optical fiber along a fiber axis toward the optical reflector. The fiber axis is nonparallel to the reflected beam centerline. Prior to mounting the optical reflector to the off-axis reflector support surface and prior to mounting the ferrule holder to the ferrule holder support surface, the optical reflector is movable on the off-axis reflector surface and the ferrule holder is movable on the ferrule holder support surface to align the conic center of the optical reflector with respect to the fiber tip of the optical fiber, and the apparatus has at least one of the following features: (1) the optical reflector is movable on the off-axis reflector support surface to adjust a focus of the fiber tip with respect to the optical reflector, and (2) the ferrule holder is movable on the ferrule holder support surface to adjust the focus of the fiber tip with respect to the optical reflector