Measuring inequality of opportunity with imperfect data : the case of Turkey

The measurement of inequality of opportunity has hitherto not been attempted in a number of countries because of data limitations. This paper proposes two alternative approaches to circumventing the missing data problems in countries where a demographic and health survey and an ancillary household expenditure survey are available. One method relies only on the demographic and health survey, and constructs a wealth index as a measure of economic advantage. The alternative method imputes consumption from the ancillary survey into the demographic and health survey. In both cases, the between-type share of overall inequality is computed as a lower bound estimator of inequality of opportunity. Parametric and non-parametric estimates are calculated for both methods, and the parametric approach is shown to yield preferable lower-bound measures. In an application to the sample of ever-married women aged 30-49 in Turkey, inequality of opportunity accounts for at least 26 percent (31 percent) of overall inequality in imputed consumption (the wealth index).Inequality,Economic Theory&Research,Population Policies,Rural Poverty Reduction,Equity and Development

Analisis Putusan Pengadilan Negeri Surabaya Nomor: 3094/pid.b/2013 Tentang Alat Bukti Oleh Hakim Dalam Pasal 114 Ayat (2) Juncto Pasal 132 Ayat (1) UU RI Nomor 35 Tahun 2009 Tentang Narkotika

In this research examines two issues, namely the Surabaya District Court Decision No. 3094 / Pid.B / 2013 In accordance with Evidence presented at trial and Parameter Verification assessed Judges in Crime Article 114 paragraph (2) in conjunction with Article 132 ( 1) Act No. 35 of 2009 on Narcotics, based on a normative juridical research, using the approach of Legislation, Case approach, analytical approach, the purpose of this study was to analyze the state court decision Surabaya number: 3094/Pid.B/2013 appropriate evidence presented at the hearing, stated that in this ruling the judge has not given a sense of justice for law enforcement against criminal acts Narcotics correspond to the penalty set out in the Act, and to describe the parameters of proof is rated Judge in a criminal act of Article 114 paragraph (2) in conjunction with Article 132 paragraph (1) of Law No. 35 Year 2009 on Narcotics, as the basis of the assessment of evidence by the judge

Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT2-i) in the prevention of diabetic kidney disease progression, and its role as an antihypertensive agent in the African American population

Introduction: Needs Assessment: Originally used as antidiabetic medications, later clinical trial data showed beneficial effects in reducing the onset and progression of renal complications in people with and without diabetes. 13 Randomized clinical trials and ‘real world’ observational studies involving mostly type 2 diabetes patients showed that SGLT2-i can slow the decline in glomerular filtration rate (GFR), and reduce the onset of microalbuminuria and slow or even reverse the progression of proteinuria.13 Additionally, with diabetes being one of the many chronic conditions still primarily managed by primary care providers (PCP), it falls upon these professionals to have the knowledge and role to initiate this disease-modifying drug. Furthermore, black individuals have a disproportionate cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease (CKD) burden, and the adoption of novel therapeutics has been slower among black patients than among white patients. 4 African Americans (AA) outrank other ethnic groups in the United States in prevalence, early onset, and severity of hypertension4. It is also well known that African ancestry has attenuated response to drugs inhibiting the renin-angiotensin system and to β-adrenergic blockers. 5 Therefore, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors should be avoided as an initial therapeutic option in treating hypertension in African Americans. 5 This is problematic because ACE inhibitors have significantly decreased cardiovascular mortality, myocardial infarction (MI), and hospitalizations for heart failure (HF) and its ineffectiveness restricts the treatment option for the African American patient population. 5 There are currently 4 FDA-approved SGLT2-i medications, canagliflozin, dapagliflozin, empagliflozin, and ertugliflozin, for adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM).1 These novel drugs have been shown to reduce cardiovascular mortality among patients with HF. 4 Yet, these medications are not being utilized in this specific patient population. 12 Objectives: Impact of Early Initiation of SGLT2-i on delaying progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) Impact of SGLT2-I on blood pressure. Identify current data on SGLT2-i efficacy regarding the prevention of kidney disease progression, acute kidney injury, and heart failure mortality. Identify the role of SGLT2-i in treating African Americans (AA) with heart failure compared to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE inhibitors) and Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) in reducing mortality rates

HIV Spending as a Share of Total Health Expenditure: An Analysis of Regional Variation in a Multi-Country Study

Background: HIV has devastated numerous countries in sub-Saharan Africa and is a dominant health force in many other parts of the world. Its undeniable importance is reflected in the establishment of Millennium Development Goal No. 6. Unprecedented amounts of funding have been committed and disbursed over the past two decades. Many have argued that this enormous influx of funding has been detrimental to building stronger health systems in recipient countries. This paper examines the funding share for HIV measured against the total funding for health. Methodology/Principal Findings: A descriptive analysis of HIV and health expenditures in 2007 from 65 countries was conducted. Comparable data from individual countries was used by applying a consistent definition for HIV expenditures and total health expenditures from NHAs to align them with National AIDS Assessment Reports. In 2007, the total public and international expenditure in LMICs for HIV was 1.6 percent of the total spending on health, while the share in SSA was 19.4 percent. HIV prevalence was six-fold higher in SSA than the next highest region and it is the only region whose share of HIV spending exceeded the burden of HIV DALYs. Conclusions/Significance: The share of HIV spending across the 65 countries was quite moderate considering that the estimated share of deaths attributable to HIV stood at 3.8 percent and DALYs at 4.4 percent. Several high spending countries are using a large share of their total health spending for HIV health, but these countries are the exception rathe

High-energy (> 40 MeV) proton intensity enhancements associated with the passage of interplanetary shocks at 1 au

We analyze periods with elevated >40 MeV proton intensities observed near Earth over a time span of 43 yr (1973-2016) that coincide with the passage of interplanetary (IP) shocks. Typically, elevated proton intensities result from large solar energetic particle (SEP) events. The IP shocks observed during these elevated-intensity periods may or may not be related to the origin of the SEP events. By choosing those cases when the shocks can be confidently associated with the solar eruption that generated the SEP event, we analyze the components of these SEP events that are localized in the vicinity of the shock (so-called 'energetic storm particles', ESPs), focusing on those events where the ESP component exceeds 40 MeV. We examine the interdependence of these high-energy ESPs with (i) the properties of the solar eruptions that generated the shocks and the SEP events, and (ii) the parameters of the shocks at their arrival at 1 au. The solar eruptions at the origin of the shocks producing >40 MeV proton ESP intensity enhancements are within ±50° longitude of central meridian and are associated with fast coronal mass ejections (plane-of-sky speeds ≳1000 km s−1). The ESP events with the largest >40 MeV proton intensity increases tend to occur when there are structures such as intervening IP coronal mass ejections and other unrelated shocks present in the solar wind through which the shock is propagating. Among the various local shock parameters considered, only the shock speed shows a certain degree of correlation with the observed ESP intensity increase

In situ X-ray Diffraction Computed Tomography studies examining the thermal and chemical stabilities of working Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ membranes during oxidative coupling of methane

In this study we present the results from two in situ X-ray diffraction computed tomography experiments of catalytic membrane reactors (CMRs) using Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ (BSCF) hollow fibre membranes and Na-Mn-W/SiO2 catalyst during the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) reaction. The negative impact of CO2, when added to the inlet gas stream, is seen to be mainly related to the C2+ yield, while no evidence of carbonate phase(s) formation is found during the OCM experiments. The main degradation mechanism of the CMR is suggested to be primarily associated with the solid-state evolution of the BSCF phase rather than the presence of CO2. Specifically, in situ XRD-CT and post-mortem SEM/EDX measurements revealed a collapse of the cubic BSCF phase, formation of secondary phases, which include needle-like structures and hexagonal Ba6Co4O12, and formation of a BaWO4 layer, the latter being a result of chemical interaction between the membrane and catalyst materials at high temperatures

Drug induced iatrogenic Cushing’s syndrome

Drug-induced (iatrogenic) Cushing's syndrome results from excessive or prolonged exposure to glucocorticoids, commonly prescribed for autoimmune, inflammatory, and hematological disorders due to their anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive, and proapoptotic effects. Despite their therapeutic benefits, these medications can lead to a range of multisystemic symptoms mirroring those of endogenous Cushing’s syndrome. This review aims to elucidate the causes, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management of iatrogenic Cushing's syndrome, emphasizing awareness of medications that can trigger its onset. The following review covers cortisol physiology, Cushing's syndrome etiology and subtypes, hypercortisolism complications and prognosis, and strategies for glucocorticoid withdrawal. This article synthesizes key findings and recommendations, highlighting challenges and controversies in the diagnosis and treatment of iatrogenic Cushing's syndrome

Improved vision based pose estimation for industrial robots via sparse regression

In this work amonocular machine vision based pose estimation system is developed for industrial robots and the accuracy of the estimated pose is im-proved via sparse regression. The proposed sparse regressionbased methodis usedimprove the accuracy obtained from the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) based pose estimation algorithmduring the trajectory tracking of an industrial robot’s end effector. The proposed method utilizes a set of basis functions to sparsely identify the nonlinear relationship between the estimated pose and the true pose provided by a laser tracker.Moreover,a camera target was designed and fitted with fiducial markers,andto prevent ambiguities in pose estimation, the markers are placed in such a way to guarantee the detection of at least two distinct nonparallel markers from a single camera within ± 90° in all directions of the cam-era’s view. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by an experi-mental study performed using a KUKA KR240 R2900 ultra robot while follow-ing sixteen distinct trajectories based on ISO 9238. The obtained results show that the proposed method provides parsimonious models which improve the pose estimation accuracy and precision of the vision based system during trajectory tracking of industrial robots' end effector