The Philippines: External Shocks, Adjustment Policies and Impact on Selected Development Concerns, 1973-1985

With the objective of designing and implementing more effective policies and programs in the light of external shocks, this paper assesses the impact of economic crisis and adjustment policies on basic economic and social concerns particularly on vulnerable income groups. The development path implied in this article is a strategy that is expansionary within the limits set by external finance and other policy considerations.vulnerable groups, adjustment policies

The Philippines: External Shocks, Adjustment Policies and Impact on Selected Development Concerns, 1973-1985

With the objective of designing and implementing more effective policies and programs in the light of external shocks, this paper assesses the impact of economic crisis and adjustment policies on basic economic and social concerns particularly on vulnerable income groups. The development path implied in this article is a strategy that is expansionary within the limits set by external finance and other policy considerations.vulnerable groups, adjustment policies

Tailoring Chirality in Carbon Dots

Carbon dots are an emerging class of fluorescent nanoparticles within the carbon allotrope family. They have garnered significant interest in the field due to their cost-effective and sustainable synthesis, versatile optical and chemical properties, as well as low chemical toxicity. Typically, carbon dots possess a mean size of nearly 10 nm and are comprised primarily of sp2 carbons alongside oxygen, hydrogen and other heteroatoms. A variety of carbon sources ranging from simple molecules to more complex and heterogenous ones can be used to prepare these dots speaking to their sustainability and cost effectiveness. Their properties and surface chemistry are governed by the synthesis approach and starting precursors allowing us to endow them with various physico-optical properties including chirality, a property of interest due to its ubiquitous nature. Chirality has tremendous implications in drug development and design, as well as in applications such as catalysis, enantioselective recognition and sensing. In this work, we explore the microwave-assisted synthesis of chiral carbon dots prepared from reactions of the achiral carbon-based molecule, citric acid, and the chiral amino acid, cysteine, in water. The effects of the synthesis parameters on inducing chirality in the dots were investigated in order to tailor the chiral and fluorescent properties of the dots. Separation techniques were used to glean additional insights into the formation mechanism of the dots. Finally, in order to better understand the importance of stereoselectivity in biological systems, we also utilized the chiral carbon dots as potential anti-microbials against various strains of bacteria. Our findings show promising results towards generating new insights and ideas in the field of antibiotics especially given the growing concern of global antibiotic resistance

A human rights assessment of a large mental hospital in Kenya

Introduction: globally, human rights violations of persons with mental health conditions are rampant, and the quality of mental health services below that for general health services. The aim of this paper is to document the findings of an assessment of the quality of mental health services at the largest mental hospital in Kenya, and offer recommendations useful for service transformation. Methods: this was a cross-sectional study. Assessment was conducted guided by the World Health Organization (WHO) QualityRights Tool Kit, which assesses for compliance with five human rights themes drawn from the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Trained assessors collected data through document review, observation, and interviews with hospital staff and service users at Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital. The sample was composed of 64 interviewees. Results: overall, the facility was scored as “achievement initiated” indicating that there was evidence that steps had been taken to fulfil the five human rights themes but significant improvements were necessary. Five key gaps emerged: 1) the buildings and infrastructure were in a state of disrepair; 2) staffing was inadequate; 3) patients had no right to legal capacity; 4) there was gross neglect of patients as well as physical and verbal abuse; 5) there were no strategies in place to support community reintegration and independent living. Conclusion: significant improvements to infrastructure, staffing, and the quality of services are needed before the Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital meets the requirements of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities

Air Watch: An Ample Design of Indoor Air Quality Monitoring System

The environment is getting contaminated drastically by introducing harmful materials into the atmosphere through the excessive activities of human in adding comfort and luxurious style in their living. The pollutant level in air has high impact of healthiness of the person inhaling it. Air not outside as well indoor is infected by various hazardous particles and gases.  To assess the air quality in the particular environment, it stimulates the need to monitor the hazardous elements listed. The internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) became the part of human life by adding smartness in their daily routines from facilitating control over appliances to own health factor as well automate operations. The primary objective of the effort is to identify the gases that cause air pollution, measure the air quality, and assess the level of pollution so that we can determine which gases cause pollution and at what place is the air being impacted. An IoT based indoor air quality monitoring system is built through incorporating carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), Ozone (O3), particulate matters (PM) and volatile organic components (VOC) sensors into Arduino board. The design ensures a complete air monitor, extends reliable service at low cost. A rule based system is developed to automate events upon the estimated air quality index (AQI) out of the sensory circuit

Telehealth Acceptance Among Appalachian Respondents During COVID 19: a Secondary Data Analysis

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between telehealth use, telehealth satisfaction, and chronic medical conditions among residents living in Appalachian and non-Appalachian communities. Sample: A COVID-19 public health survey was distributed via social media and healthcare clinics in the tri-state region of central Appalachia. Survey responses were limited to adults aged ≥18 years who consented to participate in the survey that self-identified as an individual with one or more chronic medical conditions (n=195). Method: Simple descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations (SDs) were calculated for variables of interest both overall and by subgroups of interest. Chi-squared tests were used to compare categorical outcomes between groups of interest, while two-sample t-tests were used for continuous outcomes. Significance for all tests was determined using an α level of 0.05. Findings: There is no statistically significant relationship between respondents with regard to using telehealth services, satisfaction rates related to telehealth use, or reasons for electing not to use telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there was a trending statistical relationship between county status and the use of telehealth services in Appalachia with those counties doing economically better being more likely to use telehealth services as compared to those fairing less well (p=0.053). Findings also suggest that people living in urban areas of Appalachia were more likely to be satisfied using telehealth services than those living in non-urban areas of Appalachia (p=0.01). Conclusions: Research is still limited as to how the expansion of broadband capabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic has benefited those residing in Appalachia in terms of managing chronic health conditions. Future research should focus on expanding participation among Appalachian respondents looking for specific differences related to location within Appalachia, age, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status

Machine learning estimation of human body time using metabolomic profiling

This work was supported in part by the Netherlands Forensic Institute, Netherlands Genomics Initiative/Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research within the framework of the Forensic Genomics Consortium Netherlands, the 6th Framework project EUCLOCK (018741), and UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Grant BB/I019405/1. Additional funding was received from the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit award (Ref: C2739/A22897) and a Cancer Therapeutics Centre award (Ref: C309/A25144 to FR), the NWO-STW Perspective Program grant ‘OnTime’ (project 12185 to TW and RAH).Circadian rhythms influence physiology, metabolism, and molecular processes in the human body. Estimation of individual body time (circadian phase) is therefore highly relevant for individual optimization of behavior (sleep, meals, sports), diagnostic sampling, medical treatment, and for treatment of circadian rhythm disorders. Here, we provide a partial least squares regression (PLSR) machine learning approach that uses plasma-derived metabolomics data in one or more samples to estimate dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) as a proxy for circadian phase of the human body. For this purpose, our protocol was aimed to stay close to real-life conditions. We found that a metabolomics approach optimized for either women or men under entrained conditions performed equally well or better than existing approaches using more labor-intensive RNA sequencing-based methods. Although estimation of circadian body time using blood-targeted metabolomics requires further validation in shift work and other real-world conditions, it currently may offer a robust, feasible technique with relatively high accuracy to aid personalized optimization of behavior and clinical treatment after appropriate validation in patient populations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe