Marital Violence and Women's Employment and Property Status: Evidence from North Indian Villages

Dominant development policy approaches recommend women's employment on the grounds that it facilitates their empowerment, which in turn is believed to be instrumental in enhancing women's well-being. However, empirical work on the relationship between women's employment status and their well-being as measured by freedom from marital violence yields an ambiguous picture. Motivated by this ambiguity, this paper draws on testimonies of men and women and data gathered from rural Uttar Pradesh, to examine the effect of women's employment and asset status as measured by their participation in paid work and their ownership of property, respectively, on spousal violence. Unlike the existing literature, we treat women's work status and violence as simultaneously determined and find that women's engagement in paid work and ownership of property, are associated with sharp reductions in marital violence.domestic violence, employment status, property ownership, India

Tetrahydrobiopterin: Nitric Oxide and Pulmonary Vascular Control

GTP-cyclohydrolase 1 (GTP-CH1) catalyses the first and rate limiting step for the biosynthesis of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), an essential cofactor for nitric oxide synthase (NOS). NOS, once active, generates nitric oxide (NO) an essential mediator of normal vascular tone and function. Suboptimal levels of BH4 may render NOS inefficient and may additionally result in the generation of deleterious superoxide anions (O2-). GTP-CH1 is itself inhibited by BH4, an effect mediated via the protein GTP-CH1 Feedback Regulatory Protein (GFRP). There is mounting evidence correlating a dysfunction of the BH4/NOS pathway with the vascular endothelial dysfunction observed e.g. atherosclerosis, but little evidence exists associating a dysfunction of this pathway with pulmonary hypertension (PH). I have shown that GTP-CH1 protein expression is developmentally regulated in the porcine lung in the first few weeks of life, correlating with functional effects of supplemented BH4 on isolated pulmonary arteries. GTP-CH1 protein expression is unchanged in animals exposed to hypobaric exposure (a model of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN)) when compared to their age matched controls and GTP-CH1 localisation appeared unchanged both developmentally and in PPHN. Thus GTP-CH1 levels do not appear to be implicated in the profound endothelial dysfunction observed in animals with PPHN. However, studies performed on the GTP-CH1 deficient mouse mutant (hph-1) indicate that these mice exhibit the structural characteristics of a pulmonary hypertensive phenotype when compared to the C57BL/6xCBA wild types. Finally, GFRP over expression in isolated endothelial cells attenuates inducible NOS (iNOS) mediated NO generation following cytokine stimulation, an effect likely to be mediated via direct inhibition of BH4 biosynthesis. In summary, these studies have demonstrated that regulation of BH4 via GTP-CH1 or GFRP, affects the NOS pathway both in vitro and in vivo and that sub optimal levels of BH4 may contribute towards the development of PH

Essays on the Effects of Disability Insurance

Dr. Deshpande studies the effects of disability insurance receipt on the long-term outcomes of children and their families. She uses data from the Social Security Administration on children enrolled in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program and their family members. In Chapter 1, she estimates the long-term effects of removing low-income youth with disabilities from SSI on the level and variance of their earnings and income in adulthood. Using a regression discontinuity design based on a change in the likelihood of removal at age 18, she finds that SSI youth who are removed earn on average $4,000 per year in adulthood and recover only one-third of their lost SSI payment. They experience a present discounted income loss of$73,000 over the 16 years following removal. In addition, the within-person variance of income quadruples as a result of removal. Under various assumptions, she finds that up to one-quarter of the recipient’s welfare loss from SSI removal is attributable to the increase in income volatility rather than to the fall in income levels. This result suggests that ignoring the income stabilization effects of disability programs could underestimate their value to recipients. Chapter 2 examines the effects of removing children from SSI before age 18, prior to the completion of education decisions, on their earnings in adulthood. Using variation in child medical reviews, she finds no evidence of a difference in earnings between SSI children who are removed at a young age versus those who stay on, though the estimates are imprecise. She provides suggestive evidence on the channels through which early-life removal affects adult outcomes by studying effects on younger siblings. Using the empirical strategy from Chapter 1, she finds that removing an 18-year-old decreases the adult earnings of younger siblings by $3,100 per year. In Chapter 3, Deshpande estimates the effects of removing young children with disabilities from SSI on parental earnings and household income, using the child medical review empirical strategy from Chapter 2. She finds that parents fully offset the SSI loss with increased earnings. The child’s removal also discourages parents and siblings from applying for disability insurance themselves

Analyzing Growth, Hygroscopicity and Climate Effects of Atmospheric Particles at the Arm SGP Site

Particle size and size resolved hygroscopicity distributions measured at the ARM SGP site from 2009 to 2012 were used to study new particle formation (NPF) and subsequent growth, variation in hygroscopicity and mixing state with time of day and year, upscatter fraction (β) and other optical properties, and the factors influencing estimates of the concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (NCCN). New particles were formed frequently between March and October in 2009, but those that formed grew faster from June to August. Usually particles between 12 nm and 22 nm grew faster in the afternoon when the gas phase precursor concentrations and photochemical reaction rates are expected to be higher. A two-component condensable gas model I developed describes the observed pattern, attributing daytime growth to higher concentration of hygroscopic inorganic and organic species and nighttime growth primarily to condensation of organics. Among three evaluated time-spans, the hygroscopicity parameter, k, was highest during the daytime and was relatively higher at night for particles < 100 nm. It was also higher for particles < 100 nm during days and nights on which NPF events were observed. On average, particles at the small and large tails of the measured size range had higher k due to higher inorganic content. Among the 7 particle sizes the minimum hygroscopicity was observed at an intermediate size (~50nm), which is thought to have higher organic content. A similar pattern was observed in fitted and categorized GF distribution modes, with the additional observation of frequently nearly-hydrophobic particle modes throughout the size range. Aerosol mixing state was quantified as the standard deviation (SD) of each GF distribution and a size-dependent threshold SD selected to roughly separate internal and external mixtures. The results show an increased frequency of internal mixtures during the daytime and during the summer when photochemistry and precursor emissions are highest. The effect of aerosols on climate is connected to the fraction of incoming solar radiation scattered into the upward hemisphere and back into space, β, and to NCCN. Calculated boundary layer β was highest around sunset and during winter. Aerosol optical properties including β were parameterized using size and GF distributions, solar position, and RH. NCCN for a supersaturation (S) range of 0.25 to 0.85% was calculated using a base model that incorporates all of the information from the size and GF distributions. The results of those base model estimates were compared to directly measured NCCN, with average fractional errors of 0.21, 0.23, and 0.28 for 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively. The results were then compared with estimates based on simplified treatment of the aerosol composition and mixing state. Among all simplifications considered, assuming the aerosol is an internal mixture with sizedependent soluble fraction was the best alternative for base model. The NCCN above 0.3% S was also parameterized reasonably well (r² = 0.87) using the integrated particle concentration between 50 and 500 nm and S

Predictors Of Use Of Hydroxyurea And Its Impact On Clinical And Economic Outcomes Among Children With Sickle Cell Disease

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and predictors of use of hydroxyurea (HU) and its impact on clinical and economic outcomes in pediatric patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) enrolled in Medicaid. Methods: A cohort of patients with SCD was identified in 2006 using ICD-9-CM codes from Medicaid claims from 40 US states. Patients who filled three prescriptions of HU in within 6 months in 2007 were identified as HU users. HU users were then matched with non-users and the impact of HU use on the presence of crises and economic outcomes including presence of hospitalizations and emergency department visits were assessed using conditional logistic regression stratified on matched pairs. Length of stay and medical costs were compared in the matched sample using generalized linear models. An additional clinical outcome, number of crises, was evaluated in the unmatched sample of HU users and non-users using conventional multivariable regression. Estimates obtained using this approach, were then compared with those obtained by minimizing selection bias using regional variation and physician preference-based instrumental variables (IVs). Results: Prevalence of HU use in children with SCD enrolled in Medicaid was found to be 10.72%. Age, gender, race, disease severity, previous office visits, presence of a comprehensive sickle cell center within the state of residence, and prior opioid use were all found to be significant predictors of HU use in this population (p\u3c0.0001). HU users had a significantly greater likelihood of having a hospitalization (OR:2.09; 95% CI:1.28-3.43) and a longer LOS (β=0.49; 95% CI:0.14-0.84) compared to non-users. Even though the conventional multivariable model shothat HU users had a significantly greater number of crises compared to non-users (β=0.93; p\u3c0.0001), analysis using IVs found no statistically significant relationship (β=-2.75; p=0.2013). Conclusion: HU use is not very prevalent among children with SCD enrolled in Medicaid. Based on the identified predictors, it seems that physicians follow guidelines when prescribing HU in this population. Since this study failed to corroborate the benefit associated with the use of HU on clinical outcomes and resource utilization, physicians should be wary in prescribing HU in this population

A Study of Pseudo-Periodic and Pseudo-Bordered Words for Functions Beyond Identity and Involution

Periodicity, primitivity and borderedness are some of the fundamental notions in combinatorics on words. Motivated by the Watson-Crick complementarity of DNA strands wherein a word (strand) over the DNA alphabet \{A, G, C, T\} and its Watson-Crick complement are informationally ``identical , these notions have been extended to consider pseudo-periodicity and pseudo-borderedness obtained by replacing the ``identity function with ``pseudo-identity functions (antimorphic involution in case of Watson-Crick complementarity). For a given alphabet $\Sigma$, an antimorphic involution $\theta$ is an antimorphism, i.e., $\theta(uv)=\theta(v) \theta(u)$ for all $u,v \in \Sigma^{*}$ and an involution, i.e., $\theta(\theta(u))=u$ for all $u \in \Sigma^{*}$. In this thesis, we continue the study of pseudo-periodic and pseudo-bordered words for pseudo-identity functions including involutions. To start with, we propose a binary word operation, $\theta$-catenation, that generates $\theta$-powers (pseudo-powers) of a word for any morphic or antimorphic involution $\theta$. We investigate various properties of this operation including closure properties of various classes of languages under it, and its connection with the previously defined notion of $\theta$-primitive words. A non-empty word $u$ is said to be $\theta$-bordered if there exists a non-empty word $v$ which is a prefix of $u$ while $\theta(v)$ is a suffix of $u$. We investigate the properties of $\theta$-bordered (pseudo-bordered) and $\theta$-unbordered (pseudo-unbordered) words for pseudo-identity functions $\theta$ with the property that $\theta$ is either a morphism or an antimorphism with $\theta^{n}=I$, for a given $n \geq 2$, or $\theta$ is a literal morphism or an antimorphism. Lastly, we initiate a new line of study by exploring the disjunctivity properties of sets of pseudo-bordered and pseudo-unbordered words and some other related languages for various pseudo-identity functions. In particular, we consider such properties for morphic involutions $\theta$ and prove that, for any $i \geq 2$, the set of all words with exactly $i$ $\theta$-borders is disjunctive (under certain conditions)