Factors affecting the ratio of currency demand to total monetary assets in Malta

There are a number of factors influencing individuals` and firms decisions to hold currency rather than other forms of monetary assets. An important motive is to buy consumer goods and services in the case of individuals, and to pay wages and salaries and other short term business expenses in the case of firms. This can be loosely be called the “transactions” motive. Another reason, loosely termed here as the “asset” motive, is related to changes in the rate of interest. In macroeconomic theory, we also encounter the “speculative” motive which is related to expected, rather than actual changes in interest rates. Another reason, which is of some importance in the Maltese economy, is to conceal economic activity for tax evasion. Thus underground activity covers production which is not, but should be, included in the computation of GDP. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model which associates currency demand with the underground economy and which quantitatively estimates the elasticities associated with currency demand. An attempt will be made also to estimate the size off the underground economy in Malta.peer-reviewe

Serum selenium concentrations and diabetes in U.S. adults : National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003–2004

Background: Increasing evidence suggests that high selenium levels are associated with diabetes and other cardiometabolic risk factors. Objectives: We evaluated the association of serum selenium concentrations with fasting plasma glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin levels, and diabetes in the most recently available representative sample of the U.S. population. Methods: We used a cross-sectional analysis of 917 adults ≥ 40 years of age who had a fasting morning blood sample in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003–2004. We evaluated the association of serum selenium, measured by inductively coupled plasma-dynamic reaction cell-mass spectrometry, and diabetes, defined as a self-report of current use of hypoglycemic agents or insulin or as fasting plasma glucose ≥ 126 mg/dL. Results: Mean serum selenium was 137.1 μg/L. The multivariable adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval (CI)] for diabetes comparing the highest quartile of serum selenium (≥ 147 μg/L) with the lowest (< 124 μg/L) was 7.64 (3.34–17.46). The corresponding average differences (95% CI) in fasting plasma glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin were 9.5 mg/dL (3.4–15.6 mg/dL) and 0.30% (0.14–0.46%), respectively. In spline regression models, the prevalence of diabetes as well as glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin levels increased with increasing selenium concentrations up to 160 μg/L. Conclusions: In U.S. adults, high serum selenium concentrations were associated with higher prevalence of diabetes and higher fasting plasma glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin levels. Given high selenium intake in the U.S. population, further research is needed to determine the role of excess selenium levels in the development or the progression of diabetes

Impact of the shift from NCHS growth reference to WHO(2006) growth standards in a therapeutic feeding programme in Niger.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the implementation of the WHO(2006) growth standards in a therapeutic feeding programme. METHODS: Using programme monitoring data from 21,769 children 6-59 months admitted to the Médecins Sans Frontières therapeutic feeding programme during 2007, we compared characteristics at admission, type of care and outcomes for children admitted before and after the shift to the WHO(2006) standards. Admission criteria were bipedal oedema, MUAC <110 mm, or weight-for-height (WFH) of <-70% of the median (NCHS) before mid-May 2007, and WFH <-3 z score (WHO(2006)) after mid-May 2007. RESULTS: Children admitted with the WHO(2006) standards were more likely to be younger, with a higher proportion of males, and less malnourished (mean WFH -3.6 z score vs. mean WFH -4.6 z score). They were less likely to require hospitalization or intensive care (28.4%vs. 77%; 12.8%vs. 36.5%) and more likely to be treated exclusively on an outpatient basis (71.6%vs. 23%). Finally, they experienced better outcomes (cure rate: 89%vs. 71.7%, death rate: 2.7%vs. 6.4%, default rate: 6.7%vs. 12.3%). CONCLUSIONS: In this programme, the WHO(2006) standards identify a larger number of malnourished children at an earlier stage of disease facilitating their treatment success

Getting real about food prices

The 2008 price spike in world grain prices had serious impacts on food security and poverty but analysts have consistently described these real food prices as low in historical terms. The inconsistency between the severity of the food crisis and low real prices results from the use of advanced and global economy price indices to calculate real prices. This ignores the high share of food in poor people’s expenditures and indirect effects of income growth on expenditure patterns of rich and poor consumers. Poor consumers have not experienced the same falls in real food prices as those with growing incomes and are more vulnerable to price shocks. As high and fluctuating international grain prices appear to be a feature of the current world economy, food price and policy analysis must recognise this, and develop and use different price indices that take account of differences between consumer groups

School performance in Australia: is there a role for quasi-markets?

Recent changes to the organisation of Australia's education system have raised the possibility of implementing wide-ranging market reforms. In this article we discuss the scope for introducing reforms similar to the United Kingdom's 'quasi-market' model. We discuss the role of school league tables in providing signals and incentives in a quasi-market. Specifically, we compare a range of unadjusted and model-based league tables of primary school performance in Queensland's public education system. These comparisons indicate that model-based tables which account for socio-economic status and student intake quality vary significantly from the unadjusted tables

Narratives of ethnic identity among practitioners in community settings in the northeast of England

The increasing ethnic diversity of the UK has been mirrored by growing public awareness of multicultural issues, alongside developments in academic and government thinking. This paper explores the contested meanings around ethnic identity/ies in community settings, drawing on semi-structured interviews with staff from Children’s Centres and allied agencies conducted for a research project that examined the relationship between identity and the participation of parents/carers in services in northeast England. The research found that respondents were unclear about, especially, white ethnic identities, and commonly referred to other social categorizations, such as age, nationality, and circumstances such as mobility, when discussing service users. While in some cases this may have reflected legitimate attempts to resist overethnicizing non-ethnic phenomena, such constructions coexisted with assumptions about ethnic difference and how it might translate into service needs. These findings raise important considerations for policy and practice

Physical activity and body mass shape quality of life trajectories in mid-age women

To determine the combined longitudinal effect of body mass index (BMI) and physical activity (PA) on health-related quality of life (HrQoL), using the SF-6D (SF-36) utility measure.Five waves of self-reported data from the 1946-51 cohort (n=5,200; data collection, 2001-2013) of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health were used. Mixed effect models were employed to address the objective.Women with high PA experienced higher HrQoL regardless of BMI group, however, for those healthy or overweight, there was a very small decline in HrQoL over time. Women reporting no PA levels experienced the lowest baseline mean SF-6D score within each BMI group, with decreasing trajectories over the follow-up period. The rate of decline was greatest in women with obesity. Within each BMI group, there was a large, increasing gap in HrQoL between those who reported no and low PA over time. Women with obesity and high PA experienced similar HrQoL trajectories to women with normal weight or overweight with low PA levels. Overweight women with moderate PA experienced similar HrQoL to those with low PA but normal weight.PA may mitigate the adverse effect of overweight and obesity on HrQoL at mid-life, at higher activity levels. Implications for public health: PA benefits HrQoL regardless of body mass, with larger gains for those currently not physically active. Moderate to high PA may mitigate the effect of overweight and obesity

Artificial neural networks as a tool for incorporating microbial stress adaptations in the quantification of microbial inactivation

Quantifying microbial adapted responses due to thermal stresses by an accurate methodology is imperative for assessing the efficacy of a heat process. Two different artificial neural network (ANN) models are constructed for studying the increased induction of the heat resistance of Escherichia coli K12 under a treatment of decreasing heating rates. In the first model structure there are two input vectors, namely, time t and temperature rate dT=dt, whereas in the second case is also added a third one, namely, the microbial load delayed with one time unit Nk¡1. For both models a minimal fully-connected feedforward architecture is used consisting of one hidden neuron and one output neuron. Results as based on the prediction capability of the model structures demonstrate the comparative advantage when an ANN architecture with a delay in its inputs is employed. Incorporation of past events seems to be an essential input for taking into account the observed induced microbial heat resistance.peer-reviewe

New provincial CO2 emission inventories in China based on apparent energy consumption data and updated emission factors

This study employs “apparent energy consumption” approach and updated emissions factors to re-calculate Chinese provincial CO2 emissions during 2000–2012 to reduce the uncertainty in Chinese CO2 emission estimates for the first time. The study presents the changing emission-socioeconomic features of each provinces as well. The results indicate that Chinese provincial aggregated CO2 emissions calculated by the apparent energy consumption and updated emissions factors are coincident with the national emissions estimated by the same approach, which are 12.69% smaller than the one calculated by the traditional approach and IPCC default emission factors. The provincial aggregated CO2 emissions increased from 3160 million tonnes in 2000 to 8583 million tonnes in 2012. During the period, Shandong province contributed most to national emissions accumulatively (with an average percentage of 10.35%), followed by Liaoning (6.69%), Hebei (6.69%) and Shanxi provinces (6.25%). Most of the CO2 emissions were from raw coal, which is primarily burned in the thermal power sector. The analyses of per capita emissions and emission intensity in 2012 indicates that provinces located in the northwest and north had higher per capita CO2 emissions and emission intensities than the central and southeast coastal regions. Understanding the emissions and emission-socioeconomic characteristics of different provinces is critical for developing mitigation strategies