Globalization and Health: Impact Pathways and Recent Evidence

The last two decades of the twentieth century recorded a slowdown in health gains and widespread increases in health inequality across and within countries. The paper explores the causes of such trends on the basis of five main mortality models. To do so, it regresses IMR/LEB on 15 determinants of health. The results underscore the negative health effects of the trends observed between 1980-2000, such as rising inequality, greater income volatility, declining health expenditure, increasing migration and so on. Finally, the paper simulates the level of LEB that would have been achieved in ten regions of the world if the determinants of health had continued developing over these decades as they did over 1960-80. The results indicate that in seven of such regions (including China and India) LEB would have been higher than actually observed. In this regard, the paper raises doubts about the way globalization has taken place and the way public policy oriented it.health status, health inequalities, globalization

Dirk Van Hulle, Modern Manuscripts: The Extended Mind and Creative Undoing from Darwin to Beckett and Beyond

Dirk Van Hulle’s rapidly growing body of work is always informed by a comparative and genetic approach that highlights the interconnections within modern literature and grounds critical statements on textual evidence. For both reasons, it would be hard to praise fully Van Hulle’s laudable efforts in his field. As he makes clear in the introduction, Modern Manuscripts is imbued with the same approach, showing the ambition to establish a link between source- and discourse-oriented research (see..

Globalization and health: Impact pathways and recent evidence

The last two decades of the twentieth century recorded a slowdown in health gains and widespread increases in health inequality across and within countries. The paper explores the causes of such trends on the basis of five main mortality models. To do so, it regresses IMR/LEB on 15 determinants of health. The results underscore the negative health effects of the trends observed between 1980-2000, such as rising inequality, greater income volatility, declining health expenditure, increasing migration and so on. Finally, the paper simulates the level of LEB that would have been achieved in ten regions of the world if the determinants of health had continued developing over these decades as they did over 1960-80. The results indicate that in seven of such regions (including China and India) LEB would have been higher than actually observed. In this regard, the paper raises doubts about the way globalization has taken place and the way public policy oriented it

Building a computable general equilibrium model on a regional Social Accounting Matrix: the case of Tuscany

This paper aims to provide an empirical framework for building a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model from a regional Social Accounting Matrices (SAM). It illustrates the case of TUSCANI, a single-region comparative-static CGE model of the Tuscan economy, built on the regional SAM, which is provided by IRPET (Institute for regional economic planning of Tuscany). The strict linkage between regional SAMs and CGE models is identified. First of all, a detailed overview of the structure of the regional SAM for Tuscany is provided. The circular flow of the economy, so well summarized by the SAM, is the framework at the core of the CGE model, and comes to represents the benchmark equilibrium of TUSCANI. Because of the inner relationship between the benchmark economy and the SAM data structure, the CGE theoretical model is adapted in order to reflect the SAM structure adopted by IRPET. In particular, together with the main theoretical features of a regional model, TUSCANI incorporates a detail on income generation and income re-distribution for the households institutional sector, by using data as shown in the SAM. In conclusion, this paper demonstrates the structure of a regional SAM suitable for constructing a computable general equilibrium model’s database, which provides a guideline for future applications

Building a computable general equilibium model (cge) on a regional sam: the case of Tuscany

This paper aims to provide an empirical framework for building a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model from a regional Social Accounting Matrices (SAM). It illustrates the case of TUSCANI, a single-region comparative-static CGE model of the Tuscan economy, built on the regional SAM, which is provided by IRPET (Institute for regional economic planning of Tuscany). The strict linkage between regional SAMs and CGE models is identified. First of all, a detailed overview of the structure of the regional SAM for Tuscany is provided. The circular flow of the economy, so well summarized by the SAM, is the framework at the core of the CGE model, and comes to represents the benchmark equilibrium of TUSCANI. Because of the inner relationship between the benchmark economy and the SAM data structure, the CGE theoretical model is adapted in order to reflect the SAM structure adopted by IRPET. In particular, together with the main theoretical features of a regional model, TUSCANI incorporates a detail on income generation and income re-distribution for the households institutional sector, by using data as shown in the SAM. In conclusion, this paper demonstrates the structure of a regional SAM suitable for constructing a computable general equilibrium model’s database, which provides a guideline for future applications

Building a computable general equilibium model (cge) on a regional sam: the case of Tuscany

This paper aims to provide an empirical framework for building a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model from a regional Social Accounting Matrices (SAM). It illustrates the case of TUSCANI, a single-region comparative-static CGE model of the Tuscan economy, built on the regional SAM, which is provided by IRPET (Institute for regional economic planning of Tuscany). The strict linkage between regional SAMs and CGE models is identified. First of all, a detailed overview of the structure of the regional SAM for Tuscany is provided. The circular flow of the economy, so well summarized by the SAM, is the framework at the core of the CGE model, and comes to represents the benchmark equilibrium of TUSCANI. Because of the inner relationship between the benchmark economy and the SAM data structure, the CGE theoretical model is adapted in order to reflect the SAM structure adopted by IRPET. In particular, together with the main theoretical features of a regional model, TUSCANI incorporates a detail on income generation and income re-distribution for the households institutional sector, by using data as shown in the SAM. In conclusion, this paper demonstrates the structure of a regional SAM suitable for constructing a computable general equilibrium model’s database, which provides a guideline for future applications

Hearing threshold estimation by Auditory Steady State Responses (ASSR) in children

Hearing threshold identification in very young children is always problematic and challenging. Electrophysiological testing such as auditory brainstem responses (ABR) is still considered the most reliable technique for defining the hearing threshold. However, over recent years there has been increasing evidence to support the role of auditory steady-state response (ASSR). Retrospective study. Forty-two children, age range 3-189 months, were evaluated for a total of 83 ears. All patients were affected by sensorineural hearing loss (thresholds ≥ 40 dB HL according to a click-ABR assessment). All patients underwent ABRs, ASSR and pure tone audiometry (PTA), with the latter performed according to the child’s mental and physical development. Subjects were divided into two groups: A and B. The latter performed all hearing investigations at the same time as they were older than subjects in group A, and it was then possible to achieve electrophysiological and PTA tests in close temporal sequence. There was no significant difference between the threshold levels identified at the frequencies tested (0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz), by PTA, ABR and ASSR between the two groups (Mann Whitney U test, p < 0.05). Moreover, for group A, there was no significant difference between the ASSR and ABR thresholds when the children were very young and the PTA thresholds subsequently identified at a later stage. Our results show that ASSR can be considered an effective procedure and a reliable test, particularly when predicting hearing threshold in very young children at lower frequencies (including 0.5 kHz)

Rehabilitation of Severe to Profound Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Adults: Audiological Outcomes

The aim of this article is to describe the audiological patterns of 71 adult patients presenting severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss, who were rehabilitated by cochlear implants (CIs) and hearing aids. This is a retrospective study in a university setting, where the clinical records of 71 adult patients were reviewed and processed. Speech intelligibility was evaluated at one aided ear (CI) or at both aided ears (double CI or a combination of CI and hearing aid [HA]). Patients with a bilateral CI or with a bimodal hearing setup (CI and HA) performed better than those with a single CI; data from the phonetic matrices test showed that there was a statistically significant difference among patients aided by a single CI versus binaural setup (double CI or CI + HA). In particular, patients aided by a bilateral CI, or by a CI and HA, showed an improvement in the functional results of the speech tests, compared to patients using a single CI. Binaural hearing (either with a bilateral CI or bimodal) allows an improvement in the functional results at the speech tests, compared to the use of a CI only

Rehabilitation of Severe to Profound Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Adults: Audiological Outcomes:

The aim of this article is to describe the audiological patterns of 71 adult patients presenting severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss, who were rehabilitated by cochlear implants (CIs) and hearing aids. This is a retrospective study in a university setting, where the clinical records of 71 adult patients were reviewed and processed. Speech intelligibility was evaluated at one aided ear (CI) or at both aided ears (double CI or a combination of CI and hearing aid [HA]). Patients with a bilateral CI or with a bimodal hearing setup (CI and HA) performed better than those with a single CI; data from the phonetic matrices test showed that there was a statistically significant difference among patients aided by a single CI versus binaural setup (double CI or CI + HA). In particular, patients aided by a bilateral CI, or by a CI and HA, showed an improvement in the functional results of the speech tests, compared to patients using a single CI. Binaural hearing (either with a bilateral CI or bimodal) allows an improvement in the functional results at the speech tests, compared to the use of a CI only