The Impact of Income Growth and Provision of Health-Care Services on Child Nutrition in Vietnam

Vietnam enjoyed rapid economic growth and a sharp reduction in child stunting in the 1990s. Economic growth can increase children's nutritional status in two ways. First, by raising household incomes, which can be used it to purchase more food, medicine and medical services. Second, by raising government revenue, which can be used to improve publicly provided medical services. This paper estimates the impact of household per capita expenditures on children's nutritional status. All the estimation methods used indicate that household income growth explains at best only part of the decrease in child stunting. The paper also examines what aspects of public and private medical services improveme child health.child nutrition and health, economic growth

CHILD NUTRITION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN VIETNAM IN THE 1990S

Child malnutrition is pervasive in almost every developing country. Economic growth can lead to better child nutrition, but the size and nature of this effect can vary widely across countries. This first part of this paper examines the impact of increased household income on children's nutritional status on Vietnam, a country with a high rate of economic growth in the 1990s. It finds that increases in household incomes lead to statistically significant improvements in children's nutritional status, but the size of this effect explains only a small proportion of the reduction in child malnutrition in Vietnam in the 1990s. This suggests that something else occurred in Vietnam during those years that reduced child malnutrition. A preliminary analysis of data on health services in rural areas suggests that specific types of services, particularly equipment for measuring and monitoring child growth, lead to improved child nutrition.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Child nutrition, economic growth, and the provision of health care services in Vietnam in the 1990s

Vietnam's rapid economic growth in the 1990s greatly increased the incomes of Vietnamese households, which led to a dramatic decline in poverty. Over the same period, child malnutrition rates in Vietnam, as measured by low height for age in children under 5, fell from 50 percent in 1992-93 to 34 percent in 1997-98. Disparities exist, however, between different regions, urban and rural areas, ethnicities, and income quintiles. This dramatic improvement in child nutrition during a time of high economic growth suggests that the nutritional improvements are due to higher household incomes. The authors investigate whether this causal hypothesis is true by estimating the impact of household income growth on children's nutritional status in Vietnam. Different estimation methods applied to the 1992-93 and 1997-98 Vietnam Living Standards Survey data find that growth in household expenditures accounts for only a small proportion of the improvements in children's nutritional status. The authors use data on local health facilities to investigate the role that they may have played in raising children's nutritional status in Vietnam.Public Health Promotion,Health Systems Development&Reform,Early Child and Children's Health,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Housing&Human Habitats,Early Child and Children's Health,Street Children,Youth and Governance,Poverty Lines,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Liability of Referees: An Analysis of Tort Liability for Wrong Referee Decisions

In an increasing professional sports world, the referees in key tournaments and games have huge responsibility. Their decisions can impact not only on the game but on all the commercial interests involved in that game. This raises the issue of the liability of referees according to tort law. The main problems of liability of referees are the circumstances they work in. They have often only a split-second to make important decisions in the course of a game. The responsibility of a referee is so high that they can determine if a team wins or loses. These decisions can impact on the outcome of a game and consequently affect the financial situation of the clubs, sponsors and sportspeople. If a team is eliminated from a tournament they lose a huge amount of money. There are two legal aspects to consider. One is intention, where a referee might get involved in deliberate match-fixing, and another is negligence. Are match officials liable for their malpractice? Often a referee is not liable for lost chances because there is no causality that the team lost the game only because of a wrong referee decisions. For want of evidence the referee is in most cases not liable. However, is this right? The main thesis of this paper is that there is a liability of referees who act with intention. Referees who influence results negligently should be covered by immunity. However, sports governing body as guardians of the rules of the game should have some liability. They have a usual duty to ensure that a referee is able to manage the game and have it under control. Sports governing bodies may have vicarious liability for referee decisions as they use referees to fulfil their obligations of organising and running tournaments. The business approach of modern professional sport has added to the duties of sports governing bodies. Hence sports governing bodies have an added responsibility to ensure that all resources to support the referee and the rules - such as technical or assistant support - are utilized. These special duties need to be followed and can make sports governing bodies liable

Die Relevanz von Multisektor-Partnerschaften für den Privatsektor und Partnerschaftserfahrungen bei Holcim

Einführung Eine der wichtigsten Botschaften vom Weltgipfel für nachhaltige Entwicklung im September 2002 in Johannesburg war, dass die Welt mehr Zusammenarbeit zwischen verschiedenen Stakeholders (Anspruchsgruppen) brauche, um nachhaltige Entwicklung zu erreichen. Besonders seit jenem Zeitpunkt sind Partnerschaften für diverse Gruppen zu einem Modewort geworden, unabhängig davon, ob es sich dabei um eine Partnerschaft zwischen mehreren Sektoren (cross-sector partnership), zwischen den drei Ha..

Comparing the Lipid Membrane Affinity and Permeation of Drug-like Acids: The Intriguing Effects of Cholesterol and Charged Lipids

Purpose: Lipid bilayers regulate the passage of solutes into and between cellular compartments. A general prerequisite for this passage is the partitioning of the solute into the bilayer. We investigated the relationship between bilayer partitioning and permeation of three drug-like acids in liposomal systems consisting of phosphatidylcholine alone or mixed with cholesterol or charged lipids. Materials and Methods: Bilayer partitioning was determined by equilibrium dialysis. Bilayer permeation was studied with a luminescence assay which is based on the energy transfer of the permeant to intraliposomal terbium(III). Results: The influence of the lipid composition on the pH-dependent membrane affinity was in accordance with the membrane rigidity and possible electrostatic interactions between the acids and the lipids. However, there was no direct relationship between membrane affinity and permeation. This seeming discrepancy was closer analyzed with numerical simulations of the permeation process based on the single rate constants for partitioning and translocation. The simulations were in line with our experimental findings. Conclusions: Depending on the single rate constants and on the geometry of the system, lipid bilayer permeation may positively, negatively or not correlate with the bilayer affinity of the permean

Space Charge Transfer in Hybrid Inorganic/Organic Systems

We discuss density functional theory calculations of hybrid inorganic/organic systems (HIOS) that explicitly include the global effects of doping (i.e. position of the Fermi level) and the formation of a space-charge layer. For the example of tetrafluoro-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4TCNQ) on the ZnO(000$\bar{1}$) surface we show that the adsorption energy and electron transfer depend strongly on the ZnO doping. The associated work function changes are large, for which the formation of space-charge layers is the main driving force. The prominent doping effects are expected to be quite general for charge-transfer interfaces in HIOS and important for device design