The multidimensional poverty index: Achievements, conceptual and empirical issues

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) has been an important contribution to the debate on national and international poverty measurement. With the creation of the global MPI, OHPI and UNDP have provided a household-level multidimensional poverty measure for over 100 developing countries that can usefully complement the widely used $1.25 a day income poverty indicator. Given its link to the concept of human development, it is an important element of the suite of human development indicators maintained and published by UNDP. Nonetheless, there are many open empirical questions and issues regarding the conceptual underpinning of the MPI that need to be discussed and carefully considered. This essay discusses issues with the dual cut-off method for poverty identification, and how inequality could be incorporated in this poverty measure. Moreover, the choice of headline indicator is debated. We also propose a number of changes regarding the empirical implementation. These include dropping the WHS as one of the data sources, dropping the BMI as a nutrition indicator, and changing the age ranges and cutoffs for the education and mortality indicators. Different approaches to deal with the large share of households where information on an MPI indicator is missing are also discussed. The empirical relevance of these changes are analysed using the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for Armenia, Ethiopia, and India. We argue that these changes could pose improvements to the current formulation, but one may need to investigate them further and for a larger number of countries. In a final section, we briefly comment on the HDRO revisions to the MPI in the 2014 Human Development Report, which have been partly based on the recommendations made in this paper

The State of Sustainable Research Software: Results from the Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE5.1)

This article summarizes motivations, organization, and activities of the Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE5.1) held in Manchester, UK in September 2017. The WSSSPE series promotes sustainable research software by positively impacting principles and best practices, careers, learning, and credit. This article discusses the Code of Conduct, idea papers, position papers, experience papers, demos, and lightning talks presented during the workshop. The main part of the article discusses the speed-blogging groups that formed during the meeting, along with the outputs of those sessions

Distance and border effects on price transmission: A meta-analysis

In a meta-analysis of spatial price transmission (PT) literature we aim to test for the presence of distance and border effects on price transmission. We use PT estimates for 1189 cereal market pairs extracted from 57 studies and seek to explain them by airline distance and existence of a border. The findings indicate distance and border effects on both price cointegration and price transmission. A border separating two markets reduces the probability of cointegration of price series by 23% compared with markets located in the same country. 1000 kilometers of distance reduces the probability of cointegration by 7%. The speed of price adjustment is on average 13% slower in international than in intra-national market pairs. 1000 kilometers of distance within a country on average yields 6-20% slower price adjustment. Distance effects become negligible and economically insignificant for international market pairs. Maize price pairs are less often cointegrated compared to rice prices and cointegration is most prevalent for barley. Price transmission is slowest in wheat markets. In peer reviewed studies cointegration is more prevalent and price transmission is faster. However the explanation need not be a publication bias but can also result from higher quality methodologies. Moreover, we identify a set of model specifications that significantly affect price transmission estimates. The study contributes to the literature by presenting a first meta-analysis of spatial PT literature and providing insights into distance and border effects on price transmission

Proximity and price co-movement in West African rice markets

This study explores the link between proximity and price cointegration between two markets, where proximity is captured with variables for geographical, political and cultural distance. Linear and threshold cointegration is tested for a set of 756 rice market pairs in 6 West African countries, with threshold specifications accounting for transaction costs. Whether proximity influences price transmission is determined in a second step with a multinomial logistic regression. The estimation produces robust and statistically significant evidence of a link with air-line and road distance, international borders, contiguity and a common language. We conclude that proximity matters for market integration processes in West African rice markets

Multi-stage liquid/liquid extraction with a zaiput apparatus

Poorly separable liquid/liquid mixtures often pose a major challenge in pharmaceutical extraction. In particular, compounds containing a low difference of density are difficult to separate using mixer-settler setups. The Zaiput device can prove an advantage over present liquid/liquid extractors. The research work involves characterizing the Zaiput apparatus for liquid/liquid extraction of pharmaceutical compounds with the model solvent system toluene-water. The extraction efficiency was investigated for a solvent mixture containing toluene-acetone-water residence times. To evaluate the separation success, the outlet’s concentrations are measured via IR spectroscopy

Selective Photocyclization of Amino Acids in Dipeptides

Amino acids in dipeptides which are substituted at the N-atom by a benzoylalkyl group can be selectively photocyclized via a triplet biradical. With valine as amino acid the cyclization leads mainly to one product out of eight possible isomers

Lymphedema: an early sign of rodent ulcer metastasis leads to timely intervention

Basal cell carcinoma has a potential for early and late metastasis. Depending on the location of the primary site, the relevant lymphatic drainage routes have to be monitored. Regional lymph edema may be a first indicator for metastasizing disease

Radiological-pathological correlation in Alzheimer's disease : systematic review of antemortem MRI findings

Background: The standard method of ascertaining Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains postmortem assessment of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary degeneration. Vascular pathology, Lewy bodies, TDP-43, and hippocampal sclerosis are frequent comorbidities. There is therefore a need for biomarkers that can assess these aetiologies and provide a diagnosis in vivo. Objective: We conducted a systematic review of published radiological-pathological correlation studies to determine the relationship between antemortem magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropathological findings in AD. Methods: We explored PubMed in June-July 2015 using “Alzheimer’s disease” and combinations of radiological and pathological terms. After exclusion following screening and full-text assessment of the 552 extracted manuscripts, three others were added from their reference list. In fine, we report results based on 27 articles. Results: Independently of normal age-related brain atrophy, AD pathology is associated with whole-brain and hippocampal atrophy and ventricular expansion as observed on T1-weighted images. Moreover, cerebral amyloid angiopathy and cortical microinfarcts are also related to brain volume loss in AD. Hippocampal sclerosis and TDP-43 are respectively associated with hippocampal and medial temporal lobe atrophy. Brain volume loss correlates more strongly with tangles than with any other pathological finding. White matter hyperintensities observed on proton density, T2-weighted and FLAIR images are strongly related to vascular pathologies, but are also associated with other histological changes such as gliosis or demyelination. Discussion: Cerebral atrophy and white matter changes in the living brain reflect underlying neuropathology and may be detectable using antemortem MRI. In vivo MRI may therefore be an avenue for AD pathological staging

Health indices for the evaluation and monitoring of health in children and adolescents in prevention and health promotion: a scoping review

BACKGROUND Health indicators are used in different settings to monitor health outcomes. Child and adolescent health is arguably one of the most important areas for the application of indices and indicators in prevention and health promotion. Although single health indicators may be better suited to display the complexity of the health status and its determinants, a selected set of indicators will still offer a complex picture. Therefore, it is argued that a group of indicators combined into an index may offer a pragmatic tool that is easier to use in order to inform stakeholders. METHODS A scoping review was conducted to identify and describe health indices that monitor and evaluate health of children and adolescents and to appraise the quality and value of the identified indices that may guide the further applications of these indices in particular settings. The three bibliographic databases MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO were searched and a double screening of titles and abstracts as well as double screening of full texts was performed. Indices contained in these studies were analysed in terms of focus and composition and evaluated in terms of quality criteria. RESULTS The scoping review identified 36 eligible studies with 18 health indices in six thematic categories. Of the identified indices, seven indices focus on anthropometrical variables, three indices focus on special aspects of newborns and five indices focus on oral health. One index assesses \textquotedblhealthy lifestyle\textquotedbl and one \textquotedblfunctional ability\textquotedbl whereas one index a combination of different aspects. Most indices are calculated by using primary health data. CONCLUSIONS Alone or in combination with single sets of indicators, indices in six major thematic domains may be used as pragmatic tools for monitoring children's and adolescents´ health and the evaluation of interventions in health promotion and prevention settings

MATLAB/Octave function to evaluate time-domain signals according to the measurement bandwidth and average/peak detector of EMI test receivers

Electromagnetic emissions are often measured with EMI (electromagnetic emissions) test receivers or spectrum analyzers [1] that must be specifically set up regarding their measurement bandwidth, frequency step size and measurement time (e.g. [2] for automobiles). Additionally, the emissions must be evaluated by different measurement detectors (e.g. average or peak) that may all have individual limit lines like in [2]. EMI measurements can be done in frequency or in time domain [1]. Frequency-domain measurement devices sequentially apply the superheterodyne principle to the frequencies of interest [3]. Since the measurement time for each frequency may take up to several seconds, the total measurement time can become long and cumbersome [4]. To overcome this problem, the time-domain signal can be processed by using, e.g., fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) and further methods [4]. This principle can also be applied to evaluate time-domain simulation results according to EMC standards. There are numerous publications on this topic including, e.g., [4] and [5]. In this contribution, a MATLAB/Octave function is presented that evaluates time-domain signals according to EMC standards. This “virtual EMI test receiver” mimics actual EMI test receivers regarding their measurement bandwidth, frequency step and average/peak detection. Potential use cases include the EMC evaluation of oscilloscope measurements or simulation results. The developed function can be found in the MATLAB Central (https://mathworks.com/matlabcentral/) under the title “Virtual EMI test receiver” by Andreas Bendicks [6]. In the following section, the superheterodyne measurement principle is described that is mimicked by the virtual EMI test receiver. Afterward, the corresponding signal processing of the MATLAB/Octave function is explained. The precision of the MATLAB/Octave function is verified by comparing its results to the ones of an actual EMI test receiver. The work is closed by a conclusion and an outlook