Structural Vulnerabilities and Currency Crises

This paper examines the role of structural factors - governance and rule of law, corporate sector governance (creditor rights and shareholder rights), corporate financing structure - as well as macroeconomic variables in currency crises. Using a technique known as a binary recursive tree allows for interactions between the various explanatory variables. It is found that structural vulnerabilities play an important role in the occurrence of "deep" currency crises (those with a real GDP growth decline of at least 3 percentage points) and that there are complex interactions between these structural vulnerabilities and macroeconomic imbalances. Copyright 2003, International Monetary Fund

East Asia in the aftermath: Was there a crunch?

This paper investigates whether there was a credit crunch in East Asia during the recent financial and economic crises. Motivated by widespread concern that, over and above any increases in real interest rates, corporates may have also faced credit rationing, we adopt an explicit disequilibrium framework for analyzing the behavior of real credit with a view to assessing whether the supply of, or demand for credit has been a binding constraint. The findings highlight the dynamics associated with a credit crunch. We find evidence of a »credit crunch« in all three crisis countries (Indonesia, Korea, Thailand) in the period immediately following the crisis as the banking system distress deepened, and the supply of (real) credit declined. Thereafter, however, credit demand also fell sharply as economic recession took hold and corporate bankruptcies increased. By the end of the first quarter of 1998, therefore, the constraining factor was the demand for credit. We conclude that, beyond the initial crisis period, there is little evidence of a credit crunch at the aggregate level, although high real interest rates - and credit rationing of individual firms - may have continued to contribute to the difficulties of the corporate sector. --emerging markets,credit crisis

Banking flows and financial crisis -- financial interconnectedness and basel III effects

This paper examines the factors that determine banking flows from advanced economies to emerging markets. In addition to the usual determinants of capital flows in terms of global push and local pull factors, it examines the role of bilateral factors, such as growth differentials and economic size, as well as contagion factors and measures of the depth in financial interconnectedness between lenders and borrowers. The analysis finds profound differences across regions. In particular, in spite of the severe impact of the global financial crisis, banking flows in emerging Europe stand out as a more stable region than is the case in other developing regions. Assuming that the determinants of banking flows remain unchanged in the presence of structural changes, the authors use these results to explore the short-term implications of Basel III capital regulations on banking flows to emerging markets.Debt Markets,Banks&Banking Reform,Emerging Markets,Access to Finance,Economic Theory&Research

Phase Conjugation via Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in Semiconductor Quantum Plasmas

Abstract Using quantum hydrodynamic model (QHD

Effect of participatory women's groups facilitated by Accredited Social Health Activists on birth outcomes in rural eastern India: A cluster-randomised controlled trial

Background: A quarter of the world's neonatal deaths and 15% of maternal deaths happen in India. Few community-based strategies to improve maternal and newborn health have been tested through the country's government-approved Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs). We aimed to test the effect of participatory women's groups facilitated by ASHAs on birth outcomes, including neonatal mortality. Methods: In this cluster-randomised controlled trial of a community interve

The Transcriptional Cofactor Nab2 Is Induced by TGF-β and Suppresses Fibroblast Activation: Physiological Roles and Impaired Expression in Scleroderma

By stimulating collagen synthesis and myofibroblasts differentiation, transforming growth factor-β (TGF- β) plays a pivotal role in tissue repair and fibrosis. The early growth response-1 (Egr-1) transcription factor mediates profibrotic TGF-β responses, and its expression is elevated in biopsies from patients with scleroderma. NGF1-A-binding protein 2 (Nab2) is a conserved transcriptional cofactor that directly binds to Egr-1 and positively or negatively modulates Egr-1 target gene transcription. Despite the recognized importance of Nab2 in governing the intensity of Egr-1-dependent responses, the regulation and function of Nab2 in the context of fibrotic TGF-β signaling is unknown. Here we show that TGF-β caused a time-dependent stimulation of Nab2 protein and mRNA in normal fibroblasts. Ectopic expression of Nab2 in these cells blocked Egr-1-dependent transcriptional responses, and abrogated TGF-β-induced stimulation of collagen synthesis and myofibroblasts differentiation. These inhibitory effects of Nab2 involved recruitment of the NuRD chromatin remodeling complex to the COL1A2 promoter and were accompanied by reduced histone H4 acetylation. Mice with targeted deletion of Nab2 displayed increased collagen accumulation in the dermis, and genetic or siRNA-mediated loss of Nab2 in fibroblasts was associated with constitutively elevated collagen synthesis and accentuation of Egr-1-dependent TGF-β responses in vitro. Expression of Nab2 was markedly up-regulated in skin biopsies from patients with scleroderma, and was localized primarily to epidermal keratinocytes. In contrast, little Nab2 could be detected in dermal fibroblasts. These results identify Nab2 as a novel endogenous negative regulator of Egr-1-dependent TGF-β signaling responsible for setting the intensity of fibrotic responses. Defective Nab2 expression or function in dermal fibroblasts might play a role in persistent fibrotic responses in scleroderma

Community mobilisation with women's groups facilitated by Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) to improve maternal and newborn health in underserved areas of Jharkhand and Orissa: study protocol for a cluster-randomised controlled trial

Background: Around a quarter of the world's neonatal and maternal deaths occur in India. Morbidity and mortality are highest in rural areas and among the poorest wealth quintiles. Few interventions to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes with government-mandated community health workers have been rigorously evaluated at scale in this setting.The study aims to assess the impact of a community mobilisation intervention with women's groups facilitated by ASHAs to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes among rural tribal communities of Jharkhand and Orissa.Methods/design: The study is a cluster-randomised controlled trial and will be implemented in five districts, three in Jharkhand and two in Orissa. The unit of randomisation is a rural cluster of approximately 5000 population. We identified villages within rural, tribal areas of five districts, approached them for participation in the study and enrolled them into 30 clusters, with approximately 10 ASHAs per cluster. Within each district, 6 clusters were randomly allocated to receive the community intervention or to the control group, resulting in 15 intervention and 15 control clusters. Randomisation was carried out in the presence of local stakeholders who selected the cluster numbers and allocated them to intervention or control using a pre-generated random number sequence. The intervention is a participatory learning and action cycle where ASHAs support community women's groups through a four-phase process in which they identify and prioritise local maternal and newborn health problems, implement strategies to address these and evaluate the result. The cycle is designed to fit with the ASHAs' mandate to mobilise communities for health and to complement their other tasks, including increasing institutional delivery rates and providing home visits to mothers and newborns. The trial's primary endpoint is neonatal mortality during 24 months of intervention. Additional endpoints include home care practices and health care-seeking in the antenatal, delivery and postnatal period. The impact of the intervention will be measured through a prospective surveillance system implemented by the project team, through which mothers will be interviewed around six weeks after delivery. Cost data and qualitative data are collected for cost-effectiveness and process evaluations

Characterization of Leishmania donovani Aquaporins Shows Presence of Subcellular Aquaporins Similar to Tonoplast Intrinsic Proteins of Plants

Leishmania donovani, a protozoan parasite, resides in the macrophages of the mammalian host. The aquaporin family of proteins form important components of the parasite-host interface. The parasite-host interface could be a potential target for chemotherapy. Analysis of L. major and L. infantum genomes showed the presence of five aquaporins (AQPs) annotated as AQP9 (230aa), AQP putative (294aa), AQP-like protein (279aa), AQP1 (314aa) and AQP-like protein (596aa). We report here the structural modeling, localization and functional characterization of the AQPs from L. donovani. LdAQP1, LdAQP9, LdAQP2860 and LdAQP2870 have the canonical NPA-NPA motifs, whereas LdAQP putative has a non-canonical NPM-NPA motif. In the carboxyl terminal to the second NPA box of all AQPs except AQP1, a valine/alanine residue was found instead of the arginine. In that respect these four AQPs are similar to tonoplast intrinsic proteins in plants, which are localized to intracellular organelles. Confocal microscopy of L. donovani expressing GFP-tagged AQPs showed an intracellular localization of LdAQP9 and LdAQP2870. Real-time PCR assays showed expression of all aquaporins except LdAQP2860, whose level was undetectable. Three-dimensional homology modeling of the AQPs showed that LdAQP1 structure bears greater topological similarity to the aquaglyceroporin than to aquaporin of E. coli. The pore of LdAQP1 was very different from the rest in shape and size. The cavity of LdAQP2860 was highly irregular and undefined in geometry. For functional characterization, four AQP proteins were heterologously expressed in yeast. In the fps1Δ yeast cells, which lacked the key aquaglyceroporin, LdAQP1 alone displayed an osmosensitive phenotype indicating glycerol transport activity. However, expression of LdAQP1 and LdAQP putative in a yeast gpd1Δ strain, deleted for glycerol production, conferred osmosensitive phenotype indicating water transport activity or aquaporin function. Our analysis for the first time shows the presence of subcellular aquaporins and provides structural and functional characterization of aquaporins in Leishmania donovani

Facilitators and barriers to the uptake of COVID-19 vaccine precaution dose among adult population: qualitative analysis across six different states of India

IntroductionIndia launched the COVID-19 vaccination drive on 16th January 2021 by vaccinating the adult population above 18 years of age. This was followed by the introduction of an additional precaution dose. As on 18th October 2022, 1,02,66,96,808 (1.02 Billion) first dose and 94, 95, 39,516 (949 Million) second doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered. However, when compared to the uptake of the primary doses, the precaution dose uptake lagged behind with only 21,75, 12,721 (217 million) doses administered. Even though, the uptake of the primary doses remained optimal, irrespective of different interventions by the Government of India, the uptake of the precaution dose remained poor. In this context, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare wanted to understand the facilitators and Barriers for precaution dose uptake among adults so that future immunization campaigns could address these issues.MethodsAn exploratory qualitative study was conducted to assess the facilitators and barriers for COVID-19 precaution dose uptake at community level across 6 different states in India. From each of the states, two districts with the highest and lowest rates of COVID-19 vaccine precaution dose uptake were selected. In each of these districts, 2 block Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), one with high and one with low uptake were identified. Within these block PHCs, a PHC field area with high and low precaution dose uptakes was identified. From the identified sites a minimum of four IDIs, four FGDs were conducted among the community members. KIIs of the State Immunization Officers, District Immunisation Officers, PHC Medical Officers, healthcare workers like Accredited Social Health Activist/Auxiliary Nurse Midwife were also conducted. The data was audio recorded and it was transcribed, translated and analysed using framework approach.ResultsIt was observed that rise in COVID-19 cases prompted the community to take the precaution dose, this along with the cost of hospitalization and the number of productive days being lost as a result of being infected resulted in vaccine uptake. The fear of non-availability of COVID-19 vaccines latter on also prompted people for vaccine uptake. While the barriers were, poor accessibility to vaccination centers, long hours of travel, poor road connectivity and lack of transportation facilities. However, the most prominent barriers observed across all study sites was that a sense of pandemic fatigue and complacency had developed both among the providers as well as the beneficiaries. Other barriers include differences in vaccination schedules and longer duration between the primary doses of some vaccines. Media was identified to be both a barrier and facilitator for Covid-19 Precaution dose uptake. Even though media played an important role in disseminating information in the beginning of the campaign, it was soon followed by the circulation of both misinformation and disinformation.DiscussionThe study identified that dissemination of accurate information and community involvement at each stage of planning and implementation are crucial for the success of any campaign. Efforts should be constantly made to address and re-invent strategies that will be most suitable for the needs of the community. Therefore, in order to ensure successful vaccination campaigns, it is crucial that along with political will it is also important to have a decentralized approach with inter-sectoral coordination with different stakeholders such as healthcare workers, community members and the different departments such as the local self-governments, education department, law & order department etc. These lessons learnt from COVID-19 vaccination campaigns must not be forgotten and must be applied in future vaccination campaigns and while framing public health policies