Does micro-credit empower women : evidence from Bangladesh

This paper examines the effects of men's and women's participation in group-based micro-credit programs on a large set of qualitative responses to questions that characterize women's autonomy and gender relations within the household. The data come from a special survey carried out in rural Bangladesh in 1998-99. The results are consistent with the view that women's participation in micro-credit programs helps to increase women's empowerment. Credit program participation leads to women taking a greater role in household decisionmaking, having greater access to financial and economic resources, having greater social networks, having greater bargaining power compared with their husbands, and having greater freedom of mobility. Female credit also tended to increase spousal communication in general about family planning and parenting concerns. The effects of male credit on women's empowerment were, at best, neutral, and at worse, decidedly negative. Male credit had a negative effect on several arenas of women's empowerment, including physical mobility, access to savings and economic resources, and power to manage some household transactions.Public Health Promotion,Economic Theory&Research,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Anthropology,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Anthropology,Environmental Economics&Policies,Housing&Human Habitats,Economic Theory&Research

Can social safety nets alleviate seasonal deprivation ? evidence from northwest Bangladesh

This paper examines the role of social safety-net programs in Bangladesh run by the government and nongovernmental organizations to mitigate seasonal deprivation in the country's highly vulnerable northwest region. Specifically, the paper explores whether social safety nets are limited to averting seasonal deprivation or can also address seasonality of income and employment more generally. Using a recent survey from the greater Rangpur (northwest) region, the paper finds that social safety nets have a positive effect on mitigating both seasonal and non-seasonal food deprivation. The results are robust, owing to the recent expanded coverage of social safety-net programs run by nongovernmental organizations active in the region. But given the annual recurrence of monga (seasonal food insecurity) in the northwest region owing to agricultural seasonality and an overwhelming dependence on agriculture for livelihoods, social safety nets are not a reliable tool for monga eradication. Programs are also needed to promote the income and productivity of the poor through diversification of income and employment.Safety Nets and Transfers,Rural Poverty Reduction,Food&Beverage Industry,Regional Economic Development,Housing&Human Habitats

Seasonal and extreme poverty in Bangladesh : evaluating an ultra-poor microfinance project

Microfinance is often criticized for not adequately addressing seasonality and hard-core poverty. In Bangladesh, a program known as PRIME was introduced in 2006 to address both concerns. Unlike regular microfinance, PRIME introduces a microfinance scheme that offers a flexible repayment schedule and consumption smoothing, as well as production, loans. It targets the ultra-poor, many of whom are also seasonally poor, with a severe inability to smooth consumption during certain months of the year. Besides providing loans, PRIME offers extension and training services. This paper uses a quasi-experimental survey design to evaluate PRIME against regular microfinance programs. The results show that PRIME is more effective than regular microfinance in reaching the ultra-poor, as well as the seasonal poor. PRIME also helps reduce seasonal deprivation and extreme poverty. Although the program has demonstrated its promise, it is too early to conclude whether the accrued benefits are large enough to contain both seasonal and chronic poverty on a sustained basis.Rural Poverty Reduction,Regional Economic Development,Food&Beverage Industry,Debt Markets

A new scheme to realize crosstalk-free permutations in optical MINs with vertical stacking

©2002 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.Vertical stacking is an alternative for constructing nonblocking multistage interconnection networks (MINs). In this paper, we study the crosstalk-free permutation in rearrangeable, self-routing Banyan-type optical MINs built on vertical stacking and propose a new scheme for realizing permutations in this class of optical MINs crosstalk-free. The basic idea of the new scheme is to classify permutations into permutation classes such that all permutations in one class share the same crosstalk-free decomposition pattern. By running the Euler-Split based crosstalk-free decomposition only once for a permutation class and applying the obtained crosstalk-free decomposition pattern to all permutations in the class, crosstalk-free decomposition of permutations can be realized in a more efficient way. We show that the number of permutations in a permutation class is huge, enabling the average time complexity of the new scheme to realize a crosstalk-free permutation in an N by N network to be reduced to O(N) from previously O(NlogN).Xiaohong Jiang, Hong Shen, Md. Mamun-ur-Rashid Khandker, Susumu Horiguch

Blocking behaviors of crosstalk-free optical Banyan networks on vertical stacking

Banyan networks are attractive for constructing directional coupler (DC)-based optical switching networks for their small depth and self-routing capability. Crosstalk between optical signals passing through the same DC is an intrinsic drawback in DC-based optical networks. Vertical stacking of multiple copies of an optical banyan network is a novel scheme for building nonblocking (crosstalk-free) optical switching networks. The resulting network, namely vertically stacked optical banyan (VSOB) network, preserves all the properties of the banyan network, but increases the hardware cost significantly. Though much work has been done for determining the minimum number of stacked copies (planes) required for a nonblocking VSOB network, little is known on analyzing the blocking probabilities of VSOB networks that do not meet the nonblocking condition (i.e., with fewer stacked copies than required by the nonblocking condition). In this paper, we analyze the blocking probabilities of VSOB networks and develop their upper and lower bounds with respect to the number of planes in the networks. These bounds depict accurately the overall blocking behaviors of VSOB networks and agree with the conditions of strictly nonblocking and rearrangeably nonblocking VSOB networks respectively. Extensive simulation on a network simulator with both random routing and packing strategy has shown that the blocking probabilities of both strategies fall nicely within our bounds, and the blocking probability of packing strategy actually matches the lower bound. The proposed bounds are significant because they reveal the inherent relationships between blocking probability and network hardware cost in terms of the number of planes, and provide network developers a quantitative guidance to trade blocking probability for hardware cost. In particular, our bounds provide network designers an effective tool to estimate the minimum and maximum blocking probabilities of VSOB networks in which different routing strategies may be applied. An interesting conclusion drawn from our work that has practical applications is that the hardware cost of a VSOB network can be reduced dramatically if a predictable and almost negligible nonzero blocking probability is allowed.Xiaohong Jiang; Hong Shen; Khandker, Md.M.-ur-R.; Horiguchi, S

Do Microcredit Loans Do What They Are Intended To Do? A Case Study of the Credit Village Microcredit Programme in China

© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The purpose of this study is to assess if the credit village is an effective way to develop a microcredit programme in China from the perspective of poverty reduction policy and risk monitoring. Cross-sectional household survey data from three credit villages in the Yunan County of China are analysed using 3SLS and IV probit models. The major finding is that the credit village loosens credit restrictions to some extent. However, it has no impact on educational expenditures, medical expenditures, long-term assets, short-term assets and women\u27s rights. It is our observation that the microcredit programme in China needs more innovation to become effective. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Kondenzirani pirimidini. II dio: Sinteza i antimikrobna aktivnost nekih furo[3,2-e]imidazo[1,2-c]pirimidina i furo[2,3-d]pirimidina

2-Amino-4,5-diphenylfuran-3-carbonitrile (2) reacted with N-[bis(methylthio)methylene]glycine ethyl ester (1) to afford a double cyclized product 5-methylthio-8,9-diphenylfuro[3,2-e]imidazo [1,2-c]pyrimidin-2(3H)-one (3). Compound 2 also reacts with benzonitrile to give 4-amino- 2,5,6-triphenylfuro[2,3-d]pyrimidine (4). Treatment of 2 with HCONH2, under reflux, afforded 4-amino-5,6-diphenylfuro[2,3-d]pyrimidine (5) which was then allowed to react with chloroacetaldehyde to give 8,9-diphenylfuro[3,2-e]imidazo[1,2-c]pyrimidine (6). Reaction of 2 with HCOOH gave 5,6-diphenylfuro[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-one (7) which was then converted to its tosyl derivative (8). The antimicrobial activity of the synthesized compounds 2–8 was tested.2-Amino-4,5-difenilfuran-3-karbonitril (2) u reakciji s etilnim esterom N-[bis(metiltio)metilen]glicina (1) daje produkt dvostruke ciklizacije – 5-metiltio-8,9-difenilfuro[3,2-e]imidazol[1,2-c]pirimidin-2(3H)-on (3). Također, u reakciji s benzonitrilom spoj 2 daje 4-amino-2,5,6-trifenilfuro[2,3-d]pirimidin (4). Grijanjem spoja 2 s HCONH2 dobiven je 4-amino-5,6-difenilfuro[2,3-d]pirimidin (5), koji reakcijom s kloracetaldehidom daje 8,9- difenilfuro[2,3-d]imidazo[1,2-c]pirimidin (6). Reakcijom 2 s HCOOH dobiven je 5,6-difenilfuro[2,3-d]pirimidin- 4(3H)-on (7), koji je preveden u tozilat (8). Spojevima 2-8 ispitana je antimikrobna aktivnost

Burden and features of neurological patients in Chittagong Medical College and Hospital in Bangladesh

Background: Neurological disorders are a common and significant public health problem globally, and innovative strategies are needed to address the epidemic in resource-poor settings in Bangladesh. The aim of this study was to evaluate the burden and features of neurological diseases requiring hospitalization in a tertiary care hospital in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Methods: This study was a prospective observational study conducted from January to June 2021 on patients admitted to the adult neurology unit of a hospital in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews, laboratory data, and previous medical records, and in-hospital complications and outcomes were recorded. The data was cleaned and analysed using SPSS and presented in tables. Results: In this study, stroke was the most common neurological condition requiring hospitalization, accounting for 74% of cases and leading to death in 73% of cases. The most frequent in-hospital complication was urinary tract infection (26%), mostly in stroke patients. Of stroke patients, 88% had incomplete recoveries at discharge, while 7% died. Hypertension was the most common risk factor present in both acute confusional state and stroke cases. The median duration of hospital stay was longest among patients with central nervous system infections. Conclusions: Stroke dominates the burden of neurological diseases requiring hospitalization in tertiary care hospitals in Bangladesh. The most frequent in-hospital complication was urinary tract infections, mostly in stroke cases. The overall in-hospital mortality was 7%, most patients recovered incompletely at discharge (82%)

Economic Burden, Mortality, and Institutionalization in Patients Newly Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease

Background: Current information is scarce regarding comorbid conditions, treatment, survival, institutionalization, and health care utilization for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Objectives: Compare all-cause mortality, rate of institutionalization, and economic burden between treated and untreated newly-diagnosed AD patients. Methods: Patients aged 65–100 years with ≥1 primary or ≥2 secondary AD diagnoses (ICD-9-CM:331.0] with continuous medical and pharmacy benefits for ≥12 months pre-index and ≥6 months post-index date (first AD diagnosis date) were identified from Medicare fee-for-service claims 01JAN2011–30JUN2014. Patients with AD treatment claims or AD/ADrelated dementia diagnosis during the pre-index period were excluded. Patients were assigned to treated and untreated cohorts based on AD treatment received post-index date. Total 8,995 newly-diagnosed AD patients were identified; 4,037 (44.8%) were assigned to the treated cohort. Time-to-death and institutionalization were assessed using Cox regression. To compare health care costs and utilizations, 1 : 1 propensity score matching (PSM) was used. Results: Untreated patients were older (83.85 versus 81.44 years; p \u3c 0.0001), with more severe comorbidities (mean Charlson comorbidity index: 3.54 versus 3.22; p \u3c 0.0001). After covariate adjustment, treated patients were less likely to die (hazard ratio[HR] = 0.69; p \u3c 0.0001) and were associated with 20% lower risk of institutionalization (HR = 0.801; p = 0.0003). After PSM, treated AD patients were less likely to have hospice visits (3.25% versus 9.45%; p \u3c 0.0001), and incurred lower annual all-cause costs ($25,828 versus$30,110; p = 0.0162). Conclusion: After controlling for comorbidities, treated AD patients have better survival, lower institutionalization, and sometimes fewer resource utilizations, suggesting that treatment and improved care management could be beneficial for newly-diagnosed AD patients from economic and clinical perspectives

Analysis of Episodes of Care in Medicare Beneficiaries Newly Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease

OBJECTIVES: To study transitions between healthcare settings and quantify the cost burdens associated with different combinations of transitions during a 6-month period before initial Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis so as to investigate how using an episode-of-care approach to payment for specific disease states might apply in AD. DESIGN: A retrospective observational cohort study. SETTING: United States. PARTICIPANTS: A random sample of 8,995 individuals aged 65 to 100 with a diagnosis of AD (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification code 331.0) were identified from the Medicare database between January 1, 2011, and June 30, 2014. This analysis identified individuals with AD diagnosed in inpatient (18%), skilled nursing facility (SNF) (1%), hospice (4%), and home and outpatient (77%) settings and analyzed episodes that began in the index setting (defined as the care setting in which the individual was first diagnosed with AD). MEASUREMENTS: Study outcomes included number of transitions between settings, primary discharge diagnoses, and total all-cause healthcare costs during the 6 months after the AD diagnosis. RESULTS: The average numbers of transitions between care settings were 2.8 originating from an inpatient setting, 2.4 from a SNF, 0.3 from a hospice setting and 0.7 from a home or outpatient setting during 6 months post-AD diagnosis. The overall cost burden during the 6 months after AD diagnosis (including costs incurred at the index setting) was high for individuals diagnosed in a nonambulatory setting (mean $41,468). Individuals diagnosed in an ambulatory setting incurred only$12,597 in costs during the same period. CONCLUSION: Episodes of care can be defined and studied in individuals with AD. An episode-of-care approach to payment could encourage providers to use the continuum of care needed for quality medical management in AD more efficiently