Coverage Measurement Research Articles

The added value of satellite observations of methane forunderstanding the contemporary methane budget

Surface observations have recorded large and incompletely understood changes to atmospheric methane (CH4) this century. However, their ability to reveal the responsible surface sources and sinks is limited by their geographical distribution, which is biased towards the northern midlatitudes. Data from Earth-orbiting satellites designed specifically to measure atmospheric CH4 have been available since 2009 with the launch of the Japanese Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT). We assess the added value of GOSAT to data collected by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which have been the lynchpin for knowledge about atmospheric CH4 since the 1980s. To achieve that we use the GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry transport model and an inverse method to infer a posteriori flux estimates from the NOAA and GOSAT data using common a priori emission inventories. We find the main benefit of GOSAT data is from its additional coverage over the tropics where we report large increases since the 2014/2016 El Niño, driven by biomass burning, biogenic emissions and energy production. We use data from the European TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument to show how better spatial coverage and resolution measurements allow us to quantify previously unattainable diffuse sources of CH4, thereby opening up a new research frontier.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Rising methane: is warming feeding warming? (part 1)’.

Socioeconomic inequalities in effective service coverage for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health: a comparative analysis of 39 low-income and middle-income countries.

BackgroundReducing socioeconomic inequalities in access to good quality health care is key for countries to achieve Universal Health Coverage. This study aims to assess socioeconomic inequalities in effective coverage of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).MethodsUsing the most recent national health surveys from 39 LMICs (between 2014 and 2018), we calculated coverage indicators using effective coverage care cascade that consists of service contact, crude coverage, quality-adjusted coverage, and user-adherence-adjusted coverage. We quantified wealth-related and education-related inequality using the relative index of inequality, slope index of inequality, and concentration index.FindingsThe quality-adjusted coverage of RMNCH services in 39 countries was substantially lower than service contact, in particular for postnatal care (64 percentage points [pp], p-value<0·0001), family planning (48·7 pp, p<0·0001), and antenatal care (43·6 pp, p<0·0001) outcomes. Upper-middle-income countries had higher effective coverage levels compared with low- and lower-middle-income countries in family planning, antenatal care, delivery care, and postnatal care. Socioeconomic inequalities tend to be wider when using effective coverage measurement compared with crude and service contact measurements. Our findings show that upper-middle-income countries had a lower magnitude of inequality compared with low- and lower-middle-income countries.InterpretationReliance on the average contact coverage tends to underestimate the levels of socioeconomic inequalities for RMNCH service use in LMICs. Hence, the effective coverage measurement using a care cascade approach should be applied. While RMNCH coverages vary considerably across countries, equitable improvement in quality of care is particularly needed for lower-middle-income and low-income countries.FundingNone.

An assessment of government measures in combatting COVID-19 using ISM and DEMATEL modelling

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the interplay of various measures used by different governments around the world in combatting COVID-19.Design/methodology/approachThe research uses the interpretative structural modelling (ISM) for assessing the powerful measures amongst the recognized ones, whereas to establish the cause-and-effect relations amongst the variables, the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method is used. Both approaches utilized in the study aid in the comprehension of the relationship amongst the assessed measures.FindingsAccording to the ISM model, international support measures have the most important role in reducing the risk of COVID-19. There has also been a suggestion of a relationship between economic and risk measures. Surprisingly, no linkage factor (unstable one) was reported in the research. The study indicates social welfare measures, R&D measures, centralized power and decentralized governance measures and universal healthcare measures as independent factors. The DEMATEL analysis reveals that the net causes are social welfare measures, centralized power and decentralized government, universal health coverage measure and R&D measures, while the net effects are economic measures, green recovery measures, risk measures and international support measures.Originality/valueThe study includes a list of numerous government measures deployed throughout the world to mitigate the risk of COVID-19, as well as the structural links amongst the identified government measures. The Matrice d'Impacts croises-multiplication applique and classment analysis can help the policymakers in understanding measures used in combatting COVID-19 based on their driving and dependence power. These insights may assist them in employing these measures for mitigating the risks associated with COVID-19 or any other similar pandemic situation in the future.

Modelling and Differential Quantification of Electric Cell-Substrate Impedance Sensing Growth Curves.

Measurement of cell surface coverage has become a common technique for the assessment of growth behavior of cells. As an indirect measurement method, this can be accomplished by monitoring changes in electrode impedance, which constitutes the basis of electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS). ECIS typically yields growth curves where impedance is plotted against time, and changes in single cell growth behavior or cell proliferation can be displayed without significantly impacting cell physiology. To provide better comparability of ECIS curves in different experimental settings, we developed a large toolset of R scripts for their transformation and quantification. They allow importing growth curves generated by ECIS systems, edit, transform, graph and analyze them while delivering quantitative data extracted from reference points on the curve. Quantification is implemented through three different curve fit algorithms (smoothing spline, logistic model, segmented regression). From the obtained models, curve reference points such as the first derivative maximum, segmentation knots and area under the curve are then extracted. The scripts were tested for general applicability in real-life cell culture experiments on partly anonymized cell lines, a calibration setup with a cell dilution series of impedance versus seeded cell number and finally IPEC-J2 cells treated with 1% and 5% ethanol.

ASSESING THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMUNITY: THE CASE OF THE SOUTH RADIO AND TELEVISION AGENCY, BONGA BRANCH IN DECHA WOREDA, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

This study investigates the role of media in economic development of community in the case of South Radio and Television Agency Bonga branch Radio in Decha woreda, Kafa Zone in southern Ethiopia. The study has attempted to address the contribution of media in changing the audience’s knowledge, attitude, and practices in the community’s economic activities. In this study to address the objectives, a researcher applied mixed research approaches and descriptive design. Both primary and secondary data were used in the study and analyzed through qualitative and quantitative methods. To investigate information about the intended objective of the study, the data were collected through questionnaires, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. To determine the sample size for the study, multi-stage sampling technique was employed. Three Kebeles were selected purposively and 106 respondents participated in the study. The general finding of the study shows that Bonga branch radio has been influencing the behavior (attitude, knowledge and practice) of the community in their agricultural productivity, income generation, job creation and saving culture in its information transmits both in news and program formats in the community’s ethnic language. Even though, the media is playing its role in the community’s development, different challenges have been identified. Finally, the researcher tried to forward the recommendations; the local government should support the media, the media management should arrange training for the journalists and technician of the radio station and should take improving measures of transmission coverage of the radio station.

The Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets (FARM)

AbstractThe Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets (FARM) Facility is an extensive mobile/quickly deployable (MQD) multiple-Doppler radar and in situ instrumentation network. The FARM includes four radars: two 3-cm dual polarization, dual frequency (DPDF), Doppler on Wheels (DOW6/DOW7), the Rapid-Scan DOW (RSDOW), and a quickly deployable (QD) DPDF 5-cm C band on Wheels (COW). The FARM includes three mobile mesonet (MM) vehicles with 3.5-m masts, an array of rugged QD weather stations (PODNET), QD weather stations deployed on infrastructure such as light/power poles (POLENET), four disdrometers, six MQD upper-air sounding systems and a Mobile Operations and Repair Center (MORC). The FARM serves a wide variety of research/educational uses. Components have deployed to &gt;30 projects during 1995–2020 in the United States, Europe, and South America, obtaining pioneering observations of a myriad of small spatial- and temporal-scale phenomena including tornadoes, hurricanes, lake-effect snow storms, aircraft-affecting turbulence, convection initiation, microbursts, intense precipitation, boundary layer structures and evolution, airborne hazardous substances, coastal storms, wildfires and wildfire suppression efforts, weather modification effects, and mountain/alpine winds and precipitation. The radars and other FARM systems support innovative educational efforts, deploying &gt;40 times to universities/colleges, providing hands-on access to cutting-edge instrumentation for their students. The FARM provides integrated multiple radar, mesonet, sounding, and related capabilities enabling diverse and robust coordinated sampling of three-dimensional vector winds, precipitation, and thermodynamics increasingly central to a wide range of mesoscale research. Planned innovations include S-band on Wheels Network (SOWNET) and Bistatic Adaptable Radar Network (BARN), offering more qualitative improvements to the field project observational paradigm, providing broad, flexible, and inexpensive 10-cm radar coverage and vector wind field measurements.

Predictive Atomistic Model for Hydrogen Adsorption on Metal Surfaces: Comparison with Low-Energy Ion Beam Analysis on Tungsten

We present an analytical thermodynamic model of a surface in contact with a gas phase, which enables us to determine the surface coverage of the adsorbate depending on the temperature, pressure, and chemical potential of the gas. This model is applied to both the W(110) and W(100) surfaces of tungsten in contact with hydrogen. The thermodynamic model is built upon data computed by density functional theory that provide the complete electronic and vibrational energetics of both surfaces. It is further compared to experimental measurements of hydrogen coverage during isobar exposure at various temperatures acquired via low-energy ion scattering and direct recoil spectroscopy techniques. On W(110), the agreement is quantitative provided that an additional degree of freedom is added to the model. This degree of freedom accounts for the translational motion of the adsorbate along the 1D channel on the surface. On W(100), surface reconstruction makes the energetics of the system more complex; the full details of the experimental isobar are not well reproduced, although the overall consistency is obtained. We end up with a thermodynamic model based on DFT data having accurate predictive capabilities to determine the hydrogen coverage of tungsten at any p and T.

COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Among Insured Persons Aged ≥16 Years, by Race/Ethnicity and Other Selected Characteristics - Eight Integrated Health Care Organizations, United States, December 14, 2020-May 15, 2021.

COVID-19 vaccination is critical to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of minority racial and ethnic groups have experienced disproportionate COVID-19-associated morbidity and mortality (1); however, COVID-19 vaccination coverage is lower in these groups (2). CDC used data from CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD)* to assess disparities in vaccination coverage among persons aged ≥16 years by race and ethnicity during December 14, 2020-May 15, 2021. Measures of coverage included receipt of ≥1 COVID-19 vaccine dose (i.e., receipt of the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines or 1 dose of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine [Johnson & Johnson]) and full vaccination (receipt of 2 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines or 1 dose of Janssen COVID-19 vaccine). Among 9.6 million persons aged ≥16 years enrolled in VSD during December 14, 2020-May 15, 2021, ≥1-dose coverage was 48.3%, and 38.3% were fully vaccinated. As of May 15, 2021, coverage with ≥1 dose was lower among non-Hispanic Black (Black) and Hispanic persons (40.7% and 41.1%, respectively) than it was among non-Hispanic White (White) persons (54.6%). Coverage was highest among non-Hispanic Asian (Asian) persons (57.4%). Coverage with ≥1 dose was higher among persons with certain medical conditions that place them at higher risk for severe COVID-19 (high-risk conditions) (63.8%) than it was among persons without such conditions (41.5%) and was higher among persons who had not had COVID-19 (48.8%) than it was among those who had (42.4%). Persons aged 18-24 years had the lowest ≥1-dose coverage (28.7%) among all age groups. Continued monitoring of vaccination coverage and efforts to improve equity in coverage are critical, especially among populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

Quantitatively Estimating of InSAR Decorrelation Based on Landsat-Derived NDVI

As a by-product of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR, InSAR) technique, interferometric coherence is a measure of the decorrelation noise for InSAR observation, where the lower the coherence value, the more serious the decorrelation noise. In the densely vegetated area, the coherence value could be too low to obtain any valuable signals, leading to the degradation of InSAR performance and the possible waste of expensive SAR data. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) value is a measure of the vegetation coverage and can be estimated from the freely available optical satellite images. In this paper, a multi-stage model is established to quantitatively estimate the decorrelation noise for vegetable areas based on Landsat-derived NDVI prior to the acquisition of SAR data. The modeling process is being investigated with the L-band ALOS-1/PALSAR-1 data and the Landsat-5 optical data acquired in the Meitanba area of Hunan Province, China. Furthermore, the reliability of the established model is verified in the Longhui area, which is situated near the Meitanba area. The results demonstrate that the established model can quantitatively estimate InSAR decorrelation associated with the vegetation coverage.

The principle of environmentalization in agrarian law

The article considers the importance of ecologization of modern agricultural production in the context of increasing use of toxic substances of chemical or biological origin, which requires directing modern agricultural production towards ecologization of artificial and natural production factors, making these issues of extreme relevance. The author presents the conceptual and categorical transformation of the environmental aspects of agriculture, which alternately took the form of a principle of agrarian law, first as the principle of greening of labour activity in agriculture, then as the principle of greening of agriculture, the environmental orientation of entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector, and even later as the principle of greening of agriculture, and finally as the principle of greening of agrarian legislation. The author also presents other variants of the author’s positions, among which the author considers the ecologization of agrarian law or the principles of agrarian law themselves, as well as the State agricultural policy. Proceeding from the general legal nature of the principles, the implementation of which requires embodiment in the regulatory provisions of legislation, the author substantiates the priority of formulating the principle of ecologization of agrarian legislation. At the same time, the author provides examples of greening of the content of statutory agrarian laws, as well as non-greened statutory laws, which indicates that the principle under consideration is incompletely implemented in agrarian legislation. The author analyses the array of functional agrarian laws in certain areas of activity, which in terms of quantitative measurement and scope of coverage prevail over the greening of status laws.

Interobserver agreement and clinical disparity between the Graf method and femoral head coverage measurement in developmental dysplasia of the hip screening: A prospective observational study of 198 newborns.

Ultrasonography is the ideal tool for assessing hip morphology in infants younger than 6-month-old. This study assessed the interobserver agreement and clinical disparities of the 2 most widely used ultrasound (US) methods, the Graf method, and femoral head coverage (FHC) measurement.A prospective observational study (STROBE compliant) of 2024 newborns was conducted between January 2017 and December 2018. Hip US was conducted on all newborns with abnormal Barlow and Ortolani maneuvers as well as on 50 randomly selected normal newborns. The physical examination and US were performed by a senior pediatric orthopedic surgeon with musculoskeletal sonography certification. Three observers with different levels of experience interpreted the images by using the Graf method and FHC. We analyzed the intraclass correlation coefficient, Cohen kappa, and the disparity between the clinical findings of the 2 methods.A total of 198 newborns (9.8%) presented with clinical instability, including 193 subluxatable hips in 168 patients (84.8%) and 45 dislocatable/dislocated hips in 30 patients (15.2%). The mean age at US examination was 11.69 days (range: 0–18 days). The intraclass correlation coefficient was .71 (95% CI: 0.55–0.83) for FHC, 0.63 (95% CI: 0.38–0.78) for the alpha angle, and 0.47 (95% CI: 0.16–0.69) for beta angle. The Cohen kappa coefficients of Graf type were 0.19 (95% CI: 0.03–0.35), 0.39 (95% CI: 0.20–0.58), and 0.17 (95% CI: 0.02–0.32) between observers 1 and 2, observers 1 and 3, and observers 2 and 3, respectively. Based on the Graf method, 14% of the stable hips had abnormal USs; by contrast, 19.2% of the subluxatable hips and 17.8% of the dislocatable/dislocated hips had normal Graf morphologies. In USs interpreted using FHC, 16% of stable hips demonstrated abnormal coverage, whereas 13.5% of subluxatable hips and 4.4% of dislocatable/dislocated hips had normal FHC.Incidence of clinically detectable hip instability was 9.8% among newborns in our series. Both alpha angle and FHC ratio revealed substantial interobserver agreement while beta angle achieved moderate agreement. FHC ratio possesses higher sensitivity and similar specificity compared with the Graf method when screening unstable hips.Level II, development of diagnostic criteria on basis of consecutive patients

An Integrated Bi-Objective Mathematical Model for Minimizing Take-off Delay and Passenger Dissatisfaction

As air transportation has increased in recent years, it is necessary for airport planners to optimally manage aircraft ground traffic on stands, taxiways and runways in order to minimize flight delay and passenger dissatisfaction. A closer look at the literature in this area indicates that most studies have merely focused on one of these resources which in a macroscopic level may result in aircrafts’ collision and ground traffic at the airport. In this paper, a new bi-objective Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model is developed to help airport management to integrate Gate Assignment Problem (GAP) and Runway Scheduling Problem (RSP) considering taxiing operation for departing flights. The proposed model aims to help airport planners to 1) minimize any deviation from preferred schedule and 2) minimize transit passengers’ walking distance. Due to the complexity of the research problem, a Normalized Weighted Sum Method (NWSM) is applied to solve small-sized problems and two meta-heuristics, namely NSGA-II and MOGWO, are used for large-scale instances to generate Pareto optimal solutions. The performance of these algorithms is assessed by well-known coverage and convergence measures. Based on the most criteria, the results indicate that MOGWO outperforms NSGA-II.

Developing a model for multi-objective optimization of open channels and labyrinth weirs: Theory and application in Isfahan Irrigation Networks

Finding an optimal design for hydraulic structures and devices, which work together in irrigation networks, can be formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem. In this paper, a novel framework is proposed for simultaneous optimization of an open channel section and a labyrinth weir geometry. A recently proposed optimizer called Multi-Objective Multi-Verse Optimization (MOMVO) algorithm is employed and its results are compared with Pareto Envelope-based Selection Algorithm II (PESA-II) and Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) using five metrics, including spacing (SP), Maximum Spread (MS), Non-uniformity of Pareto Front (NPF), Mean Ideal Distance (MID), and Coverage Measure (CM). The first objective function is defined to minimize the construction costs per unit length of the open channel, and the second one is to minimize total concrete volume of the labyrinth weir. The results showed significant differences between MOMVO Pareto optimal solutions and the other two algorithms. The least values of SP, NPF, and MID metrics were provided by MOMVO, which meant its solutions had better conditions regarding uniformity and the closeness to the ideal point. To optimize irrigation network as a system, penalty functions were applied to satisfy hydraulic conditions (flow velocity, Froude number, and nappe interference). Results showed that if the proposed model had been employed in Isfahan Irrigation Networks (IINs) design, it would have reduced the construction costs of open channel and labyrinth weir approximately 11% and 74%, respectively. It can be reported that the most cost-effective design has the least channel wetted perimeter, channel cross-section top width, cross-sectional area, and labyrinth apex length; and the highest channel depth, and weir sidewall angles.

Marine predators algorithm for optimal allocation of active and reactive power resources in distribution networks

The principal motivation of the marine predators algorithm (MPA) is the common foraging technique, including Levy and Brownian motions in ocean predators coupled with optimal contact intensity policy in predator–prey biological interaction. This paper proposes an improved marine predators algorithm (IMPA), which is an extension of the original MPA. The suggested improvements lead to rapid convergence and avoid local minima stagnation for the original MPA. IMPA controls the active and reactive power injected into distribution systems to minimize the total system losses and the total voltage deviations and maximize the voltage stability and improve the distribution system's overall performance. On the one hand, the proposed IMPA determines the optimal location and active power (location and size, respectively) of distributed generation (DG). On the other hand, the IMPA controls reactive power by optimally placing and sizing the shunt capacitors (SCs) and determining the PF of DGs. Two standard test systems, 69-bus and 118-bus distribution networks, are considered to prove the proposed algorithm’s efficiency and scalability. Results of the proposed IMPA are compared with those obtained by MPA, AEO, and PSO algorithms. The findings of the simulation results demonstrate that the proposed IMPA can effectively find the optimal problem solutions and beats the other algorithms. Moreover, the framework of multi-objective IMPA outperforms based on MPA in terms of the performance measures of diversity, spacing, coverage, and hypervolume.

Adaptive Test Case Allocation, Selection and Generation Using Coverage Spectrum and Operational Profile

We present an adaptive software testing strategy for test case allocation, selection and generation, based on the combined use of operational profile and coverage spectrum, aimed at achieving high delivered reliability of the program under test. Operational profile-based testing is a black-box technique considered well suited when reliability is a major concern, as it selects the test cases having the largest impact on failure probability in operation. Coverage spectrum is a characterization of a program's behavior in terms of the code entities (e.g., branches, statements, functions) that are covered as the program executes. The proposed strategy - named covrel+ - complements operational profile information with white-box coverage measures, so as to adaptively select/generate the most effective test cases for improving reliability as testing proceeds. We assess covrel+ through experiments with subjects commonly used in software testing research, comparing results with traditional operational testing. The results show that exploiting operational and coverage data in an integrated adaptive way allows generally to outperform operational testing at achieving a given reliability target, or at detecting faults under the same testing budget, and that covrel+ has greater ability than operational testing in detecting hard-to-detect faults.

A model and algorithm for identifying driver pathways based on weighted non-binary mutation matrix

It is generally acknowledged that driver pathway plays a decisive role in the occurrence and progress of tumors, and the identification of driver pathways has become imperative for precision medicine or personalized medicine. Due to the inevitable sequencing error, the noise contained in single omics cancer data usually plays a negative effect on identification. It is a feasible approach to take advantage of multi-omics cancer data rather than a single one now that large amounts of multi-omics cancer data have become available. The identification of driver pathways by integrating multi-omics cancer data has attracted attention of researchers in bioinformatics recently. In this paper, a weighted non-binary mutation matrix is constructed by integrating copy number variations, somatic mutations and gene expressions. Based on the weighted non-binary mutation matrix, a new identification model is proposed through defining new measurements of coverage and exclusivity. Then, a cooperative coevolutionary algorithm CGA-MWS is put forward for solving the presented model. Both real cancer data and simulated one were used to conduct comparisons among methods Dendrix, GA, iMCMC, MOGA, PGA-MWS and CGA-MWS. Compared with the pathways identified by the other five methods, more genes, belonging to the pathway identified by the CGA-MWS method, are enriched in a known signaling pathway in most cases. Simultaneously, the high efficiency of method CGA-MWS makes it practical in realistic applications. All of which have been verified through a number of experiments.

Specify and measure, cover and reveal: A unified framework for automated test generation

• Automatic test input generation is a major topic in software engineering. • We define a new coverage specification mechanism, called labels. • We propose innovative testing techniques for labels. • Label coverage provides a rich framework to handle test objectives. Automatic test input generation (ATG) is a major topic in software engineering, analysis and security. In this paper, we bridge the gap between state-of-the-art white-box ATG techniques, especially Dynamic Symbolic Execution, and the diversity of test objectives that they may be used to cover in practice, including many of those defined by common source-code coverage criteria. We define a new coverage specification mechanism, called labels, for specifying test objectives, and prove it to be both expressive and amenable to efficient automation. We present an efficient approach for detecting – revealing – infeasible (i.e. uncoverable) test objectives expressed as labels. We demonstrate that measuring the achieved coverage can be efficiently performed for labels. Finally, we propose an innovative extension of DSE resulting in an efficient support for label coverage , while the existing naive approach induces an exponential blow-up of the search space. Experiments show that our ATG technique yields very significant savings and confirm the interest of infeasible label detection, enabling to lift DSE to label coverage with only a slight overhead. Overall, we show that label coverage provides the basis of a rich framework allowing one to express and handle test objectives from various contexts in an efficient and generic manner. To illustrate this framework, we describe LTest , an all-in-one testing toolset based on labels and used in the industry, which offers automatic program annotation, ATG, coverage measurement and detection of infeasible test objectives.

Towards a new consolidated framework for analysing benefit coverage

The conceptualisation and measurement of benefit coverage is muddled with considerable confusion. In this forum contribution, we propose a new consolidated framework for the analysis of benefit coverage. Three sequential steps in measurement are suggested, involving the calculation of coverage rates, eligibility rates and take-up rates in social protection. Each step of the analysis focuses on particular aspects of programme legislation and implementation, and together the new framework will substantially improve the possibilities of research to inform policymaking. We provide an empirical illustration of our approach based on Swedish data, and highlight how our new consolidated framework for analysing benefit coverage provides a reorientation of the research agenda on benefit coverage.

A News-Based Policy Index for Italy: Expectations and Fiscal Policy

In this paper we investigate the effect of a news-based policy shock on consumption and investments. To this aim, we construct a new measure of policy announcements, the Policy News Index (PNI), analyzing textual data from the most important Italian business newspaper (Il Sole 24 Ore). To disentangle and noise from fiscal policy communication, we provide measures of newspaper coverage of policy announcements purged from uncertainty. Using a BVAR, we estimate the response of households and firms to a on government spending. Results indicate that the news or foresight shock has delayed effects on government spending, consumption and investments. Agents receive mixed signals from newspapers about changes in government spending and they do not react before changes are fully in place due to a lack of trust. Additionally, we show in a counterfactual exercise that the confidence channel plays a crucial role in in the transmission of the shock. Hence, our results provides evidence that outcomes are expectations-driven.

Uterotonics for prevention of postpartum haemorrhage: EN-BIRTH multi-country validation study

BackgroundPostpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is a leading cause of preventable maternal mortality worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends uterotonic administration for every woman after birth to prevent PPH. There are no standardised data collected in large-scale measurement platforms. The Every Newborn Birth Indicators Research Tracking in Hospitals (EN-BIRTH) is an observational study to assess the validity of measurement of maternal and newborn indicators, and this paper reports findings regarding measurement of coverage and quality for uterotonics.MethodsThe EN-BIRTH study took place in five hospitals in Bangladesh, Nepal and Tanzania, from July 2017 to July 2018. Clinical observers collected tablet-based, time-stamped data. We compared observation data for uterotonics to routine hospital register-records and women’s report at exit-interview survey. We analysed the coverage and quality gap for timing and dose of administration. The register design was evaluated against gap analyses and qualitative interview data assessing the barriers and enablers to data recording and use.ResultsObserved uterotonic coverage was high in all five hospitals (> 99%, 95% CI 98.7–99.8%). Survey-report underestimated coverage (79.5 to 91.7%). “Don’t know” replies varied (2.1 to 14.4%) and were higher after caesarean (3.7 to 59.3%). Overall, there was low accuracy in survey data for details of uterotonic administration (type and timing). Register-recorded coverage varied in four hospitals capturing uterotonics in a specific column (21.6, 64.5, 97.6, 99.4%). The average coverage measurement gap was 18.1% for register-recorded and 6.0% for survey-reported coverage. Uterotonics were given to 15.9% of women within the “right time” (1 min) and 69.8% within 3 min. Women’s report of knowing the purpose of uterotonics after birth ranged from 0.4 to 64.9% between hospitals. Enabling register design and adequate staffing were reported to improve routine recording.ConclusionsRoutine registers have potential to track uterotonic coverage – register data were highly accurate in two EN-BIRTH hospitals, compared to consistently underestimated coverage by survey-report. Although uterotonic coverage was high, there were gaps in observed quality for timing and dose. Standardisation of register design and implementation could improve data quality and data flow from registers into health management information reporting systems, and requires further assessment.