Crude Estimates Research Articles

Incidence and prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease in UK primary care: a population-based cohort study

ObjectivesWe describe temporal trends in the recorded incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in UK primary care patients between 2000 and 2018.DesignA cohort study.SettingThe IQVIA Medical Research data (IMRD) primary...

Bounds for Wave Speeds in the Riemann Problem: Direct Theoretical Estimates

In this paper we provide bound estimates for the two fastest wave speeds emerging from the solution of the Riemann problem for three well-known hyperbolic systems, namely the Euler equations of gas dynamics, the shallow water equations and the blood flow equations for arteries. Several approaches are presented, all being direct, that is non-iterative. The resulting bounds range from crude but simple estimates to accurate but sophisticated estimates that make limited use of information from the solution of the Riemann problem. Through a carefully chosen suite of test problems we asses our wave speed estimates against exact solutions and against previously proposed wave speed estimates. The results confirm that the derived theoretical bounds are actually so, from below and above, for minimal and maximal wave speeds respectively. The results also show that popular previously proposed estimates do not bound the true wave speeds in general. Applications in mind, but not pursued here, include (i) reliable implementation of the Courant condition to determine a stable time step in all explicit methods for hyperbolic equations; (ii) use in local time stepping algorithms and (iii) construction of HLL-type numerical fluxes for hyperbolic equations.

Endometrial scratch injury with office hysteroscopy before IVF/ICSI: A randomised controlled trial

ObjectiveEndometrial scratch injury (ESI) has been proposed to improve endometrial receptivity and thereby increase implantation rates in assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment. ESI has been widely incorporated into clinical practice despite inconclusive evidence of its effect on reproductive outcomes. We aimed to assess pregnancy and live birth rates in subfertile women receiving ESI before IVF treatment in comparison to controls. Study designThis was a randomised controlled trial (RCT) with no blinding of participants, investigators or health care personnel. Women in ART treatment were allocated to either office hysteroscopy with ESI (ESI group) or no intervention (control group). In total 184 women in IVF/ICSI treatment with minimum one previous failed IVF/ICSI cycle, were included in the final analysis. The primary outcome was positive serum hCG (s-hCG). Secondary outcomes were ongoing pregnancy and live birth rate. Only per-protocol analyses were performed as all patients included at one centre had to be excluded. The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01743391. ResultsOur results showed a non-significant increase in positive s-hCG (OR 1.23, 95 % CI (0.65–2.33)), ongoing pregnancy (OR 1.52, 95 % CI (0.73–3.17)), and live birth rates (OR 1.69, 95 % CI (0.78–3.64)) per randomised woman between the ESI and the control group. ConclusionWe observed no significant differences in positive s-hCG or other reproductive outcomes in the ESI vs. the control group. While the crude estimates of positive reproductive outcomes were higher in the ESI group, statistical significance was not reached, and the study was not powered to show smaller differences. However, data from this study will be re-evaluated in the context of an individual participant data meta-analysis (IPD-MA) of RCTs on ESI.

H-Infnitiy for world crude oil price estimation

In international or globalised trading, commodity trading does not only depend on the commodity, but also the role that companies have in commodity production and distribution. One step made by oil companies clearly determine the world oil prices associated with oil deposits (inventory) and drilling. The strategy they adopt in production will also be have strong effects on the world oil price trends. To observe the fluctuation of the world oil prices, an effort shall be made by estimating the world crude oil prices so that entrepreneurs can predict when the world oil prices fall or rise and determine policies in the production and use of oil. This study was to aplly method of the world crude oil price estimation, namely H-Infinity to determine the right decision the oil entrepreneurs shall make regarding the world crude oil. The simulation results showed that the application the H-Infinity method had an accuracy of around 97-98%.

Quality-Adjusted Coverage of Nutrition Interventions Across the Continuum of Care: Insights from Household and Health Facility Data in Bangladesh

Abstract Objectives Improving the impact of nutrition interventions requires adequate measurement of both reach and quality of interventions, but limited evidence exists on advancing coverage measurement. We adjust crude health coverage estimates, taking into consideration the inputs required to deliver quality nutrition services, across the continuum of care in Bangladesh. Methods We used data from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys 2014 to assess use of maternal and child health services and Service Provision Assessments 2014 to determine facility readiness to deliver nutrition interventions during antenatal (ANC), institutional delivery, and postnatal care (PNC). Service readiness was computed as the mean availability of four nutrition-specific inputs, capturing human resources and training, equipment, diagnostics, and medicines. Crude coverage was combined with service readiness to create a measure of input-adjusted nutrition coverage at the national and regional levels, across place of residence, and by maternal educational and household socio-economic quintiles. Results Crude coverage varied, with greater use of any ANC (79%) and postnatal care (61–81%), than institutional delivery (37%). Nutrition service readiness was lower than crude coverage at each time point, such that nutrition input-adjusted coverage was 45% for ANC, 25% for institutional delivery, and 38–49% for preventive and sick child postnatal care, respectively. Input-adjusted coverage varied by 10–22 percentage points (pp) between regions within the country. Inequalities in input-adjusted coverage were large during ANC and institutional delivery (12–17 pp between urban and rural areas, ∼17pp between low and high education, and 30–36pp between highest and lowest wealth quintiles), and less variable for postnatal care (<10%). Conclusions Nutrition input-adjusted coverage was suboptimal and varied sub-nationally and across the continuum of care in Bangladesh. Special efforts are needed to improve the reach as well as the quality of health and nutrition services to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Funding Sources Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through A4NH.

Time Course of COVID-19 Cases in Austria.

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus, which first appeared in China in late 2019, and reached pandemic distribution in early 2020. The first major outbreak in Europe occurred in Northern Italy where it spread to neighboring countries, notably to Austria, where skiing resorts served as a main transmission hub. Soon, the Austrian government introduced strict measures to curb the spread of the virus. Using publicly available data, we assessed the efficiency of the governmental measures. We assumed an average incubation period of one week and an average duration of infectivity of 10 days. One week after the introduction of strict measures, the increase in daily new cases was reversed, and the reproduction number dropped. The crude estimates tended to overestimate the reproduction rate in the early phase. Publicly available data provide a first estimate about the effectiveness of public health measures. However, more data are needed for an unbiased assessment.

Combination of thermodynamic knowledge and multilayer feedforward neural networks for accurate prediction of MS temperature in steels

The combination of multilayer feedforward neural networks (MLFFNN) and thermodynamic knowledge has excellent advantages to study the complicated phenomena in material science. In the present study, a thermodynamic knowledge-based MLFFNN has been developed to predict the martensite start temperature (MS) of steels that accounts for the variations in critical driving force (ΔGc) and austenitization temperature (Tγ). This is achieved by integrating two crudely estimated properties (ΔGc and Tγ) in the feature space. Instead of using the original dataset directly, the feature space was reshaped by kernel principal component analysis (KPCA). The genetic algorithm was implemented to find a suitable hyperparameters set that was able to induce a model with high predictive capability. The resulting neural network performs well in the present dataset, and the RMSE in the unseen datasets is 21.52 K. Benchmarking of the MLFFNN predictions against JmatPro-V8 calculations also shows a significant improvement in predictive accuracy. Results indicate KPCA and the integration of crude estimation property (CEP) boost the predictive accuracy of MLFFNN. Besides, the present study also demonstrates the CEP strategy is general enough to be employed in several well-known machine learning methods including support vector regression, decision tree and Gaussian process regression.

Risk Factors of Infectious Complications after Ureteroscopy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Based on Adjusted Effect Estimate.

Background: Multiple studies have reported that gender, pre-operative stent insertion, positive pre-operative urine culture results, and diabetes mellitus are associated with infectious complication after ureteroscopy. A previous meta-analysis focused on this topic is based, however, on crude estimate. Further analysis based on adjusted estimates is needed. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library database were searched with ureteroscopy, ureteroscopies, ureteroscopic surgical procedures, ureteroscopic surgery, ureteroscopic lithotripsy, flexible ureteroscopic lithotripsy, ureteroscopy (URS), flexible ureterorenoscopy, risk factor, predictor, predicting model, and nomogram until December 15, 2019. The quality of research was evaluated by Newcastle-Ottawa Scale system. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of each risk factor were extracted. Meta-analysis was performed with Stata 15.0 software. Heterogeneity was assessed by I2. Publication bias was tested by the Egger test, and funnel plot. Meta-regressions and subgroup analysis were further performed. Results: There were 16 studies; 12,357 patients finally were included in this meta-analysis. The association between gender (OR = 1.82, 95% CI: 1.48-2.23, I2 = 0%, p = 0.701), pre-operative ureteric stent insertion (OR = 1.91, 95% CI: 1.26-2.91, I2 = 40.4%, p = 0.109), diabetes mellitus (OR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.07-1.85, I2 = 34.1%, p = 0.168), positive urine culture before URS (OR: 2.18, 95% CI: 1.34-3.57, I2 = 47.2%, p = 0.092), operation duration (OR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01-1.04, I2 = 70.6%, p = 0.001) and infectious complications was positively significant. All four pooled results were different from results of meta-analysis based on crude estimate. Conclusion: Female gender, pre-operative ureteric stent insertion, diabetes mellitus, positive urine culture results before URS, and operation duration are risk factors for infectious complications after URS. Meta-analysis based on adjusted estimates may be more convincing.

Evidence for extensive anaerobic dechlorination and transformation of the pesticide chlordecone (C10Cl10O) by indigenous microbes in microcosms from Guadeloupe soil.

The historic use of chlordecone (C10Cl10O) as a pesticide to control banana weevil infestations has resulted in pollution of large land areas in the French West Indies. Although currently banned, chlordecone persists because it adsorbs strongly to soil and its complex bis-homocubane structure is stable, particularly under aerobic conditions. Abiotic chemical transformation catalyzed by reduced vitamin B12 has been shown to break down chlordecone by opening the cage structure to produce C9 polychloroindenes. More recently these C9 polychloroindenes were also observed as products of anaerobic microbiological transformation. To investigate the anaerobic biotransformation of chlordecone by microbes native to the French West Indies, microcosms were constructed anaerobically from chlordecone impacted Guadeloupe soil and sludge to mimic natural attenuation and eletron donor-stimulated reductive dechlorination. Original microcosms and transfers were incubated over a period of 8 years, during which they were repeatedly amended with chlordecone and electron donor (ethanol and acetone). Using LC-MS, chlordecone and degradation products were detected in all the biologically active microcosms. Observed products included monohydro-, dihydro- and trihydrochlordecone derivatives (C10Cl10-nO2Hn; n = 1,2,3), as well as “open cage” C9 polychloroindene compounds (C9Cl5-nH3+n n = 0,1,2) and C10 carboxylated polychloroindene derivatives (C10Cl4-nO2H4+n, n = 0–3). Products with as many as 9 chlorine atoms removed were detected. These products were not observed in sterile (poisoned) microcosms. Chlordecone concentrations decreased in active microcosms as concentrations of products increased, indicating that anaerobic dechlorination processes have occurred. The data enabled a crude estimation of partitioning coefficients between soil and water, showing that carboxylated intermediates sorb poorly and as a consequence may be flushed away, while polychlorinated indenes sorb strongly to soil. Microbial community analysis in microcosms revealed enrichment of anaerobic fermenting and acetogenic microbes possibly involved in anaerobic chlordecone biotransformation. It thus should be possible to stimuilate anaerobic dechlorination through donor amendment to contaminated soils, particularly as some metabolites (in particular pentachloroindene) were already detected in field samples as a result of intrinsic processes. Extensive dechlorination in the microcosms, with evidence for up to 9 Cl atoms removed from the parent molecule is game-changing, giving hope to the possibility of using bioremediation to reduce the impact of CLD contamination.

Long‐term exposure to air pollution and risk of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma in Denmark: A population‐based case–control study

There is limited evidence regarding a possible association between exposure to ambient air pollutants and the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Previous epidemiological studies have relied on crude estimations for air pollution exposure and/or small numbers of NHL cases. The objective of our study was to analyze this association based on air pollution modeled at the address level and NHL cases identified from the nationwide Danish Cancer Registry. We identified 20,874 incident NHL cases diagnosed between 1989 and 2014 and randomly selected 41,749 controls matched on age and gender among the entire Danish population. We used conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and adjusted for individual and neighborhood level sociodemographic variables. There was no association between exposure to PM2.5 , BC, O3 , SO2 or NO2 and overall risk of NHL but several air pollutants were associated with higher risk of follicular lymphoma, but statistically insignificant, for example, PM2.5 (OR = 1.15 per 5 μg/m3 ; 95% CI: 0.98-1.34) and lower risk for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (OR = 0.92 per 5 μg/m3 ; 95% CI: 0.82-1.03). In this population-based study, we did not observe any convincing evidence of a higher overall risk for NHL with higher exposure to ambient air pollutants.

Robust Gradient-Based Markov Subsampling

Subsampling is a widely used and effective method to deal with the challenges brought by big data. Most subsampling procedures are designed based on the importance sampling framework, where samples with high importance measures are given corresponding sampling probabilities. However, in the highly noisy case, these samples may cause an unstable estimator which could lead to a misleading result. To tackle this issue, we propose a gradient-based Markov subsampling (GMS) algorithm to achieve robust estimation. The core idea is to construct a subset which allows us to conservatively correct a crude initial estimate towards the true signal. Specifically, GMS selects samples with small gradients via a probabilistic procedure, constructing a subset that is likely to exclude noisy samples and provide a safe improvement over the initial estimate. We show that the GMS estimator is statistically consistent at a rate which matches the optimal in the minimax sense. The promising performance of GMS is supported by simulation studies and real data examples.

The effect of number of healthcare visits on study sample selection in electronic health record data.

IntroductionFew studies have addressed how to select a study sample when using electronic health record (EHR) data.ObjectiveTo examine how changing criterion for number of visits in EHR data required for inclusion in a study sample would impact one basic epidemiologic measure: estimates of disease period prevalence.MethodsYear 2016 EHR data from three Midwestern health systems (Northwestern Medicine in Illinois, University of Iowa Health Care, and Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, all regional tertiary health care systems including hospitals and clinics) was used to examine how alternate definitions of the study sample, based on number of healthcare visits in one year, affected measures of disease period prevalence. In 2016, each of these health systems saw between 160,000 and 420,000 unique patients. Curated collections of ICD-9, ICD-10, and SNOMED codes (from CMS-approved electronic clinical quality measures) were used to define three diseases: acute myocardial infarction, asthma, and diabetic nephropathy). ResultsAcross all health systems, increasing the minimum required number of visits to be included in the study sample monotonically increased crude period prevalence estimates. The rate at which prevalence estimates increased with number of visits varied across sites and across diseases.ConclusionIn addition to providing thorough descriptions of case definitions, when using EHR data authors must carefully describe how a study sample is identified and report data for a range of sample definitions, including minimum number of visits, so that others can assess the sensitivity of reported results to sample definition in EHR data.Key wordsElectronic Health Records, Sampling Studies, Prevalence, Methods

Hypothesis for a mechanism of beam-induced motion in cryo-electron microscopy.

Estimates of heat-transfer rates during plunge-cooling and the patterns of ice observed in cryo-EM samples indicate that the grid bars cool much more slowly than do the support foil and sample near the middle of the grid openings. The resulting transient temperature differences generate transient tensile stresses in the support foil. Most of this foil stress develops while the sample is liquid and cooling toward its glass transition T g, and so does not generate tensile sample stress. As the grid bars continue cooling towards the cryogen temperature and contracting, the tensile stress in the foil is released, placing the sample in compressive stress. Radiation-induced creep in the presence of this compressive stress should generate a doming of the sample in the foil openings, as is observed experimentally. Crude estimates of the magnitude of the doming that may be generated by this mechanism are consistent with observation. Several approaches to reducing beam-induced motion are discussed.

Maternal and neonatal outcomes associated with biologic exposure before and during pregnancy in women with inflammatory systemic diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.

To determine the association between exposure to biologics in pregnant women with inflammatory systemic diseases and maternal and neonatal outcomes through a meta-analysis of findings from studies identified in a systematic review. We conducted a systematic review of Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews to identify observational studies assessing the perinatal impacts of biologic in women with inflammatory systemic disease. Findings were meta-analysed across included studies with random-effects models. Crude risk estimates and, where possible, adjusted risk estimates were pooled to determine the impact on results when confounding is addressed. Overall, 24 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Meta-analyses of crude risk estimates resulted in pooled odds ratios (OR) for the association of biologic use during pregnancy and the following respective outcomes: congenital anomalies (1.30, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.67), preterm birth (OR 1.61, 95% CI: 1.37, 1.89), and low birth weight (OR 1.68, 95% CI: 1.21, 2.31). However, in pooled analyses of adjusted risk estimates we observed that the association between biologics use during pregnancy in disease-matched exposed and unexposed pregnant women was no longer statistically significant for congenital anomalies (adjusted OR 1.18, 95% CI: 0.88, 1.57). Pooled results from studies reporting adjusted risk estimates showed no increased risk of congenital anomalies associated with biologics use, suggesting that increased rates of adverse outcomes may be due to disease activity itself or other confounders.

Survival and Years of Good Life in Finland in the very long run

In this paper we apply the recently developed wellbeing indicator ‘Years of Good Life’ (YoGL) to Finland, which has the world’s longest annual demographic time series starting in 1722. We combine this with scenarios up to 2100 as developed under the SSP (Shared Socioeconomic Pathways) framework. YoGL is based primarily on the trend in life expectancy but it also considers age-specific proportions of persons above critical levels of quality of life indicators (using the Sullivan method). Since estimating these indicators for historical populations is a major challenge, the paper uses a wide array of sources to come up with a first crude estimation of how quality of life has changed in Finland over the centuries.

Abstract WP236: The Urban-Rural Divide: Risk Factor Prevalence in Ischemic Stroke Patients Across Two Decades

Introduction: Regional disparities exist in stroke incidence and stroke related mortality in the United States. We aimed to elucidate the stroke risk factor prevalence trends based on urban versus rural location. Methods: From the National Inpatient Sample database the comorbid stroke risk factors were collected among hospitalized ischemic stroke patients during 2000-2016. Crude and age-and sex-standardized prevalence estimates were calculated for each risk factor during the time periods 2000-2008 and 2009-2016. We compared risk factor prevalence over the defined time periods using regression models, and differences in risk factor trends based on patient location categorized as urban (metropolitan with population of ≥ 1 million) and rural (neither micropolitan or metropolitan) using interaction terms in the regression models. Results: Stroke risk factor prevalence significantly increased from 2000-2008 to 2009-2016. When stratified based on patient location, most risk factors increased in both urban and rural groups. In the crude model, the urban to rural trend difference across 2000-08 and 2009-16 was significant in hypertension (p<0.0001), hyperlipidemia (p=0.0008), diabetes mellitus (p<0.0001), coronary artery disease (p<0.0001), smoking (p<0.0001) and alcohol (p=0.02). With age and sex standardization, the urban to rural trend difference was significant in hypertension (p<0.0001), hyperlipidemia (p=0.0007), coronary artery disease (p=0.01) and smoking (p<0.0001). Conclusion: The prevalence of vascular risk factors among ischemic stroke patients has increased over the last two decades. There exists an urban-rural divide, with rural patients showing larger increases in prevalence of several risk factors compared to urban patients.

Validation of the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 and estimation of the population prevalence of food addiction.

Food addiction (FA) is likely to contribute to the global obesity epidemic. Most studies of FA have been conducted within clinical and/or highly selected populations, suggesting that prevalence estimates of FA may be biased. This is problematic as valid estimates of the population prevalence of FA is a requirement for informing and designing public health initiatives focusing on this phenotype. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the weighted prevalence of food addiction in the adult general population of Denmark. A random sample of 5000 individuals aged 18 to 62 from the Danish population was invited to participate in a survey, which included the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS 2.0) and several rating scales measuring eating pathology and other psychopathology. Health, demographic and socioeconomic data from the Danish registers were linked to all invitees to allow for attrition analysis. The analysis had three steps: I) Psychometric validation of the Danish version of YFAS 2.0 II) Attrition analysis to examine selection bias, and III) Estimation of the weighted prevalence of FA taking attrition into account. The confirmatory factor analysis of the YFAS 2.0 supported a one-factor model, and the scale had good internal consistency. The YFAS 2.0 score correlated with eating pathology including binge eating frequency, impulsivity and body mass index (BMI). The survey response rate was 34.0% (n=1699) with a slight overrepresentation of respondents with higher socioeconomic status. The crude prevalence of FA was 9.0%. When taking attrition into account, the weighted prevalence of FA was 9.4% CI 95% [7.9-10.9]. The psychometric properties of the Danish version of the YFAS 2.0 were good. The weighted prevalence of FA was very similar to the crude prevalence estimate. This suggests that attrition may not be a large problem when estimating the prevalence of FA with the YFAS 2.0.

Weighting methodology for the national EVREST survey data

The main objective was to describe the weighting methodology used for the national EVREST (Evolution and Relations in Health at Work) survey data. The secondary objectives were on the one hand to assess the extent of the differences between crude and weighted estimates, on the other hand to verify that the two-year gap in the availability of the reference data used does substantially not impact the estimates. The study was based on data collected in 2013 and 2014 (N=26,227). The weighting included 2steps: 1)a first weighing to take into account the probability of participation of each employee; and 2)a calibration on margins to correct the potential distortions of the sample in comparison with the scope of the survey, the reference data used coming from the annual declarations of social data (DADS) of the years 2014 and 2012. The impact of the weighting method was studied using the differences between crude and weighted percentages for the 60variables of the questionnaire. 90% of the differences between crude and weighted estimates were between -2.0% and +2.0% using the 2014 DADS, and 83% using the 2012 DADS. The most overestimated crude estimate concerned full-time work and the most underestimated was contact with the public. The impact of the two-year gap in the availability of the reference data used was weak. A weighting methodology for EVREST survey was define and implement, allowing results to be extrapolated to the scope of the survey.

Reconstructing the population dynamics of foreign residents in Japan to estimate the prevalence of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Among newly notified tuberculosis cases in Japan, both the number and the proportion of foreign-born cases have steadily increased over time. As Japan prepares to introduce pre-entry tuberculosis screening for foreign-born persons entering Japan, various epidemiological evidence is needed to evaluate its effectiveness, including the prevalence of tuberculosis among current foreign residents in Japan, by country of birth. Yet as of today, even the underlying population dynamics has yet to be quantified. The present study therefore aimed to firstly reconstruct the demographic prevalence of foreign residents by the length of stay in Japan and by country of birth, and secondly, to estimate the prevalence of infection from notification data among foreign residents in Japan. We employed the McKendrick partial differential equation model to reconstruct the dynamics among six Asian countries which account for 80% of foreign-born tuberculosis patients notified in Japan i.e. China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia, and Myanmar. Compared with China and the Philippines, the recent remarkable increase in the number of residents who had arrived within 5 years from Myanmar and Vietnam was identified. Assuming that the risk of primary tuberculosis given infection is 5%, the estimated prevalence of infection ranged from 3.5% to 21.3%, and all the estimates were more than three times greater than the crude estimate that ignored the time since immigration. The proposed method may be used to further estimate the prevalence by age, sex and residential status, which could potentially provide critical evidence towards establishing policies to control tuberculosis among foreign-born persons in Japan, and also possibly among migrants globally.

Of Modernity, House Prices and Suspending Singularity of Time

Why do we buy houses as opposed to renting one? This question, in its simplistic formulation captures, inter alia, some of the most fundamental emotions of temporal values that we impose on ourselves. Yet, the question has attracted little scholarly scrutiny. The article, using this question as a case, attempts to excavate the silences of our imagination of time in the cacophony of modernity. Time has had varying versions of existence in the modern world. When time is singular, it has the same meaning attributed to by everyone in the same community. A pluralistic conception of time is the exact opposite. I use discount rates as a unique entry point to understand how people view their future (time), and thereby a conceptual aperture to see if time is losing its singularity or not. More importantly, how so. I collected data on house prices in India in five major metropolitan cities in India and compared those prices with rental values. The crude estimation is a useful proxy to observe discount rates, and consequently, varying conceptions of time. I show that time has become a homogenized entity for people falling in similar economic class while it has lost its singularity for those within the same social class (community). This gets folded into questions of ethical implications of modernity’s impact on one’s aspirations.