Monetary Constraints Research Articles

Poverty-Related causes of School Dropout- Dilemma of the Girl Child in Rural Zimbabwe

The study sought to examine teachers’ and heads’ perceptions on the poverty-related causes of school dropout among girls in rural Zimbabwe. A sample of 40 randomly selected teachers and five heads from schools participated in the study. An open-ended questionnaire was administered to the teacher sample while heads were interviewed. The content analysis approach was used to analyse data. From the findings, poverty emerged as the underlying cause of school dropout, combined with more obvious causes such as HIV and AIDS, monetary constraints, attitudes towards education, cultural practices, religious practices, misconduct, schools and teachers, and peer influence. The findings indicate a need for communal support systems to be encouraged to assist struggling families who cannot afford to pay school fees for their children. Cultural and familial practices should be addressed to afford girl children opportunities to attend school until they meaningfully complete their studies.

What does Egypt's Revolution Reveal about its Economy?

ABSTRACTOn the third anniversary of the Egyptian revolution and against the backdrop of lingering political instability and deteriorating economic conditions, we diagnose the constraints to sectoral growth in Egypt using the 2011 Egyptian revolution as a natural experiment. We combine quantile regressions to study sector outliers with a difference in difference methodology to capture sectoral behavior before and after revolution. We find that the revolution's effect has been adverse, on average, but heterogeneous across sectors. We identify and characterize sectors most and least impacted. Results reveal that Egypt's fastest growing sectors before Revolution have been the most vulnerable after Revolution. This evidence is supported by our diagnosis approach that shows that faster growing sectors are constrained by continuous increases in prices that threaten export competitiveness (as they erode the benefits accrued to nominal depreciation of currency). Such sectors also benefited from higher monetary growth and fewer constraints on credit availability that have mitigated somewhat the speed of deterioration in the aftermath of the revolution. Our results, which hold under several robustness checks, inform policy priorities as to how to revive investors’ confidence, boost competitiveness, and design priorities in industrial policy to ease structural impediments and align sectoral growth with macro priorities.

Essential medicine list 2011

Medicines are as important as health care workers. In developing countries patients has to travel many miles before seeing a health care professional. Many times they cannot afford medicines prescribed by doctors. Thus, they feel that their interaction with the doctor was futile. Availability of medicines at the point of care is of utmost importance if the public health system of a country is to be strengthened. This increases the confidence of common people in public health system of the country. Due to monetary constraints all the required medicines cannot be given by the government free of cost to its people. There must be a priority list of medicine or otherwise called essential list of medicines. The government should ensure the availability of these medicines at each health post. These medicines are carefully chosen after much deliberation and assessing the health profile of the country. Government of India developed an essential list of medicine in 2011. The last such list was developed in 2003. This paper reviews the essential medical list 2011 of India.

The Failure of Direct Monetary Constraints

Monetary authorities around the world have promised a safer money and that they would use this new authority to prevent future economic calamities. This claim has been met with abject failure throughout the history of central banks. Two questions emerge from: why do central bankers almost universally fail to accomplish their stated goals and what can be done about it? This paper identifies two main reasons for their failure: what has come to be known as the knowledge problem from Hayek (1945) and the very incentives of the central bankers to engage in expansionary monetary policy. Various policy proposals have emerged as a means of directly mitigating these failures. However, none have successfully managed to quell the problem of cheap and easy credit. A different solution is therefore necessary; this paper suggests doing so indirectly by eliminating their exclusive power over money. This solution no doubt has its own challenges (including legal challenges which must be overcome), but is nonetheless a viable solution. This paper provides is a clarification of the problem of central banks and encourages the defense of a process that may eventually yield a solution -- specifically, the market process.

Quantitative analysis of investment allocation over various resources of health care systems by using views of product lines

Hospitals can be viewed as service enterprises, of which the primary function is to provide specific sets of diagnostic and therapeutic medical services to individual patients. Each patient has certain diagnosis and therapeutic attributes in common with some other patients. Thus, patients with similar medical attributes could be ‘processed’ in one ‘product line’ of medical services, and individual treatments for patients within one ‘product line’ can be regarded as incurring identical consumption of health care resources. This article presents a theoretical framing for resource planning and investment allocation of various resources from a macro perspective of costs that demonstrates the need to plan capacity at the disaggregated resource level. The result of a balanced line (‘optimal’) is compared with an alternative scheme of ‘the same ratio composing of resources’ under the same monetary constraints. Thus, it is demonstrated that planning at the disaggregated level affords much better use of resources than achieved in common practice of budget control by simple percentage increase/decrease in distributing a financial vote.

The Extraordinary Story of an Artistic and Scientific Masterpiece:The Butterflies of North Americaby William Henry Edwards, 1868–1897

The creation of the book The Butterflies of North America by William H. Edwards is traced in detail. Much new information is presented, derived mostly from Edwards' extensive correspondence. It was issued from 1868 to 1897 in three series (volumes) of 42 separate parts. The first volume was published by the American Entomological Society, while the second and third volumes were published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company under several different names. The 152 hand-colored lithographic plates were drawn by five artists: Shelly W. Denton, Edward A. Ketterer, Mary Peart, Daniel Wiest, and an unidentified artist under the supervision of John Cassin. Most of the resulting prints were colored by sisters Lavinia (Lydia) Bowen and Patience D. Leslie, though many additional colorists were involved. Four plates were replaced after publication; the originals and their replacements are figured together for the first time. The first volume included a synopsis of species, which Edwards intended to revise in the second volume, but abandoned in favor of a simple list of taxa. Severe monetary constraints forced Edwards to sell his butterfly collection to help finance the third volume. Complete copies of the first and second volumes were assembled and sold for many years. Revised citations are proposed for each volume and their associated publications. New biographical information about Mary Peart is provided, including her portrait.

Disparity implications of the Medicare medication therapy management eligibility criteria: a literature review

The emphasis on eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare has received national attention, with various policy initiatives addressing this problem and proposing solutions. However, in the current economic era requiring tight monetary constraints, emphasis is increasingly being placed on economic efficiency, which often conflicts with the equality doctrine upon which many policies have been framed. The authors’ review aims to highlight the disparity implications of one such policy provision – the predominantly utilization-based eligibility criteria for medication therapy management services under Medicare Part D – by identifying studies that have documented racial and ethnic disparities in health status and the use of and spending on prescription medications. Future design and evaluation of various regulations and legislations employing utilization-based eligibility criteria must use caution in order to strike an equity–efficiency balance.

What is the risk of European sovereign debt defaults? Fiscal space, CDS spreads and market pricing of risk

We estimate the pricing of sovereign risk for fifty countries based on fiscal space (debt/tax; deficits/tax) and other economic fundamentals over 2005–10. We focus in particular on five countries in the South-West Eurozone Periphery, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Dynamic panel estimates show that fiscal space and other macroeconomic factors are statistically and economically important determinants of sovereign risk. However, risk-pricing of the Eurozone Periphery countries is not predicted accurately either in-sample or out-of-sample: unpredicted high spreads are evident during global crisis period, especially in 2010 when the sovereign debt crisis swept over the periphery area. We match the periphery group with five middle income countries outside Europe that were closest in terms of fiscal space during the European fiscal crisis. Eurozone Periphery default risk is priced much higher than the matched countries in 2010, even allowing for differences in fundamentals. One interpretation is that these economies switched to a “pessimistic” self-fulfilling expectational equilibrium. An alternative interpretation is that the market prices not on current but future fundamentals, expecting adjustment challenges in the Eurozone periphery to be more difficult for than the matched group of middle-income countries because of exchange rate and monetary constraints.

Happiness: What Can We Learn from Indonesian?

The economics of happiness is an interesting way to provide broader concept of wealth. It is able to provide insight on relative utility that is not only depending by income as mediated by individual choices or preferences within monetary budget constraint but also non monetary factors. Recent economic studies on happiness or subjective well being, most of them in developing countries, are able to give us some insight what makes individuals satisfied with their lives. Some of the studies in developed countries also found that within countries, higher level of income contribute on higher level of reported well being. Unfortunately, economic studies on happiness in developing countries, including Indonesia, are limited because of data limitation. Therefore, this paper analyzes the determinants of subjective well being in Indonesia assess whether there is positive association between individual wealth and happiness. Using Indonesia Family Life Survey Data Set, logistic regression analysis is used to identify the source of happiness from both economic and not economics variables..

Accommodating multiple constraints in the multiple discrete–continuous extreme value (MDCEV) choice model

Multiple-discrete continuous choice models formulated and applied in recent years consider a single linear resource constraint, which, when combined with consumer preferences, determines the optimal consumption point. However, in reality, consumers face multiple resource constraints such as those associated with time, money, and capacity. Ignoring such multiple constraints and instead using a single constraint can, and in general will, lead to poor data fit and inconsistent preference estimation, which can then have a serious negative downstream effect on forecasting and welfare/policy analysis.In this paper, we extend the multiple-discrete continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model to accommodate multiple constraints. The formulation uses a flexible and general utility function form, and is applicable to the case of complete demand systems as well as incomplete demand systems. The proposed MC-MDCEV model is applied to time-use decisions, where individuals are assumed to maximize their utility from time-use in one or more activities subject to monetary and time availability constraints. The sample for the empirical exercise is generated by combining time-use information from the 2008 American Time Use Survey and expenditure records from the 2008 US Consumer Expenditure Survey. The estimation results show that preferences can get severely mis-estimated, and the data fit can degrade substantially, when only a subset of active resource constraints is used.

P4-15-02: Clinical and Epidemiological Correlates of Elevated Distress Thermometer Scores in Breast Cancer Patients.

Abstract Objectives: Distress is prevalent in breast cancer patients and can be detrimental to quality of life, performance status, treatment adherence, and satisfaction with medical care. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) developed the Distress Thermometer (DT) as a quick and efficient self-assessment tool for screening distress in cancer patients. While surveys estimate that between 20–40% of patients with cancer have significant levels of distress, fewer than 10% are identified and treated. Given time and monetary constraints, it is important to refine screening criteria to identify patients with elevated risk for distress. In this study, we identify clinical and epidemiological factors that are associated with an increased likelihood of elevated DT scores (≥4 and ≥7) in breast cancer patients. Methods: We assessed 229 consecutive female patients with the DT at their initial consultation for breast cancer at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital between September 2007 and December 2008. The DT screening tool measures a global level of distress using a visual analogue scale from 0–10 in the shape of a thermometer, with zero identified as “No Distress” and ten labeled as “Extreme Distress.” The DT screening tool also includes a checklist of common emotional, family, physical, practical, and spiritual concerns with instructions for the paitent to indicate which of those concerns contributed to the distress they experienced within the past week. We chose a score ≥4 as our cutoff for a positive screen for “distress” and a score ≥7 as our cutoff for a positive screen for “extreme distress/depression” based on previous studies. Variables included in the analyses were: age, employment status, race/ethnicity, personal history of depression, family history of breast cancer, marital status, estrogen and progesterone receptor status, stage of cancer, time since diagnosis, and recurrence. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models were used to determine associations between DT and patient data. Results: Emotional and physical concerns were associated with scores ≥4 and scores ≥7. Spiritual concerns were significantly associated with patients reporting scores ≥7. Patients who were non-Caucasian, unemployed, had a prior history of depression, who presented for recurrent disease, or who had been recently diagnosed had a higher likelihood of scores ≥4 and scores ≥7. Conclusions: The likelihood of scoring ≥4 and ≥7 on the DT screening tool is highest during the first 30 days after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. Four groups of patients should be targeted for aggressive screening: patients with a prior diagnosis of depression, patients presenting with recurrent disease, unemployed patients, and non-Caucasian patients. Interventions should address physical, emotional and spiritual concerns. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-15-02.

A novel method for mapping reefs and subtidal rocky habitats using artificial neural networks

Reefs and subtidal rocky habitats are sites of high biodiversity and productivity which harbour commercially important species of fish and invertebrates. Although the conservation management of reef associated species has been informed using species distribution models (SDM) and community based approaches, to date their use has been constrained to specific regions where the locality and spatial extent of reefs is well known. Much of the world's subtidal habitats remain either undiscovered or unmapped, including coasts of intense human use. Consequently, to facilitate a stronger understanding of species–environmental relationships there is an urgent need for a cost and time effective standard method to map reefs at fine spatial resolutions across broad geographical extents. We used bathymetric data (∼250 m resolution) to calculate the local slope and curvature of the seabed. We then constructed artificial neural networks (ANNs) to forecast the probability of reef occurrence within grid cells as a function of bathymetric and slope variables. Testing over an independent data set not used in training showed that ANNs were able to accurately predict the location of reefs for 86% of all grid cells (Kappa = 0.63) without over fitting. The ANN with greatest support, combining bathymetric values of the target grid cell with the slope of adjacent grid cells, was used to map inshore reef locations around the Southern Australian coastline (∼250 m resolution). Broadly, our results show that reefs are identifiable from coarse-scale bathymetry data of the seabed. We anticipate that our research technique will strengthen systematic conservation planning tools in many regions of the world, by enabling the identification of rocky substratum and mapping in localities that remain poorly surveyed due to logistics or monetary constraints.

The measurement and evaluation of bespoke 3‐D absorptive panels: A comparative analysis.

A recent movement of Scandinavian design houses has brought about a new artistic sensitivity to porous sound absorbers in the world of architectural acoustics. These absorbers have vibrant colors and textures never before seen on a mass scale. However, as the design of these absorbers becomes more intricate, the problem arises on how to test such bespoke products in accordance with international standards. A particular problem is the arbitrary size of the products. Monetary and labor constraints keep these absorbers from being produced to a size that will satisfy international requirements. Therefore, a testing methodology and correction factor is needed in order to predict the acoustic performance of the designer products. Although this test methodology is not meant to replace current standards for total surface area criteria, this approach would work as a corollary, allowing materials that could not be easily reproduced to be measured in conjunction with standards despite their size, saving designers and manufacturers both time and money.

Introduction

Introduction

How to monitor ecological communities cost-efficiently: The example of plant–pollinator networks

Conservation practitioners often lack tools to monitor functioning of communities because time and monetary constraints create a gap between the optimal monitoring methods and the practical needs in conservation. Interaction networks provide a framework that has proven useful in ecological research. However, they are considered time consuming and too expensive for conservation purposes. We investigate whether it is possible to sample interaction networks cost-efficiently and whether a compromise exists between data quality and amount of resources required to sample the data by using a highly resolved mutualistic plant–pollinator network sampled over two years in Norway. The dataset was resampled with decreasing sampling intensity to simulate decreasing monitoring costs and we investigated the cost-efficiency of these monitoring regimes. The success in monitoring community structure varied largely with sampling intensity and the descriptor investigated. One major result was that a large proportion of the functionally most important species in the community, both plants and insects, could be identified with relatively little sampling. For example, monitoring only in “peak-season”, which costs ca. 20% relative to full monitoring, resulted in recording of 70% (in 2003) or 85% (in 2004) of the top 20 most functionally important pollinator species. Also, peak-season monitoring resulted in relatively precise estimates of several network descriptors. We present a first estimation of the full cost (travel time, sampling time and taxonomic services) of constructing pollination networks with different sampling effort. We recommend monitoring plant–pollinator networks in temperate regions during peak-season to cost-efficiently collect data for practical habitat management of ecosystem functioning.

Cytogenetic Profile in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and Impact On Survival: Single Centre Experience From India.

Abstract 4725 IntroductionBiological subtypes of pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) have emerged as the most important prognostic factor for response to treatment. Since the genetic subtypes differ according to ethnic groups, it becomes important to consider this factor while comparing survival between different geographic areas. We describe the relative frequency of genetic subtypes and the effect on survival and duration of first remission in patients diagnosed with ALL from a single centre in India. Patients and MethodsBone marrow karyotyping and fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) studies for BCR ABL and TEL AML1 were performed on 98 children diagnosed with ALL at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi between Jan 2005 and June 2009. During this period of 54 months, a total of 176 patients were diagnosed with ALL. Cytogenetic analysis could be done only in 98 patients. It could not be done in others due to monetary constraints. 27 did not have adequate metaphase for karyotyping. In those patients with normal karyotype but positive FISH for BCR ABL, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q PCR) was done. Those who were positive either by Q-PCR for BCR ABL or by karyotype for t (9; 22) were considered as Philadelphia (Ph) positive for treatment and survival analysis. The treatment protocol used was UK ALL XI for standard risk and BFM 95 for high risk ALL. Ph positive cases were managed with Imatinib mesylate along with chemotherapy. 16 patients were lost to follow up (LFU) and excluded from survival analysis. ResultsThe median age of our study population was 4 years (0.5-18 years). Male: female ratio was 2:1. Most patients had Pre B CALLA positive ALL (n=90). There were 3 cases CALLA negative ALL, 3 of T cell ALL and 2 of biphenotypic leukemia. T cell ALL was 3% in the study population as compared to 10% in all children diagnosed at our centre. Among 71 cases in which karyotype was analyzed, 15 (21.1%) patients had hyperdiploidy, 5 (7 %) had t (9; 22) and 9 (12.7%) had structural abnormalities. TEL AML1 was detected by FISH in 6 (9.4%) out of 64 patients of Pre B ALL. FISH for BCR ABL was positive in 10 (14%) patients, 8 of which were negative for BCR ABL fusion by Q PCR and were considered as false positive. Thus true Ph positive cases were 7 (8.5%) out of 82 cases (5 karyotype, 2 Q PCR). With a median follow up duration of 22 months, the estimated overall survival (OS) and event free survival (EFS) at 30 months were 70.5 ± 6.5% and 60 ± 7.4% respectively. The mean duration of first clinical remission (CR) was 19 ± 2 months. Hyperdiploidy was more common in girls (30.4%) compared to boys (14.6%, p=0.11). It was not significantly associated with any age group or WBC count at presentation. The EFS and OS were not found to be significantly different from the group without hyperdiploidy. The mean CR duration was 8.7 months, probably because 3 cases were diagnosed 2 months prior to the end of the study period. 2 patients with hyperdiploidy died in induction and one died following a road traffic accident. One child developed intestinal mucormycosis with perforation and hence suffered a break in treatment. This child had a CNS relapse 13 months later. TEL AML1 fusion was also more common in girls (18.2%) compared to boys (4.8%), (p=0.17). All positive cases were between 2-9 years of age and all had initial WBC count <50,000/mL. The mean CR duration was 15.1 months. The estimated OS and EFS, excluding case 1 LFU, was 100% at 30 months. Among the Philadelphia positive cases, there was no significance noted in age, sex or initial WBC counts. The mean CR duration was 19.9 months. There was no difference in OS or EFS noted in this group compared to patients with normal cytogenetics. 1 patient relapsed and refused further treatment. Another patient underwent matched sibling donor stem cell transplant in first CR but developed grade IV GVHD and died. ConclusionsEarlier reports from India have suggested a larger prevalence of high risk factors like T cell disease and lesser prevalence of favorable factor like TEL AML1. T cell disease is under-represented in this report, as most of these patients could not afford these investigations. False positivity of bcr-abl on FISH study was frequent. We recommend confirmation by QPCR. The survival of Ph positive cases was not worse probably because of inclusion of Imatinib mesylate in the treatment regimen. Overall, good prognostic factors such as TEL AML1 and hyperdiploidy were less commonly seen in our population than in the West. Disclosures:No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Optimal Sensor Locations for Freeway Bottleneck Identification

Abstract: In the field of traffic operations, accurate performance measures are crucial for many of the intelligent transportation systems applications. Achieving this accuracy and quality requires that network‐based roadway sensors are allocated in locations beneficial to traffic operations. However, with the budgetary restrictions most transportation agencies face, these roadway sensors cannot be placed as thoroughly as obligatory for ideal accuracy, requiring these agencies to select a limited number of installments that produce the most optimal results. In this article, a nonlinear integer program is proposed to optimally allocate point sensors along a one‐directional freeway corridor, given that any pair of adjacent sensors can produce a benefit for bottleneck identification. The objective of this model is to optimize the accuracy of bottleneck identification subject to resource and monetary constraints. This model is nonlinear and, due to a non‐differentiable function, genetic algorithm is applied to find a solution. We demonstrate that on a case study network with bottlenecks at unknown locations, the model successfully allocates sensors in a manner that optimizes bottleneck identification accuracy.

Quantitative Vessels

Quantitative data seems so clean and clear. On the face of it numbers give you facts that you cannot argue against. This paper explores my experiences as a fieldworker in the business of collecting for these numbers. It gives an account of my thoughts and feelings while undertaking a brief to act as a “vessel” an inanimate object, whose sole purpose is to collect the messy debris of human data and facilitate the processes of transforming them into a numerate form. Drawing on Fine's “working the hyphens” (Fine 1994) it challenges the notion of objectivity and the prospect of producing accurate quantitative data without some qualitative input. It questions the ethics of placing monetary constraints on the sharp end of research, and asks whether some data collection methods are as transparent as they purport to be. Finally it asks whether any funded body can live up to claims of neutrality.

Wage inflation and labour unions in EMU

This paper examines different levels of wage moderation in EMU member states since the introduction of the euro. Most arguments examining wage restraint have done so relying on the assumptions that relations between EMU member states are symmetric and that wage-setting systems are similar across sectors within one country. We introduce one innovation to these approaches and develop a second existing one. The paper adopts a dual-sector approach, where exposed sector unions are still tied to a competitiveness constraint on wages, while sheltered sector unions neither face a hard monetary constraint imposed by the central bank nor are subject to a competitive one. Wage moderation is higher in countries with wage-bargaining institutions which tie wage-setters in the sheltered sector to the exposed sector through a co-ordination mechanism. The second innovation is that of asymmetries between Germany and other EMU member states.

Signaling Quality: Dynamic Price-Advertising Model

This paper extends the existing quality-signaling literature by investigating the roles of price and advertising levels as quality indicators in a dynamic framework. Considering perceived quality as a form of goodwill, we modify the well-known Nerlove-Arrow dynamic model to include price effects. In our model, price is used both as a monetary constraint and as a signal of quality, while advertising spending is used only as a signaling device, and thus purely as a dissipative expense. Utilizing optimal control, we determine optimal decision rules for a firm regarding both price and advertising over time as functions of perceived quality. The results indicate that, when prices act as monetary constraints and are reduced to increase demand, the firm should use the signaling role of advertising by increasing spending to accelerate perceived quality increases. In cases when the value of the perceived quality goes up together with the increase in the perceived quality by more than the demand, in percentage terms, the firm should increase the price (use its signaling role). At steady-state, we find that the level of optimal profit margin relative to price decreases with the elasticity of demand with respect to the brand price. However, higher elasticity of demand with respect to the firm’s perceived quality and/or a higher impact of price (advertising) lead/leads to a higher optimal profit margin (advertising spending) relative to price (revenue).