Cause and Socio-Economic Impact of Water Shortage on the Households of Laptsakha Community, Punakha

Water is indispensable for life since it is a basic need and is also important for economic activities. Although Bhutan has one of the highest per capita water resource availability in the world with 94,500 m3/capita/annum, the imbalance of geographical and temporal distributions is leading to experience of shortages in local areas.This study determined the shortage of water supply and its socio-economic impacts in Laptsakha community under Punakha,Bhutan.The semi structured questionnaires were distributed to the household of 74 following census method sampling.The result showed that the climate change had significant effect on water scarcity (R²=.208, p<.05). There was a moderate positive correlation between total income and total spent on buying food items (r=304, p<.05); however, there was no significant between total annual incomes and annual expenditure on materials to cope up water shortage (r=.209, p >.05). Ability to maintain hygiene was significantly affected by numbers of days the water was available in the tap per week H(2)=7.030, p<.05). The findings from the study also shows that due to decrease of water supply, it has adverse impacts on total annual income of the households and on their health.This study concluded that water shortage has adversely impact on socio economic of the people of Laptsakha Chiwog, which requires implementation of new strategies and actions towards allocating new source of water for households.

How Did the Canada Child Benefit Affect Household Spending?

We assess how the July 2016 increase in the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) affected household spending with respect to total current expenditure and its seven constituent categories: clothing, food, health care, household operations, recreation, shelter, and transportation. The increase in the CCB was large: for most recipient households, it increased by more than $2,000 per child per year. We consider households below the median income level and find statistically significant effects of the policy change only for spending on clothing, food, and shelter and only for rental-tenure households. We find that rental-tenure households with children that fell below the median income level increased their annual expenditure by about $3,400 in response to the CCB increase. Spending on food increased by roughly $700; spending on shelter, by nearly $1,400. Spending on clothing increased by roughly $350, but spending mainly increased on children’s clothing, not on adults’ clothing.

Adequacy, utilization and repayment of society for social service credit on poor women of Mymensingh district in Bangladesh

The present study was an attempt to assess adequacy, utilization and repayment of Society for Social Service (SSS) credit on women beneficiaries. Interviewing 90 respondents randomly selected from five villages of Gouripur upazila of Mymensingh district in Bangladesh. The study revealed that both annual income and expenditure of the respondent households have increased after joining the micro credit program of SSS. Average annual income of agriculture and petty business enterprises are Tk. 80726.57 and 74864.14 respectively while average annual expenditure of agriculture and petty business enterprises are Tk. 78776.65 and 67912.37 respectively. Overall annual savings of agriculture and petty business enterprises are Tk. 3733.25 and 8475.09 respectively. Moreover, the women are better at present in respect of social awareness, freedom of attitude, financial freedom and also exercising their right in decision making activities. The study identified some crucial problems such as lack of adequate credit, high rate of interest, burden of old debt, lack of storage and marketing facilities, lack of improved seeds/breed and low price of their products, etc. The findings suggest that the amount of credit should be provided in accordance with their requirement, reduced interest rate and arranging for reasonable price of their products. Finally it was concluded that the SSS credit program benefited the women beneficiaries in respect of increasing income, creating self-employment opportunity, improving social status and at least in reducing the poverty from the study area. Asian Australas. J. Food Saf. Secur. 2021, 5 (1), 1-10

Increasing access to quality anticancer medicines in low- and middle-income countries – the experience of Uganda

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death with 9.6 million deaths registered in 2018, of which 70% occur in Africa, Asia and Central and South America, the low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). The global annual expenditure on anticancer medicines increased from $96 billion in 2013 to $133 billion in 2017. This growth rate is several folds that of newly diagnosed cancer cases and therefore estimated to reach up to $200 billion by 2022. The Uganda Cancer Institute, Uganda's national referral cancer center, has increased access to cancer medicines through an efficient and cost-saving procurement system. The system has achieved cost savings of more than USD 2,000,000 on a total of 37 of 42 essential cancer medicines. This has resulted in 85.8% availability superseding the WHO's 80% target. All selected products were procured from manufacturers with stringent regulatory authority approval or a proven track record of quality products.

A Multidirectional Two-tube Method for Chemical Pleurodesis could improve distribution of the Sclerosing Agent within the Pleural Cavity

Introduction: Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) affects approximately 200,000 people in the United States per annum. Chemical pleurodesis is a recommended first line treatment in the management of MPE, however, success rates as low as 43% has been reported. A bedside chemical pleurodesis can cost up to $11,224 and an estimated inpatient annual expenditure of more than $5 billion in the US alone. This study aims to assess the distribution of the talc slurry within the pleural space using cadaveric models and to determine the force required to push the talc slurry though a 14 Fr chest tube. Materials and Methods: The force required to administer the talc slurry through a 14 Fr chest tube was tested using a Zwick/Roelle Z005 mechanical tester. Talc slurry distribution within the pleural cavity was assessed by direct visualisation following administration to the cadaveric models using single and multidirectional two-tube methods. Results: Maximum force required to push the talc slurry though a 14 Fr chest tube was 11.36 N +/- 2.79 N. Distribution of the talc slurry within the pleural cavity was found to be poor with a single tube method. Multidirectional two-tube method of administration showed more even distribution. Conclusion: The experimental multidirectional two-tube method results in wider distribution of the talc slurry within the pleural cavity and could further improve success rate of the talc pleurodesis.

Farmers’ economic interest in Dermanyssus gallinae control

Poultry red mite or Dermanyssus gallinae (De Geer, 1778) is the most significant poultry ectoparasite with regards to health and economy. It is a widely accepted opinion that D. gallinae can only be suppressed, with the current annual expenditure of 60 eurocents per layer. However, research indicates that D. gallinae can be controlled in other ways and eradicated from the production facilities and farms, and subsequent reinfestation can be prevented by implementing biosafety measures. This provides a long-term or permanent effect of D. gallinae control. From the aspect of economy, this means that after decades of increasing expenditures, farmers can first decrease, and then completely eliminate expenditures incurred by D. gallinae. Therefore, economic calculations should be based on an expert and comprehensive approach, which should itself be based on rational control, preventive veterinary medicine, i.e. D. gallinae control program. This would result in long-term savings. In 10 years? time, 0.5 million euros would be saved per 100.000 layers. There are an estimated 4 billion infested layers worldwide.

FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG BERHUBUNGAN DENGAN KEMISKINAN DI DESA JATI MULYO KECAMATAN JATI AGUNG KABUPATEN LAMPUNG SELATAN

This research aims to determine poverty level, and factor related to the poverty level in Jati Mulyo Village, Jati Agung District, South Lampung Regency. This research was conducted in March-April 2018. Respondents were 70 households of poor families. Data were collected with a survey method using quantitative descriptive analysis and nonparametric statistical test (rank Spearman correlation). Results of this research showed that annual expenditure per capita was equivalent to the value of 233 kilograms of rice or the households were included in very poor category. Factors that were significantly related to poverty level were level of education and main occupation, while the number of family members and the age of the head of the household were not significantly related to poverty level.Key words: household, poor, poverty level

The Sustainability Factor: How Much Do Pension Expenditures Improve in Spain?

The reform of 2013 represented a qualitative leap in the reform of the Spanish pension system. Unlike its predecessors, it introduced two automatic resetting mechanisms similar to those of other European countries. The first is the sustainability factor, scheduled to come into effect in 2019 but delayed until 2023, and its ultimate reversal cannot be ruled out. The objective of this study was to quantify the savings, or the lowest expenditure, that can be achieved in the Spanish public contributory pension system by applying it. These savings are measured in terms of cash—of annual expenditure—and in terms of accrual by calculating its present actuarial value. Combining these two methods is one of the contributions of this work. This work was only intended to analyze the impact of the Sustainability Factor, therefore, it did not take into account the impact of the Pension Revaluation Index, which is the second mechanism introduced in the reform of the pension to 2013. An ad hoc projection method was used, combining microdata from the Continuous Sample of Working Lives (MCVL), aggregate data from the pension system, the financial-actuarial projection method, and actuarial techniques. The diversity of the data used is the second contribution of this work. The application of the sustainability factor would improve the viability of the system, since the savings that could be achieved, measured in terms of GDP for each year, would be 1.029% by 2050; 1.094% in 2057, the maximum; and 1.026% in the last year of projection. In terms of the present actuarial value and as a function of annual GDP, in 2050, the savings would be 1.27%, 1.40% in 2044, the maximum, and in 2067 it would decrease to 0.98%.