Purpose: The primary objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of vaccination and HBV infection status of adults and to evaluate the trend in self reported vaccination and seroprevalence for Hepatitis B for this population. Additionally, this study sought to assess the association between vaccination rates, seroprevalence (HBsAg, anti-HBc, and anti-HBs), demographic (age, gender, location of birth, race/ethnicity), and socioeconomic (annual household income, education level, insurance coverage and access to care, marital status) characteristics. Methods: Eight years, 1999-2006, of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data were used. NHANES participants aged 20-59 years who contributed data via the household interview and laboratory component were eligible for this study. Two sources of vaccination status were available. The vaccination status was identified through self-report. Those who answered yes to “less than three doses” and “at least three doses” were classified as vaccinated. Vaccination status was also verified through serologic markers. All analyses were weighted to consider the complex weighting scheme and adjusted to the 2000 US census population. Vaccination rates were calculated for both low and high risk populations. 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of each estimate were also calculated. The association between potential predictors of vaccination (demographic variables, socioeconomic status, high risk, and health care access and utilization variables) and vaccination status was assessed using bivariate analysis. We used logistic regression model to obtain odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals for the association between predictor variables and vaccination status after adjusting for all potential confounding factors. Results: Vaccinated adults were more likely to be female, younger (20-29), Non-Hispanic white, married, born in the United States, have some education beyond high school, have a household income greater than $20000, health insurance coverage, a source of usual medical care, report a health status of good or higher, be non-smokers, and have no history of alcohol abuse. High risk adults comprised about 16% of adults who had received at least one dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine. Unvaccinated adults were more likely to be male, over the age of 40, Non-Hispanic white, born in the United States, married, have some education beyond high school, have a household income greater than $20,000, live in a household of 6 or fewer people, have health insurance coverage, and a source of usual care. When comparing the self reported vaccination status with serologic status, almost half of the adults who reported receiving all three doses of the vaccine tested negative for immunity. For all adults the prevalence increased from 23.4% to 39.1%. Compared to adults in 1999-2000, adults were twice as likely to report vaccination in 2005-2006 (OR=2.1 95% CI [1.77, 2.49]). Conclusions: Although, hepatitis B vaccination rates are rising, only 32% of high risk adults are vaccinated. The rise in vaccination rates in young adults is mostly related to childhood immunization strategies and not strategies aimed at adults. Older males, those with less than high school education, without health insurance coverage and a source of usual care were least likely to be vaccinated. More targeted interventions are needed to educate and vaccinate the adult population and to create a means for identifying those at risk and those already vaccinated.

Poverty, Inequality & Terrorism Relationship in TurkeyUsing empirical evidence criminological studies have identified a relationship between poverty and crime and many studies have concluded that a high crime rate is associated with a higher poverty rate. Other studies indicate that inequalities are a better determinant of crime than absolute poverty. Social disorganization theory, anomie strain theory and Marxist theory have been used to explain the phenomenon. Guided by the aforementioned theories and previous literature on crime, this study looks at the terrorism issue and explores whether a relationship exists between poverty, inequality and terrorist incidents. The main hypothesis of this study indicates that higher poverty and higher inequalities are related to higher number of terrorist incidents. This study examines Turkey's terrorism problem in depth and identifies some factors that are related to the formation of terrorism. It is believed that this may assist help policy makers to develop new policies that can eliminate fertile ground where terrorism easily finds support. The researcher uses secondary data analysis; data for number of terrorist incidents are derived from the Turkish National Police's database, and other demographic and economic variable data are derived from Turkish Statistical Institute, and Government Planning Office. A multiple regression analysis technique is used to identify the effect of independent variables on the dependent variable, number of terrorist incidents. The results of the statistical analysis show that there is a statistically significant relationship between the percentage of population living below the poverty line, unequal distribution of some government resources, such as unequal distribution of education services, and unequal distribution of public investment. Findings also show that higher populated provinces may experience greater terrorist incidents. Additionally, the percentage of young in the population is also found to be related to the number of terrorist incidents.

This thesis explores the price determinants of Bitcoin using a macroeconomic model based on the economic equation of exchange presented by Joseph Wang (2014). The thesis provides a concise and structured introduction to Bitcoin and a comprehensive literature review on Bitcoin. The analysis begins with the application of the functions of money to Bitcoin, arguing that while Bitcoin does fulfill the three classical functions of money to a certain extent, its use remains mainly as a speculative instrument. Wang's model is criticized and amended to reflect the realities of empirically analyzing the Bitcoin market. Using the daily number of transactions and Bitcoin days destroyed as proxies for economic activity and inactivity - to measure Bitcoin's velocity on the block chain - vector autoregression modelling is used to determine if there is Granger causality between the price of bitcoin and the two proxies. The results demonstrate that there is a bidirectional Granger-causal relationship between Bitcoin days destroyed and the price of bitcoin and that there is none between the daily number of transactions and the price of bitcoin; proving Wang's two main assumptions. Impulse- response functions are provided to illustrate and discuss this bidirectional relationship. The results are in line with the...

The spread between interest rate and sovereign bond rate is commonly used in- dicator for country's probability to default. Existing literature proposes many different potential spread determinants but fails to agree on which of them are important. As a result, there is a considerable uncertainty about the cor- rect model explaining the spread. We address this uncertainty by employing Bayesian Model Averaging method (BMA). The BMA technique attempts to consider all the possible combinations of variables and averages them using a model fit measure as weights. For this empirical exercise, we consider 20 different explanatory variables for a panel of 47 countries for the 1980-2010 period. Most of the previously suggested determinants were attributed high inclusion probabilities. Only the "foreign exchange reserves growth" and the "exports growth" scored low by their inclusion probabilities. We also find a role of variables previously not included in the literature's spread determinants - "openness" and "unemployment" which rank high by the inclusion probability. These results are robust to a wide range of both parameter and model priors. JEL Classification C6, C8, C11, C51, E43 Keywords Sovereign Spread Determinants, Model Uncer- tainty, Bayesian Model Averaging Author's e-mail semanv()gmail()com...

No description available.

Os catadores de materiais recicláveis, cuja profissão é reconhecida pelo Ministério do Trabalho desde 2002, têm a necessidade de assegurar a sua própria sobrevivência bem como a dos seus familiares. Os Determinantes Sociais da Saúde (DSS) buscam analisar as condições econômicas e sociais que afetam a saúde. Os DSS envolvem cinco níveis superpostos: comportamento e estilo de vida; redes sociais e comunitárias; condições de vida e trabalho, macrodeterminantes e condições de saúde. Todos influenciam na ocorrência de problemas de saúde e nos fatores de risco da população. O objetivo deste trabalho é caracterizar os Determinantes Sociais da Saúde dos catadores de materiais recicláveis, através da análise de dados secundários obtidos no Sistema Único de Assistência Social-SUAS e delimitados geograficamente ao município de Serrana. A população de catadores de material reciclado revelou uma prevalência acentuada de homens com idade média de 40 anos, a maioria solteiros e autodeclarados como pardos. Dentro da avaliação dos DSS, 93,75% dos indivíduos declaram não praticar esportes, 75% são fumantes, não possuem acesso à TV e internet e 69% são analfabetos. Por outro lado, os indivíduos possuem moradias dignas com infraestrutura de água e esgoto. As condições de saúde desses indivíduos também foram analisadas e uma parcela apresentou alterações em exames de sangue, como: colesterol (37,5%), glicemia (12,5%) e nível de plaquetas (6,25%). Outra variável analisada foi o ambiente de trabalho, com 37,5% de notificações de algum tipo de acidente, como corte de mão, braço ou pé durante a coleta de lixo. Concluímos que avaliar esses fatores é importante para identificar os riscos que o grupo de catadores de materiais recicláveis é exposto e compreender a intervenção sobre os mecanismos de estratificação social. Os DSS são ferramentas importantes para que a gestão pública conheça a realidade dos catadores de recicláveis e consiga apresentar políticas públicas eficazes, melhorando, assim, a qualidade de vida dessas pessoas extremamente vulneráveis e de função social importante, pois são essenciais à conservação do território e na redução da quantidade de resíduos / Waste recyclers, whose profession has been recognized by the Brazilian Ministry of Labor since 2002, have a need to ensure their own survival, as well as their family members\' maintenance. Social Determinants of Health (SDHs) are used to analyze economic and social conditions affecting a population\'s health. SDHs consist of five superimposed levels: behavior and lifestyle, social and community networks, life and work conditions, macrodeterminants, and health conditions. All of them have a relationship with health problems and risk factors in a population. This study aimed to characterize the SDHs of recyclable waste collectors living in the city of Serrana - SP (Brazil), through secondary data taken from the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS). This group consisted mainly of men with a mean age of 40 years, most of whom were single and self-reported as brown or \'pardo\' (a mixture of white, black, and Amerindian races). Results of the SDH assessment showed that 93.75% of the individuals reported not playing sports; 75% declared being smokers, not having TV and internet access; and 69% were illiterate. However, these individuals live in decent housing with water and sewage infrastructure. The health conditions of these workers were also analyzed, and blood examination revealed alterations in the levels of cholesterol (37.5%), blood glucose (12.5%), and platelets (6.25%). We also assessed the work environment and noted that work accidents such as hand, arm, or foot cutting during waste collection represented 37.5% of the cases. Thus, we conclude that these factors are important to identify risks to which recyclable waste pickers are exposed, as well as to understand social stratification mechanisms. In short, SDHs are of paramount importance for public administrators to know the reality of recyclable waste collectors and elaborate effective public policies to improve their quality of life, since they are extremely vulnerable people and play a major social role contributing to the environmental conservation and waste reduction

L'emploi informel est devenu un sérieux défi pour l'économie ukrainienne et des pays en transition au cours de l'adaptation aux conditions du marché. La tendance du nombre de travailleurs qui participent au secteur informel est en hausse depuis les dernières années. Dans mes recherches, je vais présenter l'état actuel de l'emploi informel en Ukraine et les pays en transition. Une attention particulière est accordée à la répartition du travail entre les différentes catégories de population, en divisant les individus en cinq catégories (employés formels, employés informels, travailleurs indépendants formels, travailleurs indépendants informels et chômeurs) selon la définition de l'emploi informel de l'OIT. Nous examinons le marché du travail en utilisant les données de Ukrainian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey pour l'Ukraine et Survey on Living and Income Conditions pour les pays en transition et nous élaborons la fonction des gains du capital humain pour le marché du travail en appliquant la fonction de répartition des gains de Mincer, afin d'étudier les facteurs qui déterminent les revenus et le choix de l'emploi de l'individu en Ukraine et les pays en transition. / Informal employment became a serious challenge for the Ukrainian economy and economy of transition countries during the adjustment to market conditions. Trends of the number of workers participating in the informal sector have been rising for the last years. In my research I will present the current state of informal employment of Ukraine and transition countries. Detailed attention is paid to labour distribution across different population categories by dividing the individuals into five categories (formal employee, informal employee, formal self-employed, informal self-employed and unemployed) following the definition of informal employment from the ILO. We examine labour market using the data of the Ukrainian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for Ukraine and the Survey on Living and Income Conditions for transition countries and we design human capital earnings function for labour market by applying Mincer earnings distribution function in order to investigate the factors that determine the individual’s earnings and choice of the employment status both for Ukraine and transition countries.

Despite decreasing cardiovascular disease mortality rates, these diseases are still the most common cause of death in a number of economically advanced countries, including the Czech Republic. This thesis deals with prevalence of myocardial infarction (the most common forms of ischemic heart disease) and selected risk factors of this disease, using the database of the international project SHARE (The Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe). The first part describes the development of mortality on circulatory system diseases and the risk factors of myocardial infarction are discussed in the context of the literature. The empirical part of this work analyzes the infarction prevalence and the relationship between infarction prevalence and risk factors in SHARE respondents, both in the group of respondents from European countries and in the subset of respondents from the Czech Republic, using the binary logistic regression method. The analysis showed, among other things, that the main risk factor for myocardial infarction of SHARE respondents was low physical activity among respondents in European countries, so did male respondents in the Czech Republic. In the group of Czech women, the main risk factor was underweight. Out of the social determinants, the impact of education attained in both...

Background: Stress tests have been increasingly used as a part of the supervisory tool by national regulators after the financial crisis, which can also be used to conduct authorities’ supervisory for determining bank capital levels, assessing the health of a bank. Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to assess whether some micro factors play important roles on the changes of Common Equity Tier One Capital Ratio (between the bank accounting value and the stress testing results under the adverse scenarios).  Our secondary purpose is to investigate if our empirical results will help to provide some theoretical suggestions to regulators when they exercise stress tests.   Method: An empirical analysis by using Panel Data, introducing GARCH model to measure volatility.   Empirical foundation: The results of EU-wide stress tests and bank financial statements   Conclusion: The coefficient associated with non-performing loans to total loans is positively significant and the coefficient associated with bank size is negatively significant.  In addition, the financial system of strong banks is better to absorb financial shocks. These findings are useful, as banks is a reflection of the financial stability of an economic entity, we can use these findings as another reason to pay attention to the process of the stress testing rather just stress testing results.

Essa dissertação aborda o tema transparência na comunicação do sistema de remuneração aos funcionários (TCSR), que tem sido, por muito tempo, um assunto controverso nas empresas, sendo também considerado um dos tabus da nossa sociedade. O estudo desenvolveu um instrumento de mensuração da TCSR, bem como analisou como um conjunto de empresas no Brasil lida com a comunicação de suas práticas de remuneração e identificou fatores que influenciaram a decisão destas empresas quanto à maior ou menor transparência. Foi realizada uma revisão sistemática da literatura sobre o tema para dar consistência teórica ao desenvolvimento do instrumento de medida. Na etapa empírica, com o objetivo de validar e aprimorar o instrumento, foram realizadas dez entrevistas em profundidade, cinco delas com especialistas no tema de remuneração e em gestão de recursos humanos; e outras cinco com profissionais responsáveis pelo departamento de remuneração das empresas selecionadas. As entrevistas com os responsáveis pelo departamento de remuneração foram também utilizadas para um levantamento exploratório sobre como as empresas faziam a gestão da TCSR e os principais motivos que as levavam a adotar diferentes estratégias de comunicação com seus funcionários. Como resultado, considera-se que esse trabalho gerou uma alternativa promissora para medir as possíveis variações existentes nas práticas de comunicação do sistema de remuneração. O instrumento desenvolvido se restringe à parcela fixa da remuneração, que envolve salário base, aumento no salário base e análise de mercado. Quanto à postura das empresas pesquisadas frente à comunicação do sistema de remuneração, constatou-se que elas se mostram mais transparentes na divulgação de informações gerais sobre a estrutura de remuneração e seus critérios de funcionamento. Percebe-se também que as organizações suprem os gestores com informações sobre a remuneração de suas equipes, mas não é comum disponibilizar informações sobre a remuneração de outras equipes. O nível de transparência nas empresas declina quando se trata de comunicar para o funcionário informações específicas da estrutura remuneratória sobre o próprio profissional (ex. sua faixa salarial), ou sobre o cargo que representa seu próximo passo de carreira e, principalmente, sobre a remuneração dos demais cargos da empresa. Vale destacar que nenhuma das empresas pesquisadas divulga os salários dos funcionários para todo o quadro, limitando-se a informá-los unicamente ao gestor direto da equipe e àqueles que trabalham na própria área de RH. Por fim, foi possível identificar que os motivos que levam as empresas a serem mais transparentes na comunicação sobre remuneração são: estímulo a uma cultura organizacional participativa; crença no desenvolvimento do capital humano, manutenção de um clima organizacional positivo no que se refere à percepção de justiça dos critérios adotados para definição dos salários na empresa; a necessidade de alinhar as pessoas aos objetivos de negócio; a intenção de deixar claro que a empresa pratica salários acima do mercado. Já os fatores que influenciam as empresas a manterem sigilo sobre as práticas de remuneração foram: as organizações manterem uma cultura organizacional mais paternalista em que se acredita que as pessoas não têm condições de entender toda a complexidade envolvida no sistema de remuneração; a crença interna de que salários são confidenciais por definição; e, por fim, a necessidade de não divulgar inconsistências que persistem no sistema de remuneração para não fragilizar a imagem da empresa internamente. / This dissertation addresses the issue of transparency in compensation system communication to employees (TCSC), which has been, for a long time, a controversial issue in the companies, and is also considered one of the taboos of our society. The study developed a measurement instrument for TCSC, as well as analyzed how a group of companies in Brazil handles the communication of its compensation practices and identified factors that influence the decision of these companies as the greater or lesser transparency. A systematic review of literature on the subject was held to give theoretical consistency to the development of the measurement instrument. In the empirical step, in order to validate and refine the instrument, ten in-depth interviews were performed, five of them with experts on the subject of compensation and human resources management; and five with professionals responsible for the selected companies compensation department. Interviews with those responsible for the compensation department were also used for an exploratory research on how companies were managing TCSC and the main reasons that led to adopt different communication strategies with their employees. As a result, it is considered that this paperwork has generated a promising alternative to measure the possible variations existing in the compensation system practices communication. The instrument developed is limited to the fixed part of compensation that involves base salary, its increase and market analysis. As for the attitude of the companies researched about the compensation system communication, it was found that they are more transparent in the disclosure of general information about the compensation structure and its operating criteria. It is also noticed that organizations supply managers with information of their staff\'s compensation, but it is not common to provide information of other teams\' compensation. The companies\' level of transparency declines when it involves communicating to employees specific compensation structure information about the professional itself (for example, their salary range), or the position that represents the next step in employee\'s career and, especially, on the remuneration of other positions in the company. We must emphasize that none of the analyzed companies disclose for all staff the amounts of individual wages, this information is restricted only to direct manager of the team and HR staff. Finally, it was possible to identify the reasons that lead companies to be more transparent in the compensation communication: the encouragement of a participatory organizational culture; belief in the development of human capital, maintaining a positive organizational climate as it relates to the perceived fairness of the criteria adopted for the wages definition in the company; the need to align people to business goals; intent to make clear that the company is paying above-market wages. The factors that influence companies to maintain the secrecy of the compensation practices were: organizations maintenance of more paternalistic organizational culture in which it is believed that people is not able to understand all the complexity involved in the compensation system; the internal belief that wages are confidential by definition; and, finally, the necessity not to disclose inconsistencies that persist in the compensation system to not undermine the company\'s internal image