Inequality Persistence of 21 OECD Countries from 1870 to 2020: Linear and Non-Linear Fractional Integration Approaches

This paper investigates inequality persistence in a group of 21 OECD countries using linear and non-linear fractionally integrated methods. Using linear models, the results show that the series are strongly persistent which implies lack of average reversal and permanency of shocks. Mean reversion is only found in the case of Finland and partial evidence of mean reversion is detected for Belgium, Greece, Austria and the Netherlands. The results are similar using non-linear methods. Mean reversion is only found in the case of Finland, Belgium, Greece and Spain. Although, most countries show no evidence of non-linear structures except for four countries, namely, Finland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The implications of the empirical findings are reported at the end of the manuscript.

Spatial analysis of COVID-19 hospitalised cases in an entire city: The risk of studying only lattice data

We live in a global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 disease where severe social distancing measures are necessary. Some of these measures have been taken into account by the administrative boundaries within cities (neighborhoods, postal districts, etc.). However, considering only administrative boundaries in decision making can prove imprecise, and could have consequences when it comes to taking effective measures. To solve the described problems, we present an epidemiological study that proposes using spatial point patterns to delimit spatial units of analysis based on the highest local incidence of hospitalisations instead of administrative limits during the first COVID-19 wave. For this purpose, the 579 addresses of the cases hospitalised between March 3 and April 6, 2020, in Albacete (Spain), and the addresses of the random sample of 383 controls from the Inhabitants Register of the city of Albacete, were georeferenced. The risk ratio in those hospitalised for COVID-19 was compatible with the constant risk ratio in Albacete (p = 0.49), but areas with a significantly higher risk were found and coincided with those with greater economic inequality (Gini Index). Moreover, two districts had areas with a significantly high incidence that were masked by others with a significantly low incidence. In conclusion, taking measures conditioned exclusively by administrative limits in a pandemic can cause problems caused by managing entire districts with lax measures despite having interior areas with high significant incidences. In a pandemic context, georeferencing disease cases in real time and spatially comparing them to updated random population controls to automatically and accurately detect areas with significant incidences are suggested. This would facilitate decision making, which must be fast and accurate in these situations.

Protecting Privacy When Sharing and Releasing Data with Multiple Records per Person

This study concerns the risks of privacy disclosure when sharing and releasing a dataset in which each individual may be associated with multiple records. Existing data privacy approaches and policies typically assume that each individual in a shared dataset corresponds to a single record, leading to an underestimation of the disclosure risks in multiple records per person scenarios. We propose two novel measures of privacy disclosure to arrive at a more appropriate assessment of disclosure risks. The first measure assesses individual-record disclosure risk based upon the frequency distribution of individuals' occurrences. The second measure assesses sensitive-attribute disclosure risk based upon the number of individuals affiliated with a sensitive value. We show that the two proposed disclosure measures generalize the well-known k-anonymity and l-diversity measures, respectively, and work for scenarios with either a single record or multiple records per person. We have developed an efficient computational procedure that integrates the two proposed measures and a data quality measure to anonymize the data with multiple records per person when sharing and releasing the data for research and analytics. The results of the experimental evaluation using real-world data demonstrate the advantage of the proposed approach over existing techniques for protecting privacy while preserving data quality.

Assessing the drivers shaping global patterns of urban vegetation landscape structure

Vegetation is one of the main resources involve in ecosystem functioning and providing ecosystem services in urban areas. Little is known on the landscape structure patterns of vegetation existing in urban areas at the global scale and the drivers of these patterns. We studied the landscape structure of one hundred cities around the globe, and their relation to demography (population), socioeconomic factors (GDP, Gini Index), climate factors (temperature and rain) and topographic characteristics (altitude, variation in altitude). The data revealed that the best descriptors of landscape structure were amount, fragmentation and spatial distribution of vegetation. Populated cities tend to have less, more fragmented, less connected vegetation with a centre of the city with low vegetation cover. Results also provided insights on the influence of socioeconomics at a global scale, as landscape structure was more fragmented in areas that are economically unequal and coming from emergent economies. This study shows the effects of the social system and climate on urban landscape patterns that gives useful insights for the distribution in the provision of ecosystem services in urban areas and therefore the maintenance of human well-being. This information can support local and global policy and planning which is committing our cities to provide accessible and inclusive green space for all urban inhabitants.

Pooled bioequivalence study database from Turkey: characterization of adverse events and determination of split points based on Gini Index as a promising method

Background

Manufacturing of and medication with generic drugs is increasing around the world. Bioequivalence (BE) studies are being performed routinely by Contract Research Organisations (CROs) in Turkey. However, an overall evaluation for the attended volunteers, examined Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and the observed adverse events have not been studied in the field.

Objective

Our aim was to revisit and compile the BE studies carried out between the years 2000–2013 of a CRO (N-CRO) in Turkey.

Methods

A dataset of 261 BE studies has been created for the observed adverse events with regards to the frequency, type, and drug subgroups. As an advanced evaluation, the Gini Index method has been used in the 63 available BE studies to obtain split points for two pharmacokinetic parameters, area under the plasma/serum concentration (AUC) and maximum plasma/serum concentration (Cmax), in order to investigate their likely effect on the adverse events.

Results

Thousand six hundred and forty two adverse events were found in the 261 BE studies involving 7828 volunteers with the frequency of 6.29 per study and 0.21 per volunteer. The most frequently observed adverse events were; headache, somnolence, nausea, dizziness and vomiting, respectively. Hundred and nine different APIs were observed. ‘Genitourinary system and sex hormones’ subgroup drugs had the highest frequency of the adverse events. Adverse event frequencies above the identified split points for Cmax and AUC values were higher than the frequencies below them.

Conclusion

The review of 13 years period of BE studies revealed that the demographic properties of the volunteers and the study designs were in compliance with national and international guidelines. The promising outcome could be showing the increase of the adverse event frequencies above the obtained split points as the reflection of the likely individual pharmacokinetic differences in the adverse event occurence.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-016-2527-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.