Exploring relationships between HIV programme outcomes and the societal enabling environment: A structural equation modeling statistical analysis in 138 low- and middle-income countries.

Countries worldwide have attempted to reduce the incidence of HIV and AIDS associated deaths with varying success, despite significant progress in antiretroviral treatment (ART) and condom use. A chief obstacles is that key populations affected face high levels of stigma, discrimination and exclusion, limiting the successful response to HIV. However, a gap exists in studies demonstrating the moderation effects of societal enablers on overall programme effectiveness and HIV outcomes using quantitative methods.

Adolescent's time use and skills development: Do cognitive and non-cognitive skills differ?

This study looks at the association of adolescent's time use on the acquisition of cognitive and non-cognitive (psychological and social) skills, thus contributing to the literature on parental investment and skills development. Specifically, using data relating to adolescent's time spent on school, study, sleep, and play, we investigate how these relate to cognitive and non-cognitive skills of older Indian children. For cognitive skills we use Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), which is a well-accepted measure of verbal intelligence.

Addressing Different Needs: The Challenges Faced by India as the Largest Vaccine Manufacturer While Conducting the World's Biggest COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted some of the challenges that countries face when balancing domestic and global necessities, for example with regard to vaccine needs, production and distribution. As India hosts one of the world's largest vaccine manufacturing industries and has one of the most extensive vaccination strategies, the country is particularly exposed to these challenges. This has become all the more obvious as the country experienced a second pandemic wave in the first half of 2021, which has led to a total ban on exports of COVID-19 vaccines.

Building a multisystemic understanding of societal resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The current global systemic crisis reveals how globalised societies are unprepared to face a pandemic. Beyond the dramatic loss of human life, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered widespread disturbances in health, social, economic, environmental and governance systems in many countries across the world. Resilience describes the capacities of natural and human systems to prevent, react to and recover from shocks.

Evaluation of the Bioactivity of Surface Modified Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) as an Implant Material: An Study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the bioactivity of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) used as an implant material after surface modification by electron beam deposition of titanium.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-two samples of PEEK were obtained from a single manufacturer, water jet sectioned, and divided randomly into two groups of eleven each (Group I and Group II). Eleven PEEK samples from Group II were coated with Grade II commercially pure titanium by electron beam deposition technique.

Comparative evaluation of shear bond strength of two different chairside soft liners to heat processed acrylic denture base resin: An study.

Background: Chairside softliners are used more frequently than is reported and studies regarding the bond strength of chairside softliners to heat-polymerized denture base resin are few and limited. Hence, this study was conducted to comparatively evaluate the shear bond strength of two chairside soft relining materials viz., autopolymerizing plasticized acrylic resin liner and a silicone-based liner bonded to heat polymerized polymethyl methacrylate denture base resin and to analyze the mode of interfacial bond failure.

Capability deprivation of people with Alzheimer's disease: An empirical analysis using a national survey.

How can one assess the quality of life of older people--particularly those with Alzheimer's disease--from the point of view of their opportunities to do valued things in life? This paper is an attempt to answer this question using as a theoretical framework the capability approach. We use data collected on 8841 individuals above 60 living in France (the 2008 Disability and Health Household Survey) and propose a latent variable modelling framework to analyse their capabilities in two fundamental dimensions: freedom to perform self-care activities and freedom to participate in the life of the household. Our results show that living as a couple, having children, being mobile and having access to local shops, health facilities and public services enhance both capabilities.

Coping with health-care costs: implications for the measurement of catastrophic expenditures and poverty.

In the absence of formal health insurance, we argue that the strategies households adopt to finance health care have important implications for the measurement and interpretation of how health payments impact on consumption and poverty. Given data on source of finance, we propose to (a) approximate the relative impact of health payments on current consumption with a 'coping'-adjusted health expenditure ratio, (b) uncover poverty that is 'hidden' because total household expenditure is inflated by financial coping strategies and (c) identify poverty that is 'transient' because necessary consumption is temporarily sacrificed to pay for health care. Measures that ignore coping strategies not only overstate the risk to current consumption and exaggerate the scale of catastrophic payments but also overlook the long-run burden of health payments.