• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.93-102
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• 2021

The world is facing an unprecedented economic, social and political crisis with the spread of COVID-19. The Corona Virus (COVID-19) and its global spread have resulted in declaring a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The deadly pandemic of 21st century has spread its wings across the globe with an exponential increase in the number of cases in many countries. The developing and underdeveloped countries are struggling hard to counter the rapidly growing and widespread challenge of COVID-19 because it has greatly influenced the global economies whereby the underdeveloped countries are more affected by its devastating impacts, especially the life of the low-income population. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) were particularly useful in spreading key emergency information and helping to maintain extensive social distancing. Updated information and testing results were published on national and local government websites. Mobile devices were used to support early testing and contact tracing. The government provided free smartphone apps that flagged infection hotspots with text alerts on testing and local cases. The purpose of this research work is to provide an in depth overview of emerging technologies and recent ICT developments to combat COVID-19 Pandemic. Finally, the author highlights open challenges in order to give future research directions.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.7-17
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• 2022

The article discusses the problems caused by inflation in the developing Asia-Pacific region during the time of the worldwide pandemic and suggests innovative solutions to the problem. The reality is that some of the commodity groups from the consumer basket (e.g., non-seasonal fruits, electronics, furniture, hotel, and restaurant services, etc.) fail to reflect the needs of the low-income earners, which make the majority in developing countries. At the same time, the inflation targeting regime has become outdated and not reliable, because of uncontrolled exogenic factors (imported inflation, fluctuation in oil prices, supply chain disruption, Russia-Ukraine war, etc.) prevailing on endogenic factors and thus making it impossible to control the price stability, especially in developing countries. Since, the old-fashioned inflation index and inflation targeting mechanisms regrettably fail to fully reflect both the society and governmental/central banks' expectations, based on which we first should have better care and second create better policies; we propose to use a combination of already well-known indexes and policies, with the new statistical indicators, which reflects price fluctuations on the medication, utilities, and nutrition.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.139-149
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• 2018

Background: Ethiopia is among the poorest countries where land degradation caused livelihood problem to its inhabitants. The livelihood of rural communities in Ethiopia is seriously threatened by land degradation. Land is the major natural resource that economic, social, infrastructure, and other human activities are undertaken on. Thus, land resources play an important role in shaping rural livelihoods, and lack of sustainable land management practices leads to land degradation. Thus, this study aimed to analyze interlink between land degradation and livelihood of rural communities in Chilga district, Northwest Ethiopia. It also addresses the factors which influence income diversification for livelihood of households in the study area. Result: The result depicts that the major causes of land degradation are both natural and anthropogenic. Land degradation and livelihood are negatively interlinked with each other. The livelihood of the majority of the population in the study area is dependent on subsistence agriculture both farming and animal husbandry with low diversification. The survey result showed that more than half (69%) of the sample households have farm size of less than 2 ha, nearly one third (31%) have 2.0-2.5 ha, and insignificant number of farmers have more than 2.5 ha. More than 80% of the respondents pointed out that land degradation has impacts both on crop yield and livestock production. Most of the explanatory variables such as gender, age, education level, farmland size, and family size have statistical significant influence (at P < .01 and P < .05 levels) for income diversification of households, while marital status on the other hand is not statistically significant though it has positive relation with income diversification in this study. Conclusions: Our results suggest awareness should be created in the community about the livelihood diversification mechanisms which enabled them to engage in different income-generating activities and comprehensive watershed management should be implemented.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1269-1276
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• 2016

Background: Tobacco consumption continues to be the leading cause of preventable deaths globally. The objective of this study was to examine the associaton of selected socio-demographic variables with current tobacco use in five countries that participated in the Phase II Global Adult Tobacco Survey in 2011 - 2012. Materials and Methods: We analysed internationally comparable representative household survey data from 33,482 respondents aged ${\geq}15years$ in Indonesia, Malaysia, Romania, Argentina and Nigeria for determinants of tobacco use within each country. Socio-demographic variables analysed included gender, age, residency, education, wealth index and awareness of smoking health consequences. Current tobacco use was defined as smoking or use of smokeless tobacco daily or occasionally. Results: The overall prevalence of tobacco use varied from 5.5% in Nigeria to 35.7% in Indonesia and was significantly higher among males than females in all five countries. Odds ratios for current tobacco use were significantly higher among males for all countries [with the greatest odds among Indonesian men (OR=67.4, 95% CI: 51.2-88.7)] and among urban dwellers in Romania. The odds of current tobacco use decreased as age increased for all countries except Nigeria where. The reverse was true for Argentina and Nigeria. Significant trends for decreasing tobacco use with increasing educational levels and wealth index were seen in Indonesia, Malaysia and Romania. Significant negative associations between current tobacco use and awareness of adverse health consequences of smoking were found in all countries except Argentina. Conclusions: Males and the socially and economically disadvantaged populations are at the greatest risk of tobacco use. Tobacco control interventions maybe tailored to this segment of population and incorporate educational interventions to increase knowledge of adverse health consequences of smoking.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6249-6254
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• 2015

Targeting breast cancer awareness along with comprehensive cancer care is appropriate in low and middle income countries like India, where there are no organized and affordable screening services. It is essential to identify the existing awareness about breast cancer in the community prior to launching an organized effort. This study assessed the existing awareness about breast cancer amongst women and their health seeking practices in an urban community in Mumbai, India. A postal survey was undertaken with low or no cost options for returning the completed questionnaires. The majority of the women were aware about cancer but awareness about symptoms and signs was poor. Women were willing to accept more information about cancer and those with higher awareness scores were more likely to seek medical help. They were also more likely to have undergone breast examination in the past and less likely to use alternative medicines. High income was associated with better awareness but this did not translate into better health seeking behaviour. Organized programmes giving detailed information about breast cancer and its symptoms are needed and women from all income categories need to be encouraged for positive change towards health seeking. Further detailed studies regarding barriers to health seeking in India are necessary.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.159-175
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• 2007

It is widely accepted that public rental housing programs affect both the allocation of resources and the distribution of welfare. This paper explains institutional arrangements of public housing program in Korea and assesses the benefits of the program. In contrast to the previous studies which employed homothetic preferences, the benefits of the public housing were estimated based on non-homothetic preferences to allow for different income effects across households. Empirical results suggest that average benefit-cost ratio of public housing program is 0.91, and hence, the deadweight loss seems to be well-contained in Korean public housing program compared to other countries. However, the distribution of the benefits reveals that the transmission of the benefits should be improved to achieve the desired goals of residential welfare for low income families.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.333-370
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• 2011

This study views the aged inequalities according to the inequality hypothesis of the life course perspective in OECD 10 countries. Focusing on educational level which is early social status and welfare state regime which is social structure factors of inequality, this study analyzes income inequality for the aged who have transformed into old age period from non-aged period. The analysis is based on the data SHARE of Europe and HRS of USA. The main results of this study are summarized in four points. First, the income inequality is quite high by welfare system and the educational level. Second, the income inequality is somewhat reduced in case the people move from the period of non-aged to the period of aged. However, gini coefficient is still high(0.475). Considering welfare state regimes, although the income inequality is high in conservative regime of non-aged period, this would be higher in aged period. This result supports cumulative advantages/disadvantages hypothesis. The liberal regime remains high income inequality which supports the theoretical argument of status maintenance. Social democratic regime provides evidence to offer some support for the status leveling hypothesis. In there, income inequality is lower in aged period even though income inequality of non-aged period is low. Third, the cumulative advantages/disadvantages of disposable income according to educational level are strengthened and heterogeneity is grown in case people transition from the late period of non-aged to aged period. But public pension has been more equally distributed than gross income. Fourth, seeing welfare state regimes, public pension of aged-period is more inequally distributed than that of non-aged period in liberal and conservative regime. Specially in conservative regime, inequality of gross income is very high and public pension is also inequally distribute So this might show that the social security system strengthens the cumulative advantages/disadvantages. However, in the social democratic regime, public pension is more equally distributed than gross income and it could be much more equally distributed in aged period, which can support the status leveling hypothesis.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1-12
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• 2018

This study attempts to identify the relationship between inequality and entrepreneurship activities and to provide theoretical and policy implications. To do this, we use the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), which is a survey of entrepreneurial activities at the national level, the World Income Inequality Database (WIID), and the World Bank survey data. The analysis shows entrepreneurial activities are relatively high in countries with high level of inequality. We also find GDP moderates the relationship between inequality and entrepreneurial activity. In addition, as expected, necessity entrepreneurship prevails in low income group while opportunity entrepreneurship is dominant in high income group. The study illustrates potential venue for research of entrepreneurship and inequality, whiles calls for broader studies and scrutiny.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.95-102
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of the research is to identify the demographic characteristics of the customers with high private label purchase intention. According to the previous research demographics such as gender, age, income, and residence type affect private label purchase intention indirectly through psychographics rather than directly. For instance, higher income group is time pressured, price-insensitive, quality-sensitive, less likely to enjoy shopping utilitarian products, and less likely to be variety-seeking. The main contribution of this research is to verify the results found in the previous empirical foreign research using scanner data and to investigate the differences of the characteristics of private label users between Korea and the foreign countries. Research design, data, and methodology - In order to empirically test the proposed hypotheses, scanner data of a Korean major super center was analyzed. Results - Empirical results show that private labels are more favored by old people over 50s, dwellers in individual house, lower income group, and frequent store visitors. Age of 30s, dwellers in the apartment of 30 pyung, higher income group, and consumers who purchased a large amount are less likely to purchase private labels. Gender turned out not to affect private label purchase. It should be noted that there is a significant multicollinearity among independent variables. Conclusions - The research findings provide managerial implication for retailers' private label strategy. In general, retailers heavily send private label coupons to the customers with high purchase volume. According to the research, however, store visit frequency is much more positively associated with private label purchase than purchase amount. The study has some limitations. The samples are only consumers with private label purchase experience. The data were drawn from one store and only 8 commodity products were used for the analysis. Also, if more demographics were available, a more complete description on the private brand users' profile could have been derived. We propose the following future research. Research using the data including consumers without private label experience, research investigating direction of causality between private label loyalty and store loyalty, and research using hedonic private label products such as TV and PC could be promising.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.563-568
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• 2016

Background: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in women worldwide and its frequency is increasing gradually in many countries. Over the last three decades an increase in the breast cancer has been witnessed in the earlier low-risk Asian countries including Pakistan. Purpose: The objective of the current study was to assess the prevalence of known risk factors like early menarche, late menopause, socio economic, reproductive and demographic factors, among women diagnosed with breast cancer at INMOL hospital, Lahore, Punjab, as little information exists in this regard. Materials and Methods: A survey study was conducted on 200 women diagnosed with breast cancer who were seen at Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Oncology (INMOL) hospital, Lahore. A structured questionnaire was administered to these patients regarding the known risk factors through face to face interviews after obtaining appropriate consent. Results: Regarding non-modifiable risk factors, our study showed that majority of the breast cancer patients were diagnosed at 35-45 years (32.5%) or at older age (${\leq}46$) and experienced menarche at 12 years or older (66 %). Likewise, a large number of patients reached menopause at the age of 45 years (60%), had no family and personal history of breast cancer (80%) and hence fell in a low risk category. Regarding modifiable risk factors in women diagnosed with breast cancer, most of the patients fell in low risk strata as the majority were married (98%) at young age, breastfed their children for 12 months or more (88%) and bore two to three children (80%). Considering income criteria, the majority of the patients had a low risk profile as they belonged to middle class (70%), urban area (60%) and were house wives (80%). However, it was noted that a considerable number of women (34%) diagnosed with breast cancer experienced menarche at an early age (<12) and reached menopause after the age of 45 years. This situation is further augmented by environmental changes and dietary habits and places them in a high risk category.