Anthropometric within-country Inequality and the Estimation of Skill Premia with Anthropometric Indicators

Recently, a method to measure inequality has been proposed that is based on an- thropometric indicators. Baten (1999, 2000) argued that the coefficient of variation of human stature (henceforth ‘CV’) is correlated with overall inequality in a society, and that it can be used as indicator, especially where income inequality measures are lack- ing. This correlation has been confirmed in further analyses, for example by Pradhan et al. (2003), Moradi and Baten (2005), Sunder (2003), Guntupalli and Baten (2006), Blum (2010a), van Zanden et al. (2010), see also Figure 1 and Table 1. The idea is that average height reflects nutritional conditions during early childhood and youth. Since wealthier people have better access to food, shelter and medical resources, they tend to be taller than the poorer part of the population. Hence, the variation of height of a cer- tain cohort may be indicative of income distribution during the decade of their birth. The aim of this study is firstly to provide an overview of different forms of within- country height inequality. Previous studies on the aspects of height inequality are re- viewed. Inequalities between ethnic groups, gender, inhabitants of different regions and income groups are discussed. In the two final sections, we compare height CVs of anthropological inequality with another indicator of inequality, namely skill premia. We also present estimates of skill premia for a set of countries and decades for which “height CVs”, as they will be called in the following, are available.

The Economics of Total War and Reconstruction, 1914-1922

This chapter features a discussion of the economy and mobilization for the First World War. The authors analyse the implications and cost of total war, concluding with an examination of its contradictory legacies. In studying the war’s impact on Germany in particular, the chapter provides an in-depth look at the consequences of war on Europe’s strongest pre-war economy, without the complications of separating out the issues of a developing country, which can mimic those faced in wartime. The economic challenges that warring parties faced during the war included mobilization, warfare, labour shortage, impaired domestic economic activity, restricted international trade, a systematic redistribution of resources towards the war economy, food rationing, the predictable emergence of black markets, and a drop in living standards. The authors also discuss strategies to meet the significant financial demands associated with the war, and its tumultuous economic and political aftermath.

Compact Low-Profile Antenna for Wireless Medical Vital Sign Monitors at 868 MHz

A low-profile wearable antenna suitable for integration into low-cost, disposable medical vital signs monitors is presented. Simulated and measured antenna performance was characterized on a layered human tissue phantom, representative of the thorax region of a range of human bodies. The wearable antenna has sufficient bandwidth for the 868 MHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical frequency band. Wearable radiation efficiency of up to 30 % is reported when mounted in close proximity to the novel human tissue phantom antenna test-bed at 868 MHz.

Image, Video and 3D Data Registration: Medical, Satellite and Video Processing Applications with Quality Metrics

Data registration refers to a series of techniques for matching or bringing similar objects or datasets together into alignment. These techniques enjoy widespread use in a diverse variety of applications, such as video coding, tracking, object and face detection and recognition, surveillance and satellite imaging, medical image analysis and structure from motion. Registration methods are as numerous as their manifold uses, from pixel level and block or feature based methods to Fourier domain methods.

This book is focused on providing algorithms and image and video techniques for registration and quality performance metrics. The authors provide various assessment metrics for measuring registration quality alongside analyses of registration techniques, introducing and explaining both familiar and state-of-the-art registration methodologies used in a variety of targeted applications.

Key features:
- Provides a state-of-the-art review of image and video registration techniques, allowing readers to develop an understanding of how well the techniques perform by using specific quality assessment criteria
- Addresses a range of applications from familiar image and video processing domains to satellite and medical imaging among others, enabling readers to discover novel methodologies with utility in their own research
- Discusses quality evaluation metrics for each application domain with an interdisciplinary approach from different research perspectives

Wearable inkjet-printed antenna performance for medical applications at 868/915 MHz

The use of biosensors attached to the body for health monitoring is now readily accepted, and the merits of such systems and their potential impact on healthcare receive much attention. Wearable medical systems used in clinical applications to monitor vital signs must be comfortable to wear, yet have robust performance to ensure reliable communications links. Additionally, and vital to the success of these innovations, is that these solutions are disposable to avoid risk of patient infection and this means that they must be ultra-low cost. Antennas optimized for printing using conductive inks offer new exciting advances in making a truly disposable solution.