Progress Daily

According to Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo (of the Poverty Action Laboratory), among the rural poor, fewer than half have children aged 13-18 in education, whereas among those living in cities and earning over $2 a day the figure is over three-quarters.

In emerging markets, among the very poorest (those living on less than $1 a day), the number of children in the household ranged from 1.8 to 3.6 per adult woman. In families that live on $6-10 per person, the average number of children per household was between 1 and 1.3 (these figures do not include China so they are not influenced by that country’s one-child policy).

“Notions of shopkeepers,” The Economist

Based on the 2007 Pew Global Attitudes survey, the attitudes of people in emerging nations whose household income can be considered at least “middle income” by international standards (more than $4,300-per-year in standardized international dollars) differs from those of poorer citizens.

Middle class respondents are more likely to say it is very important to live in a country with key institutional features of democracy, such as fair multiparty elections and a fair judiciary, are more likely to emphasize the importance of the rights enshrined in the First Amendment (free speech, a free press, and freedom of religion).

When asked to choose which is most important to them personally — free speech, freedom of religion, freedom from hunger and poverty, or freedom from crime and violence — they are more likely to prioritize being able to speak freely in public (lower-income respondents were more likely to emphasize being free from hunger and poverty).

People in the global middle class are less likely to consider religion central to their lives, and less likely to believe faith is essential for morality. (See “Unfavorable Views of Jews and Muslims on the Increase in Europe” and “World Publics Welcome Global Trade - But Not Immigration.”)

Similar differences characterize views about homosexuality, especially in Eastern Europe.

Middle-class respondents are more likely to consider global warming a very serious problem; and they are more likely to say that pollution is a very big problem for their country.

Life satisfaction tends to be higher in wealthy countries (see “A Rising Tide Lifts Mood in the Developing World“); and in developing countries, it tends to be higher among wealthy people.

Across the 13 nations, the median percentage rating their current life in the range of seven to 10 is 50% among the global middle class and just 31% among poorer respondents.

The median percentage of middle-class respondents saying their life five years ago rated at least a seven was 45%, compared with 33% of the less affluent.

The 13-country median percentage among the middle class saying their lives would rate a 7-10 in the future was 71%; in contrast, 58% of less wealthy respondents felt this way.

“The Global Middle Class,” Pew Global Attitudes Project

Surjit Bhalla defines the global middle class as those earning $10-100 a day. This middle class’s share of the world’s population rose from 1/3 to over half (57%) between 1990 and 2006. This is the third middle-class surge since 1800. The first occurred in the 19th century with the creation of the first mass middle class in western Europe. The second, mainly in Western countries, occurred during the baby boom (1950-1980). The third one is happening almost entirely in emerging countries.

The number of middle-class people in Asia has overtaken the number in the West for the first time since 1700.

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In many emerging markets the middle class does not grow incrementally, it surges. The chart above shows why. The vertical line represents an income of $10 a day. The lop-sided bell shape represents the distribution of income in a country (in this case, China) with a tail of poor people on the left, a longer tail of rich ones on the right and a bulge of people on average incomes in the middle.

As the economy grows, the bell moves to the right and as it meets the threshold, a great whoosh of people cross into the middle class.

In China, the middle-class share of the population soared from 15% to 62% between 1990 & 2005.

“Burgeoning bourgeoisie,” by John Parker

100 trillion microbes live in the average human, while the human body contains only about 10 trillion cells. The microbes’ total weight is slightly less than that of a liver.

By the end of 2009, the Human Oral Microbiome Project will give names to the 600 or so different microbes that live in the mouth. In the gut, 1,000+ species have been labelled already. The DNA of these bugs has been found to contain 60,000 genes, — twice the number in the human genome.

In the colon, microbes synthesise vitamins for us and provide 10% of our calories by breaking down dietary fibre we cannot process. Gut bacteria can affect how fats are processed, change the likelihood of obesity, alter cholesterol levels and affect chances of developing diabetes — & alter individual reactions to medicines. New data suggest that they might affect brain development, the immune system and allergies.

“Life on Man,” by Alun Anderson

According to research by John Babraj, Niels Vollaard, & James Timmons (”Extremely short duration high intensity training substantially improves insulin action in young sedentary males“), an intense exercise session every couple of days may be the best way to cut the risk of diabetes.

Sixteen young men (age: 21+/-2 y; BMI: 23.7+/-3.1 kg * m-2; VO2peak: 48+/-9 ml * kg-1 * min-1) performed 2 weeks of supervised HIT (high-intensity interval training) comprising of a total of 15 min of exercise (6 sessions; 4-6 x 30-s cycle sprints per session). Aerobic performance (250-kJ self-paced cycling time trial), and glucose, insulin and NEFA responses to a 75-g oral glucose load (oral glucose tolerance test; OGTT) were determined before and after training.

Following 2 weeks of HIT, the area under the plasma glucose, insulin and NEFA concentration-time curves were all reduced (12%, 37%, 26% respectively, all P<0.001). Fasting plasma insulin and glucose concentrations remained unchanged, but there was a trend towards reduced fasting plasma NEFA concentrations post-training (pre: 350 +/- 36 v post: 290 +/- 39 mumol * l-1, P=0.058). Insulin sensitivity as measured by the Cederholm index was improved by 22.5% (P<0.01). Aerobic cycling performance was improved by ~6% (P<0.01).

"Regular sprints boost metabolism,” Physorg

Joel Weinstock has used worms (found in dirt) to both prevent and reverse autoimmune disease in mice.

Immunologists now recognize a four-point response system of helper T cells: Th 1, Th 2, Th 17 and regulatory T cells. Th 1 inhibits Th 2 and Th 17; Th 2 inhibits Th 1 and Th 17; and regulatory T cells inhibit all three.

A lot of inflammatory diseases — multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and asthma — are due to the activity of Th 17. If you infect mice with worms, Th 17 drops dramatically, and the activity of regulatory T cells is augmented.

Children who grow up on farms and are frequently exposed to worms and other organisms from farm animals are much less likely to develop allergies and autoimmune diseases. Weinstock advises: “Children should be allowed to go barefoot in the dirt, play in the dirt, and not have to wash their hands when they come in to eat.” Also: “let kids have two dogs and a cat” (which will expose them to intestinal worms that can promote a healthy immune system).

“Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You,” by Jane E. Brody

Sean McCrea, Nira Liberman, & Yaacov Trope researched procrastination & found that people tend to act in a timely way when given concrete tasks but dawdle when they view them in abstract terms (”Construal Level and Procrastination“).

The researchers conducted 3 studies.

(1) They recruited 34 students who were offered €2.50 ($3.30) for completing a questionnaire within the subsequent three weeks. Half of the students were then sent an email asking them to write a couple of sentences on how they might go about various activities, such as opening a bank account or keeping a diary. The others were asked to write about why someone might want to open a bank account or keep a diary.

(2) They recruited 50 students, who were offered the same sums and timespans as the first lot. Half of these students were asked to provide examples of members of a group, for example, naming any type of bird. The task was inverted for the other students, who were asked to name a category to which birds belong.

(3) They asked 51 students, who were again offered cash and given a deadline, to examine a copy of “La Parade” by Georges Seurat. Half were given information about pointillism, the technique Seurat used to create the impression of solid colours from small dots of paint. The others were told that the painting was an example of neo-impressionism in which the artist had used colour to evoke harmony and emotion. Both groups were then asked to rate the importance of colour in 13 other works of art.

In all 3 studies, those who were presented with concrete tasks and information responded more promptly than did those who were asked to think in an abstract way. Moreover, almost all the students who had been prompted to think in concrete terms completed their tasks by the deadline while up to 56% of students asked to think in abstract terms failed to respond at all.

“Motivating minds,” The Economist