Aid effectiveness and capacity development: Implications for economic growth in developing countries

"Although adequate country capacity is considered to be one of the critical missing factors in development outcomes, a lack of understanding of how capacity contributes to economic development and of how to account for the contribution of capacity development to economic growth remains a challenge. The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of how capacity strengthening as an input in the development process affects economy-wide growth. In this paper, we present a stylized model for understanding the relationship between capacity strengthening and economic growth in an endogenous growth framework. Endogenous growth theory provides a starting point for combining individual, organizational, and enabling environmental issues as part of attaining the capacity-strengthening goal. Our results indicate that although donors can play an important role in aiding countries to develop their existing capacities or to generate new ones, under certain conditions, the potential also exists for uncoordinated and fragmented donor activities to erode country capacities. From the policy exercises, we demonstrate that improving economy-wide learning unambiguously increases the rate of growth of output, technology, capital stock, and capacity. Moreover, a donor's intervention has the maximum impact on the above variables when the economy's capacity is relatively low. In contrast, donor intervention can lead to “crowding-out effects” when the economy's capacity is moderately high. Under such a situation, the economy never reaches a new steady state. Our results not only lend support to diminishing returns to aid but also to an S model of development aid and country capacity relationship. " from authors' abstractCapacity strengthening, Development aid, economic growth, Learning,

Social innovation and entrepreneurship: Developing capacity to reduce poverty and hunger

Hunger, Capital, Social innovation, Roles of entrepreneurs, Poverty reduction, MDGs, Social capital, Capacity strengthening,

Total Thiols and MDA Levels in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction Before and After Reperfusion Therapy

Background: Reactive oxygen species have been implicated in the pathogenesis of ischemic and reperfusion injury. In the current work we have measured malondialdehyde (MDA), total thiols, total CK, CK-MB and AST in ECG proven acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients immediately after admission and 24 hours after administration of thrombolytic agent streptokinase, and in healthy controls. Methods: Blood samples from 44 AMI patients and 25 age and sex matched healthy controls were obtained and analyzed for MDA, total thiols using spectrophotometric methods and cardiac enzymes CK, CK-MB and AST using automated analyzer. Results: We have found significant increase in MDA, CPK, CK-MB, AST (p< 0.001) and significant decrease in total thiols (p<0.001) in AMI patients after thrombolytic therapy compared to values at admission, and healthy controls. MDA correlated negatively with total thiols (r = - 0.333, p<0.05) and positively with CK-MB (r = 0.491, p<0.01) in AMI patients after thrombolytic therapy. Conclusions: Reperfusion following thrombolytic therapy increases reactive oxygen species with concomitant decrease in antioxidant total thiols

Decentralization of public-sector agricultural extension in India: The case of the district-level Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA)

agricultural extension reform, Decentralization, demand-driven, organizational capacity,

Closed pinning for paediatric supracondylar fractures: does timing really matter?

Background: Management guidelines and comparative studies are not yet clear for those patients who present early and late with widely displaced supracondyle humerus fracture in children.Methods: A total of 74 children were included in this study, 30 patients presenting early within 24 hours as group 1, and 44 patients who presented late i.e. after 24 hours and within a week as group 2 underwent closed reduction and pinning.Results: In group one 24 had excellent, 6 had good results, according to modified Flynn’s criteria. One patient developed ulnar nerve palsy which was iatrogenic, and improved completely after wire removal. Another was brachial artery injury which was explored and recovered completely. In group 2 the average delay in presentation was 57.56 hours; mean time to surgery after presentation was 9.83 hours. Sixteen patients (36.36%) had neurologic complications at presentation to the emergency room of which three had median nerve palsy (6.81%) whereas seven (15.90%) had isolated anterior interosseous nerve palsy and six (13.6%) had radial nerve palsy all patients showed total neurological recovery at 12 weeks. Six patients (13.63%) had vascular compromise at initial presentation of which five patients had feeble radial pulse and one had absent radial pulse, but capillary filling was adequate in all. The pulse was restored within 24 hours in all patients following reduction. There were 37 excellent, 6 good and 1fair results.Conclusions: Our results support, closed reduction and Percutaneous pin fixation as an effective treatment option for grossly displaced supracondylar fractures presenting early and late but requires good and careful judgment and also technique

Transient behavior of a nuclear reactor coupled to an accelerator

Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS) present one of the most viable solutions for transmutation and effective utilization of nuclear fuel. Spent fuel from reactors will be partitioned to separate plutonium and other minor actinides to be transmuted in the ADS. Without the ADS, minor actinides must be stored at a geologic repository for long periods of time. One problem with ADS is understanding the control issues that arise when coupling an accelerator to a reactor. ADSTRANS was developed to predict the transient behavior of a nuclear reactor coupled to an accelerator. It was based on MCNPX, a radiation transport code developed at the LANL, and upon a numerical model of the neutron transport equation. MCNPX was used to generate the neutron source term that occurs when the accelerator is fired. ADSTRANS coupled MCNPX to a separate finite difference code that solved the transient neutron transport equation. A cylindrical axisymmetric reactor with steel shielding was considered for this analysis. Multiple neutron energy groups, neutron precursor groups and neutron poisons were considered. ENDF/B cross-section data obtained through MCNPX was also employed. The reactor was assumed to be isothermal and near zero power level; Unique features of this code are: (1) it predicts the neutron behavior of an ADS for different reactor geometry, material concentration, both electron and proton particle accelerators, and target material, (2) it develops input files for MCNPX to simulate neutron production, runs MCNPX, and retrieves information from the MCNPX output files; Neutron production predicted by MCNPX for a 20 MeV electron accelerator and lead target was compared with experimental data from the Idaho Accelerator Center and found to be in good agreement. The spatial neutron flux distribution and transient neutron flux in the reactor as predicted by the code were compared with analytical solutions and found to be in good agreement. Fuel burnup and poison buildup were also as expected. ADSTRANS is intended to be a valid tool for the simulation of neutron behavior in a nuclear reactor coupled to an accelerator for the transmutation of nuclear waste

Economic reforms and entry barriers in Indian manufacturing

Institutional regulations by way of licensing and capacity restrictions have often been considered as barriers to competition in Indian industry. As most of these regulations have given way for market signals an increase in the number of entrants and alterations in the conditions of entry, mainly the barriers to entry are expected. In this paper I attempt to analyse the extent of barriers to entry in Indian manufacturing by empirically quantifying the height of these barriers. Econometric estimation of the height of the barriers for 1991 and 1996 shows that the height of barriers increased in 1996 at the aggregate level. An examination at the disaggregate level reveals that in almost all the industries examined from a sample of firms drawn from the CMIE the height of the barriers have increased in 1996 compared to 1991. The dilution and dismantling of commands and controls intended to ease entry have thus paved the way for the erection and strengthening of market barriers which have grown over time. JEL Classification : L1, L11, L13 Key words : economic reforms, entry barriers, height of barriers, market barrier

Synthesis and luminescence properties of core-shell structured (lanthanum(1-x)europium(x))(2)zirconium heptoxid[at]yttrium orthoborate spherical nanoparticles

Many rare earth compounds have photoluminescent characteristics for various important applications. In this study, europium doped La2Zr2O7 nanoparticles were first synthesized morphology-controllably by using a molten-salt synthesis method. These nanoparticles were used as the core for coating with YBO3 shell. We then explored the effect of different experimental processing parameters, such as annealing temperatures, reaction times and different ratios of salt mixtures on the structure and morphology of these nanoparticles. The overall core size and shell thickness can be controlled by varying the reactant concentration both the core and shell material. These core@shell nanoparticles were then characterized mainly using power x-ray diffraction, transmission and scanning electron microscopes, and photoluminescence measurements. More importantly, their photoluminescence was carefully studied. These special properties allow these compounds as excellent candidates for broad applications in various devices, such as in lighting devices and radiation detectors

Identification of molecular markers and association mapping of selected loci associated with agronomic traits in rice

Discriminate Analysis as a procedure was evaluated to select molecular markers associated with complex traits in US rice germplasm. Markers for percent head rice, percent total rice, and grain yield were identified with high levels of correct classification that mapped within or near traditional Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL). Mixed model-regression procedure to identify molecular markers that predict phenotypic variance associated with four agronomic traits was created and validated in two distinct rice inbred populations. Main and epistatic effects were identified by standard hypothesis testing and Bayesian information criteria in a multivariate format. The new procedure increased power and enhanced prediction ability of markers in validation samples from both populations. A new SNP discovery and genotyping protocol referred to as Alternative Ecotilling has identified four previously reported and 14 new SNPs in the alk and waxy genes among 57 accessions based on comparisons with sequencing results. The new procedure has been published in 2006 in the journal Plant Molecular Biology Reporter. Application of haplotype-specific markers in exon 7 of the BAD2 gene for marker-assisted identification and introgression of the aroma gene in U.S. rice was evaluated. Aromatic/non-aromatic phenotypes were consistent with corresponding marker haplotypes for all progeny tested which shows the potential of this procedure for marker assisted breeding of new aromatic varieties. Similarly, an allele-specific PCR assays were developed to distinguish between homozygous and heterozygous imazethapyr-resistant S653D and G654E SNP alleles of the rice ALS gene. Field collections were successfully screened for the presence of S653D SNP, and F2 progeny lines of natural CL 121 x red rice outcrosses were screened for the presence of the G654E SNP. These assays were proven successful and are currently used for detection of outcrossing and seed purity for the LSU AgCenter Rice Breeding Project

Benchmarking photoneutron production of Mcnpx simulations with experimental results

Accelerator driven subcritical systems (ADS) are one of the most viable methods for the transmutation and effective utilization of nuclear fuel. An important aspect of coupling the accelerator to a nuclear reactor is the generation of a high-energy neutron flux. The neutron flux can be generated by hitting a high-Z target composed of lead, tungsten, or other elements with a high-energy proton beam; To explore the control issues arising from coupling a proton accelerator to a subcritical reactor, an electron beam accelerator which produces a similar neutron flux can be used. The purpose of this study is to computationally predict the neutron production rate from a lead target that would couple an accelerator to a subcritical reactor assembly. MCNPX, a radiation transport code developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, was used in this study. The MCNPX predictions of photo-neutron production were compared with experimental results performed at Idaho Accelerator Centre (IAC), and showed good agreement