Charlie: A New Robot Prototype for Improving Communication and social Skills in Children with Autism and a New Single-point Infrared Sensor Technique for Detecting bBeathing and Heart Rate Remotely

This research delivers a new, interactive game-playing robot named CHARLIE and a novel technique for remotely detecting breathing and heart rate using a single-point, thermal infrared sensor (IR). The robot is equipped with a head and two arms, each with two degrees of freedom, and a camera. We trained a human hands classifier and used this classifier along with a standard face classifier to create two autonomous interactive games: single-player ( Imitate Me, Imitate You ) and two-player ( Pass the Pose ). Further, we developed and implemented a suite of new interactive games in which the robot is teleoperated by remote control. Each of these features has been tested and validated through a field study including eight children diagnosed with autism and speech delays. Results from that study show that significant improvements in speech and social skills can be obtained when using CHARLIE with the methodology described herein. Moreover, gains in communication and social interaction are observed to generalize from child-to-robot to co-present others through the scaffolding of communication skills with the systematic approach developed for the study. Additionally, we present a new IR system that continuously targets the sub-nasal region of the face and measures subtle temperature changes corresponding to breathing and cardiac pulse. This research makes four novel contributions: (1) A low-cost, field-tested robot for use in autism therapy, (2) a suite of interactive robot games, (3) a hand classifier created for performing hand detection during the interactive games, and (4) an IR sensor system which remotely collects temperatures and computes breathing and heart rate. Interactive robot CHARLIE is physically designed to be aesthetically appealing to young children between three and six years of age. The hard, wood and metal robot body is covered with a bright green, fuzzy material and additional padding so that it appears toylike and soft. Additionally, several structural features were included to ensure safety during interactive play and to enhance the robustness of the robot. Because children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often enjoy exploring new or interesting objects with their hands, the robot must be able to withstand a moderate amount of physical manipulation without causing injury to the child or damaging the robot or its components. CHARLIE plays five distinct interactive games that are designed to be entertaining to young children, appeal to children of varying developmental ability and promote increased speech and social skill through imitation and turn-taking. Remote breathing and heart rate detection Stress is a compounding factor in autism therapy which can inhibit progress toward specific therapeutic goals. The ability to non-invasively detect physical indicators of increasing stress, especially when they can be correlated to specific activities and measured in terms of length and frequency, can relay important metrics about the antecedents that cause stress for a particular child and can be used to help automate the evaluation of a child\u27s progress between sessions. Further, collecting and measuring critical physiological indicators such as breathing and heart rate can enable robots to adjust their behavior based on the perceived emotional, psychological or physical state of their user. The utility and acceptance of robots can be further increased when they are able to learn typical physiological patterns and use these patterns as a baseline for identifying anomalies or possible warning signs of various problems in their human users. We present a new technique for remotely collecting and analyzing breathing and heart rates in real time using an autonomous, low cost infrared (IR) sensor system. This is accomplished by continuously targeting a high precision IR sensor, tracking changes in the sub-nasal skin surface temperature and employing a sinusoidal curve-fitting function, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) to extract the breathing and heart rate from recorded temperatures

Poverty, Income Distribution and CGE Modeling: Does the Functional Form of Distribution Matter?

In this paper, we provide an overview of approaches used to model income distribution and poverty in CGE models. CGE models have started to use income distribution functional forms such as the lognormal, Pareto, beta distribution and Kernel non-parametric methods to apply GFT poverty indices. None of the authors of these papers have gone into much detail to justify the use of one method or functional form over the other, within the context of this type of work. Extensive literature exists on the choice of functional forms to estimate income distribution; however it has not been utilized in the CGE context. Given the fact that the desegregation of groups of households can be important in CGE analysis and the fact that the impact on income of policy simulations are often small in CGE models, we investigate the importance of othe choice of the functional form used to estimate the income distribution of groups of households. We compare six functional forms with parametric estimation and on a non-parametric method. Results show that no single form is more appropriate in all cases or groups of households. The characteristics of samples and subgroups play an important role and the choice shoudl be guided by the best fitting distribution.Computable general equilibrium models, estimation, personal income and wealth distribution, measurement and analysis of poverty

Can the removal of VAT Exemptions support the Poor? The Case of Niger

In order to have the public funds necessary for its development, Niger is examining the possibility of expanding its VAT tax base to exempted goods and basic food products. This proposal has prompted violent opposition leading to the question of the social impacts of taxation. The first micro-macro computable general equilibrium model of Niger's actual economy has been developed. This model allows analysis of the social impact and distributional analysis of the following VAT structures: a pure VAT structure, a structure maintaining certain exemptions, and a multiple-rate VAT structure. The model’s results shows that although restoring the VAT rate would be socially costly compared to the initial situation, the distributional impact of the VAT differs according to the system implemented in the country. Maintaining VAT exemptions in food crop agriculture sectors associated with a tax base expansion in the remaining sectors will increase public revenue while taking into account the national goal of poverty reduction. The net social impact of exoneration depends on the economic structure of the concerned sector. If the national goal is the end of exemption, the model shows that applying a pure VAT conforming to the theory is preferable in terms of economic growth whereas applying a reduced-rate on food crop agriculture lightens the social impact of the end of exemptions compared to a single rate.distributional analysis, Value Added Tax, exemptions, micro-simulation, Computable general equilibrium model, niger

Can the removal of VAT Exemptions support the Poor? The Case of Niger

In order to have the public funds necessary for its development, Niger is examining the possibility of expanding its VAT tax base to exempted goods and basic food products. This proposal has prompted violent opposition leading to the question of the social impacts of taxation. The first micro-macro computable general equilibrium model of Niger's actual economy has been developed. This model allows analysis of the social impact and distributional analysis of the following VAT structures: a pure VAT structure, a structure maintaining certain exemptions, and a multiple-rate VAT structure. The model's results shows that although restoring the VAT rate would be socially costly compared to the initial situation, the distributional impact of the VAT differs according to the system implemented in the country. Maintaining VAT exemptions in food crop agriculture sectors associated with a tax base expansion in the remaining sectors will increase public revenue while taking into account the national goal of poverty reduction. The net social impact of exoneration depends on the economic structure of the concerned sector. If the national goal is the end of exemption, the model shows that applying a pure VAT conforming to the theory is preferable in terms of economic growth whereas applying a reduced-rate on food crop agriculture lightens the social impact of the end of exemptions compared to a single rate.distributional analysis;Value Added Tax;exemptions;micro-simulation;Computable general equilibrium model;niger

Inattention and the Taxation Bias

This paper shows that agent inattention to taxes generates a time-inconsistency problem in the choice of tax policy. In equilibrium, inattention leads to inefficiently high tax rates and a taxation bias emerges. Combining structural and sufficient statistics approaches, we quantify the magnitude and the welfare effects of this policy distortion for US income tax rates, and find that the taxation bias is large, alters the progressivity of income taxes, and significantly reduces social welfare. Overall, our findings shed new light on the policy and welfare implications of inattention and misperceptions

La fin des exonérations de TVA est-elle favorable aux pauvres ? Le cas du Niger

Afin de disposer des ressources publiques nécessaires à son développement, le Niger étudie la possibilité d'élargir l'assiette fiscale de la TVA aux biens exonérés et aux biens d'alimentations de base. Cette proposition a provoqué des oppositions violentes conduisant à poser la question des impacts sociaux de la fiscalité. Nous avons construit le premier modèle d'équilibre général calculable micro-macro de l'économie réelle du Niger, permettant d'analyser l'impact social et de mener une analyse distributive de différents systèmes de TVA : TVA pure, maintien des exonérations dans l'agriculture vivrière, système de TVA à taux multiples. Selon notre modèle, le maintien des exonérations de TVA dans l'agriculture associée à l'élargissement de l'assiette fiscale dans les autres secteurs permet de tenir compte des objectifs nationaux de lutte contre la pauvreté tout en augmentant les recettes de l'Etat. L'impact social net des exonérations dépend de la structure économique du secteur. Si l'objectif est la fin des exonérations, notre modèle montre qu'une application du taux unique conforme à la théorie favorise la croissance alors que l'introduction d'un taux réduit sur les biens d'agriculture vivrière permet d'alléger l'impact social de la fin des exonérations

Can the removal of VAT Exemptions support the Poor? The Case of Niger

In order to have the public funds necessary for its development, Niger is examining the possibility of expanding its VAT tax base to exempted goods and basic food products. This proposal has prompted violent opposition leading to the question of the social impacts of taxation. The first micro-macro computable general equilibrium model of Niger's actual economy has been developed. This model allows analysis of the social impact and distributional analysis of the following VAT structures: a pure VAT structure, a structure maintaining certain exemptions, and a multiple-rate VAT structure. The model's results shows that although restoring the VAT rate would be socially costly compared to the initial situation, the distributional impact of the VAT differs according to the system implemented in the country. Maintaining VAT exemptions in food crop agriculture sectors associated with a tax base expansion in the remaining sectors will increase public revenue while taking into account the national goal of poverty reduction. The net social impact of exoneration depends on the economic structure of the concerned sector. If the national goal is the end of exemption, the model shows that applying a pure VAT conforming to the theory is preferable in terms of economic growth whereas applying a reduced-rate on food crop agriculture lightens the social impact of the end of exemptions compared to a single rate

La fin des exonérations de TVA est-elle favorable aux pauvres ? Le cas du Niger

Afin de disposer des ressources publiques nécessaires à son développement, le Niger étudie la possibilité d'élargir l'assiette fiscale de la TVA aux biens exonérés et aux biens d'alimentations de base. Cette proposition a provoqué des oppositions violentes conduisant à poser la question des impacts sociaux de la fiscalité. Nous avons construit le premier modèle d'équilibre général calculable micro-macro de l'économie réelle du Niger, permettant d'analyser l'impact social et de mener une analyse distributive de différents systèmes de TVA : TVA pure, maintien des exonérations dans l'agriculture vivrière, système de TVA à taux multiples. Selon notre modèle, le maintien des exonérations de TVA dans l'agriculture associée à l'élargissement de l'assiette fiscale dans les autres secteurs permet de tenir compte des objectifs nationaux de lutte contre la pauvreté tout en augmentant les recettes de l'Etat. L'impact social net des exonérations dépend de la structure économique du secteur. Si l'objectif est la fin des exonérations, notre modèle montre qu'une application du taux unique conforme à la théorie favorise la croissance alors que l'introduction d'un taux réduit sur les biens d'agriculture vivrière permet d'alléger l'impact social de la fin des exonérations.Modèle d'équilibre général calculable;micro-simulation;Taxe sur la Valeur Ajoutée;exonérations;analyse distributive;Niger.

Une analyse préliminaire d'impacts de la libéralisation de la filière arachide au Sénégal: un modèle d'équilibre général calculable multi-ménages

La stratégie de réduction de la pauvreté au Sénégal va être mise en oeuvre dans un contexte de libéralisation des échanges commerciaux internationaux notamment dans le secteur agricole et en particulier dans le secteur de l'arachide. Dans ce contexte, nous avons développé un modèle d'équilibre général calculable micro-simulé multi-ménages du type Decaluwé et al. (1999) permettant d'évaluer l'impact que pourront avoir la libéralisation de la filière ainsi que la privatisation de la Société Nationale de Commercialisation des Oléagineux du Sénégal (SONACOS), politiques prévues dans l'Accord Cadre sur les ménages et de faire le lien entre ces réformes économiques, la pauvreté et la distribution de revenu. Ce modèle offre beaucoup de flexibilité en permettant notamment de modifier la distribution des groupes cibles qui n'ont pas à être retenus avant l'exercice de simulation afin d'effectuer l'analyse de pauvreté et d'inégalité ex post à l'exercice de modélisation.Modèle d'équilibre général calculable, micro-simulation, analyse de pauvreté, distribution de revenu, libéralisation commerciale, privatisation

La rentabilité de l'investissement dans l'éducation au Sénégal

Depuis les années 60, la rentabilité du système éducatif suscite un intérêt croissant auprès des décideurs lorsqu'il s'agit de faire un choix d'investissement. Toutefois, la plupart des travaux consacrés à cette problématique portent sur les rendements internes de l'éducation. Cette étude se propose de mesurer la rentabilité externe de l'investissement relativement important, consenti dans l'éducation par les ménages (rendement privé) et la collectivité (rendement social). Il est reconnu que l'État et les ménages sénégalais consacrent d'importantes ressources à l'éducation sans avoir cependant une idée précise du rendement de leur investissement. Cette étude devrait combler cette lacune. La méthode utilisée est celle du taux de rendement interne appliquée aux données de l'Enquête Sénégalaise Auprès des Ménages (ESAM) de 1995. Les revenus nets bruts proviennent de ceux de l'année 1995. L'étude montre qu'au Sénégal l'éducation est en général un secteur d'investissement rentable où le rendement privé est plus élevé que le rendement social. De plus, une analyse par sous-secteur fait ressortir que l'investissement social dans le secondaire et le supérieur n'est pas rentable contrairement à l'enseignement primaire et moyen. Enfin, le chômage et le redoublement ont un impact négatif sur les rentabilités sociale et privée.Rentabilité interne de l'éducation, méthode avantages-coût, rendements privés et sociaux