Telecommunications reform in Malawi

In 1998 the Government of Malawi decided to reform its telecommunications sector. Although the reform was ambitious in some ways, it was modest when compared with the most ambitious reforms adopted elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. The two main accomplishments were splitting the incumbent fixed line monopoly, the Malawi Post and Telecommunications Corporation, into two companies-Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) and Malawi Post Corporation (MPC)-and issuing two new cellular licenses to two new private entrants. In addition, the Government also established a new regulator which was separate from, but heavily dependent on, the Ministry of Information and liberalized entry in value-added and Internet services. However, the Government had neither privatized the fixed-line telecommunications operator nor introduced competition in fixed-line services by the end of 2002. Clarke, Gebreab, and Mgombelo discuss sector performance before reform, details of the reform, the political motivation for reform, and events in the five years following the reform. The reform yielded mixed results. Although cellular penetration and Internet use expanded dramatically following reform, prices increased, especially for cellular calls, and fixed-line penetration remains low by regional standards.Public Sector Economics&Finance,Rural Communications,Telecommunications Infrastructure,ICT Policy and Strategies,Knowledge Economy,ICT Policy and Strategies,Rural Communications,Education for the Knowledge Economy,Knowledge Economy,Public Sector Economics&Finance

Influence of Storage of Wet Arabica Parchment Prior to Wet Hulling on Moulds Development, OchratoxinA Contamination, and Cup Quality of Mandheling Coffee

Mandheling coffee has been a well known specialty coffees for decades and the demand for this coffee is currently increasing. This coffee is characterised by low acidity, heavy-complex body, spicy-little earthy and fruity flavor. Mandheling coffee is produced by smallholder farmers in the highland surrounding Lake TobaNorth Sumatra in an unique way i.e. following de-pulping and 1–2 days sundrying, wet parchment is stored for varying periods up to a few weeks, the parchments are then de-hulled when still wet (40–45% moisture content) then the beans sundried. The handling procedure presumably contributes to the unique cup character of Mandheling coffee. On the other hand the storage of wet pachments may cause mould growth and mycotoxin contamination. This trial was designed to study the influence of storage of wet parchments prior to wet hulling on mould development, OTA contamination and cup Mandheling characteristic of the coffee product. The normal wet process, drying of parchment thoroughly to 12% moisture content was used as the control. Parchment coffees (6 lots) used for this trial were drawn from farmers and collectors in the region. The wet parchments (41.74–53.96% moisture content) were stored for 1 (D1), 7 (D7) and 14 (D14) days in PE sacks in a warehouse in the region. During the storage period, when there was visible mould growth, the parchments were spread on a plastic sheet inside the warehouse, as per common practice to suppress the mould growth. Following storage, the wet parchment was de-hulled and then sun-dried to a moisture content of 12% (MC12%) or dried to a moisture content of 17%, and held in storage for 3 weeks prior to final drying to 12% mc. The ‘normal wet process\u27 i.e. fresh-non stored parchments dried thoroughly to 12%, were used as the control. Parameters measured were visual evaluation, mould infestation, a w, moisture content (MC) on the stored parchment; while for dried beans mould infestation, OTA content and the Mandheling cup character evaluation (done by 4 panelists who were familiar to the coffee) were determined. Some mould species grew during the storage course, with black Aspergillus was the dominant species found in the beans, while A. ochraceusan OTA producer, was found in some samples with low infection rate (0–15.3%). Spreading of coffee inside the warehouse during the day could suppress moulds growth. OTA was found in only 5 samples out of 42 samples with range of 0.17–2.24 ppb, very less than European Union limit. There was no clear trend of storage period on the mould infection rates, OTA content, and the Mandheling cup characters. The high variability of the outcome was likely due to the inhomogenity of parchments used for this trial. The best Mandheling was found in the sample of D1-MC12%-coffee source of lot 1

Ballistic transport in induced one-dimensional hole systems

We have fabricated and studied a ballistic one-dimensional p-type quantum wire using an undoped AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure. The absence of modulation doping eliminates remote ionized impurity scattering and allows high mobilities to be achieved over a wide range of hole densities, and in particular, at very low densities where carrier-carrier interactions are strongest. The device exhibits clear quantized conductance plateaus with highly stable gate characteristics. These devices provide opportunities for studying spin-orbit coupling and interaction effects in mesoscopic hole systems in the strong interaction regime where rs > 10.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures (accepted to Applied Physics Letters

Absence of strong magnetic fluctuations in the iron phosphide superconductors LaFePO and Sr2ScO3FeP

We report neutron inelastic scattering measurements on polycrystalline LaFePO and Sr2ScO3FeP, two members of the iron phosphide families of superconductors. No evidence is found for any magnetic fluctuations in the spectrum of either material in the energy and wavevector ranges probed. Special attention is paid to the wavevector at which spin-density-wave-like fluctuations are seen in other iron-based superconductors. We estimate that the magnetic signal, if present, is at least a factor of four (Sr2ScO3FeP) or seven (LaFePO) smaller than in the related iron arsenide and chalcogenide superconductors. These results suggest that magnetic fluctuations are not as influential on the electronic properties of the iron phosphide systems as they are in other iron-based superconductors.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Aquisiton and management of reindeer herd data

Obtaining and maintaining accurate records of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) herd data has become a necessary tool for efficient herd management. A computerized record keeping and reporting system was developed due to the speed which which animals were seen at the seasonal handlings. Custom software was written using the dBASE III + data management package to handle the special needs of herd record keeping. The software was then compiled using the Clipper compiler. The resulting program and data were implemented in ramdisk on a Toshiba 3100 microcomputer. Data structures were carefully chosen to provide for recording of tag identification, sex, age, body weight, abnormalities, disease testing, and treatments for each deer. Additionally, fields were provided to maintain records of ongoing biologic experiments. A report generation program was written to provide a current herd status report to the herders

SMT-based Model Checking for Recursive Programs

We present an SMT-based symbolic model checking algorithm for safety verification of recursive programs. The algorithm is modular and analyzes procedures individually. Unlike other SMT-based approaches, it maintains both "over-" and "under-approximations" of procedure summaries. Under-approximations are used to analyze procedure calls without inlining. Over-approximations are used to block infeasible counterexamples and detect convergence to a proof. We show that for programs and properties over a decidable theory, the algorithm is guaranteed to find a counterexample, if one exists. However, efficiency depends on an oracle for quantifier elimination (QE). For Boolean Programs, the algorithm is a polynomial decision procedure, matching the worst-case bounds of the best BDD-based algorithms. For Linear Arithmetic (integers and rationals), we give an efficient instantiation of the algorithm by applying QE "lazily". We use existing interpolation techniques to over-approximate QE and introduce "Model Based Projection" to under-approximate QE. Empirical evaluation on SV-COMP benchmarks shows that our algorithm improves significantly on the state-of-the-art.Comment: originally published as part of the proceedings of CAV 2014; fixed typos, better wording at some place