Determinants of the choice leasing vs Bank Loan: evidence from the french sme by Kacm

The question of leasing credit as a substitute or complement of a banking loan has still not been resolved in the financial literature. As a continuation of these arguments, the objective of this article is, on the one hand, to determine the characteristics of firms using leasing credit and on the other hand, to better understand the relationship between leasing and credit rationing. Firstly, our results suggest that SME use leasing all the more the leasing so when they are young, leveraged, less solvent and that they present an small size and an important failure probability. Thus, leasing pushes back the limits of banking debt for firms that have no access to it. Secondly, our results suggest a strong and significant relationship between credit rationing and the use of leasing. In this framework the latter appears to be a last resort financing.Leasing, credit rationing, SME, Self organising maps (SOM)

New Wave of Component Reuse with Spring Framework - AP Case Study

The myth of component reuse has always been the “holy grail” of software engineering. The motivation var-ies from less time, effort and money expenditure to higher system quality and reliability which is especially impor-tant in the domain of high energy physics and accelerator controls. Identified as an issue by D. McIlroy in 1968 [1], it has been generally addressed in many ways with vari-ous success rates. But only recently with the advent of fresh ideas like the Spring Framework with its powerful yet simple “Inversion of Control” paradigm the solution to the problem has started to be surprisingly uncompli-cated. Gathered over years of experience this document explains best practices and lessons learned applied at CERN for the design of the operational software used to control the accelerator complex and focuses on features of the Spring Framework that render the component reuse achievable in practice. It also provides real life use cases of mission-critical control systems developed by the Ap-plication Section like the LHC Software Architecture (LSA), the Injector Control Architecture (InCA) or the Software Interlock System (SIS) that have built their own success mostly upon a stack of reusable software components

Financial and economic costs of scaling up the provision of HAART to HIV-infected health care workers in KwaZulu- Natal

Objectives: To provide new information on the financial and economic costs of providing highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) to health care workers in public-sector hospital settings in KwaZulu-Natal. Design: An Excel model was used to estimate the cost of providing HAART to health care workers at two statesubsidised hospitals in Durban. Staff members were interviewed and protocols reviewed to identify the time and resources used to provide HAART to health care workers. The cost of the programme was estimated for various patient numbers. Results: The financial cost of treating a patient for a year ranged from R5 697 to R8 762 depending on the hospital and the number of patients treated. The economic cost of treating a patient for a year ranged from R6 123 to R8 893. These costs were shown to be robust to changes in key variables.Conclusions: This study provides evidence on the cost of providing HAART to health care workers and suggests that this strategy could reduce absenteeism and alleviate future staff shortages at moderate cost to hospitals. This is crucial, given the impending human resources crisis in health care in South Africa and the growing burden of HIV/AIDS. These cost estimates should be good indicators of the costs of extending antiretroviral therapy to health care workers in public-sector hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal. South African Medical Journal Vol. 96(2) 2006: 140-14

CTF3 BPM acquisition system

International audienc

Status and Recent Developments of the Analog Signal Observation System at CERN PS

The nAos (new Analog observation system) at CERN's PS complex allows visualization of some 1500 analog signals in any of the workstations connected to the controls network. Signals are digitized close to their source using VXI oscilloscope modules and sent to the users via Ethernet. A sophisticated application program conveys the signal selection and settings to the VXI front-ends and displays all the requested signals in one virtual oscilloscope window. The trigger pulses for the VXI oscilloscope modules are produced centrally near the Main Control Room of the PS and sent to the VXI crates oscilloscopes through long dedicated copper cables. To get to a sharper time definition, a new trigger production method has been tested with successful results. Timing events, encoded with an ultra-stable 10 MHz clock are sent as 32-bit messages through an optical fiber and converted locally into trigger pulses. The precision achieved with this method is better than 1 ns. The paper describes the current system, presents its performances in operation and details the recent development on the trigger generation

An Integration Testing Facility for the CERN Accelerator Controls System

A major effort has been invested in the design, development, and deployment of the LHC Control System. This large control system is made up of a set of core components and dependencies, which although tested individually, are often not able to be tested together on a system capable of representing the complete control system environment, including hardware. Furthermore this control system is being adapted and applied to CERN's whole accelerator complex, and in particular for the forthcoming renovation of the PS accelerators. To ensure quality is maintained as the system evolves, and toimprove defect prevention, the Controls Group launched a project to provide a dedicated facility for continuous, automated, integration testing of its core components to incorporate into its production process. We describe the project, initial lessons from its application, status, and future directions

Automatic conditioning of the CTF3 RF system

The RF system of CTF3 (CLIC Test Facility 3) includes ten 35 MW to 40 MW 3 GHz klystrons and one 20 MW 1.5 GHz klystron. High power RF conditioning of the waveguide network and cavities connected to each klystron can be extremely time consuming. Because of this, a fully automatic conditioning system has been developed within a CERN JINR (Dubna) collaboration. It involves relatively minor hardware additions, most of the work being in application and front-end software. The system has already been used very successfully

‘These are not luxuries, it is essential for access to life’: Disability related out-of-pocket costs as a driver of economic vulnerability in South Africa

Background: With the dawn of the new sustainable development goals, we face not only a world that has seen great successes in alleviating poverty but also a world that has left some groups, such as persons with disabilities, behind. Middle-income countries (MICs) are home to a growing number of persons with disabilities. As these countries strive to achieve the new goals, we have ample opportunity to include persons with disabilities in the emerging poverty alleviation strategies. However, a lack of data and research on the linkages between economic vulnerability and disability in MICs hampers our understanding of the factors increasing economic vulnerability in people with disabilities. Methods: This article aims to present data related to elements of this vulnerability in one MIC, South Africa. Focusing on out-of-pocket costs, it uses focus group discussions with 73 persons with disabilities and conventional content analysis to describe these costs. Results: A complex and nuanced picture of disability-driven costs evolved on three different areas: care and support for survival and safety, accessibility of services and participation in community. Costs varied depending on care and support needs, accessibility (physical and financial), availability, and knowledge of services and assistive devices. Conclusions: The development of poverty alleviation and social protection mechanisms in MICs like South Africa needs to better consider diverse disability-related care and support needs not only to improve access to services such as education and health (National Health Insurance schemes, accessible clinics) but also to increase the effect of disability-specific benefits and employment equity policies