Improving the provision of financial services to micro-entrepreneurs, emerging farmers and agribusiness: Lessons from Kwazulu-Natal

Three development finance institutions (DFIs) which operate in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province were assessed in 1996/97 to see how they could improve financial viability and outreach to emerging farmers, agribusiness and micro-entrepreneurs. Improved service quality and emphasis on mobilising savings would help clients and enable the DFIs to diversify their portfolios. Better access to branches and lower loan approval times (improved screening and administrative procedures) could also lower client transaction costs. Charging a suitable interest rate spread is necessary but not sufficient for lenders to achieve subsidy independence. Reducing arrears through stricter loan contract enforcement (borrower accountability for loan repayment, lower collateral specific risks, secure and transferable collateral) will also promote financial viability. Providing both savings and loan services together would reduce borrower access costs, and allow savings to serve as a form of collateral and borrower information for lenders.Agricultural Finance,

Coverage Options for a Low cost, High Resolution Optical Constellation

This paper presents the range of coverage options available to TopSat like small satellites, both singly and in a small constellation. TopSat is a low-cost, high resolution and image quality, optical small satellite, due for launch in October 2004. In particular, the paper considers the use of tuned, repeat ground track orbits to improve coverage for selected ground targets, at the expense of global coverage. TopSat is designed to demonstrate the capabilities of small satellites for high value remote sensing missions. It is a 108kg, sun-synchronous satellite, designed to provide 2.5m resolution imagery direct to users in the vicinity of the imaged area. Its objectives are to demonstrate the capability to cost performance available from small satellites, the utility of direct reception of remotely sensed imagery, and the affordability of constellations and individually owned assets. A description of the satellite, and update on the development and flight build of the satellite is given, as of June 2003. Two coverage improving augmentations to the TopSat satellite are discussed, namely the addition of a propulsion system and more capable attitude actuators. With limited orbit control, achievement and maintenance of tuned orbits, and phasing of a constellation within orbits, become practicable. TopSat is an agile small satellite, allowing boresight reorientation required for slews during imaging. The capability for performing multiple images in a single target pass is considered, with the existing and improved torque actuator implementations. Similar options for performing stereo imaging with 2 formation flying TopSats are outlined. Reconfiguration of repeat ground track orbits for a single satellite is analysed in terms of fuel cost and drift orbit options. A one day repeat orbit case is presented which would allow daily coverage of a fixed target, with orbit reconfiguration required to allow global access. A typical mission for such a satellite is summarised, along with practical requirements for the propulsion system. Coverage options for constellations of between 2 and 4 satellites are then also scrutinised, with fuel estimates for the most promising options explored. Again, the benefits that could be achieved by using repeat ground track orbits are weighed against the fuel requirements, to maintain and reconfigure such a constellation. The TopSat mission is a collaboration between four UK partners. QinetiQ are leading the mission and providing data handling and ground segment elements. Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) are developing the camera, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) are providing the bus, and InfoTerra are responsible for developing potential data markets. The programme is jointly funded by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and by the British National Space Centre (BNSC)

Potential supply and cost of biomass from energy crops in the TVA region

The economic and supply structures of energy crop markets have not been established. Establishing the likely price and supply of energy crop biomass in a region is a complex task because biomass is not an established commodity as are oil, natural gas, and coal. In this study, the cost and supply of short-rotation woody crop (SRWC) and switchgrass biomass for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) region-a 276-county area that includes portions of 11 states in the southeastern United States - are projected. Projected prices and quantities of biomass are assumed to be a function of the amount and quality of crop and pasture land available in a region, expected energy crop yields and production costs on differing soils and land types, and the profit that could be obtained from current conventional crop production on these same lands. Results include the supply curves of SRWC and switchgrass biomass that are projected to be available from the entire region, the amount and location of crop and pasture land that would be used, and the conventional agricultural crops that would be displaced as a function of energy crop production. Finally, the results of sensitivity analysis on the projected cost and supply of energy crop biomass are shown. In particular, the separate impacts of varying energy crop production costs and yields, and interest rates are examined

Brain Correlates of Experience-Dependent Changes in Stimulus Discrimination Based on the Amount and Schedule of Exposure

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On the Neutrality of Flowshop Scheduling Fitness Landscapes

Solving efficiently complex problems using metaheuristics, and in particular local searches, requires incorporating knowledge about the problem to solve. In this paper, the permutation flowshop problem is studied. It is well known that in such problems, several solutions may have the same fitness value. As this neutrality property is an important one, it should be taken into account during the design of optimization methods. Then in the context of the permutation flowshop, a deep landscape analysis focused on the neutrality property is driven and propositions on the way to use this neutrality to guide efficiently the search are given.Comment: Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN Conference (LION 5), Rome : Italy (2011

Unpacking the Effect of Parental Monitoring on Early Adolescent Problem Behavior: Mediation by Parental Knowledge and Moderation by Parent–Youth Warmth

This study explores the monitoring process longitudinally among a sample of rural early adolescents and addresses two research questions: (a) Does maternal knowledge mediate the relationship between three aspects of the parental monitoring process and adolescent problem behavior: active parent monitoring efforts, youth disclosure, and parental supervision? (b) Are these meditational pathways moderated by the affective quality of the parent–child relationship? Parent efforts to monitor youth and youth disclosure in the Fall of Grade 6 predicted substance use and delinquency in Grade 8. These relations were mediated by increases in maternal knowledge assessed in the Spring of Grade 6, suggesting that the protective effects of these constructs are partially indirect. Supervision was not significantly related to maternal knowledge or problem behavior. Parent efforts to monitor were more strongly related to maternal knowledge in families with high levels of positive affect than in families with low levels of positive affect

Constraints on the SU(3) Electroweak Model

We consider a recent proposal by Dimopoulos and Kaplan to embed the electroweak SU(2)_L X U(1)_Y into a larger group SU(3)_W X SU(2) X U(1) at a scale above a TeV. This idea is motivated by the prediction for the weak mixing angle sin^2 theta_W = 1/4, which naturally appears in these models so long as the gauge couplings of the high energy SU(2) and U(1) groups are moderately large. The extended gauge dynamics results in new effective operators that contribute to four-fermion interactions and Z pole observables. We calculate the corrections to these electroweak precision observables and carry out a global fit of the new physics to the data. For SU(2) and U(1) gauge couplings larger than 1, we find that the 95% C.L. lower bound on the matching (heavy gauge boson mass) scale is 11 TeV. We comment on the fine-tuning of the high energy gauge couplings needed to allow matching scales above our bounds. The remnants of SU(3)_W breaking include multi-TeV SU(2)_L doublets with electric charge (+-2,+-1). The lightest charged gauge boson is stable, leading to cosmological difficulties.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures embedded, uses JHEP.cl

Environment-induced dynamical chaos

We examine the interplay of nonlinearity of a dynamical system and thermal fluctuation of its environment in the ``physical limit'' of small damping and slow diffusion in a semiclassical context and show that the trajectories of c-number variables exhibit dynamical chaos due to the thermal fluctuations of the bath.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages and 4 figure

The interaction of a gap with a free boundary in a two dimensional dimer system

Let $\ell$ be a fixed vertical lattice line of the unit triangular lattice in the plane, and let \Cal H be the half plane to the left of $\ell$. We consider lozenge tilings of \Cal H that have a triangular gap of side-length two and in which $\ell$ is a free boundary - i.e., tiles are allowed to protrude out half-way across $\ell$. We prove that the correlation function of this gap near the free boundary has asymptotics $\frac{1}{4\pi r}$, $r\to\infty$, where $r$ is the distance from the gap to the free boundary. This parallels the electrostatic phenomenon by which the field of an electric charge near a conductor can be obtained by the method of images.Comment: 34 pages, AmS-Te