The REFANI-N study protocol: a cluster-randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of early initiation and longer duration of emergency/seasonal unconditional cash transfers for the prevention of acute malnutrition among children, 6-59 months, in Tahoua, Niger.

BACKGROUND: The global burden of acute malnutrition among children remains high, and prevalence rates are highest in humanitarian contexts such as Niger. Unconditional cash transfers are increasingly used to prevent acute malnutrition in emergencies but lack a strong evidence base. In Niger, non-governmental organisations give unconditional cash transfers to the poorest households from June to September; the 'hunger gap'. However, rising admissions to feeding programmes from March/April suggest the intervention may be late. METHODS/DESIGN: This cluster-randomised controlled trial will compare two types of unconditional cash transfer for 'very poor' households in 'vulnerable' villages defined and identified by the implementing organisation. 3,500 children (6-59 months) and 2,500 women (15-49 years) will be recruited exhaustively from households targeted for cash and from a random sample of non-recipient households in 40 villages in Tahoua district. Clusters of villages with a common cash distribution point will be assigned to either a control group which will receive the standard intervention (n = 10), or a modified intervention group (n = 10). The standard intervention is 32,500 FCFA/month for 4 months, June to September, given cash-in-hand to female representatives of 'very poor' households. The modified intervention is 21,500 FCFA/month for 5 months, April, May, July, August, September, and 22,500 FCFA in June, providing the same total amount. In both arms the recipient women attend an education session, women and children are screened and referred for acute malnutrition treatment, and the households receive nutrition supplements for children 6-23 months and pregnant and lactating women. The trial will evaluate whether the modified unconditional cash transfer leads to a reduction in acute malnutrition among children 6-59 months old compared to the standard intervention. The sample size provides power to detect a 5 percentage point difference in prevalence of acute malnutrition between trial arms. Quantitative and qualitative process evaluation data will be prospectively collected and programme costs will be collected and cost-effectiveness ratios calculated. DISCUSSION: This randomised study design with a concurrent process evaluation will provide evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of earlier initiation of seasonal unconditional cash transfer for the prevention of acute malnutrition, which will be generalisable to similar humanitarian situations. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN25360839 , registered March 19, 2015

The economic feasibility analysis of generated photovoltaic energy in the USTO campus

The aim of this study is to analyze the economic impact of photovoltaic energy generation by a prospective campus microgrid to be installed at the University of Science and Technology (USTO). In this work, hourly solar irradiation and temperature data provided from the local weather office is used to study the distribution and duration of solar radiation over the campus. The generated solar photovoltaic energy is analyzed taking into account the economic aspects such as the photovoltaic system capital investment cost and the annual power generation cash flow. The installed power of the photovoltaic plant was calculated and the generated energy estimed. The feasility analysis shows a payback year of of 10,3, an internal rate of return of 5% and a profitability index of 1. © 2019, Wydawnictwo SIGMA-NOT. All rights reserved

Effects of additives on the sintering temperature and dielectric properties of ZnTiO3 based ceramic

International audienc

Effects of additives on the sintering temperature and dielectric properties of ZnTiO3 based ceramic

International audienc

Earthquake Ground Motion Matching on a Small Electric Shaking Table Using a Combined NN-PDFF Controller

Replicating acceleration time histories with high accuracy on shaking table platforms is still a challenging task. The complex interference between the components of the system, the inherent nonlinearities, and the coupling effect between the specimen and the shaking table are among other reasons that most affect the control performance. In this paper, a neural network- (NN-) based controller has been developed and experimentally implemented to improve the acceleration tracking performance of an electric shaking table. The latter is a biaxial shaking table driven by linear motors and controlled by a proportional-derivative-feedforward (PDFF) controller that is very efficient in reproducing displacement waveforms on the detriment of the simulation of the prescribed acceleration ground motions. In order to bypass this shortcoming, a control scheme combining the PDFF as a basic control function with a NN controller which filters the shaking table feedback signal and acts on the drive signal by compensating for acceleration distortions is proposed in this study. Several experimental tests have been carried out to build a database for offline training, validating, and testing of the proposed NN control model. Subsequently, the well-trained NN is implemented in the inner control loop of the shaking table to compensate, in parallel with the PDFF controller, the distortions during the replication of acceleration signals. Results of tests using earthquake records showed an enhancement in signal matching when integrating the NN model for both bare and loaded conditions of the shaking table. The tracking errors, estimated using the relative root-mean-square error, between the measured and the desired signal, are significantly reduced in time and frequency domains with the additional NN online controller

Compressive behaviour of concrete elements confined with GFRP-prefabricated bonded shells

International audienceIn this paper, a new technique is proposed to confine concrete columns using GFRP-prefabricated bonded shells and a shrinkage-compensating cement mortar. The confinement is performed with three identical shells, each of which contains two stepped lap joints at their ends. The main advantage of this technique is that the shells can be directly assembled on site by structural bonding to cover any column shape. The gap between the shells and the column is filled with shrinkage-compensating cement mortar. To evaluate the efficiency of this technique, several concrete specimens were confined, instrumented and tested under monotonic compression. To simulate the actual strengthening conditions, the load was directly applied on the concrete cross-section. The results show clearly the benefits of an efficient confinement in terms of a noticeable increase in the axial strength and ductility where the stress\textendashstrain curves are characterised by a third softening phase and the failure mode which spread over the whole length of the shells