Language transfer as a learning strategy: a case study in interlanguage

This study is an attempt to show that language transfer is a notion which is still relevant in a theory of language learning, at least in a formal multilingual educational setting. The first chapter, which is the background -against which the problem of language transfer is perceived, deals mainly with the different views of errors from contrastive analysis to error analysis. The second chapter deals with the methodology used for the collection of data, the data themselves, the subjects and the setting. And finally, in the last chapter, the problems linked with a theory of language learning seen from the learner's standpoint are studied. The advantages the teacher can show from a knowledge of interlanguage theory are briefly examined too in the last part

Food Crises and Asset Liquidation: Household-level Evidence from Tanzania

This paper studies the effects of food crises–large and sudden increases in food prices–on asset liquidation. Substantial research exists on household food insecurity as a result of a food crisis, but studies on households’ coping strategies have so far been limited to natural shocks such as flood, drought, and financial crises. In this paper, I use an adapted version of the asset-based poverty trap model to explain households’ use of asset liquidation as a coping strategy when faced with food crises. To test my theory, I employ a household-level panel data set from Tanzania that covers the years 2008, 2010, and 2012. I estimate fixed effects regressions of productive and unproductive asset levels on a measure of household-specific food prices. I find no statistically significant evidence in support of asset liquidation. My results suggest an asset smoothing behavior across all types of households

Linear Quivers and N=1 SCFTs from M5-branes

We study a class of N=1 quiver gauge theories build out of vector multiplets and matter multiplets in the fundamental and bifundamental representations. We argue that these theories flow to interacting SCFTs in the IR and calculate their central charges. We exhibit a type IIA brane construction which at low energies is described by these SCFTs. This also leads to a natural description of the theories in terms of M5-branes on a punctured sphere.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Institutional Forms of Philanthropy in West Africa

How do African foundations mobilize monetary and non monetary resources (methods, strategies)? Who contributes to their budget (individuals, organizations, businesses, members, boards) and to which extent (percentage of local resources versus foreign ones)? What limitations and obstacles do African foundations face in their resources mobilization policies and practices (lack of information, lack of strategic planning, and lack of skills)? Are they financially sustainable? To address those questions, we conduct a comparative analysis of five (5) foundations evolving in West Africa

Structure of Anomalies of 4d SCFTs from M5-branes, and Anomaly Inflow

We study the 't Hooft anomalies of four-dimensional superconformal field theories that arise from M5-branes wrapped on a punctured Riemann surface. In general there are two independent contributions to the anomalies. There is a bulk term obtained by integrating the anomaly polynomial of the world-volume theory on the M5-branes over the Riemann surface; this contribution knows about the punctures only through its dependence on the Euler characteristic of the surface. The second set of contributions comes from local data at the punctures; these terms are independent from the bulk data of the surface. Using anomaly inflow in M-theory, we describe the general structure of the anomalies for cases when the four-dimensional theories preserve N=2 supersymmetry. We additionally discuss the anomalies corresponding to (p,q) punctures in N=1 theories.Comment: version 2, 38 pages. We simplified the discussion of the inflow procedure with punctures and removed the details of the explicit computation of the puncture anomalies in order to focus on arguing the main new ideas. Added clarification on main resul