Climate Justice and Democracy: A Normative Approach

This paper tackles a highly relevant issue, namely the relationship between climate justice and democracy. The driving motivation of the paper is to ask what principles of climate justice demand from democracies. The paper explores intrinsic and instrumental arguments and develops a sufficiency account: citizens are entitled to the emissions necessary not only to realize their basic needs but to participate as equals in political decision making

Does Microcredit Create Over-indebtedness?

In the context of the present crisis of microfinance, it is quite common to use the term over-indebtedness among the poor. Coming up with a precise definition of over-indebtedness for research or regulatory purposes is surprisingly a complex challenge. Few of researchers took attempt to define and measure over-indebtedness among microfinance borrowers. Among them Maurer and Pytkowska (2010); Spannuth & Pytkowska (2011) and Schicks (2011) are notable. But their definition and measurement process of over-indebtedness are not unique. Maurer and Pytkowska showed that by taking microcredit, 17% borrowers are over-indebted and 11% borrowers are at risk of becoming over-indebted in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Spannuth & Pytkowska demonstrated that 7% borrowers are insolvent, 4% borrowers are in critical position and 14% are at risk of becoming over-indebted in Kosovo. Schicks displayed that 30% borrowers are over-indebted in Ghana. The endeavor of this paper is to show the real fact whether microcredit creates over-indebtedness among its borrowers or not

Design and Development of English Learning Facebook Application based on Platform as a Service (PaaS) by using Smart Gamification

Social networking sites like Facebook are not just an element of passing time but a platform for learning as well. The goal of this paper is to show the effectiveness of a Facebook application named 201C;Wishdom201D; to teach English language based on cloud platform. This application tries to introduce English language in an authentic and communicative manner to the students, where they have to assume different roles (i.e. avatar) to achieve a particular goal. For that purpose they communicate with the other avatar and participate in several quizzes. This study shows the performance of a group of students who played 201C;Wishdom201D; game and take a quiz as a part of their assessment. Their performance has been presented to show their success rate in learning English. The performance of the application is also measured based on Facebook Graph API. In addition, platform as a service (PaaS) of cloud computing from Heroku has been integrated to host the application and its compatibility is checked in this study

Price Discrimination and Social Welfare with Demand Uncertainty

Price, output and welfare erects of third-degree price discrimination is analyzed in the context of a risk-averse monopolist, who commits to xed prices before the revelation of random and potentially correlated demands. Assuming the disturbance term to be additive, white noise and the monopolist to have a quadratic (mean-variance) utility function, we show that price discrimination may occur with identical expected demands, the relatively risky but price insensitive market may be charged the lower price and despite linear demands, aggregate expected output may fall while social welfare rises. All of these results, which run counter to those in the deterministic model, are shown to be driven by the asymmetry in the revenue and risk characteristics of the markets and the willingness of the monopolist to trade increased level for reduced risk of expected prot in a manner similar to portfolio choice with risky and correlated assets. Key Words: Monopoly (D42), Monopolization Strategies (L12), Decision Making under Risk and Uncertainty (D81)

Nutritional Evaluation and Utilisation of Oil Palm (Elaeis Guineensis) Frond as Feed for Ruminants

Use of plant residues as ruminant livestock feed has been suggested to reduce the feed-cost and recycle the biomass. Physical and chemical characteristics of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) frond (OPF) and utilisation of OPF by ruminant were studied in a series of experiments. The yield of different fractions (leaflets, petiole and midribs) and segments (basal, middle and top) of OPF from different aged palms were measured. Results showed that the yield of OPF from matured (221 years) palm was 13.4 kg, where basal, middle and top segments constituted 53%, 27% and 20%, respectively. The estimated annual yield of petiole, leaflets and midribs were 21.70, 5.51 and 1.59 (OM.t.ha-1) respectively. The whole OPF contained 418.6, 960.8, 65.3, 740.1, 529.5, 210.6, 218.5, 878.8 and 138.8 (g.kg-1) of dry matter (OM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fibre (NOF), acid detergent fibre (AOF), cellulose (CEL), hemicellulose (HC), total carbohydrates (TC) and non-fibre carbohydrates (NFC), respectively. Calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), sodium (Na), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) contents of the OPF were 0.530, 0.108, 0.049, 0.697 and 0.18 g.100g-10M, respectively. Copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe) and sulphur (S) contents of the OPF were 2.71, 11.17, 44.66, 106.7 and 0.096 mg.kg-10M, respectively. The in sacco OM degradation value of the OPF at 48h incubation was 37.32g.100g-1. The in vivo digestibility of OM, OM, CP and AOF of OPF were 52%, 56%, 43% and 26%, respectively. Results of the rumen fermentation trials showed that OPF could support an efficient rumen function when used ~50% is included in the diet. Results of effects of different levels of urea and lor molasses on the preservation qualities of OPF and in sacco digestion characteristics showed that mixing molasses reduced the pH of the preserved OPF, while mixing urea increased the pH. The lowest pH (3.98) was observed in molasses (200 g.kg-1DM) mixed OPF and the highest pH (8.65) was in the urea (60 g.kg-1DM) mixed OPF. Mixing of 20, 40 and 60 g.kg-1DM urea with OPF increased the CP level of the preserved OPF by 25%, 38% and 96%, respectively. Mixing molasses and/or urea showed increased digestion characteristics. The pelleting of OPF increased DM, OM, CP, cell content and decreased the cell wall contents of the OPF. Ensiling and pelleting both reduced (P>0.05) slightly the fibrous components (CEl, HC, lignin and silica) of OPF. Moreover, pelleting and ensiling increased (P<0.05) the rapidly disappearing value, extent and rate of digestion of OPF. Determination of digestible nutrient intake of fresh, ensiled and pelleted OPF and its effects on body weight gain of goats were measured. Results indicated that the pelleting of OPF increased the nutrient intake, digestibility, digestible nutrient intake and reduced refusals. The pelleting of OPF mixed with 4% urea, 15% molasses and 2% fish meal increased the digestible DM and OM intake by 80% and 63%, respectively which resulted in an increased body weight gain of the goats. Based on these studies, it can be concluded that OPF is a potential alternative roughage that can be used as a basal ingredient in the diet of ruminants. Fresh, chopped or ensiled OPF can be used up to 50% in the diet and mixing of either urea or molasses can increase the portion of OPF. The results of this study suggest that pelleting is the best way to conserve and handle OPF where almost no refusal can be observed. Moreover, the use of the pellets is convenient and pre-treatments can be easily incorporated during pelleting. Finally, it is suggested that mixed complete pellet can be made by correcting for the nutrients lacking (protein and minerals) in OPF and the use of the mixed pellet would maximise the utilisation of OPF

Microcredit - A More Credible Social than Economic Program in Bangladesh

Calculated under the framework of economic-profit counting, the productivity of microcredit in Bangladesh is found very low. In this survey about 48% of the borrowers had to compromise their normal wages for self-employed labor to be able to pay the high interest for the credit. Similarly its social productivity is also found marginal. However, about 90% of the borrowers felt comfortable with microcredit even at so high interest rate seemingly to avoid losing or compromising their social and political empowerment at the hands of the local moneylenders or relatives. Borrowers give high value to their socio-political empowerments and are ready to compromise normal wages for their self-employed labor. In the game of political economy of credit for the poor, microcredit is seen as a means of protecting and enhancing socio-political empowerments of the low income and distressed people in the society and is appraised as a credible social than economic institution.Grameen Bank, microcredit, microenterprise, subsistent, poverty alleviation, stereotype, empowerment

Financial development and energy consumption nexus in Malaysia: A multivariate time series analysis

Despite a bourgeoning literature on the existence of a long-run relationship between energy consumption and economic growth, the findings have failed to establish clearly the direction of causation. A growing economy needs more energy, which is exacerbated by growing population. Evidence suggests that financial development can reduce overall energy consumption by achieving energy efficiency. Economic growth and energy consumption in Malaysia have been rising in tandem over the past several years. The three public policy objectives of Malaysia are: economic progress, population growth and financial development. It is of interest to the policymakers to understand the dynamic interrelation among the stated objectives. The paper implements Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration to examine the existence of a long-run relationship among the series: energy consumption, population, aggregate production, and financial development for Malaysia; and tests for Granger causality within the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The results suggest that energy consumption is influenced by economic growth and financial development, both in the short and the long-run, but the population-energy relation holds only in the long run. The findings have important policy implications for balancing economic growth vis-à-vis energy consumption for Malaysia, as well as other emerging nations.Financial development; Energy consumption; ARDL; Economic growth

Cybersecurity Planning Insight: CSCD (Cyber Security and Cyber Defense) Control: Framework For Strategic Direction and Governance

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementIn this recent time, the importance of cybersecurity and cyber defense is sky-high. Everyone uses different devices, IT infrastructures, and applications for various purposes at school, office, home, hospitals everywhere. With the enlightenment of technology, the nature of cyber-attack has been changed dramatically, and that is why the number of cyber-attacks have been increased. Enterprises face billions of Euros loss from such incidents; even the data loss and operational hazard may have a devastating impact not only on the service, security, privacy, brand image but also upon overall business. A constrictive and realistic CSCD (cyber security and cyber defense) strategy along with the proper implementation of it, can safeguard the enterprises and strongly from cyber attacks. In this paper, we prepare an improved CSCD control framework based on several hundreds of scientific papers and frameworks. Moreover, we identify different aspects and strategic elements by holistic CSCD control risk assessment and data analysis for preparing CSCD strategy and planning of different levels of organizations to maintain effective CSCD governance and cyber resilience

Mathematical Modelling And Life-Cycle Energy And Financial Analysis Of Solar Kilns For Wood Drying

There is a general challenge to improve the designs of solar dryers for the direct drying of various materials through the uses of robust models in conjunction with methods incorporating an appropriately defined set of performance parameters for evaluating the performance of solar kilns. However, the use of prevailing methods is unlikely to provide a sustainable means of comparison between various solar-kiln designs, unless a whole life-cycle perspective is taken into consideration. In order to address this key issue, a novel methodology for life-cycle performance evaluation of solar dryers has been developed in this thesis. To examine the capability and usefulness of the solar kiln model and its simulation procedure for predicting the drying behaviors for different solar kiln designs, the model was numerically solved for two typical greenhouse-type wood-drying solar kilns (Oxford and Boral). The assessment of life cycle embodied energy and embodied carbon values for the construction and maintenance of the two solar kilns (Oxford and Boral) by developing a life cycle assessment (LCA) model in “SimaPro 7.1.8 version”. To analyse the total life-cycle energy use in solar kilns, an innovative performance evaluation methodology, which considers the total life-cycle (LC) energy effectiveness in present-value terms, together with a defined set of present value performance indicators (PVPIs), has been proposed here. In the last stage of the thesis, a life-cycle cash flow (LCCF) analysis has also been carried out to compare how closely the life-cycle net energy (LCNE) and the LCCF approaches are aligned for the present case and how they can lead to significantly different recommendations for some other scenarios. In summary, the LCNE approach, together with the defined PVPIs, has been suggested to be considered as a robust and reliable method for life-cycle performance evaluation of solar kilns

The relationship between Bangladeshi immigrant parents and their children in Portugal: Focus on education and sociability aspect

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between immigrant Bangladeshi parents and their children in Portugal in terms of education and sociability of children. As this study was about the relationship in immigrant Bangladeshi families, four Bangladeshi immigrant families, who had been living in Lisbon, were purposively selected. Using the snowball sampling, four parents (3 fathers and one mother) and four children (son) were reached to collect the data. In this study, the qualitative research approach was followed, and data were gathered through semi-structured interview guides. The study findings showed that immigrant Bangladeshi parents and children have a positive relationship but with some diversifications. Though parents cannot support children in their studies directly due to language barriers, busy work schedules, and lack of knowledge about the Portuguese education system, they have diverse strategies such as sending children in private schools, recruiting private teachers and monitoring their study progress, etc. In sociability aspects, children’s attitudes were found to align with the parent’s expectations. Children and immigrant Bangladeshi parents were found highly influenced by religious belief and Bangladeshi culture with respect to dating and selecting life partners. Children were loyal to their parents, show respect, and recognizes the parent’s hardship. On the other hand, parents recognized their responsibility towards children’s education and sociability. It was recommended that both parents and children should develop a friendly and sharing relationship for better family functioning