Disaggregating Foreign Aid: What Have We Learned from Research on Sub-National Foreign Aid?

Over the past several years, a new wave of research has mapped the location of foreign aid projects within countries to understand the causes and effects of sub-national aid allocation. This effort, affiliated with the AidData research program (albeit not exclusively), is ongoing, and new datasets on foreign aid donors and for particular countries are being released. After several years of continuing research into the correlates and effects of sub-national foreign aid on aid-recipient countries, it is worthwhile to pause and consider what this research program has uncovered and suggest directions where it might go

Parallel Implementation of Facial Detection Using Graphics Processing Units

This thesis proposes to study parallelization methods to improve the computational runtime of the popular Viola-Jones face detection algorithm. These methods employ multithreaded programming and CUDA programming approaches. The thesis provides a discussion of background information on all relevant topics, which is then followed by a presentation of the code architecture changes that are proposed. Specific implementation details are then discussed in more details followed by a discussion and comparison of results obtained through various tests. This thesis first begins by presenting a history and description of the Viola-Jones algorithm. Detailed explanations of each step in the process used to detect a face are provided. Next, background information about parallel processing is provided. This includes both standard multithreaded program design as well as CUDA programming. New algorithm design methods that employ parallelization techniques will then be proposed to improve over the original Viola-Jones algorithm. These techniques include both multithreading and CUDA programming, whose potential advantages and disadvantages are discussed as well. Implementations of these new algorithms will be provided next as well as a detailed explanation of the functionality used. Finally, this thesis will provide test results for all algorithm versions, including the original algorithm as well as a comparison and possible future improvements. Simulation results indicate that the multithreaded algorithm was able to provide a maximum of 7.8x speedup over the original version when running on 16 processing cores. The CUDA version algorithm was able to provide a maximum of 47x speedup over the original version. After exploring more detailed results and comparisons, it was determined that each version has advantages and disadvantages. The multithreaded version was much simpler to code and would run on a wider range of hardware, however the CUDA version was significantly faster. In addition, the CUDA version has much room for future optimizations to further increase the speed of the algorithm

La dimension cachée : Introduction à des programmes de rééducation en milieu libre

«THE HIDDEN DIMENSION : THE CIRCULAR INDEX» AN INTRODUCTION TO RE-EDUCATION PROGRAMS WITHIN THE COMMUNITYIt was in seeking to define and operationalize the prevention of juvenile delinquency that we discovered the circular index. First we will describe the method we followed in a clinical experiment and study on the marginal adolescent as he interacts with his school environment. Then we discuss our new understanding. Instead of seeing the social reality piecemeal, we saw it as a whole. There always seems to be a greater and greater distance between the evaluation in the form of detection, psycho-social and criminological evaluation and the supportive programs we are trying to elaborate and apply for reeducation within the community.The nosographic school is represented by the work of Hochman (1971). He asks whether this school has not reached its limits; he doubts its descriptive and prescriptive value. Nonetheless, we ask him to give us time, for to answer categorically in the affirmative can have grave consequences for a country or a province. While agreeing that our clinical and research theory belongs to a part of the nosographical school, it is not so much its descriptive and prescriptive value that is in question as the relationship between the two entities.This is why we are making a brief inventory of the outside restraints on our own clinical thinking. Among these, there is the lack of time available to the practitioner, his lack of resources, his inability to refer to the past, the difficulty of sharing his experience with that of others in a scientific manner, the mobility and uncertainty of the practitioner, etc.Second, we raise a number of restraints which are part of the clinical thinking of the practitioner. Two general types of restraints are described. The first refers to the different theoretical frames of reference of the practitioner, the second particularly concerns his work methods.Third, we place the linear index against the circular index. The linear index is defined as any evidence by which the first characteristic questions the individual's relations with abstract entities. The circular index is defined as any evidence attributed to an individual in relation to systems and groups. As to the systematizing of the circular index, we will have to wait another few months. Nevertheless, an example of the circular index is given through the study of a negative gang in the neighbourhood.The last part of the article deals with palliatives that can be used to reduce internal and external restraints on the clinical thinking and can but encourage this dialectic between the descriptive and prescriptive elements of the nosographic school. Among these palliatives, there is an urgent need to make an inventory of circular indices, to put them in order and to find the best methods to obtain them. In addition, a clinical table_mjist be constructed connecting the different resource items the practitioner needs to apply various supportive programs within the community once the accent is placed on rehabilitation, socialization and or the clinical prevention of the behaviour, and or the structure of the marginal personality.As a last palliative, we describe a way in which we give the client the evaluation we have made of him, explaining to him his behavioural and psychodynamic profile. For us, the aim of this last palliative is not only to evince greater respect for the client, but also to recognize his potential participation in his own program of treatment.LA DIMENSION ESCONDIDA EN CRIMINOLOGIA CLINICA :EL INDICE CIRCULARENSAYO SOBRE LA REEDUCACION EN MEDIO LIBREEl autor cree haber descubierto el indice circular al intentar definir y operacionalizar la prevencion de la delincuencia juvenil. Describe, en la primera parte de su trabajo, el itinerario seguido gracias a una experiencia a la vez clinica y de investigacion, la cual ha puesto en inter-accion al adolescente marginal con su medio escolar. Enseguida se llega a la fase de la explosion. A una vision hasta entonces dividida de la realidad social, el autor opone una vision global de la misma. A su parecer, existe siempre una distancia cada vez mas grande entre la parte evaluativa — en forma de deteccion y evaluacion psicosocial y criminologica — y los programas de sosten que se intentan elaborar y aplicar en medio libre.Refiriendose a Hochman (1971), el autor descubre la razon nosografica. Hochman se pregunta si esta razon no esta caduca y duda de su valor descriptivo y prescriptivo. Sin embargo, el autor pide se aplace este debate puesto que contestar categoricamente por una afirmacion puede tener consecuencias enormes para un pais. Admitiendo que el racional clinico y de investigacion utilizado pertenece a la razon nosografica, el autour pone en tela de juicio menos el valor descriptivo y prescriptivo de dicha razon nosografica que la relacion existente entre estas dos entidades.De esta manera consigue realizar un inventario, que no pretende ser completo, de las limitaciones exteriores al racional clinico. Entre estas pueden citarse : la falta de tiempo de que dispone el especialista, la carencia de recursos puestos a su disposicion, la imposibilidad de efectuar retrospecciones, la dificultad de compartir de manera cientifica su experiencia con la de otros, la mobilidad e inestabilidad del especialista, etc.En una segunda etapa, el autor expone algunas limitaciones pertenecientes al racional clinico del especialista y describe dos grandes categorias de limitaciones : la primera se refiere a los diferentes marcos teoricos de referencia del especialista, la segunda concierne particularmente los metodos de trabajo del mismo.En una tercera fase, el autor opone los indices lineal y circular. Define el primero como todo signo cuya principal propiedad consiste en presentar al individuo en sus relaciones con entidades abstractas. En cuanto al indice circular, es definido como todo signo atribuido a un individuo en relacion con sistemas y conjuntos. Por lo que se refiere a la sistematizacion del indice circular, habra que esperar aun varios meses. Sin embargo, presenta un ejemplo de dicho indice a partir del estudio de una banda negativa del barrio.La ultima parte del articulo se refiere a los paliativos que pueden ser utilizados con vistas a reducir las limitaciones internas y externas del racional clinico y que solo pueden favorecer la dialectica entre las partes descriptiva y prescriptiva de la razon nosografica. Entre dichos paliativos figuran la urgencia de efectuar un inventario de los indices circulares, de sistematizarlos, de descubrir los mejores metodos para obtenerlos. Ademas, es urgente construir un cuadro clinico que ponga en relacion las diferentes unidades de recursos que el especialista necesita para elaborar y aplicar diferentes programas de sosten en medio libre, segun que se insista en la reeducacion, la socializacion o la prevencion clinica de la conducta o de la estructura de la personalidad marginal.Como ultimo paliativo, el autor describe un metodo utilizado para devolver al cliente la evaluacion que sobre el se ha efectuado, explicandole su perfil comportamental y psicodinamico. Este ultimo paliativo tiende no solamente a respetar mas al cliente, sino tambien a reconocerle un potential de participacion en su proprio programa de tratamiento

Josiah Marineau on Housing, Land, and Property Restitution Rights of Refugees and Displaced Persons: Laws, Cases, and Materials . Edited by Scott Leckie (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007). 592pp.

A review of: Housing, Land, and Property Restitution Rights of Refugees and Displaced Persons: Laws, Cases, and Materials . Edited by Scott Leckie (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007). 592pp

INDIVIDUALS’ FORMAL POWER AND THEIR SOCIAL NETWORK ACCURACY

Previous research has suggested that individuals differ in their accuracy of perceptions of the social environment, and some research suggests that powerful individuals in particular tend to be lazy, disinterested observers of the social world. A handful of field studies and lab experiments linking power with individuals’ perceptions of others’ social networks have generally supported this view. However, recent theory addressing the psychological consequences of power for the power-holder claim that in certain circumstances and for some kinds of social information, power is linked to increased accuracy of social information. This dissertation tests this idea by drawing on social network theory and the situated focus theory of power. I examine the relationship between individuals’ formal power and their perceptual accuracy of social network relationships. I propose that individuals’ perceptual accuracy is affected by 1) their formal power in the organization 2) the type of relationship being perceived (expressive/instrumental, positive/negative), and 3) the dependence relationship with the target of perception (whether the perceiver is dependent on the perceived to get their work done). Predictions were tested using cognitive social network data collected from a call center within a division of a large corporation in the US. Results showed that formal power was linked to increased accuracy for some relationship content (particularly negative expressive relationships), and managers tend to be more accurate when perceiving their own incoming relationships than non-managers

Polymères organométalliques de type dicétopyrrolopyrrole trans-bis(phosphine)éthynylplatine(II) pour les cellules solaires organiques

Dans le cadre de cette thèse, il sera question de la conversion de l’énergie solaire en électricité par l’utilisation de cellules solaires organiques (OSCs), plus précisément, sur l’utilisation de polymères et d’oligomères organométalliques de type dicétopyrrolopyrrole trans-bis(phosphine)éthynyl platine(II) (P) comme colorants dans les OSCs. Cette approche a permis d’atteindre des records d’efficacité pour cette catégorie, avec des efficacités allant jusqu’à 13,26%, malgré les faibles rendements rapportés dans le passé pour les motifs [Pt]. Le premier chapitre fait une introduction des concepts généraux retrouvés dans la thèse. Le deuxième chapitre est un article publié en janvier 2020 dans « Journal of Materials Chemistry C ». Ce dernier montre l’utilisation de deux motifs [Pt], l’un comprenant une seule unité dicétopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) par monomère et l’autre en comprenant deux DPPs, comme colorant donneur d’électrons dans des OSCs. Les résultats rapportés comprennent des calculs computationnels sur la nature et le positionnement des orbitales HOMO et LUMO des unités [Pt], des analyses photophysiques sur les polymères à base de [Pt], en absence et en présence d’accepteur d’électrons, et des mesures d’efficacité de conversion énergétique (PCE) lorsqu’ils sont utilisés dans des OSCs. Le troisième chapitre est un article publié en janvier 2021 dans « ACS Applied Polymer Materials ». Ce dernier est la suite directe de l’article présenté au chapitre précédent mais fait cette fois intervenir des groupements agrégants ajoutés aux unités DPPs. Cet ajout permet d’atteindre un PCE record de 13,26%, pour les polymères donneurs d’électrons comprenant du platine. Le quatrième chapitre est un troisième article, publié en janvier 2022 dans « Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials ». Cette fois, l’article explore l’utilisation de différents accepteurs d’électrons utilisés conjointement avec un motif [Pt] et décrit la possibilité de transfert d’électrons photo-réducteurs parallèlement aux transferts d’électrons photo-oxydants qui sont généralement mis de l’avant