Three essays on the evaluation of renewable energy investments and the effectiveness of support schemes

Renewable energy development is a critical aspect of the political agenda of the European Union (EU) due to its environmental friendliness as well as enhancing economic development. Electricity markets in the EU have changed due to rising capacity and generation from renewable energy sources of electricity (RES-E) as a result of policy intervention. However, there have been increasing and inconclusive debates on the growth of RES-E technologies and the effectiveness of support scheme policies. The uncertainty regarding continuing the support schemes for RES-E technologies makes it relevant to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing support schemes in driving RES-E capacity development.This thesis presents three empirical chapters which evaluate RES-E investments and the effectiveness of the RES-E support policies in the EU. In the first empirical chapter we use a real options framework to analyse the investment timing of a wind farm, considering the electricity price and production uncertainties and the impact of the correlation between these two variables on the timing of the investment, neglecting the existence of support schemes. In the remaining two empirical chapters, we use econometric analyses to examine the effectiveness of RES-E policies in driving capacity development in the EU. More specifically, we use dummy variables to account for the existence and the experience of enacted policies while controlling for market and macroeconomic factors. We also analyse the impact of the heterogeneity in Feed-in-System (FIS) on the capacity development of wind and solar photovoltaic (PV), while controlling for country specific effects

Programmatic feasibility of dried blood spots for the virological follow-up of patients on antiretroviral treatment in Nord Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Background:As part of its policy to shift monitoring of antiretroviral therapy (ART) to primary health care (PHC) workers, the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) tested the feasibility of using dried blood spots (DBS) for viral load (VL) quantification and genotypic drug resistance testing in off-site high-throughput laboratories.Methods:DBS samples from adults on ART were collected in 13 decentralized PHC facilities in the Nord-Kivu province and shipped during program quarterly supervision to a reference laboratory 2000 km away, where VL was quantified with a commercial assay (m2000rt, Abbott). A second DBS was sent to a World Health Organization (WHO)-accredited laboratory for repeat VL quantification on a subset of samples with a generic assay (Biocentric) and genotypic drug resistance testing when VL >1000 copies per milliliter.Findings:Constraints arose because of an interruption in national laboratory funding rather than to technical or logistic problems. All samples were assessed by both VL assays to allow ART adjustment. Median DBS turnaround time was 37 days (interquartile range: 9-59). Assays performed unequally with DBS, impacting clinical decisions, quality assurance, and overall cost-effectiveness. Based on m2000rt or generic assay, 31.3% of patients were on virological failure (VF) and 14.8% presented resistance mutations versus 50.3% and 15.4%, respectively.Conclusion:This study confirms that current technologies involving DBS make virological monitoring of ART possible at PHC level, including in challenging environments, provided organizational issues are addressed. Adequate core funding of HIV laboratories and adapted choice of VL assays require urgent attention to control resistance to ART as coverage expands

African Linguistics in Central and Eastern Europe, and in the Nordic Countries

Non peer reviewe

Language endangerment and language documentation in Africa

Non peer reviewe

Prefixal vowel length in Lulamogi: A stratal account

Over the past several decades there has been recurrent skeptism concerning cyclic derivations in phonology, one of the most central tenets of traditional generative and lexical phonology and morphology. In this paper I draw on original data from Lulamogi, a previously almost unstudied Bantu language of Uganda, to show that the most insightful analysis of some rather unusual vowel length alternations requires either cyclicity or global reference to internal morphological structure, specifically the difference between stem vs. prefix V + V sequences. After documenting the vowel length properties in some detail I consider several analyses, opting for a stratal account which neatly mirrors the traditional Bantu stem, word, and phrasal domains

Divine Bud: Testimonies of God's intervention

This book presents innovative material on ethnography; more specifically, it exposes events where African individuals deal with the supernatural - such as: reaction to the death of a child whose surgical operation was considered an answer to prayers to God, how African students have dealt with evil spirits in their lives, how African people have experimented the phenomenon of 'miracle' with their specific religious background that merges imported religions (Christian and Islam) and their traditional cultural religious beliefs. The material is also of interest to readers concerned with the need for dialogue between religions for the purpose of finding solutions to conflicts arising in the modern world. The book is truly thought-provoking. See for example what happens when a Muslim faces Jesus Christ as recounted in chapter 5. Mevoutsa's testimony in chapter 6 is a perfect example that exposes the way Africans attached to their traditional cultures believe that God may use tradition healers to manifest his presence among his creatures

Building Capacity: Using TEFL and African Languages as Development-oriented Literacy Tools

' ''Building Capacity promotes the vision that the teaching of African languages can best achieve its aim of boosting the economic and cultural development of the Africans if they are made to work in synergy with a revamping of the course contents of international languages that will be taught within the frame of a development-oriented literacy curriculum. Great emphasis is put on the oral skills in the use of African languages as they are to serve as a link between the community and the school for the ultimate revitalization of the positive aspects of African cultures in a world beset by globalization. The book is supplemented with a sample of texts in the appendix that are meant to be a bridge between formal texts taught in classrooms and literacy texts that can raise the genuine interests of the local populations in that they address their immediate needs. Among the possible topics language teachers are encouraged to explore in their classes are those concerning economic development, but also such issues as health, education, the environment, food security, and conflict resolution. ''''In the face of the growing interest in the use of African Languages by Africans as symbols of personal and cultural identity and as means of empowering the rural communities in the entreprise of national development,the need for a methodologically appropriate manual to guide the teaching and learning of African languages becomes urgent.This book is a timely response, predicated on a policy of the symbiotic use of African languages along with partner (foreign-official) languages, to attain a balanced level of economic and socio-cultural development.It is based on a compendium of well- thought-out principles geared towards a rapid acquisition of written and oral language skills that are congruent with and reflect the socio-cultural and economic concerns of the linguistic community.'''' Beban Sammy Chumbow, Professor of Linguistics, University of Yaounde I ''''Among the numerous proposals in this book is the necessity for Africans, and I would add, for the communities of Asia and Latin America, to re-think the contents of their language courses and assign them an objective which aims at the integral development of their communities. It is indeed imperative that these courses reflect clear objectives of seeking social, cultural, and economic developments that harmonize with African, Asian, and Latin American values that are deep rooted in their respective various cultures.'''' Jean-Pierre Angenot Professor of Linguistics, Federal University of Rond?nia, Porto Velho, Brazil.''