Mission Drift of large MFIs?

Since the Mexican Microfinance Institution (MFI) Compartamos went public in 2007 – whereby promoting NGOs and private investors earned about USD 425 million – leading journals and magazines have repeatedly run rather sceptical articles about microfinance. They are mostly inspired by antagonists of MFIs growing into market driven enterprises. This antagonism has been blended with contemplation about assumed “subprime issues” of microfinance. However, the sector showed a steady performance, different from most other segments of the financial sector. The unholy blend of these two lines of thought risks to create an unwarranted image of microfinance.Microfinance; Mission Drift; Subprime; Sustainability

CMB Lensing Constraints on Neutrinos and Dark Energy

Signatures of lensing of the cosmic microwave background radiation by gravitational potentials along the line of sight carry with them information on the matter distribution, neutrino masses, and dark energy properties. We examine the constraints that Planck, PolarBear, and CMBpol future data, including from the B-mode polarization or the lensing potential, will be able to place on these quantities. We simultaneously fit for neutrino mass and dark energy equation of state including time variation and early dark energy density, and compare the use of polarization power spectra with an optimal quadratic estimator of the lensing. Results are given as a function of systematics level from residual foreground contamination. A realistic CMBpol experiment can effectively constrain the sum of neutrino masses to within 0.05 eV and the fraction of early dark energy to 0.002. We also present a surprisingly simple prescription for calculating dark energy equation of state constraints in combination with supernova distances from JDEM.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures. Small changes made to match version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Perfectionism and Stress During Student-Teaching: Managing Uncertainty With Overcompensation

Student teachers who are unclear about their performance expectations may be driven toward perfectionism. This possibility is discussed as an over-compensation strategy to manage uncertainty and a perceived lack of clarity regarding student teachers’ roles in the classroom. In this case study, I examined perfectionism and stress among six female student teachers enrolled in senior-year student teaching at a small private New England university. I conducted interviews regarding perfectionism, stress, and the coping strategies student teachers used to manage the stress of teaching. Response themes are identified, and strategies to manage perfectionism and stress-related behaviors for student teachers are provided. Finally, I consider the relevance of these present findings for other professional development programs