Microfinance and Third World Development: A Critical Analysis

Microfinance is emerging as an integral part of the new development paradigm, described by the phrase participation and development. Although the idea has become quite popular among donor agencies, development practitioners, and academicians, theoretical premises on which this idea is founded seem entirely unexamined. Accordingly, this article investigates the academic merits, as well as potential consequences, of this popular poverty alleviating model from the supply-side perspective and asks a provocative question: Do the microfinance ventures have features which suggest that the establishment of this new finance industry in the Third World countries might further complicate their pervasive poverty problems? The answer to this question appears affirmative to be affirmative. First, the microfinance idea is founded on two theoretical premises, both of which are very controversial. Second, the lack of microcredit is not the cause of the Third World\u27s deplorable poverty situation--a fact that suggests that the supply of microcredit cannot alleviate poverty in these countries. Finally, the promotion of the microfinance ventures in the Third World has potentials to create private groups, which have vested interests in perpetuating their prevailing poverty situation

Risk and Business Goal Based Security Requirement and Countermeasure Prioritization

Companies are under pressure to be in control of their assets but at the same time they must operate as efficiently as possible. This means that they aim to implement “good-enough security” but need to be able to justify their security investment plans. Currently companies achieve this by means of checklist-based security assessments, but these methods are a way to achieve consensus without being able to provide justifications of countermeasures in terms of business goals. But such justifications are needed to operate securely and effectively in networked businesses. In this paper, we first compare a Risk-Based Requirements Prioritization method (RiskREP) with some requirements engineering and risk assessment methods based on their requirements elicitation and prioritization properties. RiskREP extends misuse case-based requirements engineering methods with IT architecture-based risk assessment and countermeasure definition and prioritization. Then, we present how RiskREP prioritizes countermeasures by linking business goals to countermeasure specification. Prioritizing countermeasures based on business goals is especially important to provide the stakeholders with structured arguments for choosing a set of countermeasures to implement. We illustrate RiskREP and how it prioritizes the countermeasures it elicits by an application to an action case

“I’m just a long history of people rejecting referrals” experiences of young people who fell through the gap between child and adult mental health services

The paediatric-adult split in mental health care necessitates young people to make a transition between services when they reach the upper end of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). However, we know that this transition is often poor, and not all young people who require ongoing support are able to continue care in adult mental health services (AMHS). These young people are said to have fallen through the gap between services. This research aimed to explore the reasons why young people fall through the gap between CAMHS and AMHS, and what effect his has had on them and their families. Narrative interviews were conducted with 15 young people and 15 parents, representing 19 unique transition stories. Themes were identified collaboatively using thematic analysis. Reasons for falling through the gap were grouped into systemic problems and problems with the quality of care received. Effects of alling through the gap were grouped into separate themes for young people (feeling abandoned; struggling to manage without continued care; problems with medication) and parents (emotional impact of care ending; parents taking an active role in the young person’s care). To our knowledge, this is the firt qualitative study that has focused only on the experiences of young people who have fallen through the gap between services. This research adds novel findings o existing literature regarding barriers to transition and the effectsof discontinuity of care

Generation of picosecond pulses directly from a 100 W, burst-mode, doping-managed Yb-doped fiber amplifier

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Burst-mode laser systems offer increased effectiveness in material processing while requiring lower individual pulse energies. Fiber amplifiers operating in this regime generate low powers in the order of 1 W. We present a Yb-doped fiber amplifier, utilizing doping management, that scales the average power up to 100 W. The laser system produces bursts at 1 MHz, where each burst comprises 10 pulses with 10 mu J energy per pulse and is separated in time by 10 ns. The high-burst repetition rate allows substantial simplification of the setup over previous demonstrations of burst-mode operation in fiber lasers. The total energy in each burst is 100 mu J and the average power achieved within the burst is 1 kW. The pulse evolution in the final stage of amplification is initiated as self-similar amplification, which is quickly altered as the pulse spectrum exceeds the gain bandwidth. By prechirping the pulses launched into the amplifier, 17 ps long pulses are generated without using external pulse compression. The peak power of the pulses is similar to 0.6 MW. (C) 2014 Optical Society of Americ

Energy harvesting towards self-powered iot devices

The internet of things (IoT) manages a large infrastructure of web-enabled smart devices, small devices that use embedded systems, such as processors, sensors, and communication hardware to collect, send, and elaborate on data acquired from their environment. Thus, from a practical point of view, such devices are composed of power-efficient storage, scalable, and lightweight nodes needing power and batteries to operate. From the above reason, it appears clear that energy harvesting plays an important role in increasing the efficiency and lifetime of IoT devices. Moreover, from acquiring energy by the surrounding operational environment, energy harvesting is important to make the IoT device network more sustainable from the environmental point of view. Different state-of-the-art energy harvesters based on mechanical, aeroelastic, wind, solar, radiofrequency, and pyroelectric mechanisms are discussed in this review article. To reduce the power consumption of the batteries, a vital role is played by power management integrated circuits (PMICs), which help to enhance the system's life span. Moreover, PMICs from different manufacturers that provide power management to IoT devices have been discussed in this paper. Furthermore, the energy harvesting networks can expose themselves to prominent security issues putting the secrecy of the system to risk. These possible attacks are also discussed in this review article

Prediction of pulse-to-pulse intensity fluctuation characteristics of high power ultrafast fiber amplifiers

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We report on the experimental characterization and theoretical prediction of pulse-to-pulse intensity fluctuations, namely, intensity noise, for ultrafast fiber amplifiers. We present a theoretical model with which the intensity noise of a Yb-doped fiber amplifier can be predicted with high accuracy, taking into account seed and pump noise, as well as generation of amplified spontaneous emission. Transfer of pump and seed signal modulations to the amplified output during fiber amplification are investigated thoroughly. Practically, our model enables design and optimization of fiber amplifiers with regards to their intensity noise performance. As a route to reducing noise imparted by pump diodes in a double-clad amplifier, we show the use of multiple, low-power diodes is more beneficial compared to a single, high-power diode due to the largely uncorrelated nature of their individual noise contributions. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC

Calculation of temperature distribution and thermo-optical effects in double-end-pumped slab laser

The temperature distribution and thermo-optical effects in a double-end-pumped slab laser are investigated analytically. The theoretical model is given by considering heat generation on both sides of an active medium due to pumping. With account for the pump beam divergence and the heat load, the heat conduction equation is solved, and the temperature distribution and thermal effects, such as thermal lensing and thermal stress, are obtained. The results are applied to a typical Nd:YVO 4 laser crystal slab and discussed. ©2011 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc

Crystallographic and NMR Investigation of Ergometrine and Methylergometrine, Two Alkaloids from Claviceps purpurea

Ergometrine and methylergometrine are two alkaloids that are used as maleate salts for the prevention and control of postpartum hemorrhage. Although the two molecules have been known for a long time, few and discordant crystallographic and NMR spectroscopic data are available in the literature. With the aim of providing more conclusive data, we performed a careful NMR study for the complete assignment of the 1H, 13C, and 15N NMR signals of ergometrine, methylergometrine, and their maleate salts. This information allowed for a better definition of their conformational equilibria. In addition, the stereochemistry and the intermolecular interactions in the solid state of the two maleate salts were deeply investigated by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction, showing the capability of these derivatives to act as both hydrogen-bond donors and acceptors, and evidencing a correlation between the number of intermolecular interactions and their different solubility