Analysis of sorbents and catalysts used during a 90-day manned test

Chemical analysis of organic trace contaminants in simulated space station atmospheres desorbed from molecular sieve, silicon gel, and catalyst bed

Questioning Three Fundamental Assumptions in Financial Inclusion

Financial inclusion has rapidly ascended global development policy agendas. Between 2 billion and 2.5 billion adults worldwide do not use formal financial services (World Bank 2015: v), which a multifaceted coalition of actors is committed to changing. For the World Bank (2014: xi), ‘financial inclusion represents a core topic, given its implications for reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity’. Such views are widely echoed by other international bodies such as the United Nations organisations, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the G20, and numerous governments around the world are implementing or developing financial inclusion strategies. This report investigates a number of assumptions which are commonly held by proponents of financial inclusion, and discusses the consequences of these assumptions. Its purpose is not to argue that the expansion of financial services is harmful or beneficial to poor and low-income households – although both possibilities should be taken into account – but rather to engage decision-makers and academic experts in a deeper reflection of the unquestioned suppositions or conjectures which might underlie the drive to extend financial services universally in developing countries.UK Department for International Developmen

Making the Poor Pay for Public Goods via Microfinance: Economic and Political Pitfalls in the Case of Water and Sanitation

This paper critically assesses microfinance’s expansion into the provision of public goods. It focuses on the problem of public goods and collective action and refers to the specific example of water and sanitation. The microfinancing of water and sanitation is a private business model which requires households to recognise, internalise and capitalise the benefits from improved water and sanitation. This requirement is not assured. Water and sanitation, being closely linked to underlying common-pool resources, are public goods which depend on collective governance solutions. They also have shifting public/private characteristics and are merit goods which depend on networks to enable provision to take place. Two cases, from Vietnam and India, are presented and evaluated. Despite their dissimilar settings and institutional designs, evidence is found that both projects encountered similar and comparable problems at the collective level which individual microfinance loans could not address. The paper concludes that trying to make the poor pay for public goods runs into four pitfalls: politics, public capacity, values and equity.Das Papier untersucht die Auswirkungen von Mikrofinanzierung auf öffentliche Güter und kollektives Handeln am Beispiel der Errichtung von Wasser- und Sanitäranlagen in Ländern der Dritten Welt. Das zugrunde liegende private Geschäftsmodell geht davon aus, dass Haushalte mittels Mikrokredite die Vorteile verbesserter Wasser- und Sanitäreinrichtungen erkennen und sich auch finanziell zunutze machen können – diese Voraussetzung ist allerdings nicht gegeben. Zudem sind Wasser- und Sanitärversorgung meritorische Güter, für deren Bereitstellung Netzwerke erforderlich sind. Sie erfordern eine kollektive Verwaltung, weil sie sowohl öffentliche als auch private Merkmale aufweisen und mit Gemeinschaftsgütern eng verknüpft sind. Ausgangslage und institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen der beiden untersuchten Fallbeispiele in Vietnam und Indien sind unterschiedlich. Trotzdem geben die Ergebnisse der Studie Hinweise auf vergleichbare Probleme auf der kollektiven Ebene, die nicht über Mikrofinanzierung lösbar sind. Es zeigt sich, dass der Versuch, die Armen zur Finanzierung öffentlicher Güter zu bringen, an mehreren Hindernissen scheitert: an der lokalen Politik, einem unzureichend entwickelten öffentlichen Sektor, unterschiedlichen Wertvorstellungen und mangelnder Verteilungsgerechtigkeit.1 Introduction: Radicalised microfinance 2 Microfinance and the political economy of fragmented entrepreneurial liberalism From developmentalism to microfinance as “ersatz developmentalism” Microfinance accumulation and crises Microfinance meets water and sanitation: Past and present 3 Analytical framework: The public goods/collective action problematic in water and sanitation Water and sanitation: Histories of inequality Claiming the “win-win”: Recognition, internalisation, capitalisation Problematic goods theory: Characterising a fluid resource 4 Field evidence from Vietnam and India Can Tho, Vietnam Andhra Pradesh, India Lessons from two very different cases 5 Results and conclusions Pitfalls at the collective level: Politics, public capacity, values and equity General conclusion Reference

Financialisation through Microfinance: Credit Relations and Market Building

Microfinance does not reduce poverty, but it successfully constructs economic relations between owners of capital and borrowers of capital, which allow surplus accumulation through finance to occur. It does so by drawing on the agency of financialised civil society actors who facilitate financialisation through microfinance. Five distinct approaches to financialisation are highlighted, each focused on a different facet. It is shown that money and credit are not unproblematic neutral intermediaries, but possess complex social meanings of their own which allow microfinance to be associated with profound social transformations. However, these transformations are not of the kind usually theorised, but rather they are the establishment of credit-based linkages between owners and borrowers of capital which allow surplus accumulation to take place via the credit relation. Underlying this material relationship there is also a level at which financialisation motivates and pressures civil society actors to bring microfinance to the poor. By becoming financialised agents themselves, civil society organisations act as conduits for an expansion of financial markets and the construction of new market relations for other goods. A case study of microfinance for water and sanitation access in India shows in detail how this construction of markets via civil society works in practice

Timed Analysis of Security Protocols

We propose a method for engineering security protocols that are aware of timing aspects. We study a simplified version of the well-known Needham Schroeder protocol and the complete Yahalom protocol, where timing information allows the study of different attack scenarios. We model check the protocols using UPPAAL. Further, a taxonomy is obtained by studying and categorising protocols from the well known Clark Jacob library and the Security Protocol Open Repository (SPORE) library. Finally, we present some new challenges and threats that arise when considering time in the analysis, by providing a novel protocol that uses time challenges and exposing a timing attack over an implementation of an existing security protocol

Religious leaders\u27 perceptions of advance care planning: a secondary analysis of interviews with Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Sikh and Bahai leaders

Background: International guidance for advance care planning (ACP) supports the integration of spiritual and religious aspects of care within the planning process. Religious leaders’ perspectives could improve how ACP programs respect patients’ faith backgrounds. This study aimed to examine: (i) how religious leaders understand and consider ACP and its implications, including (ii) how religion affects followers’ approaches to end-of-life care and ACP, and (iii) their implications for healthcare. Methods: Interview transcripts from a primary qualitative study conducted with religious leaders to inform an ACP website, ACPTalk, were used as data in this study. ACPTalk aims to assist health professionals conduct sensitive conversations with people from different religious backgrounds. A qualitative secondary analysis conducted on the interview transcripts focussed on religious leaders’ statements related to this study’s aims. Interview transcripts were thematically analysed using an inductive, comparative, and cyclical procedure informed by grounded theory. Results: Thirty-five religious leaders (26 male; mean 58.6-years-old), from eight Christian and six non-Christian (Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Sikh, Bahá’í) backgrounds were included. Three themes emerged which focussed on: religious leaders’ ACP understanding and experiences; explanations for religious followers’ approaches towards end-of-life care; and health professionals’ need to enquire about how religion matters. Most leaders had some understanding of ACP and, once fully comprehended, most held ACP in positive regard. Religious followers’ preferences for end-of-life care reflected family and geographical origins, cultural traditions, personal attitudes, and religiosity and faith interpretations. Implications for healthcare included the importance of avoiding generalisations and openness to individualised and/ or standardised religious expressions of one’s religion. Conclusions: Knowledge of religious beliefs and values around death and dying could be useful in preparing health professionals for ACP with patients from different religions but equally important is avoidance of assumptions. Community-based initiatives, programs and faith settin

[Book Review] The End of Financialization? Review Essay

Books reviewed: Greta Krippner, 2011: Capitalizing on Crisis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; Amato, Massimo and Lucca Fantacci, 2012: The End of Finance. London: Polity Pres

How Do State–Business Relations Shape Sustainable Development?

The achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals will depend on the ways in which states and businesses engage with one another. While state–business interactions can take many forms, they inherently involve processes of negotiation through which actors in both camps pursue their own interests. Successfully accelerating sustainability, generating inclusion or reducing inequalities will depend on whether such negotiations build on and support interdependencies, create trust, and develop shared ideas about challenges and potential solutions. But the factors that determine the nature and outcomes of state–business relations are not yet well-enough understood, particularly in relation to goals beyond economic growth, where trade-offs are often more apparent.UK Department for International Developmen

Accelerated Procedure for Determination of Gas-Off Product From Space Cabin Materials

A fast and accurate method for the empirical evaluation of the degassing characteristics of materials and supplies carried aboard a space capsule is described. The proposed procedure utilizes 72-liter flasks as reaction chambers. Materials to be tested were introduced into one group of flasks for a period of 30 to 60 days. The flasks were maintained under temperature, pressure, and lighting conditions expected to prevail within the spacecraft. Parallel experiments were conducted over a 24-hour period at a flask temperature of 120°F obtained by irradiation of the flask with mercury vapor lamps. At regular, predetermined intervals the flask atmospheres -were tested for outgassed contaminants by gas chromatography in conjunction with infrared spectroscopy. Several examples of test results are presented. They indicate that different temperatures did not affect the reaction mechanism involved in the outgassing processes. The type of products which had outgassed remained the same; and, as expected, only the quantity of released products was higher at higher temperatures

Failing Young People? Addressing the Supply-side Bias and Individualisation in Youth Employment Programming

International development actors increasingly focus on youth employment as a key development challenge. The recognition of high rates of unemployment, underemployment and job insecurity among young people around the world has led to a plethora of youth employment interventions, as well as often problematic discourses about youth ‘dividends’ and ‘bulges’, which instrumentalise young people and paint them as security threats. This report problematises and critiques some of the currently predominant models for getting young people into work. Examining the current state of play of donor policies, the report critiques the supply-side bias built into the majority of approaches, and aims to advance an understanding of the demand-side and structural constraints. If supply-side approaches are not matched by measures to address these constraints, it argues, interventions risk adversely incorporating young people into the economy. The report also develops a critique of the overall narrow economic and individualistic approach currently adopted, building on the concept of social navigation to understand how young people’s decisions and trajectories regarding work are shaped in reality. Young people are socially embedded: their agency and aspirations are shaped by social values, positions and expectations, as well as by their social relationships and immediate political contexts. Consequently, the report argues that policies need to be de-individualised, both conceptually and practically, to better reflect the real constraints, opportunities and forces that will shape young people’s engagement with work.UK Department for International Developmen