Crisis in Nicaraguan Microfinance: Between the Scylla of Business for Profit and the Charybdis of Clientelism

From the being a poster child of microfinance development, Nicaragua became one of the nightmares for the industry. The negative influence on the countries' repayment culture of the Non-Payment Movement, ambiguously related to the new Sandinista government, is typically blamed for the crisis. A closer analysis, however, reveals that features of the mainstream microfinance policies in Nicaragua are possibly more to blame for the crisis than the political turmoil, which opportunistically seems to have taken advantage of the underlying problems. Overfunding of regulated MFI-banks and promotion of excessive competition, in particular of these banks with the non-regulated MFIs, led to reckless lending and created over-indebtedness. Gradual professionalization and conventionalization also led to the erosion of social embeddedness –once at the core of the Microfinance revolution- and left MFI weak in the face of political challenges. And the obsession with profitability and 'finance only' implied higher interest rates and left many poorer clients with little or negative impact, lending credibility to the accusation of usury. While the Non-Payment Movement could be understood as a Polanyian countermovement to the problems created by market development, its ultimate political objectives however seem to offer only dubious perspectives for future inclusive economic development.

Amending the Flaws in the Safe Harbors of the Bankruptcy Code: Guarding Against Systemic Risk in the Financial Markets and Adding Stability to the System

Certain provisions of derivative trading contracts get special exemptions under the Bankruptcy Code, referred to as \u27Safe Harbors,\u27 to prevent systemic risk. The Safe Harbors seek to accomplish this goal by permitting a party to a derivative trading contract to quickly terminate and liquidate its positions. The precise parameters of the Safe Harbors remain unclear. This lack of clarity adversely affects the ability of market participants to accurately perform credit risk analyses with respect to their derivative trading counterparties and may adversely impact the ability of market participants to prepare Living Wills, as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. Similarly, it adversely affects the ability of a party to reorganize under the Bankruptcy Code. This Article argues that Congress should amend the Safe Harbors to address these issues to mitigate risk

A Multimodal Approach in the Classroom for Creative Learning and Teaching

A multimodal approach in the classroom can be a source of creativity for both teachers and students. It draws upon available visual, audio, and kinaesthetic modes and does not necessarily rely on technology. This paper will briefly define what modes are and outline the origins of multimodal studies in the New London Group (1996). Through a multimodal lesson using video, we can identify modes and how these correlate not only to contemporary society but to specific cognitive processes. This combination allows for creativity and flexibility in teacher-student interaction and can enhance the learning environment.This paper considers the work of Kress and Jewitt and their research in multimodal studies, and applies these concepts to higher education and the undergraduate experience in second language learning. It focuses on the combination of text, audio and image as individual modes and how these can be creatively combined to produce meaning, encourage interaction and learning in the classroom. Engaging students in course content requires strategies of communication that a) focus and maintain attention, and b) work past the simple cognitive styles of information recognition to activate deeper forms of memory creation. Multimodal approaches tend to do this naturally and as the research results demonstrate, the students responded favourably to multimodal input. The majority of students preferred visual stimulus or a combination of visual and text stimuli for acquiring new lexis and for enhancing oral production

The effect of robenacoxib on the concentration of C-reactive protein in synovial fluid from dogs with osteoarthritis

Background: Robenacoxib is a novel and highly selective inhibitor of COX-2 in dogs and cats and because of its acidic nature is regarded as being tissue-selective. Thirty four dogs with stifle osteoarthritis secondary to failure of the cranial cruciate ligament were recruited into this study. Lameness, radiographic features, synovial cytology and C-reactive protein concentrations in serum and synovial fluid were assessed before and 28 days after commencing a course of Robenacoxib at a dose of 1 mg/kg SID.<p></p> Results: There was a significant reduction in the lameness score (P <0.01) and an increase in the radiographic score (P < 0.05) between pre- and post-treatment assessments. There was no difference between pre- (median 1.49 mg/l; Q1-Q3 0.56-4.24 mg/L) and post – (1.10 mg/L; 0.31-1.78 mg/L) treatment serum C-reactive protein levels although synovial fluid levels were significantly reduced (pre- : 0.44 mg/L; 0.23-1.62 mg/L; post- : 0.17 mg/L; 0.05-0.49 mg/L) (P < 0.05). There was no correlation between C-reactive protein concentrations in serum and matched synovial fluid samples.<p></p> Conclusions: Robenacoxib proved effective in reducing lameness in dogs with failure of the cranial cruciate ligament and osteoarthritis of the stifle joint. The drug also reduced levels of C-reactive protein in the synovial fluid taken from the affected stifle joint. Robenacoxib appears to reduce articular inflammation as assessed by C-reactive protein which supports the concept that Robenacoxib is a tissue-selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.<p></p&gt

Efficiency of the rail sections in Brazilian railway system, using TOPSIS and a genetic algorithm to analyse optimized scenarios

A railway system plays a significant role in countries with large territorial dimensions. The Brazilian rail cargo system (BRCS), however, is focused on solid bulk for export. This paper investigates the extreme performances of BRCS through a new hybrid model that combines TOPSIS with a genetic algorithm for estimating the weights in optimized scenarios. In a second stage, the significance of selected variables was assessed. The transport of any type of cargo, a centralized control of the operation, and sharing the railway track pushing competition, and the diversification of services are significant for high performance. Public strategies are discussed.Indisponível

Influence of different drying parameters on the composition of volatile compounds of thyme and rosemary cultivated in Sardinia

The shelf life of spices is traditionally extended by drying. Fresh herbs, due to their high water content, undergo microorganism growth and adverse biochemical reactions. On the other hand drying may result in a lot of physical and chemical alterations. Air and oven-dehydration are the main methods used to stabilize spices. During oven drying, in general, losses of volatile compounds are directly dependent on the temperature and time used. This paper deals with the effect of different drying temperatures and air fluxes on the volatiles in rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) and thyme (Thymus officinalis L.) cultivated in Sardinia. Fresh leaves were collected and soon divided in two batches, which were subjected to hydro distillation and GC-MS analysis, the first batch as fresh, the second one after drying in a laboratory pilot dryer. Three drying temperatures were used, 30, 38 and 45°C, and for each one two airflow rates were set. The fresh and dried plant material were hydro distilled for 4 hours using a Clevenger-type apparatus (Italian Official Pharmacopeias X). The oils (liquid and light yellow) were recovered directly from above the distillate without adding any solvent and stored at –20°C before analyses, which were carried out on two replicates of each sample by gas chromatography, using a flame ionization detector. The diluted samples were injected using a split/splitless automatic injector (using 2,6-dimethylphenol as internal standard). Qualitative analysis was done by GC/Mass and mass units were monitored from 10 to 450 at 70 eV. Results of the influence of the different drying conditions on volatile compounds of the two herbs will be reported

Minimizing Flow Time in the Wireless Gathering Problem

We address the problem of efficient data gathering in a wireless network through multi-hop communication. We focus on the objective of minimizing the maximum flow time of a data packet. We prove that no polynomial time algorithm for this problem can have approximation ratio less than \Omega(m^{1/3) when $m$ packets have to be transmitted, unless $P = NP$. We then use resource augmentation to assess the performance of a FIFO-like strategy. We prove that this strategy is 5-speed optimal, i.e., its cost remains within the optimal cost if we allow the algorithm to transmit data at a speed 5 times higher than that of the optimal solution we compare to

Pain neuroscience education and motor control exercises versus core stability exercises on pain, disability, and balance in women with chronic low back pain

Background: Several interventions have been used to relieve chronic low back pain (CLBP). This study aimed to compare the effects of pain neuroscience education (PNE) followed by motor control exercises (MCEs) with core stability training (CST) on pain, disability, and balance in women with CLBP. Methods: Thirty-seven women with CLBP were randomly divided into two groups of PNE/MCE (n = 18, 55.2 ± 2.6 years) or CST (n = 19, 54.6 ± 2.4 years). Eight weeks of PNE/MCE or CST were prescribed for each group, independently. Pain intensity (VAS scale), disability (Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire), unipodal static balance, and dynamic balance (time up and go test) were measured at the beginning and 8 weeks after the intervention. Two-way mixed ANOVA was used to analyze the results with alpha of 5%. Results: After 8 weeks, there was a significant difference in VAS scale between groups (p = 0.024), with both PNE/MCE and CST showing 58% and 42% reductions, respectively. There were no differences for all other variables between groups. Regarding pre- to post-comparisons, both groups showed improvements in all dependent variables (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The treatment with PNE/MCE was more effective in improving pain disability and unipodal static and dynamic balance than treatment with CST. Even so, both treatments were shown to be valid and safe in improving all dependent variables analyzed in women with CLBP.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Risk-Taking and Self-Harm Inventory for Adolescents: Validation of the Italian Version (RTSHIA-I)

The aim of the present paper is to establish the factorial validity and reliability of the Risk-Taking and Self-Harm Inventory for Adolescents (RTSHIA), proposed by Vrouva and colleagues in 2010, in an Italian sample. The RTSHIA measures both Risk-Taking and Self-Harm behavior in adolescents. We administered the scale to a total of 1292 Italian adolescents from 9th to 12th grade; to verify the validity of the scale, we also assessed emotion regulation and psychopathological traits. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (N = 638) and the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (N = 660) confirmed the original two-factor structure of the RTSHIA (Risk-Taking and Self-Harm). The only differences in the Italian version of the RTSHIA (RTSHIA-I) were that one item was moved from the original Risk-Taking factor to the Italian Self-Harm factor, and another item that was not included in the original RTSHIA is now part of the Risk-Taking factor in the Italian version. The reliability of the RTSHIA-I is also confirmed, and both factors correlate with emotion regulation and externalizing/internalizing traits. Our results suggest that the RTSHIA-I is a useful tool for assessing Risk-Taking and Self-Harm behaviors in Italian adolescents, and the correlational patterns indicate that these behaviors may be related to difficulties in mentalization skills