Ending Extreme Poverty and Sharing Prosperity: Progress and Policies

To guide its work toward a "world free of poverty," the World Bank Group in 2013 established two clear goals: end extreme poverty by 2030 and promote shared prosperity. Along with the requirement to pursue these goals sustainably -- economically, environmentally, and socially -- the two goals are comprehensive in nature. They are fully aligned to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To evaluate progress, the two goals are measured by two overall indicators: a reduction in the global headcount ratio of extreme poverty (the population share of those whose income is below the international poverty line) to 3 percent by 2030, and the promotion of income growth in the bottom 40 (B40) percent of the population in each country.This Policy Research Note updates the assessment of progress toward these two goals in a sustainable manner. The poverty goal is examined through three lenses: the evolution of income poverty based on the new international poverty line that has been re-estimated at $1.90 a day; an assessment of person-equivalent income poverty, a new intuitive indicator that combines the incidence with the depth of poverty; and a review of the breadth of poverty, recognizing that income shortfalls often coexist with multiple non-income deprivations. The shared prosperity goal is examined on the basis of the latest comparison of (comparable) household data on B40 income growth. As part of its analysis of the two goals, this note also comments on the status of defining and monitoring sustainability in its economic, environmental and social aspects

FIESTA: An operational decision aid for space network fault isolation

The Fault Tolerance Expert System for Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) Applications (FIESTA) is a fault detection and fault diagnosis expert system being developed as a decision aid to support operations in the Network Control Center (NCC) for NASA's Space Network. The operational objectives which influenced FIESTA development are presented and an overview of the architecture used to achieve these goals are provided. The approach to the knowledge engineering effort and the methodology employed are also presented and illustrated with examples drawn from the FIESTA domain

Remittances, institutions and economic growth

There is considerable debate regarding the relative contribution of international migrants' remittances to sustainable economic development. While the rates and levels of officially recorded remittances to developing countries has increased enormously over the last decade, academic and policy-oriented research has not come to a consensus over whether remittances contribute to longer-term growth by building human and financial capital or degrade long-run growth by creating labor substitution and 'Dutch disease' effects. This paper suggests that contradictory findings have emerged when looking at the remittances-growth link because previous studies have not correctly controlled for endogeneity. Using Dynamic Data Panel estimates we find that remittances exert a weakly positive impact on long-term macroeconomic growth. The paper also considers the proposition that the longer-term developmental impact of remittances is increased in the presence of sound economic policies and institutions

Fencing and Watering Systems: Simpler is Better

Sustainability and Grazing Management have taken on a new importance in the Americana farm community. The key components of the sustainable approach, profitability, agronomic, social and ecological responsibility and quality of life are becoming obtainable goals for this and future farming generations

A Diffusion-Based Approach to Geminate Recombination of Heme Proteins with Small Ligands

A model of postphotodissociative monomolecular (geminate) recombination of heme proteins with small ligands (NO, O2 or CO) is represented. The non-exponential decay with time for the probability to find a heme in unbound state is interpreted in terms of diffusion-like migration of ligabs physics/0212040 and between protein cavities. The temporal behavior for the probability is obtained from numerical simulation and specified by two parameters: the time \tau_{reb} of heme-ligand rebinding for the ligand localized inside the heme pocket and the time \tau_{esc} of ligand escape from the pocket. The model is applied in the analysis of available experimental data for geminate reoxygenation of human hemoglobin HbA. Our simulation is in good agreement with the measurements. The analysis shows that the variation in pH of the solution (6.0<pH<9.4) results in considerable changes for \tau_{reb} from 0.36 ns (at pH=8.5) up to 0.5 ns (pH=6.0) but effects slightly on the time \tau_{esc} (\tau_{esc} ~ 0.88 ns).Comment: 8 pages with 4 figures, submitted to Chem. Phy

Through a Mirror Dimly: Social Constructionism Through the Lens of Faith

Postmodernism has often been excoriated in Christian circles for its departure from commonly recognized principles of truth seeking. How can we, as educators, help students grapple wisely with this pervasive worldview in the context of encouraging a biblical and vibrant development of their faith? Are there components within postmodernism that might help inform students’ faith development? This article will examine social constructionism, a variant of postmodernism, from the lens of Christian faith and spirituality, and will attempt to answer some of those questions

Forecasting tillage and soil warming effects on earthworm populations

1. Healthy soils are crucial for sustainable food production, but tillage limits the biological regulation of essential ecosystem services. Better understanding of the mechanisms driving management effects on soil ecosystem engineers is needed to support sustainable management under environmental change. 2. This paper presents the EEEworm (Energy–Environment–Earthworm) model, a mechanistic individual-based model (IBM) of Lumbricus terrestris populations. L. terrestris is a dominant earthworm species in undisturbed habitats and is closely associated with numerous ecosystem services such as water flow regulation, soil structure and crop production. In reduced tillage agriculture a decline in mechanical disturbance allows for L. terrestris proliferation, whilst the activities of L. terrestris can replace many of the soil functions provided by tillage. 3. Extensive EEEworm validation with eight published studies (average R2 = 0.84) demonstrates a mechanistic approach which can extrapolate between diverse soil, management and weather conditions. EEEworm simulation experiments elucidate that a combination of direct and indirect tillage effects lead to population declines in tilled fields, with litter removal from the soil surface being the main driver. 4. We investigate the effects of different tillage intensities under historical and projected soil warming conditions, and find that future warmer and drier soils in our simulation exacerbate the effects of deep ploughing on L. terrestris population declines. These effects result from warmer and drier soil conditions increasing individual metabolic rates and tillage reducing food availability to meet energy demands. 5. Synthesis and applications. Pre-emptive strategies to mitigate climate change impacts on soil health in agroecosystems should focus on decreasing tillage intensity and retention of crop residues following tillage. EEEworm has the potential to benefit land managers, policy makers, risk assessors and regulators by providing a tool to forecast how soil systems respond to combinations of land management and environmental change. To allow better cost-benefit analysis of contrasting land management systems a future aim of mechanistic models like EEEworm is to incorporate the links between earthworm populations, soil functions and ecosystem services