9,240 research outputs found
Bolivia during the global crisis 1998-2004: towards a ‘macroeconomics of microfinance
The macroeconomic role of microfinance appears to have varied enormously between country cases, as notably exposed by the recent wave of macro-economic crises. For example, in Indonesia in the late 1990s microfinance appears to have played a notably counter-cyclical role, whereas in Bolivia, the main focus of this paper, its role was in most cases to intensify rather than restrain the crisis. We find part of the explanation for this in the behaviour of government towards microfinance (much more conciliatory towards defaulting debtors in the Bolivian case) and in the structure of demand (unfavourable, in Bolivia, to the distribution and service sector which is the main market for microenterprise). However, closer examination of the Bolivian case suggests that institutional design also played an important role. In particular, those organisations which provided savings, training and quasi-insurance services bucked the trend of rising default rates and falling lending through the crisis and did particularly well, whereas the new breed of consumer-credit microfinance organisations did particularly badly and in several cases went out of business. This experience suggests,in particular, that it may be appropriate to call into question the fashionable´ minimalist´ (credit-only) model of microfinance, as certainly in Bolivia it was principally the credit-plus institutions which proved more financially disciplined and more resilient to crisis
Dust in active nuclei. II. Powder or gravel?
In a companion paper, Maiolino et al. (2000) presented various observational
evidences for "anomalous" dust properties in the circumnuclear region of AGNs
and, in particular, the reduced E(B-V)/N_H and Av/N_H ratios, the absence of
the silicate absorption feature in mid-IR spectra of Sy2s and the absence of
the carbon dip in UV spectra of reddened Sy1s. In this paper we discuss various
explanations for these facts.
The observational constraints favor a scenario where coagulation, catalyzed
by the high densities in the circumnuclear region, yields to the formation of
large grains. The resulting extinction curve is featureless, flatter than
Galactic and the E(B-V)/N_H and Av/N_H ratios are significantly reduced. These
results should warn about an unappropriate use of the standard Galactic
extinction curve and Av/N_H ratio when dealing with the extreme gas conditions
typical of the circumnuclear clouds of AGNs.
We also investigated alternative scenarios for the observed anomalous
properties of dust in AGNs. Some of these scenarios might explain some of the
observed properties for a few objects, but they generally fail to account for
all of the observational constraints obtained for the large sample of AGNs
studied in these works.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&
On the impact of Helium abundance on the Cepheid Period-Luminosity and Wesenheit relations and the Distance Ladder
This work analyses the effect of the Helium content on synthetic
Period-Luminosity Relations (PLRs) and Period-Wesenheit Relations (PWRs) of
Cepheids and the systematic uncertainties on the derived distances that a
hidden population of He-enhanced Cepheids may generate. We use new stellar and
pulsation models to build a homogeneous and consistent framework to derive the
Cepheid features. The Cepheid populations expected in synthetic color-magnitude
diagrams of young stellar systems (from 20 Myr to 250 Myr) are computed in
several photometric bands for Y = 0.25 and Y = 0.35, at a fixed metallicity (Z
= 0.008). The PLRs appear to be very similar in the two cases, with negligible
effects (few %) on distances, while PWRs differ somewhat, with systematic
uncertainties in deriving distances as high as about 7% at log P < 1.5.
Statistical effects due to the number of variables used to determine the
relations contribute to a distance systematic error of the order of few
percent, with values decreasing from optical to near-infrared bands. The
empirical PWRs derived from multi-wavelength datasets for the Large Magellanic
Cloud (LMC) is in a very good agreement with our theoretical PWRs obtained with
a standard He content, supporting the evidence that LMC Cepheids do not show
any He effect
Multipopulation aftereffects on the color-magnitude diagram and Cepheid variables of young stellar systems
Context: The evidence of a multipopulation scenario in Galactic globular
clusters raises several questions about the formation and evolution of the two
(or more) generations of stars. These populations show differences in their age
and chemical composition. These differences are found in old- and intermediate-
age stellar clusters in the Local Group. The observations of young stellar
systems are expected to present footprints of multiple stellar populations.
Aims: This theoretical work intends to be a specific step in exploring the
space of the observational indicators of multipopulations, without covering all
the combinations of parameters that may contribute to the formation of multiple
generations of stars in a cluster or in galaxy. The goal is to shed light on
the possible observational features expected by core He-burning stars that
belong to two stellar populations with different original He content and ages.
Methods: The tool adopted was the stellar population synthesis. We used new
stellar and pulsation models to construct a homogeneous and consistent
framework. Synthetic color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of young- and
intermediate-age stellar systems (from 20 Myr up to 1 Gyr) were computed in
several photometric bands to derive possible indicators of double populations
both in the observed CMDs and in the pulsation properties of the Cepheids.
Results: We predict that the morphology of the red/blue clump in VIK bands
can be used to photometrically indicate the two stellar populations in a rich
assembly of stars if there is a significant difference in their original He
content. Moreover, the period distribution of the Cepheids appears to be widely
affected by the coeval multiple generations of stars within stellar systems. We
show that the Wesenheit relations may be affected by the helium content of the
Cepheids.Comment: in press on A&
Rocking ratchets in 2D Josephson networks: collective effects and current reversal
A detailed numerical study on the directed motion of ac-driven vortices and
antivortices in 2D Josephson junction arrays (JJA) with an asymmetric periodic
pinning potential is reported. Dc-voltage rectification shows a strong
dependence on vortex density as well as an inversion of the vortex flow
direction with ac amplitude for a wide range of vortex density around =1/2
(=), in good agreement with recent experiments by Shal\'om
and Pastoriza [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 94}, 177001 (2005)]. The study of vortex
structures, spatial and temporal correlations, and vortex-antivortex pairs
formation gives insight into a purely collective mechanism behind the current
reversal effect.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
Viscous wing theory development. Volume 1: Analysis, method and results
Viscous transonic flows at large Reynolds numbers over 3-D wings were analyzed using a zonal viscid-inviscid interaction approach. A new numerical AFZ scheme was developed in conjunction with the finite volume formulation for the solution of the inviscid full-potential equation. A special far-field asymptotic boundary condition was developed and a second-order artificial viscosity included for an improved inviscid solution methodology. The integral method was used for the laminar/turbulent boundary layer and 3-D viscous wake calculation. The interaction calculation included the coupling conditions of the source flux due to the wing surface boundary layer, the flux jump due to the viscous wake, and the wake curvature effect. A method was also devised incorporating the 2-D trailing edge strong interaction solution for the normal pressure correction near the trailing edge region. A fully automated computer program was developed to perform the proposed method with one scalar version to be used on an IBM-3081 and two vectorized versions on Cray-1 and Cyber-205 computers
Multi-Epoch HST Observations of IZw18: Characterization of Variable Stars at Ultra-Low Metallicities
Variable stars have been identified for the first time in the very metal-poor
Blue Compact dwarf galaxy IZw18, using deep multi-band (F606W,
F814W)time-series photometry obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys
(ACS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We detected 34 candidate
variable stars in the galaxy. We classify three of them as Classical Cepheids,
with periods of 8.71, 125.0 and 130.3 days, respectively, and other two as long
period variables with periodicities longer than a hundred days. These are the
lowest metallicity Classical Cepheids known so far, thus providing the
opportunity to explore and fit models of stellar pulsation fo Classical
Cepheids at previously inaccessible metallicities. The period distribution of
the confirmed Cepheids is markedly different from what is seen in other nearby
galaxies, which is likely related to the star bursting nature of IZw18. By
applying to the 8.71 days Cepheid theoretical Wesenheit (V,I) relations based
on new pulsation models of Classical Cepheids specifically computed for the
extremely low metallicity of this galaxy (Z=0.0004, Y=0.24), we estimate the
distance modulus of IZw18 to be mu_0= 31.4pm0.2 D=19.0^{+1.8}_{-1.7}Mpc) for
canonical models of Classical Cepheids, and of 31.2pm0.2 mag
(D=17.4^{+1.6}_{-1.6}Mpc) using over luminous models. The theoretical modeling
of the star's light curves provides mu_0=31.4pm0.1 mag, D=19.0^{+0.9}_{-0.9}
Mpc, in good agreement with the results from the theoretical Wesenheit
relations. These pulsation distances bracket the distance of 18.2pm1.5Mpc
inferred by Aloisi et al. (2007) using the galaxy's Red Giant Branch Tip.Comment: 13 Pages, 6 Figures, accepted, Ap
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