Unconditional aid and accountability: reassessing chinese unconditional engagement in africa

Many Western observers appraise Chinese aid to Africa very critically. Especially what is considered “unconditional assistance” has raised concerns of undermining western “conditional aid”. The current policy of international aid adopted by most western donors, including the IMF and the World Bank, is that aid is only given following conditions which have to be met by the host country (e.g. Good Governance, Democracy, Human Rights and anti-corruption measures). A country that provides aid in return for access to commodities rather than such conditions (e.g. China) is therefore considered as undermining these efforts. This paper criticizes this belief by arguing that the model of conditional aid does not work. The very nature of aid which is a one way flow of information is unaccountable. Despite conditions not having been met in the past, Western aid to Africa had been kept running, which renders conditionality ineffective. Only a flow of tangible goods in the opposite direction (e.g. commodities) as promoted in the Chinese “package deals” adds accountability to the process.Keywords: China, Africa, aid conditionality,democracy, human rights, pro market reform

Playing style modelling of basketball games

Na raziskovalnem področju košarke je bilo predstavljenih že veliko metod za simulacijo in napovedovanje zmagovalca tekem. Cilj realistične simulacije je skladnost generirane dinamike statistike z dinamiko statistike iz dejanskih tekem in posledično čim bolj natančna napoved zmagovalca tekme. Naš pristop opisuje statistiko ekip v različnih časovno-rezultatskih situacijah. Raziskujemo prenos analize števcev v teh situacijah in njihovo uporabnost pri simulaciji. V prvem delu razvijemo modele, ki aproksimirajo obnašanje ekip. V drugem delu povežemo dobljene aproksimacije z modelom za napovedovanje naslednjega dogodka na košarkarski tekmi. S pomočjo tega modela tvorimo simulacije, ki jih primerjamo s potekom dejanskih tekem. Pristop situacijskega modeliranja igralnega sloga se v splošnem ni izkazal za uspešnega pri generiranju realističnih simulacij.Many simulation and winner prediction methods were already proposed in the research area of basketball. A goal of a realistic simulation is the compliance of generated statistics dynamics with the statistic dynamics from real games. Our approach describes team statistics in different time-result situations. We research the transfer of statistics analysis corresponding to a situation and their usefulness in simulation. In the first part we develop models that approximate the behaviour of teams. In the second part we connect the obtained approximations with the model that predicts the next event in a basketball game. This model helps us create simulations, which we compare with the actual course of basketball games. The situational playing style modelling approach has generally not proven to be successful in generating realistic simulations

ANALYSIS OF VOLTAGE HARMONIC DISTORTION IN AN INDUSTRIAL ELECTRICITY NETWORK

V industrijskih omrežjih vedno bolj narašča število naprav, ki predstavljajo vir harmonskega popačenja napajalne napetosti. Pri umeščanju takšnih naprav v zaključena industrijska omrežja je treba upoštevati vpliv naprav na ostalo omrežje, kot ga predpisuje standard SIST EN 61000-2-4[1]. V diplomskem delu sta opisana osnovni namen in izvedba harmonske analize v izbranem zaključenem industrijskem omrežju. Poleg osnovne naloge kompenziranja jalove moči je v nalogi prikazan vpliv dvojnega kompenzacijskega filtra na napajalno napetost v izbrani priključni točki. Podan je predlog za učinkovito kompenzacijo jalove moči osnovne harmonske komponente in kompenzacijo tokov harmonskih komponent višjega reda. V zaključku so podane ugotovitve različnih vplivov na napajalno napetost v izbrani priključni točki, ob izbrani filtrski kompenzacijski napravi.In industrial networks the number of devices that represent a source of harmonic voltage distortion is increasing. In the placement of such devices in closed industrial networks it is necessary to consider the impact of these devices on the rest of the network devices as prescribed by the standard SIST EN 61000-2-4 [1]. This thesis describes the basic purpose and implementation of harmonic analysis of the selected closed industrial network. In addition to the basic functions to compensate reactive power, this diploma thesis shows the influence of dual compensation filter on the supply voltage at the selected connection point. The thesis proposes and efficient fundamental harmonic component reactive power compensation, as well as compensation of higher order harmonic currents. In the conclusion, the findings related to the impacts caused by the chosen filter compensation devise on supply voltage at the given connection point are discussed