Private Sector Participation in Water and Sanitation for Developing Countries

Wasserversorgung, Privatisierung, Regulierung, Entwicklungsländer, Water supply, Privatization, Regulation, Developing countries

Loss tolerance in one-way quantum computation via counterfactual error correction

We introduce a scheme for fault tolerantly dealing with losses (or other "leakage" errors) in cluster state computation that can tolerate up to 50% qubit loss. This is achieved passively using an adaptive strategy of measurement - no coherent measurements or coherent correction is required. Since the scheme relies on inferring information about what would have been the outcome of a measurement had one been able to carry it out, we call this "counterfactual" error correction.Comment: Published version - much revised and with a new title. Here we now focus solely on the general aspects of the protocol - a much expanded and improved discussion of its application in linear optical quantum computation can now be found in quant-ph/070204

Ethnic Revival, and the Reappearance of Indigenous Religions in the ROC : the Use of the Internet in the Construction of Taiwanese Identities

Michael Rudolph’s article Nativism, Ethnic Revival, and the Reappearance of Indigenous Religions in the ROC: The Use of the Internet in the Construction of Taiwanese Identities deals with rituals presented on Taiwanese Websites in the context of identity construction. Since the mid-nineties, long abandoned and very un-Chinese ritual practices suddenly seemed to become popular again in China’s runaway-province Taiwan: in spite of the fact that most of the island’s 2% of indigenous population had been Christianized for half a century, intellectual elites of different aboriginal groups now referred to ancestor-gods, tattooing and even headhunting again as essential parts of their own traditional repertoire, often making abundant use of the Internet in order to propagate these convictions to a broader Chinese speaking public. This contribution not only scrutinises the political context that made such a development possible, but also assesses this practice in terms of the identity construction of the specific ethnic groups

No. 12: The State of Food Insecurity in Johannesburg

Johannesburg is the economic hub of South Africa and the Southern African region. At the same time, it is a city of extremes which juxtaposes ostentatious wealth and conspicuous consumption with grinding poverty and food insecurity. Not enough is known about the prevalence and nature of food insecurity in the city, making it dif!cult to challenge and plan to reduce the urban food gap. This paper uses AFSUN data from three lower-income areas of the city (Alexandra, Orange Farm and the Inner City) to examine the characteristics and drivers of food insecurity in Johannesburg. Despite high overall levels of food insecurity, the three study areas exhibited important differences. While the proportion of food secure households was similar in each area, the proportion of severely food insecure households was highest in the informal settlement of Orange Farm and lowest in Alexandra. Household food insecurity is directly linked to household income as the vast majority of food consumed is purchased not grown. In general, the poorer the household, the greater the proportion of household income that is spent on food. Households rely signi!cantly on supermarkets and the informal food economy as food sources. Less than ten percent are involved in any form of urban agriculture or receive food transfers directly from rural areas. This paper also shows that food insecurity correlates with poor health outcomes and concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the AFSUN study

A discrete algebraic framework for stochastic systems which yield unique and exact solutions

International audienceMany physical systems exhibit random or stochastic components which shape or even drive their dynamic behavior. The stochastic models and equations describing such systems are typically assessed numerically, with a few exceptions allowing for a mathematically more rigorous treatment in the framework of stochastic calculus. However, even if exact solutions can be obtained in special cases, some results remain ambiguous due to the analytical foundation on which this calculus rests. In this work, we set out to identify the conceptual problem which renders stochastic calculus ambiguous, and exemplify a discrete algebraic framework which, for all practical intents and purposes, not just yields unique and exact solutions, but might also be capable of providing solutions to a much wider class of stochastic models

Price setting in a leading Swiss online supermarket

We study a newly released data set of scanner prices for food products in a large Swiss online supermarket. We find that average prices change about every two months, but when we exclude temporary sales, prices are extremely sticky, changing on average once every three years. Non-sale price behavior is broadly consistent with menu cost models of sticky prices. When we focus specifically on the behavior of sale prices, however, we find that the characteristics of price adjustment seems to be substantially at odds with standard theory.Pricing ; Profit

An automated tungsten source sensitometer

The design and evaluation of an automated tungsten source sensitometer are described. Design considerations are outlined. Equipment performance is evaluated and found to exceed the specifications developed. The unit is currently being used to support production testing

Minimization of Unwanted X-Ray Exposures on Conventional Photographic Films by Developer Modification

Experiments were done to reduce the influence of unwanted X-ray exposures on Kodak Plus-X film. Variations of surface developer components showed no favorable results. The concentration of KBr was varied up to 10 grams per liter with again, no favorable results. The incorperation of benzitriazole decreased base plus fog from values of .81 to .56 with a significant decrease in speed. Phenyl mercaptotetrazole was extreamly effective in decreasing both base plus fog and speed