Critical issues in microbusiness finance and the role of donors . [Version Sept. 1977]

In the early 1990s, a consensus emerged among the leading experts in the field of small and micro business finance. It is based on three elements: The focus of projects should be on improving the entire financial sector of a given developing country; a commercial approach should be adopted, which implies covering costs and keeping costs as low as possible; and institutions should be created which are both able and willing to provide good financial services to the target group on a lasting basis. The starting point for this paper, which wholeheartedly endorses these three elements, is the proposition that putting these general principles into practice is much more difficult than some of their proponents seem to believe - and also more difficult than some of them have led donors to believe. The paper discusses the central issues of small and micro business financing in three areas: credit in general and the cost-effectiveness of lending methodologies in particular (Section II); savings in general and the role of deposit-taking in the growth of a target group-oriented financial institution in particular (Section III); and the process of creating viable target group-oriented financial institutions in developing countries (Section IV). We argue that donor institutions must be willing, and prepared, to play a role here which differs in important respects from their conventional role if they really wish to support sustainable financial sector development

Panel Data Models with Multiple Time-Varying Individual Effects

This paper considers a panel data model with time-varying individual effects. The data are assumed to contain a large number of cross-sectional units repeatedly observed over a fixed number of time periods. The model has a feature of the fixed-effects model in that the effects are assumed to be correlated with the regressors. The unobservable individual effects are assumed to have a factor structure. For consistent estimation of the model, it is important to estimate the true number of factors. We propose a generalized methods of moments procedure by which both the number of factors and the regression coefficients can be consistently estimated. Some important identification issues are also discussed. Our simulation results indicate that the proposed methods produce reliable estimates.panel data, time-varying individual effects, factor models

Minimally invasive thoracoscopic resection of paraspinal neurogenic tumors: technical case report

Journal ArticleOBJECTIVE: The posterior mediastinum is a common location for benign neurogenic tumors. They are frequently asymptomatic but can present with local compressive or neurological symptoms. METHODS: Thoracoscopy is used increasingly over posterolateral thoracotomy for the removal of these lesions. RESULTS: Complete resection of these tumors through a thoracoscopic approach is possible in most cases, but dumbbell tumors present as special challenges, which require a combined thoracoscopic and open posterior approach. CONCLUSION: In this article, we outline the technique of thoracoscopic resection of paraspinal neurogenic tumors through an operative video and a review of the literature to summarize the surgical outcomes of patients with these lesions

Dynamics of confined water reconstructed from inelastic x-ray scattering measurements of bulk response functions

Nanoconfined water and surface-structured water impacts a broad range of fields. For water confined between hydrophilic surfaces, measurements and simulations have shown conflicting results ranging from “liquidlike” to “solidlike” behavior, from bulklike water viscosity to viscosity orders of magnitude higher. Here, we investigate how a homogeneous fluid behaves under nanoconfinement using its bulk response function: The Green's function of water extracted from a library of S(q,ω) inelastic x-ray scattering data is used to make femtosecond movies of nanoconfined water. Between two confining surfaces, the structure undergoes drastic changes as a function of surface separation. For surface separations of ≈9 Å, although the surface-associated hydration layers are highly deformed, they are separated by a layer of bulklike water. For separations of ≈6 Å, the two surface-associated hydration layers are forced to reconstruct into a single layer that modulates between localized “frozen’ and delocalized “melted” structures due to interference of density fields. These results potentially reconcile recent conflicting experiments. Importantly, we find a different delocalized wetting regime for nanoconfined water between surfaces with high spatial frequency charge densities, where water is organized into delocalized hydration layers instead of localized hydration shells, and are strongly resistant to `freezing' down to molecular distances (<6 Å)

Bringing values back in: the adequacy of the European Social Survey to measure values in 20 countries

Values are prominent in public discourse today. Theorists have long considered values central to understanding attitudes and behavior. The Schwartz (1992) theory of basic human values has promoted a revival of empirical research on values. The semi-annual European Social Survey (ESS) includes a new 21-item instrument to measure the importance of the ten basic values of the theory. Representative national samples in 20 countries responded to the instrument in 2002-3. We briefly describe the theory and the ESS instrument and assess its adequacy for measuring values across countries. Using multiple group confirmatory factor analyses, augmented with mean-structure information, we assess the configural and measurement (metric) invariance of the values—necessary conditions for equivalence of the meaning of constructs, and scalar invariance—a precondition for comparing value means across countries. Only if such equivalence is established can researchers make meaningful and clearly interpretable cross- national comparisons of value priorities and their correlates. The ESS values scale demonstrates configural and metric invariance, allowing researchers to use it to study relationships among values, attitudes, behavior and socio-demographic characteristics across countries. Comparing the mean importance of values across countries is possible only for subsets of countries where scalar invariance holds

A Poincar\'e section for the general heavy rigid body

A general recipe is developed for the study of rigid body dynamics in terms of Poincar\'e surfaces of section. A section condition is chosen which captures every trajectory on a given energy surface. The possible topological types of the corresponding surfaces of section are determined, and their 1:1 projection to a conveniently defined torus is proposed for graphical rendering.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figure

Nuklearna reakcija 164Dy(d, p) 165Dy

The 164Dy(d, p) 165Dy reaction was investigated with very high resolution. The spectra were recorded with two sets of measurements, with Ed = 14 MeV at the angle of 45◦ and Ed = 22 MeV at 35◦ . The intensity ratio of these measurements is a measure for the transfered angular momentum ∆l.Istraživana je nuklearna reakcija 164Dy(d, p) 165Dy s visokom rezolucijom. Preliminarni spektri dobiveni su za dva niza mjerenja, s Ed = 14 MeV pod kutom od 45◦ i s Ed = 22 MeV pod kutom od 35