Voluntary Contributions to Informal Activities Producing Public Goods: Can these be Induced by Government and other Formal Sector Agents? Some Evidence from Indonesian Posyandus

voluntarism, Indonesia, health service provision, government intervention

Voluntary contributions to informal activities producing public goods: can these be induced by government and other formal sector agents? Some evidence from Indonesian posyandus

This study attempts to determine the extent to which human potential may be unlocked by government or other formal sector actions that induce voluntary contributions by individuals to the activities of Indonesia’s posyandus or village health posts. Posyandus have been an important feature of Indonesia’s public health system and have contributed substantially to the country’s success in lowering infant and child mortality rates at low cost. Our analysis of links between formal activity and voluntary contributions to posyandus is conducted at two levels: individuals and posyandus, and with two different indicators at each level. Our empirical results take advantage of data from all three waves of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS), i.e., IFLS1, IFLS2 and IFLS3. At each level of analysis there is evidence that voluntary contributions and effective service provision can be positively affected by formal sector intervention. Both community level characteristics, such as income per capita, income inequality, ethnic and religious diversity, and household and individual characteristics have different effects on the different outcome variables at both levels of analysis. The results demonstrate that appropriately designed formal sector interventions can induce voluntary inputs and, through the public goods produced, they can unlock the human potential. – voluntarism ; Indonesia ; health service provision ; government interventio

On tuning passive black-box macromodels of LTI systems via adaptive weighting

This paper discusses various approaches for tuning the accuracy of rational macromodels obtained via black-box identification or approximation of sampled frequency responses of some unknown Linear and Time-Invariant system. Main emphasis is on embedding into the model extraction process some information on the nominal terminations that will be connected to the model during normal operation, so that the corresponding accuracy is optimized. This goal is achieved through an optimization based on a suitably defined cost function, which embeds frequency-dependent weights that are adaptively refined during the model construction. A similar procedure is applied in a postprocessing step for enforcing model passivity. The advantages of proposed algorithm are illustrated on a few application examples related to power distribution networks in electronic system

Computer Recognition Method as Applied to Codification Process for Inventory System of a Large Multidisciplined Laboratory

A variety of algorithms are existing to retrieve the information by means of furnished keys'. As suggested by Nakatsu N. et al . algorithm for the LCS problem can be used to find string which contain some given words or words similar to them. Some such LCS algorithms with their time responses are discussed 2-6 This paper also describes an effective method of recognizing the information. The method involves two way search giving the weightages to each. Finally the two values are combined to produce a match factor for recognition of information. Its application to codification in inventory system is discussed

What is Information Worth for an Extra Quintal of Grain?: Randomised Experimental Evidence from Farmers in India

This study evaluates whether access to real-time customised idiosyncratic agricultural information over extended seasons improves the value of such information among farmers. We conduct a controlled randomised experiment in the Indian state of Karnataka. The study employs the difference-in-difference method to a panel of households comparing the differential valuation of information during the post-intervention period between treatment (participant) and control (non-participant) farmers relative to the outcomes observed during a pre-intervention period. We find robust evidence of the intervention showing significantly positive impacts on the valuation of agricultural information among treatment farmers relative to the control farmers. A difference of each one unit improvement in information access is found to be associated with 53 percent average increase in the mean valuation of the information. The result indicates that farmers value information that is comprehensive, reliable, real-time and idiosyncratic as opposed to the more generic or piecemeal information

Electron-impact excitation of X 1Sigma_g⁺(v[double-prime]=0) to the a[double-prime] 1Sigma_g⁺, b 1Piu, c3 1Piu, o3 1Piu, b[prime] 1Sigma_u⁺, c₄^[prime] 1Sigma_u⁺, G 3Piu, and F 3Piu states of molecular nitrogen

Measurements of differential cross sections (DCSs) for electron-impact excitation of the a[double-prime] 1Sigmag+, b 1Piu, c3 1Piu, o3 1Piu, b[prime] 1Sigmau+, c4[prime] 1Sigmau+, G 3Piu, and F 3Piu states in N2 from the X 1Sigmag+(v[double-prime]=0) ground level are presented. The DCSs were obtained from energy-loss spectra in the region of 12 to 13.82 eV measured at incident energies of 17.5, 20, 30, 50, and 100 eV and for scattering angles ranging from 2° to 130°. The analysis of the spectra follows a different algorithm from that employed in a previous study of N2 for the valence states [Khakoo et al. Phys. Rev. A 71, 062703 (2005)], since the 1Piu and 1Sigmau+ states form strongly interacting Rydberg-valence series. The results are compared with existing data

Experiences in Implementing an Energy-Driven Task Scheduler in RT-Linux

Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) is being increasingly used for power management in embedded systems. Energy is a scarce resource in embedded real-time systems and energy consumption must be carefully balanced against realtime responsiveness. We describe our experiences in implementing an energy driven task scheduler in RT-Linux. We attempt to minimize the energy consumed by a taskset while guaranteeing that all task deadlines are met. Our algorithm, which we call LEDF, follows a greedy approach and schedules as many tasks as possible at a low CPU speed in a power-aware manner. We present simulation results on energy savings using LEDF, and we validate our approach using the RT-Linux testbed on the AMD Athlon 4 processor. Power measurements taken on the testbed closely match the power estimates obtained using simulation. Our results show that DVS results in significant energy savings for practical real-life task sets. We also show that when CPU speeds are restricted to only a few discrete values, this approach saves more energy than currently existing methods