Social funds and decentralisation: optimal institutional design.

Most of the 60+ developing countries that have established social funds (SFs) are decentralising their governments as well. But the question of how to tailor SFs - originally a highly centralised model - for a decentralising context has received relatively little attention in the literature. We first examine evidence on the ability of SFs to adapt to a decentralised context. We then lay out the implications of decentralisation for SF institutional design step-by-step through the project cycle. The topic is doubly important because social funds can increase their effectiveness, and the sustainability of their investments, by reorganising internal processes to take advantage of the political and civic institutions that decentralisation creates. Local government has an informational advantage in local needs and characteristics (time and place), whereas SFs have access to better technology and knowledge of sectoral best practice. The key is to create institutional incentives that best combine these relative advantages.

The 2D Analytic Signal

This technical report covers a fundamental problem of 2D local phase based signal processing: the isotropic generalization of the analytic signal (D. Gabor) for two dimensional signals. The analytic signal extends a real valued 1D signal to a complex valued signal by means of the classical 1D Hilbert transform. This enables the complete analysis of local phase and amplitude information. Local phase, amplitude and additional orientation information can be extracted by the monogenic signal (M. Felsberg and G. Sommer) which is always restricted to the subclass of intrinsically one dimensional signals. In case of 2D image signals the monogenic signal enables the rotationally invariant analysis of lines and edges. In contrast to the 1D analytic signal the monogenic signal extends all real valued signals of dimension n to a (n + 1) - dimensional vector valued monogenic signal by means of the generalized first order Hilbert transform (Riesz transform). In this technical report we present the 2D analytic signal as a novel generalization of the 2D monogenic signal which now extends the original 2D signal to a multivector valued signal in conformal space by means of higher order Hilbert transforms and by means of a hybrid matrix geometric algebra representation. The 2D analytic signal can be interpreted in conformal space which delivers a descriptive geometric interpretation of 2D signals. One of the main results of this work is, that all 2D signals exist per se in a 3D projective subspace of the conformal space and can be analyzed by means of geometric algebra. In case of 2D image signals the 2D analytic signal enables now the rotational invariant analysis of lines, edges, corners and junctions

Validität verbaler Gedächtnistests : Studie an Patienten mit Temporallappenepilepsie

Aktuell stehen zur Untersuchung des verbalen Gedächtnisses unterschiedliche psychometrische Verfahren zur Verfügung. Um dem Untersucher die Testauswahl zu erleichtern und um Vergleichbarkeit und Kommunizierbarkeit von Ergebnissen unterschiedlicher Gedächtnistests zu verbessern, wäre es wünschenswert deren konkurrente und diskriminante Validität zu kennen. Dazu wurden gebräuchliche Tests in dieser Arbeit (CVLT, VLMT, Logisches Gedächtnis/WMS-R) zusammen mit einer Testbatterie zu Intelligenz, Gedächtnisspanne, Aufmerksamkeits-, Sprach- und Exekutivfunktionen bei 61 Patienten mit lateralisierten fokalen und kryptogenen Epilepsien eingesetzt. Faktorenanalytisch ergaben sich „testspezifische“ Faktoren, so dass einander formal entsprechende Parameter der verschiedener Tests nicht ohne weiteres die gleichen Leistungskonstrukte abbilden. Korrelationsanalysen zeigten einen starken Einfluss der Intelligenzleistung auf die verbalen Gedächtnistests. Hinsichtlich Aufmerksamkeitsleistungen, Exekutivfunktionen und vor allem sprachlichen Fähigkeiten zeigte der VLMT die geringste Abhängigkeit. Die Untersuchungen der Diskriminationsfähigkeit lateralisierter Funktionsstörungen und lokalisationsdiagnostischer Fähigkeiten durch Analyse von Testleistungen ergaben teilweise hohe Sensitivitäten für den CVLT und den Untertest Logisches Gedächtnis aus dem WMS-R bei allerdings niedriger Spezifität, so dass insgesamt viele Patienten auffällige Ergebnisse lieferten. Die Indizes des VLMT dagegen lieferten ein zwar weniger sensitives, dafür aber spezifischeres Ergebnis. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass CVLT und der Untertest Logisches Gedächtnis dadurch, dass sie auch Intelligenzleistung, exekutive und sprachliche Fähigkeiten abbilden, sensitiver gegenüber Funktionsstörungen bei fokalen Epilepsien sind als der VLMT, dass letzterer aber spezifischer umschriebene Funktionsstörung in links lateralisierten temporalen und temporomesialen Strukturen erkennen lässt

Algebraic Representation and Geometric Interpretation of Hilbert Transformed Signals

This thesis covers a fundamental problem of local phase based signal processing: the isotropic generalization of the classical one dimensional analytic signal (D. Gabor) to higher dimensional signal domains. The classical analytic signal extends a real valued one dimensional signal to a complex valued signal by means of the classical 1D Hilbert transform. This signal extension enables the complete analysis of local phase and local amplitude information for each frequency component in the sense of Fourier analysis. In case of two dimensional signal domains, e.g. for images, additional geometric information is required to characterize higher dimensional signals locally. The local geometric information is called orientation, which consists of the main orientation and apex angle for two superimposed one dimensional signals. The problem of two dimensional signal analysis is the fact that in general those signals could consist of an unlimited number of superimposed one dimensional signals with individual orientations. Local phase, amplitude and additional orientation information can be extracted by the monogenic signal (M. Felsberg and G. Sommer) which is always restricted to the subclass of intrinsically one dimensional signals, i.e. the class of signals which only make use of one degree of freedom within the embedding signal domain. In case of 2D images the monogenic signal enables the rotationally invariant analysis of lines and edges. In contrast to the 1D analytic signal the monogenic signal extends all real valued signals of dimension n to a (n+1) - dimensional vector valued monogenic signal by means of the generalized first order Hilbert transform, which is also known as the Riesz transform. The analytic signal and the monogenic signal show that a direct relation between analytical signals and their algebraic representation exists. This fact has motivated the work and the results of this thesis, namely the extension of the 2D monogenic signal to more general 2D analytic signals, their algebraic representation, and their most geometric embedding. In case of more general 2D signals the geometric algebra will be shown to be a natural representation, and the conformal space as the geometric embedding for the signal interpretation. In this thesis we present 2D analytic signals as generalizations of the 2D monogenic signal which now extend the original 2D signal to a multi-vector valued signal in homogeneous conformal space by means of higher order Hilbert transforms, and by means of a so called hybrid matrix geometric algebra representation. The 2D analytic signal and the more general multi-vector signal will be interpreted in conformal space which delivers a descriptive geometric interpretation and algebraic embedding of signals. In case of 2D image signals the 2D analytic signal and the multi-vector signal enable the rotationally invariant analysis of lines, edges, corners and junctions in one unified framework. Furthermore, additional local curvature can be determined by first order generalized Hilbert transforms without the need of derivatives. This so called conformal monogenic signal can be defined for any signal domain

Implications of the Covid-19 Pandemic for Economic and Demographic Research

The author contends that the pandemic may undo decades of progress in advancing gender equality, reproductive health—even the structural shift toward lower fertility in many developing countries

Groups, location and wellbeing: Social and spatial determinants of inequality in Madagascar.

This thesis studies non-monetary dimensions of wellbeing inequality in Madagascar from a geographic and group perspective (see Kanbur 2006, Stewart 2002, Barrett et al. 2005). The work opens with an introductory review of the growing importance of spatial and group-level information for the design of poverty alleviation policies. Chapter 2 presents a case study of historical inequalities in human capital accumulation among Christians and non-Christians in Madagascar. Detailed contextual and econometric evidence suggests that lower educational outcomes among non-Christians today originate in an uneven geographic distribution of Christian missionary schools over much of the 19th Century. Because spatial inequalities in school provision created at the time cut across contemporary religious divides, educational policies in favour of the non-Christian population will need to be accompanied by considerable investments in the public school network. The second, more conceptual part of the thesis explores practical and analytical applications of the proposed group and geographic perspective in the context of the literature on programme targeting and wellbeing analysis. The first chapter in this section presents an asset index that allows for two-dimensional comparisons of interpersonal and spatial inequalities in the areas of public service provision and private wealth. In the context of Madagascar, this method suggests considerable reversals in geographic targeting priorities when compared to existing studies that rely on household consumption as the sole indicator of wellbeing. The next chapter draws on group-level information to operationalize Amartya Sen's capability approach. While it is usually impossible to directly observe a person's capability set (the range of valuable outcomes an individual can theoretically achieve), this paper argues that an indication of the extent of capability inequality can be obtained by observing differences in wellbeing outcomes across relevant groups or areas (see Roemer 1998). Applied to the analysis of interreligious and urban-rural inequalities in Madagascar, this method uncovers significant and persistent differences in wellbeing opportunity in a range of non-monetary dimensions. The last chapter concludes and identifies possible directions for future research within the proposed group-based approach