Analysing the Development Implications of Technological Innovations from China to SSA economies: A Conceptual Framework

China’s relationship with Africa has grown enormously, especially in the last two decades. From trade to foreign direct investment and official development assistance to migration, there are many myths surrounding the relationship between China and Africa, some of which are being dispelled through research. However, the academic community is still at an early stage in researching this evolving relationship and its impact on Africa economies. A significant gap remains in the literature in the area of technology transfer from China to African economies and developing countries in general. This paper seeks to present a literature review on various issues on technology, developing a conceptual framework that will guide future research in analysing the impact of technology transfer from China on recipient developing countries as well as informing policy

Are Chinese Technologies A Mode Of Entry For Firms In Developing Countries? The Case of Furniture Manufacturing in Kenya

Kenya has started to rely significantly on technologies developed in developing countries particularly China rather than those from advanced countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. Using data from furniture manufacturing firms in Kenya, the paper compares the investment cost and the scale characteristics of the technologies (machines and equipment) from China with those from advanced countries and Kenya. By examining the characteristics of the firms that have invested in technologies from various sources, the paper concludes that the technologies from China and Kenya have lessened entry barrier (specifically high capital cost) for new firms, compared to advanced country technologies. Chinese technology appears to serve as an entry mode more than the Kenyan technology. In terms of barriers to entry, therefore Chinese and Kenyan technologies appear to be more appropriate for Kenya (and more generally developing countries) than advanced country technolog

Investigating the impact of image content on the energy efficiency of hardware-accelerated digital spatial filters

Battery-operated low-power portable computing devices are becoming an inseparable part of human daily life. One of the major goals is to achieve the longest battery life in such a device. Additionally, the need for performance in processing multimedia content is ever increasing. Processing image and video content consume more power than other applications. A widely used approach to improving energy efficiency is to implement the computationally intensive functions as digital hardware accelerators. Spatial filtering is one of the most commonly used methods of digital image processing. As per the Fourier theory, an image can be considered as a two-dimensional signal that is composed of spatially extended two-dimensional sinusoidal patterns called gratings. Spatial frequency theory states that sinusoidal gratings can be characterised by its spatial frequency, phase, amplitude, and orientation. This article presents results from our investigation into assessing the impact of these characteristics of a digital image on the energy efficiency of hardware-accelerated spatial filters employed to process the same image. Two greyscale images each of size 128 × 128 pixels comprising two-dimensional sinusoidal gratings at maximum spatial frequency of 64 cycles per image orientated at 0° and 90°, respectively, were processed in a hardware implemented Gaussian smoothing filter. The energy efficiency of the filter was compared with the baseline energy efficiency of processing a featureless plain black image. The results show that energy efficiency of the filter drops to 12.5% when the gratings are orientated at 0° whilst rises to 72.38% at 90°

Recent Developments in the Monetary Aggregates and Their Implications

Narrow Money-Transactions Money The growth rate of the narrow monetary aggregates picked up in 1999, reflecting the expansion in economic activity and the stabilization of interest rates. The sharp acceleration of the narrow aggregates in recent months suggests buoyant growth in GDP in coming quarters. Signs of a possible rise in inflation are also emerging. Over the longer run, for inflation to remain in the Bank's 1 to 3 per cent target range, the growth of narrow money would have to slow down from its current pace. In 1999, the growth rate of M1 also began to converge with that of the other narrow aggregates, M1+ and M1++. This suggests that the influence of the special factors that have been affecting the growth rate of M1 has diminished. Broad Money-"Store of Value" Household savings represent deferred consumption, and therefore the broad monetary aggregate provides information about future spending and, hence, inflation. In 1999, the very broad measure of money, M2++, grew at much the same rate as it did in 1998. This outcome is in line with inflation remaining in the inflation-control target range over the next couple of years.

Exploratory Measurements in Spiral Turbulence

Interface propagation in mixed laminar-turbulent flow between counter-rotating concentric cylinder

Component-adaptive grid embedding

One of the major problems related to transonic flow prediction about realistic aircraft configuration is the generation of a suitable grid which encompasses such configurations. In general, each aircraft component (wing, fuselage, nacelle) requires a grid system that is usually incompatible with the grid systems of the other components; thus, the implementation of finite-difference methods for such geometrically-complex configurations is a difficult task. An approach was developed to treat such a problem. The basic idea is to generate different grid systems, each suited for a particular component. Thus, the flow field domain is divided into overlapping subdomains of different topology. These grid systems are then interfaced with each other in such a way that stability, convergence speed and accuracy are maintained

Collateral and Credit Supply

The author examines the role of collateral in an environment where lenders and borrowers possess identical information and similar beliefs about its future value. Using option-pricing techniques, he shows that a secured loan contract is equivalent to a regular bond and an embedded option to the borrower to default. He finds that the lender will not advance to the borrower a loan that exceeds the market value of the collateral, and that the supply of loans increases with a rise in the market value of the collateral. Increases in the volatility of the value of the collateral, interest rate, and dividend rate of the collateral independently depress the loan supply. The author also derives the cost of a third-party guarantee of a loan and an implied risk premium.Credit and credit aggregates; Economic models