Protecting vulnerable families in Central Asia: Poverty, vulnerability and the impact of the economic crisis

Since the end of 2007, countries in Central Asia have been struck by two major consecutive shocks: the food and fuel price increase in 2007-08, and the global economic and financial crisis that began at the end of 2008. Households, both poor and not poor, are directly and adversely affected by the crisis. The multi-dimensionality of the crises and the volatile economic environment challenge the ability of vulnerable households to cope and to maintain their living standards. Social protection programmes play an important role in the response to a crisis. This paper provides an overview of the social and economic vulnerabilities of households with children in the five Central Asian countries, and assesses the ability of national social protection systems to address these, with the main focus on the role of non-contributory cash transfers financed from general government revenues. The paper concludes that the existing social cash transfer systems are not effective in addressing the needs of poor and vulnerable children and families in Central Asia. Limited coverage together with limited funding reduces the potential poverty reduction impact of the programmes. The paper discusses potential strategies for improving existing systems by consolidating and protecting government spending, streamlining existing benefits and transfers, improving the identification of beneficiaries and strengthening administration, monitoring and evaluation systems.social protection, social assistance, economic crisis, poverty reduction, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Effects of a nonlinear bath at low temperatures

We use the numerical flow-equation renormalization method to study a nonlinear bath at low temperatures. The model of our nonlinear bath consists of a single two-level system coupled to a linear oscillator bath. The effects of this nonlinear bath are analyzed by coupling it to a spin, whose relaxational dynamics under the action of the bath is studied by calculating spin-spin correlation functions. As a first result, we derive flow equations for a general four-level system coupled to an oscillator bath, valid at low temperatures. We then treat the two-level system coupled to our nonlinear bath as a special case of the dissipative four-level system. We compare the effects of the nonlinear bath with those obtained using an effective linear bath, and study the differences between the two cases at low temperatures.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Cues from neuroepithelium and surface ectoderm maintain neural crest-free regions within cranial mesenchyme of the developing chick

Within the developing vertebrate head, neural crest cells (NCCs) migrate from the dorsal surface of the hindbrain into the mesenchyme adjacent to rhombomeres (r)1 plus r2, r4 and r6 in three segregated streams. NCCs do not enter the intervening mesenchyme adjacent to r3 or r5, suggesting that these regions contain a NCC-repulsive activity. We have used surgical manipulations in the chick to demonstrate that r3 neuroepithelium and its overlying surface ectoderm independently help maintain the NCC-free zone within r3 mesenchyme. In the absence of r3, subpopulations of NCCs enter r3 mesenchyme in a dorsolateral stream and an ectopic cranial nerve forms between the trigeminal and facial ganglia. The NCC-repulsive activity dissipates/degrades within 5-10 hours of r3 removal. Initially, r4 NCCs more readily enter the altered mesenchyme than r2 NCCs, irrespective of their maturational stage. Following surface ectoderm removal, mainly r4 NCCs enter r3 mesenchyme within 5 hours, but after 20 hours the proportions of r2 NCCs and r4 NCCs ectopically within r3 mesenchyme appear similar

Co-silencing of human Bub3 and dynein highlights an antagonistic relationship in regulating kinetochore-microtubule attachments

We previously reported that the spindle assembly checkpoint protein Bub3 is involved in regulating kinetochore-microtubule (KT-MT) attachments. Also, Bub3 was reported to interact with the microtubule motor protein dynein. Here we examined how this interaction contributes to KT-MT attachments. Depletion of Bub3 or dynein induced misaligned chromosomes, consistent with their role in KT-MT attachments. Unexpectedly, co-silencing of both proteins partially suppressed the misalignment phenotype and restored chromosome congression. Consistent with these observations, KT-MT attachments in co-depleted cells were stable, able to drive chromosome congression, and produce inter-and intra-kinetochore stretch, indicating they are functional. We suggest that a mutual antagonism exists between Bub3 and dynein to ensure optimal KT-MT attachments. (C) 2015 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.CESPU [02-GCQF-CICS-2011N]; FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia [CEQUIMED-PEst-OE/SAU/UI4040/2014]; FCT [SFRH/BD/90744/2012]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Eliciting Risk Preferences: A Field Experiment on a Sample of French Farmers

We designed a field experiment involving real payments to elicit farmers’ risk preferences. Farmers are a very interesting sample to study since risk has always played an important role in agricultural producers’ decisions. Besides, European farmers may face more risky situations in the future. In this context, it is very important for any economic analysis focusing on agriculture to correctly assess farmers’ behaviour in the face of different sources of risk. We test for two descriptions of farmers’ behaviour: expected utility and cumulative prospect theory. We use two elicitation methods based on the procedures of Holt and Laury (2002) and Tanaka et al. (2010) on a sample of 30 French farmers. The experiment consists in asking subjects to make series of choices between two lotteries with varying probabilities and outcomes. We estimate parameters describing farmers’ risk preferences derived from structural models. We find farmers are slightly risk averse in the expected utility framework. In the cumulative prospect theory frame, we find farmers display either loss aversion or probability weighting, tending to overweight small probabilities and to underweight high probabilities. In our study, expected utility is not a good description of farmers’ behaviour towards risk.Risk Attitudes, Field Experiment, Farming, Risk and Uncertainty, C93, D81, Q10,

A global measurement approach versus a country-specific measurement approach – Do they draw the same picture of child poverty? The case of Vietnam

Child poverty can be measured using approaches that aim to make cross-country comparisons on a regional or global scale or to capture a country’s specific poverty context. The first can be referred to as a global approach and the second as a country-specific approach. These underlying rationales for the design and use of a child poverty approach have great implications for their theoretical and conceptual frameworks. This paper investigates whether the conceptual differences between the global and country-specific approaches also draw a different empirical picture of child poverty when applied to a specific country. Vietnam is used as a case study for the application of both approaches and analysis of results. The methodology used identifies children at two different levels of poverty, namely severe deprivation and absolute poverty. Findings suggest that the country-specific approach is more inclusive than the global approach, identifying a larger percentage of children as poor and capturing the large majority of those children identified under the global approach. Poverty figures of both approaches further convey a varying picture of child poverty when considering the different dimensions of vulnerability. The demographic composition of the poverty groups by either one or both of the approaches does not display significant differences.child poverty, multidimensional poverty, Vietnam

Fighting with the Longsword: Modern-day HEMA Practices

This article is based on the talk presented on 27th November 2016 in the course of the Journées d’études sur le costume et les simulateurs d’armes dans les pratiques d’arts martiaux anciens. The talk itself involved practical demonstrations and interaction with other presentations given at the event; this article does not purport to be a transcript of the presentation, but elaborates on the key themes of the presentation: The objectives of HEMA as a modern practice, and their relationship to what we know about the historical practice of the European martial arts in the Middle Ages, including physical fitness, fencing techniques and tactical awareness, based on the Fechtbücher extant. A key element of the discussion involved a comparison between the objectives of and drivers behind historical and modern tournament rule-sets