The capability dilemma in operational poverty assessment

This paper compares the standard economic welfare approach to poverty measurement to the empirical approaches proposed in the capability literature under the special focus of their suitability for operational poverty assessment, i.e. targeting and outreach evaluation. We question whether the measurement of per capita daily expenditures compared with a monetary poverty line justifiably remains the most widely used approach regarding poverty assessment. Its underlying value judgments and unsatisfactory assumptions differ considerably from those of the capability concept of poverty but the two approaches can be linked and critically compared with respect to the role of income, the conceptualisation of absolute poverty and the development of operational tools. We argue that despite the progress made in operationalizing the capability approach, there remain serious challenges when focussing on targeting and outreach evaluation and propose three alternative solutions for dealing with this capability dilemma in practice.

The capability dilemma in operational poverty assessment

This paper compares the standard economic welfare approach to poverty measurement to the empirical approaches proposed in the capability literature under the special focus of their suitability for operational poverty assessment, i.e. targeting and outreach evaluation. We question whether the measurement of per capita daily expenditures compared with a monetary poverty line justifiably remains the most widely used approach regarding poverty assessment. Its underlying value judgments and unsatisfactory assumptions differ considerably from those of the capability concept of poverty but the two approaches can be linked and critically compared with respect to the role of income, the conceptualisation of absolute poverty and the development of operational tools. We argue that despite the progress made in operationalizing the capability approach, there remain serious challenges when focussing on targeting and outreach evaluation and propose three alternative solutions for dealing with this capability dilemma in practice

Einflüsse von Cortisol auf das Arbeitsgedächtnis : Eine funktionelle MRT-Studie

Ein Zusammenhang zwischen dem Cortisolstoffwechsel und Veränderungen der kognitiven Leistungsfähigkeit bzw. der Gedächtnisleistung ist mehrfach beschrieben. In dieser Arbeit werden Effekte einer kurzfristigen Cortisolspiegelerhöhung auf die Arbeitsgedächtnisleistung untersucht. Probanden erhalten eine orale Dosis von 30 mg Hydrocortison im intraindividuellen Vergleich gegen ein Placebo. Zur Auswertung werden die Verhaltensdaten aus der Bearbeitung eines Arbeitsgedächtnisparadigmas (n-back) sowie zeitgleich erhobene Aktivierungen arbeitsgedächtnisrelevanter Areale in der funktionellen Magnetresonanztomographie herangezogen. Auch wenn zunächst kein unmittelbarer Unterschied zwischen Verum- und Placebobedingung anhand der Anzahl der richtig bzw. falsch gelösten Aufgaben zu erkennen ist, deuten Vergleiche der Reaktionszeiten auf eine verbesserte Leistung bei erhöhtem Cortisolspiegel hin. Im fMRT zeigen die drei Areale Gyrus frontalis medius, Precuneus sowie rechtes Putamen verminderte Aktivierungen nach Einnahme von Hydrocortison. Bei erhöhtem Cortisolspiegel werden hier gleiche Leistungen wie bei der Placebobedingung bei verringerter Rekrutierung dieser am Arbeitsgedächtnisnetzwerk beteiligten Areale erbracht. Sowohl die Unterschiede bei den Reaktionszeiten als auch bei den Aktivierungen im fMRT sind Anzeichen einer gesteigerten Effizienz der Arbeitsgedächtnisleistung nach Einnahme von 30 mg Hydrocortison.</p

Does German development aid promote German exports and German employment? A sectoral-level analysis

This paper uses an augmented gravity model of trade to investigate the link between German development aid and sectoral exports from Germany to the aid recipient countries. The findings indicate that in the long run each dollar of German aid is associated with an average increase of 0.83 US dollars of German exports of goods. The effect varies by sector and the sectors that gain the most are machinery, electrical equipment and transport equipment. By using German input-output tables and according to our estimates, the aid-induced gains in exports generate a total employment effect of about 216,000 jobs of which 52,000 jobs are created in machinery, 20,000 in transport equipment, 24,000 in electrical equipment, 23,000 in basic metals, 10,000 in food, beverages and tobacco and 78,000 in business-related services

Does German Development Aid boost German Exports and German Employment? A Sectoral Level Analysis

This paper uses an augmented gravity model of trade to investigate the link between German development aid and sectoral exports from Germany to aid recipient countries with data from 1978–2011. The findings indicate that in the long run each dollar of German aid is associated with an average increase of US$ 0.83 US of German goods exports. The sectors that benefit the most in terms of exports and employment are machinery, electrical equipment and transport equipment. According to our estimates using input-output analysis and a partial equilibrium framework, the aid-induced gains in sectoral exports are associated with the gross employment of approximately 216,000 people.We would like to thank the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) for financing the study. We are extremely grateful to Bart Los (University of Groningen Europe’s leading institution in inputoutput-analysis) for his assistance in computing the employment effects. The comments of the three anonymous referees clearly helped to improve the paper and so did the suggestions that we received at workshops and conferences

Successive Cancellation Automorphism List Decoding of Polar Codes

The discovery of suitable automorphisms of polar codes gained a lot of attention by applying them in Automorphism Ensemble Decoding (AED) to improve the error-correction performance, especially for short block lengths. This paper introduces Successive Cancellation Automorphism List (SCAL) decoding of polar codes as a novel application of automorphisms in advanced Successive Cancellation List (SCL) decoding. Initialized with L permutations sampled from the automorphism group, a superposition of different noise realizations and path splitting takes place inside the decoder. In this way, the SCAL decoder automatically adapts to the channel conditions and outperforms the error-correction performance of conventional SCL decoding and AED. For a polar code of length 128, SCAL performs near Maximum Likelihood (ML) decoding with L=8, in contrast to M=16 needed decoder cores in AED. Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) implementations in a 12 nm technology show that high-throughput, pipelined SCAL decoders outperform AED in terms of energy efficiency and power density, and SCL decoders additionally in area efficiency.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, submitted to IEEE for possible publicatio

Improved upper limb function in non-ambulant children with SMA type 2 and 3 during nusinersen treatment: a prospective 3-years SMArtCARE registry study

Background The development and approval of disease modifying treatments have dramatically changed disease progression in patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Nusinersen was approved in Europe in 2017 for the treatment of SMA patients irrespective of age and disease severity. Most data on therapeutic efficacy are available for the infantile-onset SMA. For patients with SMA type 2 and type 3, there is still a lack of sufficient evidence and long-term experience for nusinersen treatment. Here, we report data from the SMArtCARE registry of non-ambulant children with SMA type 2 and typen 3 under nusinersen treatment with a follow-up period of up to 38 months. Methods SMArtCARE is a disease-specific registry with data on patients with SMA irrespective of age, treatment regime or disease severity. Data are collected during routine patient visits as real-world outcome data. This analysis included all non-ambulant patients with SMA type 2 or 3 below 18 years of age before initiation of treatment. Primary outcomes were changes in motor function evaluated with the Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale Expanded (HFMSE) and the Revised Upper Limb Module (RULM). Results Data from 256 non-ambulant, pediatric patients with SMA were included in the data analysis. Improvements in motor function were more prominent in upper limb: 32.4% of patients experienced clinically meaningful improvements in RULM and 24.6% in HFMSE. 8.6% of patients gained a new motor milestone, whereas no motor milestones were lost. Only 4.3% of patients showed a clinically meaningful worsening in HFMSE and 1.2% in RULM score. Conclusion Our results demonstrate clinically meaningful improvements or stabilization of disease progression in non-ambulant, pediatric patients with SMA under nusinersen treatment. Changes were most evident in upper limb function and were observed continuously over the follow-up period. Our data confirm clinical trial data, while providing longer follow-up, an increased number of treated patients, and a wider range of age and disease severity