On the Impact of Better Targeted Transfers on Poverty in Tunisia

This paper describes the effects of general food subsidies on poverty in Tunisia, as revealed by household survey data for 1990. The analysis indicates that the poorest certainly take advantage of this system, but at the price of considerable leakages to non-poor people and at a sizeable economic efficiency loss resulting from relative price distortions. Further, non-parametric estimations suggest that there are no commodities predominantly consumed by the poor. This implies that targeting by commodities is not an effective way to fight against poverty and so, it is unlikely that restructuring the current scheme would improve significantly the living standards of the less well-off members of society. We then investigate the impact on poverty of a more targeted transfer scheme, based on proxy means-tests, using an appropriate econometric technique to model it. Simulations show that this design would be more effective in reducing poverty than the use of general food subsidies. Finally, dominance tests show that this design would first-order-dominate food subsidies scheme within a range of poverty lines including all those estimated and generally used for Tunisia.Poverty, Targeting, Subsidies, Transfers

Comparing Multidimensional Poverty between Egypt and Tunisia

It is common to argue that poverty is a multidimensional issue. Yet few studies have included the various dimensions of deprivation to yield a broader and fuller picture of poverty. The present paper considers the multidimensional aspects of deprivation by specifying a poverty line for each aspect and combines their associated one-dimensional poverty-gaps into multidimensional poverty measures. An application of these measures to compare poverty between Egypt and Tunisia is illustrated using robustness analysis and household data from each country.Multidimensional poverty indices, Robustness analysis, Egypt, Tunisia

When is Economic Growth Pro-Poor? Evidence from Tunisia

Many empirical studies have shown that economic growth generally leads to a drop in poverty. These studies have also pointed out that a given growth rate is compatible with a large range of outcomes in terms of poverty reduction. This means that growth is more pro-poor in certain cases than in others. Using complete and partial poverty orderings, this paper suggests a measure which captures the extent to which economic growth is pro-poor. This measure decomposes poverty changes into two components: the relative variation in the average income of the poor and the relative variation in the overall inequality within the poor. Evidence from Tunisia shows that economic growth was to a large extent pro-poor during the last two decades.Poverty measurement, robustness analysis, economic growth, Tunisia

Fungal cellulase; production and applications: minireview

Cellulose is the most abundant biomaterial derived from the living organisms on the earth; plant is the major contributor to the cellulose pool present in the biosphere. Cellulose is used in variety of applications ranging from nanomaterials to biofuel production. For biofuel production, cellulose has first to be broken-down into its building blocks; β-D-glucosyl unit which subsequently can be fermented to different product such as ethanol, acetic acids, among others. Cellulase is the enzymatic system, which degrades cellulose chains to glucose monomers. Cellulase is a group of three enzymes endoglucanase, exoglucanases and β-glucosidases which act together to hydrolyze cellulose to glucose units. Cellulases are found in bacteria, fungi, plants, and some animals. Fungi are the preferred source of cellulase for industrial applications since they secrete large quantities of cellulase to culture medium. Despite a remarkable number of fungi found to produce cellulase enzymes, few have been extensively investigated because they produce large quantities of these enzymes extracellularly. In this mini-review, the production of cellulase from fungi and the parameters affecting cellulase production are discussed briefly on light of recent publications. Furthermore, potential applications of cellulase enzymes are highlighted

Interference and Bandwidth Adjusted (ETX) in Wireless Multi-hop Networks

In this paper, we propose a new quality link metric, interference and bandwidth adjusted ETX (IBETX) for wireless multi-hop networks. As MAC layer affects the link performance and consequently the route quality, the metric therefore, tackles the issue by achieving twofold MAC-awareness. Firstly, interference is calculated using cross-layered approach by sending probes to MAC layer. Secondly, the nominal bit rate information is provided to all nodes in the same contention domain by considering the bandwidth sharing mechanism of 802.11. Like ETX, our metric also calculates link delivery ratios that directly affect throughput and selects those routes that bypass dense regions in the network. Simulation results by NS-2 show that IBETX gives 19% higher throughput than ETX and 10% higher than Expected Throughput (ETP). Our metric also succeeds to reduce average end-to-end delay up to 16% less than Expected Link Performance (ELP) and 24% less than ETX

The sound of trustworthiness: acoustic-based modulation of perceived voice personality

When we hear a new voice we automatically form a "first impression" of the voice owner’s personality; a single word is sufficient to yield ratings highly consistent across listeners. Past studies have shown correlations between personality ratings and acoustical parameters of voice, suggesting a potential acoustical basis for voice personality impressions, but its nature and extent remain unclear. Here we used data-driven voice computational modelling to investigate the link between acoustics and perceived trustworthiness in the single word "hello". Two prototypical voice stimuli were generated based on the acoustical features of voices rated low or high in perceived trustworthiness, respectively, as well as a continuum of stimuli inter- and extrapolated between these two prototypes. Five hundred listeners provided trustworthiness ratings on the stimuli via an online interface. We observed an extremely tight relationship between trustworthiness ratings and position along the trustworthiness continuum (r = 0.99). Not only were trustworthiness ratings higher for the high- than the low-prototypes, but the difference could be modulated quasi-linearly by reducing or exaggerating the acoustical difference between the prototypes, resulting in a strong caricaturing effect. The f0 trajectory, or intonation, appeared a parameter of particular relevance: hellos rated high in trustworthiness were characterized by a high starting f0 then a marked decrease at mid-utterance to finish on a strong rise. These results demonstrate a strong acoustical basis for voice personality impressions, opening the door to multiple potential applications