The Post-2015 Development Agenda: What Are the Priorities for Africa?

As 2015 and the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) draws near, attention has increasingly turned within the United Nations to the post-2015 development agenda. In particular, a High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons (HLP) was recently convened to advise on the global development framework beyond 2015 and construct the next development agenda. The panel was co-chaired by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom. The panel included leaders from civil society, the private sector and government

Dead Reckoning Localization Technique for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

Localization in wireless sensor networks not only provides a node with its geographical location but also a basic requirement for other applications such as geographical routing. Although a rich literature is available for localization in static WSN, not enough work is done for mobile WSNs, owing to the complexity due to node mobility. Most of the existing techniques for localization in mobile WSNs uses Monte-Carlo localization, which is not only time-consuming but also memory intensive. They, consider either the unknown nodes or anchor nodes to be static. In this paper, we propose a technique called Dead Reckoning Localization for mobile WSNs. In the proposed technique all nodes (unknown nodes as well as anchor nodes) are mobile. Localization in DRLMSN is done at discrete time intervals called checkpoints. Unknown nodes are localized for the first time using three anchor nodes. For their subsequent localizations, only two anchor nodes are used. The proposed technique estimates two possible locations of a node Using Bezouts theorem. A dead reckoning approach is used to select one of the two estimated locations. We have evaluated DRLMSN through simulation using Castalia simulator, and is compared with a similar technique called RSS-MCL proposed by Wang and Zhu .Comment: Journal Paper, IET Wireless Sensor Systems, 201

Effect of van-Hove singularities in single-walled carbon nanotube leads on transport through double quantum dot system

The double quantum dot system with single-walled metallic armchair carbon nanotube leads has been studied using Non-equilibrium Green function in the Keldysh formalism. The effect of relative spacing between the energy levels of the dots, interdot tunneling matrix-element, interdot Coulomb interaction and van-Hove singularities in density of states characteristics of quasi-one-dimensional carbon nanotube leads on the conductance of the double quantum dot system has been studied. The conductance and dot occupancies are calculated at finite temperature. It is observed that the density of states of the carbon nanotube leads play a significant role in determining the conductance profile. In particular, whenever the chemical potential of the isolated double quantum dot system is aligned with the position of a van-Hove singularity in the density of states of armchair carbon nanotube leads, the height of the corresponding conductance peak falls considerably. It is further observed that the suppression in the heights of the alternate peaks depends on the relative positions of the energy levels of the dots and their magnitude of separation.Comment: 16 pages and 16 figure

NGOs and poverty issues in peri-urban areas

Poverty reduction is the top-most element in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations those have provided a broad way for the development planning professionals on the globe to assess their past performance in the important aspects of development planning as well as to plan their strategies for the design period of 2000-2015. The United Nations sees the nations as members of a global family and expects them to work for the fellow-beings setting some guidelines, for instance, ‘The millennium Development Goals can be achieved if immediate steps are taken to implement existing commitment.NGOs, poverty, peri-urban areas

Drivers and barriers to educational success : evidence from the longitudinal study of young people in England

This study examined why young people from poor families have lower attainment in school, are more likely to become NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) after compulsory education, and are more likely to participate in a range of risky behaviours whilst teenagers. The Longitudinal Study of Young People in England is combined with school and neighbourhood information to document the links between lower socio-economic position and poorer outcomes: identifying the key factors amongst parental education and material resources; school and neighbourhood peer groups; and the attitudes and beliefs of young people and their parents that help sustain those links

Shadow Images of a Rotating Dyonic Black Hole with a Global Monopole Surrounded by Perfect Fluid

In this paper we revisit and extend the prior work of Filho and Bezerra [Phys. Rev D, 64, 084009 (2001)] to rotating dyonic global monopoles in presence of a perfect fluid. We then show that the surface topology at the event horizon, related to the metric computed, is a 2- sphere using the Gauss-Bonnet theorem. By choosing $\omega=-1/3, 0, 1/3$ we investigate the effect of dark matter, dust, radiation on the silhouette of black hole. The presence of the global monopole parameter $\gamma$ and the perfect fluid parameters $\upsilon$, also deforms the shape of black hole's shadow, which has been depicted through graphical illustrations. In the end we analyse energy emission rate of rotating dyonic global monopole surrounded by perfect fluid with respect to parameters.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Univers

U.S. evolving macroeconomic dynamics: a structural investigation

We fit a Bayesian time-varying parameters structural VAR with stochastic volatility to the Federal Funds rate, GDP deflator inflation, real GDP growth, and the rate of growth of M2. We identify 4 shocks–monetary policy, demand non-policy, supply, and money demand–by imposing sign restrictions on the estimated reduced-form VAR on a period-by-period basis. The evolution of the monetary rule in the structural VAR accords well with narrative accounts of post-WWII U.S. economic history, with (e.g.) significant increases in the long-run coefficients on inflation and money growth around the time of the Volcker disinflation. Overall, however, our evidence points towards a dominant role played by good luck in fostering the more stable macroeconomic environment of the last two decades. First, the Great Inflation was due, to a dominant extent, to large demand non-policy shocks, and to a lower extent to supply shocks. Second, imposing either Volcker or Greenspan over the entire sample period would only have had a limited impact on the Great Inflation episode, while imposing Burns and Miller would have resulted in a counterfactual inflation path remarkably close to the actual historical one. Although the systematic component of monetary policy clearly appears to have improved over the sample period, this does not appear to have been the dominant influence in post-WWII U.S. macroeconomic dynamics. JEL Classification: E32, E47, E52, E58Bayesian VARs, frequency domain, Great Inflation, identified VARs, Lucas critique, stochastic volatility, time-varying parameters