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This thesis investigates the reciprocal relationship between migration and development in Senegal. Therewith, it contributes to the debate as to whether migration in developing countries enhances or rather impedes the development process. Even though extensive and controversial discussions can be found in the scientific literature regarding the impact of migration on development, research has scarcely examined the feedback relationships between migration and development. Science however agrees with both the fact that migration affects development as well as that the level of development in a country determines migration behaviour. Thus, both variables are neither dependent nor independent, but endogenous variables influencing each other and producing behavioural pattern that cannot be investigated using a static and unidirectional approach. On account of this, the thesis studies the feedback mechanisms existing between migration and development and the behavioural pattern generated by the high interdependence in order to be able to draw conclusions concerning the impact of changes in migration behaviour on the development process. To explore these research questions, the study applies the computer simulation method 'System Dynamics' and amplifies the simulation model for national development planning called 'Threshold 21' (T21), representing development processes endogenously and integrating economic, social and environmental aspects, using a structure that portrays the reasons and consequences of migration. The model has been customised to Senegal, being an appropriate representative of the theoretical interesting universe of cases. The comparison of the model generated scenarios - in which the intensity of emigration, the loss and gain of education, the remittances or the level of dependence changes - facilitates the analysis. The present study produces two important results. The first outcome is the development of an integrative framework representing migration and development in an endogenous way and incorporating several aspects of different theories. This model can be used as a starting point for further discussions and improvements and it is a fairly relevant and useful result against the background that migration is not integrated into most of the development planning tools despite its significant impact. The second outcome is the gained insights concerning the feedback relations between migration and development and the impact of changes in migration on development. To give two examples: It could be found that migration impacts development positively, indicated by HDI, but that the dominant behaviour of migration and development is a counteracting behaviour. That means that an increase in emigration leads to an improvement in development, while this in turn causes a decline in emigration, counterbalancing the initial increase. Another insight concerns the discovery that migration causes a decline in education in the short term, but leads to an increase in the long term, after approximately 25 years - a typical worse-before-better behaviour. From these and further observations, important policy implications can be derived for the sending and receiving countries. Hence, by overcoming the unidirectional perspective, this study contributes to an improved understanding of the highly complex relationship between migration and development and their feedback relations.

A number of modern structures characterized by a relevant impact and elegance often coupled with lightness and irregular shapes are dramatically exposed to the wind aerodynamic action, which becomes a key factor in their safety assessment. These structures are involved into a global and complex design process in which players like the environment and social sciences join engineering in order to guarantee an optimal result under several aspects, not the last the economical aspect. In this background, it is not possible trusting into unreliable deterministic considerations, where the over-engineering would assure the result. The attention is now shifted to overall frameworks of Performance-Based Design aimed to specific performance targets and their optimization. In particular, the criteria to ensure the achievement of the results are expressed in terms of risk of failure. This work of thesis presents a general framework for calculating all the possible structural damages and subsequently economic losses after a natural catastrophic event. The framework is adjusted and applied to the specific case study of the covering of the Stadium of Braga in Portugal, where the hazard of a windstorm, the loads that the latter enforces on the covering, the structural response, the resulting damages and other consequences are hierarchically calculated. Particular emphasis, and original contribution of the work, is paid on the evaluation of the dynamic response of the structure. Pressure fluctuations on buildings produced by storms have a complex temporal and spatial organization and their study, keeping under control the whole physical phenomena, is quite difficult. Accordingly, some suitable tools like the orthogonal decomposition are adopted in order to handle the huge amount of data. Moreover a consistent and operative procedure aimed at enhancing the assessment of the aerodynamic wind pressure on the covering is provided. This work addresses a fundamental topic for the risk assessment; the results achieved by the duly application of the framework can be successfully transferred to other actors involved in the management and the governmental processes devoted to natural hazards. ; Zahlreiche moderne Bauwerke zeichnen sich durch Eleganz, Helligkeit und unregelmäßige Formen aus und sind in extremer Weise aerodynamischen Kräften ausgesetzt, welche eine zentrale Rolle in Sicherheitsanalysen einnehmen. An der Planung derartiger Bauwerke sind viele Fachrichtungen, auch Umwelt- und Sozialwissenschaften, beteiligt, um einen optimalen Bauwerksentwurf zu gewährleisten, wobei nicht zuletzt ökonomische Aspekte von großer Bedeutung sind. Daher ist es oft nicht empfehlenswert, deterministische Verfahren einzusetzen, da diese zur Überdimensionierung von Bauelementen führen können. Stattdessen werden Bauwerke heutzutage zunehmend für verschiedene Gefährdungsstufen bemessen, um die Wirtschaftlichkeit der Baumaßnahme sicher zu stellen und das Versagensrisiko zu bewerten. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird eine Methodik vorgestellt, mit der alle möglichen strukturellen Schäden eines Bauwerks rechnerisch erfassbar und die damit einhergehenden ökonomischen Schäden abschätzbar sind, die mit einer Naturkatastrophe einhergehen. Die Methodik wird auf die Überdachung des Stadions in Braga, Portugal, angewendet, wobei die Gefahr eines Sturms, die infolge des Sturms induzierten Lasten auf das Bauwerk, die strukturelle Antwort sowie die resultierenden Schäden und weitergehende Konsequenzen berechnet werden. Hierbei findet die Bewertung der dynamischen Antwort des Bauwerks besondere Beachtung, da Druckschwankungen infolge des Sturms komplexe zeitliche und räumliche Verteilungen aufweisen können. Daher werden Verfahren wie die orthogonale Zerlegung angewendet, um den Berechnungsaufwand zu verringern. Ferner wird eine konsistente operative Methode vorgestellt, die eine verbesserte Erfassung des aerodynamischen Winddrucks auf Überdachungen erlaubt. Die Arbeit adressiert eine fundamentale Fragestellung in der Risikobewertung. Die Ergebnisse, die aus der Anwendung der vorgestellten Methodik resultieren, können für alle im Risikomanagement von Naturkatastrophen involvierten Ingenieure und Institutionen von großer Bedeutung sein.

The relationship between democracy and inequality and the role of democratic participation in fostering redistribution has been a critical question of interest to economists over time. My dissertation focuses on a key aspect of democratic participation - the ability of citizens to form political parties and contest elections - and empirically identifies the relationship between the distribution of political power, and the distribution of public resources. To this effect, I study the economic impacts emanating from the political mobilization of historically underprivileged and socio-economically disadvantaged citizen groups in India - the low caste and indigenous communities - which has occurred over the past three decades. While comprising over half the nation's population, citizens from these groups have faced institutionalized discrimination through the hierarchical caste system, severely restricting their access to education, public institutions and basic services. This process of political mobilization by low caste citizens resulted in the formation of powerful caste-based political parties which contested elections in an attempt to capture political power through the democratic process, and subsequently, use their nascent state power to redirect public resources to their communities. The core chapters of this dissertation empirically document the economic and social impacts emanating from this change in the distribution of political power through democratic processes, resulting in the political empowerment of marginalized citizen groups. The first chapter of my dissertation identifies the economic impacts of this process of political mobilization. Using the outcome of close elections between parties exclusively representing low caste interests and other mainstream parties as the source of exogenous variation, the paper shows that the marginal legislator from low caste parties increases the share of state expenditures allocated towards targeted and untargeted welfare schemes benefitting low caste citizens by 2 and 1 percent. In a departure from existing studies in the literature which have exploited the system of mandated representation of low caste politicians in India, my paper shows that the mandated representation of low caste politicians has no impact on welfare transfers for low caste citizens when unaccompanied by a strong ex-ante party commitment in favour of low caste welfare. This paper also highlights the trade-offs emanating from the redistributive spending choices of fiscally constrained legislators by identifying the negative impact of the marginal legislator from low caste parties on public investments in road construction and electricity generation. Using tests of heterogeneity, the paper argues that the redistributive spending preferences of legislators from low caste parties is one of the mechanisms explaining the negative causal impact between the electoral success of these parties and regional inflows of private investment. Low caste citizens in India have often been victims of targeted violence by social elites in an attempt to preserve the existing social hierarchy and consolidate economic rents. This forms the motivation for the second chapter of my dissertation, identifying the causal impact of low caste parties on the incidence of targeted crimes against low caste citizens. The empirical results from this paper show that the marginal legislator from low caste parties reduces the incidence of violent crimes against low caste citizens by 4-14 percent and contribute significantly to the protection of civil rights. The paper also identifies the mechanisms explaining the reduced form impact - first, through higher rates of arrest, prosecution and diligence with which law enforcement agencies pursue such cases of targeted violence; second, through changes in the attitudes of low-caste citizens towards state institutions which affect the enforcement of criminal law.Finally, the third chapter of my dissertation focuses on a major question of interest in the field of development economics and economic growth - the role of agricultural growth in the process of structural transformation. Using data from a panel of 273 Indian districts over a twenty-five year period and rainfall shocks as an instrument for agricultural growth, I present causal evidence that rainfall-induced agricultural growth has a significant impact on the structural transformation process by increasing the share of rural workers employed in the manufacturing sector. My results show that the non-farm employment gains from higher agricultural growth is concentrated amongst unskilled workers with relatively low levels of education, signalling the poverty alleviating aspect of agricultural growth. By studying the differential impact of agricultural productivity across regions with initially low levels of agricultural productivity and urbanization, I also document the potential of agricultural growth to facilitate convergence across regions in terms of rural employment diversification.

Aquest estudi analitza els usos de les TIC a l'administració autonòmica catalana. De forma més específica, l'estudi se centra en la interacció entre l'ús d'un vessant concret de les TIC, la xarxa Internet, per part de l'administració pública, i determinats aspectes centrals d'aquest tipus d'institucions: la seva organització i estructura internes, la provisió de serveis públics o la relació amb altres agents socials. Hem analitzat, doncs, el fenomen del govern electrònic en el marc particular de la Generalitat de Catalunya, estudiant-ne el grau de desenvolupament i penetració, les seves característiques més remarcables i els problemes més importants que s'hi plantegen. El projecte de recerca es concreta en un estudi de cas sobre un projecte d'innovació específic però de gran abast, que es trobava en el moment de realització de l'estudi en la seva primera fase d'implementació: el projecte Administració Oberta de Catalunya (AOC). Concretament ens hem centrat en el vessant d'aquesta iniciativa pública que es concretava en la creació d'un portal interadministratiu a Internet, el portal www.cat365.net, destinat a proveir electrònicament serveis públics de totes les administracions que operen a Catalunya. L'estudi analitza les transformacions internes de l'administració que s'hi poden trobar associades i els elements que les condicionen, tant positivament com negativa. Igualment, intentem analitzem el que aquestes transformacions poden suposar per a la relació entre els ciutadans i les institucions públiques. ; Este estudio analiza los usos de las TIC en la administración autonómica catalana. De forma más específica, el estudio se centra en la interacción del uso de una vertiente concreta de las TIC, la red Internet, por parte de la Administración pública, y determinados aspectos centrales de este tipo de instituciones: su organización y estructura internas, la provisión de servicios públicos o la relación con otros agentes sociales. Hemos analizado, pues, el fenómeno del gobierno electrónico en el marco particular de la Generalitat de Catalunya, estudiando su grado de desarrollo y penetración, sus características más destacables y los problemas más importantes que se plantean. El proyecto de investigación se concreta en un estudio de caso sobre un proyecto de innovación específico pero de gran alcance, que en el momento de la realización del estudio se encontraba en su primera fase de implementación: el proyecto Administración abierta de Catalunya (AOC). Concretamente, nos hemos centrado en la vertiente de esta iniciativa pública que se concretaba en la creación de un portal interadministrativo en Internet, el portal www.cat365.net, destinado a proveer electrónicamente servicios públicos de todas las administraciones que operan en Catalunya. El estudio analiza las transformaciones internas de la Administración que pueden encontrarse asociadas a él y los elementos que las condicionan, tanto positiva como negativamente. Igualmente, intentamos analizar lo que estas transformaciones pueden suponer para la relación entre los ciudadanos y las instituciones públicas. ; This study analyses the uses of ICT in the Catalan regional administration. More specifically, the study focuses on the interaction between the use of one particular facet of ICT 'the internet' by the public administration and certain fundamental aspects of this kind of institution: its internal structure and organisation, provision of public services or the relationship with other social agents. We have thus analysed the phenomenon of e-government in the specific framework of the Catalan government, the Generalitat de Catalunya, studying the level of development and penetration, the most eye-catching characteristics and the most important problems arising. The research project involved a case study of a specific, but wide-ranging, innovation project which was in the study phase of its first stage of deployment: the Administració Oberta de Catalunya (AOC, Catalonia's Open Administration) project. Specifically, we focused on the part of this public initiative linked to the creation of an inter-administrative portal on the Internet, the www.cat365.net portal, which is designed to provide the public services offered by all the administrations operating in Catalonia electronically. The study analyses the associated internal changes in the administration and the elements that condition these, whether positively or negatively. Likewise, we look to analyse what these changes may lead to in terms of the relationship between citizens and public institutions.

Historizing the mobility/security nexus : introductory remarks / Heidi Hein-Kircher/Werner Distler -- The security/mobility nexus as an analytical lens : the cases of counterterrorism and infrastructure / Matthias Leese/Steff Wittendorf -- Ordering movement and mobilizing security : on the production of 'critical infrastructure' / Amina Nolte -- Thresholds of threat in (historical) security cultures : overcoming the good-versus bad mobilities dichotomy / Tobias Bruns -- Securitization as a driving force for political mobilization of national movements / Heidi Hein-Kircher -- State order, mobility, and policing in the trust territory of New Guinea. Patrolling the 'periphery' / Werner Distler -- Spatial (im)mobility as a threat to social mobility : Roma in the peripheries of Rome and the NIMBY politics of campi nomadi / Ana Ivasiuc -- Struggles with mass-migrations, national- and state-interests in the late Habsburg empire : security through mobility or against mobility? / Szilveszter Csernus-Lukács -- Nineteenth-century labor migration and fear of epidemics in the British colony of Mauritius (c. 1834-1910) : a danger to public health? / Andrea Wiegeshoff -- Securing the flows of oil in a transottoman context : Baku's oil, infrastructures of transportation, and Mendeleev as an imperial expert of securitization (1850-1918) / Stefan Rohdewald -- Securitization practices of traveling merchants and mercenaries (14th-17th century) / Stefanie Rüther -- Anti-nuclear activism, the state, and the energy market in the Federal Republic of Germany : mobilizing power / Sascha Brünig -- 'Critical' financial infrastructures and the securitization of calculative microprocesses / Andreas Langenohl -- Security, mobility, and the colonial connection : concluding remarks / Benedikt Stuchtey.

"This book brings together diverse voices from across the field of sustainable human computer interaction (SHCI) to discuss what it means for digital technology to support sustainability and how humans and technology can work together optimally for a more sustainable future. Contemporary digital technologies are hailed by tech companies, governments and academics as leading-edge solutions to the challenges of environmental sustainability; smarter homes, more persuasive technologies, and a robust Internet of Things hold the promise for creating a greener world. Yet, deployments of interactive technologies for such purposes often lead to a paradox: they algorithmically "optimize" heating and lighting of houses without regard to the dynamics of daily life in the home; they can collect and display data that allow us to reflect on energy and emissions, yet the same information can cause us to raise our expectations for comfort and convenience; they might allow us to share best practice for sustainable living through social networking and online communities, yet these same systems further our participation in consumerism and contribute to an ever-greater volume of electronic waste. By acknowledging these paradoxes, this book represents a significant critical inquiry into digital technology's longer-term impact on ideals of sustainability. Written by an interdisciplinary team of contributors this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of human computer interaction and environmental studies."--Provided by publisher.

This book is one of the first comprehensive works to fill the knowledge gap resulting from the limited number of empirical studies on interfirm networks. The in-depth empirical research presented here is based on a massive transaction relationship database of approximately 400,000 Japanese firms. This volume, unlike others, focuses on the role of interfirm networks in three different fields: (1) macroeconomic activities, (2) economic geography and firm dynamics, and (3) firm-bank relationships. The database for this work is constructed in collaboration with Japan's largest credit research company, Teikoku Data Bank, and covers a substantial portion of Japanese firms with information on firms' transaction partners, shareholders, financial institutions, and other attributes, including their locations and performance. Networks prevail in many aspects of economic activities and play a major role in explaining a wide variety of economic phenomena from business cycles to knowledge spillovers, which has motivated economists to produce a number of excellent works. In the policy arena, there has been a growing concern on the vulnerabilities of networks based on the casual observation that idiosyncratic shocks on firms can be amplified through inter-firm connections and leads to a systemic crisis. Typical examples are the manufacturing supply-chain networks in the automobile and electronics industries which propagated regionally concentrated shocks (the Great East Japan Earthquake and floods in Thailand in 2011) into global ones. An abundance of theoretical literature on the formation and functions of networks is available already. This book breaks new ground, however, and provides an excellent opportunity for the reader to gain a more integrated understanding of the role of networks in the economy. The Economics of Interfirm Networks will be of special interest to economists and practitioners seeking empirical and quantitative knowledge on interfirm and firm-bank networks.

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020 SFRH/BPD/115656/2016 ; Climate change has been conceptualized as a form and a product of colonization. In this perspective, it becomes important to base climate change adaptation and transformation efforts on decolonizing practices and imaginaries. A central aspect of decolonization is contained in the Indigenous conceptualization of relationality. Exploring how decolonization and relationality might form the foundation for transformations research, we engage with the concept of 'right relations'. In the context of this inquiry, we take 'right relations' to mean an obligation to live up to the responsibilities involved when taking part in a relationship—be it to other humans, other species, the land or the climate. We begin the paper by bringing together the literature on climate change adaptation, transformation and decolonization to show their interconnections and emphasize the need to engage with all three when talking about sustainability. Second, we invoke the idea of 'right relations' to address how non-Indigenous transformation researchers can further the process of decolonization as part of their research. Third, we offer insights from our own research experience with narrative practices to help exemplify how transformation researchers in all disciplines might embody 'right relations' centered around four characteristics: listening deeply, self-reflexivity, creating space and being in action. Embodying 'right relations' is a continuous process of becoming with no end point, and we do not wish to suggest that we hold the answers. Instead, we reflect on our role in this process and hope for these words to open a dialogue about how we might move towards a 'decolonized humanity'. We suggest that willingness to be affected and altered by the process of reciprocal collaborations is key to imagining decolonial ways of being and that this in turn can be a powerful manner of generating equitable and sustainable transformations. ; publishersversion ; published

The dissertation examines the impact of new legislation that negatively affects the asset of private interests, carried out by administrative action. The comparative analysis focuses on the Italian and French legal systems, as they share a similar legal tradition in the field of administrative law. The work is aimed at verifying, through the study of the most recent case law, the existence of a position of legitimate expectation recognised to the administrated subjects with respect to the modification of laws over time, under two different aspects : within a proceedings, as well as during on-going situation created by provisions of long-lasting bindingness. The work analyses the available means of protection and it verifies the current position on the matter in the aforementioned normative systems. In the last part, the work studies the inputs on the subject matter given by the decisions of the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, taking the analysis to a supra-national level; it also highlights the influence exercised by the German law on the issue of legitimate expectation, as the German system represent the principal referring model. ; L'étude s'occupe de l'affirmation progressive d'instruments de tutelle de la confiance légitime des privés par rapport aux conflits de loi dans le temps, qui conditionnent l'adoption ou l'efficacité des actes administratifs individuels favorables, grâce à une analyse de droit comparé entre Italie, France et Union Européenne. Après l'illustration des notions découlant du principe de légalité et du principe de sécurité juridique, qui ont été élaborées dans le deux Pays, les cas jurisprudentiels et normatifs plus récents du droit italien et français sont étudiés. Ils concernent notamment le changement normatif qui intervient soit pendant la procédure administrative non contentieuse et qui est finalisée à l'adoption d'un acte favorable, soit pendant le développement de situations en cours, en affectant l'efficacité d'un acte individuel à effet durable. ...

This paper gives a brief overview of the literature dedicated to Albanian-Slavic contacts, and then compares two approaches to Albanianisms in Serbian and Macedonian languages. One is by Safet Hodža (2001) and the other by Vanja Stanišić (1995). Their studies differ in several aspects. First, in the inventory of processed lexical items. Thus, Hodža analyzed a total of 447, and Stanisic about 300. Then, Hodža represented almost all types of words (313 nouns, 50 adjectives, 48 verbs, 15 adverbs, 9 words and 8 exclamations, 2 conjunctions and 2 onomatopoeias), while Stanišić analyzed 182 lexemes, mainly nouns and a small number of verbs from different areas of human life: cattle breeding and agriculture (36), farming (41), nature and relief (23), house and garden (8), family terminology (8), material culture and mental life (10), abstract concepts, verbs and expressions of psychophysical conditions (56). Stanišić also deals with the Albanian names that are mentioned in the Dečani Hrisovulja (Chrysovulje), but also with a large number of Slavs. Hodža etymologically deals with the words in a separate dictionary section, while Stanišić does that within five thematic groups. In separate chapters, Hodža gives an exhaustive classification according to thematic groups, according to geographical distribution and time of their taking over. Stanišić grouped the words wider, and within the processing of individual words, they are geographically located. The author of this paper also points to other Albanianisms noted by other researchers, but also cites a new inventory of lexemes used by the Serbs in south-western Serbia and Kosovo and Metohia: čuče, čučajka "kukavica (coward) ", rumbulak and rumbulačka "okrugao (round)", šaradžija "testeraš (sawyer)" (from alb. sharrë "testera (saw), šoša "prorešetati (to sift)", vapa "žega, toplota (heat, warmth)", uknačiti (se) "uživati (to enjoy)".

International audience ; A strong interest has been focused from several years on the algae pathway for energy production, especially for transportation fuels called third generation biofuel or G3 biofuel, and mainly from microalgae route, considering it could be a high potential alternative strategy for renewable energy and fuel production. Algae, and especially microalgae, present significant advantages compared with land resources, such as much higher productivity and lack of competition with food applications. Nevertheless, based on current knowledge, the production of an algae biomass for energy remains a difficult target to reach, due to the numerous existing hurdles such as the energetic yield and the economic positioning, without neglecting the environmental and societal aspect. Unlike first generation (G1) and a few second generation biofuel (G2) processes, G3 biofuel processes are far from the industrialization step. In 2010, under the initiative of IFP Energies nouvelles, Airbus, Safran, EADS IW and the "Académie des Technologies", launched a French national study of the potential of the algae sector as resources for the so called G3 biofuel production. This study was called "Algogroup" and led by IFP Energies nouvelles. The objective was to obtain a shared vision of the deployment possibilities. It led to the creation of this Algogroup task force with the previous partners, adding Sofiprotéol, INRA, IFREMER, CEVA and the Agrimip pole to combine all available knowledge and determine the responses which could be given to the existing questions. The Algogroup objective was to facilitate vision sharing between participating organisations and industrials on the technical improvements, the probabilities of success, the R&D needs and the development perspectives, while paying close attention to the obstacles which have to be alleviated to improve the positioning of the algae pathway. To reach this target, Algogroup has explored several axes, which enabled a thorough analysis of the potentials and limits of the technology: from the species selection to the harvesting (lipid extraction/recovery), including environmental and economical aspects. This paper focuses on some main aspects of the Algogroup study related to economical positioning and environmental terms, specially Life Cycle Analysis (LCA).Alarge share of the work was dedicated to microalgae, but since it was also considered important to examine the potential role of macroalgae, a specific analysis was conducted on this aspect. It has enabled the group to issue some recommendations such as a need for an integrated approach, need for tools to run comprehensive technico-economic assessments, including co-products valorisation. Despite the limited amount of reliable information currently available on the algofuel sectors, especially in terms of environmental balance, numerous challenges still remain to be taken up to make these sectors credible and profitable, both technically, economically and environmentally. On the economic aspect the estimated costs for future microalgae biofuels remain in a very broad range from $2/Gal to $7/Gal. There remains great potential to decrease microalgae oil production costs, but this has to be considered very carefully given the large amount of underlying assumptions. Moreover, as yet underlined, microalgae biofuels are not currently being produced at a commercial scale, thus these are only potential scenarios, which will have to be confirmed. And finally, several technologies can be used to produce microalgae oil and location possibilities are proposed. Another key point is that, in a large majority of scenarios, the economic viability of the pathway relies on the valorisation of what one usually calls co-products. Valorisation of co-products is not considered a valid option in the long-term as no market identified today could absorb the quantities associated to a new fuel market. Besides, environmental studies have demonstrated that the energetic balance was not favourable at present, based on current processes, but the variation range of the results let some space for significant improvements. The balance of greenhouse gas emissions was favourable, and there also the variation range was very wide. As regards the other environmental impact categories, however, the uncertainties are too great to draw any conclusions. Because of the heterogeneity of approaches and results for the development of the algae pathway, we must bear in mind that without reliable and robust assessments of these sectors it will not be possible to direct their technical development sustainably.Macroalgae as a resource for biofuels production are very far from being a commercial reality, but do present some advantages such, for green algae, exhibiting several similarities with current G1 and G2 feedstock, being producers of starch and unlignified cellulose. Nevertheless, they also contain other specific compounds. Red and brown macroalgae are currently the most produced species, but their composition calls for the development of new transformation processes. Although technically feasible at lab-scale, the economic viability of such processes is being endangered by the complexity of the processes involved and the numerous steps required as well as by non-technical issues such as competition with other markets like green chemistry. To have a true share of the future fuel mix, macroalgae production needs to be increase by a dozentime fold. This increase should not be done without social acceptance or at the expenses of the environment. This issue was adressed for microalgae, but data on macroalgae are currently lacking to be able to conduct Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on this very specific environment. There are also additional problems to be taken into account, such as the lack of legislation or conflicts of usage with existing sea activities for example. Potential for high tonnage production seems real, but the challenge is to federate existing actors and new ones to build a new agro-industry.As a conclusion, no true leveraging option, leading to significant breakthroughs has really emerged asa short term solution, but wide spaces for significant improvement could be envisaged and more laboratory and pilot works have to be achieved before being able to move to a higher scale, leading to the first step toward industrial production.

Poverty Profile of the People's Republic of China discusses the characteristics of poverty and the history of the fight against it in the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1978 to current times. Exciting developments have taken place in diagnosing, measuring and reducing poverty, but these have been largely the preserve of a narrow band of professionals – specialized public servants, aid practitioners, economists, statisticians and sociologists. This is a background reader aimed at spreading this knowledge to a wider audience with varied interests and occupational skills. The increased awareness of poverty and its dynamics that this Profile offers can serve as additional filter for decision makers whose actions add to the economic and social development and foster pro-poor growth in the PRC.

Poverty Profile of the People's Republic of China discusses the characteristics of poverty and the history of the fight against it in the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1978 to current times. Exciting developments have taken place in diagnosing, measuring and reducing poverty, but these have been largely the preserve of a narrow band of professionals – specialized public servants, aid practitioners, economists, statisticians and sociologists. This is a background reader aimed at spreading this knowledge to a wider audience with varied interests and occupational skills. The increased awareness of poverty and its dynamics that this Profile offers can serve as additional filter for decision makers whose actions add to the economic and social development and foster pro-poor growth in the PRC.

"The Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) provides information about household wealth (real and financial assets as well as liabilities) from 15 Euro-countries around the year 2010 (first wave). The survey will be the central dataset in this topic in the future. However, several aspects point to potential methodological constraints regarding cross-country comparability. Therefore the aim of this paper is to get a better insight in the data quality of this important data source. The framework for our analysis is the 'Guidelines for Micro Statistics on Household Wealth' from the OECD (2013). We have two main focuses: First, we present a synopsis of cross-country differences, which is the core of the paper. We compare the sampling processes, the interview modes, the oversampling techniques, the unit and item non-response rates and how it is dealt with them via weighting and imputation as well as further points which might restrict cross-country comparability of net wealth. We classify the individual country behavior and evaluate the impact on net wealth. Second, we give a first insight in the selectivity of item non-response in a cross-national setting. We make use of logit models to identify differences in characteristics as well as item non-response patterns across countries." (author's abstract)