Are savings groups a livelihoods game changer for young people in Africa?

The triad of entrepreneurship, self-employment, and financial inclusion underpins policy and development interventions meant to address the youth employment challenge in Africa. Youth savings groups are being widely promoted as a first step toward financial inclusion and economic empowerment. This article reports on the links between income-generating activities of 57 members of youth savings groups in Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Ghana, and their membership in savings groups. It concludes that while savings groups can help to facilitate operational expenses and cash flow – and thus support members’ micro-enterprises – in opportunity starved contexts their transformational potential is probably being oversold.     

Economic Interests and Threat Assessment in the US Congress, 1890–1914

Why do some domestic actors see the international environment as a threatening place populated by untrustworthy powers, when others find opportunities for peaceful cooperation in the same conditions? Because these actors confront the same international environment, the reasons for their divergent evaluations must rest on differences in their own beliefs and interests. In this article, we consider the impact of societal interests in trade and trade protection on elite assessments of the international environment. We examine evaluations of the international environment in speeches given in the US Congress during naval appropriations debates between 1890 and 1914. The manufacturing sector’s interest in trade protection led political leaders who represented manufacturing regions to offer more negative assessments of the international environment, while those representing export-oriented agricultural areas of the country gave more positive evaluations. These effects were roughly comparable to those associated with party, as well as individual-level characteristics, such as having served as a military officer.     

An experimental comparison of adversarial versus inquisitorial procedural regimes

This article reports the results of a multiyear series of economicexperiments comparing the two dominant types of legal proceduresused in adjudication: (1) the 'adversarial' model of party-controlledprocedure versus (2) the 'inquisitorial' model of judge-controlledprocedure. The principal finding is that the relative fact-findingefficiency of the two systems, in terms of both the 'revelation'of hidden facts and the 'accuracy' of decision, depends significantlyupon the information structure. Under a 'private' informationstructure, inquisitorial procedure is relatively more efficient,whereas under a 'correlated' information structure, adversarialprocedure is relatively more efficient.     

Utilized coefficient of friction during walking: static estimates exceed measured values

This study compared utilized coefficient of friction (COF) measured during nonslip pedestrian gait to estimated utilized COF values calculated using anthropometric (i.e., leg length) and stride characteristic data (i.e., impact angle, step length). Twenty healthy adults walked at slow, medium, and fast speeds with kinematic and kinetic data recorded simultaneously. Estimated and measured impact angle varied with walking speed, with greater angles evident with faster speeds (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively). The estimated impact angle was greater than the measured impact angle (p < 0.05). Estimated and measured peak utilized COF values varied with walking speed, with higher utilized COF values evident with faster speeds (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively). Estimated utilized COF values were 86, 118, and 131% greater than measured peak utilized COF values for slow, medium, and fast speeds, respectively (p < 0.001). Higher estimated utilized COF values varied moderately with increased measured peak utilized COF values (r = 0.522; p < 0.001). These data suggest that impact angle and step length alone cannot be used to accurately assess the utilized COF on level walking surfaces.     

Forensic applications of infrared chemical imaging: multi-layered paint chips

This paper examines the potential of infrared chemical (hyperspectral) imaging as a technique for the forensic analysis of automotive paint chips in particular, and multicomponent (e.g., layered) samples in general. Improved sample preparation procedures for the infrared analysis of paint chips are detailed, with the recommendation that where mounting resins are chemically incompatible with the sample, it is better to mount and section the sample in a soft wax from which the sections can be removed and pressed into a KBr disk for transmission analysis. Infrared chemical images of multilayered paint chips have been successfully obtained, with the chief advantage over conventional infrared analysis being that thousands of infrared spectra are collected in a few minutes across the whole sample, at a spatial resolution of around 5 microm. As with conventional infrared spectroscopy, chemical species can be identified from their spectra, but the wealth of information available can be also extracted in a number of different ways that make multicomponent spectral (and hence chemical) comparisons between two samples easy to visualize and understand. In one approach, the infrared chemical images of two paint chips being compared side-by-side can be viewed as a "movie," in which each frame is an intensity map of the two samples at a given wavenumber (frequency) value. In another approach, the spectra (pixels) in the image files are classified into chemically similar groups, resulting in a "cluster" image that makes it possible to simultaneously compare all of the layers in two paint chips. These methods are applicable to other multicomponent samples, and also to other chemical imaging techniques.     

Examining the links between animal abuse and human violence

Empirical research has increasingly found evidence for the coexistence of animal abuse and various forms of interpersonal violence. Some researchers have even argued for a specific version of this relationship, namely, that individuals tend to move from violence toward animals, particularly in childhood, to subsequent violence toward humans. Others have suggested that the evidence for this graduation or progression hypothesis is weak and inconsistent, and that an approach to animal abuse that focuses on the link is misguided. This article begins by reviewing the research on the connections between animal abuse and interhuman violence. Then it critically assesses the evidence for and against the link, and discusses the issues and challenges facing future research in this area.     

Assistive technology as support for the exercise of legal capacity

Exercising legal capacity refers to engaging in legal transactions and relationships and is essential for the full inclusion of people with disabilities in society. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has enumerated the right to legal capacity on an equal basis and has created a state obligation to provide access to support for the exercise of legal capacity. This article examines the use of assistive devices as support for decision-making in exercising legal capacity for individuals with physical and cognitive impairments; for example, the use of voice recognition programmes, screen readers, and screen enlargement applications to support people with mobility and sensory impairments to use online portals essential for legal actions such as banking. It also discusses the experimental use of cognitive assistance, including computer or electrical assistive devices, to facilitate communication for people with cognitive impairments including those with no external signs of consciousness. It highlights the diversity of options for ‘support for the exercise of legal capacity’ showing how they can assist people with various disabilities. Finally, the article examines the boundaries of the state obligation to provide such support, including issues of practical implementation and resource allocation.     

Exploring “North” and “South” in post-Soviet Bishkek: discourses and perceptions of rural-urban migration

In this paper we explore, through the narratives and perspectives of “old residents” in post-Soviet Bishkek, the dominant discourse which has emerged towards rural migrants arriving to the city from other areas of Kyrgyzstan from the late Soviet period onwards. We investigate the existence of a primarily “antagonistic” discourse in relation to the migrants and analyze this in detail to understand how it illuminates wider concerns amongst residents about what is occurring in their city, and about wider processes of social change in Kyrgyzstan. The paper provides a revealing insight into the processes of urban change in post-Soviet Central Asia, and demonstrates the ways in which confrontation with the everyday harsh realities of post-Soviet transformation can lead to the negative “othering” of one group of urban residents by another. We also demonstrate how the “old residents'” perceptions of migrants reveal important insights into emerging notions and constructions of identity in the post-Soviet period, related in this case to understandings of “North” and “South'1 The terms “North” and “South” are used here to denote the “North” and “South” of Kyrgyzstan. Talas, Naryn, Issyk-Kul' and Chuy regions (where the regional and national capital Bishkek is located) are usually taken as “North”, whereas Osh, Batken and Dzhalal-Abad regions are taken as “South.” View all notes and related concepts of what is “urban” and what is “Kyrgyz”.