Evaluating the economic impact of a special credit programme: KIK/KMKP in Indonesia

This article discusses a study of the economic impact of Indonesia's KIK/KMKP programme of special credits for small‐scale enterprises. Our major focus is on how to measure economic impact. It discusses the concept of ‘impact’, the survey design, the statistical framework, and the practical problems of implementation, and briefly summarises the findings. We believe that our methodology generated reasonably reliable data and fundamentally sound estimates of the credit programme's direct impact on employment, output and income.     

The Islamic challenge in North Africa

This article analyzes and compares the growth of Islamist movements and regime responses in the three core Maghrib states — Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In spite of the many points of commonality and their geographical proximity, the particular sociopolitical and historical circumstances of each of the three states have varied widely, producing a different state‐society/regime‐opposition dynamic in each case, resulting in very different political outcomes. Algeria has been, and remains, in many ways, sui generis in the Arab world. Consequently, even if the Islamists do eventually come to power there, one should avoid adopting any simplistic Islamic ‘domino theory’ for the region.     

Separation and Detection of Smokeless Powder Additives by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UPLC/MS/MS),

A reversed phase gradient ultra performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC/MS/MS) method has been developed for the analysis of smokeless powders. A total of 20 different components were separated by UPLC and detected by MS/MS in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. These compounds included diphenylamines, centralites, nitrotoluenes, nitroglycerin, and various phthalates. Simultaneous positive and negative electrospray ionization (ESI) was used along with negative atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) to detect all compounds in a single analysis. Analysis times were under 8 min with a gradient of 10–73% organic at a flow rate of 0.500 mL/min. With this method, ultraviolet and MRM limits of detection ranging from 0.08 to 2.6 ng and 0.4–64 ng injected were achieved. Commercially available smokeless powders were also extracted with methylene chloride and characterized using the developed UPLC/MS/MS method. The procedure permits the determination of compositional differences between different brands as well as lot‐to‐lot variations.