Microcredit schemes have been increasingly incorporated into development policiesthat aim to de-marginalise rural China. Based on in-depth ethnographicfieldwork,this paper examines the various roles that microcredit programmes play indevelopment outcomes at the local level. It demonstrates that microcredit has theability to facilitate the de-marginalisation of certain individuals/groups, whilesimu

Pile heat exchangers are fast emerging as a potentially viable alternative to the more prevalent borehole heat exchangers for the provision of space heating and cooling. In the last decade or so, the use of geothermal piles has increased sharply in many countries including Belgium, China, Japan, Switzerland, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and United States, among others. In Sweden, however, inte

An electrophysiological measure of semantic processing (the N400) was used to assess shape recognition intoddlers. This measure strongly predicted working memory at 6-7 years. Moreover, a behavioral measure of shaperecognition at 24 months was related to concurrent vocabulary and vocabulary skills at 6-7 years.An electrophysiological measure of semantic processing (the N400) was used to assess shape recognition in toddlers. This measure strongly predicted working memory at 6-7 years. Moreover, a behavioral measure of shape recognition at 24 months was related to concurrent vocabulary and vocabulary skills at 6-7 years.

We report the first successful use of miniature Global Positioning System loggers to track the ocean-going behaviour of a c. 400g seabird, the Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus. During three field seasons, breeding birds were tracked during the incubation and chick rearing periods on their foraging excursions from the large colony on Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire, UK. Foraging effort was concentrat

Some seabirds we encounter only fleetingly, as they fly by as we walk along the beach, or perhaps meet far out at sea when we take a boat trip. Others though we are more familiar with, such as the ‘seagulls’ that many will not even turn their head to appreciate. Yet, all seabirds have remarkable stories to tell, and we are fortunate now to live at a time where we can follow individual birds as theMost seabirds breed colonially, at which time they make central-place foraging trips. Parents must collect food both for themselves and for egg production/chick-rearing. How should they forage? I followed five species across two sites in Sweden in the Baltic Sea using GPS and time-depth recorder (TDR) devices, giving information on both flight and diving activity. I use a movement ecology approach

Pedestrian merging flows on stairs are defined as the confluence of a flow of pedestrians from a stair and pedestrians from each floor of a multi-storey building. This paper introduces a novel simplified mathematical model for the calculation of evacuation times on stairs which takes into account the impact of merging flows. The model allows calculating the impact of merging ratio (people accessin

Integration of high throughput data with online data resources is critical for data analysis and hypothesis generation. Relational databases facilitate the data integration, but larger amounts of data and the growth of the online data resources can slow down the data analysis process. We have developed a proof-of-principle software tool using concepts from the business intelligence field to enable

Frequency domain characteristics of Otto Smith regulators are investigated. It is shown that the regulator can be regarded as an ordinary regulator in cascade with a lead network with considerable lead.

Outcomes in social dilemmas often have a stochastic component. We report experimental findings from public good games with both correlated and independent risk across players. We find that the presence of both types of risk prevents the decay of cooperation typically observed in the standard deterministic public good game. The results further suggest that it is greater relative importance of socia