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Development paradigms offer competing theories on the drivers of structural transformation. Most of the analysis has so far focused on the economic factors with little emphasis placed on ei...

The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 has refocused global attention on the centrality of sustainability to the development discourse. Meanwhile, African countries are prioritizing structural transformation in their national and continental development programmes to promote employment through commodity-based industrialization. How will efforts to promote economic, social and environmental sustainability influence Africa’s agenda for structural transformation? Using panel data for of 29 African countries for the period 1995-2011, this article empirically analyzes the impact of economic, social and environmental sustainability on structural transformation in Africa. Our findings indicate that structural transformation is optimized when policy interventions adopt an integrated approach to sustainable development that takes into account all of its dimensions.

This study examines the relationship between structural economic transformation and the economic, social and political dimensions of inequality. It is motivated by the renewed emphasis by policymakers in Africa to adopt a more inclusive growth trajectory through commodity-based industrialization. Drawing on theoretical and empirical evidence, the study shows that structural transformation is not a sufficient condition for inclusive growth. Indeed, even though structural transformation can result in poverty reduction, in the absence of active policies, the latter often coexists with rising inequalities. Active government policies that improve social service delivery, enhance agricultural sector productivity, minimize ethnic and gender inequalities, and strengthen social protection programmes are key to an inclusive structural transformation agenda.

Bartholomew Armah of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa synthesizes African stakeholder perspectives regarding the MDGs and the post-2015 agenda. Stakeholder input was derived from a continent-wide electronic survey and consultations with civil society, women’s groups, the private sector, regional economic communities, government officials, and members of the Pan-African Parliament. Armah’s research finds that African stakeholders seek an ‘MDGs Plus’ solution for post-2015: a reformulation of the MDGs to account for sustainability, inequality, and quality of service delivery, accompanied by the addition of enablers (as well as outcomes) to the goal process. Armah reports that domestic ownership and accountability – buoyed by external climate adaption funding commitments – are key.

The Real Development Index (RDI) is a conglomerate index that measures and compares countries’ level of development. The RDI takes into account various economic, social and environmental factors that other economic or human development indexes fail to do. Data for the index is relevant for the year 2014, and compares 110 countries using a variety of hard data and survey data. The index is comprised of three sections to measure a country’s level of development: 1. Law and Stability, 2. Quality of Life, 3. Economic Development.

Refractivity changes (ΔN) derived from radar ground clutter returns serve as a proxy for near-surface humidity changes (1 N unit ≡ 1% relative humidity at 20 °C). Previous studies have indicated that better humidity observations should improve forecasts of convection initiation. A preliminary assessment of the potential of refractivity retrievals from an operational magnetron-based C-band radar is presented. The increased phase noise at shorter wavelengths, exacerbated by the unknown position of the target within the 300 m gate, make it difficult to obtain absolute refractivity values, so we consider the information in 1 h changes. These have been derived to a range of 30 km with a spatial resolution of ∼4 km; the consistency of the individual estimates (within each 4 km × 4 km area) indicates that ΔN errors are about 1 N unit, in agreement with in situ observations. Measurements from an instrumented tower on summer days show that the 1 h refractivity changes up to a height of 100 m remain well correlated with near-surface values. The analysis of refractivity as represented in the operational Met Office Unified Model at 1.5, 4 and 12 km grid lengths demonstrates that, as model resolution increases, the spatial scales of the refractivity structures improve. It is shown that the magnitude of refractivity changes is progressively underestimated at larger grid lengths during summer. However, the daily time series of 1 h refractivity changes reveal that, whereas the radar-derived values are very well correlated with the in situ observations, the high-resolution model runs have little skill in getting the right values of ΔN in the right place at the right time. This suggests that the assimilation of these radar refractivity observations could benefit forecasts of the initiation of convection.

I. INTRODUCTION The service sector has accounted for virtually all U.S. job growth since 1972, employing 70 percent of the labor force in 1986 and 77 percent in 1990 (Carey and Franklin, 1991). However, international trade's demographic effects on service sector employment remain uncertain. This paper examines the demographic and industrial characteristics of trade-sensitive service industries.(1) Trade sensitivity is the degree to which the service industries experience net trade-related employment gains or losses. Estimating net trade-related service employment involves input-output simulations of the total (direct and indirect) labor inputs required to satisfy a hypothetical change in the level of net exports. The analysis here assumes that this change equals the ratio of 1985 to 1977 export and import values. It uses nominal values in order to reveal domestic employment effects of export and import price changes over time. However, one should interpret the findings within the context of input-output analysis limitations and assumptions. For instance, the assumption of fixed technological coefficients requires one to interpret long-term policy implications with care. Abbreviations BEA: Bureau of Economic Analysis BLS: Bureau of Labor Statistics CPS: Current Population Survey I-O: Input-output MOFA: Majority-owned Foreign Affiliates PPI: Producer Price Index II. TRADE IN SERVICES AND DOMESTIC EMPLOYMENT Nusbaumer (1987) and Herman and van Holst (1981) express skepticism about traditional trade theory's applicability to services. However, Deardorff (1985), Hindley and Smith (1984), Oulton (1984), and Sapir and Lutz (1980) suggest that normative conclusions from international trade theory are equally valid for both goods and services. However, researchers have not fully identified the determinants of comparative advantage (Richardson, 1987). Quantitative studies suggest that while differences in physical and human capital endowments explain trade patterns between developed and developing countries (Sapir and Lutz, 1980), comparative advantage among developed countries appears to be industry-specific (Oulton, 1984), ranging from differences in skill-intensity to disparities in natural resource endowments. Skill-intensity or knowledge is a crucial component of most service activities (Nusbaumer, 1987; Gibbs, 1986). Nevertheless, since the bulk of U.S. trade in services is with similarly endowed developed countries (Whichard, 1988), asymmetries other than skill-intensity and relative factor endowments apparently influence comparative advantage in services.(2) Such asymmetries may reflect imperfections in the labor, product, or capital markets and differences in technology (Goto, 1990). Making a priori predictions about the characteristics of service industries that would benefit from trade is difficult. Predicting the incidence of service trade on the labor market status of women and minorities is equally difficult in the absence of explicit information on the determinants of service sector comparative advantage. Input-output analysis provides an appropriate framework for identifying the service industries that trade affects based on trade-related employment performance. Applying this framework to Current Population Survey (CPS) data reveals these industries' demographic and industrial characteristics. One can disaggregate service trade's employment effects into direct and indirect components. Direct effects arise from initial changes in industry output and employment levels required to satisfy a unit change in foreign procurement of domestic services--e.g., a U.S. firm's providing international marketing services to a Bolivian leather manufacturer. The indirect effects, on the other hand, arise from the interdependent nature of the economy's productive systems. A change in output level in one service producing activity in turn can induce corresponding changes in other sectors of the economy, including the non-service producing sector. …

We have observed a softening of the Young's modulus accompanied by an increase in the internal friction, when the dc bias exceeds the threshold for nonlinear conduction in the spin-density-wave state of (TMTSF) 2 PF 6 . No field dependence of the elasticity is detected above the spin-density-wave transition near 12 K. The results are reminiscent of effects associated with the depinning of charge-density waves, except that here, the extrinsic coupling to the lattice may have profound effects on the dynamics of the system

We proposed a mixed-integer program to model the management of C. trachomatis infections in women visiting publicly funded family planning clinics. We intended to maximize the number of infected women cured of C. trachomatis infections. The model incorporated screening, re-screening, and treatment options for three age groups with respective age-specific C. trachomatis infection and re-infection rates, two possible test assays, and two possible treatments. Our results showed the total budget had a great impact on the optimal strategy incorporating screening coverage, test selection, and treatment. At any budget level, the strategy that used a relatively small per-patient budget increase to re-screen all women who tested positive 6 months earlier always resulted in curing more infected women and more cost-saving than the strategy that was optimal under the condition of not including a re-screening option.

Comments on the paper by P. R. Shaver and M. Mikulciner (see record 2002-08087-002) about research and assessment related to the psychodynamics of adult attachment. The current authors specifically address the adult attachment interview (AAI) compared with self-report methods in measuring the dynamics of attachment. They noted the benefits of the AAI, but are also persuaded by Shaver and Mikulciner's article that self-reports of adult attachment are predictive of attachment-related dynamic processes. It is suggested that the joint use of self-reports and interviews would provide a useful way to further the study of attachment dynamics.