High growth potential for MENA region as worldwide broadband ...

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with a total population of around 500 million, is witnessing a major growth in telecom penetration and broadband internet access in the past 5 years. From a low base of only 1.51 million broadband connections in the whole region in 2006, the number is estimated to have reached 17 million in 2011. This number is expected to double in the next 4 years and the World Bank and other institutions are actively encouraging the spread of broadband telecom as a major instrument for social advancement in the region.

The internet has become the principal medium for communication

The internet has become the principal medium of communication for people, not just at the workplace but also in their personal lives. It is the medium that people turn to for information, for day to day transactions like banking, travel and public services, for communication with friends and family and increasingly also for entertainment. Governments have also realized that providing public services through the internet is cost effective and insulates people from delays, frustration and low level corruption involved in face-to-face interaction with government agencies.

Access to internet has become a good surrogate indicator of the standard of living. In the US and the European Union, over 78 percent of the population has access to the internet. In China this has grown rapidly to reach 34 percent but in India it is still low at 7.5 percent. The MENA region presents a very diverse picture with the advanced trading nations like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain having internet access percentages similar to the advanced economies. The percentage falls off very quickly in the less developed countries of the region like Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran and internet usage is minuscule in Sudan and Yemen.

The internet, which was previously accessed only from desktop computers, is now being accessed from portable computers and mobile phones. The bandwidth requirements are increasing as the internet now delivers graphics, streaming videos, high fidelity music and gaming content. This is the driver for the worldwide growth of broadband connections at over 21 percent a year in the last 5 years to reach a total of 545 million connections in 2011.

The additional spur for growth in the MENA region

Over 33 percent of the population in the MENA region is under the age of 12. This young population is quicker to adopt new technology than their parents? generation. In much of this region, television and radio stations are state controlled and do not provide the standard of entertainment that is available through the internet.

The monopoly state run land-line telecom services are facing competition from the newly emerging mobile telecom players who are able to extend services far quicker than the ?dig and bury cable? process used for land-lines. These mobile phone companies induce new consumers to internet access by simple promotional activities such as the downloading of ring tones and wallpapers, access to on-line music and videos and connection to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. These customers become regular mobile internet users and quickly upgrade to higher bandwidth applications which helps the mobile phone companies realize better revenues. The present broadband usage costs in the region are amongst the highest in the world with an unlimited usage plan in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain costing as much as $140 a month. These are bound to come down very quickly to the international norm of around $20.

The Arab Spring movement in the region was fueled mainly through internet communication. The penetration of mobile broadband in the region could bring out other such changes.

Source: http://www.internet20.org/entry/high-growth-potential-mena-region-worldwide-broadband-connections-reach-545m/

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Physicists simulate strongly correlated fermions

ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2012) ? Combining known factors in a new way, theoretical physicists Boris Svistunov and Nikolai Prokof'ev at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with three alumni of their group, have solved an intractable 50-year-old problem: How to simulate strongly interacting quantum systems to allow accurate predictions of their properties.

It could open the door to practical superconductor applications, as well as to solving difficult "many-body" problems in high-energy physics, condensed matter and ultra-cold atoms.

The theoretical breakthrough by Prokof'ev and Svistunov at UMass Amherst, with their alumni Kris Van Houcke now at Ghent University, Felix Werner at Ecole Normale Sup?rieure Paris and Evgeny Kozik at Ecole Polytechnique, is reported in the current issue of Nature Physics. The paper also includes crucial results of an experimental validation conducted by Martin Zwierlein and colleagues at MIT.

Svistunov says, "The accompanying experiment is a breakthrough on its own because achieving a few percent accuracy has long been a dream in the field of ultra-cold atoms. We needed this confirmation from Mother Nature."

Van Houcke adds, "Our answers and the experimental results perfectly agree. This is important because in physics you can always make a prediction, but unless it is controlled, with narrow error bars, you're basically just gambling. Our new method makes accurate predictions."

Physicists have long been able to numerically simulate statistical behavior of bosonic systems by mapping them onto polymers in four dimensions, as Richard Feynman proposed in the 1950s. "In a bosonic liquid one typically wants to know at what temperature the superfluid phase transition occurs," Prokof'ev explains, "and mapping onto the polymers yields an essentially exact answer."

But simulating particle behavior in strongly interacting fermionic liquids, like strongly interacting electrons in high-temperature superconducting compounds, has been devilishly elusive, he adds. "The polymer trick does not work here because of the notorious negative-sign problem, a hallmark of fermionic statistics."

Apart from mapping onto the polymers, Feynman proposed yet another solution, in terms of "diagrams" now named after him. These Feynman diagrams are graphical expressions for serial expansion of Green's functions, a mathematical tool that describes statistical properties of each unique system. Feynman diagrams were never used for making quantitatively accurate predictions for strongly interacting systems because people believed that evaluating and summing all of them was simply impossible, Svistunov points out. But the UMass Amherst team now has found a way to do this.

What they discovered is a trick -- called Diagrammatic Monte Carlo -- of sampling the Feynman series instead of calculating diagrams one by one. Especially powerful is the Bold Diagrammatic Monte Carlo (BDMC) scheme. This deals with a partially summed Feynman series (Dyson's development) in which the diagrams are constructed not from the bare Green's functions of non-interacting system (usually represented by thin lines), but from the genuine Green's functions of the strongly interacting system being looked for (usually represented by bold lines).

"We poll a series of integrals, and the result is fed back to the series to keep improving our knowledge of the Green's function," says Van Houcke, who developed the BDMC code over the past three years.

The BDMC protocol works a bit like sampling to predict the outcome of an election but with the difference that results of polling are being constantly fed back to the "electorate," Prokof'ev and Svistunov add. "We repeat this with several hundred processors over several days until the solution converges. That is, the Green's function doesn't change anymore. And once you know the Green's function, you know all the basic thermodynamic properties of the system. This has never been done before."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Massachusetts Amherst, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. K. Van Houcke, F. Werner, E. Kozik, N. Prokof?ev, B. Svistunov, M. J. H. Ku, A. T. Sommer, L. W. Cheuk, A. Schirotzek, M. W. Zwierlein. Feynman diagrams versus Fermi-gas Feynman?emulator. Nature Physics, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nphys2273

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/3aql0XAQpaQ/120318143936.htm

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Advice to Follow for a Successful Home Improvement Project | Armor ...

One particular evolution in marketing to the IM niche is so many people want absolutely everything spoon fed to them, and that can really present problems at times. You can think of that in terms of background information that has been learned elsewhere about legal loan or through experience.

Even something as simple as setting up an autoresponder and doing email marketing requires some detailed knowledge to do it with good effect.

As we proceed with our talk about these strategies, bear in mind they are just the tip of the iceberg. Those who are new to online business need to remember there is always a lot more to the story in any article. If you are about to get started with your marketing, then look hard at what you have done and need to do and be sure you have all you need.

Remodeling or renovating your home is quite difficult, unless of course you have a right program of action. You could have a wise decision of what you need to accomplish, how much it?s going with cost and how much time it takes. People that are not planning on doing the function themselves should consider selecting the appropriate person for the job. We will discuss a limited significant aspects of doing a house improvement project in a means that will help you in the extended run.

You should ensure that you have enough income with do your home improvement project before you start 1. It is absolutely necessary that you understand how much the work is going to cost before hiring anyone with do the job for you. This involves tools, supplies, work and any different relevant costs. It?s always a good idea to assume that a project is going to expense more than you initially estimate, as this might be normally the case. Be sure with look over any contract that you are provided by somebody that will work for you so that you understand what you may be getting into. Being aware of more charges is anything you should keep on top of every step of the renovation.

One of the best ways with cut costs on any home improvement project is with renovate existing rooms instead of building new ones from the ground up (e.g. ? your kitchen or bathroom) The total appearance of the space will be greatly improved by simply doing simple repairs here and there. Instead of gutting an whole room, you may like to consider painting it with change its overall appeal. It just is not necessary with substitute everything in a space to make it look better; easy changes are less costly and are occasionally more efficient. So before you commit with an expensive renovation with your kitchen or bathroom, consider if you might get by with some piecemeal improvements.

Priorities, the points you require to receive fixed or renovated at your house, ought to be organized for right execution. Taking care of significant issues initially is what prioritizing is all about.

Cosmetic improvements must constantly be completed last and important elements like electric rewiring ought to be done at initially. Nonessential repairs like installing a brand-new countertop should be performed perfectly in the end of the priority-based repairs or renovations are accomplished. By taking care of these renovations in this purchase, issues are easy to avoid. Contractors and building inspectors are persons that you need to ask for help, specifically should you are having problems selecting what should be completed at your house. Everybody wants more from their business such as profits, and testing and tracking is one of the surest ways to get more. That is most crucial when trying new techniques much like what you are reading today about lawsuit settlement loans. There are some testing methods that are truly advanced, but even still the most basic type most newbies would have no clue about.

Once you have started enough online ventures, you just sort of get it done without being careless. You can set things up any way you want, and then just monitor what is happening and be prepared for what ever feedback occurs. Even if you have never done testing before in your business, just going through the process several times will make you much more confident.

You will obviously need traffic for testing anything, and so with a site-based test just choose those pages that receive the greatest amount of traffic. Metrics are your best friend in so many ways, and the type of information you need to glean from your testing efforts will be conveyed to you through tracking metrics/data. For the best results, it happens to be significant that you plan ahead, specifically before making any home improvements with your house. A professional opinion is occasionally an effortless means to saving a great deal of funds on your upcoming house improvement project or renovation. Always find out what must be renovated and never guess during this task. So by doing the appropriate kind of planning, you are able to avoid unpleasant problems along the way by carrying this out in a step-by-step manner each and every day.

We realize that sometimes it feels like you are treading water and all you can do is keep your nose above it. One thing we want to say about lawsuit financing, and that is you should look beyond what has been discussed here today because there is so much more. If you are new to IM, then you need to exercise caution anytime you read about a marketing method in a short article, and the reason is you should never assume that is all there is to it.

Sure, there is a learning curve that you have to tackle, but do not lose momentum out of fear that you do not know enough to get started.

Working on your business means making sites, creating content, starting marketing and advertising campaigns but not spending all your time learning. Work on your sense of self-discipline, and that could mean dragging your self to your computer in the evening after your regular job and just working for half an hour or an hour.

No related posts.

Source: http://armorforactivists.com/advice-to-follow-for-a-successful-home-improvement-project/

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IRL: Rayovac Mobile Power Pack, a TomTom car charger and cleaning a DSLR sensor

Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment.

This week's edition of IRL is geekier than usual because really, only the nerdiest of you would be reading a tech site when you could be pretending to be Irish. On tap (har!) we have James and Andy talking about their favorite ways to charge gadgets on the go, while Darren, a man after serious photographers' hearts, tells what happened when he took his beloved D3S in to have the sensor cleaned.

Continue reading IRL: Rayovac Mobile Power Pack, a TomTom car charger and cleaning a DSLR sensor

IRL: Rayovac Mobile Power Pack, a TomTom car charger and cleaning a DSLR sensor originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/1Z30Zjp5hgs/

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International Development - Senior Associate Agri Business Advisor ...

Are you interested in joining an organisation with a long term commitment to fighting poverty? Would you like to work in a challenging environment and develop an international career focused on demonstrating shared core values that achieve results?

?

SNV DR Congo is looking for a:

?

SENIOR ASSOCIATE AGRI BUSINESS ADVISOR

?

Based in Kinshasa

(Consultancy contract)

?

SNV ? the Netherlands Development Organisation ? is an advisory organization that promotes market based solutions for the poor in 33 countries around the world. Our advisors, and the local capacity builders we work with, deliver support to over 2,000 clients. SNV DRC works in the agricultural, renewable energy and water and sanitation sectors in three multidisciplinary portfolio teams.

?

SNV is looking for a Senior Advisor in Agri-food systems and markets with experience in forging Inclusive Business Arrangements, who is passionate about working with productive communities to create a more sustainable and equitable future. The chosen candidate will play a strategic role in developing SNV DRC approaches and tools of work in this field.

?

Reduce food vulnerability of18,000people (3,000 Households) and increase incomes from USD 160 to USD 320 by increasing rice production capacity from2?? to 4 ton/hectares and processing capacity from 600 to 900 Kg /jour through??? facilitating participation of small holder farmers in existing Commercial Rice supply chains by 2013

?

Expected Impact Rice Value Chain Program SNV DRC:

?

Establish an Inclusive Business Arrangement between SNV DRC a Local Companies using Rice Grain

?

• Establish a formal agreement between SNV (memorandum of understanding/contract) between a Commercial Company and SNV for supply chain development.

?

Expected Results:

?

Supply Chain Development: Rice Producers

?????

• 800 small scale farmers access training through 12 demonstration plots established on 24 hectares across 2 Districts in Kinshasa province by 2013
• 4 Rice Associations registered with 30% female leadership by 2013
• 12 Seed growing farms established by small scale farmers (30% women) by 2013
• 12 farmer managed collection centres established to collect sort and pack paddy rice by 2013

?

Supply Chain Development: Rice Processors

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• Identification and selection of 5 Small and Medium Enterprises (Rice Processors) and link them to leading agricultural companies seeking processed rice in the DRC by 1^st August 2012
• Facilitate access to trade finance for the 3 small and medium enterprises (SME) by 2013
• Facilitate? trade of 300 tons of paddy/white rice by 3 SME by 2013

?

Reduce food vulnerability of18,000people (3,000 Households) and increase incomes from USD 160 to USD 320 by increasing rice production capacity from2?? to 4 ton/hectares and processing capacity from 600 to 900 Kg /jour through??? facilitating participation of small holder farmers in existing Commercial Rice supply chains by 2013

?

Responsibilities

?????????????????

Provision of Capacity Development Services;

• Engaging with companies, governments and financial institutions? in-country to transform? their policies, strategies, , operations and behavior(governance practices);
• Forging innovative business models engaging small holder farmers across value chains, developing strategies to promote investment? at farm gate and? identifying market opportunities in the? domestic market?
• Market studies, value chain assessment, developing marketing strategies??
• Experience with impact investment strategies, value chain financing options would be an added advantage.

?

Networking and Resource Mobilization

• Further strengthen SNV?s niche and reputation in the Agro-business sector among key stakeholders in DRC, develop new program concepts and proposals, and support resource mobilization? for SNV?s Agricultural Development Program in DRC.
• Explore, identify, establish and maintain partnerships with international and national Organizations active in the Agro-business, Agriculture and? Food Security sector
• Identification of organizations that can work with SNV as Local Capacity Builders (LCBs); include and steer these LCBs as clients and/or sub-contractors in the advisory work

Knowledge Development and Coaching

• Translating? the theory of Value Chain Development to? practice and facilitate the learning and development of others? (Provide coaching to team members)
• Provide content leadership to the SNV DRC Agriculture team and strengthen SNV Congo?s knowledge base. Participate in key knowledge development activities for SNV Congo, assure good documentation and dissemination.
• Participate in external and internal networks that contribute to? the development of approaches and? practical tools? for the SNV Agriculture program.

?

Candidate profile

?

• Master?s in Business Administration, Agri-business or Agricultural Economics
• Candidates will have a strong background in economics, business management or economic development policy.
• A proven ability to work in cross-cultural contexts.
• Excellent spoken and written French (A working Knowledge of English is an added advantage)
• Private sector experience in agri-business, farm based enterprises, agro retail business
• 10 years working experience with extensive international experience, exposure to African agricultural markets would be an advantage
• You understand field realities and are able to link between these governance, business and policy processes.
• You must be able to work and communicate across different? professional spheres ; business, government, NGO and academic worlds.

?

We are particularly interested in people with significant private sector experience. A track record of writing for academic and/or non-academic audiences is important.

?

Description duty station

?

Name: Kinshasa ? capital of DR Congo with frequent travel to other provinces of DR Congo.

Health services: Acceptable

Educational facilities: There are international schooling systems in English and French.???

Security situation: Good.

Accessibility: Daily flights.

?

Contract Duration: 2 year, with the possibility of renewal

Desired start Date: May 2012

Salary: Depending on relevant working experience, including individual allowances.

?

How to apply?

?

Send your application letter and CV (in English) to 5 April 2012 with reference number CD 7039.

?

We do not appreciate third-party mediation based on this advertisement.

Source: http://www.devex.com/en/jobs/senior-associate-agri-business-advisor-in-dr-congo-3844

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Irish launch St Patrick's Day diplomatic offensive

Flower seller Jimmi Lee, 55, sells a sprig of shamrock to shopper Catherine Fahy, 45, on Dublin's main shopping boulevard Friday, March 16, 2012. Dublin is getting ready for its annual St. Patrick's Day parade on upcoming Saturday and is expected to attract a half-million onlookers, many of them wearing a corsage of shamrock, the lucky symbol of Ireland. (AP Photo/Shawn Pogatchnik)

Flower seller Jimmi Lee, 55, sells a sprig of shamrock to shopper Catherine Fahy, 45, on Dublin's main shopping boulevard Friday, March 16, 2012. Dublin is getting ready for its annual St. Patrick's Day parade on upcoming Saturday and is expected to attract a half-million onlookers, many of them wearing a corsage of shamrock, the lucky symbol of Ireland. (AP Photo/Shawn Pogatchnik)

A shopper walks past a flower stall selling shamrock, lower left, on Dublin's main shopping boulevard Friday, March 16, 2012. Dublin is getting ready for its annual St. Patrick's Day parade on upcoming Saturday and is expected to attract a half-million onlookers. (AP Photo/Shawn Pogatchnik)

DUBLIN (AP) ? Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny is leading a global St. Patrick's Day charm offensive that seeks to woo investment from the United States, China and other countries to debt-crippled Ireland.

Kenny arrived Friday in Chicago to begin a five-day U.S. visit that concludes Tuesday with St. Patrick's Day festivities in the White House. The Washington events are happening three days late because this year the March 17 holiday falls on a weekend.

Kenny has deployed 16 of his government's ministers to Canada, China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, nine European neighbors and several other American cities from Boston to San Francisco.

Most of his other 13 ministers are presiding over the dozens of parades, performances and celebrations at home, particularly in Dublin, where a four-day festival started Friday and will peak Saturday when a half-million spectators are expected to line the main Dublin parade route.

The focus on boosting Ireland's image abroad reflects the stark economic challenges facing the one-time Celtic Tiger. Today the Irish are struggling to reverse 14.4 percent unemployment, slow a renewed wave of emigration and rebuild a battered credit rating that forced the country to negotiate a humiliating 2010 bailout.

"Now is the time to invest in Ireland's recovery," Kenny said. "The government will use the unique global opportunity of St. Patrick's Day to bring that message to all our key global markets and to Ireland's many friends around the world."

Ireland's diplomatic efforts are double the size of St. Patrick's Day missions last year, when Kenny had just taken power following a landmark election that devastated the previous government. It was blamed for leading Ireland to the brink of bankruptcy by fueling a runaway construction market fed by tax breaks and cheap credit from Ireland's ill-regulated banks.

When Ireland's property boom went bust in 2008, the government sought to save those banks from collapse by promising to ensure all their debts against default. That gamble failed to stem a tide of fleeing capital from Ireland and left taxpayers on the hook for repaying potentially ?70 billion ($91 billion) in bank losses.

That bill, far too big for Ireland to finance, required a ?67.5 billion ($88 billion) credit line with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. The money is supposed to cover Ireland's bills until late 2013, by which time Kenny's government hopes to resume normal borrowing from bond markets.

But economists agree that Ireland's recovery depends on forces beyond its control, particularly whether the U.S. economy gets rolling again.

More than 600 American multinationals already have made Ireland their European Union base, providing more than 5 percent of the nation's jobs and 12 percent of its entire gross domestic product, or GDP. American companies favor Ireland's English-speaking work force, participation in the euro common currency, and particularly its low 12.5 percent rate of tax on corporate profits.

Economists are counting on export-led growth by U.S.-focused multinationals to compensate for the debt crisis overshadowing most, if not all, of Ireland's 4.5 million people.

The existing bailout deal requires Ireland to slash its deficits to 3 percent of GDP by 2016. The 2011 deficit stood at 10 percent. The target this year is to reach 8.6 percent. But this means yet more spending cuts and tax hikes in a country where hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs, are trapped in negative-equity mortgages and are clamping down on spending.

The government expects to spend more than ?55 billion this year but collect just ?38 billion in taxes.

But Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan, attending St. Patrick's-related events in France, said Friday if U.S. economic growth expands, Ireland's own economy should "take off like a rocket."

___

Online:

St. Patrick's Festival in Dublin, http://bit.ly/zjX52N

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-03-16-EU-Ireland-St-Patrick's-Day/id-bff67bb2bea74a2f8fd76caffd5b0bec

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Everything You Need To Turn Wherever You Are Into an Irish Pub [Toolkit]

You are not Irish, but on March 17th the whole world gets to be Irish. Hell, they even celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Dubai. Want to go hang out at your local Irish pub? Good luck, it's going to be packed and unpleasant. But that doesn't mean you can't celebrate in your garage or your apartment. Here's how to turn wherever it is you are into an Irish pub. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/WEg-wAkjT28/

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