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In this paper, we define and examine the concept of a fuzzy recognizer. If L(M) is the language recognized by an incomplete fuzzy recognizer M, we show that there is a completion M of M such that L(M) = L(M). We also show that if A is a recognizable set of words, then there is a complete accessible fuzzy recognizer M_A such that L(M_A) = A. We lay groundwork to determine rational decompositions of recognizable sets.

The increasing debate on the viability of broad-based productive employment in stimulating the participatory tendencies of growth makes it instructive to inquire how the African “Big Five” have fared in their quests to ensure growth inclusiveness through public investment-led fiscal policy.

Time varying structures and nonlinearities in the government investment series are captured through the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag, asymmetric impulse responses and variance decomposition estimation techniques.

Study findings show that positive investment shocks stimulate growth inclusiveness by enabling access to opportunities through job creation and productive employment for the populace; this result is evident for Morocco and Algeria. However, there is a non-negligible evidence that shocks due to decline in the government investment manifest in insufficient capital stocks and limited investment opportunities, impede access to opportunities by the populace, hinder labour employability and make growth less inclusive. Furthermore, all short-run findings corroborate long-run results regarding the reaction of inclusive growth to positive investment shocks with the exclusion of South Africa; which, unlike its long-run finding, shows that shocks due to increases in investment can foster growth inclusiveness. Also, in respect to short-run negative investment shocks, Nigeria is the only country that does not align its long-run findings.

That public investment shocks make or mar inclusive growth effectiveness shows the need for appropriate fiscal policy consolidation and automatic stabilization guidelines to ensure buffers against shocks and to enhance government investment generation efficiency for a sustainable inclusive growth process that is more participatory in Africa.

This study is the first to accommodate possibilities of shocks in the inclusivity of growth analysis for the five biggest African economies which jointly account for over half of the recorded growth in the continent. As such, there is quantitative evidence that government investment is a potent determinant of growth inclusiveness and it is susceptible to structural changes and time variation of shocks.

No longer do resource economists merely regard nature as a collection of inert materials to be improved by human labor and manufactured capital; rather, nature is, to an increasing extent, taken to be a mindless producer of economically valuable ecosystem goods and services. Instances of natural capital are frequently said to produce such goods and services in a manner that is relatively detached from human agency. This article argues that, historically, the idea of nature as a systematic original producer capable of self-generation is hardly novel. The eighteenth-century roots of this idea can be found in the writings of Carl Linnaeus who depicted the whole Earth and all of its productions as the “oeconomy of nature.”

The purpose of this chapter is to assess the food security situation in Bangladesh based on 2011/2012 Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey data using two commonly measured food security indicators: Food Consumption Score (FCS) and Household Hunger Scale (HHS).

The dependent variable in the model is a categorical variable representing different scales of food security as obtained from the FCS and HHS indicators. These categorical variables are explained by annual remittances received by the households; the demographic characteristics (age, gender, literacy level, and occupation) of the household head; and total monthly income from agricultural and non-agricultural wages using ordered probit regression models.

Results indicated that remittances play an important role in improving the food security of households. Other significant variables in the model were income earned outside of the farm, male-operated household, and literacy. Increasing income from other than the agricultural sector significantly raises the probability of a household being food secure.

The Government of Bangladesh should make the agriculture sector stronger at all levels of the value chain. Additionally, providing income generation opportunities for households outside of the farm can be used as a diversification measure to achieve food security within the country.

Based on unique data the authors analyze the Rwandan non-farm employment expansion in rural areas and its relation to agricultural productivity. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors that determine off-farm work hours in Rwanda, and how farmers’ off-farm employment affects agricultural output. Since production efficiency may depend on off-farm work and off-farm work depend on production efficiency (Lien et al., 2010), both production and off-farm work are endogenous. While controlling for endogeneity, the authors investigate the relationship between off-farm work and agricultural production.

In this paper the authors use a unique panel data set spanning over 26 years originating from household surveys conducted in the northwest and densely populated districts of Rwanda. Econometric estimations are based on a random effects two-stage Tobit model to control for endogeneity.

The study confirms theoretical and empirical findings from other developing countries that off-farm employment is one of the essential conditions for having an economically viable agricultural business and vice versa.

The study is carried out in only one district of Rwanda. Even though most rural areas in Rwanda have similar features the findings cannot necessarily be generalized for the entire country of Rwanda. As in any study, the raw data set suffer from a number of shortcomings which cannot be fully eliminated by the econometric estimation, but this is a new data set which has the best data available for this research question in Rwanda.

The authors can conclude that there are synergy effects of investing government resources into both on-farm and off-farm employment expansions. Thus, in Rwanda on-farm investments can actually partly contribute to a future natural smooth transformation to more off-farm total output and productivity and vice versa. Though there are still limited off-farm employment opportunities in the studied area, there are considerable potentials to generate income and increase agricultural production through the purchase of additional inputs.

The findings imply that a favorable business climate for off-farm businesses creates spill-over effects which enhance the smallholder farmers’ opportunities to survive, generate wealth, create employment and in effect reduce poverty.

From the best of the authors’ knowledge, similar studies have not been conducted in Rwanda, nor elsewhere with this type of data set. The findings provide original insights regarding off-farm and agricultural relationships in rural areas under dense population pressure. The results provide some indications that off-farm employment in developing countries (such as Rwanda) is one of the essential conditions for having an economically viable agricultural business and vice versa. The second wave of data was collected by the authors and was used solely for the purpose of this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of coffee production on poverty among smallholder farmers.

National Household Survey data for Uganda were triangulated with qualitative field data. A mix of propensity score matching (PSM) and quantile treatment effect techniques was employed.

The results reveal a significant effect of coffee production on poverty reduction, through incremental household consumption expenditure. Households engaged in coffee production are associated with a lower incidence of poverty. The interesting evidence suggests that coffee production is a pro-poor intervention. These findings are confirmed by qualitative assessment that reveals farmers’ welfare improved to greater extent to satisfactory levels from coffee income.

Econometrically robust strategies were employed to ensure minimal estimation bias; however, the authors are mindful of PSM limitation of selection on observables.

This paper is part of a limited body of literature that combines quantitative and qualitative assessment, a growing issue in contemporary research. In addition to employing one of the conventional impact evaluation techniques, the paper accounts for heterogeneity in the effects of coffee production.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effects of the determinants of farmer participation in value addition through cassava processing in Nigeria.

This study employs the probit model to analyse the determinants of farmer participation in value addition whereas the Tobit model is used to investigate the determinants of the extent of producer’s involvement in value addition using a data set of 400 cassava farmers drawn from the Oyo State of Nigeria.

The findings further indicate that among other factors, human capital factors including farmer age and location variable tend to reduce farmer participation in value addition through processing whereas experience and record keeping promote farmer participation in cassava processing. Institutional variables, notably membership of farmer association, extension access and credit access, enhance farmer participation in value addition. Finally, ownership of a radio set, a television set and access to electricity strengthen the value-adding capacity of farmers.

This study only considers the determinants of producers’ participation in cassava processing but does not explicitly analyse the impact of value addition on their profit margin. This issue would form a basis for future research to enhance knowledge in the extant literature.

The study suggests that if the value-adding capacity of farmers is strengthened, rural economy is likely to be improved upon through the proliferation of rural food processing enterprises.

Despite the relevance of developing food value chains in Africa and integrating farmers in them, there are limited studies on promoting value addition among farmers. This study contributes to narrowing this knowledge gap.

Although the existence of a close relationship between the areas of digital signal processing and time integration methodology is known, a systematic application of the concepts and methods of the first area to the second is missing. Such an approach is followed in this paper, arising from the fact that any time integration formula can be viewed as a digital filter of the applied excitation force, approximating as close as possible to the behaviour of a ‘prototype analogue filter’, which is in fact the semi discrete equations of motion of the system. This approach provides a universal framework for handling and analysing all various aspects of time integration formulae, such as analysis in the frequency domain, algebraic operations, accuracy and stability, aliasing, spurious oscillations generation, introduction of digital filters within the time integration formula, initial conditions handling and overshooting. Additionally it is shown that digital signal processing methods, such as pre‐ or post‐processing, time delays, etc. can be in certain cases a quite effective complement of the time integration scheme.

Informatics work introduces information professionals to taxonomies and other classification systems outside the boundaries of traditional bibliographic systems. This paper aims to provide an overview of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) for informaticians and information professionals who may not have worked with the system previously.

In this paper, the author reviews the purpose, history, current use and future trends of the ICD classification system.

ICD is used globally as a standard vocabulary for medical diagnoses and, in the USA, for medical procedures in hospitals. Understanding the classification system is vital to working with clinical medical data.

The ICD classification system is not commonly used by information professionals. This paper provides a brief overview that will familiarize the information professional with the standard and its uses related to medical practice.