Competition effects in EU external aid supply tenders funded with the Pre-accession and Neighbourhood instruments

This paper investigates empirically the competition effects on procurement costs for Europe Aid funded supply tenders in countries benefiting from the EU Pre-accession (IPA) and Neighbourhood (ENI) financial instruments. We use a dataset created and curated by us from supply tender dossiers published by Europe Aid. We determine a reference price for each procured lot based on the contracting authority’s requirement to establish a participation tender guarantee. We estimate controlling for potential endogeneity how the entry of new bidders in the tendering procedure affects procurement cost savings regarding this reference price. Finally, we discuss the expected additional savings in the management of these funds that may be obtained by further promoting competition.

Autonomous vehicles: A study of implementation and security

<span>Autonomous vehicles have been invented to increase the safety of transportation users. These vehicles can sense their environment and make decisions without any external aid to produce an optimal route to reach a destination. Even though the idea sounds futuristic and if implemented successfully, many current issues related to transportation will be solved, care needs to be taken before implementing the solution. This paper will look at the pros and cons of implementation of autonomous vehicles. The vehicles depend highly on the sensors present on the vehicles and any tampering or manipulation of the data generated and <span>transmitted by these can have disastrous consequences, as human lives are at stake here. Various attacks</span> against the different type of sensors on-board an autonomous vehicle are covered.</span>

On External Aid Effectiveness and School Enrolment: A Study on Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper re-evaluates the external aid effectiveness on school enrolment in Sub-Saharan Africa and provides a piece of evidence on the relationship conditioned on the prevalence of malaria and HIV/AIDS. A panel dataset from 2010 to 2019 for 42 countries in sub-Saharan Africa was modelled and analyzed using a dynamic panel GMM technique. The results suggest a statistically significant positive effect of external aid on school enrolment – primary, secondary and tertiary school enrolment. However, when correlated with the HIV/AIDS and malaria diseases, the relationship turned insignificant and at best negative. That is, in the case where malaria and HIV/AIDS diseases are evident, external aid does not have a statistically significant positive impact on school enrolment. It therefore means that the level of aid effectiveness on school enrolment is contingent on malaria and HIV/AIDS diseases in the region. Hence, although the attraction of more external aid can increase school enrolment in Sub-Saharan Africa, it will be effective only if the HIV/AIDS and malaria diseases are eradicated.

Extracting Maximum Power from PV Model using Fuzzy Logic Technique

Electricity has become an inseparable part of our daily lives, its domain approach is boundless. Due to continuous use of energy resources (both renewable and non- renewable), it is our priority to conserve our resources. What is extracting power through PV cell? Solar energy is inexhaustible and can be extracted to electrical energy which eases the high consumption of non renewable resources. How to maximize the solar energy? Maximum energy can be obtained by some external aid in the form of MPPT. Why do we incorporate different techniques in a MPPT? To control the maintenance of operating point of PV array at its maximum peak Optimization of renewable energy has drastically increased over the past few decades and now capable of conservation at a higher level. Solar energy is prime example of renewable source. Not more than 50% solar irradiance is converted to solar energy without any external aid (MPPT). These techniques are mentioned in the literature work below and the respective algorithms as well.