Prospects for a Philippines-European Union Free Trade Agreement: Implications for Agriculture

This study examines the impact of a potential Philippines-European Union (EU) free trade agreement (FTA) on the agricultural sector. Static analysis indicates that potential gains to the agricultural sector of the Philippines are limited, primarily owing to the low size of initial agricultural trade with EU (compared to other trading partners), as well as moderate to low tariff and other trade barriers to EU products entering the country. CGE analysis confirms that the overall impact of bilateral tariff elimination leads to an overall increase in agricultural output, accompanied by a decline in price; hence, there is an increase in consumption of agricultural products. Impact on poverty is likewise positive, with improvements biased to the poorer households. By subsector, the largest output gains are projected for seaweeds and sugarcane, with 0.80 percent and 0.50 percent, respectively; increased access on EU markets are favorable for Filipino exporters of seaweeds, other fiber crops, tobacco leaf, forestry, ornamental plants, raw coffee, abaca, and cocoa. Meanwhile, the subsectors that are on the losing side (as shown by declining output) are cattle, raw rubber, chicken, and hogs.Fears about the negative repercussions of a Philippines-EU FTA on the poor turn out to be unfounded. Poverty incidence declines, and more so in rural than in urban areas. The greater decrease in poverty gap and squared poverty gap, compared with poverty incidence, implies that those who belong to households below the poverty threshold get the most benefits. It would seem that expectations of large benefits from a Philippines-EU FTA will not be found in agriculture, but elsewhere. Conversely, the agricultural sector does not face significant harm from a Philippines-EU FTA, even one involving sensitive products. Relaxation of trade barriers to EU even for sensitive products is warranted; not only would consumers gain (though minimally), but such a negotiation stance may serve as a powerful bargaining chip for gaining concessions on other areas

Assessment of Prospective Impact of Fruits and Vegetables Research at the Industry Level in the Philippines: the Case of the ACIAR-PCAARRD Horticulture Project

The fruits and vegetables subsector shows great dynamism despite lack of government support compared to other subsectors within agriculture. To further realize the potential of the fruits and vegetables sector, one promising instrument is investment in research and development (R&D). The government is the primary source of funding for agricultural R&D efforts due to the "public good" character of such kind of research. However, the Philippines lags behind its neighbors in Asia in terms of agricultural research investment. Moreover, current R&D investments are skewed toward traditional commodities. This paper assesses the prospective impact at the industry level of fruits and vegetables R&D using the ACIAR-PCAARRD horticulture project as case study. An economic surplus model running on a spreadsheet is used to evaluate measures of project worth for R&D investment. Application of the model shows the high social returns from raising investments in horticulture R&D

Inputs for Philippine Hosting of APEC 2015: Food Security

Initiatives toward the attainment of global food security have been done not just unilaterally but also regionally and globally. Among the platforms that have made great efforts in this aspect is the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). In 2015, the Philippines will host the next APEC Summit. Food security shall be high on the agenda of the Summit and of various meetings. To provide advice to the Philippine Government on the possible Philippine position on food security during its hosting, this paper recommends that the Philippines should adopt agribusiness development based on sustainable food supply chains as its priority advocacy, while continuing to promote elements of food security as expressed in the APEC road map. This "branding" integrates a strong position on blue economy with the agribusiness development and road map thrusts of the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture

Characterisation of a novel reverse-biased PPD CMOS image sensor

A new pinned photodiode (PPD) CMOS image sensor (CIS) has been developed and characterised. The sensor can be fully depleted by means of reverse bias applied to the substrate, and the principle of operation is applicable to very thick sensitive volumes. Additional n-type implants under the pixel p-wells, called Deep Depletion Extension (DDE), have been added in order to eliminate the large parasitic substrate current that would otherwise be present in a normal device. The first prototype has been manufactured on a 18 μm thick, 1000 Ω .cm epitaxial silicon wafers using 180 nm PPD image sensor process at TowerJazz Semiconductor. The chip contains arrays of 10 μm and 5.4 μm pixels, with variations of the shape, size and the depth of the DDE implant. Back-side illuminated (BSI) devices were manufactured in collaboration with Teledyne e2v, and characterised together with the front-side illuminated (FSI) variants. The presented results show that the devices could be reverse-biased without parasitic leakage currents, in good agreement with simulations. The new 10 μm pixels in both BSI and FSI variants exhibit nearly identical photo response to the reference non-modified pixels, as characterised with the photon transfer curve. Different techniques were used to measure the depletion depth in FSI and BSI chips, and the results are consistent with the expected full depletion

Preventing Delinquency and Promoting Academic Success among School-Age African American Males

This study explores delinquency related factors that have a relationship with educational outcomes for Black males. The findings suggest that reducing behaviors associated with delinquency improves academic performance across all races

Manufacturing consensus in a diverse field of scholarly opinions: A comment on Bushman, Gollwitzer, and Cruz (2015).

We appreciate the efforts of Bushman and Cruz to provide new data describing parents’ and professionals’ opinions regarding effects of media violence. Unfortunately, we feel it is necessary to call attention to apparent errors and inaccuracies in the way those data are interpreted and represented in their article. The article overstates the extent to which there is agreement that media violence has meaningful negative societal effects and misrepresents the relevance of the study to an understanding of the effects of media violence on societal violence. In contrast, we call for a climate of research on media violence that better recognizes the diversity of findings and conclusions in an active and growing research agenda and eschews unwarranted insinuations about effects on criminal violence from research focused on aggression-related measures not assessing violent crime

Comparison of Niskin vs. in situ approaches for analysis of gene expression in deep Mediterranean Sea water samples

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2014. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 129 (2016): 213-222, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2014.10.020.Obtaining an accurate picture of microbial processes occurring in situ is essential for our understanding of marine biogeochemical cycles of global importance. Water samples are typically collected at depth and returned to the sea surface for processing and downstream experiments. Metatranscriptome analysis is one powerful approach for investigating metabolic activities of microorganisms in their habitat and which can be informative for determining responses of microbiota to disturbances such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. For studies of microbial processes occurring in the deep sea, however, sample handling, pressure, and other changes during sample recovery can subject microorganisms to physiological changes that alter the expression profile of labile messenger RNA. Here we report a comparison of gene expression profiles for whole microbial communities in a bathypelagic water column sample collected in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea using Niskin bottle sample collection and a new water column sampler for studies of marine microbial ecology, the Microbial Sampler – In Situ Incubation Device (MS-SID). For some taxa, gene expression profiles from samples collected and preserved 33 in situ were significantly different from potentially more stressful Niskin sampling and 34 preservation on deck. Some categories of transcribed genes also appear to be affected by sample 35 handling more than others. This suggests that for future studies of marine microbial ecology, 36 particularly targeting deep sea samples, an in situ sample collection and preservation approach 37 should be considered.This research was funded by NSF OCE-1061774 to VE and CT, NSF DBI-0424599 to CT and NSF OCE-0849578 to VE and colleague J. Bernhard. Cruise participation was partially supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant STO414/10-1 to T. Stoeck

Historical Text and Historical Archaeology: Hunting the Narrative of Kievan Rus

This paper focuses on the historical narrative of Kievan Rus between 860 to 1240 and the importance of historical archaeology in order to gain a clearer understanding of its history. Very few sources written in the 9th to 13th centuries in Rus survive today. The Primary Chronicle is the most widely known and available account of the history of Rus for historians to use. However, scholars utilize the chronicle with caution because the original oldest surviving chronicle was written almost two centuries after the first dated entry. We can expect that not everything written in the chronicles was accurate and that changes would have been made. Since the Primary Chronicle is a fundamental piece of literature for historians studying the history of Kievan Rus, I will be closely examining passages from Samuel Cross’s translation of the Primary Chronicle to understand the once-official narrative and identify archaeological evidence that either supports or challenges the official narrative. I will discuss issues regarding: the so-called Norman Controversy, Khazar influence in Kiev, construction and utilization of boats, traditional Scandinavian boat graves, the organization of the city of Kiev, and literacy among non-elite townspeople

The Impact of Dynamic Furniture on Classroom Performance: A Pilot Study

The purpose of this study was to understand how dynamic classroom furniture may impact classroom performance such as attention, work neatness, and work completion in a second grade general education classroom of 19 students. All students in the classroom were included in this study to understand the implications of environmental modifications on the learning process in general education settings. A descriptive method provided information about the interaction of dynamic furniture on identified learning components. Three different dynamic furniture options were provided: Zuma chairs®, Disc‘O’Sits® (inflated seat cushions), and standing desks with the Original FootFidget®. The class was randomly divided into four groups of up to five students. The groups were rotated through the furniture, allowing one week per group with each type of furniture. The Sensory Processing Measure (Parham & Ecker, 2007) was used to screen the sensory processing of students and a daily self-report rubric provided data on attention behaviors and perception of the dynamic furniture options. Data were graphed and visually analyzed for differences in responses to types of furniture. Responses on the rubrics indicate that the different types of furniture impacted different components of learning in a variety of ways. The data from this study indicates that no one type of furniture provides the same effect for all elementary students, but rather that personal characteristics may dictate the best match for focus, work completion, and neatness