Adjusting to the New Trade and Environmental Paradigm: The Case of the Philippines

The story of the Philippine environment during the past two decades is one of growing stress and resource degradation that has recently forced the Philippine polity and society to resolve the problem. This paper seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the issue of sustainable development by exploring the linkage between environment and trade both domestically and internationally from the Philippine perspective.natural resources and environment, trade sector, liberalization, environmental issues

Structural Change in Tail Behavior and the Asian Financial Crisis

This paper explores tests of the hypothesis that the tail thickness of a distribution is constant over time. Using Hill's conditional maximum likelihood estimator for the tail index of a distribution, tests of tail shape constancy are constructed that allow for an unknown breakpoint. The recursive test is shown to be inconsistent in one direction, and only a one-sided test is recommended. Specifically, the test can be used when the alternative hypothesis is that the tail index decreases over time. A rolling and sequential version of the test is consistent in both directions. The methods are illustrated on recent stock price data for Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The period covers the recent Asian financial crisis and enables us to assess whether breakpoints in domestic asset return distributions are related to known changes in institutional arrangements in the foreign currency markets of these countries.Extreme value theory, Hill estimator, Structural change, Tail index estimation

Parental engagement as a 'boundary practice' in a classroom community of practice : implications for Latina/o students' mathematical learning

Este texto se presentó como comunicación al II Congreso Internacional de Etnografía y Educación: Migraciones y Ciudadanías. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, 5-8 Septiembre 2008.Urban education is in need of practices that break down the hierarchical and hegemonic relations that often characterize parental involvement in U.S. schools, particularly in minoritized communities. Within the framework of communities of practice, the concept of Boundary practices (Wegner, 1998) addresses the connection or disconnection, inclusion or exclusion, between members of two or more communities. In this case, our analysis describes how some practices afford the inclusion of family members and their funds of knowledge, while others exclude them from legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wegner, 1991). Embedded in this analysis are the historical inequities of opportunity and unequal power relations. We underscore the key role that legitimate and peripheral access in a community plays for students' mathematical learning and the inclusion of their families. This research uses case studies to bridge local particulars to the abstract social phenomenon of learning practices. We use ethnographic tools to collect the data and an analysis based on grounded theory to explore the emergent themes. The research takes place in a fifth-grade classroom in an urban elementary school in the southwest United States, in which ninety percent of the students are of Latino background and almost seventy percent receive free or reduced lunch. In this paper we present the boundary practices using one of the case studies developed, Yessenia and her mother, Lorena. Yessenia is a ten year old Mexican immigrant who arrived to the United States as an infant with her mother and her older sister.Our data suggest that the nature of the community of practice plays a critical role in the engagement of parents in their children's mathematics education. In this particular case, the inclusion of Spanish, a collaborative community, and the negotiation of mathematical meanings to read the world facilitate the inclusion of parents. This case study aids us to decenter the notion of parental engagement and focuses on the nature and history of the community, as well as the identities of the participants. The view of learning of mathematics as participation in particular communities brings to the forefront issues of power. There is an imminent need of mathematical practices that include learning as active participation and a view of mathematics as a cultural activity that draws on the resources of members of different communities. The transformation of current oppressing structures of power within the school system requires the inclusion of those who care most for students

Structural Change Tests in Tail Behaviour and the Asian Crisis

This paper explores tests of the hypothesis that the tail thickness of a distribution is constant over time. Using Hill's conditional maximum likelihood estimator for the tail index of a distribution, tests of tail shape constancy are constructed that allow for an unknown breakpoint. The recursive test IS shown to be inconsistent in one direction, and only a one-sided test is recommended. Specifically, the test can be used when the alternative hypothesis is that the tail index decreases over time. A rolling and sequential version of the test is consistent in both directions. The methods are illustrated on recent stock price data for Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The period covers the recent Asian financial crisis and enables us to assess whether breakpoints in domestic asset return distributions are related to known changes in institutional arrangements in the foreign currency markets of these countries.Statistics Working Papers Serie

ANÁLISIS DEL CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO DE LA REGIÓN DE ZUMPANGO DE OCAMPO, ESTADO DE MÉXICO COMO BASE DEL DESARROLLO REGIONAL

De acuerdo con la ONU, cambio climático es un cambio atribuido directa o indirectamente a la actividad humana, que altera la composición de la atmosfera mundial y que se suma a la variabilidad natural del clima observada durante periodos de tiempo comparables. El sistema de lagos del Valle de México, formado por los lagos de Texcoco, Zumpango, Xochimilco, Chalco y Xaltocan, permitía la transferencia de masa-energía, base del sostenimiento de la biodiversidad entre los diferentes ambientes lagunares. Actualmente uno de los puntos reguladores de las aguas que inundan la Ciudad de México es la Laguna de Zumpango. En el año de 1976 se inicia el Proyecto Los Insurgentes que consistió en la transferencia de agua residual del Valle de México, a la región Noreste del Estado de México, utilizando la Laguna de Zumpango como centro receptor para ampliar la zona de riego periférica, considerada prioritaria en los planes hidráulicos; en 1978 y derivado de las obras hidráulicas, la laguna es desecada. Posteriormente es reactivada con la descarga de aguas residuales; la introducción de agua residual trajo como consecuencia la proliferación de lirio acuático, por lo que en 1997 fue desecada nuevamente con el fin de erradicar el lirio. En contraparte, los lagos de Xochimilco y Chalco eran alimentados por manantiales, que eran utilizados para la agricultura, mientras los excedentes escurrían hacia el lago de Texcoco de tipo salobre; los lagos de Zumpango y Xaltocan drenaban sólo estacionalmente al lago de Texcoco y sus aguas son salobres pero en menor cantidad que Texcoco. Toda esta dinámica hidrológica regional ha sido modificada por los asentamientos humanos, la pregunta es si estos cambios han apoyado al desarrollo del Valle de México, o por el contrario, lo condicionan. En este trabajo se determinaron los valores característicos de las variables meteorológicas de Temperatura, Evaporación y Precipitación en Zumpango de Ocampo, asociados a periodo de tiempo (TR), en dos periodos distintos (años 70´s y 2000), para comparar sus comportamientos y determinar si el cambio climático es detectable en la zona, y si es asociable al patrón de desarrollo del municipio

Relationship Between the Youth’s Perspectives on Suicide and Their Suicide-Related Experiences

This study sought to determine if there is a relationship between the suicide experiences of the youth (no prior suicide experience, experience of suicide ideation but not attempts, and experience of suicide attempts) and their perspectives on suicide. Undergraduate university students (n=308) were engaged as participants in the study. Data were obtained through a survey questionnaire and were analyzed through correlational tests. Findings showed a very salient divide in the perspectives about suicide between those with no prior suicide experience and those with experience of suicide attempts. The former tend to have very conservative views on suicide to the point that they prefer not to talk about the topic and downplay the prevalence of the phenomenon but nonetheless believe that it is a human duty to stop someone from committing suicide. The latter tend to have very liberal views that lean towards the acceptance of suicide and assisted suicide. These two groups and their diverging views present two possibilities that Philippine society may take. On one hand, suicide maybe downplayed as an issue but may nonetheless have the people with the right conviction necessary for suicide prevention. On the other hand, suicide and assisted suicide may be more accepted in Philippine society such that socio-cultural, legal, and medical impediments to the act may be relaxed. The direction of suicide-related responses, including legislation and regulation/prevention, that Philippine society will eventually take may be dependent on how prevalent suicide attempts will be in the succeeding years

Social construction of suicide in the Philippines based on the perspectives of undergraduate students from two universities in Metro Manila

A total of 308 undergraduate students from a sectarian, predominantly middle and upper-middle socio-economic class university (n=139) and a stateowned, non-sectarian, predominantly lower socio-economic class university (n=169) were engaged in a survey research that attempted to understand their perceptions on suicide as a phenomenon. Results indicate that the students from the two universities are very similar in their social constructions of the reality of suicide among the Filipino youth: they believe that suicide is primarily due to depression and other mental illnesses, that majority of young Filipinos have thought of suicide at least once, and that almost 1 out of every 3 has attempted the act. While they generally maintain that all members of the youth are at-risk of suicide, many also believe that the risk is particularly high for youth exposed to violence and members of the LGBT. They also tend to believe that suicide is a cry for help and that they are willing, capable, and even duty-bound to help in cases of suicide. The students believe that suicide is a topic often considered taboo in the Philippines but one that needs to be a part of more conversations. Finally, the students are generally undecided on the acceptability of suicide but also disagree with the notion that suicide can never be justified. The findings suggest that the Philippines, particularly its youth, may be ready for conversations and mobilizations in favor of suicide prevention but are still unprepared for the premise of suicide and assisted  suicide as justifiable actions