68 research outputs found
Biological Control of the Coconut Moth, Batrachedra arenosella by Chelonus Parasites in Indonesia
An experiment was conducted on the island of Flora, Indonesia, to test for biological control of the coconut moth, Batrachedra arenosella Walker, by introducing the braconid parasite Chelonus sp. Six and twelve months after releasing S gravid females of Chelonus per 4 ha of moth-infested coconuts, the percentage infection of the host pupae, the distribution capacity and the population density of the parasites were determined at 0,50 and 100 m from the point of release. The results of the experiment show that the percentage of parasitized host pupae and population density of the parasite 0 and 50 m from the point of release were approximately twice that found at 100 m. This suggests a slow outward spread of the parasite from its point of introduction. There were only slight increases after 12 months in these parameters and in the percentage of spathes where Chelonus was found when compared with results after 6 months. These results suggest that the parasite has become established but spreads out slowly from its point of introduction. There was only a slight reduction in pest population following release of the parasite during the 12-month period
Finding the right institutional and legal framework for community-based natural forest management: the Tanzanian case
As community involvement in natural forest management expands and matures, the need to lodge the rights and obligations of both state and community in workable and legally binding institutional frameworks becomes more pressing. This is particularly so where power and authority are being redistributed. This publication looks specifically at Tanzania, where forest-local communities are beginning to be designated as the management authority of particular woodlands and, in some cases, even their owners. Positive results are giving considerable support to community-based management as the forest management strategy of choice. Implementation has of necessity also prompted a search for accessible mechanisms through which community authority may be embedded legally. The author argues that, in this respect, Tanzania has an advantage over many sub-Saharan African states in the unusual manner of legal identity granted to rural communities, and in supporting administrative and land laws which provide for village-based control over natural resource management. Specific elements explored include the fact that rural villages in Tanzania are recognised as a formal level of government, endowed thereby with certain rights and obligations; that the rural village may attain legal corporate status allowing it, inter alia, to own and manage property in ways accountable in a court of law; and that property law provides for a modern, statutory version of communal tenure, within the bounds and accountability of a private legal person. Wily provides a step-by-step guide to the ways in which a forest-adjacent community may secure custodianship over a local natural forest, whether it be an already gazetted Forest Reserve or public land forest, and be held accountable for sound conservationary management
Implementing the market approach to enterprise support - an evaluation of ten matching grant schemes
Developing viable new business is critical to recovery, and long-term growth, especially in transition economies. There has been a long history of public support of enterprise development, starting with centralized state agency initiatives, but moving more recently to decentralized instruments for development of the business services market. The window of time during which the benefits of intervention are likely to be greatest: when a market is in its infancy, and its development is constrained by uncertainty, and lack of information. Interventions for enterprise support should be demand-responsive, and flexibly organized. In some circumstances, centralized assistance may still be effective, but it is generally better to use competitive private service providers responding to enterprises'changing needs. The main task is to stimulate the private services sector, improving its capacity to respond to the demands of new, and expanding private enterprises. Support for enterprises has tended to be either free, or heavily subsidized. But such subsidies can be justified only if interventions efficiently supply goods. Providing technical, and management know-how can be a public good if it generates externalities- if, for example, know-how benefits can be disseminated at proportionately low additional cost. Any subsidy for an intervention should be temporary, and should be phased out when the main objective of intervention is achieved - that is, when the market takes off. Grants should generally be for know-how, not for equipment. There may be a case for unbundling the know-how component of loans (including feasibility studies, and follow-up expert services) for grant funding. A package combining loans and grants - through a single financial institution, or through separate institutions - may work provided safeguards can be put in place to prevent perverse use of grants. The matching grant model, which is used increasingly in the World Bank, and elsewhere, is one solution - but it must be justified, and carefully designed. After evaluating ten matching grant funds, the author concludes that performance is mixed. Best practice models are needed. Ensuring economic benefits requires proactive management, with clear objectives of market facilitation ("making a market"). And it requires a balance between rapid grant approval procedures, and careful selection of services for grants.Economic Theory&Research,Decentralization,Enterprise Development&Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Health Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,ICT Policy and Strategies
A seal named Patches
Scientists Roxanne Beltran and Patrick Robinson set off on a polar adventure, traveling to Antarctica to study the lives of Weddell seals. By finding Patches, a wily seal they've been tracking since birth, they'll be able to learn a lot about how much the seals get to eat and how many pups they raise. A Seal Named Patches takes young readers to the very bottom of the globe, where they meet the animals that live in cold, icy conditions. Through photos and real-life stories, young readers will learn about how scientists do fieldwork, the challenges of researching animals in harsh climates, what it's like to fly in a helicopter over Antarctica
Lyric in Rome
But Horace steals the stage not just because, thanks to the vagaries of transmission, his texts are isolated, or because of his outstanding quality and artistic personality. His carmina (poems or songs) are isolated because of authorial choice and conscious, sometimes wily, self-positioning. He is a canonical author because he wants to be canonised. This is clearly a self-conscious difference vis-à-vis his Greek predecessors. Alcaeus and Pindar must have been competitive and aggressive in their own way, but the whole idea of a canon is dependent on a world of letters based on critics, wide readership, book trade, anthologies and schools, something that came into existence through a much later process, in the centuries between Isocrates and Meleager
Paper is White
A woman's clandestine entanglement with a wily Holocaust survivor leads to a search for buried history that changes the future.Intro -- Advance Praise for Paper is White -- Titlepage -- Dedication -- Paper is White -- About the Author -- Acknowledgments -- Copyright -- About BywaterA woman's clandestine entanglement with a wily Holocaust survivor leads to a search for buried history that changes the future.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
How adverse selection affects the health insurance market
Adverse selection can be defined as strategic behavior by the more informed partner in a contract against the interest of the less informed partner(s). In the health insurance field, this manifests itself through healthy people choosing managed care and less healthy people choosing more generous plans. Drawing on theoretical literature on the problem of adverse selection in the health insurance market, the author synthesizes concepts developed piecemeal over more than 20 years, using two examples and revisiting the classical contribution of Rothschild and Stiglitz. He highlights key insights, especially from the literature on"equilibrium refinements"and on the theory of"second best."The government can correct spontaneous market dynamics in the health insurance market by directly subsidizing insurance or through regulation; the two forms of intervention provide different results. Providing partial public insurance, even supplemented by the possibility of opting out, can lead to second-best equilibria. The same result holds as long as the government can subsidize contracts with higher-than-average premium-benefit ratios and can tax contracts with lower-than-average premium-benefit ratios. The author analyzes the following policy options relating to the public provision of insurance: a) Full public insurance. b) Partial public insurance with or without the possibility of acquiring supplementary insurance and with or without the possibility of opting out. In recent plans implemented in Germany and the Netherlands, where competition among several health funds and insurance companies was promoted, a public fund was created to discourage risk screening practices by providing the necessary compensation across riks groups. But only"objective"risk adjusters (such as age, gender, and region) were used to decide which contracts to subsidize. Those criteria alone cannot correct the effects of adverse selection. Regulation can exacerbate the problem of adverse selection and lead to chronic market instability, so certain steps must be taken to prevent risk screening and preserve competition for the market. The author considers the following three policy options for regulating the private insurance market: 1) A standard contract with full coverage. 2) Imposition of a minimum insurance requirement. 3) Imposition of premium rate restrictions.Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Insurance Law,Financial Intermediation
A direct A.C. to A.C. regenerative frequency and voltage converter
Includes bibliographical references.The reliable variable speed operation of an a. c. machine over a wide speed range is a problem that has received attention for some time. In this thesis a system to permit such operation from a fixed frequency fixed voltage supply is proposed, under the name of the asynchronous modulation converter. This converter is of the cycloconverter family, but is force-commutated and is not synchronised with the supply frequency. The power switching element comprises a power transistor in a diode bridge, coupled to the control circuitry by opto-isolators. The output of the a-mod converter is produced by a "chopper" modulation process and this results in the harmonics present being at frequencies well removed from the fundamental. A feedback system to ensure smooth commutation of the output current from the power switches is described. This feedback system operates by sensing the rate of rise of the inductive voltage surge on the load when a switch is opened to operate a freewheel path switch
SENI KOLOPETONG TASIKMALAYA: RELASI ARAK-ARAKAN, PENCAK SILAT DAN SISINGAAN
Kolopetong art is an art originating from the Cisayong
Tasikmalaya area. This art basically combines the arts of Penca
and Sisingaan. Kolopetong as an art that not many researchers
have written and described sparked the author to make it the
purpose of phenomenological studies. The choice is based on the
fact that phenomenology is generally known as an approach that
sees an event speaking as it is. Kolopetong, as a newly recognized
art form in Tasikmalaya, is closely related to the tradition of
processions. In the current context, processions are generally
synonymous with the independence ceremony of the Republic of
Indonesia, or other events that are massive, large, related to the
anniversary of the city. Kolopetong art as a new entity in
Tasikmalaya shows that cultural creativity derived from existing
traditional arts gives rise to new entertainment for the
community
A Comparative Analysis of the Equity Outcomes in Three Sugarcane–Ethanol Systems
This article identifies equity outcomes associated with three biofuel systems in Brazil, Ethiopia, and Guatemala. Acknowledging that winners and losers are socially and politically generated, the article identifies some of the factors behind the distribution of winners and losers along different stages of three sugarcane–ethanol supply chains. Analyzing the outcomes for equity within each case study reveals an uneven distribution that, we argue, is related to the procedure and structure of the given sugarcane–ethanol system, and the recognition of the impacts on different actors within those structures. Increasing equity in sugarcane–ethanol systems will require greater openness in decision-making processes, in order that multiple voices are taken into account in the promotion, production, and consumption of biofuels—particularly those of smaller and less powerful actors
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