90 research outputs found
Emergence of Sri Lanka in European fish trade
No full textThis paper examines European Union (E.U.) demand for chilled fish fillets assuming product heterogeneity due to country of origin and assesses the structural adjustment in demand as indicated by the increase in imports from Sri Lanka since the tsunami in December 2004. The primary objective of this research is to assess how Sri Lanka’s fish exports affected fish exports from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda (Lake Victoria region). Although the results show no significant price competition between the Lake Victoria region and Sri Lanka, the Lake Victoria countries are clearly worse off now that Sri Lanka is a major supplier of chilled fish to the E.U. A comparison of the two periods 2001–2004 and 2007–2009 finds that in the former period, past imports of Lake Victoria fish had a positive impact on present imports, indicating that importers developed a preference for Lake Victoria fish during this time; in the latter period, this effect no longer existed. Most important is the change in the responsiveness of imports from Lake Victoria to real aggregate expenditures on imported fish in the E.U. The results show that a lesser share of aggregate expenditures is allocated to the Lake Victoria region and that the region now benefits less from an increase in aggregate expenditures.Lake Victoria, fish, imports,
Reading acts of narrative appropriation: four instances of fraudulent memoir
No full textPhDThis thesis examines acts of narrative appropriation, the telling of purportedly‘authentic’ life stories by those for whom the stories are not theirs to tell. This
misuse or subversion of genre - the discipline of historical writing and the category
of autobiography - becomes a means for cultural, social and political dissimulation,
and the analysis focuses both on the act: the event, trespass, or ‘theft’ of another’s
life story, and on the cultural meaning that this event reveals. These narrative acts
are approached theoretically through discussions of what it means to be an author, a
reader, and through the consideration of literary and social genre, category and form.
In exploring identities at particular risk of appropriation, this thesis shows how
fraudulent appropriated narratives affect our reading of the world, and in turn
influence our perception of already marginalized social groups. My primary
examples include prostitution ‘narratives’, Native North American ‘memoir,’ and
fraudulent Holocaust survivor ‘testimony,’ with each text providing decoded
evidence of ‘genre-bending’ exhibiting a social and political intent. These works
seek to be read as authentic personal narratives, as autobiography, and that is how
they have been presented to the reader. However, they are imposters – fictional tales
desiring the elevated status of historical authenticity and willing to bend the rules
and contracts of genre to achieve their end. Here the appearance of authenticity is
achieved through the use of cultural and social ‘myth,’ or perceptions of cultural
identity, and as such its fraudulent construction is first and foremost a social act,
with a social and economic motivation. As this thesis concludes, these texts are
most successful when their own political and social ideologies echo and confirm that
of the readership; when their subjects, the fraudulent ‘I’ at the center of the text is
also a performative elaboration of cultural belief
A new fireworm (Amphinomidae) from the Cretaceous of Lebanon identified from three-dimensionally preserved myoanatomy
No full textoai:nhm.openrepository.com:10141/601424© 2015 Parry et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to
the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver
(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. The attached file is the published version of the article.NHM Repositor
Book review of Xu, L. (ed.). 2021. Engaging undergraduates in primary source research
No full textThis review examines the book Engaging Undergraduates in Primary Source Research, a collection of essays edited by Lijuan Xu
Improving resource allocation and incomes in Vietnamese agriculture
No full textThis paper uses data collected in an extensive survey of farm costs in the Dong Nai River Basin of Vietnam to estimate the parameters of production functions for rice, vegetables, and coffee. These estimates are then combined with price information to estimate marginal value products for irrigation, fertilizer, labor, and other farm inputs. Comparing marginal value products of the various inputs across crops and with factor prices suggests there may be potential for improving resource allocation and farm incomes. One novel contribution is the consideration of water and irrigation—a concern of considerable interest amidst rising water scarcity in the region. Most notably, the results indicate that fertilizer is the primary constraint to increased yields and farm income. Across all crops the marginal return to phosphorous, for example, ranges from 6,000–20,000 Vietnamese dong (VND) (US$1 = VND1, 800).Making similar comparisons with irrigation water suggests there is potential for improving resource allocation by diverting water from vegetables and coffee toward rice production. The marginal return to irrigation water for rice production is VND 2,500. For coffee and vegetables, marginal returns are negative. For vegetables, preliminary evidence suggests that all irrigation water is not created equal—groundwater and sprinkler irrigation systems have marginal physical products more than double that of traditional sources.Dong Nai basin, farm input allocation, irrigation efficiency, translog production function, water allocation policy,
Identification of the date-rape drug GHB and its precursor GBL by Raman spectroscopy
No full textGamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), also known as 'liquid ecstasy', has recently become associated with drug-facilitated sexual assaults, known colloquially as 'date rape', due to the ability of the drug to cause loss of consciousness. The drug is commonly found 'spiked' into alcoholic beverages, as alcohol increases its sedative effects. Gamma hydroxybutyric acid and the corresponding lactone gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) will reach an equilibrium in solution which favours the lactone in basic conditions and GHB in acidic conditions (less than pH 4). Therefore, we have studied both GHB and GBL, as amildly acidic beverage 'spiked' with GHB will contain both GHB and GBL. We report the analysis of GHB as a sodium salt and GBL, its precursor, using bench-top and portable Raman spectroscopy. It has been demonstrated that we are able to detect GHB and GBL in a variety of containers including colourless and amber glass vials, plastic vials and polythene bags. We have also demonstrated the ability to detect both GBL and GHB in a range of liquid matrices simulating 'spiked' beverages. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Mountains, global food prices, and food security in the developing world
No full textThis study explores the differences between mountain and non-mountain countries in food security and its determinants. Econometric analysis shows that mountain regions are likely to have lower food security. The findings suggest that people in mountain countries are especially affected by external shocks such as surges in global food prices. The results of regression decomposition indicate that the disparity in food availability we observed between mountain and non-mountain countries can be explained by differences in population size, income, road density, and governance factors as well as by a differential impact of external price shocks. The direct impacts of geographic and agroecological factors seem rather limited.altitude, Developing countries, food security, global food prices, mountain regions,
Infrastructure and cluster development
No full textRural nonfarm development plays a key role in generating employment in many developing countries. Clustering is an important form of industrial organization in the rural nonfarm sector. Based on a primary survey of both urban and rural handloom weaver clusters in Ethiopia, one of the country’s most important rural nonfarm sectors, this paper examines the mechanism and performance of clustering. That cluster-based handloom production survives even in remote rural areas illustrates its vitality in restricted environments. In the absence of financial institutions, clustered producers set up interconnected trade credit linkages to ease working capital constraints. Moreover, geographical clustering enables entrepreneurs with limited capital to enter the business through shared workspaces and fine division of labor. Despite the viability of the clustering model of production operating in harsh environments, an improvement in infrastructure can further enhance firm performance in a cluster. Our survey indicates that producers in electrified towns work longer hours than those in towns without electricity. In addition, the rental cost of shared lit workspaces is minimal, attracting more poor entrepreneurs to participate in handloom production than would otherwise be possible.Development strategies, handloom weavers, industrial clustering, productivity,
Country-level impact of global recession and China’s stimulus package
No full textA dynamic computable general equilibrium model is developed to assess the impact of the recent global recession and the Chinese government’s stimulus package on China’s economic growth. The model is first used to capture the actual sector-level economic growth in 2008 and the possible economic performance in 2009 without the intervention of the Chinese government through its stimulus package. Under this global recession scenario, the GDP growth rate in 2009 falls to 2.9 percent mainly as a result of the sharp drop in exports of manufactured goods, while the agricultural sector is more crisis-resilient. Because export-oriented manufacturing sectors are often import-intensive, the weakened economy is accompanied by a reduction in Chinese firms’ import demand for materials, intermediates, and capital goods. The model also shows that without government intervention, the negative effect of a one-year shock on the Chinese economy would last for many years. Also, over the next five to six years, China is unlikely to replicate its strong economic performance of the past two decades. China’s stimulus package is modeled through increased investment financed by government resources. With additional demand on investment goods, growth in the investment-related production sector is stimulated. Through the cross-sector linkages in a general equilibrium model, the demand for other noncapital goods increases, thus stimulating growth in these sectors. As production of more industrialized sectors starts to grow, so will households’ income and consumption, providing market opportunities for those agricultural and service sectors that mainly produce for the domestic market. Under the stimulus scenario, the Chinese economy is expected to grow 8–10 percent in 2009 and the succeeding years. The growth engine in this case differs from that before 2008: growth is led by domestic demand, while trade still falls significantly in 2009 (instead of the double-digit growth before 2008). Domestic demand-driven stimulus growth creates jobs, and hence it increases income for both urban and rural households. The model is also used to measure the overall gains of the stimulus package by comparing GDP between the two scenarios. Without considering the productivity-enhancing role of public investment as part of the stimulus package (which is important for long-term growth but unlikely to happen in the short run), the cumulative difference of the GDP between the two scenarios over the next seven years is about RMB76 trillion, which is about three times more than the GDP in 2007.China stimulus package, Development strategies, general equilibrium modeling, global financial crisis,
MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 70, No. 02, January 15, 2021
No full textCancer Screening Test Receipt \u2014 United States, 2018/ Susan A. Sabatino; Trevor D. Thompson; Mary C. White; Jean A. Shapiro; Janet de Moor; \u2013 CDC\u2019s Emergency Management Program Activities \u2014 Worldwide, 2013\u20132018 / Adriana Rico; Cecelia A. Sanders; Amber S. Broughton; Melanie Andrews; Francis A. Bader1; David L. Maples; \u2013 Assessment of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Surveillance \u2014 Pennsylvania, 2019 / Kathleen H. Krause; Joann F. Gruber; Elizabeth C. Ailes; Kayla N. Anderson; Victoria L. Fields; Kimberlea Hauser; Callie L. Howells; Allison Longenberger; \u2013 Allergic Reactions Including Anaphylaxis After Receipt of the First Dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine \u2014 United States, December 14\u201323, 2020 / CDC COVID-19 Response Team; Food and Drug Administration \u2013 Rates of COVID-19 Among Residents and Staff Members in Nursing Homes \u2014 United States, May 25\u2013November 22, 2020 / Suparna Bagchi; Josephine Mak; Qunna Li; Edward Sheriff; Elisabeth Mungai; Angela Anttila; Minn Minn Soe; Jonathan R. Edwards; Andrea L. Benin; \u2013 Candida auris Outbreak in a COVID-19 Specialty Care Unit \u2014 Florida, July\u2013August 2020 / Christopher Prestel; Erica Anderson; Kaitlin Forsberg; Meghan Lyman; Marie A. de Perio; David Kuhar; \u2013 Mitigation Policies and COVID-19\u2013Associated Mortality \u2014 37 European Countries, January 23\u2013June 30, 2020 / James A. Fuller; Avi Hakim; Kerton R. Victory; Kashmira Date; Michael Lynch; Benjamin; Olga Henao; CDC COVID-19 Response \u2013 Erratum: Vol. 69, No. 49 \u2013 QuickStats: Percentage of Women Aged 22\u201344 Years Who Have Ever Cohabited with an Opposite-Sex Partner, by Education \u2014 National Survey of Family Growth, United States, 2006\u20132010 and 2015\u20132019
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