The Economics of Kappaphycus Seaweed Cultivation in Developing Countries: A Comparative Analysis of Farming Systems

The farming of the red seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii and related species as raw material for the hydrocolloid carrageenan rapidly spread from the Philippines in the late 1960s to Indonesia, Tanzania, and other tropical countries around the world. Although numerous studies have documented positive socioeconomic impacts for seaweed farming, factors such as diseases and distance to export markets have led to an uneven development of the industry. Using standard budgeting techniques, this study adapted production and market data from a FAO-led global review of seaweed farming to develop comparative enterprise budgets for eight farming systems in six countries (Indonesia, the Philippines, Tanzania, India, Solomon Islands, and Mexico). Although the basic technology package is the same across countries, the study revealed large differences in the economic performance of systems due to wide variations in farm prices and the scale of operations. Although seaweed farming is a suitable activity for small-scale producers, a minimum of 2,000m of cultures lines are still necessary to ensure adequate economic returns. Greater farming plots may be needed if farm prices are well below the average farm prices paid in Indonesia and the Philippines. Policy recommendations are made to improve the economic potential of underperforming systems

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

26th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS*2017): Part 3 - Meeting Abstracts - Antwerp, Belgium. 15–20 July 2017

This work was produced as part of the activities of FAPESP Research,\ud Disseminations and Innovation Center for Neuromathematics (grant\ud 2013/07699-0, S. Paulo Research Foundation). NLK is supported by a\ud FAPESP postdoctoral fellowship (grant 2016/03855-5). ACR is partially\ud supported by a CNPq fellowship (grant 306251/2014-0)

An Economic Analysis of Canadian Language Policies

SOMMAIRE Une analyse économique des politiques linguistiques Canadiens La motivation pour l'apprentissage d'une langue seconde varie selon les individus; à certains elle donne une satisfaction immédiate, alors que d'autres doivent attendre leur récompense. Si la satisfaction est immédiate, la langue seconde est comparable à un bien de consommation; si elle est reportée, il s'agit alors d'un investissement. Cette analyse économique est utilisée pour analyser la planification du français en tant que langage internationale ou comme langue officielle du Canada. Il semble que l'économie puisse contribuer à une théorie de la planification. Les politiques pour défacer l'offre et la demande des languages sont comparées pour leur impact potentiel. Cet article prétend que la demande apparaît comme une variable de politique plus efficace que l'offre, mais qu'elle est difficile à modifier en dehors des juridictions politiques. Le déclin du français comme langue internationale suggère que l'offre seule n'est pas efficace. Influencer à la fois l'offre et la demande et fournir des fonds publics en grand quantité ne suffisent peut être pas à contrer les forces du marché. Une première conclusion tirée de l'expérience canadienne montre que les politiques linguistiques et les fonds public peuvent modifier les courbes, mais à un coût très élevé. De plus les forces du marché qui poussent à la concentration linguistique apparaissent irréversibles. RESUMO Ekonomia analizo de kanadaj lingvaj politikoj Motivigo al lernado de dua lingvo varias laû la individuoj; kelkaj trovas lernadon de dua lingvo tuj kontentiga, dum aliaj atendas, ke la rekompenco venos en la estonteco. Se venas tuj a kontentigo, la dua lingvo similas konsuman varon; se la tempohorizonto plilongas, temas pri investo. Tian ekonomian analizon oni uzas por analizi t.n. status-planadon de la franca lingvo, ĉu kiel internacia lingvo ĉu kiel oficiala lingvo de Kanado. Oni espEras, ke ekonomiko povas kontribui al teorio de statusplanado. Oni komparas politikojn, kiuj celas sangi la postulon kaj liveron de lingvoj, laŭ ilia eventuala efiko. La artikolo argumentas, ke postulo sajnas esti pli efikoplena politika varianto ol livero, sed ke oni malfacile influas ĝin ekster politikaj jurisdikcioj. La malfortigo de la franca lingvo kiel internacia lingvo implicas, ke livero sola ne estas efika. Ec se oni influas kaj postulon kaj liveron, kaj disponigas senliman publikan financan subtenon, tio eventuale nesufĉas por kontraŭi merkatajn fortojn. Provizore oni povas konkludi el la kanada sperto, ke lingvaj politikoj kaj publika financado povas kaŭzi lingvajn moviĝojn, sed nur je alta kosto. Krome, merkataj fortoj, kiuj direktiĝas al lingva kon-centrado, sajnas nehaltigeblaj.</jats:p