The level of occlusion of included bark affects the strength of bifurcations in hazel (Corylus avellana L.)

Bark-included junctions in trees are considered a defect as the bark weakens the union between the branches. To more accurately assess this weakening effect, 241 bifurcations from young specimens of hazel (Corylus avellana L.), of which 106 had bark inclusions, were harvested and subjected to rupture tests. Three-point bending of the smaller branches acted as a benchmark for the relative strength of the bifurcations. Bifurcations with included bark failed at higher displacements, and their modulus of rupture was 24% lower than normally formed bifurcations, while stepwise regression showed that the best predictors of strength in these bark-included bifurcations were the diameter ratio and width of the bark inclusion, which explained 16.6% and 8.1% of the variability, respectively. Cup-shaped, bark-included bifurcations where included bark was partially occluded by xylem were found, on average, to be 36% stronger than those, where included bark was situated at the bifurcation apex. These findings show that there are significant gradations in the strength of bark-included bifurcations in juvenile hazel trees that relate directly to the level of occlusion of the bark into the bifurcation. It therefore may be possible to assess the extent of the defect that a bark-included bifurcation represents in a tree by assessing the relative level of occlusion of the included bark

The Korean consumer electronics industry : reaction to antidumping actions

Antidumping actions by importing countries do not protect their consumers. What protects domestic consumers is competition. It is Korean consumers who are paying for the development of the Korean electronics industry, not consumers in the countries that import Korean goods. A key element of Korea's industrial development strategy has been to maintain stringent import restrictions while promoting the development of a few large domestic firms. The author strongly stresses the need to implement progressive import liberalization policies that will allow foreign competition in the Korean market. Import policy regimes in exporting countries have played a critical role in creating an environment that makes it possible for profit-maximizing firms to follow a price-discriminating marketing strategy. Progressive liberalization will eliminate the incentive for following such a marketing strategy as monopoly profits are slowly eroded.Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets

Asia’s Strategic Participation in the Group of 20 for Global Economic Governance Reform: From the Perspective of International Trade

After considering the background to the G20 summit meetings after the recent global economic and financial crisis, this paper aims to identify the trade agenda that represents Asia’s concerns for the global and regional trading system. Asia, in particular East Asia, has played an important role in evolving the global production and trade networks. The regional production network in East Asia became the major transmission mechanism of the crisis, resulting in a trade collapse, but Asia experienced a relatively quick rebound, demonstrating that its network was not derailed. Asian economies have also shifted their policy focus from multilateralism to regionalism, even though there are several challenges such as underuse and a shallowness of their regional trade agreements. This paper recommends that the Seoul Summit seek tangible results on resolving the stalemate of the Doha Development Agenda to strengthen the credibility of G20, integrate individual free trade agreements into broader regional trade agreements, and link the development agenda to trade.global governance and Group of Twenty (G20); international and regional trade; global and regional production networks; global and regional trade systems

A Bark Thickness Model for White Spruce in Alaska Northern Forests

Here we developed a simple linear model to estimate white spruce bark thickness in the northern forests of Alaska. Data were collected from six areas throughout interior and southcentral Alaska. Geographic variation of bark thickness was tested between the Alaska statewide model and for each geographic area. The results show that the Alaska statewide model is accurate, simple, and robust, and has no practical geographic variation over the six areas. The model provides accurate estimates of the bark thickness for white spruce trees in Alaska for a wide array of future studies, and it is in demand by landowners and forest managers to support their management decisions.We are obligated to Carol E. Lewis and Edmond C. Packee for supporting this bark thickness research. This research was also supported in part by the United States Department of Agriculture, McIntire-Stennis Act Fund ALK-03-12, and by the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks.We thank the associate editor, Han Chen, and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments

Industrial portfolio responses to macroeconomic shocks : an econometric model for developing countries

This study identifies the macro conditions under which industrial growth and financial stability are most likely, and those conditions which are most prone to create disaster. The paper models interest rates, exchange rates, and aggregate demand conditions as affecting industrial growth and financial risk through two channels. First, because these variables affect firms'income, they affect firms net worth expansion. Second, because the link between macro variables and income depends upon the proportions in which firms hold fixed capital, inventories, financial assets, and debts, changes in macro variables also induce portfolio adjustments. The paper then develops an empirical model which allows one to calibrate the strength and timing of each effect. The paper is composed of two sections; one to develop the model, and one to report an application to Uruguayan data. There is also a brief summary section.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Banks&Banking Reform,Fiscal&Monetary Policy

Oviposition by \u3ci\u3eDendrosoter Protuberans\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) on Larvae of \u3ci\u3eScolytus Multistriatus\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) Occupied by Larvae of \u3ci\u3eEntedon Leucogramma\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae)

Dendrosoter protuberans (Nees) was introduced into the United States from France as a possible addition to the existing spectrum of hymenopterous parasites of the smaller European elm bark beetle, Scolytus multistriarus (Marsham). D. protuberans is an external parasite; it oviposits through bark onto or next to late-instar larvae of S. multistriatus (Kennedy 1970) (Fig. 1)

Speaker Normalization Methods for Vowel Cognition: Comparative Analysis Using Neural Network and Nearest Neighbor Classifiers

Intrinsic and extrinsic speaker normalization methods are systematically compared using a neural network (fuzzy ARTMAP) and L1 and L2 K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) categorizers trained and tested on disjoint sets of speakers of the Peterson-Barney vowel database. Intrinsic methods include one nonscaled, four psychophysical scales (bark, bark with endcorrection, mel, ERB), and three log scales, each tested on four combinations of F0 , F1, F2, F3. Extrinsic methods include four speaker adaptation schemes, each combined with the 32 intrinsic methods: centroid subtraction across all frequencies (CS), centroid subtraction for each frequency (CSi), linear scale (LS), and linear transformation (LT). ARTMAP and KNN show similar trends, with K-NN performing better, but requiring about ten times as much memory. The optimal intrinsic normalization method is bark scale, or bark with endcorrection, using the differences between all frequencies (Diff All). The order of performance for the extrinsic methods is LT, CSi, LS, and CS, with fuzzy ARTMAP performing best using bark scale with Diff All; and K-NN choosing psychophysical measures for all except CSi.British Petroleum (89-A-1204); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (AFOSR-90-0083, ONR-N00014-92-J-4015); National Science Foundation (IRI-90-00530); Office of Naval Research (N00014-91-J-4100); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-92-J-0225

Evaluation of Speaker Normalization Methods for Vowel Recognition Using Fuzzy ARTMAP and K-NN

A procedure that uses fuzzy ARTMAP and K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) categorizers to evaluate intrinsic and extrinsic speaker normalization methods is described. Each classifier is trained on preprocessed, or normalized, vowel tokens from about 30% of the speakers of the Peterson-Barney database, then tested on data from the remaining speakers. Intrinsic normalization methods included one nonscaled, four psychophysical scales (bark, bark with end-correction, mel, ERB), and three log scales, each tested on four different combinations of the fundamental (Fo) and the formants (F1 , F2, F3). For each scale and frequency combination, four extrinsic speaker adaptation schemes were tested: centroid subtraction across all frequencies (CS), centroid subtraction for each frequency (CSi), linear scale (LS), and linear transformation (LT). A total of 32 intrinsic and 128 extrinsic methods were thus compared. Fuzzy ARTMAP and K-NN showed similar trends, with K-NN performing somewhat better and fuzzy ARTMAP requiring about 1/10 as much memory. The optimal intrinsic normalization method was bark scale, or bark with end-correction, using the differences between all frequencies (Diff All). The order of performance for the extrinsic methods was LT, CSi, LS, and CS, with fuzzy AHTMAP performing best using bark scale with Diff All; and K-NN choosing psychophysical measures for all except CSi.British Petroleum (89-A-1204); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (AFOSR-90-0083, ONR-N00014-92-J-4015); National Science Foundation (IRI-90-00530); Office of Naval Research (N00014-91-J-4100); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-92-J-0225