Workers’ Remittances and Economic Growth in the Philippines

This paper considers the present issues surrounding the role of workers remittances and its contribution/effect on economic growth and development. In particular, this paper focuses on how such remittances have been able to spur development and growth. As a case study, the paper focuses on the Philippines, one of the countries in the world with a long history of sending workers abroad. In 2005, the Philippines received approximately US$11Bn of remittances, almost 10% of its GDP. It ranks as the 3rd largest recipient of remittances in the world after India and Mexico. Along this line, the paper looks into the following areas: (a) remittance and overall growth, (b) linkages between remittances and microfinance, (c) tracing the contribution of remittances to countryside development, and (d) relationship between worker remittances and structural reform policies. We are also concerned at how these remittances have impacted the poor in general. This is important as the expected benefits have generally been unfelt at the level of the poor. We hypothesize that workers’ remittance have not been properly utilized into productive and investment uses in the Philippines. There are strong anecdotal evidences that show that most of these resources are being used to fund conspicuous consumption. Hence, we would like to find ways where these resources can be harnessed into funding development needs of the country.Remittances, Development, Migrant Workers

Modelling and regulation of dual-output LCLC resonant converters

The analysis, design and control of 4th-order LCLC voltage-output series-parallel resonant converters (SPRCs) for the provision of multiple regulated outputs, is described. Specifically, state-variable concepts are employed and new analysis techniques are developed to establish operating mode boundaries with which to describe the internal behaviour of a dual-output resonant converter topology. The designer is guided through the most important criteria for realising a satisfactory converter, and the impact of parameter choices on performance is explored. Predictions from the resulting models are compared with those obtained from SPICE simulations and measurements from a prototype power supply under closed loop control

Analysis and control of dual-output LCLC resonant converters, and the impact of leakage inductance

The analysis, design and control of 4th-order LCLC voltage-output series-parallel resonant converters (SPRCs) for the provision of multiple regulated outputs, is described. Specifically, state-variable concepts are developed to establish operating mode boundaries with which to describe the internal behaviour of dual-output resonant converters, and the impact of output leakage inductance. The resulting models are compared with those obtained from SPICE simulations and measurements from a prototype power supply under closed loop control to verify the analysis, modeling and control predictions

GreenPhylDB: A Gene Family Database for plant functional Genomics

With the increasing number of genomes being sequenced, a major objective is to transfer accurate annotation from characterised proteins to uncharacterised sequences. Consequently, comparative genomics has become a usual and efficient strategy in functional genomics. The release of various annotated genomes of plants, such as _O. sativa_ and _A. thaliana_, has allowed setting up comprehensive lists of gene families defined by automated methods. However, like for gene sequence, manual curation of gene families is an important requirement that has to be undertaken. GreenPhylDB comprises protein sequences of 12 plant species fully sequenced that were grouped into homeomorphic families using similarity-based methods. Clusters are finally processed by phylogenetic analysis to infer orthologs and paralogs that will be particularly helpful to study genome evolution. Previously, each cluster has to be curated (i.e. properly named and classified) using different sources of information. A web interface for plant gene families’ curation was developed for that purpose. This interface, accessible on GreenPhylDB ("http://greenphyl.cirad.fr":http://greenphyl.cirad.fr), centralizes external references (e.g. InterPro, KEGG, Swiss-Prot, PIRSF, Pubmed) related to all gene members of the clusters and shows statistics and automatic analysis. We believe that this synthetic view of data available for a gene cluster, combined with basic guidelines, is an efficient way to provide reliable method for gene family annotations

Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) in community tourism planning: a case study in the Nyishang and Nar-phu regions of the Manang District, Nepal

Third World countries are continually being promoted as important tourist destinations due to their cultural and biological diversity. However, in the rush for tourist development, many culturally unique and physically fragile rural areas are opened for tourism without a proper assessment of the existing problems of these areas or of the concerns of the people living there. These problems arise not only due to the lack of experts but also due to the lack of a framework that is appropriate to the problems of Third World rural areas. Central to such an assessment are the impacts that tourism might have on the destination community's resources (social, cultural, economic, and environmental), which nurture and sustain tourism. It is, therefore, essential to have community participation and input to integrate overall community objectives into the mainstream of tourism development. In order to achieve these goals in Third World rural areas, an appropriate framework suitable for both the assessment of tourism impacts on host societies and to facilitate community participation measures is required. To fulfil these requirements, a modified Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approach is proposed and evaluated in the Manang District of Nepal. This study has two major objectives. It has first adopted, tested, and evaluated Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques for their potential in encouraging community participation in tourism planning within a Third World rural setting. Second, specific tourism development strategies for the study area, as articulated by its residents, are presented, interpreted, and elaborated. Four major techniques of PRA were adapted and used for this research. They are: a review of secondary data; followed by semi-structured interviews of key informants and other individuals; group interviews and discussions; and finally a community workshop. Residents of two regions, Nyishang and Nar-Phu of the Manang District of Nepal comprised the study audience. The former is a popular tourist destination on the Annapurna circuit, and the latter is a potential tourist destination which has not yet been opened to foreign visitors. The above PRA techniques and their sequential introduction have been vital in allowing research participants an analysis of their common problems and concerns, and to move systematically towards defining acceptable styles of development and desirable future tourism opportunities. Interviewees of both Nyishang and Nar-Phu see tourism as one option to supplement agropastoralism in meeting basic community needs. Knowledge of tourists, tourism, its impacts and planning was very poor, particularly among the residents of Nar-Phu who are not exposed to tourism. Therefore, Nar-phu has much to learn form its adjacent neighbour Nyishang. Despite this, most of the interviewees were able to identify the existing tourism product of the research area. Given the poor tourism knowledge base, residents may need a high level of an external agency's assistance in the planning process, at least in the initial phase. However, the formation of a tourism management committee representing all groups of people living in the area, emerged as an appealing institutional arrangement. This can build locals' confidence and accumulate experience. Meaningful participation, however, will depend on tourism education and awareness for both the general residents and the industry sector and their balanced inputs into planning and implementation. Although the adapted PRA process has facilitated community participation for this case study, future design should include evaluation and monitoring aspects, so as to be iterative in meeting community needs at different stages of tourism development