Fruit and Vegetable Consumption by Low-Income Americans: Would a Price Reduction Make a Difference?

Americans’ diets, particularly those of low-income households, fall short of Government recommendations in the quantity of fruits and vegetables consumed. Some proposals suggest that a price subsidy for those products would encourage low-income Americans to consume more of them. This study estimated that a 10-percent subsidy would encourage low-income Americans to increase their consumption of fruits by 2.1-5.2 percent and vegetables by 2.1-4.9 percent. The annual cost of such a subsidy for low-income Americans would be about $310 million for fruits and$270 million for vegetables. And most would still not meet Federal dietary recommendations.Price subsidy, demand elasticity, food consumption, fruits and vegetables, low income, Homescan Data, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), and MyPyramid, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis,

NON-LINEAR ADJUSTMENT PROCESS IN WON/DOLLAR AND WON/YEN REAL EXCHAGE RATES

We examine the purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis in won/dollar and won/yen real exchange rates using a non-linear framework. Many empirical studies based on the linear framework have failed to find clear supporting evidence for the validity of PPP hypothesis. We test the PPP hypothesis using a two-stage procedure suggested by Engle and Granger (1987), and show that it fails to reject non-cointegration. Evaluating the linear model against the nonlinear STAR model, we find that linearity is clearly rejected, but ESTAR process is accepted. Moreover, the parameter estimates of the ESTAR model establish a certain pattern of random walk behavior for small deviations and of fast adjustment for large deviations, thus providing strong evidence for mean-reverting behavior in real won/dollar and won/yen exchange rates.Purchasing Power Parity, Non-linear Adjustment Process, ESTAR Model

The capital market consolidation act and the Korean financial market

노트 : A publication of the Korea Economic Institute and the Korea Institute for International Economic Polic

Systems thinking in the management of Korean economic crisis

After the unanticipated financial crisis of Korea in 1997, lots of debates have been held on why and how it came upon. Most of debates including hearings of National Assembly focused their attention on why policy makers could not forecast and avoid the financial cirsis. No one, if any, asks whether or not there were systems thinking in the mind of economic policy makers, what was their theory in action that failed in managing the national financial crisis. This paper explores causal maps and systems thinking of the President of Korea who successfully managed the financial crisis. In this paper the causal map analysis of policy makers is proposed as a promising approach for in-depth investigation of systems thinking of policy makers

On extensions of representations for compact Lie groups

Let $H$ be a closed normal subgroup of a compact Lie group $G$ such that $G/H$ is connected. This paper provides a necessary and sufficient condition for every complex representation of $H$ to be extendible to $G$, and also for every complex $G$-vector bundle over the homogeneous space $G/H$ to be trivial. In particular, we show that the condition holds when the fundamental group of $G/H$ is torsion free.Comment: 10 pages, AMS-LaTeX v1.

Chemically Mediated Arrestment of the Bed Bug, Cimex lectularius, by Volatiles Associated with Exuviae of Conspecifics.

Extracts of the exuviae (cast skins) of nymphal bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) were analyzed for volatile compounds that might contribute to arrestment of adult bed bugs. Four volatile aldehydes, (E)-2-hexenal, 4-oxo-(E)-2-hexenal, (E)-2-octenal, and 4-oxo-(E)-2-octenal were consistently detected in the headspace of freshly shed exuviae regardless of the developmental stages from which the exuviae were obtained. Quantification of the aldehydes in the solvent extracts of homogenized fresh, 45- or 99-d aged 5th instar exuviae indicated that the aldehydes are present in the exuviae and dissipate over time, through evaporation or degradation. Microscopic observation of the fifth instar exuviae indicated that the dorsal abdominal glands on the exuviae maintained their pocket-like structures with gland reservoirs, within which the aldehydes might be retained. Two-choice olfactometer studies with the volatiles from exuviae or a synthetic blend mimicking the volatiles indicated that adult bed bugs tend to settle close to sources of the aldehydes. Our results imply that the presence and accumulation of bed bug exuviae and the aldehydes volatilizing from the exuviae might mediate bed bugs' interaction with their microhabitats

Extensive Structural Variations Between Mitochondrial Genomes of CMS and Normal Peppers (Capsicum Annuum L.) Revealed by Complete Nucleotide Sequencing

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is an inability to produce functional pollen that is caused by mutation of the mitochondrial genome. Comparative analyses of mitochondrial genomes of lines with and without CMS in several species have revealed structural differences between genomes, including extensive rearrangements caused by recombination. However, the mitochondrial genome structure and the DNA rearrangements that may be related to CMS have not been characterized in Capsicum spp. Results: We obtained the complete mitochondrial genome sequences of the pepper CMS line FS4401 (507,452 bp) and the fertile line Jeju (511,530 bp). Comparative analysis between mitochondrial genomes of peppers and tobacco that are included in Solanaceae revealed extensive DNA rearrangements and poor conservation in non-coding DNA. In comparison between pepper lines, FS4401 and Jeju mitochondrial DNAs contained the same complement of protein coding genes except for one additional copy of an atp6 gene (psi atp6-2) in FS4401. In terms of genome structure, we found eighteen syntenic blocks in the two mitochondrial genomes, which have been rearranged in each genome. By contrast, sequences between syntenic blocks, which were specific to each line, accounted for 30,380 and 17,847 bp in FS4401 and Jeju, respectively. The previously-reported CMS candidate genes, orf507 and psi atp6-2, were located on the edges of the largest sequence segments that were specific to FS4401. In this region, large number of small sequence segments which were absent or found on different locations in Jeju mitochondrial genome were combined together. The incorporation of repeats and overlapping of connected sequence segments by a few nucleotides implied that extensive rearrangements by homologous recombination might be involved in evolution of this region. Further analysis using mtDNA pairs from other plant species revealed common features of DNA regions around CMS-associated genes. Conclusions: Although large portion of sequence context was shared by mitochondrial genomes of CMS and male-fertile pepper lines, extensive genome rearrangements were detected. CMS candidate genes located on the edges of highly-rearranged CMS-specific DNA regions and near to repeat sequences. These characteristics were detected among CMS-associated genes in other species, implying a common mechanism might be involved in the evolution of CMS-associated genes.Golden Seed ProjectMinistry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA)Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF)Rural Development Administration (RDA)Korea Forest Service (KFS)Vegetable Breeding Research Center through the R&D Convergence Center Support Program, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) Republic of Korea 710001-07Molecular Bioscience