Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Indonesia

Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18,

Sieve-plate performance in the foam and spray regimes of operation

Imperial Users onl

How Economic Growth Reduces Poverty: A General Equilibrium Analysis for Indonesia

Poverty, Inequality, Growth, Indonesia

Agricultural Protection in a Food Importing Country: Indonesia

This paper summarizes two country-specific studies which examine the degree and changing patterns of incentives to domestic agriculture in Malaysia and Vietnam. Malaysia stands out in the developing world for its long-standing commitment to maintaining a relatively open trade and investment policy regime. However excessive assistance given to paddy farmers remains a major distortion in agricultural incentives. Market oriented reforms in Vietnam began in the late 1990 with attempts to unshackle domestic agriculture, and reforms in this areas have been wide-ranging, with the exception of excessive assistance provided to sugar cane producers. The impressive reform outcome in agriculture has played a pivotal role in sustaining the momentum of reforms, assuring the continuation of market-oriented reforms. However, remain a major anomaly in the incentive structure.International Relations/Trade,

The new international financial architecture: bail-ins, bail-outs, bail-ups and newspeak

The term ‘bailing in the private sector’ is used to describe several quite different proposals with the common feature that they all seek to make private lenders to developing countries share in the costs of financial or currency crises in these countries. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) regards it as one of the main pillars of the ‘new international financial architecture’ — that is, the package of proposals for reforming the international financial system that is intended to reduce the frequency and severity of financial and currency crises in emerging markets. The other pillars of the IMF’s proposed package are transparency, prudential regulation of financial institutions, cautious liberalisation of international capital markets and the implementation of codes of international best practice for making and documenting economic policies

An Exploration of Basic Processes for Aqueous Electrochemical Production of Hydrogen from Biomass Derived Molecules

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs) are energy conversion devices with significant potential. The factors preventing them from becoming widespread concern production and distribution of hydrogen. Developing an efficient hydrogen infrastructure with an approachable rollout plan is an essential step towards the future of fuel cells. Water electrolysis is limited by the thermodynamics of the process, which leads to high electrical consumption and significant materials challenges. Alternative methods for cleanly generating hydrogen while using a lower cell voltage are required. PEM based electrolyzers can operate with a depolarized anode , whereby they become significantly less power hungry. This thesis explores two techniques for chemically depolarized electrolyzer anodes. These include a methanol anode and a phosphomolybdic acid anode. To improve the phosphomolybdic acid anode we have characterized the basic electrochemical behavior of phosphomolybdic acid, the anode behavior in a zerogap electrochemical cell, and the biomass oxidation characteristics of several Keggin ions and potential oxidation promoters. The methanol cathode was evaluated using a dynamic hydrogen electrode and shown to be significantly more sensitive to crossover induced voltage losses than was previously reported. Phosphomolybdic acid oxidation kinetics were examined and found to be facile, despite a change in mechanism which occurs after bulk reduction. The temperature dependent diffusion coefficient was found to be on the same order as other likely small, redox active molecules. A previously unreported crossover phenomena was noted and the diffusion coefficient through NAFION was calculated as on the same order as vanadium. The whole cell performance of the phosphomolybdic acid mediated electrolyzer was examined and found to be highly dependent on supporting electrolyte, temperature, and electrode materials. The optimized condition of 5 M HCl and 80 Celsius showed significant improvement in exchange current density, versus the standard conditions of room temperature and no supporting acid, used in the literature. The electrode kinetics have now been removed as a major problem in the system design. While the electrochemical performance of the POM mediated electrolyzer was sufficient, the glycerol oxidation rates were found to be lacking. Vanadium, iron, and hydrochloric acid were the most effective additives; while sulfuric acid decreased reaction rates

An Analysis of Substance Abusers\u27 Field Dependence & Time Spent in Rehabilitative Therapy

This project was designed to determine if significant differences existed between the level of psychological differentiation, as determined by the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), of individuals entering a treatment center for chemical dependency and the length of stay at the facility. The subjects consisted of 43 white males who were seeking treatment for addiction to mood altering chemicals at a regional treatment facility in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Each subject was interviewed to collect pertinent background information pertaining to past substance abuse and was evaluated to determine psychological differentiation, utilizing the GEFT. It was determined through an analysis of variance that significant differences did not exist between individuals classified as Field Dependent or Field Independent, relative to length of stay. A post hoc analysis determined that significant differences did exist between those individuals who were categorized as Unclassified (not consistently Field Dependent or consistently Field Independent) and those categorized as Field Dependent and Field Independent

OFFSHORE WIND POWER INTEGRATION INTO THE SOUTH CAROLINA POWER SYSTEM

The steady state analysis of the impact of offshore wind on the South Carolina power transmission was conducted in three phases of incremental wind energy injection into the system using forecasted base power flow. The simulation of Phase I involved the generation capacity of 80 MW projected for 2014 in state water. The modeling Phases II and III, which will distribute the energy among neighboring utilities, involve a supplementary capacity of 1000 MW projected for 2020 and 2000 MW for 2030 in federal water. In addition to this steady state investigation, a contingency analysis was performed on the power system after successfully simulating Phase II of the project to evaluate its robustness during outages. Based on the experience of the Europeans in the implementation of offshore wind farms, recommendations were made for designing the transmission system to deliver wind power efficiently to the grid. Next, the wind power and the load demand historical data obtained from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) power system were analyzed to confirm known wind patterns and its relation to the load. The hourly unpredictability of wind means it functions as a load modifier given that conventional generation is committed based on the wind availability. As a result, a probabilistic approach was developed to help predict the portion of the load covered by wind power during two periods of the day on a monthly, seasonal and annual basis using a given annual hourly wind power to load ratio

An assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from the proposed Tillegra Dam

The proposed Tillegra Dam would be a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG). The claims that the dam would be carbon neutral cannot be sustained and the environmental assessment report (EAR) for the Tillegra project needs to be amended. Even if the GHG emissions from the dam’s construction are ignored, it is estimated that a total of at least 327,400 t CO2-eq (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) of GHG emissions would result from the Tillegra Dam in its first 20 years. However there are large uncertainties associated with surface emissions from water storage dams and these alone could easily contribute 1.0 million t CO2-eq. Excluding its construction, the Tillegra Dam will increase the operational GHG intensity of water supply in the Lower Hunter by at least 46%. The potential surface emissions alone from the proposed Tillegra Dam could be equivalent to adding an extra 27,000 cars to the Hunter’s roads. The bulk of the GHG emissions from the Tillegra Dam will be surface emissions generated as flooded organic material decomposes. Decomposition produces carbon dioxide and methane. Methane gas surface emissions will be of particular concern because methane has a global warming potential 72 times that of carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe, and 25 times that of carbon dioxide over a 100-year timeframe (IPCC 2007). Once the dam was constructed, the increased emissions would be unavoidable because unlike the GHG emissions associated with new supplies such as recycled or desalinated water, the emissions from large dams occur regardless of whether their water is used. The GHG assessment in the Tillegra EAR ignores methane generation and release from the storage. This would be the largest source of GHG, and this major flaw means that the EAR needs to be amended. The carbon offset claims in the EAR are also unsound. The EAR claims that there would be a significant offset for renewable energy generated by a mini hydroelectric plant but no such plant is included in the project. Also of concern is the simplistic inclusion of tree planting as an offset with no consideration of important factors such as the loss of soil carbon in the establishment of plantations on agricultural land. In stark contrast to the GHG emissions from the Tillegra Dam proposal, a sustainable water strategy for the Lower Hunter, based on improved water efficiency and water conservation measures, could reduce GHG emissions by an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of t CO2-eq over a 20-year period.The Wilderness Society Newcastl

DYNAMIQUE SPATIALE DES RESSOURCES NATURELLES EXPLOITÉES DANS LA COMMUNE RURALE DE WATENI (CERCLE DE SIKASSO AU MALI)

Wateni is one of the 703 rural communes in Mali. Its geographical situation makes it part of southern Mali in Sikasso Region. In this location, it benefits by a simple relief and a climate limited by the isohyets 1000 mm in the south and 800 mm in the north. Under this climate called north Malian Sudanese the population perform various production activities. The exploitation of natural resources caused by the practice of different activities constitutes a factor engaging the area into dynamics. Thus, our work aims at the knowledge of the pace and the extent of the natural resources dynamics on the one hand, and on the other hand at the present agrarian landscape figured and its effects on the agricultural productions. For that an exploitation of landsat images has been done. These images were of 1984; 1999 and 2006. Their treatment, classification the files conversion into shape format on ENVI software, the files transformation on MapInfo have enabled to realize maps of occupancy mode at each of the dates; The extracted information revealed enough availability of resources. As far as the exploitation of the important resource potential is concerned. The agricultural production is thought of as a priority activity. Its space registration accounts for a slow dynamics of resources and the shaping of a fragmented and segmented agrarian landscape. This results in production that do not satisfy the consumer needs of the production units. To face up to production in deficit and the problems of developpement, a restructuring of eagrarian landscape can be initiated by the local conucillors through reallocation operation