In Search of a Strategy for Making Growth More Pro-Poor in the Philippines

The main driver of poverty reduction has shifted from agricultural to non-agricultural income growth in rural Philippines in the past two decades. Agricultural growth is still relatively more important (vis-à-vis non-agricultural growth), however, in reducing rural poverty in relatively more isolated provinces. Our results suggest that agricultural investments should focus on areas with underdeveloped infrastructure but with comparative advantage in agriculture. At the same time, non-agricultural income growth can be made more pro-poor by investing in mobility infrastructure and health, facilitating international labor migration, and lowering income inequality.poverty, growth and inequality, pro-poor growth, role of agriculture, the Philippines, Asia

Analog of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality for steering

The Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality (and its permutations), are necessary and sufficient criteria for Bell nonlocality in the simplest Bell-nonlocality scenario: 2 parties, 2 measurements per party and 2 outcomes per measurement. Here we derive an inequality for EPR-steering that is an analogue of the CHSH, in that it is necessary and sufficient in this same scenario. However, since in the case of steering the device at Bob's site must be specified (as opposed to the Bell case in which it is a black box), the scenario we consider is that where Alice performs two (black-box) dichotomic measurements, and Bob performs two mutually unbiased qubit measurements. We show that this inequality is strictly weaker than the CHSH, as expected, and use it to decide whether a recent experiment [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 130401 (2013).] involving a single-photon split between two parties has demonstrated EPR-steering.Comment: Expanded v2, new results, new figure. 9 pages, 2 figure

Changes in spatial income inequality in the Philippines: An exploratory analysis

The purpose of this paper is to establish some basic facts about income inequality in the Philippines, with a special focus on the importance of spatial income inequality. Despite major fluctuations in macroeconomic performances, income inequality remained relatively stable during the years 1985-2000. Spatial inequality accounts for a sizable but not overwhelming portion of the national-level income inequality, and the relative importance of spatial inequality was declining over time. We also find that mean income levels across provinces were converging at a much faster rate than those observed in currently developed countries

In search of a strategy for making growth more pro-poor in the Philippines

The main driver of poverty reduction has shifted from agricultural to non-agricultural income growth in rural Philippines in the past two decades. Agricultural growth is still relatively more important (vis-à-vis non-agricultural growth), however, in reducing rural poverty in relatively more isolated provinces. Our results suggest that agricultural investments should focus on areas with underdeveloped infrastructure but with comparative advantage in agriculture. At the same time, non-agricultural income growth can be made more pro-poor by investing in mobility infrastructure and health, facilitating international labor migration, and lowering income inequality

Research Paper No. 2004/34 Changes in Spatial Income Inequality in the Philippines An Exploratory Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to establish some basic facts about income inequality in the Philippines, with a special focus on the importance of spatial income inequality. Despite major fluctuations in macroeconomic performances, income inequality remained relatively stable during the years 1985-2000. Spatial inequality accounts for a sizable but not overwhelming portion of the national-level income inequality, and the relative importance of spatial inequality was declining over time. We also find that mean income levels across provinces were converging at a much faster rate than those observed in currently developed countries

Experimental Proof of Nonlocal Wavefunction Collapse for a Single Particle Using Homodyne Measurement

A single quantum particle can be described by a wavefunction that spreads over arbitrarily large distances, but it is never detected in two (or more) places. This strange phenomenon is explained in quantum theory by what Einstein repudiated as "spooky action at a distance": the instantaneous nonlocal collapse of the wavefunction to wherever the particle is detected. We demonstrate this single-particle spooky action, for the first time with no efficiency loophole, by splitting a single photon between two laboratories and experimentally testing if the choice of measurement in one lab really causes a change in the local quantum state in the other lab. To this end, we use homodyne measurements with six different measurement settings and quantitatively verify Einstein's spooky action by violating an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-steering inequality by $0.042 \pm 0.006$. Our experiment also verifies the entanglement of the split single photon even when one side is untrusted.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

A short sequence for the iterative synthesis of fused polyethers

A simple and efficient four‐step sequence for the synthesis of fused polyether arrays has been developed. Cyclic ethers are installed by sequential alkynyl ether formation, carbocupration, ring‐closing metathesis and hydroboration with acidic workup. Crucially, the alkene required for the subsequent ring formation by ring‐closing metathesis is present in the substrate but is masked in the form of a vinylic silane, which prevents competitive metathesis of the side chain. Generation of the reactive alkene from the unreactive vinylic silane is accomplished by hydroboration and subsequent acid‐mediated Peterson elimination of the intermediate hydroxysilane

Should We Track Migrant Households When Collecting Household Panel Data?:Household Relocation, Economic Mobility and Attrition Biases in the Rural Philippines

Based on household panel data that tracked migrant households (with an additional survey cost of 17 percent), this article describes behavior of household relocation and quantifies the extent of attrition biases in estimating the determinants of percapita household consumption and of its growth rate. Many households relocate for non-economic reasons, and to rural destinations, while the small number of urban migrants improved their wellbeing faster than did others. Such heterogeneity among migrants may be a reason behind the negligible attrition biases caused by the omission of migrants, in the inference on the average behavioral coefficients among the original population

Auditory ERPs to Stimulus Deviance in an Awake Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes): Towards Hominid Cognitive Neurosciences

BACKGROUND: For decades, the chimpanzee, phylogenetically closest to humans, has been analyzed intensively in comparative cognitive studies. Other than the accumulation of behavioral data, the neural basis for cognitive processing in the chimpanzee remains to be clarified. To increase our knowledge on the evolutionary and neural basis of human cognition, comparative neurophysiological studies exploring endogenous neural activities in the awake state are needed. However, to date, such studies have rarely been reported in non-human hominid species, due to the practical difficulties in conducting non-invasive measurements on awake individuals. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We measured auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) of a fully awake chimpanzee, with reference to a well-documented component of human studies, namely mismatch negativity (MMN). In response to infrequent, deviant tones that were delivered in a uniform sound stream, a comparable ERP component could be detected as negative deflections in early latencies. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The present study reports the MMN-like component in a chimpanzee for the first time. In human studies, various ERP components, including MMN, are well-documented indicators of cognitive and neural processing. The results of the present study validate the use of non-invasive ERP measurements for studies on cognitive and neural processing in chimpanzees, and open the way for future studies comparing endogenous neural activities between humans and chimpanzees. This signifies an essential step in hominid cognitive neurosciences

Presenilin Is the Molecular Target of Acidic γ-Secretase Modulators in Living Cells

The intramembrane-cleaving protease γ-secretase catalyzes the last step in the generation of toxic amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides and is a principal therapeutic target in Alzheimer's disease. Both preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that inhibition of γ-secretase is associated with prohibitive side effects due to suppression of Notch processing and signaling. Potentially safer are γ-secretase modulators (GSMs), which are small molecules that selectively lower generation of the highly amyloidogenic Aβ42 peptides but spare Notch processing. GSMs with nanomolar potency and favorable pharmacological properties have been described, but the molecular mechanism of GSMs remains uncertain and both the substrate amyloid precursor protein (APP) and subunits of the γ-secretase complex have been proposed as the molecular target of GSMs. We have generated a potent photo-probe based on an acidic GSM that lowers Aβ42 generation with an IC50 of 290 nM in cellular assays. By combining in vivo photo-crosslinking with affinity purification, we demonstrated that this probe binds the N-terminal fragment of presenilin (PSEN), the catalytic subunit of the γ-secretase complex, in living cells. Labeling was not observed for APP or any of the other γ-secretase subunits. Binding was readily competed by structurally divergent acidic and non-acidic GSMs suggesting a shared mode of action. These findings indicate that potent acidic GSMs target presenilin to modulate the enzymatic activity of the γ-secretase complex