AN ANALYSIS ON POTENTIAL ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF GREENHOUSE GAS MITIGATION THROUGH PLANTING ENERGY CROPS IN TAIWAN

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts of planting energy crop on set-aside acreages in Taiwan. To do so, a Taiwan Agricultural Sector Model (TASM) was built and the data parameters of energy crop were incorporated into this model in order to simulate the economic and environmental impacts. Simulation results show that GHGE mitigation depends on the planting acreage of energy crops in which the optimal planting acreage of energy is determined by the profit of other agricultural products as well as government subsidy on energy crop. Therefore, the mitigation of GHGE depends on the government subsidy on energy crop per hectare. Such subsidy is also suitable for the green box by the regulation of WTO.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Efficiency and Returns to Scale Measurements with Shared Inputs in Multi-Activity Data Envelopment Analysis: An Application to Farmers' Organizations in Taiwan

This paper addresses the question how team production promotes efficiency of a firm when some inputs can be rewarded on the basis of outputs but some cannot because they are shared among outputs and non-separable. A multi-activity DEA model with variable returns to scale is proposed to provide information on the efficiency performance for organizations with inputs shared among several closely related activities. The model is applied to study the case of 279 farmers' associations in Taiwan. The result suggests that it is important to improve the efficiency of the non-profit oriented activities to improve their overall performances. Three out of four departments of TFAs can gain from economies of scale through expansion, while the remaining one gains through contraction. Thus, policies promoting structural adjustment and consolidations of TFAs would not be inconsistent with public interests.multi-activity DEA, shared inputs, efficiency measure, directional distance function, Productivity Analysis,

SPATIAL EQUILIBRIUM MODELING WITH IMPERFECTLY COMPETITIVE MARKETS: AN APPLICATION TO RICE TRADE

A general imperfect competition spatial equilibrium model is developed to estimate the trading country behaviors in the international rice market using a conjectural variation approach. Such a model allows the possibility of an imperfect competitive market to exit on both the export and import sides without any assumption of market structure. The empirical results show that the major exporting countries, Thailand, Vietnam, and the U.S. acted as high degree of imperfect competitors(or oligopolies) while Pakistan acted as a lower degree of imperfect competitor. The importing countries such as Japan, the Philippines, Europe, Brazil, and the former USSR behaved as high degree of imperfect competitors (or oligopsonies). The empirical results also show that there are welfare gains of $1,492 million when all trading countries comply with the free trade agreement.Marketing,

Productivity Change in Taiwan's Farmers' Credit Unions: A Nonparametric Risk-Adjusted Malmquist Approach

This article proposes an extended three-stage DEA methodology similar to Fried et al. (2002) to improve the measurement of productivity growth then the assumption of free disposability of undesirable outpu t does not apply. A directional distance function is used to construct adjusted Malmquist-Luenberger productivity indexes which simultaneously account for the impacts of undesirable outputs, environmental variables, and statistical noise. Panel data for 264 farmers' credit unions (FCUs) in Taiwan covering the 1998-2000 period are employed to illustrate the advantages of this method. On average, the productivity of Taiwan's FCUs is found to have deteriorated over the 1998-2000 period. Although an improvement in efficiency has been observed, the major reason for the deterioration is found to be due to the regression of techno logy.Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index, three-stage DEA, undesirable outputs, directional distance function, Agricultural Finance, Productivity Analysis,

The study on SFLAB GanedenBC30 viability on baking products during storage

AbstractFor understanding Bacillus coagulans, GanedenBC30 was used in different ways to added in raw dough and examine their viability after baking. Eight different baking products: (1) chrysanthemum cookies, (2) egg pastry cakes, (3) mooncakes, (4) muffins, (5) polo breads, (6) soda cookies, (7) sponge cakes, and (8) toasts were made from 0.5% GanedenBC30 added to their dough in two ways: (a) flour powder or (b) egg yolk. Then the (a) pH value, (b) titratable acidity, (c) GanedenBC30 counts, and (d) viability GanedenBC30 of eight different baking products were determined after storing at 4oC for 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 days, or 25oC for 0, 3, 6 days. The eight types of raw dough had relatively lower pH values and rise after baking. The titratable acidity of the eight types of dough was relatively higher, and declined after baking. However, the pH value and titratable acidity of the eight baking products remained the same after 9 days at 4oC. On the other hand, the GanedenBC30 counts in the eight baking products were less than their raw dough GanedenBC30 levels. For storage at both 4 and 25oC, the results show the GanedenBC30 viability of baking products decreased with storage days. The dough made by flour powder and baking showed higher GanedenBC30 viability than by egg yolk. GanedenBC30 are good candidates for baking product use, both in lactic acid production and probiotic preparations

Plasma levels in sepsis patients of annexin A1, lipoxin A4, macrophage inflammatory protein-3a, and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin

AbstractBackgroundThe relationship between the various cytokine responses that occur during sepsis remains controversial. Emerging evidence indicates that the proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses are regulated simultaneously from the beginning of sepsis. However, the roles of the novel anti-inflammatory mediators annexin (Anx)A1 and lipoxin (LX)A4 and the proinflammatory cytokines neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-3a have been studied.MethodsIn this study, the plasma levels of AnxA1, LXA4, NGAL, MIP-3a, interleukin (IL)-8 and IL-6 in patients with sepsis were determined on admission to the intensive care unit. The patients were classified into survivors and non-survivors based on their outcome on day 28.ResultsAnxA1 and LXA4 levels were decreased in sepsis patients compared with control patients, whereas the levels of the proinflammatory cytokines MIP-3a, NGAL, IL-8, and IL-6 were elevated. Furthermore, a significantly higher level of MIP-3a was detected in nonsurviving patients compared with surviving patients (p < 0.05), whereas there were no significant differences between these two groups for the levels of the other mediators. Correlation analysis demonstrated that only NGAL level was closely correlated with the level of IL-6. Univariate analysis indicated that the levels of MIP-3a and IL-8 were independent factors associated with patient survival, but this was not confirmed by the multivariate analysis.ConclusionAnxA1 and LXA4 plasma levels were found to be decreased in sepsis patients, whereas the levels of MIP-3a and NGAL were found to be elevated. This warrants further study in order to determine the clinical implications of these changes

Critical quality attributes (CQAs) of a therapeutic antibody produced from integrated continuous bioprocessing

The integrated continuous bioprocess provides an innovative way to produce protein drugs with flexibility and efficiency. However, during the long-term cultivation and complicated production, how to ensure the process stability and product quality is critically important. In this study, the monoclonal antibody (mAb) was produced in a bioreactor operated in a perfusion mode utilizing the ATF cell retention system for up to 32 days. The 2L harvest per day starting at day 10 was continuously purified using the 3-column periodic counter-current (PCC) chromatography system. The first protein A capture purification was performed with the dynamic binding capacity of 50% breakthrough around 60 mg mAb/mL of resin (vs 20 mg/mL resin for batch purification) for 120 cycles or 360 column operations followed by a polishing step of mixed mode chromatography for 20 cycles. The process and quality attributes were monitored daily. The results demonstrate consistency in both the purification process and the mAb qualities (in the aspects of product integrity, aggregates, and glycan profile) between PCC and batch purifications. Culture-related charge heterogeneity was observed accompanied by an increase of bioreactor harvest time using both batch and PCC purification processes. In addition, the impurities such as endotoxin and HCP were also monitored while under this high capacity utilization of chromatography resins. By sharing the insights of process and quality attributes, we hope to provide better understanding on the process-related heterogeneity between batch and continuous production and/or purification