The impact of support for imports on food security in Indonesia

This study on the impact of import support on food security was conducted in eight developing countries -including Indonesia- that were facing food insecurity and were recipients of subsidized exports and food aid. In Indonesia, the analysis of import flows in comparison with overall production and consumption data led to the selection of the three import substitute commodities, soybean, sugar and milk, that were the focus of this study. The objective of the study was to provide an analysis of the national impact of export support measures on food security, by taking into account their impact on the producers and consumers of the three commodities.IMPORTS, EXPORTS, FOOD, ECURITY, SOYBEANS, SUGAR, MILK, FOOD AID, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, Production Economics,

New obstructions to symplectic embeddings

In this paper we establish new restrictions on symplectic embeddings of certain convex domains into symplectic vector spaces. These restrictions are stronger than those implied by the Ekeland-Hofer capacities. By refining an embedding technique due to Guth, we also show that they are sharp.Comment: 80 pages, 3 figures, v2: improved exposition and minor corrections, v3: Final version, expanded and improved exposition and minor corrections. The final publication is available at link.springer.co

Searching for thermal signatures of persistent currents in normal metal rings

We introduce a calorimetric approach to probe persistent currents in normal metal rings. The heat capacity of a large ensemble of silver rings is measured by nanocalorimetry under a varying magnetic field at different temperatures (60 mK, 100 mK and 150 mK). Periodic oscillations versus magnetic field are detected in the phase signal of the temperature oscillations, though not in the amplitude (both of them directly linked to the heat capacity). The period of these oscillations ($\Phi_0/2$, with $\Phi_0 = h/e$ the magnetic flux quantum) and their evolution with temperature are in agreement with theoretical predictions. In contrast, the amplitude of the corresponding heat capacity oscillations (several $k_{\mathrm{B}}$) is two orders of magnitude larger than predicted by theory

On invariants of almost symplectic connections

We study the irreducible decomposition under Sp(2n, R) of the space of torsion tensors of almost symplectic connections. Then a description of all symplectic quadratic invariants of torsion-like tensors is given. When applied to a manifold M with an almost symplectic structure, these instruments give preliminary insight for finding a preferred linear almost symplectic connection on M . We rediscover Ph. Tondeur's Theorem on almost symplectic connections. Properties of torsion of the vectorial kind are deduced

Laboratory and field measurements of enantiomeric monoterpene emissions as a function of chemotype, light and temperature

Plants emit significant amounts of monoterpenes into the earth's atmosphere, where they react rapidly to form a multitude of gas phase species and particles. Many monoterpenes exist in mirror-image forms or enantiomers. In this study the enantiomeric monoterpene profile for several representative plants (<i>Quercus ilex L., Rosmarinus officinalis L.</i>, and <i>Pinus halepensis Mill.</i>) was investigated as a function of chemotype, light and temperature both in the laboratory and in the field. Analysis of enantiomeric monoterpenes from 19 <i>Quercus ilex</i> individuals from Southern France and Spain revealed four regiospecific chemotypes (genetically fixed emission patterns). In agreement with previous work, only <i>Quercus ilex</i> emissions increased strongly with light. However, for all three plant species no consistent enantiomeric variation was observed as a function of light, and the enantiomeric ratio of &alpha;-pinene was found to vary by less than 20% from 100 and 1000 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ PAR (photosynthetically active radiation). The rate of monoterpene emission increased with temperature from all three plant species, but little variation in the enantiomeric distribution of α-pinene was observed with temperature. There was more enantiomeric variability between individuals of the same species than could be induced by either light or temperature. Field measurements of α-pinene enantiomer mixing ratios in the air, taken at a <i>Quercus ilex</i> forest in Southern France, and several other previously reported field enantiomeric ratio diel cycle profiles are compared. All show smoothly varying diel cycles (some positive and some negative) even over changing wind directions. This is surprising in comparison with variations of enantiomeric emission patterns shown by individuals of the same species

Processing oblique aerial photographs in Flanders: the Havik Project at the Ghent University. A contribution to archaeological resource management

A contribution to archaeological resource management. Ghent University has organised an archaeological aerial survey of both provinces of East- and West-Flanders since the beginning of the 1980s. As a result of these activities, some 50,000 photographs have been captured. They reveal thousands of archaeological structures, from the Neolithic through to the most recent periods. Since 1997, financial support has been received from the Flemish Community aimed at the realisation of a GIS based database (Access 97 relational database - Arcview 3.1) and the digitalisation of some 50% of the photographs. As a result, it was possible to locate all 50,000 images and connect them with geographical information offered by the support centre GIS Flanders. It is expected in the near future that this information will be available for SMR-purposes and archaeological heritage management. There are also several scientific outputs: one of them is the study of Bronze Age barrows

Exact Algorithms for Maximum Independent Set

We show that the maximum independent set problem (MIS) on an $n$-vertex graph can be solved in $1.1996^nn^{O(1)}$ time and polynomial space, which even is faster than Robson's $1.2109^{n}n^{O(1)}$-time exponential-space algorithm published in 1986. We also obtain improved algorithms for MIS in graphs with maximum degree 6 and 7, which run in time of $1.1893^nn^{O(1)}$ and $1.1970^nn^{O(1)}$, respectively. Our algorithms are obtained by using fast algorithms for MIS in low-degree graphs in a hierarchical way and making a careful analyses on the structure of bounded-degree graphs