Effect of Trade Liberalization in the Short-Grain Japonica Rice Market: A Spatial-Temporal Equilibrium analysis

Serious attention has always been bestowed on the stability of food markets. The government has acted on these issues through intervention on food prices that more or less creates distortion. These have been observed on U.S. and Japan. This paper develops a spatial-temporal equilibrium model for short-grain japonica trade and simulates policy alternatives for free trade and improved trade. It then discusses the results and its implications on the Philippine economy.demand

VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS OF GUAM’S DEFENSE POSTURE

Since the end of the Second World War, Guam has served as a linchpin of U.S. military power in the Indo-Pacific. As the United States’ westernmost territory in the world, Guam has been lauded as the place where America’s day begins. However, with its strategic importance and abundance of military combat power, Guam may be where America’s next war begins. Following decades of reform and modernization, the People’s Liberation Army presents a significant threat to the preeminence of U.S. military power in the region. This study uses a structured vulnerability analysis based on the principles of risk analysis, reliability engineering, adversarial analysis, and safety engineering to identify Guam’s critical vulnerabilities and formulate recommendations that enhance the territory’s defense posture. This study finds that Guam’s missile defense posture constitutes the island’s most significant vulnerability and recommends that congressional budgetary initiatives must remain focused on enhancing Guam’s missile defense capability and hardening defense infrastructure throughout the Pacific territories. Should modern warfare reach the shores of Guam, the U.S. military will have to fight for Guam before it can fight from it.Outstanding ThesisLieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Explorations in the Crafting of Government’s Authority and Power Using Institutional Ethnography: The Case of the 2013 Zamboanga Crisis

Crisis response is a clear illustration of what Migdal (2004) posits in his Statein-society approach: the iterative relationship between State authority and social actors\u27 everyday practices. As the rise in recent natural and humanmade disasters call for proficiencies in crisis response, it becomes essential to observe how the variabilities in State-in-society responses unfold through institutionally coordinated everyday social relations. The situation reveals the need to theorize these relationships on the grounds of the dynamic coconstitution of State-in-society. This study employed institutional ethnography (Devault & McCoy, 2002; Smith, 2005); observing the interplay of various actors\u27 interests and strategies within institutional processes after the massive internal displacement that resulted from the 2013 Zamboanga siege. Whereas the Philippines is often portrayed as a weak State with a resilient population, this study suggests the Philippine State\u27s fluid crafting, as illustrated in how various social actors reinterpret, negotiate, and appropriate State, specifically the dispersed government\u27s power and authority during crises. The processes of assisting IDP provided opportunities for local and national actors to redefine their positions against one another and influence the crisis response process\u27s outcomes

TREM2/PLCγ2 signalling in immune cells: function, structural insight, and potential therapeutic modulation.

The central role of the resident innate immune cells of the brain (microglia) in neurodegeneration has become clear over the past few years largely through genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and has rapidly become an active area of research. However, a mechanistic understanding (gene to function) has lagged behind. That is now beginning to change, as exemplified by a number of recent exciting and important reports that provide insight into the function of two key gene products - TREM2 (Triggering Receptor Expressed On Myeloid Cells 2) and PLCγ2 (Phospholipase C gamma2) - in microglia, and their role in neurodegenerative disorders. In this review we explore and discuss these recent advances and the opportunities that they may provide for the development of new therapies

Rapid quantification of 4-ethylphenol in wine using high-performance liquid chromatography with a fluorimetric detector

A rapid method was established for quantifying 4-ethylphenol in wine using HPLC with a detector usually present in wine laboratories. It does not require sample preparation and carries out chromatographic separation in less than 5 min, making control of wine production processes easier. The method is linear up to 2000 μg·l-1 with RSD < 3 % over 20 μg·L-1 and gives a detection limit of 4.0 μg·L-1. It was validated in comparison with the HPLC-coulometric array detector, giving comparable results. Its application to the analysis of 720 DOC and table Italian red wines revealed that the 45 % of them had contents of 4-ethylphenol potentially affecting sensory perception of the aroma.

Resistance-based probabilistic design by order statistics for an oil and gas deep-water well casing string affected by wear during kick load

Deep-water wells for oil and gas extraction make structural components, such as casing and tubing, work in extremely harsh environmental conditions that accelerate component degradation and increase failure probability. Therefore, it is important to properly design casing strings under these operative circumstances (Baraldi et al., 2012)