China's New Rural Income Support Policy: Impact on Grain Production and Rural Income Inequality

The impact of China's new rural income support policy and recent price trends on grain production and rural income inequality is assessed for two villages with different degrees of market access in Northeast Jiangxi Province. Two village-level general equilibrium models are used to analyze household decision making and interactions between households within these villages. Parameter estimation and model calibration is based on data collected during an extensive survey held in these villages in the year 2000. The household classification used in these models allows us to draw conclusions that are relevant for many other villages and regions in China. Simulation results show that the income support policy does not reach its goal of promoting grain production. The increased incomes allow farm households to buy more inputs for livestock production, which is a more profitable activity. Moreover, because leisure is valued higher with increasing incomes, farmers tend to switch to less intensive rice production. Selling of rice outside the villages declines more than rice production due to the higher own consumption of households. We further find that agricultural tax abolition has a much larger impact on incomes and production than the direct income support in 2004. Both measures tend to reduce income inequalities within villages, because the richest household groups (who are more involved in off-farm employment) benefit less. Tax abolition, however, tends to widen income inequalities between villages, because the absolute income gain is much larger in relatively rich villages. The switch from rice production towards more profitable activities like livestock production is therefore much stronger in these villages.income policy, grain production, income inequality, villages, CGE model, China, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, O20, Q12, R15,

Schur multipliers of Cartan pairs

We define the Schur multipliers of a separable von Neumann algebra M with Cartan masa A, generalising the classical Schur multipliers of $B(\ell^2)$. We characterise these as the normal A-bimodule maps on M. If M contains a direct summand isomorphic to the hyperfinite II_1 factor, then we show that the Schur multipliers arising from the extended Haagerup tensor product $A \otimes_{eh} A$ are strictly contained in the algebra of all Schur multipliers

PENGARUH PERBANDINGAN CAMPURAN CAT DENGAN THINNER TERHADAP KUALITAS HASIL PENGECATAAN

Perbandingan pada campuran cat dan thinner akan mempengaruhi kekentalan, proses pelapisan, konsumsi, dan tingkat kekilapan cat, atau dengan kata lain perbandingan inilah yang akan menentukan kualitas hasil pengecatan. Dari pengalaman peneliti di bidang pengecatan serta survei yang telah dilakukan, diketahui bahwa tidak semua perbandingan campuran cat dengan thinner adalah 1 : 1. Hal ini diperkuat dengan beberapa produsen cat yang menetapkan perbandingan campuran pada angka 1:1 hingga 1 : 1.5, sedangakan hasil (end coating) berupa kekilapan warna yang diperoleh tidak selalu maksimal. Berdasarkan hal tersebut, terdapat beberapa bengkel jasa pengecatan yang menetapkan suatu perbandingan campuran dengan angka yang lebih tinggi, namun tidak menentu jumlahnya. Oleh karena itu, penulis akan melakukan penelitian tentang perbandingan campuran cat dengan thinner dengan jumlah 0 : 0.8 hingga     1 : 1.5. Penelitian yang dilakukan  bertujuan untuk mendapatkan perbandingan campuran antara cat dan thinner yang tepat dalam pengaplikasian pada produk cat tertentu guna mendapatkan kualitas hasil pengecatan terbaik.                  Jenis penelitian yang digunakan adalah penelitian eksperimen. Obyek penelitian adalah 2 merek cat yakni Danagloss dan Nippe 2000 yang bersifat representatif berdasarkan klasifikasi cat berkualitas sedang dan cat berkualitas rendah. Analisis data menggunakan metode deskriptif. Instrumen penelitian yang digunakan adalah glossmeter.  Hasil penelitian yaitu berupa angka perbandingan antara cat dan thinner dengan hasil tingkat kekilapan terendah pada kedua sampel penelitian didapat pada angka perbandingan 1 : 0.8. Hasil terbaik untuk cat berkualitas rendah seperti Nippe 2000 didapat pada angka perbandingan 1 : 1.4 dengan tingkat kekilapan 91.8%, sedangakan angka perbandingan terbaik untuk cat berkualitas sedang seperti Danagloss adalah 1 : 1.5 dengan tingkat kekilapan 92.9%. Perbedaan tingkat kekilapan pada kedua sampel tersebut dipengaruhi juga oleh kadar senyawa nitroselulosa yang menghasilkan perbedaan karakteristik cat. Berdasarkan pengujian laboratorium yang dilakukan, diketahui kadar nitroselulosa pada cat Danagloss adalah sebesar 75.10%, sedangkan kadar nitroselulosa pada cat Nippe 2000 adalah sebesar 54.93%. Kata kunci: Cat, glossmeter, perbandingan campuran

Formula Penyederhanaan Jumlah Partai Politik Di Parlemen Pada Pemilihan Umum Indonesia

Formula of maximum threshold figures are naturally able to suppress or reduce the amount of political party. The effectiveness of parliamentary threshold index number is relevantly proven to simplify the number of political parties as well. If the maximum threshold figure formula is applied in conjunction with downsizing allocation of seats in the constituency, it will have an impact on the growth of ENPP Index. This formula will be able to form simple multiparty system in the Indonesian parliament

Draft genome sequence of the naphthalene degrader Herbaspirillum sp. strain RV1423

Herbaspirillum sp. strain RV1423 was isolated from a site contaminated with alkanes and aromatic compounds and harbors the complete pathway for naphthalene degradation. The new features found in RV1423 increase considerably the versatility and the catabolic potential of a genus of bacteria previously considered mainly to be diazotrophic endophytes to plants

Sparse sampling, galaxy bias, and voids

To study the impact of sparsity and galaxy bias on void statistics, we use a single large-volume, high-resolution N-body simulation to compare voids in multiple levels of subsampled dark matter, halo populations, and mock galaxies from a Halo Occupation Distribution model tuned to different galaxy survey densities. We focus our comparison on three key observational statistics: number functions, ellipticity distributions, and radial density profiles. We use the hierarchical tree structure of voids to interpret the impacts of sampling density and galaxy bias, and theoretical and empirical functions to describe the statistics in all our sample populations. We are able to make simple adjustments to theoretical expectations to offer prescriptions for translating from analytics to the void properties measured in realistic observations. We find that sampling density has a much larger effect on void sizes than galaxy bias. At lower tracer density, small voids disappear and the remaining voids are larger, more spherical, and have slightly steeper profiles. When a proper lower mass threshold is chosen, voids in halo distributions largely mimic those found in galaxy populations, except for ellipticities, where galaxy bias leads to higher values. We use the void density profile of Hamaus et al. (2014) to show that voids follow a self-similar and universal trend, allowing simple translations between voids studied in dark matter and voids identified in galaxy surveys. We have added the mock void catalogs used in this work to the Public Cosmic Void Catalog at http://www.cosmicvoids.net.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, MNRAS accepted. Minor changes from previous version. Public catalog available at http://www.cosmicvoids.ne

Unrecognized Backscattering in Low Energy Beta Spectroscopy

We present studies on electron backscattering from the surface of plastic scintillator beta detectors. By using a setup of two detectors coaxial with a strong external magnetic field - one detector serving as primary detector, the other as veto-detector to detect backscattering - we investigate amount and spectrum of unrecognized backscattering, i.e. events where only one detector recorded a trigger signal. The implications are important for low energy particle physics experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures; v2: published NIM A versio

Tingkat Efisiensi Perbankan Syariah dan Konvensional dengan Mengunakan Data Envelopment Analysis (Dea)

This research utilizesa non-parametric frontier approach, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). By using such an analysis, the purpose of this study is to analyse 3 Islamic banks in Indonesia during 2007-2010 period. In general, the result of study indicates that the level of efficiency of Islamic bank is various moving over time. In intermediary efficiency, conventional bank is found to be more efficient than Islamic bank. Moreover, conventional bank is more efficient than Islamic bank. Since the study pinpoints the sources of inefficiency, it also helps to provide the banks with strategic plannin