Restructuring the Philippine Statistical System in Response to New Challenges

For a national statistical system to continue to be useful and relevant to its clients and the general public, it has to occasionally undergo an exhaustive evaluation of its performance according to certain parameters. The Philippine statistical system had recently gone through such process. This Policy Notes provides a summary of the findings and recommendations of the evaluation.statistical system, Philippine Statistical System (PSS)

Hurricane Sandy: A Case Study of the Eastern District of New York\u27s Effort to Address Mass Litigation Resulting from the Effects of Climate Change

On the evening of October 29, 2012, “Hurricane” Sandy made land- fall on the New York coastline, battering the land with strong winds, torrential rain, and record-breaking storm surges. Homes and commercial structures were destroyed; roads and tunnels were flooded; and more than 23,000 people sought refuge in temporary shelters, with many others facing weeks without power and electricity. At the time, Sandy was heralded as one of the costliest hurricanes in the his- tory of the United States; the second costliest hurricane only to Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005. Unfortunately, recent experience with Hurricanes Florence, Maria, Harvey, and Irma suggest that this pattern of devastating superstorms may become the new norm as climate change produces more extreme and unpredictable weather events. In Sandy’s aftermath, as individuals returned to their homes, or what remained of them, and communities began to rebuild, the true cost of the storm became apparent. A year after the storm, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) estimated that over $1.4 billion in assistance was provided to 182,000 survivors of the dis- aster; another$3.2 billion was provided to state and local governments for debris removal, infrastructure repair, and emergency protective measures. More than $2.4 billion was provided to individuals and businesses in the form of low-interest loans through the Small Business Administration (“SBA”), and millions more were spent on grants de- signed to implement mitigation measures in the future and to provide unemployment assistance to survivors. Before the storm, homeowners paid premiums for flood insurance provided through the National Flood Insurance Program (“NFIP”), and for homeowner’s insurance provided by dozens of private insurers. In the months following the storm, they began to file claims for assistance in rebuilding their homes. While many such claims were re- solved successfully, many homeowners were unhappy with the settlement amounts offered by their insurance carriers and felt compelled to file lawsuits in the surrounding state and federal courts. Many of those lawsuits were filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (“EDNY”). This case study describes the EDNY’s specifically crafted, unique approach to handling the mass litigation that ensued from Sandy’s devastation, documents some of the problems that the Court faced during that mass litigation, and describes some of the lessons learned from the Court’s experience

Salt Effects on the Conformational Stability of the Visual G-Protein-Coupled Receptor Rhodopsin

AbstractMembrane protein stability is a key parameter with important physiological and practical implications. Inorganic salts affect protein stability, but the mechanisms of their interactions with membrane proteins are not completely understood. We have undertaken the study of a prototypical G-protein-coupled receptor, the α-helical membrane protein rhodopsin from vertebrate retina, and explored the effects of inorganic salts on the thermal decay properties of both its inactive and photoactivated states. Under high salt concentrations, rhodopsin significantly increased its activation enthalpy change for thermal bleaching, whereas acid denaturation affected the formation of a denatured loose-bundle state for both the active and inactive conformations. This behavior seems to correlate with changes in protonated Schiff-base hydrolysis. However, chromophore regeneration with the 11-cis-retinal chromophore and MetarhodopsinII decay kinetics were slower only in the presence of sodium chloride, suggesting that in this case, the underlying phenomenon may be linked to the activation of rhodopsin and the retinal release processes. Furthermore, the melting temperature, determined by means of circular dichroism and differential scanning calorimetry measurements, was increased in the presence of high salt concentrations. The observed effects on rhodopsin could indicate that salts favor electrostatic interactions in the retinal binding pocket and indirectly favor hydrophobic interactions at the membrane protein receptor core. These effects can be exploited in applications where the stability of membrane proteins in solution is highly desirable

Datos, Portales de Gobierno y Gobierno Abierto: Ranking de portales de gobierno estatal 2016

El ranking 2016 muestra nuevamente la importancia de los portales de gobierno como herramientas para poner al alcance de los ciudadanos tanto información como servicios del gobierno. La evaluación distingue el esfuerzo de los gobiernos estatales que se han ocupado de reinventarse, transformar sus organizaciones, usar sus conocimientos y su aprendizaje previo para innovar, proponer, y reconstruir sus portales. El diseño e implementación de estrategias tecnológicas y los correspondientes cambios en los marcos normativos y legales son sin duda un promotor de la mejora de los portales estatales y de la calidad de la información y servicios disponibles en ellos. En este año de la evaluación se identificó que la veda electoral puede representar un aspecto estructural en el comportamiento del ranking que puede sesgar los resultados, pero que a su vez implica un potencial riesgo en la administración de los portales y proyectos de TICs que las gestiones estatales deberán enfrentar cíclicamente para no afectar a los usuarios

Reduced order models for thermally coupled low Mach flows

In this paper we present a collection of techniques used to formulate a projection-based reduced order model (ROM) for zero Mach limit thermally coupled Navier–Stokes equations. The formulation derives from a standard proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) model reduction, and includes modifications to improve the drawbacks caused by the inherent non-linearity of the used Navier–Stokes equations: a hyper-ROM technique based on mesh coarsening; an implicit ROM subscales formulation based on a variational multi-scale (VMS) framework; and a Petrov–Galerkin projection necessary in the case of non-symmetric terms. At the end of the article, we test the proposed ROM formulation using 2D and 3D versions of the same example: a differentially heated cavity.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Seasonal forecasts of wind power generation

The energy sector is highly dependent on climate variability for electricity generation, maintenance activities and demand. In recent years, a few climate services have appeared that provide tailored information for the energy sector. In particular, seasonal climate predictions of wind speed have proven useful to the wind power industry. However, most of the service users are ultimately interested in forecasts of electricity generation instead of wind. Although power generation depends on many factors other than wind conditions, the capacity factor is a suitable indicator to quantify the impact of wind variability on production. In this paper a methodology to produce seasonal predictions of capacity factor for a range of turbine classes is proposed for the first time. The strengths and weaknesses of the method are discussed and the forecast quality is evaluated for an application example over Europe.This work was funded by the H2020 project S2S4E (GA 776787), the COPERNICUS service contract CLIM4ENERGY (C3S_441_Lot2_CEA), and the projects INDECIS and MEDSCOPE cofunded by the H2020 ERA-net ERA4CS. The research leading to these results has also received funding from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MICINN) as part of the CLINSA project (CGL2017-85791-R). We acknowledge NOAA/ESRL Physical Sciences Division to provide wind speed records from the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory. Cabauw data have been retrieved from CESAR database and Dr. Fred Bosveld (KNMI). Thanks to Elena Kozlova (University of Exeter) for sharing CVO data. The BMWi (Bundesministerium fuer Wirtschaft und Energie) and the PTJ (Projekttraeger Juelich) provided the FINO1 mast data. We also thank Hans Verhoef (ECN) and Dr. Frank Beyrich (DWD) for sharing Ijmuiden and Lindenberg data, respectively. We acknowledge the providers of the NWTC M2 mast data [26]. Thanks to WASA (Wind Atlas for South Africa) for providing WM01 tall tower data. Long-term mean wind speed data at hub heights was obtained from DTU Wind Energy Global Wind Atlas, funded by Danish Energy Agency EUDP 11-II, Globalt Vind Atlas J.nr. 64011-0347. Authors want to thank Pierre-Antoine Bretonnière for technical support with the datasets.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Income disparity among persons with disabilities assessed by education and sex : findings from a field survey conducted in Metro Manila, the Philippines

How do persons with disabilities (PWDs) earn a living? From the view point of poverty reduction, this question is quite critical in developing countries. This paper presents an investigation of economic activities of PWDs in the Philippines where, among developing countries, disability-related legislation is relatively progressive. In 2008, a field survey was conducted in cooperation with Disability People’s Organizations (DPOs) using a tailor-made questionnaire in four representative cities of Metro Manila. The level and determinants of income of PWDs were examined with Mincer regression. Conclusions are as follows: (1) The incidence and depth of poverty are greater among sample PWDs than that of the total population in Metro Manila. (2) There is remarkable income disparity among PWDs which is associated with education and sex. (3) After controlling individual, parental, and environmental characteristics, it was found that female PWDs are likely to earn less than male PWDs due to fewer opportunities to participate in economic activities. It is suggested that female PWDs are doubly handicapped in earning income