Trade Intensity and Business Cycle Synchronization: The Case of East Asia

This paper examines whether increasing trade intensity among East Asian countries has led to a synchronization of business cycles. It extends the work of Shin and Wang (2004) in two ways: by (i) improving the specification of their business cycle correlation equation, and (ii) extending the sample to cover the period after the Asian financial crisis. The study finds that intra-industry trade, rather than inter-industry trade, is the major factor explaining business cycle co-movements in East Asia, with important implications for the prospects for a single currency in the region.economic integration; trade intensity; intra-industry trade; business cycle synchronization; East Asia

Economic Integration in East Asia: Trends, Prospects, and a Possible Roadmap

This paper, which is a revised version of the ADB Working Paper on Regional Economic Integration No. 2, reviews trends in East Asian regionalism in the areas of trade and investment, money and finance, and infrastructure. It finds that trade and, to a lesser extent, financial integration is starting to increase in the region. It also finds that business cycles are starting to be more synchronized, enhancing the case for further monetary integration among these countries. The paper also outlines a roadmap for East Asian integration.

Economic Integration in East Asia: Trends, Prospects, and a Possible Roadmap

This paper reviews trends in East Asian regionalism in the areas of trade and investment, money and finance, and infrastructure. It presents various measures of trade and financial integration. An important finding of the paper is that increasing trade and financial integration in the region is now starting to lead to a synchronization of business cycles in a selected group of countries, further enhancing the case for monetary integration among these countries. The paper also outlines a roadmap for East Asian integration.ASEAN/East Asian economic cooperation and integration; business cycle synchronization; free trade agreements; policy coordination

Consumer Support for Food Tracing with RFID Technology

Foodborne illness continues to be a significant problem and food traceability may help reduce the number and severity of outbreaks. One technology that could improve food tracing is radio frequency identification tags or RFID. However, some consumers may oppose the use of this technology because of its potential for reducing personal privacy. A survey of consumers asked about their support for an RFID tracing system for produce and for meat. Results suggest that some consumer privacy attitudes and privacy behaviors were negatively related to support for RFID tracing. Proponents of traceability with RFID may need to spend more time explaining the technology to consumers to reduce their concerns and anxieties. In addition, the results for produce tracing and meat tracing were different, suggesting that consumer support for food traceability may vary by product category.Food Traceability, RFID technology, Consumer Survey, Meat Tracing, Produce Tracing, Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

Farmers' management of rice varietal diversity in the mid-hills of Nepal: implications for on-farm conservation and crop improvement

Season-long monitoring of on-farm rice (Oryza sativa, L.) plots in Nepal explored farmers' decision-making process on the deployment of varieties to agroecosystems, application of production inputs to varieties, agronomic practices and relationship between economic return and area planted per variety. Farmers deploy varieties [landraces (LRs) and modern varieties (MVs)] to agroecosystems based on their understanding of characteristics of varieties and agroecosystems, and the interaction between them. In marginal growing conditions, LRs can compete with MVs. Within an agroecosystem, economic return and area planted to varieties have positive relationship, but this is not so between agroecosystems. LRs are very diverse on agronomic and economic traits; therefore, they cannot be rejected a priori as inferior materials without proper evaluation. LRs have to be evaluated for useful traits and utilized in breeding programmes to generate farmer-preferred materials for marginal environments and for their conservation on-farm

Melting of antikaon condensate in protoneutron stars

We study the melting of a $K^-$ condensate in hot and neutrino-trapped protoneutron stars. In this connection, we adopt relativistic field theoretical models to describe the hadronic and condensed phases. It is observed that the critical temperature of antikaon condensation is enhanced as baryon density increases. For a fixed baryon density, the critical temperature of antikaon condensation in a protoneutron star is smaller than that of a neutron star. We also exhibit the phase diagram of a protoneutron star with a $K^-$ condensate.Comment: 17 pages including 7 figure

Refugees’ contentious politics and the case of Syrian activists in Jordan

This paper was presented at a workshop on ‘The Long-term Challenges of Forced Migration: Local and Regional Perspectives from Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq’ organised by the LSE Middle East Centre in June 2016. It was published as part of a collected papers volume available in English and Arabic

Té dulce y cigarrillos: el sabor de la vida de refugiado en Jordania

Las restricciones sobre la movilidad, la prohibición de trabajar y el sentimiento de marginación provocan un aburrimiento absoluto que supone sin duda un motivo de sufrimiento entre los refugiados de Jordania

Investigating volumetric repainting technique in pencil beam scanning proton therapy

The fundamental goal of radiotherapy is to maximize the radiation dose to enhance the tumor control while minimizing dose to the normal tissues. Proton radiotherapy for clinical use has increased in the last decade. Currently, the use of pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy technology for the treatment of various cancers is gaining popularity. The potential challenge of clinical utilization of PBS proton therapy occurs in the case of mobile tumors such as lung. The mitigation of interplay effect in PBS proton therapy is critical to maintain a higher local control. Volumetric repainting is considered as one of the tumor motion management techniques in PBS proton treatment. Volumetric repainting is accomplished by scanning the entire target volume repeatedly. This thesis examines the application of volumetric repainting in PBS proton therapy, with a particular emphasis on the alternating order repainting technique. The experiments were carried out on an IBA ProteusPLUS PBS proton system operating in a magnetic field regulation mode. The “magnetic field regulation” mode on an IBA ProteusPLUS PBS proton system is capable of delivering a proton beam from the distal end to proximal end and vice-versa, with a faster energy layer switching. There is a lack of published scientific guidelines on the implementation of such commercially available advanced technology in a clinical setting. This thesis work is primarily focused on investigating the feasibility of clinical implementation of volumetric repainting technique in an alternating order to treat lung tumors in PBS proton therapy. Specifically, this thesis work provides the experimental results for a PBS proton beam model as well as addresses the interplay effect, proton dose calculation algorithms, spot size and position errors, treatment plan robustness, radiobiological analysis, and dose-averaged linear energy transfer (LETd) distributions in PBS proton lung cancer patients