An Analysis Of Factors Determining Competitiveness: The Case Of The Indonesian Palm Oil Industry

IndonesianKajian ini menganalisis faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi daya saing industri kelapa sawit Indonesia di pasar internasional. Kerangka kajian ini menggabungkan pendekatan teori perdagangan neo-klasik dan manajemen strategis dalam menganalisis daya saing internasional pada tingkat industri. Penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa daya saing global industri kelapa sawit di Indonesia dapat dijelaskan oleh produktifitas tenaga kerja, nilai tukar rupiah, dan rasio konsentrasi empat perusahaan. Campur tangan pemerintah dalam bentuk penentuan harga alokasi dalam negeri juga merupakan faktor yang sangat penting dan berpengaruh negatif pada daya saing global industri kelapa sawit di Indonesia.EnglishThis paper analyses factors that determine the competitiveness of the Indonesian palm oil industry including the effect of government interventions. The conceptual framework used in this study combines neo-classical trade and strategic management approaches for analyzing competitiveness at the industry level. This study shows that the competitiveness of the Indonesian palm oil industry can be explained by its labor productivity, the real exchange rates, and the four-firm concentration ratio. It is shown that government interventions--in the form of domestic allocation prices--have significant and negative effects on the competitiveness of the palm oil industry

Determining Return on Investment for Professional Development In Public Education: A Model

Return on investment with respect to employee training is a growing phenomenon in business and industry, as understanding the impact of training on an organization is often not enough. Public educational systems also spend a significant amount of resources on professional development. However, because education is a non-revenue generating industry, rarely do we analyze return on investment in the educational sector. This article examines return on investment for public school teacher training and professional development. While this model was developed for a specific school system and software, the model outlined below may be used by administrators in many non-profit or social organizations to determine a professional development return on investment

An Analysis of Factors Determining Competitiveness: the Case of the Indonesian Palm Oil Industry

IndonesianKajian ini menganalisis faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi daya saing industri kelapa sawit Indonesia di pasar Internasional. Kerangka kajian ini menggabungkan pendekatan teori perdagangan neo-klasik dan manajemen strategis dalam menganalisis daya saing Internasional pada tingkat industri. Penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa daya saing global industri kelapa sawit di Indonesia dapat dijelaskan oleh produktifitas tenaga kerja, nilai tukar rupiah, dan rasio konsentrasi empat Perusahaan. Campur tangan pemerintah dalam bentuk penentuan harga alokasi dalam negeri juga merupakan faktor yang sangat penting dan berpengaruh negatif pada daya saing global industri kelapa sawit di Indonesia.EnglishThis paper analyses factors that determine the competitiveness of the Indonesian palm oil industry including the effect of government interventions. The conceptual framework used in this study combines neo-classical trade and strategic management approaches for analyzing competitiveness at the industry level. This study shows that the competitiveness of the Indonesian palm oil industry can be explained by its labor productivity, the real exchange rates, and the four-firm concentration ratio. It is shown that government interventions--in the form of domestic allocation prices--have significant and negative effects on the competitiveness of the palm oil industry

On the master equation approach to kinetic theory: linear and nonlinear Fokker--Planck equations

We discuss the relationship between kinetic equations of the Fokker-Planck type (two linear and one non-linear) and the Kolmogorov (a.k.a. master) equations of certain N-body diffusion processes, in the context of Kac's "propagation of chaos" limit. The linear Fokker-Planck equations are well-known, but here they are derived as a limit N->infty of a simple linear diffusion equation on (3N-C)-dimensional N-velocity spheres of radius sqrt(N) (with C=1 or 4 depending on whether the system conserves energy only or energy and momentum). In this case, a spectral gap separating the zero eigenvalue from the positive spectrum of the Laplacian remains as N->infty,so that the exponential approach to equilibrium of the master evolution is passed on to the limiting Fokker-Planck evolution in R^3. The non-linear Fokker-Planck equation is known as Landau's equation in the plasma physics literature. Its N-particle master equation, originally introduced (in the 1950s) by Balescu and Prigogine (BP), is studied here on the (3N-4)-dimensional N-velocity sphere. It is shown that the BP master equation represents a superposition of diffusion processes on certain two-dimensional sub-manifolds of R^{3N} determined by the conservation laws for two-particle collisions. The initial value problem for the BP master equation is proved to be well-posed and its solutions are shown to decay exponentially fast to equilibrium. However, the first non-zero eigenvalue of the BP operator is shown to vanish in the limit N->infty. This indicates that the exponentially fast approach to equilibrium may not be passed from the finite-N master equation on to Landau's nonlinear kinetic equation.Comment: 20 pages; based on talk at the 18th ICTT Conference. Some typos and a few minor technical fixes. Modified title slightl

Jurassic Redbeds of the Connecticut Valley: (1) Brownstones of the Portland Formation; and (2) Playa-Playa Lake-Oligomictic Lake Model for Parts of the East Berlin, Shuttle Meadow, and Portland Formations

Guidebook for field trips in Connecticut and south central Massachusetts: New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference 74th annual meeting, University of Connecticut, Storrs Connecticut , October 2 and 3, 1982: Trip M-

Career and Technical Education Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Profession and Willingness to Encourage Students to Enter a CTE Teaching Career

This study examined the current climate of how Virginia CTE teachers perceive their profession and if they are encouraging their students to enter the teaching profession. A survey developed by the National Center for Education Statistics was submitted to CTE teachers in Virginia (n = 743) to address these questions. Descriptive statistics helped to determine that CTE teachers are generally satisfied with their careers but dissatisfied with factors over which they have no control, and the number of teachers recommending the profession to their students in recent years has decreased considerably. A Pareto analysis was conducted, and the results showed the key reasons why teachers are not recommending the CTE teaching profession to their students are salary/benefits and school variables not in their control

Ebola Virus Localization in the Macaque Reproductive Tract during Acute Ebola Virus Disease.

Sexual transmission of Ebola virus (EBOV) has been demonstrated more than a year after recovery from the acute phase of Ebola virus disease (EVD). The mechanisms underlying EBOV persistence and sexual transmission are not currently understood. Using the acute macaque model of EVD, we hypothesized EBOV would infect the reproductive tissues and sought to localize the infection in these tissues using immunohistochemistry and transmission electron microscopy. In four female and eight male macaques that succumbed to EVD between 6 and 9 days after EBOV challenge, we demonstrate widespread EBOV infection of the interstitial tissues and endothelium in the ovary, uterus, testis, seminal vesicle, epididymis, and prostate gland, with minimal associated tissue immune response or organ pathology. Given the widespread involvement of EBOV in the reproductive tracts of both male and female macaques, it is reasonable to surmise that our understanding of the mechanisms underlying sexual transmission of EVD and persistence of EBOV in immune-privileged sites would be facilitated by the development of a nonhuman primate model in which the macaques survived past the acute stage into convalescence

A Vulnerability Assessment of 300 Species in Florida: Threats from Sea Level Rise, Land Use, and Climate Change

Species face many threats, including accelerated climate change, sea level rise, and conversion and degradation of habitat from human land uses. Vulnerability assessments and prioritization protocols have been proposed to assess these threats, often in combination with information such as species rarity; ecological, evolutionary or economic value; and likelihood of success. Nevertheless, few vulnerability assessments or prioritization protocols simultaneously account for multiple threats or conservation values. We applied a novel vulnerability assessment tool, the Standardized Index of Vulnerability and Value, to assess the conservation priority of 300 species of plants and animals in Florida given projections of climate change, human land-use patterns, and sea level rise by the year 2100. We account for multiple sources of uncertainty and prioritize species under five different systems of value, ranging from a primary emphasis on vulnerability to threats to an emphasis on metrics of conservation value such as phylogenetic distinctiveness. Our results reveal remarkable consistency in the prioritization of species across different conservation value systems. Species of high priority include the Miami blue butterfly (Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri), Key tree cactus (Pilosocereus robinii), Florida duskywing butterfly (Ephyriades brunnea floridensis), and Key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium). We also identify sources of uncertainty and the types of life history information consistently missing across taxonomic groups. This study characterizes the vulnerabilities to major threats of a broad swath of Florida\u27s biodiversity and provides a system for prioritizing conservation efforts that is quantitative, flexible, and free from hidden value judgments

The Vegetation Drought Response Index (VegDRI): A New Integrated Approach for Monitoring Drought Stress in Vegetation

The development of new tools that provide timely, detailed-spatial-resolution drought information is essential for improving drought preparedness and response. This paper presents a new method for monitoring drought-induced vegetation stress called the Vegetation Drought Response Index (VegDRI). VegDRI integrates traditional climate-based drought indicators and satellite-derived vegetation index metrics with other biophysical information to produce a 1 km map of drought conditions that can be produced in near-real time. The initial VegDRI map results for a 2002 case study conducted across seven states in the north-central United States illustrates the utility of VegDRI for improved large-area drought monitoring

Let’s Play! Gamifying Engineering Ethics Education Through the Development of Competitive and Collaborative Activities

Engineering ethics is an extremely important topic that needs to be focused on more in engineering curricula, as many of the projects that engineers work on have a profound impact on society. There are many pitfalls with the traditional ways in which ethics is taught to engineering students as an abstract philosophical topic, rather than personal decision making situated in complex real contexts. The three main approaches that are used for engineering ethics include being taught by a professor outside of the engineering space, being taught late in their curriculum such as during a senior capstone project, and being taught in a short period of time as a module of another class. The downsides to these approaches are that students do not see ethics as equally important as some other topics, they do not see it consistently integrated throughout the curriculum, nor do they see ethical decisions as complex nuanced, and situated in context,. Game-based learning is a means to actively engage students in interrogating the complexities of ethical decision making. Game play can align with student learning objectives as well as improve student knowledge, behaviors, and dispositions. Our paper introduces three games that are designed to assist in the development of students’ ethical awareness and reasoning. Three engineering ethics games have been developed as the foundation for an NSF-funded project that investigates the empirical impacts of game play on ethical reasoning and decision making. Cards Against Engineering Ethics, Toxic Workplaces, and Mars: An Ethical Expedition have all been in development for the last few years. Each game targets specific ethics learning outcomes as well as different play mechanics. These outcomes include identifying the complexities of ethical dilemmas, evaluating responses to ethical situations in context, and promoting ethical discussions among peers. The time required to play each game varies, ranging from 20 minutes, to 75 minutes, to 5 minutes once a week for 15 weeks. The benefits that these games include an enriched learning experience, student engagement, and a greater connection between ethics and real life