60 Years of Rural Reconstruction Movement in the Philippines (PRRM) = 回顧菲律賓鄉村建設運動60年

PRRM did not go to the countryside to disperse buffalos though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. PRRM did disperse buffalos and other farm animals but it went to the countryside for nobler reason---the liberation of the peasant from poverty and oppression. It sought to do this through mass education and mass movement. By 2012 PRRM will have spanned a period running in parallel to the postwar development history of the Philippines. It was founded in 1952 during the administration of President Magsaysay, called “Man of the Masses”. PRRM peaked in the 1960s, declined in the late 1970s through to the 1980s, and rebounded after the 1986 EDSA revolution

On the distribution of proportions and ratios as indicators of ungulate body condition

In the wildlife literature various studies have shown that the amount of fat around the kidneys is often a good indicator of body condition and health of ungulate species ([1],[2]). Wildlife biologies often measure the weights of fat around the kidneys and the kidneys themselves (without fat), comparing these two quantities and transforming them into a ratio or a proportion as surrogates of body condition of dead animals. Later, they use these indices as response variables to model the e®ect of covariates or treatments, such as age group and season of the year, on body condition. The more commonly used models are ANOVA-type. Most debate has been concentrated on whether or not to use a simple ANOVA model of ratios or proportions with ¯xed e®ects, or an ANCOVA model using fat weight as response variable, and the kidneys weight as a covariate ([3]). Results have taken by surprise some biologists because using one or another model with both response variables could lead to very di®erent results for what it considered the most important e®ects. In this manuscript we attempt to highlight the main di®erences and the distributional properties of these response variables, ratio and proportion

Neural-network selection of high-redshift radio quasars, and the luminosity function at z~4

We obtain a sample of 87 radio-loud QSOs in the redshift range 3.6<z<4.4 by cross-correlating sources in the FIRST radio survey S{1.4GHz} > 1 mJy with star-like objects having r <20.2 in SDSS Data Release 7. Of these 87 QSOs, 80 are spectroscopically classified in previous work (mainly SDSS), and form the training set for a search for additional such sources. We apply our selection to 2,916 FIRST-DR7 pairs and find 15 likely candidates. Seven of these are confirmed as high-redshift quasars, bringing the total to 87. The candidates were selected using a neural-network, which yields 97% completeness (fraction of actual high-z QSOs selected as such) and an efficiency (fraction of candidates which are high-z QSOs) in the range of 47 to 60%. We use this sample to estimate the binned optical luminosity function of radio-loud QSOs at $z\sim 4$, and also the LF of the total QSO population and its comoving density. Our results suggest that the radio-loud fraction (RLF) at high z is similar to that at low-z and that other authors may be underestimating the fraction at high-z. Finally, we determine the slope of the optical luminosity function and obtain results consistent with previous studies of radio-loud QSOs and of the whole population of QSOs. The evolution of the luminosity function with redshift was for many years interpreted as a flattening of the bright end slope, but has recently been re-interpreted as strong evolution of the break luminosity for high-z QSOs, and our results, for the radio-loud population, are consistent with this.Comment: 20 pages. Accepted for publication in MNRAS on 3 March 201

Use of neural networks for the identification of new z>=3.6 QSOs from FIRST-SDSS DR5

We aim to obtain a complete sample of redshift > 3.6 radio QSOs from FIRST sources having star-like counterparts in the SDSS DR5 photometric survey (r<=20.2). We found that simple supervised neural networks, trained on sources with SDSS spectra, and using optical photometry and radio data, are very effective for identifying high-z QSOs without spectra. The technique yields a completeness of 96 per cent and an efficiency of 62 per cent. Applying the trained networks to 4415 sources without DR5 spectra we found 58 z>=3.6 QSO candidates. We obtained spectra of 27 of them, and 17 are confirmed as high-z QSOs. Spectra of 13 additional candidates from the literature and from SDSS DR6 revealed 7 more z>=3.6 QSOs, giving and overall efficiency of 60 per cent. None of the non-candidates with spectra from NED or DR6 is a z>=3.6 QSO, consistently with a high completeness. The initial sample of z>=3.6 QSOs is increased from 52 to 76, i.e. by a factor 1.46. From the new identifications and candidates we estimate an incompleteness of SDSS for the spectroscopic classification of FIRST 3.6<=z<=4.6 QSOs of 15 percent for r<=20.2.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures accepted for publication in MNRA

SPH simulations of the chemical evolution of bulges

We have implemented a chemical evolution model on the parallel AP3M+SPH DEVA code which we use to perform high resolution simulations of spiral galaxy formation. It includes feedback by SNII and SNIa using the Qij matrix formalism. We also include a diffusion mechanism that spreads newly introduced metals. The gas cooling rate depends on its specific composition. We study the stellar populations of the resulting bulges finding a potential scenario where they seem to be composed of two populations: an old, metal poor, $\alpha$-enriched population, formed in a multiclump scenario at the beginning of the simulation and a younger one, formed by slow accretion of satellites or gas, possibly from the disk due to instabilities.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of IAUS 245 "Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges

Lagrangian Volume Deformations around Simulated Galaxies

We present a detailed analysis of the local evolution of 206 Lagrangian Volumes (LVs) selected at high redshift around galaxy seeds, identified in a large-volume $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) hydrodynamical simulation. The LVs have a mass range of $1 - 1500 \times 10^{10} M_\odot$. We follow the dynamical evolution of the density field inside these initially spherical LVs from $z=10$ up to $z_{\rm low} = 0.05$, witnessing highly non-linear, anisotropic mass rearrangements within them, leading to the emergence of the local cosmic web (CW). These mass arrangements have been analysed in terms of the reduced inertia tensor $I_{ij}^r$, focusing on the evolution of the principal axes of inertia and their corresponding eigendirections, and paying particular attention to the times when the evolution of these two structural elements declines. In addition, mass and component effects along this process have also been investigated. We have found that deformations are led by dark matter dynamics and they transform most of the initially spherical LVs into prolate shapes, i.e. filamentary structures. An analysis of the individual freezing-out time distributions for shapes and eigendirections shows that first most of the LVs fix their three axes of symmetry (like a skeleton) early on, while accretion flows towards them still continue. Very remarkably, we have found that more massive LVs fix their skeleton earlier on than less massive ones. We briefly discuss the astrophysical implications our findings could have, including the galaxy mass-morphology relation and the effects on the galaxy-galaxy merger parameter space, among others.Comment: 23 pages, 20 figures. Minor editorial improvement

Agrarian reform and rural reconstruction in the Philippines = 菲律宾土地改革与农村重建

Agrarian reform is at the heart of rural reconstruction and both are essential to achieving sustainable development. It includes not only land redistribution but also empowerment of peasants as key actors in building the rural economy. Land is not only an asset to be owned and accessed but also as a natural resource with multiple uses for both economic development and protection of ecosystems. Land ownership has hitherto been a centerpiece question in Philippine development, indeed, in nation building. Land monopoly on one side and landlessness on the other have defined to a large extent the history and political economy of the country. Poverty in the Philippines is basically a rural phenomenon and rooted to landlessness and monopoly control of capital, technology, and markets essential to building the local economy. The economic elite whose wealth is connected to land ownership is also the political elite. A succession of nine presidents had presided over the Philippines’ post-World War II development. Collectively, these regimes have failed to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. Land reform policies and legislations, by design, contain many loopholes favoring landlords. State action to redress the social injustice was motivated mainly by fear of rural unrest and the desire to prevent peasant movements from developing into a full blown revolution. Rural reconstruction, as envisioned and practiced by the Philippine Rural Reconstruction (PRRM), is mainly about building sustainable communities from the ruins of war and conflicts, against the stubborn persistence of poverty and inequality, bad governance, environmental degradation and changing climate. Rural reconstruction in the Philippines has had to grapple with a host of other major challenges attendant to building a sustainable rural economy as the bedrock of a sustainable national development. A sustainable rural economy is built on the basis of resilient communities and resilient ecosystems. 土地改革是农村重建的核心，两者是实现可持续发展的关键。这不仅包括土地再分配，更重要的是赋权农民、使他们成为农村经济建设的主角。土地不仅仅是一种可以被占有、被取得的资产，更是为经济发展和生态环境保护提供各类用途的自然资源。因此，土地所有权成为菲律宾发展最重要的问题，也是整个国家建设的核心。土地垄断阶级和无地阶级长期以来在很大程度上决定了整个国家的历史和政治经济脉络。贫困在菲律宾基本上是一个农村现象，它植根于无地阶级，以及对资本、技术和经济市场保持垄断的阶级。 那些和土地所有权相扣连的经济精英自然而然成为了政治精英。自二战以来，菲律宾的九位总统都未能根除整个社会的贫困问题，减轻社会的不公平现象。土地改革政策和相关立法存在许多有利于地主的漏洞。出于对农民动乱的恐惧， 同时也为了防止农民动乱最终扩大成为全面的革命运动，菲律宾政府出面采取行动抑制社会不公平。菲律宾农村重建机构(PRRM)所设想和实践的农村重建主要包括在战争和冲突的残骸上建立可持续发展社区、反对顽固的贫困问题和社会不公；反抗坏政府、环境恶化和气候变化现象。菲律宾的农村重建不得不处理一系列和可持续农村经济发展相关的挑战，这是通向可持续国家发展的基石。一套可持续的农村经济也依赖于富有弹性的社区和生态环境之上