AN ECONOMY-WIDE ANALYSIS OF GM FOOD LABELING POLICIES IN TAIWAN

The development of agricultural biotechnology offers the opportunity to increase crop production, lowers farming costs, improves food quality and could reduce costs to consumers. For the food importing economies, the import quantities as well as prices will be affected through world market as the production technology of GM crops is adopted by the exporting countries. Many sectors will be affected by the use of these crops through vertical (or backward) and horizontal (or forward) linkages. The purpose of this paper is to develop an economy-wide quantitative assessment of the economic impacts of the introduction of GM products with and without labeling. The modeling framework used in this analysis is TAIGEM (Taiwan General Equilibrium Model), a multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Taiwan¡¦s economy which is derived from ORANI model (Dixon, Parmenter, Sutton and Vincent, 1982). TAIGEM is amended by splitting corn and soybeans into GM and non-GM varieties. It also endogenizes the decision of producers and consumers to use GM vs. non-GM corn and soybeans in their intermediate uses and consumption, respectively. We also consider the consumers¡¦ acceptance of GM food so that the mandatory labeling policy can be examined. Our simulation results indicate that the most extreme import ban on GM crops would be very costly in terms of total production values, ranging from NT$ 40 to 90 billions per year.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

An Intelligent Auxiliary Vacuum Brake System

The purpose of this paper focuses on designing an intelligent, compact, reliable, and robust auxiliary vacuum brake system (VBS) with Kalman filter and self-diagnosis scheme. All of the circuit elements in the designed system are integrated into one programmable system-on-chip (PSoC) with entire computational algorithms implemented by software. In this system, three main goals are achieved: (a) Kalman filter and hysteresis controller algorithms are employed within PSoC chip by software to surpass the noises and disturbances from hostile surrounding in a vehicle. (b) Self-diagnosis scheme is employed to identify any breakdown element of the auxiliary vacuum brake system. (c) Power MOSFET is utilized to implement PWM pump control and compared with relay control. More accurate vacuum pressure control has been accomplished as well as power energy saving. In the end, a prototype has been built and tested to confirm all of the performances claimed above

Entrepreneurship Education for the Next Generation of Higher Education in Taiwan

2019/2020 The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) analyzes the status of early entrepreneurship in various countries. Taiwan is higher than other countries’ averages in the national entrepreneurial environment index, such as cultural and social norms, physical infrastructure, market entry control, and internal market vitality, business and legal infrastructure, transformation of research and development results, school-leaving entrepreneurship education and training, on-campus entrepreneurship education and training, government entrepreneurship plans, taxation and administrative systems, government policies and entrepreneurial financing, etc. Starting from 2020, the Ministry of Education has divided the innovation and entrepreneurship courses into two models, namely fundraising practical learning and training course modules and entrepreneurial management and action learning course modules. The themes and implementations of the courses include “Concepts and Practices in Entrepreneurship and Practice Simulation Learning Platform”, “Concept Development and Practice-Business Operation-Company Establishment-Company Closure” and “Concept Proposal-Maker Practice-Business Model Briefing” and other aspects. This article will discuss, in the context of the development and current situation of entrepreneurship education in Taiwan, trends in entrepreneurship education for the next generation of Taiwan, and use examples from Taiwan’s higher education system to promote entrepreneurship education to serve as a reference by education circles in other countries

Increased ATP generation in the host cell is required for efficient vaccinia virus production

To search for cellular genes up-regulated by vaccinia virus (VV) infection, differential display-reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (ddRT-PCR) assays were used to examine the expression of mRNAs from mock-infected and VV-infected HeLa cells. Two mitochondrial genes for proteins that are part of the electron transport chain that generates ATP, ND4 and CO II, were up-regulated after VV infection. Up-regulation of ND4 level by VV infection was confirmed by Western blotting analysis. Up-regulation of ND4 was reduced by the MAPK inhibitor, apigenin, which has been demonstrated elsewhere to inhibit VV replication. The induction of ND4 expression occurred after viral DNA replication since ara C, an inhibitor of poxviral DNA replication, could block this induction. ATP production was increased in the host cells after VV infection. Moreover, 4.5 μM oligomycin, an inhibitor of ATP production, reduced the ATP level 13 hr after virus infection to that of mock-infected cells and inhibited viral protein expression and virus production, suggesting that increased ATP production is required for efficient VV production. Our results further suggest that induction of ND4 expression is through a Bcl-2 independent pathway

Factors Affecting Sesame Seed Exports in Burkina Faso: The Vector Error Correction Approach

The research is financed by Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Grant No. AS-SS-107-02. Abstract Burkina Faso's (BFA) dependence on a single export crop, namely cotton, has so far threatened its economy since the fluctuating and uncontrollable drops in world cotton prices. The diversification of cash crops has become a national priority that is appropriated day by day by actors of rural development, and more particularly by farmers seeking to improve and secure their income. Thus, export crops, such as sesame, appear obvious and essential, not only for farmers’ income security but also for the country by its ability to attract currencies. In the last decade, BFA’s the sesame sector has recorded a tremendous growth both in quantity and value of exports to being the eighth world largest exporter of sesame seed. Considering its unequaled performance in the export of sesame seed, we deemed relevant to identify the key factors affecting that performance and to study their effects on sesame seed export earnings in order to draft appropriated policies aimed to enhance the country’s earnings. This study uses the cointegration approach, and has purposely designed exports value as the independent variable to analyze the country exports performance using time series data for the period of 47 years (1970-2016). One cointegration vector is found between the variables employed; thereby the Vector Error Correction Model has been performed. The empirical results reveal that nominal exchange rate, producer price, world export volume of sesame seed as a proxy of world demand, and world price are key factors affecting significantly the country’s exports performance in the short-run. Moreover, in the long-run nominal exchange rate, production, producer price, and world export price are factors determining significantly export earnings of sesame seed in Burkina Faso. For Burkina Faso to increase its market shares and export earnings, especially in the long-run, it is principally recommended to boost the production by increasing significantly yields and ensure an appropriate transmission of international prices increments to farmers. Keywords: Agricultural Export, Determinants of Agricultural Exports, Sesame Seed, Cointegration, Burkina Faso. DOI: 10.7176/DCS/10-4-03 Publication date: April 30th 202

THE VARIATION OF DOMINANT ELBOW RANGE OF MOTION AMONG DIFFERENT MATURE STAGE FOR BASEBALL PITCHERS

The purpose of this study was to examine the variation of elbow range of motion (ROM) in the dominant arm between different maturity levels in baseball pitchers. Sixty-two pitchers, including 17 early-puberty players, 22 later-puberty players, and 23 adult players, participated in this study. A goniometer was used to assess elbow ROM in the dominant arms, including elbow flexion, hyper-extension, supination, pronation and valgus angles. The results showed that smaller ROM was found in elbow flexion, supination, and pronation, and larger ROM in elbow valgue, in pithers of later puberty level (