Hong Kong's Currency Board and Changing Monetary Regimes

The paper discusses the historical background and institutional details of Hong Kong's currency board. We argue that its experience provides a good opportunity to test the macroeconomic implications of the currency board regime. Using the method of Blanchard and Quah (1989), we show that the parameters of the structural equations and the characteristics of supply and demand shocks have significantly changed since adopting the regime. Variance decomposition and impulse response analyses indicate Hong Kong's currency board is less susceptible to supply shocks, but demand shocks can cause greater short-term volatility under the system. The decent performance of Hong Kong's currency board is due mainly to the stable fiscal policy of its government. Counter-factual exercises also show that three-fourths of the reduction in observed output volatility and two-thirds of that in observed inflation volatility are explained by the adoption of the currency board, while the remainder is explained by changes in the external environment. The improvement in stability does not rule out the possibility of monetary collapse, however.

Advanced Silicon-on-Insulator: Crystalline Silicon on Atomic Layer Deposited Beryllium Oxide

Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology improves the performance of devices by reducing parasitic capacitance. Devices based on SOI or silicon-on-sapphire technology are primarily used in high-performance radio frequency (RF) and radiation sensitive applications as well as for reducing the short channel effects in microelectronic devices. Despite their advantages, the high substrate cost and overheating problems associated with complexities in substrate fabrication as well as the low thermal conductivity of silicon oxide prevent broad applications of this technology. To overcome these challenges, we describe a new approach of using beryllium oxide (BeO). The use of atomic layer deposition (ALD) for producing this material results in lowering the SOI wafer production cost. Furthermore, the use of BeO exhibiting a high thermal conductivity might minimize the self-heating issues. We show that crystalline Si can be grown on ALD BeO and the resultant devices exhibit potential for use in advanced SOI technology applications

PERSEPSI PETANI PADI TERHADAP KEGIATAN PENYULUHAN PERTANIAN DI DESA SUKARAMI KELURAHAN TABA PENANJUNG KABUPATEN BENGKULU TENGAH

Agricultural development is an important and integral part of national development. It is evident from the self-sufficiency of rice in 1982. The success of agricultural development is inseparable from agricultural extension activities as a social innovation that aims to change the behavior of people (farmers) to always be ready and able to master and apply each alternative innovations that can be used to improve farm productivity (Mardikanto, 1991). Extension activities can be run if the farmer who supports that goal by holding counseling can be delivered and realized. In this study, researchers wanted to examine the perceptions of paddy farmers towards agricultural extension activities in the Sukarami village, Taba Penanjung, Middle of Bengkulu Regency. The research was conducted in June - July 2013 in Sukarami village, Taba Penanjung, of Middle Bengkulu regency. Sampling was performed with a standard deviation formula involving 36 people from the 182 sample respondents. Necessary data were taken from two sources namely primary data and secondary data. Primary data is data obtained directly from respondents by conducting interviews based on questionnaires that have been prepared. Secondary data were taken from previous data like from the village office and others agencies associated with this research. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that the perception of farmers on agricultural extension activities are good because it can increase the farmers knowledge, skills, motivation and farm productivity.Keywords : Perceptions, Farmers, Agricultural Extension

Metatranscriptome analysis of the reef-building coral Orbicella faveolata indicates holobiont response to coral disease

White Plague Disease (WPD) is implicated in coral reef decline in the Caribbean and is characterized by microbial community shifts in coral mucus and tissue. Studies thus far have focused on assessing microbial communities or the identification of specific pathogens, yet few have addressed holobiont response across metaorganism compartments in coral disease. Here, we report on the first metatranscriptomic assessment of the coral host, algal symbiont, and microbial compartment in order to survey holobiont structure and function in healthy and diseased samples from Orbicella faveolata collected at reef sites off Puerto Rico. Our data indicate holobiont-wide as well as compartment-specific responses to WPD. Gene expression changes in the diseased coral host involved proteins playing a role in innate immunity, cytoskeletal integrity, cell adhesion, oxidative stress, chemical defense, and retroelements. In contrast, the algal symbiont showed comparatively few expression changes, but of large magnitude, of genes related to stress, photosynthesis, and metal transport. Concordant with the coral host response, the bacterial compartment showed increased abundance of heat shock proteins, genes related to oxidative stress, DNA repair, and potential retroelement activity. Importantly, analysis of the expressed bacterial gene functions establishes the participation of multiple bacterial families in WPD pathogenesis and also suggests a possible involvement of viruses and/or phages in structuring the bacterial assemblage. In this study, we implement an experimental approach to partition the coral holobiont and resolve compartment- and taxa-specific responses in order to understand metaorganism function in coral disease