The Political Economy of Pro-Poor Livestock Policymaking in Vietnam

This paper presents a case study of how livestock policies are made and implemented in a national context, and how they can be improved to better serve the interests of the poor. Livestock is a sector with a great potential for growth compared to other sectors in agriculture. However, appropriate policies and institutions that allow the poor to tap this growth potential may not exist or may be inadequate. In some cases, existing policies may actually hinder the poor from doing so. The study used the key informant method supplemented with official documents, newspaper sources and recently published research on the livestock sector. Interviews helped reveal policymakers' concerns, whereas field trips allowed the researcher to talk to a few peasants and learn their perspectives from the bottom. Newspapers contained many lively stories of how well-intentioned policies went awry at the implementation stage, while published research analyzed various political, institutional and technical aspects of policymaking in the sector. The author concludes that despite economic reform policymaking and implementation is still hindered by a political ambivalence about rural development in general. This results in a restrictive land policy that inhibits the potential of rural producers while restricting the growth of off-farm employment opportunities that may benefit the poor. Despite official rhetoric that calls for increased assistance to the poor, policies lack effective mechanisms to realize their participation in productive activities. Four strategic entry points are recommended that can both improve the performance of the sector and the participation of the poor in productive activities. With sufficient resources to back up programs and efforts to identify political allies for the cause, it may be possible to make livestock policies better serve the interests of the poor.Vietnam, policymaking, livestock, rural development, poverty, Political Economy,

The effects of bismuth, strontium and antimony additions on the microstructure and mechanical properties of A356 aluminium casting alloy

Aluminium castings offer significant weight reduction and improved fuel efficiency. Nowadays, aluminium recycling is widely practiced so impurity-related problems has become more important. Bismuth is one of the alloying elements added to aluminium alloys to improve their machinability, but little is known about its effect as a modifier or refiner. There has also been little investigation on the effect of low strontium contents (0.001wt% to 0.006wt%) on porosity formation. In the present work both sand and permanent moulds were used to produce bars containing varying strontium-bismuth ratios with some being treated with 0.2wt% antimony to investigate the interaction between these elements. A quench-during-solidification technique had been performed to study the effect of low strontium content on nucleation and growth of porosity in A356 alloy. Optical microscope, image analyzer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis were used to characterize the eutectic silicon, porosity and other phases. Strontium content as low as 0.004wt% was found to bring upon modification to the morphology of the eutectic silicon, whereas an addition of 0.005wt% bismuth refined the eutectic silicon. Beyond this level of bismuth the silicon phase was found to undergo coarsening. A strontium-bismuth ratio of at least 0.5 is suggested to be necessary to ensure a modified silicon morphology, whereas the refining effect of antimony was not affected by bismuth addition. Percentage area of porosity and pore roundness were found to increase with increasing strontium content, reasonably due to earlier pore growth and less shrinkage-type porosity in the castings. The nucleation of new pores occurred at the solid fraction of around 75%, regardless of strontium content. In the present work, the effect of low strontium content, cooling rate and heat treatment (T6) on the mechanical properties was also studied. The results showed that the mechanical properties were less affected by the strontium level but more by heat treatment and cooling rates

A Multi-Scan Labeled Random Finite Set Model for Multi-object State Estimation

State space models in which the system state is a finite set--called the multi-object state--have generated considerable interest in recent years. Smoothing for state space models provides better estimation performance than filtering by using the full posterior rather than the filtering density. In multi-object state estimation, the Bayes multi-object filtering recursion admits an analytic solution known as the Generalized Labeled Multi-Bernoulli (GLMB) filter. In this work, we extend the analytic GLMB recursion to propagate the multi-object posterior. We also propose an implementation of this so-called multi-scan GLMB posterior recursion using a similar approach to the GLMB filter implementation

Technology choice and efficiency on Australian dairy farms

Deregulation of the Australian dairy industry, specifically the removal of price subsidies to ‘market milk’, as well as ongoing drought in many dairy regions, has placed considerable pressure on farm cash income and a search for ways in which dairy farms can be made to operate more efficiently. Using traditional farm survey data and a unique biannual data set on farm technology use, this paper estimates a stochastic production frontier and technical efficiency model for dairy farms in New South Wales and Victoria, determining the relative importance of each input in dairy production, the effects of key technology variables on farm efficiency, and overall farm profiles based on the efficiency rankings of dairy producers. Results show that production exhibits constant returns to scale and although feed concentration and the number of cows milked at peak season matter, the key determinants of differences in dairy farm efficiency are the type of dairy shed used and the proportion of irrigated farm area. Overall farm profiles indicate that those in the ‘high efficiency group’ largely employ either rotary or swing-over dairy shed technology and have almost three times the proportional amount of land under irrigation.Australian dairy farms, dairy production and efficiency, dairy technology, stochastic production frontier, Livestock Production/Industries,

The Influence Of Exergaming On Heart Rate, Perceived Exertion, Motivation To Exercise, And Time Spent Exercising

Objective: With the technological advances in today’s society, active videogames (or exergames) have become more commonplace. Virtual reality (VR) exergames have begun to emerge with more readily available, affordable technology that can be bought online and in stores. This study focused on the popular VR game Beat Saber (Beat Games 2018) and its overall effectiveness in getting individuals to exercise in comparison to a treadmill condition one can do at a gym. It was hypothesized that participants will have similar heart rates, equally high perceived exertion, higher intrinsic motivation to exercise, and have more time spent exercising in Beat Saber than on the treadmill. Methods: Twenty young adults (male or female) were asked to participate in this two non-consecutive day study. Participants underwent two conditions in a balanced order, with half completing the exergame condition first, and the other half completing the treadmill condition first. Participants completed the remaining test condition during their second visit. The participants were evenly divided into two different groups (Group A and Group B). Those in Group A started with an exergame protocol while those in Group B started with a treadmill protocol. All participants had their heart rates, perceived exertion levels (RPE), motivation to exercise, and time spent exercising measured in both conditions. Results: A paired t-test (p \u3c 0.05) found significant differences in mean heart rate (p = 0.003), in the intrinsic motivation subgroups of Interest/Enjoyment (p \u3c .05) and Perceived Choice (p \u3c .05), and in average time spent exercising (p \u3c 0.001). The paired t-test also found no significant differences in the most active twenty-minute period mean heart rate (p = 0.92), in mean RPE (p = 0.53), or in the intrinsic motivation subgroups of Perceived Competence (p = 0.37), Effort/Importance (p = 0.48), and Value/Usefulness (p = 0.21). Conclusion: As hypothesized, the exergame Beat Saber can be considered a viable, alternative form of exercise that is also more engaging than running on the treadmill

Incentives and static and dynamic gains from market reform: rice production in Vietnam

This article develops a dynamic model to account for the enhanced incentive effects that result from market reform through a move toward private property rights and competitive markets. Reform is captured through an emerging profits function which depends on effective prices and incentives to work harder. Static and dynamic output gains from reform are derived through increases in total factor productivity and induced capital accumulation. The model is applied to rice production in Vietnam over the period 1976–94. The more extensive is market reform, the larger the effects found on rice output, the capital stock and transitional growth rates, suggesting that incentives and more competitive markets matter greatly.Crop Production/Industries, Marketing,