IMPLICIT PRICES OF PRAWN AND SHRIMP ATTRIBUTES IN THE PHILIPPINE DOMESTIC MARKET

Improving quality is a major goal in the global seafood market due to increasing consciousness among buyers, who are becoming "quality consumers" rather than "quantity consumers." This paper uses the hedonic approach to determine the marketable characteristics of prawn and shrimp in a domestic market that prioritizes export of quality products to a more lucrative market. Using price and attribute data for prawn and shrimp purchased from the Philippine domestic market, we estimate a log-linear hedonic price model with combined continuous and dummy explanatory variables. The estimation results show significant implicit prices of attributes, such as: tail length, freshness, product form, species, color, size, ease of preparation, discoloration, protein, and carbohydrate content. Longer tails and banana species are highly valued. Peeling and breading to ease preparation obtain a high premium. Freezing, although commonly practiced, receives the highest discount among forms of preservation. As the characteristics of local consumers and the market in the Philippines are similar to other competing Asian exporters such as Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, the results presented in this paper will be applicable to these exporting countries.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

La campaña experimental BLLAST 2011: Boundary Layer Late Afternoon and Sunset Turbulence

Presentación realizada para las XXXII Jornadas Científicas de la Asociación Meteorológica Española y 13º Encuentro Hispano-Luso de Meteorología celebrados en Alcobendas (Madrid), del 28 al 30 de mayo de 2012

Riociguat treatment in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension: Final safety data from the EXPERT registry

Objective: The soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator riociguat is approved for the treatment of adult patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and inoperable or persistent/recurrent chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) following Phase

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

Evaluating Quality Improvement in Nonhomogeneous Agricultural Commodities: The Case of Australian Beef

This paper develops conceptual and empirical frameworks for assessing the economic benefits from agricultural research which enhances the amount of a desirable characteristic in each unit of a heterogeneous commodity. The commodity is assumed to comprise two or more joint products accruable in fixed proportion. Quality improvement is perceived as an increase in the proportion of a joint product with more of a more-valued characteristic and, as such, is modelled as a shift in the supply curve of a joint product rather than via a shift in commodity demand. A proxy variable is constructed to measure an intertemporal quality change and to estimate the associated size of the supply shift. An application of the framework to the Australian beef industry indicates that the per unit amount of the characteristic 'freshness' in beef has increased over the last two decades. Substantial social benefits can be obtained by research which enhances the quality of Australian beef carcasses. A larger share of the total benefits accrue to beef producers

Evaluating Quality Improvement in Nonhomogeneous Agricultural Commodities: The Case of Australian Beef

This paper develops conceptual and empirical frameworks for assessing the economic benefits from agricultural research which enhances the amount of a desirable characteristic in each unit of a heterogeneous commodity. The commodity is assumed to comprise two or more joint products accruable in fixed proportion. Quality improvement is perceived as an increase in the proportion of a joint product with more of a more-valued characteristic and, as such, is modelled as a shift in the supply curve of a joint product rather than via a shift in commodity demand. A proxy variable is constructed to measure an intertemporal quality change and to estimate the associated size of the supply shift. An application of the framework to the Australian beef industry indicates that the per unit amount of the characteristic 'freshness' in beef has increased over the last two decades. Substantial social benefits can be obtained by research which enhances the quality of Australian beef carcasses. A larger share of the total benefits accrue to beef producers.Livestock Production/Industries,

The Calculation of returns to research In distorted markets: Comment

In a recent article, Oehmke reported that a high internal rate of return for investment in research when the interaction between research and price policy costs was disregarded could become very low or even negative when the effects of research on the costs of price policy were considered. In this paper, the social returns from research in the presence of the price policies considered by Oehmke are reexamined using a simple geometric approach. The analysis suggests that an output subsidy in a small importing economy, an output subsidy in a closed economy, and a target price in a large exporting economy will - on Oehmke's assumptions - cause only small reductions in the internal rate of return from investment in research. This implies that the apparent underinvestment by governments in agricultural research cannot be explained away by a large upward bias, known to governments, in measured rates of return due to failure to account for interactions between research and the costs of price policy measures

The Calculation of Research Benefits with Linear and Nonlinear Specifications of Demand and Supply: Reply

Elbasha argues that Voon and Edwards overestimated the gains from research when there is a pivotal shift in a linear supply curve and the elasticity of supply is less than unity. He says the difference in his position and ours is due to the use of different measures of producer surplus. The difference instead can be interpreted to center on the specification of the supply curve under inelastic supply. We have experience of the issue in contention being raised in other forums, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to address it