HOW SUCCESSFUL ARE GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS IN FOOD MARKETS? INSIGHTS FROM THE PHILIPPINE RICE MARKET

We investigate the Philippine government’s price stabilization policy for rice. Seemingly Unrelated Regressions are used to examine the effectiveness of the program at regional and national levels over a 21-year period (January 1983 to December 2003). Results of the regional analysis indicate some NFA-induced spatial and temporal differences in terms of producer prices. The NFA successfully increased producer prices in 5 of 13 regions through stock accumulation and paddy rice purchase at floor prices. NFA stock releases do not correlate strongly with retail prices at the national level, although results from the regional model indicate that NFA stock releases reduced retail prices in five regions, leading to perceptible spatial and temporal differences between regions. Although the NFA support price appears to have been moderately successful in increasing producer prices at a national level, on average, the support price led to an increase in consumer prices in ten regions and contributed little to price stabilization. Overall, therefore, our results indicate very limited success on the part of the NFA to achieve its major objectives at either regional or national level. We suggest the NFA should concentrate its resources in the poorest areas of the country, where it might exert greater and more useful influence in smaller and locally thin rice markets.Philippines, rice, price supports, markets, commodity storage, food policy

Behaviour of concrete under simple and combined stresses

Imperial Users onl

Oceans and the Sustainable Development Goals: Co-Benefits, Climate Change & Social Equity

Achieving ocean sustainability is paramount for coastal communities and marine industries, yet is also inextricably linked to much broader global sustainable development—including increased resilience to climate change and improved social equity—as envisioned by the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This report highlights the co-benefits from achieving each SDG 14 target: progress towards each of the other 161 SDG targets when ocean targets are met, given ten-year lag times between ocean targets and other SDG targets. The identification of co-benefits is based on input from more than 30 scientific experts in the Nereus Program. Below we highlight notable co-benefits of achieving each target within SDG 14

Branching, holding companies, and banking concentration in the Eighth District

Federal Reserve District, 8th ; Financial institutions

Approximate Lesion Localization in Dermoscopy Images

Background: Dermoscopy is one of the major imaging modalities used in the diagnosis of melanoma and other pigmented skin lesions. Due to the difficulty and subjectivity of human interpretation, automated analysis of dermoscopy images has become an important research area. Border detection is often the first step in this analysis. Methods: In this article, we present an approximate lesion localization method that serves as a preprocessing step for detecting borders in dermoscopy images. In this method, first the black frame around the image is removed using an iterative algorithm. The approximate location of the lesion is then determined using an ensemble of thresholding algorithms. Results: The method is tested on a set of 428 dermoscopy images. The localization error is quantified by a metric that uses dermatologist determined borders as the ground truth. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that the method presented here achieves both fast and accurate localization of lesions in dermoscopy images

Relationship between acres of tomatoes grown, yields per acre, contacts producers had with extension agents and selected characteristics of the tomato production operation of Lauderdale County, Tennessee, tomato producers

The purpose of the study was to characterize Lauderdale County tomato producers, and to determine the relationship between the number of contacts producers had with the Agricultural Extension agents, acres of tomatoes planted, yields per acre, and their use of recommended tomato production practices. Thirty tomato producers were randomly selected and personal interviews were conducted by County Extension agents. Interview schedules were developed by University of Tennessee Horticulture Specialists and the Agricultural Extension Education Department and agents conducted the survey during the fall of 1980. Information recorded included their use of recommended tomato production practices and the number of contacts producers had with the Extension office over a twelve-month period. The data were coded and punched on computer cards, and computations were made by The University of Tennessee Computing Center. One-way analysis of variance F-test was used to determine the significance and strength of the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The .05 probability level was accepted as significant. Major findings included the following: 1. The producers planted an average of 6.9 acres of tomatoes in 1980 and their average yield was 5.2 tons harvested per acre. 2. Thirty percent of the producers had not attended any Extension meeting; however, over 83 percent of the producers reported Extension as being their primary source of tomato information. 3. Sixty-six percent of the producers did not fertilize by soil test recommendations and 60 percent of the producers did not lime by soil test recommendations. 4. Producers who fertilized and limed by soil test (33.3 percent and 40 percent, respectively) made significantly more contacts with Extension through meetings, office visits, telephone calls, and farm visits than did those producers who did not fertilize and lime by soil test recommendations. 5. The number of Extension contacts (i.e., meetings, visits to the Extension office, telephone calls to the Extension office, and farm visits received from Extension agents) was not significantly related to the variety of tomatoes planted with the exception of tomato production and marketing meetings attended. 6. Producers who applied fungicides to tomatoes before planting them in the field attended significantly more tomato production and marketing meetings and received significantly more farm visits from Extension agents. 7. Producers who applied fungicides more often made significantly more telephone calls to the Extension office. 8. Producers who fertilized and limed by soil test recommendations planted significantly more acres of tomatoes than did those producers who did not use these recommended practices. 9. Producers who applied fungicides to tomatoes before planting them had significantly more yield per acre than did those producers who did not use the practice. 10. Producers who used the greatest number of insecticides had significantly larger yields per acre than the producers who used only one or two insecticides. Implications and recommendations were also made

Identification, Diagnosis, Counseling, and Referral of Overweight Military Dependent Children to Reverse Early Childhood Obesity

Since 1980, the obesity rate in children 5 to 11 years of age has increased from 7% to 18%. The lack of structured physical activity and poor dietary habits childhood are primary risk factors for obesity related comorbidities in adulthood. Guided by primary care providers, families can reverse childhood obesity by implementing healthy dietary habits and engaging in structured physical activity. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to develop an evidenced-based policy with procedures to standardize the timely and consistent identification of overweight children at a primary care clinic serving military families. With an emphasis on obesity prevention within families through primary care interventions, the revised health belief model guided the project design. A literature review was conducted in a systematic manner to identify effective strategies and interventions to inform the policy development. Then, the Delphi technique guided a 12-member expert panel to evaluate the policy and procedures in terms of the level of evidence and the implementation plan with the goal of achieving consensus with recommendations for revisions. Consensus was achieved with multiple revisions following the completion of two Delphi rounds. The first panel session (n=12) concluded with a 70% consensus, including recommended revisions to improve the policy implementation. The second panel session (n=12) concluded with 100% consensus for the revised policy. The final policy and procedures addressed the clinical practice gap with a robust process to identify, counsel, and refer overweight children to external specialty programs for obesity management. By intervening to reverse the progression of childhood obesity, this project achieved positive social change at an organization level