Publications

This paper proposes a household model that relates various development interventions, such as infrastructure, to rural development. The model is then estimated using data from a household survey in which rural development outcomes are measured in terms of a perception scale. Household perceptions are important early lead indicators of rural development outcomes that manifest later.

Rural poverty is linked to the exposure of the households to economic vulnerability, through their chronic dependence on agriculture for income generation. A starting point in mitigating this vulnerability would be a comprehensive improvement in accessibility. This would substantially reduce transportation cost and thereby lessen the isolation of rural communities from basic welfare services. An advocacy campaign and/or incentive system would be needed to encourage private firms to establish operations in rural areas. More private establishments in rural areas would not only shield households against exposure to vulnerability, but would also serve as a catalyst for microenterprise development. Sustainable rural development would follow, provided that there was an ample corporate social responsibility programme among these firms to avert a widening of inequality. A natural resource management strategy would also be needed for ecological integrity.

Community participation is crucial in identifying development projects; it can help to minimise the wastage of resources on inappropriate projects, and enable resources to be allocated instead it to other productive uses. The provision of rural roads should be bundled properly with support services and capacity-building activities. This can enhance the demand for other infrastructure and services, resulting in a dynamic evolution of essential elements in the pursuit of rural development. Bundles of intervention improve the production efficiency of rural households at the different stages of production, both on and off the farm.

Rural development interventions should pay special attention to the more vulnerable segments of the community, especially, the farmers. Interventions should aim gradually to detach them from complete dependence on agriculture, without putting their food security at risk.

Public investments in infrastructure and in users’ fees can complement each other, in the continuous provision of new infrastructure and the maintenance of existing infrastructure, to create a sustainable track towards rural development. The socialised users’ fee system is a potential tool for preventing widening income disparity in rural areas. The careful selection of a suitable and acceptable basis for the socialised users’ fee rate is important, however. An incorrect choice of rate could be perceived as a disincentive to access or might stimulate distrust among a segment of the rural society, regarding the government's sincerity in promoting rural development. This might eventually create more social issues, rather than bridging inequality.

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A mathematical model that predicts the decimal reduction time (D_72C) of Salmonella Typhimurium (ATTC 13311) as a function of citrus model system (CMS) pH (2.56–4.74), titratable acidity (TA) (0.01–2.76% citric acid) and soluble solids (SS) (4.75–16.85°Brix) was established. The D_72C values of the reference strain in different CMS were fitted into a second order model. Regression analysis of variance and goodness‐of‐fit assessments showed that the model was highly significant (P < 0.0001). The linear influences of pH and SS and quadratic influences of all physicochemical properties on D_72C were significant (P < 0.05). The smallest positive D_72C resulted in pH, TA and SS levels of 3.00, 2.20% citric acid and 16.85°Brix, respectively. Direct and inverse relationships were established between D_72C values and pH and D_72C values and at >0.65% citric acid TA, respectively. Survival rates were optimum at the SS value of 11.50°Brix when pH is 3.00 and TA is 2.20% citric acid.

Monitoring agricultural sustainability requires careful summarising of indicators collected over time into indices representing facets of sustainability. When the number of variables exceeds the number of observations, interpretation of components from ordinary principal component analysis is usually difficult because of minimal or absence of sparsity among the loadings. This is also true for time series indicators that exhibit non-stationarity. A framework for the assessment of agricultural sustainability in a regional context is proposed. Sparse principal component analysis is used in constructing indices of agricultural sustainability that are then used to characterise the state of agricultural development and the dynamics of agricultural growth in Southeast Asia.

The Ivatan notion of a vanua (port) has linguistic connections to thewider Austronesian world. This article explores the term vanua in the verb form Mayvanuvanua or “making a port,” which refers to a sacrificial rite performed at the beginning of the summer fishing season by mataw fishers in Batanes. “Making the vanua” reproduces port polities of fishers competing to attract and successfully capture the fish dorado for a limited (seasonal) period of time. The article outlines the rite’s symbolic elements and shows ethnographically the resulting collective as an organized group of fishers under a system of government, and moreover one which also relates to two other kinds of social groups in Batanes life: cooperative work groups (payuhwan) as well as groups of persons that drink together.

Self-report data were gathered from 633 students from public and private schools in metro Manila, Philippines. The study finds overall delinquency prevalence to be higher among males than females but not significantly different from one socioeconomic class to another. Gender and class differentials, however, are found for different types of delinquency (overt property, covert property, theft, swindling, vandalism, drug abuse, alcohol and cigarettes, and status offenses). Violent offenses and more public forms of delinquency are found to be high among lower-class boys, whereas covert types of delinquency are high among the middle- and upper-class students. Of interest, among females, upper-class girls consistently have the highest self-reported delinquency rates.

The efficiency of 119 electric cooperatives in the Philippines from 1990-2002 is analyzed using a stochastic frontier model augmented with spatial-temporal terms, addressing the underestimation of technical efficiency usually encountered among maximum-likelihood based methods. The model is also robust to the choice of environmental variables that will be included in the inefficiency equation provided that the
spatial distance measure substantially captures the efficiency-enhancing factors. The average of estimated technical efficiency is 0.86. The growth in technical efficiency of 1- 2% per year is explained by the slow adjustment process in the operation of the
cooperatives lacking the medium to feedback production outcomes in the previous year to
their operation cycle in the following year. Medium-sized cooperatives need to organize
for strategic competitive advantage and to facilitate attainment of production efficiency.

In Japan, the past few decades revealed the vulnerability of wood-framed residential buildings to strong earth- quakes. The Kobe earthquake in 1995 caused tremendous loss of lives resulting from the collapse and damage of such structures that significantly affected economic condition. This disaster motivated many researchers to study the mecha- nisms of collapse of engineering structures in order to prevent further loss of lives in the future. In this paper, an innova- tive methodology in simulating the dynamic response of wood-framed buildings, for purposes of seismic performance assessment and retrofitting, is presented. The proposed method, which can simulate inelastic behavior of structures, is ca- pable of showing realistic progressive collapse mechanisms and accurate seismic response of structures. The sequence of analyses and results in the form of computer animations are used to help building owners gain a better understanding of the seismic performance of their buildings before and after the structural reinforcement. Applications to real wood-framed residential buildings were used to show the effectiveness of the methodology in seismic performance assessment as well as retrofit plan development.

Rural poverty is linked to the exposure of the households to economic vulnerability through their chronic dependence on agriculture in income-generation. A starting point in mitigating this vulnerability would be a comprehensive accessibility improvement that substantially reduces transportation cost and isolation of the rural communities from basic welfare services. An advocacy campaign and/or incentive system that will encourage private firms to establish operations in rural areas will be needed. More private establishments in rural areas will not only shield the households against exposure to vulnerability but will also serve as a catalyst for microenterprise development.
Sustainable rural development will follow provided that there is an ample corporate social responsibility program among these firms to avert widening of inequality. A natural resource management strategy will also be needed for ecological integrity.
Participation is crucial in development project identification to minimize wastage of
resources and possibly reallocate it to other productive uses. Provision of rural roads
should be bundled properly with support services and capacity-building activities. This
can enhance the demand for other infrastructure and services resulting to a dynamic evolution of essential elements in the pursuit of rural development. Bundles of
intervention improve production efficiency of rural households at the different stages of
production in-farm and/or off-farm.
Rural development interventions should pay special attention to the more vulnerable
segment, the farmers especially, with the goal of gradually detaching them from complete dependence on agriculture without putting their food security at risk. Public investment on infrastructure and user’s fees can complement each other in the continuous provision of new infrastructure and maintenance of the existing infrastructure,
for a sustainable track towards rural development. The socialized user’s fee system is a potential tool for preventing the widening income disparity in rural areas. It is important however to carefully choose a suitable and acceptable basis for the socialized user’s fee rates. An incorrect choice can be perceived as a disincentive for access or might stimulate distrust among a segment of the rural society regarding the sincerity of the government in pushing rural development. This might eventually create more social issues rather than bridging inequality.