Assessing the Impacts of Climate Variations on the Potato Production in Bangladesh: A Supply and Demand Model Approach

From the perspective of nutritional security, we investigated the influence of climate change on potato production in Bangladesh using a supply and demand model by considering the potato as an important non-cereal food crop. To provide an outlook on the variation in potato supplies and market prices under changing climatic factors (temperature, rainfall, and solar-radiation), the yield, area, import, and demand functions were assessed using district-level time-series data of Bangladesh (1988–2013), disaggregated into seven climatic zones. Results suggest that temperatures above or below the optimal range (18–22 °C) lowered yields. Little rainfall and low solar radiation hinder potato cultivation areas during the potato maturity stage. During the simulated period, the annual production was projected to rise from 88 to 111 million metric tons (MT), with an equilibrium farm price of 155 to 215 US dollars MT−1. Between 2014 and 2030, the nation’s per-capita potato intake is expected to increase from 49 to 55 kg year−1 because of changing dietary patterns. According to the estimated equilibrator, scenario simulations that incorporated various dimensions of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios indicate that potato production and consumption can increase in the future.

The economic approach to designing anticorruption institutions

Contemporary economic analysis of corrupt behaviour requires practical consideration of the issues concerning projecting of social anti-corruption institutions. The economic science has accumulated sufficient practical experience of institutional construction in society, for instance approaches provided by K. Sunstein’s and E. Ostrom. The requirement of reasonability in managing economic interactions makes the society refuse from the dichotomy of market (anarchical, spontaneous) and non-market (hierarchical) institutions. The same tendency can be observed in arranging anti-corruption struggle in state management. Both approaches - aimed at creating fixed vertical hierarchy as well as at creating competition at the lowest bureaucratic level - are inappropriate. That is why anticorruption institutions arranging should be based on economic models of rational criminal and citizens involvement in law enforcement activity. These models enable to harmonize state dirigisme related to the state management ex ante with basic provision of laissez-faire doctrine – personal motives of people’s behaviour. Standard economic supply and demand model has shown inelasticity of corruption crimes supply in Russia. Non-price determinants (cultural norms, “tabu”) seem to be more significant in motivating corruption behaviour than price determinants (seriousness and probability of punishment). Economic characteristics of elasticity and inelasticity of supply and demand in the model of involvement into law enforcement activity enable to create strategy of developing social anti-corruption institutions.

Evaluating the Contribution of Soybean Rust- Resistant Cultivars to Soybean Production and the Soybean Market in Brazil: A Supply and Demand Model Analysis

Soybean rust (SBR), caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi (Sydow & Sydow), has become a serious issue in Brazil. As Brazil is one of the largest soybean-producing and exporting countries in the world, a considerable decrease in soybean production due to SBR would have a significant impact on the global soybean market. SBR-resistant cultivars have been developed to prevent a decrease in soybean production. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of SBR-resistant cultivars on soybean production and the soybean market in Brazil using a supply and demand model. This model consists of functions of yield, cultivated area, exports, and stock changes of soybean and soybean products, demand for soybean products, and price linkages. Five scenarios were simulated to evaluate the economic impact of adopting SBR-resistant cultivars as follows: One without SBR infection, two with serious production losses due to SBR in the south and southeast regions and all the states of Brazil, and two with the adoption of SBR-resistant cultivars in the south and south-east regions and all the states of Brazil. Our simulations suggest that adopting SBR-resistant cultivars reduces the cost of controlling SBR by approximately half and is essential for sustainable soybean production and a stable global soybean market.

An essential role for dNTP homeostasis following CDK-induced replication stress

Replication stress is a common feature of cancer cells, and thus a potentially important therapeutic target. Here we show that CDK-induced replication stress is synthetic lethal with mutations disrupting dNTP homeostasis in fission yeast. Wee1 inactivation leads to increased dNTP demand and replication stress through CDK-induced firing of dormant replication origins. Subsequent dNTP depletion leads to inefficient DNA replication, Mus81-dependent DNA damage, and to genome instability. Cells respond to this replication stress by increasing dNTP supply through Set2-dependent MBF-induced expression of Cdc22, the catalytic subunit of ribonucleotide reductase (RNR). Disrupting dNTP synthesis following Wee1 inactivation, through abrogating Set2-dependent H3K36 tri-methylation or DNA integrity checkpoint inactivation results in critically low dNTP levels, replication collapse and cell death, which can be rescued by increasing dNTP levels. These findings support a ‘dNTP supply and demand’ model in which maintaining dNTP homeostasis is essential to prevent replication catastrophe in response to CDK-induced replication stress.

22. Women in the House of Commons

This chapter examines the progress of women's participation and representation in the House of Commons. It first considers women's descriptive representation in the House of Commons over the last century, with emphasis on the differences in the proportion of women Members of Parliament (MPs) elected by the main political parties. It explains improvements in the numbers of women MPs in the last decade or so, together with the party asymmetry, by reference to the supply and demand model of political recruitment. It then reviews arguments for women's equal participation in politics, taking into account how women's descriptive representation intersects with symbolic and substantive representation. It also discusses resistance to the claim that women's representation matters and concludes with an analysis of the masculinized nature of the political institution that women MPs inhabit, along with the recommendations made in the 2016 The Good Parliament report.

Islamist Women as Candidates in Elections: A Comparison of the Party of Justice and Development in Morocco and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

This paper examines the legislative recruitment of women from conservative Islamist parties. It questions the common assumption that generally all Islamist parties are equally hostile to political participation and representation of women. For this purpose, two of the electorally most successful Islamist groups in the MENA region are compared, namely the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and its Moroccan offshoot, the Party of Justice and Development (PJD). The article seeks an explanation for diverging trends in female candidacy between these conservative religious movements, using the traditional supply and demand model of candidate selection. It argues that the less centralized and the more institutionalized parties (as is the case with the PJD) seem to be better equipped to facilitate women’s candidacy than the more oligarchic ones (the MB). In order to fully grasp the reasons behind the diverging trends in the nomination of female candidates from both Islamist parties, cultural factors are scrutinized as well. The article highlights the limits of the supply and demand model of candidate selection, which cannot explain instances of unexpected change in recruitment strategies based on external interference. Furthermore, it does not provide us the means to assess the impact of individual candidates’ ‘feminist credentials’ on overall female representation.