A machine learning approach to find the determinants of Peruvian coca illegal crops

The current study analyzed the determinants of the Peruvian coca illegal plantations in the period 2003-2019. Hence, the DEVIDA database variables were gathered at first. Then, a machine learning-based technique is employed to select the most relevant variables for the study. That technique, Lasso, selected as accurate variables eradication of coca plantations and pasta base. Both OLS and VAR are employed to analyze the relevance of the selected variables. OLS finds that eradication was negatively related to the dependent variable. Nonetheless, pb confiscation had a positive relationship with illegal coca crops. Furthermore, VAR encounters that only pb confiscation affected the dependent variable. Supplementary tests are carried to ensure the accuracy of the results. In consequence, it is concluded that eradication policies by themselves were not enough to discourage the coca plantations. Farmers should get instruction about alternative crops and financial help. Furthermore, it has been claimed that pb confiscation generates scarcity of the drug, which elevates its price. Thus, coca farmers are more motivated to plant coca because of the higher prices. Therefore, as long as the international demand, which is disposed to pay high prices, the coca illegal crops and its illicit products will exist.

International Demand for Medical Tourism in Malaysia: Evidence from Panel Data

The present paper attempts to investigate the significance influence of some selected economic variables on the international demand for medical tourism in Malaysia by utilizing Pooled Mean Group (PMG)/Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model based on panel data set of ASEAN-4 countries spanning from 2001 to 2017. Findings of the study indicate that the price of medical tourism, travelling cost, real per capita income, exchange rate and health expenditure are statistically significant in influencing international demand for medical tourism in Malaysia for both long run and short run. Moreover, price of tourism in the substitute destination (Indonesia) and inflation are also statistically significant in determining international demand for medical tourism in Malaysia in the short run. The findings are in line with the economic theory. Therefore, to attract more international medical tourists, Malaysia needs to maintain it price competitiveness relative to other substitute destinations in the region, reduce the transport cost as well as improve the quality of medical services provided. Besides, private operators and market participants should influence necessary changes in medical tourism framework to ensure that services are effective and efficient. Ultimately, market players in medical tourism sector should practice Sustainable Responsible Investment (SRI) with aim to stabilize between medical tourism development and social responsibility.

The effect of food additive on physicochemical characteristics of seaweed stick snack and consumer acceptance

Seaweed is considered high class marine and fisheries sector in international demand for its derivative products. One of traditional use of seaweed as food is stick snack which is widely consumed due to its crunchiness and deliciousness. The objective of this study was to characterize the proximate analysis, hardness, and sensory perception of stick snack derived from seaweed. Seaweed stick were prepared with varying food additives such as sodium acid phyorposphate (SAPP), steaoryl lactylate (SSL), sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), and control (without addition of food additives). The results confirmed that the use of food additives induce change in proximate, hardness, and sensory perception. Seaweed stick with addition NaHCO3 has the highest fat content while seaweed stick with addition of SAPP has the highest crispness. In addition, sensory test showed that seaweed stick with addition with NaHCO3 provide the highest acceptance in texture and flavour.

Research Trends and Future Research Directions of Permanent Magnetic Materials

Permanent magnetic materials are essential for converting mechanical and electric energy, and are needed in electric vehicles, electronics, wind turbines, and etc. However, high performance rare-earth element based magnets have many limitations, including critical materials problems and the degradation of magnetic properties at elevated temperatures. There has been increasing international demand to solve these problems, and to develop new magnets with reduced rare earth materials, or free magnets based on metallic alloys. This paper describes current research trends, and state of art and future research directions for next generation permanent magnetic materials, to accelerate their research and rapid industrialization.

400 YEARS OF WATER CONSUMPTION: EARLY MODERN POTTERY CUPS IN PORTUGAL

This paper aims to provide an analysis of the production and consumption of drinking cups in Portugal examining their productive and decorative characteristics and establishing their relation with the ingestion of water between the 15th and 18th centuries. Although drinking cups started to be used much earlier, during the early modern age an international demand for such objects emerges. This fame will take them to places from Northern Europe to the New World where their colour, taste and smell were highly appreciated.

Private Processes and Public Values: Disciplining Trade in Forest and Ecosystem Risk Commodities via Non-Financial Due Diligence

This article takes stock of the many private and public instruments enacted transnationally to tackle the pressing problem of deforestation, ecosystem conversion, and associated human rights violations caused by international demand for and trade in agricultural commodities. The article argues that non-financial due diligence based on no-conversion criteria, and in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, holds considerable potential for ensuring deforestation-free value chains by enrolling and scaling up firm-level supply-chain management systems and private standards. The article introduces the main features of a possible European Union measure that disciplines via non-financial due diligence the placing on the market of commodities and products associated with deforestation, ecosystem conversion, degradation of forests and ecosystems, and associated human rights violations. Such a measure would also have the effect of streamlining initiatives enacted by private authority.

Archaeology and Material Culture of Nabataea and the Nabataeans

The Nabataeans were an Arab people who inhabited northwest Arabia over two thousand years ago. Their center was the city of Petra, located in what today is the southern part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. They appear in Greek accounts around 312/311 BCE when the armies of Antigonus Monophthalmos attempted to raid the small, but well-defended kingdom of traders in their capital of Petra. They were reportedly a small, but extremely wealthy, Arab people who transported aromatics, frankincense, and myrrh from the Arabian Peninsula to the Mediterranean coast and Egypt. They were skilled stone cutters, a craft developed in the Hellenistic period when they hewed and plastered large cisterns for their exclusive use along desert tracks in the Negev. The Nabataeans became an important element in the geopolitical deposition of the southern Levant at a time when Rome was becoming increasingly involved in the region. They controlled trade routes in the desert regions of the Negev and Sinai Peninsula and extended their rule northward into Syria and southward to the Red Sea coast of Arabia. Their control of the Negev led to the establishment of towns along the main route between Petra and Gaza, called the Incense Road, as well as along other major tracks. By the Roman era they were also master potters, producing exquisite, thin-walled vessels that took the place of glass. In the increasingly competitive markets of the Augustan era, they responded by producing perfumed oils packaged in ceramic unguentaria produced at Petra that they marketed abroad. The increased revenues that they received in an era of high international demand allowed the Nabataeans to indulge in the monumental architecture that can still be viewed with awe today. Nabataea was a client state during the reign of Augustus, and it was ruled by a series of native kings until its annexation by Rome in 106 CE, upon which its territory became the Roman province of Arabia. Loss of self-rule does not seem to have affected the prosperity of the Nabataeans or the production of pottery and aromatics at Petra, and their role in international trade continued until Roman collapse in the region in the 3rd century CE. Nabataean language, culture, and religion continued under Roman rule well into the Late Roman and Early Byzantine periods. In those periods, their written language—Aramaic—was transformational, leading to the development of written Arabic as known today.

Sensory characteristics of wood from naturally fallen Amazonian trees for manufacture of products in Extractive Reserves

In view of the national and international demand for wood for industrial use, solutions are being created to combat and reduce deforestation. One such solution is to use wood from naturally fallen trees. However, there has been limited evaluation of the technological potential of this material. This study therefore aimed to assess the general characteristics of wood from naturally fallen tree species in the Auatí-Paraná Extractive Reserve (RESEX), for potential use in product development. The characteristics analyzed were color, texture, grain, heartwood, sapwood and density. The species of naturally fallen trees were assessed using online databases, specialized literature and the xylotheque at the Wood Anatomy and Identification Laboratory of the National Institute of Amazonian Research (LAIM/INPA). This study and its results confirm the great quantity and quality of wood from naturally fallen trees with technological potential for the development of products, based on the classification of the sensory characteristics of the woods.

The role of promotion expenditures, direct flights and climate in island destinations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the importance of promotion expenditures, direct flights, and climate, among other variables commonly used in gravity models, in the attractiveness of international tourists to an insular destination, in this particular case, Madeira. These three variables are rarely present in gravity models that analyse international demand. Given the possibility of endogeneity, a dynamic model is estimated for the annual panel data set of the 13 main tourist-generating markets for Madeira between 2005 and 2018. The results indicate that traditional gravity variables are significant in explaining international demand. They also show that promotion expenditures, climate, and the number of direct flights are important competitive factors. Promotion expenditures are of fundamental importance given the weight of the tourism sector in insular economic activity. Our results contribute to the debate that has already started about effective tourism policy making and strategies in the post-pandemic of COVID-19.