The Impact of Trade Agreement and War on Specific Indonesia-China Bilateral Trade

This research aims to evaluate the impact of trade agreements and trade war on specific Indonesia-China bilateral trade on four export-import commodities during 2014 - 2019. The methodology used are both descriptive analysis and RCA and EPD analysis. The entire analysis section tries to focus on important periods of economic relations between Indonesia and China, namely the implementation of the 2015 ACFTA and trade war. The results of the study indicate that Indonesia's selected export commodities have huge potential to be developed in bilateral trade with China, especially to maximize the benefits of ACFTA. The implementation of ACFTA 2015 has a positive impact on the growth of the four selected commodities as well as on its competitive analysis. The results of RCA analysis show the four commodities remain including highly competitive, even for palm oil tends to be specialized for Indonesia, however there are differences from EPD analysis results where the two Indonesian export commodities (Animal or Vegetable Fats/ HS15 and Mineral Fuels/ HS27) before the trade war was in the rising star position, it became a lost opportunity, but for the two imported Indonesian commodities, there was no change in staying in the rising star position.

STRUKTUR PASAR DAN DAYA SAING KARET ALAM INDONESIA DI AMERIKA SERIKAT

Abstrak Karet alam Indonesia berperan penting dalam meningkatkan perekonomian nasional melalui ekspor karet alam ke berbagai negara, termasuk ke Amerika Serikat. Dalam upaya mengembangkan ekspor karet alamnya, Indonesia perlu melakukan kalkulasi posisi dan daya saing karet alam di antara negara-negara pesaing serta peluang pasarnya ke Amerika Serikat yang memiliki permintaan impor relatif tinggi. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah menganalisis struktur pasar, serta keunggulan komparatif dan kompetitif karet alam Indonesia di pasar Amerika Serikat. Analisis dilakukan selama periode tahun 2008-2019 menggunakan metode Herfindahl Index (HI), Concentration Ratio (CR4), Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Export Product Dynamic (EPD), dan Diamond’s Porter. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa struktur pasar karet alam Indonesia cenderung oligopoli. Dibandingkan dengan negara-negara eksportir lainnya, karet alam Indonesia memiliki keunggulan komparatif di pasar Amerika Serikat. Keunggulan kompetitif karet alam Indonesia di Amerika Serikat mengalami penurunan dari posisi lost opportunity pada periode pertama (2008-2011) menjadi retreat pada periode ketiga (2016-2019). Hasil dari Diamond’s Porter menunjukkan bahwa terdapat tujuh faktor keunggulan kompetitif dan tiga faktor kelemahan dalam industri karet alam di Indonesia. Kata Kunci: Concentration Ratio, Diamond’s Porter, EPD, Herfindahl Index, RCA Abstract Indonesian natural rubber plays a significant role in improving the national economy through exports of natural rubber to various countries, including the United States. In an effort to develop its natural rubber exports, Indonesia needs to calculate the position and competitiveness of natural rubber among competing countries and its market opportunities to the United States, which has a relatively high import demand. The purpose of this study is to analyze the market structure, as well as the comparative and competitive advantages of Indonesian natural rubber in the United States market. The analysis was carried out during the period 2008-2019 using the methods Herfindahl Index (HI), Concentration Ratio (CR4), Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Export Product Dynamic (EPD), and Diamond's Porter. The results of the analysis show that the structure of the Indonesian natural rubber market tends to be an oligopoly. Compared to other exporting countries, Indonesian natural rubber has a comparative advantage in the United States market. The competitiveness of Indonesian natural rubber in the US decline over time from the lost opportunity position in the first period (2008-2011) to retreat in the third period (2016-2019). The Diamond's Porter results show that there are seven competitive advantage factors and three weakness factors in Indonesia's natural rubber industry. Keywords: Concentration Ratio, Diamond’s Porter, EPD, Herfindahl Index, RCA JEL Classification: F13, F15, F18

If We Knew Then: A Postscript to the Kerner Report

The Kerner Report, which examined why 1967s rioting occurred, is one of America’s most important works on race and the inner city. Yet, for many, a belief exists that it has been ignored and represents a lost opportunity. Knowing now how the report was received, is there anything that could have been done to produce a more influential report? To answer this question, this article utilizes recent interviews with key Kerner Report participants. Such information not only expands our knowledge about the report, but given recent proposals to create new Kerner-type commissions to address today’s disparities, it possesses additional relevance.

Crisis Management in Education: A Comparative Study of Handilng Covid 19 in a Speecial Needs and a Standaridise School in Greece

The COVID-19 pandemic is an emergency of an unprecedented scale, bringing new challenges and severe changes in the schools in Greece. The Ministry of education had to guarantee that learning would be safeguarded as well as impose several measures to mitigate the effects of this unfamiliar situation. Different strategies were followed regarding special needs schools and standard schools. The aim of this article is to investigate how satisfactory the measures were considered by parents and teachers of both schools. Moreover, we seek to explore if the trust of the stakeholders of education was increased or whether it was a lost opportunity to enhance trust among parents, teachers, and the Ministry of Education. For the purpose of our study, we delivered questionnaires among the teachers and parents of both schools as well as conducted semi-structured interviews with the headmasters of the school units. Also, a rigorous and extensive study of the orders issued by the Ministry was done. Our article concludes with several points that need to be taken into consideration in moments of crisis and suggestions on what could be done to alleviate problems in similar times of crisis.

Quality of Life and Caregiver Burden in Patients and Their Caregivers Undergoing Outpatient Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation Compared to Inpatient Transplantation

Introduction Outpatient autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) has become standard of care in many centres due to limited inpatient resources and rising financial constraints. Outpatient ASCT involves family members/friends assuming patient care responsibilities during the acute transplant period. Although this may be associated with reduced direct medical costs, less is known about the "out of pocket costs" and "lost opportunity costs" to patients and their caregivers, as well as impact on caregiver quality of life (QOL). Outpatient transplantation is perceived to provide superior QOL for patients, but there is little evidence to support this. Thus, our objectives were to compare the QOL of patients and their caregivers undergoing outpatient and inpatient ASCT, and to quantify indirect costs to them. Methods This is a single centre cohort study of patients with lymphoma and multiple myeloma undergoing ASCT at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre from April 2016 - February 2021. Patients without a primary caregiver were still eligible to complete the QOL portion of the study. Patients completed several questionnaires including FACT-BMT, FACT-F, and EQ-5D. Caregiver questionnaires included: Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Care (C-QOLC), and a caregiver self-administered financial expenditure survey (C-SAFE). Total indirect costs were defined as lost opportunity costs (i.e., wages) plus out-of-pocket costs (e.g., parking, accommodations). Questionnaires were completed at 5 time points: D0 (prior to ASCT), D+7, D+14 (discharge from daily visits), D+28 (discharge from ASCT) and D+100 (follow-up). Demographic and clinical characteristics were assessed using descriptive statistics. Pairwise changes in QOL from baseline were assessed using linear mixed models to account for repeated measures with group, age and sex included as fixed effects. Alpha was defined as p<0.05. Results A total of 97 patients (49 outpatients and 45 inpatients) and 66 caregivers (43 outpatients and 22 inpatients) were enrolled. Patients had a median age of 59 years (range 18-71) and were predominantly male (60%) with 66% diagnosed with multiple myeloma and 34% with lymphoma. Majority of caregivers were spouses (76%). Inpatients were more likely to be employed and have lymphoma. The overall cohort demonstrated a clinically meaningful decrease (≥4 points) from baseline in mean FACT-F scores (fatigue) at D+7, D+14, and D+28 with slight improvements at D+100 (Table 1). Compared to inpatients, outpatients overall exhibited significantly (p=0.011) greater changes in fatigue from baseline at D+7 and D+14, with comparable change scores at D+28 and D+100 between groups (Figure 1a). Moreover, for all patients, there was a clinically meaningful decrease from baseline in mean QOL scores by FACT-BMT (≥4 points) at D+7 and D+14, and a meaningful improvement at D+100, with no differences between groups (Table 1). On the FACT-BMT subscales, outpatients had overall worsening scores compared to inpatients on the Physical (p=0.029), and Functional Well-Being Subscales (p=0.043) (Figure 1c), while no differences were detected on the Emotional and Social Well-being scales. Health utility scores were also calculated from the EQ-5D-3L, with a significant downward trend in the overall sample at D+7; however, no clinically relevant changes (≥ 0.08) were noted, and results were comparable between groups (Figure 1d). With respect to caregiver QOL, there were no differences in mean change scores between the two groups; however overall, caregivers had a significant improvement at D+100 compared to baseline (p<.05; Figure 1e). Outpatient caregivers experienced higher mean out-of-pocket costs ($1360 vs. $789, p=0.03) with the primary caregiver facing significantly greater total indirect costs ($1960 vs. $1068, p=0.025) (Table 2). For fully employed primary caregivers, the mean lost wages were $1231 for inpatients vs. $2150 for outpatients over the 3 month acute ASCT period. Conclusions There was significant deterioration of various measures of QOL in all patients, irrespective of outpatient or inpatient status. Outpatients, however, reported significantly greater changes in fatigue from baseline at D+7, D+14 and D+28. Caregiver QOL appears comparable between the two modalities. The financial burden on caregivers is high, with significantly higher total indirect costs in outpatient caregivers in the acute post-ASCT period. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Prica: Kite Gilead: Honoraria; Astra-Zeneca: Honoraria. Chen: Astrazeneca: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Beigene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; BMS: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Gilead: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Consultancy. Crump: Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Kyte/Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Epizyme: Research Funding; Roche: Research Funding. Kridel: Gilead Sciences: Research Funding. Kuruvilla: AbbVie: Honoraria; Incyte: Honoraria; Medison Ventures: Honoraria; Merck: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria; Gilead: Honoraria; Seattle Genetics: Honoraria; Karyopharm: Honoraria, Other: Data and Safety Monitoring Board; Roche: Honoraria, Research Funding; Janssen: Honoraria, Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Honoraria, Research Funding; TG Therapeutics: Honoraria; Amgen: Honoraria; Pfizer: Honoraria; BMS: Honoraria; Antengene: Honoraria. Reece: Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; BMS: Honoraria, Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Sanofi: Honoraria; Millennium: Research Funding; Karyopharm: Consultancy, Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria; GSK: Honoraria.

(In)effective Thesis Writing and Supervision: (Lost) Opportunity for Learning

Thesis writing requires a wide range of reading, the skill of critiquing, a good skill of academic writing, and a proper collaboration of student and supervisor; however, it is poorly understood, less explored, and replete with problems. In this paper, we present the merits of thesis writing, supervisors' and students' commonly held perceptions, the effectiveness of supervisory feedback, and the value of student engagement. Then we present two components of thesis writing (i.e., introduction and literature review, including theoretical framework). Considering the need of the novice researchers (i.e., master's students) who are writing their thesis for the first time, we present these two components' introduction and provide suggestions for supervisors. We also present commonly used language features and examples. This paper is expected to be beneficial to students and supervisors alike.

Civil Society Organizations for and with the Courts and Judges—Struggle for the Rule of Law and Judicial Independence: The Case of Poland 1976–2020

During the rule of law backsliding crisis in Poland since late 2015, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have been active in the struggles to defend judicial independence. CSOs cooperate closely with judges and support their ‘judicial resistance’. This Article has three main objectives: describe and analyze the relationship between judges and CSOs; show the evolution — both continuity and discontinuity in their relations over time; assess whether CSOs’ activities are of any practical significance and therefore worth attention. The CSO-judicial relationship is analyzed for three periods: 1976–1989, the years before the transformation of Poland from a ‘people’s republic’ to a democracy; 1989–2015, the time of building liberal democracy and the rule of law; 2015–2020, the time of defending the rule of law from a populist attack.Drawing on sources including years of participant observation providing unique and insider knowledge, the author analyzes the activities and outputs of CSOs and judges focusing on their interactions and cooperation. The author argues that CSOs play a significant role in the struggle for the rule of law and judicial independence. This Article demonstrates that CSOs’ current engagement and input is not an extraordinary, ad hoc phenomenon, but rather one that arose from the previous interactions between the judiciary and civil society. The author argues that what we witness in Poland is an unprecedented phenomenon, both in the character of the relationship between judges and CSOs, and the scale and diversity of their cooperation. At the same time, the author claims that CSOs are underappreciated, including by academia, their work is taken for granted, and their role in the legal complex can be seen as a partly lost opportunity. If noticed, appreciated, and supported CSOs activities and their role could be more meaningful.