Is the Long-term Economic Decline of the Philippines Unstoppable? Trends, Reasons, Outlook

The Philippines was in the 1960s a model of development in Asia and second to Japan,but occupies presently only the 11th position under South-East and East Asian countries in terms of GDP-per capita.The article explores why this important Asian country with a long colonial past and enormous economic potential still ranks under lower-income countries and has in the last decades let pass by many other Asian countries.In answering this question,the approach of external triggers for accelerated development is being applied.In stark contrast to the success stories of the strongly outward-looking Asian countries like the four Tigers,later of Thailand and Vietnam the Philippines never developed a vision of an open economy connecting pro-actively to the world markets.Trade is hampered by a non-competitive and highly protected national economy.The existing FDI is more oriented to the profitable local markets.Foreign debts were never effectively used and international tourism was never well promoted.Linking these failures to the existing power structures in the country,it seems very much that the backward forces like the big landowners,the local producers and industrialists never wanted and continue not to want to open up the economy to international competition and governments are complacent with these groups.Various indicators demonstrate the long-term decline of the Philippines:Among them the slow growth of the GDP and the continuously high poverty rates.As the alliance of big business and policy holds firm no change in the failing nationalistic economic model can be detected leaving the bleak outlook that the economic decline will continue.

A review on the synergism between corrosion and fatigue of magnesium alloys:Mechanisms and processes on the micro-scale

Understanding the interaction between cyclic stresses and corrosion of magnesium(Mg)and its alloys is increasingly in demand due to the continuous expansion of structural applications of these materials.This review is dedicated to exploring the corrosion-fatigue mechanisms of these materials,with an emphasis on microscale processes,and the possibility of expanding current knowledge on this topic using scanning electrochemical techniques.The interaction between fatigue and corrosion of Mg alloys is analyzed by considering the microstructural aspects(grain size,precipitates,deformation twins),as well as the formation of pits.Furthermore,in the case of coated alloys,the role of coating defects in these phenomena is also described.In this context,the feasibility of using scanning electrochemical microscopy(SECM),scanning vibrating electrode technique(SVET),scanning ion-selective electrode technique(SIET),localized electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(LEIS)and scanning Kelvin probe(SKP)methods to study the corrosion-fatigue interaction of Mg alloys is examined.A comprehensive review of the current literature in this field is presented,and the opportunities and limitations of consolidating the use of these techniques to study the microscale processes involved in Mg corrosion-fatigue are discussed.

Hierarchical protection control system of smart substations

This paper analyzes the problems of the relay protections and secondary circuits of traditional substations,and introduces the hierarchical protection and control system of smart substations based on the technologies like IEC 61850 Standard,electronic instrument transformer,process level network,and wide area optical fiber communication network,etc.The hierarchical protection and control system includes three levels:local area protection,substation area protection and control,and wide area protection and control.These three levels are combined to solve the problems of the relay protections in traditional substations,thus improving protection performance and control capability of the system.