THE ROLE OF BRAZIL IN THE WORLD ORANGE JUICE MARKET: A THREAT POSED BY CVC

The role of the processed citrus industry of Brazil, the largest world orange juice producer, is discussed with reference to CVC (citrus variegated chlorosis), a bacterial disease that affects one-third of the Brazilian tree inventory. Scenarios are analyzed via a spatial equilibrium model on the impact of increased/decreased CVC incidence.Brazil, CVC, orange juice, Xylella, International Relations/Trade,

Impact of U.S. duty drawback on the demand for orange juice

A demand system model differentiating goods by origin is developed to examine impacts of duty drawback on U.S. orange juice exports and prices. An empirical analysis suggests that on average duty drawback has increased annual orange juice exports by about 16.5 million SSE gallons or 11% of export sales, and has supported the U.S. price of orange juice by about 2 cents per gallon. Not all benefits of duty drawback go to exporters. Importers who own drawback credits but do not export product may realize benefits by selling their credits to exporters. The analysis suggests these benefits effectively reduce by the U.S. orange juice tariff, positively impacting imports and negatively impacting the U.S. price.duty drawback, orange juice, demand, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, International Relations/Trade,

THE ROLE OF BRAZIL IN THE WORLD ORANGE JUICE MARKET: A THREAT POSED BY CVC

The role of the processed citrus industry of Brazil, the largest world orange juice producer, is discussed with reference to CVC (citrus variegated chlorosis), a bacterial disease that affects one-third of the Brazilian tree inventory. Scenarios are analyzed via a spatial equilibrium model on the impact of increased/decreased CVC incidence

Impact of U.S. duty drawback on the demand for orange juice

A demand system model differentiating goods by origin is developed to examine impacts of duty drawback on U.S. orange juice exports and prices. An empirical analysis suggests that on average duty drawback has increased annual orange juice exports by about 16.5 million SSE gallons or 11% of export sales, and has supported the U.S. price of orange juice by about 2 cents per gallon. Not all benefits of duty drawback go to exporters. Importers who own drawback credits but do not export product may realize benefits by selling their credits to exporters. The analysis suggests these benefits effectively reduce by the U.S. orange juice tariff, positively impacting imports and negatively impacting the U.S. price

Citrus Sudden Death Is Transmitted by Graft-Inoculation and Natural Transmission Is Prevented by Individual Insect-Proof Cages

Citrus sudden death (CSD) transmission was studied by graft-inoculation and under natural conditions. Young sweet orange trees on Rangpur rootstock were used as indicator plants. They were examined regularly for one or two characteristic markers of CSD: (i) presence of a yellow-stained layer of thickened bark on the Rangpur rootstock, and (ii) infection with the CSD-associated marafivirus. Based on these two markers, transmission of CSD was obtained, not only when budwood for graft-inoculation was taken from symptomatic, sweet orange trees on Rangpur, but also when the budwood sources were asymptomatic sweet orange trees on Cleopatra mandarin, indicating that the latter trees are symptomless carriers of the CSD agent. For natural transmission, 80 young indicator plants were planted within a citrus plot severely affected by CSD. Individual insect-proof cages were built around 40 indicator plants, and the other 40 indicator plants remained uncaged. Only two of the 40 caged indicator plants were affected by CSD, whereas 17 uncaged indicator plants showed CSD symptoms and were infected with the marafivirus. An additional 12 uncaged indicator plants became severely affected with citrus variegated chlorosis and were removed. These results strongly suggest that under natural conditions, CSD is transmitted by an aerial vector, such as an insect, and that the cages protected the trees against infection by the vector.CNPq[500043/02-7

Atributos topográficos e dados do Landsat7 no mapeamento digital de solos com uso de redes neurais

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar variáveis discriminantes no mapeamento digital de solos com uso de redes neurais artificiais. Os atributos topográficos elevação, declividade, aspecto, plano de curvatura e índice topográfico, derivados de um modelo digital de elevação, e os índices de minerais de argila, óxido de ferro e vegetação por diferença normalizada, derivados de uma imagem do Landsat7, foram combinados e avaliados quanto à capacidade de discriminação dos solos de uma área no noroeste do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Foram utilizados o simulador de redes neurais Java e o algoritmo de aprendizado "backpropagation". Os mapas gerados por cada um dos seis conjuntos de variáveis testados foram comparados com pontos de referência, para a determinação da exatidão das classificações. Esta comparação mostrou que o mapa produzido com a utilização de todas as variáveis obteve um desempenho superior (73,81% de concordância) ao de mapas produzidos pelos demais conjuntos de variáveis. Possíveis fontes de erro na utilização dessa abordagem estão relacionadas, principalmente, à grande heterogeneidade litológica da área, que dificultou o estabelecimento de um modelo de correlação ambiental mais realista. A abordagem utilizada pode contribuir para tornar o levantamento de solos no Brasil mais rápido e menos subjetivo.The objective of this study was to evaluate discriminant variables in digital soil mapping using artificial neural networks. The topographic attributes elevation, slope, aspect, plan curvature and topographic index, derived from a digital elevation model, and the indexes of clay minerals, iron oxide and normalized difference vegetation, derived from a Landsat7 image, were combined and evaluated for their ability to discriminate soils of an area at the northwest of Rio de Janeiro State. The Java neural simulator and the backpropagation learning algorithm were used. The maps generated by each of the six tested sets of variables were compared with reference points for determining the rating accuracy. This comparison showed that the map produced with the use of all the variables reached a performance (73.81% of agreement) superior to maps produced by other sets of variables. Possible sources of error in the use of this approach are mainly related to the great lithological heterogeneity of the area, which hindered the establishment of a more realistic model of environmental correlation. The approach can help make the soil survey in Brazil faster and less subjective

Shorter Maintenance Therapy in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: The Experience of the Prospective, Randomized Brazilian GBTLI ALL-93 Protocol

Maintenance therapy is an important phase of the childhood ALL treatment, requiring 2-year long therapy adherence of the patients and families. Weekly methotrexate (MTX) with daily 6-mercaptopurine (6MP) constitutes the backbone of maintenance therapy. Reduction in the maintenance therapy could overweight problems related with poverty of children with ALL living in Limited-Income countries (LIC). Objective: To compare, prospectively, the EFS rates of children with ALL treated according to two maintenance regimens: 18 vs 24 months duration. Materials and Methods: From October 1993 to September 1999, 867 consecutive untreated ALL patients 10 years and high WBC at diagnosis). Overall death in remission rate was 6.85% (56 patients). Deaths during maintenance were 13 in group 1 and 12 in group 2, all due to infection. Over 15 years of follow-up, two patients both from Group 2 presented a second malignancy (Hodgkin’s disease and thyroid carcinoma) after 8.3 and 11 years off therapy, respectively. Conclusion: Six-month reduction of maintenance therapy in ALL children treated according to the GBTLI ALL-93 protocol, provided the same overall outcome as 2-year duration regimen