A study on the counterparties risk management in cocoa trading companies: How commodities trading firms deal with performance risk?

This dissertation is conducted to extend the research on the risk faced by the cocoa trading companies which are mostly dealing with African entities. It analyses the counterparties risks including customers and suppliers’ risks. A survey determining which kind of strategies are used by the cocoa trading companies allowed us to understand the way of thinking of these firms. Also, many information about how to deal with the counterparty risks have been gathered through interviews with professional from the cocoa industry. After the prefinancing and credit risk, the risks of default and reject are the most important. It is usually due to the price variation, impacted by the climate changes, the political environment, or the lack of skills and honesty. Diverse solutions can be used to fight against the risks: financial instruments are a good solution to prevent the risk, such as the Letter of Credit (LC), or the Cash Against Documents (CAD). Cocoa firms are also willing to use Incoterms, credit insurances and Know Your Customer (KYC). The market risk is very high in both counterparties. That is why having the possibility to directly sell and buy on the exchange is a big advantage of the cocoa market. However, even if many factors can be used to manage these risks, most of them cannot be covered and are subjected to pure confidence and trust. This dissertation highlights the principal ways to manage the counterparty risks in a cocoa trading company.Esta dissertação pretende aprofundar a investigação realizada no âmbito do risco incorrido pelas empresas de comercialização de cacau que estão maioritariamente ligadas a entidades africanas. Assim sendo, os riscos de contraparte, incluindo os riscos dos clientes e dos fornecedores, são analisados. Através de um inquérito realizado às empresas de comercialização de cacau, foi possível determinar quais os tipos de estratégia executados por estas empresas e, consequentemente, compreender o modo de pensar das mesmas. Adicionalmente, foi recolhida informação acerca de como lidar com os riscos de contraparte através de diferentes depoimentos de profissionais da indústria do cacau. Após o préfinanciamento e risco de crédito, o risco de incumprimento ou de rejeição são os mais relevantes. Isto deve-se essencialmente à variação de preços, causada pelas alterações climáticas, pelo ambiente político, ou pela falta de capacidades e honestidade. No entanto, diversas soluções podem ser aplicadas para contrariar esta tendência: instrumentos financeiros, tais como cartas de crédito, ou documentos mediante o pagamento, são uma boa opção para prevenção de risco. As empresas de cacau estão também dispostas a usar incoterms, seguros de crédito, e a adotar políticas de Conheça o seu Cliente. O risco de mercado é elevado para ambas as contrapartes, e é por isso que ter a possibilidade de vender e comprar diretamente é considerada uma grande vantagem no mercado de cacau. Contudo, mesmo havendo diferentes fatores eficientes no combate destes riscos, a maioria dos riscos não são realmente abrangidos e são sujeitos a total confiança. Esta dissertação destaca as principais formas de gerir os riscos de contraparte numa empresa de comercialização de cacau

Laboratory diagnosis of infective endocarditis

The diagnosis of infective endocarditis is based on positive blood cultures. Modern microbiological techniques can isolate the aetiological agent in 90-95% of cases. The rapidity of detection has been improved by inoculation of 10 ml of blood, adequate dilution and media and systematic subcultures. Lysis-centrifugation has yreatly improved the detection of fungi in bloo

In-vitro activity of roxithromycin against respiratory and skin pathogens

The activity of roxithromycin was determined by a microdilution method, in comparison with erythromycin, spiramycin and josamycin. Roxithromycin and erythromycin showed very similar MICs against staphylococci, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Str. pyogenes and Haemophilia influenzae. In most cases, spiramycin and josamycin appeared similarly or more active. The activity of roxithromycin against Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Legionella spp., Chlamydia psittaci and, to some extent, against Pasteurella spp. was also assessed, by suitable in-vitro methods. Roxithromycin has a promising potential for treating selected skin and respiratory infection

Emergence of resistance after therapy with antibiotics used alone or combined in a marine model

A murine model of peritonitis allowing detection and quantification of in-vivo acquired resistance during short term therapy has been used in order to evaluate the capacity of antimicrobial combinations to limit emergence of resistance, as compared to individual components of the regimens. Mice were challenged intraperitoneally with 108 cfu of bacteria. Two hours later, a single antibiotic dose was injected subcutaneously: amikacin (15 mg/kg), ceftriaxone (50 mg/kg), pefloxacin (25 mg/kg), amikacin + ceftriaxone, amikacin + pefloxacin or ceftriaxone + pefloxacin. Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus never became resistant. Single drug therapy yielded resistant mutants in Enterobacter cloacae, Serratia marcescens, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as follows: 74% of ceftriaxone-treated animals, 57% of pefloxacin treated animals and 27% of amikacin treated animals. All the tested combinations reduced the frequency of in-vivo acquired resistance produced by single drugs, and no combination selected resistance when the separate agents of the combination did not. Combining antimicrobial agents limits the risk of emergence of resistance during antibiotic therap

In-vitro activity of newer quinolones against aerobic bacteria

Nalidixic and five newer 4-quinolones, ciprofloxacin, enoxacin, norfloxacin, ofloxacin and pefloxacin were tested against 576 recent clinical aerobic bacterial isolates. The 4-quinolones were regularly active (MIC90 < 4 mg/1) against the following bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis, S. saprophyticus, different Enterobacteriaceae, Haemophilus influenzae, Campylobacter jejuni, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Agrobacter spp., Aeromonas spp., Plesiomonas spp., Neisseria meningitidis. Other bacteria were usually intermediately susceptible or resistant: different streptococci, Listeria monocytogenes, Nocardia asteroides, P. maltophilia, Achromobacter xylosoxydans and Alcaligenes denitrificans. Ciprofloxacin was the most potent compound, followed by ofloxacin and pefloxacin, norfloxacin and enoxacin being less active. All the 4-quinolones were much more active than nalidixic acid. The MBC/MIC ratios of the 4-quinolones were between 1 and 2 with a majority of strains, and between 2 and 3 with Streptococcus agalactiae, Str. faecalis and L. monocytogenes. A two- to eight-fold increase of MIC was observed by increasing the inoculum 10,000-fold with most of the strains tested. Susceptible bacterial population of Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter cloacae, Serratia marcescens and P. aeruginosa contained more clones resistant to nalidixic acid (104 to 108 at four times the MIC) than to 4-quinolones (105 to 109 at four times the MIC). Supplementing the media with MgSO4 produced smaller inhibition zone diameters with a disc diffusion method than those obtained with non-supplemented agar, with all quinolone or strains. Less regular effect, or no effect was obtained after supplementation with ZnSO4 or Ca(NO3)

Risikoorientierte Bewilligung von Erdwärmesonden

Zusammenfassung: Die Zahl an Erdwärmesonden nimmt in ganz Europa stetig zu. Wie mit anderen Technologien der Energiegewinnung sind auch mit Erdwärmesonden Risiken verbunden. Deshalb bedarf es Leitlinien als Grundlage für die Bewilligungsverfahren, die den Bau und Betrieb einer solchen Anlage regeln. Um dabei den zu erwartenden Nutzen gegen mögliche Risiken abwägen zu können, sind Kenntnisse über die hydrogeologischen Verhältnisse am Standort und die dort stattfindenden Prozesse erforderlich. Am Beispiel des Erdwärmenutzungskonzepts des Kantons Basel-Landschaft wird gezeigt, wie die Bewilligung von Erdwärmesonden differenziert geregelt werden kann, und wie die geologischen Merkmale einer Region in ein Erdwärmenutzungskonzept integriert werden können. Dabei werden insbesondere Karstgebiete, Gebiete mit der Gefahr des Gebirgsquellens und der Subrosion, Gewässerschutzbereiche, und Gebiete mit Grundwasserstockwerkbau oder gespannten Grundwasserverhältnissen berücksichtigt. Der Artikel will damit einen Beitrag zur derzeit stattfindenden gesellschaftlichen Diskussion über den Nutzen und die Risiken der untiefen Geothermie leisten, indem er Risiken durch den Bau und Betrieb von Erdwärmesonden beschreibt, und Möglichkeiten aufzeigt, diese Risiken in der Bewilligungspraxis zu berücksichtige

Was bleibt von der Klinischen Psychologie? Medikalisierungsprozesse und ihre Folgen

Die gegenwärtigen Entwicklungen der Klinischen Psychologie werden als Ausdruck einer Unterordnung der Klinischen Psychologie unter die Grundsätze medizinischen Denkens und Handelns interpretiert. Als Belege für diese Einschätzung werden die zunehmende Bedeutung einer "Störungsspezifischen Klinischen Psychologie", die Ausgrenzung der Prävention, die positive Bezugnahme auf das medizinische Modell, die Manualisierung von Psychotherapie und die Orientierung der psychotherapeutischen Wirksamkeitsforschung an der pharmakologischen Forschung genannt. Anschließend wird aufgezeigt, welche Motive der Medikalisierung zugrunde liegen könnten und welche Konsequenzen sie hat