Trade Agreements in the Last 20 Years: Retrospect and Prospect for Agriculture / Les accords commerciaux au cours des 20 dernières années : rétrospective et perspectives pour l’agriculture / Handelsabkommen in den letzten 20 Jahren: Rückblick und Ausblick für die Landwirtschaft

We provide an overview of major developments in multi-and plurilateral trade agreements over the last twenty years with a focus on the implications for agricultural and food markets. We take stock of what has been accomplished in market integration, remaining obstacles to trade, events that have changed the trade landscape, and emerging issues. Agricultural tariffs have fallen through commitments made in the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture and through the proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs). Nevertheless, agricultural trade remains distorted with some extremely high tariffs. RTAs have achieved progress on nontariff measures and other beyond-the- border frictions. World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on agricultural trade distortions have stalled because of their complexity and divergent political interests among WTO members. In addition, the dispute settlement mechanism no longer functions. The WTO will have to adjust to a world of RTAs and use its tools and procedures to support the multilateral trading system by promoting increased transparency of RTAs and their conformity with existing WTO agreements. The WTO can also use existing tools to head off disputes using specific trade concern mechanisms, such as those implemented through the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) committees. d’ensemble des principales évolutions dans les accords commerciaux multilatéraux et plurilatéraux au cours des vingt dernières années, en mettant l’accent sur les implications pour les marchés agricoles et alimentaires. Nous faisons le point sur ce qui a été accompli en matière d’intégration des marchés, les obstacles au commerce restant en place, les événements qui ont modifié le paysage commercial et les problèmes émergents. Les tarifs agricoles ont baissé du fait des engagements pris dans le cadre de l’Accord du Cycle d’Uruguay sur l’agriculture et de la prolifération des accords commerciaux régionaux (ACR). Néanmoins, le commerce agricole reste faussé, certains droits de douane demeurant extrêmement élevés. Les ACR ont permis de réaliser des progrès sur les mesures non tarifaires et d’autres frictions au-delà des frontières. Les négociations à l’Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) sur les distorsions des échanges agricoles sont au point mort en raison de leur complexité et des intérêts politiques divergents parmi les membres de l’OMC. De plus, le mécanisme de règlement des différends ne fonctionne plus. L’OMC devra s’adapter à un monde d’ACR et utiliser ses outils et procédures pour soutenir le système commercial multilatéral en promouvant une transparence accrue des ACR et leur conformité avec les accords existants de l’OMC. L’OMC peut également utiliser les outils existants pour éviter les différends en utilisant les mécanismes portant sur des questions commerciales spécifiques, tels que ceux mis en oeuvre par le biais des comités pour les questions sanitaire et phytosanitaire (SPS) et les obstacles techniques au commerce (OTC). Wir geben einen Überblick über die wichtigsten Entwicklungen bei multi-und plurilateralen Handelsabkommen in den letzten zwanzig Jahren. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf den Agrar-und Lebensmittelmärkten. Wir machen eine Bestandsaufnahme von dem, was bei der Marktintegration erreicht wurde, von den verbleibenden Handelshemmnissen, von Ereignissen, die die Handelslandschaft verändert haben, und von neuen Problemen. Die Agrarzölle sind durch die Beschlüsse der Uruguay-Runde und durch die zunehmende Anzahl an regionalen Handelsabkommen (RTAs) gesunken. Dennoch bleibt der Agrarhandel mit einigen extrem hohen Zöllen verzerrt. Im Rahmen der regionalen Handelsabkommen wurden Fortschritte bei nichttarifären Maßnahmen und anderen grenzüberschreitenden Spannungen erzielt. Die Verhandlungen der Welthandelsorganisation (WTO) über Handelsverzerrungen im Agrarbereich sind aufgrund ihrer Komplexität und der unterschiedlichen politischen Interessen ihrer Mitglieder ins Stocken geraten. Darüber hinaus funktioniert der WTO-Streitbeilegungsmechanismus nicht mehr. Die WTO muss sich auf eine Welt mit regionalen Handelsabkommen einstellen. Und sie muss ihre Instrumente und Verfahren einsetzen, um das multilaterale Handelssystem zu unterstützen, indem sie eine größere Transparenz der regionalen Handelsabkommen und deren Übereinstimmung mit den bestehenden WTO-Übereinkommen fördert. Die WTO kann hierbei auch auf bestehende Instrumente zurückgreifen, um Streitigkeiten mit Hilfe spezieller Mechanismen für Handelsfragen abzuwenden. Als Beispiele können die Ausschüsse für gesundheitliche und pflanzenschutzrechtliche Maßnahmen (SPS) und technische Handelshemmnisse (TBT) genannt werden

General Relativistic Effect of Gravitomagnetic Charge on Pulsar Magnetosphere and Particle Acceleration in a Polar Cap

We study magnetospheric structure surrounding rotating magnetized neutron star with nonvanishing NUT (Newman-Tamburino-Unti) parameter. For the simplicity of calculations Goldreich-Julian charge density is analyzed for the aligned neutron star with zero inclination between magnetic field, gravitomagnetic field and rotation axis. From the system of Maxwell equations in spacetime of slowly rotating NUT star, second-order differential equation for electrostatic potential is derived. Analytical solution of this equation indicates the general relativistic modification of an accelerating electric field and charge density along the open field lines by the gravitomagnetic charge. The implication of this effect to the magnetospheric energy loss problem is underlined. In the second part of the paper we derive the equations of motion of test particles in magnetosphere of slowly rotating NUT star. Then we analyze particle motion in the polar cap and show that NUT parameter can significantly change conditions for particle acceleration.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease provide a unique opportunity to take care of patients

Exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (ECOPD) identifies the acute phase of COPD. The COPD patient is often frail and elderly with concomitant chronic diseases. This requires the physician not only looks at specific symptoms or organs, but to consider the patient in all his or her complexity. \ua9Copyright B. Begh\ue9 et al., 2013 Licensee PAGEPress

Promoting smoking cessation in Pakistani and Bangladeshi men in the UK: pilot cluster randomised controlled trial of trained community outreach workers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Smoking prevalence is high among Pakistani and Bangladeshi men in the UK, but there are few tailored smoking cessation programmes for Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. The aim of this study was to pilot a cluster randomised controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of Pakistani and Bangladeshi smoking cessation outreach workers with standard care to improve access to and the success of English smoking cessation services.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A pilot cluster randomised controlled trial was conducted in Birmingham, UK. Geographical lower layer super output areas were used to identify natural communities where more than 10% of the population were of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin. 16 agglomerations of super output areas were randomised to normal care controls vs. outreach intervention. The number of people setting quit dates using NHS services, validated abstinence from smoking at four weeks, and stated abstinence at three and six months were assessed. The impact of the intervention on choice and adherence to treatments, attendance at clinic appointments and patient satisfaction were also assessed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We were able to randomise geographical areas and deliver the outreach worker-based services. More Pakistani and Bangladeshi men made quit attempts with NHS services in intervention areas compared with control areas, rate ratio (RR) 1.32 (95%CI: 1.03-1.69). There was a small increase in the number of 4-week abstinent smokers in intervention areas (RR 1.30, 95%CI: 0.82-2.06). The proportion of service users attending weekly appointments was lower in intervention areas than control areas. No difference was found between intervention and control areas in choice and adherence to treatments or patient satisfaction with the service. The total cost of the intervention was £124,000; an estimated cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained of £8,500.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The intervention proved feasible and acceptable. Outreach workers expanded reach of smoking cessation services in diverse locations of relevance to Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. The outreach worker model has the potential to increase community cessation rates and could prove cost-effective, but needs evaluating definitively in a larger, appropriately powered, randomised controlled trial. These future trials of outreach interventions need to be of sufficient duration to allow embedding of new models of service delivery.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Current Controlled Trials <a href="http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN82127540">ISRCTN82127540</a></p

The organisation and delivery of health improvement in general practice and primary care: a scoping study

Background This project examines the organisation and delivery of health improvement activities by and within general practice and the primary health-care team. The project was designed to examine who delivers these interventions, where they are located, what approaches are developed in practices, how individual practices and the primary health-care team organise such public health activities, and how these contribute to health improvement. Our focus was on health promotion and ill-health prevention activities. Aims The aim of this scoping exercise was to identify the current extent of knowledge about the health improvement activities in general practice and the wider primary health-care team. The key objectives were to provide an overview of the range and type of health improvement activities, identify gaps in knowledge and areas for further empirical research. Our specific research objectives were to map the range and type of health improvement activity undertaken by general practice staff and the primary health-care team based within general practice; to scope the literature on health improvement in general practice or undertaken by health-care staff based in general practice and identify gaps in the evidence base; to synthesise the literature and identify effective approaches to the delivery and organisation of health improvement interventions in a general practice setting; and to identify the priority areas for research as defined by those working in general practice. Methods We undertook a comprehensive search of the literature. We followed a staged selection process involving reviews of titles and abstracts. This resulted in the identification of 1140 papers for data extraction, with 658 of these papers selected for inclusion in the review, of which 347 were included in the evidence synthesis. We also undertook 45 individual and two group interviews with primary health-care staff. Findings Many of the research studies reviewed had some details about the type, process or location, or who provided the intervention. Generally, however, little attention is paid in the literature to examining the impact of the organisational context on the way services are delivered or how this affects the effectiveness of health improvement interventions in general practice. We found that the focus of attention is mainly on individual prevention approaches, with practices engaging in both primary and secondary prevention. The range of activities suggests that general practitioners do not take a population approach but focus on individual patients. However, it is clear that many general practitioners see health promotion as an integral part of practice, whether as individual approaches to primary or secondary health improvement or as a practice-based approach to improving the health of their patients. Our key conclusion is that there is currently insufficient good evidence to support many of the health improvement interventions undertaken in general practice and primary care more widely. Future Research Future research on health improvement in general practice and by the primary health-care team needs to move beyond clinical research to include delivery systems and be conducted in a primary care setting. More research needs to examine areas where there are chronic disease burdens – cancer, dementia and other disabilities of old age. Reviews should be commissioned that examine the whole prevention pathway for health problems that are managed within primary care drawing together research from general practice, pharmacy, community engagement, etc

Regions of linearity, Lusztig cones and canonical basis elements for the quantized enveloping algebra of type A_4

Let U_q be the quantum group associated to a Lie algebra g of rank n. The negative part U^- of U has a canonical basis B with favourable properties, introduced by Kashiwara and Lusztig. The approaches of Kashiwara and Lusztig lead to a set of alternative parametrizations of the canonical basis, one for each reduced expression for the longest word in the Weyl group of g. We show that if g is of type A_4 there are close relationships between the Lusztig cones, canonical basis elements and the regions of linearity of reparametrization functions arising from the above parametrizations. A graph can be defined on the set of simplicial regions of linearity with respect to adjacency, and we further show that this graph is isomorphic to the graph with vertices given by the reduced expressions of the longest word of the Weyl group modulo commutation and edges given by long braid relations. Keywords: Quantum group, Lie algebra, Canonical basis, Tight monomials, Weyl group, Piecewise-linear functions.Comment: 61 pages, 17 figures, uses picte

The use of spline and singular functions in an integral equation method for conformal mapping

We consider the integral equation method of Symm for the conformal mapping of simply-connected domains. For the numerical solution, we examine the use of spline functions of various degrees for the approximation of the source density o. In particular, we consider ways for overcoming the difficulties associated with corner singularities. For this we modify the spline approximation and in the neighbourhood of each corner, where a boundary singularity occurs, we approximate σ by a function which reflects the main singular behaviour of the source density. The singular functions are then blended with the splines, which approximate σ on the remainder of the boundary, so that the global approximating function has continuity of appropriate order at the transition points between the two types of approximation. We show, by means of numerical examples, that such approximations overcome the difficulties associated with corner singularities and lead to numerical results of high accuracy

Association between smoking-related attentional bias and craving measured in the clinic and in the natural environment

Previous laboratory studies have investigated associations between attentional bias and craving, but ecological momentary assessment (EMA) may provide ecologically-valid data. This study examines whether clinic-measured attentional bias is associated with noticing smoking cues, attention to smoking, and craving assessed by EMA and whether EMA-assessed cues and attention to smoking are associated with craving in a secondary analysis of data from 100 cigarette smokers attempting cessation. Two weeks before quitting, participants completed attentional bias assessments on visual probe (VP) and Stroop tasks and completed random EMA-assessments for seven weeks thereafter. Participants completed 9,271 random assessments, averaging 3.3 prompts/day. Clinic-measured attentional bias was not associated with cues seen (VP: OR = 1.00, 95% CI = [0.99, 1.01]; Stroop: OR = 1.00, 95% CI [0.99, 1.00]), attention toward smoking (VP: OR = 1.00, 95% CI [0.99, 1.02]; Stroop: OR = 1.00, 95% CI [0.99, 1.00]), or craving (VP: OR = 1.00, 95% CI [0.99, 1.02]; Stroop: OR = 1.00, 95% CI [0.99, 1.01]). EMA responses to seeing a smoking cue (OR = 1.94, 95% CI [1.74, 2.16]) and attention toward smoking (OR = 3.69, 95% CI [3.42, 3.98]) were associated with craving. Internal reliability was higher for the Stroop (α = .75) than visual probe task (α = .20). In smokers attempting cessation, clinic measures of attentional bias do not predict noticing smoking cues, focus on smoking, or craving. However, associations exist between noticing smoking cues, attention toward smoking, and craving assessed in the moment, suggesting that attentional bias may not be a stable trait. (PsycINFO Database Recor

A microcomputer-based sensing system for measuring the erosive disposition of clay and silt sized soil particles

Accurate knowledge of particle size distribution plays an important role in controlling soil erosion from farm lands, construction sites, tropical areas, channel beds, and forest lands. The concept of the vortical particle size distribution system (VPSDS) was developed by Burcham (1989) for determining particle size and concentration in soil-water mixtures on a real-time or near real-time basis. The VPSDS has three main components; (1) the VPSDS vortex chamber and sensing zone, (2) a laser light detection system, and (3) the data acquisition and control system. Experiments were developed to determine relationships between the output of the VPSDS (voltage) and actual particle concentration in the 4 to 63 micron range using eight soils from four unified soil classifications (CL, CH, ML, MH). A modified pipette method was developed to collect soil-water mixture samples from the VPSDS sensing zone. The light blocked by soil particles in the sensing zone is detected by a logarithmic light extinction circuit, which produces voltage relative to the mass of particles blocking the laser light. The experiment compared recorded voltage with measured particle concentration at various computed particle sizes from 4 to 63 microns. A computer control and data acquisition system was developed to operate the VPSDS and record data. The control program stores the instrument\u27s voltage response, impeller speed, and elapsed time for each experiment. Results related the VPSDS voltage response to actual particle size and sample concentration for the 4 to 63 micron particle size range. Regression analyses of the data indicated a good correlation between the VPSDS voltage response and sample concentration. The mass-voltage relationship for the eight soils tested in this study was described with one equation having r2 values ranging 0.98 to 0.99. Voltage as an independent variable to predict mass was statistically significant (α = 0.01)