Commodity risk management and development

In 1995, 57 countries depended on three commodities for more than half their exports, reports UNCTAD. And commodities, fuels, grains, and oilseeds are important imports for several countries. The notorious volatility of commodity prices is a major source of instability and uncertainty in commodity-dependent countries, affecting governments, producers (farmers), traders, processors, and financial institutions. Further, commodity price instability has a negative impact on economic growth, income distribution, and poverty alleviation. Early attempts to deal with commodity price volatility relied on buffer stocks, buffer funds, government intervention in commodity markets, and international commodity agreements to stabilize prices. These were largely unsuccessful--sometimes spectacularly so. Buffer funds went bankrupt, commodity agreements were suspended, buffer stocks proved ineffective, and government intervention was both costlyand ineffective. As the poor performance of such stabilization schemes became more evident, academics and policymakers began distinguishing between programs that tried to alter price distribution (domestically or internationally) and programs that used market-based approaches for dealing with market uncertainty. This change in approach coincided with a significant rise in the use of market-based commodity risk management instruments--aided by the liberalization of markets, the lowering of trade and capital control barriers, and the globalization of commodity markets. by the mid-1990s, several governments, state companies, and private sector participants began using commodity derivatives markets to hedge their commodity price risks. Participation in those markets is growing, but important barriers to access remain including counterparty risk, problems small groups (such as farmers) have aggregating risks, basis risks (no correlation of local and international prices), no local reference prices, low liquidity, no derivatives markets for certain products, and low levels of know-how. International institutions, local governments, and the private sector could facilitate developing countries access to derivatives markets and the use of risk management tools to solve public sector problems.Economic Theory&Research,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Environmental Economics&Policies,Markets and Market Access,Labor Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Access to Markets,Markets and Market Access

Characterisation of feline renal cortical fibroblast cultures and their transcriptional response to transforming growth factor beta 1

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common in geriatric cats, and the most prevalent pathology is chronic tubulointerstitial inflammation and fibrosis. The cell type predominantly responsible for the production of extra-cellular matrix in renal fibrosis is the myofibroblast, and fibroblast to myofibroblast differentiation is probably a crucial event. The cytokine TGF-β1 is reportedly the most important regulator of myofibroblastic differentiation in other species. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterise renal fibroblasts from cadaverous kidney tissue of cats with and without CKD, and to investigate the transcriptional response to TGF-β1

A way to synchronize models with seismic faults for earthquake forecasting: Insights from a simple stochastic model

Numerical models are starting to be used for determining the future behaviour of seismic faults and fault networks. Their final goal would be to forecast future large earthquakes. In order to use them for this task, it is necessary to synchronize each model with the current status of the actual fault or fault network it simulates (just as, for example, meteorologists synchronize their models with the atmosphere by incorporating current atmospheric data in them). However, lithospheric dynamics is largely unobservable: important parameters cannot (or can rarely) be measured in Nature. Earthquakes, though, provide indirect but measurable clues of the stress and strain status in the lithosphere, which should be helpful for the synchronization of the models. The rupture area is one of the measurable parameters of earthquakes. Here we explore how it can be used to at least synchronize fault models between themselves and forecast synthetic earthquakes. Our purpose here is to forecast synthetic earthquakes in a simple but stochastic (random) fault model. By imposing the rupture area of the synthetic earthquakes of this model on other models, the latter become partially synchronized with the first one. We use these partially synchronized models to successfully forecast most of the largest earthquakes generated by the first model. This forecasting strategy outperforms others that only take into account the earthquake series. Our results suggest that probably a good way to synchronize more detailed models with real faults is to force them to reproduce the sequence of previous earthquake ruptures on the faults. This hypothesis could be tested in the future with more detailed models and actual seismic data.Comment: Revised version. Recommended for publication in Tectonophysic

Measurement of tau polarization in e+ e- annihilation at sqrt{s}=58 GeV

The polarization of tau leptons in the reaction e+ e- --> tau+ tau- has been measured using a e+e- collider, TRISTAN, at the center-of-mass energy of 58 GeV. From the kinematical distributions of daughter particles in tau --> e nu nu-bar, mu nu nu-bar, rho nu or pi(K) nu decays, the average polarization of tau- and its forward-backward asymmetry have been evaluated to be 0.012 +- 0.058 and 0.029 +- 0.057, respectively.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Effective Functional Form of Regge Trajectories

We present theoretical arguments and strong phenomenological evidence that hadronic Regge trajectories are essentially nonlinear and can be well approximated, for phenomenological purposes, by a specific square-root form.Comment: 29 pages, LaTeX. Published versio

The effect of Ku on telomere replication time is mediated by telomere length but is independent of histone tail acetylation

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Confining Properties of the Homogeneous Self-Dual Field and the Effective Potential in SU(2) Yang-Mills Theory

We examine in non-Abelian gauge theory the heavy quark limit in the presence of the (anti-)self-dual homogeneous background field and see that a confining potential emerges, consistent with the Wilson criterion, although the potential is quadratic and not linear in the quark separation. This builds upon the well-known feature that propagators in such a background field are entire functions. The way in which deconfinement can occur at finite temperature is then studied in the static temporal gauge by calculation of the effective potential at high temperature. Finally we discuss the problems to be surmounted in setting up the calculation of the effective potential nonperturbatively on the lattice.Comment: 31 pages, LaTeX, expanded discussion and derivations in Sections 2 and

Collodictyon—An Ancient Lineage in the Tree of Eukaryotes

The current consensus for the eukaryote tree of life consists of several large assemblages (supergroups) that are hypothesized to describe the existing diversity. Phylogenomic analyses have shed light on the evolutionary relationships within and between supergroups as well as placed newly sequenced enigmatic species close to known lineages. Yet, a few eukaryote species remain of unknown origin and could represent key evolutionary forms for inferring ancient genomic and cellular characteristics of eukaryotes. Here, we investigate the evolutionary origin of the poorly studied protist Collodictyon (subphylum Diphyllatia) by sequencing a cDNA library as well as the 18S and 28S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) genes. Phylogenomic trees inferred from 124 genes placed Collodictyon close to the bifurcation of the “unikont” and “bikont” groups, either alone or as sister to the potentially contentious excavate Malawimonas. Phylogenies based on rDNA genes confirmed that Collodictyon is closely related to another genus, Diphylleia, and revealed a very low diversity in environmental DNA samples. The early and distinct origin of Collodictyon suggests that it constitutes a new lineage in the global eukaryote phylogeny. Collodictyon shares cellular characteristics with Excavata and Amoebozoa, such as ventral feeding groove supported by microtubular structures and the ability to form thin and broad pseudopods. These may therefore be ancient morphological features among eukaryotes. Overall, this shows that Collodictyon is a key lineage to understand early eukaryote evolution

Rubia cordifolia, Fagonia cretica linn and Tinospora cordifolia exert neuroprotection by modulating the antioxidant system in rat hippocampal slices subjected to oxygen glucose deprivation

BACKGROUND: The major damaging factor during and after the ischemic/hypoxic insult is the generation of free radicals, which leads to apoptosis, necrosis and ultimately cell death. Rubia cordifolia (RC), Fagonia cretica linn (FC) and Tinospora cordifolia (TC) have been reported to contain a wide variety of antioxidants and have been in use in the eastern system of medicine for various disorders. However, their mechanism of action was largely unknown. We therefore selected these herbs for the present study to test their neuroprotective ability and the associated mechanism in rat hippocampal slices subjected to oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD). METHODS: Hippocampal Slices were subjected to OGD (oxygen glucose deprivation) and divided into 3 groups: control, OGD and OGD + drug treated. Cytosolic Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase (Cu-Zn SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), nitric oxide (NO) was measured as nitrite (NO(2)) in the supernatant and protein assays were performed in the respective groups at various time intervals. EPR was used to establish the antioxidant effect of RC, FC and TC with respect to superoxide anion (O(2)(.-)), hydroxyl radicals ((. )OH), nitric oxide (NO) radical and peroxynitrite anion (ONOO) generated from pyrogallol, menadione, DETA-NO and Sin-1 respectively. RT-PCR was performed for the three groups for GCLC, iNOS, Cu-Zn SOD and GAPDH gene expression. RESULTS: All the three herbs were effective in elevating the GSH levels, expression of the gamma-glutamylcysteine ligase and Cu-Zn SOD genes. The herbs also exhibited strong free radical scavenging properties against reactive oxygen and nitrogen species as studied by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. In addition all the three herbs significantly diminished the expression of iNOS gene after 48 hours which plays a major role in neuronal injury during hypoxia/ischemia. CONCLUSIONS: RC, FC and TC therefore attenuate oxidative stress mediated cell injury during OGD and exert the above effects at both the cytosolic as well as at gene expression level and may be an effective therapeutic tool against ischemic brain damage