Economic Performance of U.S. Multinational Agribusinesses: Foreign Direct Investment and Firm Strategy

This paper empirically assesses the sequential relationships among firm strategic factors, FDI activity, and economic performance for a sample of U.S.-based Multinational agribusinesses. The most important findings of this research is a positive direct effect of FDI on performance, the complementary effect between FDI and firm strategic factors (positive and significant interaction terms) on performance, and the positive effect of FDI on performance given some thresholds of firm strategic factors. Specifically, it provides insights about the direct effect of FDI on performance, as well as about the joint effect of firm size and FDI, marketing intensity and FDI, and capital intensity and FDI on performance. These findings provide evidence that FDI activity is an important factor for U.S. agribusiness financial strength.Economic performance, Foreign direct investment, Firm strategic factors, Agribusiness, Agribusiness, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, F230, L250,

A Recipe for Constructing Frustration-Free Hamiltonians with Gauge and Matter Fields in One and Two Dimensions

State sum constructions, such as Kuperberg's algorithm, give partition functions of physical systems, like lattice gauge theories, in various dimensions by associating local tensors or weights, to different parts of a closed triangulated manifold. Here we extend this construction by including matter fields to build partition functions in both two and three space-time dimensions. The matter fields introduces new weights to the vertices and they correspond to Potts spin configurations described by an $\mathcal{A}$-module with an inner product. Performing this construction on a triangulated manifold with a boundary we obtain the transfer matrices which are decomposed into a product of local operators acting on vertices, links and plaquettes. The vertex and plaquette operators are similar to the ones appearing in the quantum double models (QDM) of Kitaev. The link operator couples the gauge and the matter fields, and it reduces to the usual interaction terms in known models such as $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory with matter fields. The transfer matrices lead to Hamiltonians that are frustration-free and are exactly solvable. According to the choice of the initial input, that of the gauge group and a matter module, we obtain interesting models which have a new kind of ground state degeneracy that depends on the number of equivalence classes in the matter module under gauge action. Some of the models have confined flux excitations in the bulk which become deconfined at the surface. These edge modes are protected by an energy gap provided by the link operator. These properties also appear in "confined Walker-Wang" models which are 3D models having interesting surface states. Apart from the gauge excitations there are also excitations in the matter sector which are immobile and can be thought of as defects like in the Ising model. We only consider bosonic matter fields in this paper.Comment: 52 pages, 58 figures. This paper is an extension of arXiv:1310.8483 [cond-mat.str-el] with the inclusion of matter fields. This version includes substantial changes with a connection made to confined Walker-Wang models along the lines of arXiv:1208.5128 and subsequent works. Accepted for publication in JPhys

Time--space white noise eliminates global solutions in reaction diffusion equations

We prove that perturbing the reaction--diffusion equation $u_t=u_{xx} + (u_+)^p$ ($p>1$), with time--space white noise produces that solutions explodes with probability one for every initial datum, opposite to the deterministic model where a positive stationary solution exists.Comment: New results included. To be published in Physica

Les élections présidentielles au Brésil et les conséquences pour la politique étrangère brésilienne

Le premier octobre prochain, les citoyens brésiliens décideront qui sera leur nouveau président. Après huit ans au pouvoir, le président brésilien Luiz Inácio « Lula » da Silva quittera le poste présidentiel avec une popularité jamais vue dans le pays. Selon les derniers sondages, 76 % des Brésiliens jugent l’administration Lula « bonne ou excellente » . En effet, pour la première fois depuis le retour de la démocratie au Brésil, le nom de Lula ne paraîtra pas sur l’appareil de votation. Cette fois-ci, le scrutin se passera notamment entre Dilma Rousseff, la candidate du Parti des Travailleurs (PT), dont Lula fut le fondateur, et José Serra, du Parti de la Sociale Démocratie brésilienne (PSDB). Les autres candidats, dont Marina da Silva, du Parti Vert (PV), ne sont pas déterminants du point de vue électoral. Les élections de cette année mettent en évidence deux projets nationaux distincts, à savoir celui du PT et celui du PSDB. Quelles seraient, dans ce cadre, les conséquences pour l’actuelle politique étrangère brésilienne

Mapa cultural de Foz do Iguaçu

Anais do I Encontro de Iniciação Científica e de Extensão da Unila - Sessão de Literatura - 05/06/12 - 14h00 às 18h00 - Unila-Centro - Sala 17 - 3o PisoA través de la presente investigación intentamos construir una primera aproximación a la vida cultural de Foz do Iguazú. Se inscribe en el programa de extensión universitaria que integramos, y pretende comen - zar a realizar en la ciudad acciones de extensión relacionadas con la cultura. Para ello necesitábamos sa - ber qué necesita y qué puede ofrecer la ciudad en cuanto a la cultura, para responder efectivamente a las necesidades de la población. Los conocimientos obtenidos se utilizarán para que esas acciones sean perti - nentes a las necesidades culturales locales, y aprovechen el potencial cultural local. Adicionalmente es es - perable que las acciones de una universidad de la integración apunten a rescatar la identidad trifronteriza de Foz do Iguazú, trabajando con sus particularidades. Entendiendo esta necesidad de hacer un diagnósti - co previo de las necesidades y el potencial cultural de nuestro entorno elaboramos un mapeo cultural de la ciudad, centrándonos en la población joven por ser la más relevante para nuestras actividades. Recolecta - mos datos a través de encuestas y realizamos entrevistas con referentes locales del área cultura, misturan - do así la metodología cualitativa y cuantitativa. Esto fue importante pues uno de nuestros objetivos era comenzar a familiarizarnos con los recursos propios de las ciencias sociales, construyendo conocimiento verificable de la realidad social. A partir de esa información elaboramos un diagnóstico que presentamos al final, y puede resumirse de la siguiente forma: Hay insatisfacción con la oferta cultural entre los jóve - nes de la ciudad, aunque no está bien definido qué es lo que falta. La media de satisfacción con la oferta cultural de Foz es de 5,28, en una escala del 1 al 10. Apenas un 12\% de los encuestados asisten a eventos culturales en Paraguay o Argentina, pero casi la mitad asiste a iglesias evangélicas. También indagamos acerca de la penetración lingüística de la frontera (guaraní y castellano) y el uso de las redes sociales de internet, presentando estadísticas al respecto. La vida cultural en Foz es fragmentaria, con públicos en ge - neral no coincidentes, y el rol de la universidad en este escenario debería ser el de articulador del espacio cultural. Como dijo uno de nuestros entrevistados, "...integrar la producción artística y la cultura que per - mea esta ciudad; esa es la gran tarea de la universidad y es eso lo que esperamos de la Unila. Hay que to - mar la iniciativa de llamar a la ciudad, porque a veces la universidad queda esperando que la ciudad la lla - me; al contrario, la universidad tiene que llamar a la ciudad." A partir de este semestre, orientados por nu - estra tutora, intentaremos extender nuestra área de análisis a las ciudades vecinas de Puerto Iguazú (Ar - gentina) y Ciudad del Este (Paraguay); pretendemos realizar allí también acciones de extensión pertinen - tes relacionadas con la cultura.Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (UNILA

Supporting Defect Causal Analysis in Practice with Cross-Company Data on Causes of Requirements Engineering Problems

[Context] Defect Causal Analysis (DCA) represents an efficient practice to improve software processes. While knowledge on cause-effect relations is helpful to support DCA, collecting cause-effect data may require significant effort and time. [Goal] We propose and evaluate a new DCA approach that uses cross-company data to support the practical application of DCA. [Method] We collected cross-company data on causes of requirements engineering problems from 74 Brazilian organizations and built a Bayesian network. Our DCA approach uses the diagnostic inference of the Bayesian network to support DCA sessions. We evaluated our approach by applying a model for technology transfer to industry and conducted three consecutive evaluations: (i) in academia, (ii) with industry representatives of the Fraunhofer Project Center at UFBA, and (iii) in an industrial case study at the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES). [Results] We received positive feedback in all three evaluations and the cross-company data was considered helpful for determining main causes. [Conclusions] Our results strengthen our confidence in that supporting DCA with cross-company data is promising and should be further investigated.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for the 39th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'17

Interaction between renewable energy consumption and dematerialization: insights based on the material footprint and the Environmental Kuznets Curve

This paper investigates the effect of renewable energy consumption on material consumption, considering the relationship between Material Footrprint and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and testing the assumptions of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. A STIRPAT variation is used to specify a model relating the Material Footprint to renewable energy consumption and GDP. The effect is tested for the Material Footprint of fossil fuels and for the Material Footprint of the other categories. The analysis is applied to the seven European countries with the highest proportion of renewable energy consumption. The model estimation shows that the relationship between GDP and Material Footprint follows an inverted N-shaped form, and that the renewable energy favours the reduction of the material consumption of fossil fuels. However, there is a positive effect between the renewable energy consumption and the Material Footprint of the other categories beyond fossil fuels. These results must be interpreted considering the context, as the development of renewable energy coincides with the effects of the 2008 crisis, which may distort the relation between the variables. To pose dematerialization scenarios, it seems necessary to consider reducing energy consumption even if it comes from renewable sourcesS

Extractivism, ecologically unequal exchange and environmental impact in South America: a study using Material Flow Analysis (1990–2017)

With the economic and trade liberalisation policies of the late 20th century, the extraction of natural resources for export, known as extractivism, became the central axis of South American economies. This development model has a significant environmental impact and has generated imbalances in the South American productive structure that lead to chronically unfavourable terms of trade for the region. The different price dynamics of exports and imports trap South America in a vicious circle that leads to a progressive need to increase the volume of resources it extracts. Consequently, South America maintains a situation of ecologically unequal exchange that implies the absorption of an ever-increasing environmental impact from the rest of the world. All this calls into question the benefits of free trade, especially in ecological terms, as well as the compatibility between economic growth and the reduction of environmental impacS