The Optimal Processor Tariff Under the Byrd Amendment

International Relations/Trade,

Sweetener-Ethanol Complex in Brazil, the United States, and Mexico: Do Corn and Sugar Prices Matter?

Sugar is a major commodity, produced and traded around the world, but it is no longer the only sweetener. For example, in the United States, roughly 50 percent of the sweetener market is made up of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is also making inroads into Mexico. This is not the case, however, for the European Union and countries such as Brazil, which dominates the world sugar market in almost all aspects (Schmitz, 2002). In the United States, 8 to 10 percent of the U.S. corn crop goes into HFCS production, with roughly the same percentage of corn being used for the production of ethanol (Schmitz and Polopolous, 1999). In Brazil, however, sugarcane, rather than corn, is used in the production of ethanol. Because of relative price differences for corn and sugar, along with government subsidies, countries like Brazil will remain heavily dependent on sugar for both its sweetener needs and ethanol production.International Relations/Trade, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Ethanol from Sugar: The Case of Hidden Sugar Subsidies in Brazil

Agricultural and Food Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Cosmic microwave background multipole alignments in slab topologies

Several analyses of the microwave sky maps from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) have drawn attention to alignments amongst the low-order multipoles. Amongst the various possible explanations, an effect of cosmic topology has been invoked by several authors. We focus on an alignment of the first four multipoles (\ell = 2 to 5) found by Land and Magueijo (2005), and investigate the distribution of their alignment statistic for a set of simulated cosmic microwave background maps for cosmologies with slab-like topology. We find that this topology does offer a modest increase in the probability of the observed value, but that even for the smallest topology considered the probability of the observed value remains below one percent.Comment: 6 pages RevTex with 6 figures included. Minor changes to match version accepted as Physical Review D Rapid Communicatio

Import Demand for Fresh Fruit in Japan and Uniform Substitution for Products from Different Sources

International Relations/Trade,

A new species of Rhodomyrtus (Myrtaceae) with brochidodromous venation from north-eastern Queensland, Australia.

Rhodomyrtus verecunda A.J.Ford & Peter G. Wilson from north-east Queensland, Australia, is formally described and illustrated. Notes on habitat, distribution and conservation status are provided, as are details of how it can be distinguished from R. macrocarpa, the only other species of the genus in the region that lacks acrodromous venation. A revised key to the species of Rhodomyrtus in Australia is also presented