Lessons from the Past: Determining the Extent of Protectionism in the United States amid the Great Trade Collapse of 2008-2009

The economic downturn of 2008-2009 has led to the current trade situation known as the "Great Trade Collapse", an extensive downfall in world trade. At a world trade reduction of over 12 percent, the Great Trade Collapse is the highest rate of trade contraction since 1945(Escaith et al., 2010; Baldwin, 2009; International Economy, 2010). The large-scale nature of the economic downturn has been examined by various economists, many of whom cite the role of global supply chains in facilitating the rapid spread of the global recession (Escaith et al., 2010; Baldwin, 2009). While the particular causes of the recession vary, many economists suggest that the epicenter of the global recession is the United States. The fall of Lehman Brothers that occurred as part of the sub-prime mortgage crisis subsequently triggered a worldwide response. In his speech before World Trade Organization (WTO) members in February 2010, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy expressed the need for continuing trade negotiations under the long-lasting Doha Round and for recognizing the importance of trade as a buffer against the global recession, both in the short-term and long-term. He emphasized that many of the 200 million jobs lost worldwide can be recovered if WTO members maintain their commitment to trade and avoid protectionist and retaliatory measures (Council on Foreign Relations). Trade protectionism during a recession is not an uncommon phenomenon, and many governments facing political pressure to “save” domestic jobs often practice it. Trade theory unambiguously shows, however, that trade provides a net benefit to the domestic economy and helps the consumer. Still, the rent-seeking efforts of industries facing foreign competition often, at the expense of the American consumer, concentrate these benefits on a small percentage of industries by hindering trade with foreign competition. While political leaders may understand that protectionism is not beneficial for the country as a whole, there have been several political initiatives and public efforts that are indeed protectionist, such as the bills introduced in Congress aimed at overhauling the establishment of trade negotiations. Many members of Congress are demanding stricter labor and environmental regulations as well as limiting the role of the WTO when proceeding with future trade negotiations. For example, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in the Senate and Representative Mike Michaud (D-ME) in the House, have introduced the 2010 version of the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment (TRADE) Act.1 The TRADE Act demands revisions of the pending trade agreements with Panama, Korea and Colombia, as well as with other established trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and future trade agreements. The Obama Administration has made some effort to encourage trade negotiations and trade expansion despite the current political climate. These measures include establishing the Export Initiative and supporting the ratification of the pending trade agreements. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk have concurred that the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Korea, and Panama could be ratified by the end of 2010. Nevertheless, with the political pressure from Congress, any and all trade negotiations may be delayed for quite some time, including agreements formed under the Doha Round. The apparent misalignment in United States trade policy during a recession is a representation of the polarized actions between Congress, the Presidential Administration, and the American public in resolving the issues of an economy facing falling output and rising unemployment. With the Great Trade Collapse as a result of one the largest recessions since the 1970s and the WTO in danger of losing some clout with the languishing Doha Round, the next steps taken by Congress and President Obama have the potential of significantly changing trade policy, for the better or worse. In this paper, divided into three segments, I will explore the underlying political issues occurring during a recession to define the impact a recession has on US trade policy. By first examining previous trends in US trade policy during a recession, such as the infamous Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, I will provide key insight into factors that will be at play during the current recession. Then I will assess current trade policy pursued by Congress and by the Administration to determine whether the US has succumbed to protectionism, despite the strides towards freer trade. Using the historical progression of trade policy, one can more accurately characterize the recent efforts by politicians to develop an advantageous trade strategy while considering the US’s role in a multilateral trading system. Lastly, I will examine the relationship between US trade policy and the Doha Round, which will serve as an illustration of the US commitment to free trade while facing an agenda of reviving the US economy.No embarg

Showcasing the Authentic Student Experience: The Library and Student Mentoring Partner to Create a First-Year Library Ambassador Program

This poster outlines CSU, San Bernardino’s (CSUSB) Library Ambassador initiative, a partnership between the Pfau Library and the Office of Undergraduate Studies’ Student Mentoring Program that aims to connect students in first-year courses with peers knowledgeable about library resources and services. The poster includes the history of the program, which was piloted in 2016, and addresses some of the challenges and successes encountered along the way. It details the program’s student-focused philosophy, which strives to combat library anxiety by ensuring that early exposure to the library centers authentic student research experiences, concerns, and needs. The Library Ambassador program also allows students, in select courses, to identify the Student Mentoring Program as a safe place and valuable resource to receive assistance and support as they learn how to navigate the university. Anticipating questions from attendees, the poster briefly addresses the logistics of the program, including: how ambassadors reach students (via classroom visits in targeted courses that have a research learning outcome); how ambassadors are prepared to successfully engage with students (training and a “buddy system” in which experienced students take the lead); how the value of the program is communicated to targeted faculty; how scheduling works, and more. Finally, the poster highlights findings from assessment of the program, and we hope to solicit additional ideas for avenues for assessment and evaluation from attendees

Pyrimidine Pathway-Dependent and -Independent Functions of the Toxoplasma gondii Mitochondrial Dihydroorotate Dehydrogenase

Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) mediates the fourth step of de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis and is a proven drug target for inducing immunosuppression in therapy of human disease as well as a rapidly emerging drug target for treatment of malaria. In Toxoplasma gondii, disruption of the first, fifth, or sixth step of de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis induced uracil aux- otrophy. However, previous attempts to generate uracil auxotrophy by genetically deleting the mitochondrion-associated DHODH of T. gondii (Tg DHODH) failed. To further address the essentiality of Tg DHODH, mutant gene alleles deficient in Tg DHODH activity were designed to ablate the enzyme activity. Replacement of the endogenous DHODH gene with catalytically deficient DHODH gene alleles induced uracil auxotrophy. Catalytically deficient Tg DHODH localized to the mitochondria, and parasites retained mitochondrial membrane potential. These results show that Tg DHODH is essential for the synthesis of pyrimidines and suggest that Tg DHODH is required for a second essential function independent of its role in pyrimidine biosynthesis

Case Concerning The Rotion Union: The Republic Of Adaria V. The Republic Of Bobbia, the Kingdom Of Cazalia, the Commonwealth Of Dingoth, The State Of Ephraim, And the Kingdom Of Finbar

The Republic of Adaria, on one side, and the Republic of Bobbia, the Kingdom of Cazalia, the Commonwealth of Dingoth, the State of Ephraim and the Kingdom of Finbar, jointly on the other, have submitted by Special Agreement their differences concerning the Rotian Union, and transmitted a copy thereof to the Registrar of the Court pursuant to article 40(1) of the Statute

Control interno y gestión de gastos en viáticos en una Institución Pública en Lima, 2021

El presente trabajo de investigación tuvo como objetivo general determinar la relación entre el control interno y la gestión de gastos en viáticos en una Institución Pública en Lima, 2021. Desde el punto de vista metodológico, este se enmarco en un enfoque cualitativo, con un diseño no experimental correlacional y de corte transversal. Para la recolección de datos, se utilizó la técnica de la encuesta, siendo el instrumento un cuestionario, compuesto por 18 preguntas relacionadas con la variable control interno y 18 preguntas con la variable gestión de gastos en viáticos, el mismo que se aplicó a una muestra de 30 trabajadores, utilizando la escala de Likert. En cuanto a los datos, estos fueron procesados con el software estadístico SPSS V 26 y, en relación con la confiabilidad del instrumento se midió aplicando el alfa de Cronbach y la prueba de la hipótesis se obtuvo empleando la correlación de Rho de Spearman, estableciéndose que el grado de relación es significativa (rs = 0.521) entre el Control interno y la gestión de gastos en viáticos en una Institución Pública en Lima, 2021

Panorama sobre las variaciones estacionales y diarias de la temperatura del suelo bajo el efecto de las costras biológicas en el centro-oeste de Argentina

Background and Aims: Biocrusts play an essential role on the earth’s surface and have a direct influence on soil parameters. Their effects on soil temperature are considered one of the most important because they affect ecological and hydrological processes, as well as the diversity of natural ecosystems. Although there are several studies concerning biocrust effects on the soil surface, investigations about the effect of the biocrust on soil temperature are still scarce. Our objective was to evaluate the influence of biocrusts on soil temperature conditions in drylands of central-western Argentina. Methods: Temperature values were recorded in the Monte phytogeographic region in the central-western part of Argentina, in three sites, during the dry and wet seasons in 2017-2018. We collected samples from a total of 30 randomly selected plots. We recorded daily temperatures values in two paired plots with crusted and uncrusted zones using a calibrated data logger Ibutton. The sampling took 18 days in total, three days on each site.Key results: Our results indicate that biocrusts produce a change in micro-soil temperatures. Areas in which biocrusts are present show a temperature reduction both in the wet and dry seasons. This effect is observed in the three studied sites. Temperature reduction varies according to the time of the day, study site and season. The morning, noon, and afternoon recorded the highest mean temperatures.Conclusions: The presence of biocrusts reduces soil temperatures in drylands of central-western Argentina. Large differences in mean temperature values between crusted and uncrusted zones were observed. The thermal reduction was more notorious in the hyper-arid site. How they affect their surrounding environment can be related to multiple factors, such as the composition of the microphytic community, the local climate and environmental conditions.Antecedentes y Objetivos: Las costras biológicas del suelo juegan un papel esencial en la superficie terrestre y tienen una influencia directa en los parámetros del suelo. Sus efectos sobre la temperatura del suelo se consideran uno de los más importantes debido a que afectan los procesos ecológicos e hidrológicos, así como la diversidad de los ecosistemas naturales. Aunque existen varios estudios sobre los efectos de la costra biológica en la superficie del suelo, las investigaciones sobre el efecto de la costra biológica en la temperatura del suelo aún son escasas. Nuestro objetivo fue evaluar la influencia de las costras biológicas en las condiciones de temperatura del suelo en zonas áridas del centro-oeste de Argentina.Métodos: Se registraron valores de temperatura en la región fitogeográfica del Monte en la parte centro-oeste de Argentina, en tres sitios, durante las estaciones seca y húmeda de 2017 y 2018. Colectamos muestras de un total de 30 parcelas seleccionadas al azar. Registramos valores de temperatura diarios en dos parcelas emparejadas con zonas con costras biológicas y sin costras biológicas utilizando un registrador de datos calibrado tipo Ibutton. El muestreo se llevó a cabo durante un total de 18 días, tres días en cada sitio. Resultados claves: Nuestros resultados indican que las costras biológicas producen un cambio en las temperaturas microambientales del suelo. Las áreas donde están presentes las costras biológicas muestran una reducción de la temperatura tanto en las estaciones húmedas como en las secas. Este efecto se observa en los tres sitios estudiados. La reducción de la temperatura varía de acuerdo con la hora del día, el sitio de estudio y la estación del año. La mañana, el mediodía y la tarde registraron las temperaturas medias más altas.Conclusiones: La presencia de costras biológicas reduce las temperaturas del suelo en las zonas áridas del centro-oeste de Argentina. Se observaron grandes diferencias en los valores medios de temperatura entre las zonas con costras biológicas y las zonas sin costras biológicas. La reducción térmica fue más notable en el sitio hiperárido. Cómo afectan su entorno circundante puede estar relacionado con múltiples factores, como la composición de la comunidad microfítica, el clima local y las condiciones ambientales

A world of lies

This article reports two worldwide studies of stereotypes about liars. These studies are carried out in 75 different countries and 43 different languages. In Study 1, participants respond to the open-ended question "How can you tell when people are lying?" In Study 2, participants complete a questionnaire about lying. These two studies reveal a dominant pan-cultural stereotype: that liars avert gaze. The authors identify other common beliefs and offer a social control interpretation

Virtual Excursions: a new way to explore science in class

The educational platform Virtual Science Hub (ViSH) has been developed as part of the GLOBAL excursion European project. ViSH (http://vishub.org/) is a portal where teachers and scientist interact to create virtual excursions to science infrastructures. The main motivation behind the project was to connect teachers - and in consequence their students - to scientific institutions and their wide amount of infrastructures and resources they are working with. Thus the idea of a hub was born that would allow the two worlds of scientists and teachers to connect and to innovate science teaching. The core of the ViSH?s concept design is based on virtual excursions, which allow for a number of pedagogical models to be applied. According to our internal definition a virtual excursion is a tour through some digital context by teachers and pupils on a given topic that is attractive and has an educational purpose. Inquiry-based learning, project-based and problem-based learning are the most prominent approaches that a virtual excursion may serve. The domain specific resources and scientific infrastructures currently available on the ViSH are focusing on life sciences, nano-technology, biotechnology, grid and volunteer computing. The virtual excursion approach allows an easy combination of these resources into interdisciplinary teaching scenarios. In addition, social networking features support the users in collaborating and communicating in relation to these excursions and thus create a community of interest for innovative science teaching. The design and development phases were performed following a participatory design approach. An important aspect in this process was to create design partnerships amongst all actors involved, researchers, developers, infrastructure providers, teachers, social scientists, and pedagogical experts early in the project. A joint sense of ownership was created and important changes during the conceptual phase were implemented in the ViSH due to early user feedback. Technology-wise the ViSH is based on the latest web technologies in order to make it cross-platform compatible so that it works on several operative systems such as Windows, Mac or Linux and multi-device accessible, such as desktop, tablet and mobile devices. The platform has been developed in HTML5, the latest standard for web development, assuring that it can run on any modern browser. In addition to social networking features a core element on the ViSH is the virtual excursions editor. It is a web tool that allows teachers and scientists to create rich mash-ups of learning resources provided by the e-Infrastructures (i.e. remote laboratories and live webcams). These rich mash-ups can be presented in either slides or flashcards format. Taking advantage of the web architecture supported, additional powerful components have been integrated like a recommendation engine to provide personalized suggestions about educational content or interesting users and a videoconference tool to enhance real-time collaboration like MashMeTV (http://www.mashme.tv/)

The territorial dynamics of agricultural capital in the Amazon and peasant resistance: the different uses of the territory in comunidade açaizal em Santarém – Pará

The region of Santarém, in the State of Pará, suffers from the expansion of the agricultural capital of soybeans, due to a series of public and private actions aimed at the agroindustry, with a view to exporting the commodity. This set of actions is reflected in the different uses of the territory, by peasants and sojicultores, that start to dispute it and, consequently, they come into conflict. The concept of ethnogenesis has been used as an important analytical tool to understand this problem, which involves different interests and strategies for the use of the territory and natural resources, as well as all territorial actions and dynamics, among them the process of peasant resistance in one of the communities in conflict in the Santaren plateau, the Açaizal Community, in which it was verified that the dispute is not only for the right to use the land, but also for the preservation of a way of life