OECD trade barriers faced by the successor states of the Soviet Union

Using a comprehensive World Bank - UNCTAD data base on tariff barriers NTBs), the authors examine the incidence of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) trade barriers to exports of the former Soviet Union (FSU). OECD markets have grown steadily in importance in the past decade and now receive more than half of FSU exports. And additional trade could help the FSU republics make the transition to market economies. Overall OECD tariffs that the FSU republics face are 70 to 90 percent higher than the average paid on all goods imported, but their worst effect is the result of the margins of preference they give other (non-FSU) exporters. For example, because of a special EFTA-EC protocol, manufactures are traded duty-free between countries in these blocs, while similar (competing) FSU goods may face duties of 20 percent or more. No significant trade expansion will occur until nontariff barriers are liberalized in NTB-"ridden"products groups of interest to FSU exporters. Sectors in which NTBs are particularly important include fish, fruit, sugar, vegetables, beverages, textiles, clothing, and ferrous metals. OECD trade barriers on some FSU commodity exports provide high levels of"effective protection"that constrain the efforts of the newly independent states of the FSU (NISs) to increase domestic commodity processing. Although the United States has granted most-favored nation status to the NISs (excluding Azerbaijan), and the European Community recently signed the Agreements on Trade, Commercial, and Economic Cooperation with the Baltic states, these developments have not substantially improved their market access. Because of geographic proximity and the existing transportation network, the European market is the most important OECD market for most NISs. But under present EC arrangements, NIS products are subject to higher tariffs and more restrictive nontariff barriers than exports from EFTA members, Lome Convention signatories, or former European CMEA members (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia). Lower wage rates in many NISs may not be sufficient to compensate for their generally lower productivity and the losses in value added (triggered by higher tariffs) that exportershave to absorb to compete in protected markets. Except for exports of energy and industrial raw materials trade opportunities for many products in which the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union might have a comparative advantage are greatly restricted by OECD tariffs and nontariff barriers.Trade Policy,Environmental Economics&Policies,Export Competitiveness,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Theory&Research

Nuclear ashes and outflow in the eruptive star Nova Vul 1670

CK Vulpeculae was observed in outburst in 1670-16721, but no counterpart was seen until 1982, when a bipolar nebula was found at its location. Historically, CK Vul has been considered to be a nova (Nova Vul 1670), but a similarity to 'red transients', which are more luminous than classical nova and thought to be the result of stellar collisions, has re-opened the question of CK Vul's status. Red transients cool to resemble late M-type stars, surrounded by circumstellar material rich in molecules and dust. No stellar source has been seen in CK Vul, though a radio continuum source was identified at the expansion centre of the nebula. Here we report CK Vul is surrounded by chemically rich molecular gas with peculiar isotopic ratios, as well as dust. The chemical composition cannot be reconciled with a nova or indeed any other known explosion. In addition, the mass of the surrounding gas is too high for a nova, though the conversion from observations of CO to a total mass is uncertain. We conclude that CK Vul is best explained as the remnant of a merger of two stars.Comment: an older version of an article that appeared in Nature; published in Nature, online version, 23 March 201

A label-free, quantitative assay of amyloid fibril growth based on intrinsic fluorescence.

Kinetic assay of seeded growth: The graph shows the variation in intrinsic fluorescence intensity of amyloid fibrils. Fluorescence increases during the seeded aggregation of α-synuclein seeds with α-synuclein monomeric protein (blue curve) but not when α-synuclein seeds are incubated with β-synuclein monomeric protein (black curve), thus showing that no seeded growth occurred in this case

Nutrition-sensitive solutions for aquaculture development in Africa

Commercial aquaculture in Africa has boomed in recent years. The capital-intensive growth of tilapia aquaculture in countries like Zambia and Kenya is supplying thousands of tonnes of fish to markets. This has caught the attention of governments, donors and experts who have renewed calls for greater efforts to develop aquaculture in the region. Much of the focus is on defining and measuring production systems and pushing for improvements in production efficiency. While such approaches are important, an overfocus on production and productivity threatens to overshadow approaches that may be more beneficial for human nutrition and health outcomes. A fixation on commercial growth can disaffect smallholders and lower-income consumers who struggle to access the value chain efficiently. This thesis argues for a refocus of the current productivist paradigm towards more nutrition-sensitive aquaculture. It begins with a quantitative assessment of smallholder tilapia farmers in Zambia, teasing out the role of aquaculture to household livelihoods, dietary diversity, and food security; going beyond production potential by assessing the value of fishponds to farming systems and human wellbeing. This is followed by a chapter that introduces a nutrition-sensitive pond polyculture technology trialled in the same rural communities. The results show that cultivating multiple species and promoting intermittent harvesting of various micronutrient-rich fish increases nutrition security for households. The second part of the thesis assesses the oft-overlooked consumer preferences for tilapia compared to other animal-source foods, and why they are important to incorporate into value chain developments. A quantitative consumer study set in Kenya shows how a preference for small tilapia, especially among poorer people, can allow producers to redesign their production systems and target markets. A follow up chapter introduces a nutrition-sensitive solution for commercially-oriented production systems in Kenya, based on the results of a trial that purposively grew small tilapia by increasing stocking densities and shortening production cycles. The thesis concludes with an argument for inclusive value chains and greater food sovereignty where the needs of poor and vulnerable communities are included, and where nutrition and health outcomes are prioritised

Direct observation of heterogeneous amyloid fibril growth kinetics via two-color super-resolution microscopy.

The self-assembly of normally soluble proteins into fibrillar amyloid structures is associated with a range of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. In the present study, we show that specific events in the kinetics of the complex, multistep aggregation process of one such protein, α-synuclein, whose aggregation is a characteristic hallmark of Parkinson's disease, can be followed at the molecular level using optical super-resolution microscopy. We have explored in particular the elongation of preformed α-synuclein fibrils; using two-color single-molecule localization microscopy we are able to provide conclusive evidence that the elongation proceeds from both ends of the fibril seeds. Furthermore, the technique reveals a large heterogeneity in the growth rates of individual fibrils; some fibrils exhibit no detectable growth, whereas others extend to more than ten times their original length within hours. These large variations in the growth kinetics can be attributed to fibril structural polymorphism. Our technique offers new capabilities in the study of amyloid growth dynamics at the molecular level and is readily translated to the study of the self-assembly of other nanostructures

Time-reversal symmetry breaking versus superstructure

One of the mysteries of modern condenced-matter physics is the nature of the pseudogap state of the superconducting cuprates. Kaminski et al.1 claimed to have observed signatures of time-reversal symmetry breaking in the pseudogap regime in underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d (Bi2212). Here we argue that the observed dichroism is due to the 5x1 superstructure replica of the electronic bands and therefore cannot be considered as evidence for the spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking in cuprates.Comment: 5 pages, pd

Advances in Human B Cell Phenotypic Profiling

To advance our understanding and treatment of disease, research immunologists have been called-upon to place more centralized emphasis on impactful human studies. Such endeavors will inevitably require large-scale study execution and data management regulation (“Big Biology”), necessitating standardized and reliable metrics of immune status and function. A well-known example setting this large-scale effort in-motion is identifying correlations between eventual disease outcome and T lymphocyte phenotype in large HIV-patient cohorts using multiparameter flow cytometry. However, infection, immunodeficiency, and autoimmunity are also characterized by correlative and functional contributions of B lymphocytes, which to-date have received much less attention in the human Big Biology enterprise. Here, we review progress in human B cell phenotyping, analysis, and bioinformatics tools that constitute valuable resources for the B cell research community to effectively join in this effort

Nanoscopic insights into seeding mechanisms and toxicity of α-synuclein species in neurons.

New strategies for visualizing self-assembly processes at the nanoscale give deep insights into the molecular origins of disease. An example is the self-assembly of misfolded proteins into amyloid fibrils, which is related to a range of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Here, we probe the links between the mechanism of α-synuclein (AS) aggregation and its associated toxicity by using optical nanoscopy directly in a neuronal cell culture model of Parkinson's disease. Using superresolution microscopy, we show that protein fibrils are taken up by neuronal cells and act as prion-like seeds for elongation reactions that both consume endogenous AS and suppress its de novo aggregation. When AS is internalized in its monomeric form, however, it nucleates and triggers the aggregation of endogenous AS, leading to apoptosis, although there are no detectable cross-reactions between externally added and endogenous protein species. Monomer-induced apoptosis can be reduced by pretreatment with seed fibrils, suggesting that partial consumption of the externally added or excess soluble AS can be significantly neuroprotective.We thank Dr Q. Jeng and Dr A. Stephens for technical assistance and Dr J. Skepper for TEM imaging. This work was funded by grants from the U.K. Medical Research Council (MR/K015850/1 and MR/K02292X/1), Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK-EG2012A-1), U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (EP/H018301/1) and the Wellcome Trust (089703/Z/09/Z). D.P. wishes to acknowledge support from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Wellcome Trust through personal fellowships. A.K.B thanks Magdalene College, Cambridge and the Leverhulme Trust for support.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the National Academy of Sciences via http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1516546113

Gender accommodative versus transformative approaches: a comparative assessment within a post-harvest fish loss reduction intervention

Technical and social constraints limit value chain actors from equitably engaging in and benefiting from capture fisheries in low-income settings. Extension and development programs often focus on the former, which reflects a technocratic orientation of the fisheries sector and uncertainty about effective ways for development programs to engage with gender and other social constraints. This study presents empirical insights that address these challenges to fisheries development. The study took place in fishing camps in the Barotse Floodplain, Zambia to compare two approaches addressing gender constraints within a broader post-harvest fish loss reduction intervention: an accommodative and a transformative approach. The former embodied a more common ‘practical needs’ set of strategies to ensure female participation, while the latter comprised a communication tool embedded in an action research process to build critical consciousness. Results indicate that the use of a transformative approach led to significant changes in gender equal attitudes and women’s empowerment outcomes compared to only using an accommodative approach. Development programs working in fisheries can apply the findings to engage effectively with gender constraints, especially using transformative approaches to help enable women and men to overcome the social and technical barriers that constrain their lives and livelihoods

Survivin as potential mediator to support autoreactive cell survival in myasthenia gravis: A human and animal model study

The mechanisms that underlie the development and maintenance of autoimmunity in myasthenia gravis are poorly understood. In this investigation, we evaluate the role of survivin, a member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein family, in humans and in two animal models. We identified survivin expression in cells with B lymphocyte and plasma cells markers, and in the thymuses of patients with myasthenia gravis. A portion of survivin-expressing cells specifically bound a peptide derived from the alpha subunit of acetylcholine receptor indicating that they recognize the peptide. Thymuses of patients with myasthenia gravis had large numbers of survivin-positive cells with fewer cells in the thymuses of corticosteroid-treated patients. Application of a survivin vaccination strategy in mouse and rat models of myasthenia gravis demonstrated improved motor assessment, a reduction in acetylcholine receptor specific autoantibodies, and a retention of acetylcholine receptor at the neuromuscular junction, associated with marked reduction of survivin-expressing circulating CD20+ cells. These data strongly suggest that survivin expression in cells with lymphocyte and plasma cell markers occurs in patients with myasthenia gravis and in two animal models of myasthenia gravis. Survivin expression may be part of a mechanism that inhibits the apoptosis of autoreactive B cells in myasthenia gravis and other autoimmune disorders