Policy Reform Impact on Food Manufacturing

The impact of agricultural policies and their reform is of major concern when addressing issues of growth, innovation and consolidation in the food manufacturing sector. Growth is one of the forces fueling the globalization of food manufacturing activities. Market- and policy-driven forces present a myriad of opportunities to influence growth and reorientation of patterns at the nexus where food manufacturing links the food system. The productivity and international competitiveness of the food manufacturing sector must be evaluated in the context of governmental incentives, international standards and the emerging supply- and value-chains.total factor productivity growth, intercountry impacts, dairy products, meat products, sugar, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Against austerity and repression: Historical and contemporary manifestations of progressive politicisation in Turkey

This paper aims to explore the growing and deepening trend of politics of repression coupled with prolonged crisis and austerity politics, reflecting on the potentials as well as limitations of progressive politics in such a constrained context. Austerity policies continue pushing for anti-labour and reactionary politics in a variety of forms reflecting the unresolved crisis conditions of contemporary capitalism. While the liberal democratic state-form remains relatively intact in particular contexts, in others, it gradually evolves into repressive forms. The growing repression risks conceiving the anti-authoritarian struggles and the anti-capitalist and labour movements separate and/or mutually exclusive. This review article draws on the recent insights of (de)politicization, labour geography and history and political economy scholarships with specific reference to the case of Turkey while cautioning against the binary thinking of ‘success’ and ‘failure’ in leftist and labour mobilisations. It proposes a historical perspective in order to appreciate the diversity and multiplicity of struggles against the intersecting nodes of austerity, capitalism and repression in the complex geographies of periphery

Oxidative Stress and Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Down's Syndrome: Relevance to Aging and Dementia

Genome-wide gene deregulation and oxidative stress appear to be critical factors determining the high variability of phenotypes in Down's syndrome (DS). Even though individuals with trisomy 21 exhibit a higher survival rate compared to other aneuploidies, most of them die in utero or early during postnatal life. While the survivors are currently predicted to live past 60 years, they suffer higher incidence of age-related conditions including Alzheimer's disease (AD). This paper is centered on the mechanisms by which mitochondrial factors and oxidative stress may orchestrate an adaptive response directed to maintain basic cellular functions and survival in DS. In this context, the timing of therapeutic interventions should be carefully considered for the successful treatment of chronic disorders in the DS population

An environmental degradation index based on stochastic dominance.

We employ a stochastic dominance (SD) approach to derive a relative environmental degradation index across countries. The variables that are considered include countries' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water pollution and the net forest depletion, as from the dataset of the World Bank. A worst-case scenario index to measure environmental degradation across different countries and at different times is constructed applying a methodology that is based on multi-variate comparisons of country panel data over various years and consistent tests for SD efficiency. The test statistics and the estimators are computed using mixed integer programming methods. It is found that in the worst-case scenario index GHG emissions contribute the most (with a weight around 68%), net forest depletion contributes with around 30%, and water pollution contributes the least (with a weight around 2%). Our index can be a useful tool for policy making in conveying information on the environmental quality and a quick assessment of sustainable performance across countries and over time

A sovereign risk index for the Eurozone based on stochastic dominance

We propose a new method to assess sovereign risk in Eurozone countries using an approach that relies on consistent tests for stochastic dominance e\ua2 ciency. The test statistics and the estimators are computed using mixed integer programming methods. This paper\u92s analysis is based on macroeconomic fundamentals and their importance in accounting for sovereign risk. The results suggest that the net international investment position/GDP and public debt/GDP are the main contributors to country risk in the Eurozone. We also conduct ranking analysis of countries for \u85scal and external trade risk. We \u85nd a positive correlation between our rankings of the most vulnerable countries and the S&P\u92s ratings, whereas the correlation for other countries is weaker

Optimal multi-period consumption and investment with short-sale constraints

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This article examines agents’ consumption-investment problem in a multi-period pure exchange economy where agents are constrained with the short-sale of state-dependent risky contingent claims. In equilibrum, agents hold options written on aggregate consumption in their optimal portfolios. Furthermore, under the specific case of quadratic utility, the optimal risk-sharing rule derived for the pricing agent leads to a multifactor conditional consumption-based capital asset pricing model (CCAPM), where excess option returns appear as factors. 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved