New Zealand's Preferential Trading Arrangements: Implications for the New Zealand Dairy Industry

This paper discusses the economic implications of the preferential trade agreements that New Zealand is currently negotiating, using a computable general equilibrium modelling framework. The New Zealand dairy industry is a particular focus in the results, which come from the GTAP model produced by Purdue University. Results are discussed from the independent simulations of preferential trade agreements between New Zealand and Korea, New Zealand and India, New Zealand and Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, New Zealand and the Gulf Cooperation Council, and expansion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to include Australia, Peru, Viet Nam, Malaysia, and the United States of America.New Zealand, dairy industry, preferential trade agreements, Agribusiness, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics,

Neutron diffraction and magnetocaloric effect studies of MnFe 1-x Co x P series of solid solutions

International audienceMnFe 1-x Co x P intermetallic series of solid solutions (0.4<x<0.6) have been studied by means of powder neutron diffraction in 10−320 K temperature range. Rietveld analysis pointed out that Co 2 P-type orthorhombic crystal structure (SG: Pnma) presents for all series. Helicoidal incommensurate antiferromagnetic structure with propagation vector q = [0, 0, q] were evidenced for all compounds at low temperature range. The q value decreases with cobalt content and the second order polynomial q(x) it was evidenced, that is found well correlated with this dependence. Magnetic moments values of µ Mn =3.34 µ B and µ (Fe,Co) =0.06 µ B were determined from neutron diffraction refinements for x=0.4 at 10 K. In addition, magnetic interactions in relations with electronic band structure calculations of MnFe 1-x Co x P were presented and discussed reference to previous published data. Finally, magnetocaloric properties for selected compounds of the MnFe 1-x Co x P and MnFe 0.45 Co 0.45 P 0.9 Ge 0.1 series of compounds are presented

Bi-Demographic Changes and Current Account using SVAR Modeling: Evidence from Saudi Arabia

The paper aims to explore the impacts of bi-demographic structure on the current account and growth. Using a SVAR modeling, we track the dynamic impacts between these underlying variables. New insights have been developed about the dynamic interrelation between population growth, current account and economic growth. The long-run net impact on economic growth of the domestic working population growth and demand labor for emigrants is positive, due to the predominant contribution of skilled emigrant workers. Besides, the positive long-run contribution of emigrant workers to the current account growth largely compensates the negative contribution from the native population, because of the predominance of skilled compared to unskilled workforce. We find that a positive shock in demand labor for emigrant workers leads to an increasing effect on native active age ratio. Thus, the emigrants appear to be more complements than substitutes for native workers

Bi-Demographic and Current Account Dynamics using SVAR Model: Evidence from Saudi Arabia

The study explores the impacts of the bi-demographic structure on the current account and gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Using structural vector autoregressive modeling (SVAR), we track the dynamic impacts on these underlying variables. New insights about the dynamic interrelation between bi-population age dependency rate, current account, and GDP growth have been developed. In the short and medium-term, the reactions of GDP growth to both shocks of native and immigrant working-age populations move unsteadily in opposite directions. However, in the long-run, both effects become moderately positive. Additionally, the positive long-run contribution of immigrant workers to the current account growth largely compensates for the negative contribution of the native population. We find a negative hump-shaped reaction of Saudi Age Dependency Rate to immigration policy shocks during a generation. When the shocks emanate from immigrants’ working age, there is a complex mechanism from the complementarity process to the substitutability process between immigrants and the Saudi workforce. In the short and medium-term, the immigrant workers are more complements than substitutes for native workers

Suppression of optical damage at 532 nm in Holmium doped congruent lithium niobate

Optical damage experiments were carried out in a series of Holmium doped congruent lithium niobate (Ho:cLN) crystals as a function of dopant concentration and laser intensity. The light induced beam distortion was recorded with a camera and a detector under the pseudo-Zscan configuration. At 532 nm, strong suppression of the optical damage was observed for the 0.94 mol. % doped crystal. Increased resistance to optical damage was also observed at 488 nm. The suppression of the optical damage is predominantly attributed to the reduction of the Nb antisites due to the holmium doping

Detection of antibodies to human herpesvirus 8 in Italian children: evidence for horizontal transmission

Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), also known as Kaposi's sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV), has been shown to be the causative agent for Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and to be more prevalent in populations or risk groups at increased risk for KS. HHV-8 infection is rare in children from the US and the UK, but has been reported in African children. In this study we examine HHV-8 infection in children from Italy, a country with an elevated prevalence of HHV-8 in adults and high socio-economic conditions. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Giant magnetocaloric effect in Mn 1-t (Ti 0.5 V 0.5 ) t as compounds near room temperature

International audienceMn 1-t (Ti 0.5 V 0.5) t As compounds with t varying from 0 to 0.20 were synthesised by arc melting and subsequently annealed. The X-ray diffraction analysis reveals pure and fairly crystallised samples. Magnetisation measurements show that the Curie temperature decreases to room temperature with t the substitution rate. The sharp and abrupt character of the 1 st order transition of MnAs-type turns to a less marked variation of the magnetic entropy in the vicinity of the transition temperature, profit made to a wider temperature range of MCE efficiency

An Analysis of Returns and Volatility Spillovers and their Determinants in Emerging Asian and Middle Eastern Countries

This study investigates the return spillovers and volatility spillovers from developed markets (e.g., Europe, Japan and the US) into the financial markets of selected emerging countries in Asia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Based on constant and trend spillover models, we find evidence of significant spillover effects from developed markets to emerging markets. The results from variance ratios indicate the dominance of US shocks across all emerging markets, though the effect varies widely among countries. New to these literature, we conduct an empirical analysis quantifying the underlying determinants affecting the extent of shock spillovers. The results show that bilateral factors such as trade volume, portfolio investment and distance are significant in explaining the spillover effects

Met-activating genetically improved chimeric factor-1 promotes angiogenesis and hypertrophy in adult myogenesis

BACKGROUND: Myogenic progenitor cells (activated satellite cells) are able to express both HGF and its receptor cMet. After muscle injury, HGF-Met stimulation promotes activation and primary division of satellite cells. MAGIC-F1 (Met-Activating Genetically Improved Chimeric Factor-1) is an engineered protein that contains two human Met-binding domains that promotes muscle hypertrophy. MAGIC-F1 protects myogenic precursors against apoptosis and increases their fusion ability enhancing muscle differentiation. Hemizygous and homozygous Magic-F1 transgenic mice displayed constitutive muscle hypertrophy. METHODS: Here we describe microarray analysis on Magic-F1 myogenic progenitor cells showing an altered gene signatures on muscular hypertrophy and angiogenesis compared to wild-type cells. In addition, we performed a functional analysis on Magic-F1+/+ transgenic mice versus controls using treadmill test. RESULTS: We demonstrated that Magic-F1+/+ mice display an increase in muscle mass and cross-sectional area leading to an improvement in running performance. Moreover, the presence of MAGIC-F1 affected positively the vascular network, increasing the vessel number in fast twitch fibers. Finally, the gene expression profile analysis of Magic-F1+/+ satellite cells evidenced transcriptomic changes in genes involved in the control of muscle growth, development and vascularisation. CONCLUSION: We showed that MAGIC -F1-induced muscle hypertrophy affects positively vascular network, increasing vessel number in fast twitch fibers. This was due to unique features of mammalian skeletal muscle and its remarkable ability to adapt promptly to different physiological demands by modulating the gene expression profile in myogenic progenitors

An Analysis of Returns and Volatility Spillovers and their Determinants in Emerging Asian and Middle Eastern Countries

This study investigates the return spillovers and volatility spillovers from developed markets (e.g., Europe, Japan and the US) into the financial markets of selected emerging countries in Asia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Based on constant and trend spillover models, we find evidence of significant spillover effects from developed markets to emerging markets. The results from variance ratios indicate the dominance of US shocks across all emerging markets, though the effect varies widely among countries. New to these literature, we conduct an empirical analysis quantifying the underlying determinants affecting the extent of shock spillovers. The results show that bilateral factors such as trade volume, portfolio investment and distance are significant in explaining the spillover effects