Financial Development and International Trade: Regional and Sectoral Analysis

Financial development has been argued as a potential source of comparative advantage and its relationships with trade has been theoretically developed. This theory posits that countries that are well financially developed should experience greater volumes of international trade. We empirically investigate the effects of financial development on trade of both agricultural and manufactured products. The results show a positive impact of financial development on bilateral trade flows for the manufacturing sector, which enjoys a greater impact than the agricultural sector. The impacts differ across regions. In most cases, developing countries (Asia, Latin America, MENA and SSA) experience greater impacts of financial development on exports in both agriculture and manufacturing sectors than do advanced countries.agricultural sector, comparative advantage, financial development, international trade, manufacturing sector, International Development, International Relations/Trade,

An Assessment of the Global Soybean Industry: An Application of Stochastic Equilibrium Displacement Model

This study uses stochastic equilibrium displacement model (SEDM) to investigate the impact on the soybean and its joint products (soymeal and soyoil) sectors of different countries and regions from transportation cost reduction in Brazil incorporating assumptions of decrease in the U.S. loan deficiency payment.International Trade, Loan Deficiency Payment, Soybean, Soybean Joint Products, Stochastic Equilibrium Displacement Model, Transportation Costs, International Relations/Trade,

Political Affiliation and Exit Intentions of U.S. Dairy Farms

The United States dairy industry is heavily dependent on foreign labor. Current and newly proposed U.S. immigration policies have been appointed to disrupt the agricultural labor availability, especially that of hired foreign labor. A national survey of dairy farmers across herd sizes and regions of the U.S. was conducted for the year 2009 and the results were used to evaluate the extent to which hired foreign labor dependence will affect the exit intentions in dairy farming. The political affiliation of dairy farmers was based on the 2008 election map and their locations. Our findings indicate that the expected probability of exit from dairy farming increased as the use of hired foreign labor intensified. Results also suggest that states with Republican political affiliation has a greater probability of exiting dairy operations with more stricter immigration laws.immigration, political affiliation, foreign labor, exit intention, dairy industry., Farm Management, Financial Economics, Labor and Human Capital,

The Impacts of Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreaks on the Brazilian Meat Market

This study uses unrestricted vector autoregression method and historical decomposition with directed acyclic graphs to quantity the impacts of the foot and mouth disease outbreak on the Brazilian meat market for different levels of the industry (export, wholesale and farm). The imposition of an import ban by Russia on Brazilian meat exports is also analyzed. Results show that beef, pork, and chicken export prices all decreased after the FMD outbreak. More importantly, our findings indicate that all prices ended up recovering after the removal of the import ban by Russia in December 2007. As for the price margins in both beef and pork meat supply chains, the export-to-farm and export-to-wholesale margins were found to be very close to each other. On the other hand, the chicken price margin at the export level relative to the farm and wholesale levels had opposing directions trend movements. Finally, the historical decomposition of analysis of the export beef price revealed that the removal of the Russian ban on Brazilian meat imports had a very drastic positive influence on the beef industry supply chain in general.foot and mouth disease, Brazilian meat market, vector autoregression model, historical decomposition, directed acyclic graphs., Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries,

Perivascular adipose tissue as a relevant fat depot for cardiovascular risk in obesity

Obesity is associated with increased risk of premature death, morbidity, and mortality from several cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), including stroke, coronary heart disease (CHD), myocardial infarction, and congestive heart failure. However, this is not a straightforward relationship. Although several studies have substantiated that obesity confers an independent and additive risk of all-cause and cardiovascular death, there is significant variability in these associations, with some lean individuals developing diseases and others remaining healthy despite severe obesity, the so-called metabolically healthy obese. Part of this variability has been attributed to the heterogeneity in both the distribution of body fat and the intrinsic properties of adipose tissue depots, including developmental origin, adipogenic and proliferative capacity, glucose and lipid metabolism, hormonal control, thermogenic ability, and vascularization. In obesity, these depot-specific differences translate into specific fat distribution patterns, which are closely associated with differential cardiometabolic risks. The adventitial fat layer, also known as perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT), is of major importance. Similar to the visceral adipose tissue, PVAT has a pathophysiological role in CVDs. PVAT influences vascular homeostasis by releasing numerous vasoactive factors, cytokines, and adipokines, which can readily target the underlying smooth muscle cell layers, regulating the vascular tone, distribution of blood flow, as well as angiogenesis, inflammatory processes, and redox status. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge and discuss the role of PVAT within the scope of adipose tissue as a major contributing factor to obesity-associated cardiovascular risk. Relevant clinical studies documenting the relationship between PVAT dysfunction and CVD with a focus on potential mechanisms by which PVAT contributes to obesity-related CVDs are pointed out

Mathematical modeling of recombinant Escherichia coli aerobic batch fermentations

In this work, three competing unstructured mathematical models for the biomass growth by recombinant E. coli strains with different acetate inhibition kinetics terms were evaluated for batch processes at constant temperature and pH. The models considered the dynamics of biomass growth, acetate accumulation, substrate consumption, Green Fluorescence Protein (GFP) production and three metabolic pathways for E. coli. Parameter estimation and model validation was carried out using the Systems Biology toolbox for Matlab (The Mathworks) with different initial glucose concentrations (5g/kg to 25g/kg) in a 5dm3 bioreactor. Model discrimination was based on the two model selection criterion (Akaike’s information criterion and normalized quadratic difference between the simulated and experimental data criterion). The first model described by Jerusalimsky approach is an approximation to the non-competitive substrate inhibition. Cockshott approach describes the inhibition at high acetate levels and Levenspiel considers the critical inhibitory acetate concentration that limits growth. Within the studied experimental range, Jerusalimsky model provided a good approximation between real and simulated values and should be favored. The model describes the experimental data satisfactorily well

Analyzing the Impact of Changes in Trade and Domestic Policies: The Case of the Soybean Complex

This study analyzes the impacts of domestic and trade policy changes on the soybean complex using a Stochastic Equilibrium Displacement Model (SEDM). Three different policies, Loan Deficiency Payments (LDP), transportation costs and export taxes are considered in the analysis. The results indicate that Brazil benefits from a reduction in transportation costs and becomes more competitive in the global soybean market. Brazilian exports of soybeans increase due to relatively lower export prices. However, Brazil gains little improvement in the export competitiveness of the soybean joint products, soybean meal and oil. A lower U.S. LDP rate results in the loss of competitiveness for the United States in the world soybean market. Furthermore, the results show that an Argentine export tax reduction increases soybean exports from Argentina, but it reduces the global supply of soybean meal and soybean oil.International Trade, Loan Deficiency Payment, Soybean, Soybean Joint Products, Stochastic Equilibrium Displacement Model, Transportation Costs, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,

Model reduction based on dynamic sensitivity analysis : a systems biology case of study

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Large scale dynamic model reconstruction for the central carbon metabolism of escherichia coli

The major objective of metabolic engineering is the construction of industrially relevant microbial strains with desired properties. From an engineering perspective, dynamic mathematical modeling to quantitatively assess intracellular metabolism and predict the complex behavior of living cells is one of the most successful tools to achieve that goal. In this work, we present an expansion of the original E. coli dynamic model [1], which links the acetate metabolism and tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) with the phosphotransferase systems, the pentose-phosphate pathway and the glycolysis system based on mechanistic enzymatic rate equations. The kinetic information is collected from available database and literature, and is used as an initial guess for the global fitting. The results of the numeric simulations were in good agreement with the experimental results. Thus, the results are sufficiently good to prompt us to seek further experimental data for comparison with the simulations