O COMÉRCIO BRASILEIRO DE CARNE SUÍNA E O POTENCIAL EXPORTADOR MEDIANTE ELIMINAÇÃO DE BARREIRAS EXTERNAS

Este estudo analisa o panorama e o potencial exportador do setor brasileiro de carne suína frente à suposição de futuros acordos de liberalização multilateral ou por integração econômica entre o Brasil e determinados blocos/países. Para analisar o panorama e o potencial exportador do setor de carne suína, desenvolvem-se quatro generalizações metodológicas: o potencial importador dos blocos/países, o cálculo da evolução do Índice de Vantagem Revelada das Exportações do Brasil e de seus principais concorrentes no interior de cada bloco, pesquisa bibliográfica das principais barreiras existentes e cálculo do Índice de Orientação Regional. Os resultados, quanto ao potencial importador, indicam que a União Européia (UE) e a Comunidade dos Estados Independentes (CEI) constituem-se em mercado potencial e promissor para a carne suína, respectivamente. Os resultados do cálculo das vantagens comparativas revelaram que o Brasil tem competitividade crescente no setor de carne suína para o período 1990 a 2005. Quanto aos concorrentes no interior de cada bloco ou país, a União Européia é que apresentou o maior concorrente. Quanto às barreiras impostas, estas revelaram ser, de um modo geral, extremamente elevadas e, em alguns casos, impeditivas, com destaque para o NAFTA, Japão e UE. Portanto, o setor brasileiro de carne suína teria muito a ganhar caso fossem eliminadas tais barreiras. Enfim, na última relação, constata-se alto grau de aceitação das exportações brasileiras de carne suína àqueles blocos que não têm barreiras sanitárias impeditivas, com destaque para o CEI. Contudo, ao cruzar os resultados para o setor, observa-se que, a partir da efetivação de acordos de livre comércio inter-regionais ou multilaterais, com os blocos ou países em estudo, estes trarão ganhos potenciais efetivos para o setor brasileiro de carne suína. --------------------------------------------This study makes an analysis of the Brazilian pork sector panorama and its export potential forefront the supposition of future agreements of multilateral liberalization or by the economic integration between Brazil and certain blocks/Countries. To analyze the panorama and the export potential from the pork sector, four methodological generalizations were developed: the importing potential of those blocks/Countries, the calculation of the revealed advantage index evolution of Brazilian exportations and of its main competitors inside each block, bibliographical research of the main existing barriers and the Regional Orientation Index calculation. The results considering the importing potential indicate that the European Union (EU) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) respectively constitute a potential and promising market to Brazilian pork sector. The results from the calculation of the comparative advantages demonstrated that Brazil has an increasing competitiveness in the pork sector in the period between 1990 and 2005. As far as the competitors inside each block or country, the European Union was the one that presented the major competitor. In relation to the imposed barriers, they demonstrated to be, in general, extremely high and, in some cases, impeditive with a highlight to NAFTA, Japan and EU. Therefore, the Brazilian pork sector has much to benefit if such barriers were eliminated. Finally, to the last relation, we can perceive a high level of acceptance to the exportations of the Brazilian pork market to those blocks that do not have impeditive sanitary barriers, with an especial emphasis to CIS. However, while tabling the results we can observe that, from the accomplishment of inter-regional and multilateral free trade agreements with the blocks or countries that were subject of this study, these will bring potential effective advantages to the Brazilian pork sector.comércio potencial, barreiras comerciais, carne suína, commerce potential, commercial barriers, pork, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries,

O comércio potencial brasileiro de carne bovina no contexto de integração regional

This study analyses the Brazilian beef exportation potential considering the supposition of future agreements of regional integration. The countries or blocks that were chosen are The European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) countries, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Popular Republic of China (PRC) and Japan. To analyze the meat sector exportation potential, four methodological generalizations are developed: the importing potential of the mentioned countries, the calculus of the evolution in the Revealed Advantage Index of Brazilian exportations and its main competitors, bibliographical research of the main existing trade barriers and the calculus of the Regional Orientation Index. The results concerning the importing potential indicate that the European Union (EU) consists of a very attractive market to Brazilian beef. The results of the calculus of comparative advantages reveal that Brazil has a higher competitivity in meat sector and it increasing in the period between 1990 and 2003. When considering the competitors inside each block or country, the European Union shows up as the major competitor. As far as the imposed trade barriers, these come out, in a general way, as extremely high and sometimes representing a blockage. Thus, the Brazilian meat sector would be largely improved if these barriers were eliminated. Finally, on the last relation, we can verify the high level of acceptance of Brazilian beef exportation to those blocks that do not have impeditive sanitary barriers. Nevertheless, when crossing the results obtained to the sector one can observe that from the accomplishment of inter-regional free trade agreements, via Mercosur or through bilateral agreements with the blocks or countries considered in this study, would bring real profits to the Brazilian meat sector.Potential trade, regional integration, beef., Agribusiness, F13, F15.,

The importance of early arthroscopy in athletes with painful cartilage lesions of the ankle: a prospective study of 61 consecutive cases

BACKGROUND Ankle sprains are common in sports and can sometimes result in a persistent pain condition. PURPOSE Primarily to evaluate clinical symptoms, signs, diagnostics and outcomes of surgery for symptomatic chondral injuries of the talo crural joint in athletes. Secondly, in applicable cases, to evaluate the accuracy of MRI in detecting these injuries. Type of study: Prospective consecutive series. METHODS Over around 4 years we studied 61 consecutive athletes with symptomatic chondral lesions to the talocrural joint causing persistent exertion ankle pain. RESULTS 43% were professional full time athletes and 67% were semi-professional, elite or amateur athletes, main sports being soccer (49%) and rugby (14%). The main subjective complaint was exertion ankle pain (93%). Effusion (75%) and joint line tenderness on palpation (92%) were the most common clinical findings. The duration from injury to arthroscopy for 58/61 cases was 7 months (5.7–7.9). 3/61 cases were referred within 3 weeks from injury. There were in total 75 cartilage lesions. Of these, 52 were located on the Talus dome, 17 on the medial malleolus and 6 on the Tibia plafond. Of the Talus dome injuries 18 were anteromedial, 14 anterolateral, 9 posteromedial, 3 posterolateral and 8 affecting mid talus. 50% were grade 4 lesions, 13.3% grade 3, 16.7% grade 2 and 20% grade 1. MRI had been performed pre operatively in 26/61 (39%) and 59% of these had been interpreted as normal. Detection rate of cartilage lesions was only 19%, but subchondral oedema was present in 55%. At clinical follow up average 24 months after surgery (10–48 months), 73% were playing at pre-injury level. The average return to that level of sports after surgery was 16 weeks (3–32 weeks). However 43% still suffered minor symptoms. CONCLUSION Arthroscopy should be considered early when an athlete presents with exertion ankle pain, effusion and joint line tenderness on palpation after a previous sprain. Conventional MRI is not reliable for detecting isolated cartilage lesions, but the presence of subchondral oedema should raise such suspicion

Beam Studies of the Segmented Resistive WELL: a Potential Thin Sampling Element for Digital Hadron Calorimetry

Thick Gas Electron Multipliers (THGEMs) have the potential of constituting thin, robust sampling elements in Digital Hadron Calorimetry (DHCAL) in future colliders. We report on recent beam studies of new single- and double-THGEM-like structures; the multiplier is a Segmented Resistive WELL (SRWELL) - a single-faced THGEM in contact with a segmented resistive layer inductively coupled to readout pads. Several 10$\times$10 cm$^2$ configurations with a total thickness of 5-6 mm (excluding electronics) with 1 cm$^2$ pads coupled to APV-SRS readout were investigated with muons and pions. Detection efficiencies in the 98$$ range were recorded with average pad-multiplicity of $\sim$1.1. The resistive anode resulted in efficient discharge damping, with potential drops of a few volts; discharge probabilities were $\sim10^{-7}$ for muons and $\sim10^{-6}$ for pions in the double-stage configuration, at rates of a few kHz/cm$^2$. Further optimization work and research on larger detectors are underway.Comment: Presented at the $13^{th}$ Vienna Conference on Instrumentation, February 2013 and submitted to its proceeding

The Airlines’ Recent Experience Under the Railway Labor Act

Silky-feather has been selected and fixed in some breeds due to its unique appearance. This phenotype is caused by a single recessive gene (hookless, h). Here we map the silky-feather locus to chromosome 3 by linkage analysis and subsequently fine-map it to an 18.9 kb interval using the identical by descent (IBD) method. Further analysis reveals that a C to G transversion located upstream of the prenyl (decaprenyl) diphosphate synthase, subunit 2 (PDSS2) gene is causing silky-feather. All silky-feather birds are homozygous for the G allele. The silky-feather mutation significantly decreases the expression of PDSS2 during feather development in vivo. Consistent with the regulatory effect, the C to G transversion is shown to remarkably reduce PDSS2 promoter activity in vitro. We report a new example of feather structure variation associated with a spontaneous mutation and provide new insight into the PDSS2 function

Far-UV HST Spectroscopy of an Unusual Hydrogen-poor Superluminous Supernova: SN2017egm

SN2017egm is the closest (z = 0.03) H-poor superluminous supernova (SLSN-I) detected to date, and a rare example of an SLSN-I in a massive, metal-rich galaxy. We present the HST UV and optical spectra covering 1000–5500 Å, taken at +3 day relative to the peak. Our data reveal two absorption systems at redshifts matching the host galaxy NGC 3191 (z = 0.0307) and its companion galaxy (z = 0.0299) 73'' apart. Weakly damped Lyα absorption lines are detected at these two redshifts, with H i column densities of (3.0 ± 0.8) × 1019 and (3.7 ± 0.9) × 1019 cm−2, respectively. This is an order of magnitude smaller than the H i column densities in the disks of nearby galaxies (>1010 M ⊙) and suggests that SN2017egm is on the near side of NGC 3191 and has a low host extinction (E(B − V) ~ 0.007). Using unsaturated metal absorption lines, we find that the host of SN2017egm probably has a solar or higher metallicity and is unlikely to be a dwarf companion to NGC 3191. Comparison of early-time UV spectra of SN2017egm, Gaia16apd, iPTF13ajg, and PTF12dam finds that the continuum at λ > 2800 Å is well fit by a blackbody, whereas the continuum at λ < 2800 Å is considerably below the model. The degree of UV suppression varies from source to source, with the 1400–2800 Å continuum flux ratio of 1.5 for Gaia16apd and 0.4 for iPTF13ajg. This cannot be explained by the differences in magnetar power or blackbody temperature. Finally, the UV spectra reveal a common set of seven broad absorption features and their equivalent widths are similar (within a factor of 2) among the four events

Classical limit of the Casimir entropy for scalar massless field

We study the Casimir effect at finite temperature for a massless scalar field in the parallel plates geometry in N spatial dimensions, under various combinations of Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions on the plates. We show that in all these cases the entropy, in the limit where energy equipartitioning applies, is a geometrical factor whose sign determines the sign of the Casimir force.Comment: 14 page

Multiple Imputation Ensembles (MIE) for dealing with missing data

Missing data is a significant issue in many real-world datasets, yet there are no robust methods for dealing with it appropriately. In this paper, we propose a robust approach to dealing with missing data in classification problems: Multiple Imputation Ensembles (MIE). Our method integrates two approaches: multiple imputation and ensemble methods and compares two types of ensembles: bagging and stacking. We also propose a robust experimental set-up using 20 benchmark datasets from the UCI machine learning repository. For each dataset, we introduce increasing amounts of data Missing Completely at Random. Firstly, we use a number of single/multiple imputation methods to recover the missing values and then ensemble a number of different classifiers built on the imputed data. We assess the quality of the imputation by using dissimilarity measures. We also evaluate the MIE performance by comparing classification accuracy on the complete and imputed data. Furthermore, we use the accuracy of simple imputation as a benchmark for comparison. We find that our proposed approach combining multiple imputation with ensemble techniques outperform others, particularly as missing data increases

Cellular responses of Candida albicans to phagocytosis and the extracellular activities of neutrophils are critical to counteract carbohydrate starvation, oxidative and nitrosative stress

Acknowledgments We thank Alexander Johnson (yhb1D/D), Karl Kuchler (sodD/D mutants), Janet Quinn (hog1D/D, hog1/cap1D/D, trx1D/D) and Peter Staib (ssu1D/D) for providing mutant strains. We acknowledge helpful discussions with our colleagues from the Microbial Pathogenicity Mechanisms Department, Fungal Septomics and the Microbial Biochemistry and Physiology Research Group at the Hans Kno¨ll Institute (HKI), specially Ilse D. Jacobsen, Duncan Wilson, Sascha Brunke, Lydia Kasper, Franziska Gerwien, Sea´na Duggan, Katrin Haupt, Kerstin Hu¨nniger, and Matthias Brock, as well as from our partners in the FINSysB Network. Author Contributions Conceived and designed the experiments: PM HW IMB AJPB OK BH. Performed the experiments: PM CD HW. Analyzed the data: PM HW IMB AJPB OK BH. Wrote the paper: PM HW OK AJPB BH.Peer reviewedPublisher PD