Compliance, competitiveness and market access : a study on Indian seafood industry

This study attempts to estimate the effects of the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures in terms of trade elasticity of regulations and competitiveness of exports. In spite of the gener-alized acknowledgment of growing liberalization of trade between countries, there are still numerous obstacles to trade, more of the non-tariff type. This study aims to contribute to the literature on quantifying the eco-nomic impact of health and environmental regulations expressed in the form of SPS measures on international trade in agro-food products, by taking Indian seafood exports as a case study. The gravity analysis, complemented with the constant market share (CMS) model, helped to obtain an insight into the overall dynamics of the export markets, trade flows and competitiveness of fish and fishery products (aggregate level), shrimps and cephalopods. For the regulatory variable, the maxi-mum residue limit (MRL) on cadmium in the model is used as an independent variable. A detailed study on the micro level dynamics of Kerala seafood export sector has been carried out, particularly to understand the industry level changes experienced during the stringent food safety regime. The results indicate that regulations on cadmium appear to be moderately trade restrictive. At the same time, results are divergent at the disaggregate level, which is significant from the point of view of trade policy. The most important aspect of the existing chain in Kerala’s seafood sector is the gradual disappearance of the independent preprocessing sector which has been an important stakeholder of the seafood value chain in Kerala. The preprocessing node of the value chain is getting integrated to the processing sector causing a major restructuring of the existing value chain. Keywords: Competitiveness, Trade models, Seafood Industry, Value Chain JEL Classification: F14, F18, L15, Q17, Q1

Evolution and Diversity of Clonal Bacteria: The Paradigm of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

International audienceBACKGROUND: Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex species display relatively static genomes and 99.9% nucleotide sequence identity. Studying the evolutionary history of such monomorphic bacteria is a difficult and challenging task. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We found that single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis of DNA repair, recombination and replication (3R) genes in a comprehensive selection of M. tuberculosis complex strains from across the world, yielded surprisingly high levels of polymorphisms as compared to house-keeping genes, making it possible to distinguish between 80% of clinical isolates analyzed in this study. Bioinformatics analysis suggests that a large number of these polymorphisms are potentially deleterious. Site frequency spectrum comparison of synonymous and non-synonymous variants and Ka/Ks ratio analysis suggest a general negative/purifying selection acting on these sets of genes that may lead to suboptimal 3R system activity. In turn, the relaxed fidelity of 3R genes may allow the occurrence of adaptive variants, some of which will survive. Furthermore, 3R-based phylogenetic trees are a new tool for distinguishing between M. tuberculosis complex strains. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This situation, and the consequent lack of fidelity in genome maintenance, may serve as a starting point for the evolution of antibiotic resistance, fitness for survival and pathogenicity, possibly conferring a selective advantage in certain stressful situations. These findings suggest that 3R genes may play an important role in the evolution of highly clonal bacteria, such as M. tuberculosis. They also facilitate further epidemiological studies of these bacteria, through the development of high-resolution tools. With many more microbial genomes being sequenced, our results open the door to 3R gene-based studies of adaptation and evolution of other, highly clonal bacteria

Performance of the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter prototype to charged pion beams of 20−-300 GeV/c

The upgrade of the CMS experiment for the high luminosity operation of the LHC comprises the replacement of the current endcap calorimeter by a high granularity sampling calorimeter (HGCAL). The electromagnetic section of the HGCAL is based on silicon sensors interspersed between lead and copper (or copper tungsten) absorbers. The hadronic section uses layers of stainless steel as an absorbing medium and silicon sensors as an active medium in the regions of high radiation exposure, and scintillator tiles directly readout by silicon photomultipliers in the remaining regions. As part of the development of the detector and its readout electronic components, a section of a silicon-based HGCAL prototype detector along with a section of the CALICE AHCAL prototype was exposed to muons, electrons and charged pions in beam test experiments at the H2 beamline at the CERN SPS in October 2018. The AHCAL uses the same technology as foreseen for the HGCAL but with much finer longitudinal segmentation. The performance of the calorimeters in terms of energy response and resolution, longitudinal and transverse shower profiles is studied using negatively charged pions, and is compared to GEANT4 predictions. This is the first report summarizing results of hadronic showers measured by the HGCAL prototype using beam test data.Comment: To be submitted to JINS

Fusarium: more than a node or a foot-shaped basal cell

Recent publications have argued that there are potentially serious consequences for researchers in recognising distinct genera in the terminal fusarioid clade of the family Nectriaceae. Thus, an alternate hypothesis, namely a very broad concept of the genus Fusarium was proposed. In doing so, however, a significant body of data that supports distinct genera in Nectriaceae based on morphology, biology, and phylogeny is disregarded. A DNA phylogeny based on 19 orthologous protein-coding genes was presented to support a very broad concept of Fusarium at the F1 node in Nectriaceae. Here, we demonstrate that re-analyses of this dataset show that all 19 genes support the F3 node that represents Fusarium sensu stricto as defined by F. sambucinum (sexual morph synonym Gibberella pulicaris). The backbone of the phylogeny is resolved by the concatenated alignment, but only six of the 19 genes fully support the F1 node, representing the broad circumscription of Fusarium. Furthermore, a re-analysis of the concatenated dataset revealed alternate topologies in different phylogenetic algorithms, highlighting the deep divergence and unresolved placement of various Nectriaceae lineages proposed as members of Fusarium. Species of Fusarium s. str. are characterised by Gibberella sexual morphs, asexual morphs with thin- or thick-walled macroconidia that have variously shaped apical and basal cells, and trichothecene mycotoxin production, which separates them from other fusarioid genera. Here we show that the Wollenweber concept of Fusarium presently accounts for 20 segregate genera with clear-cut synapomorphic traits, and that fusarioid macroconidia represent a character that has been gained or lost multiple times throughout Nectriaceae. Thus, the very broad circumscription of Fusarium is blurry and without apparent synapomorphies, and does not include all genera with fusarium-like macroconidia, which are spread throughout Nectriaceae (e.g., Cosmosporella, Macroconia, Microcera). In this study four new genera are introduced, along with 18 new species and 16 new combinations. These names convey information about relationships, morphology, and ecological preference that would otherwise be lost in a broader definition of Fusarium. To assist users to correctly identify fusarioid genera and species, we introduce a new online identification database, Fusarioid-ID, accessible at www.fusarium.org. The database comprises partial sequences from multiple genes commonly used to identify fusarioid taxa (act1, CaM, his3, rpb1, rpb2, tef1, tub2, ITS, and LSU). In this paper, we also present a nomenclator of names that have been introduced in Fusarium up to January 2021 as well as their current status, types, and diagnostic DNA barcode data. In this study, researchers from 46 countries, representing taxonomists, plant pathologists, medical mycologists, quarantine officials, regulatory agencies, and students, strongly support the application and use of a more precisely delimited Fusarium (= Gibberella) concept to accommodate taxa from the robust monophyletic node F3 on the basis of a well-defined and unique combination of morphological and biochemical features. This F3 node includes, among others, species of the F. fujikuroi, F. incarnatum-equiseti, F. oxysporum, and F. sambucinum species complexes, but not species of Bisifusarium [F. dimerum species complex (SC)], Cyanonectria (F. buxicola SC), Geejayessia (F. staphyleae SC), Neocosmospora (F. solani SC) or Rectifusarium (F. ventricosum SC). The present study represents the first step to generating a new online monograph of Fusarium and allied fusarioid genera (www.fusarium.org)

FungalTraits:A user-friendly traits database of fungi and fungus-like stramenopiles

The cryptic lifestyle of most fungi necessitates molecular identification of the guild in environmental studies. Over the past decades, rapid development and affordability of molecular tools have tremendously improved insights of the fungal diversity in all ecosystems and habitats. Yet, in spite of the progress of molecular methods, knowledge about functional properties of the fungal taxa is vague and interpretation of environmental studies in an ecologically meaningful manner remains challenging. In order to facilitate functional assignments and ecological interpretation of environmental studies we introduce a user friendly traits and character database FungalTraits operating at genus and species hypothesis levels. Combining the information from previous efforts such as FUNGuild and Fun(Fun) together with involvement of expert knowledge, we reannotated 10,210 and 151 fungal and Stramenopila genera, respectively. This resulted in a stand-alone spreadsheet dataset covering 17 lifestyle related traits of fungal and Stramenopila genera, designed for rapid functional assignments of environmental studies. In order to assign the trait states to fungal species hypotheses, the scientific community of experts manually categorised and assigned available trait information to 697,413 fungal ITS sequences. On the basis of those sequences we were able to summarise trait and host information into 92,623 fungal species hypotheses at 1% dissimilarity threshold

Notes for genera: basal clades of Fungi (including Aphelidiomycota, Basidiobolomycota, Blastocladiomycota, Calcarisporiellomycota, Caulochytriomycota, Chytridiomycota, Entomophthoromycota, Glomeromycota, Kickxellomycota, Monoblepharomycota, Mortierellomycota, Mucoromycota, Neocallimastigomycota, Olpidiomycota, Rozellomycota and Zoopagomycota)

Compared to the higher fungi (Dikarya), taxonomic and evolutionary studies on the basal clades of fungi are fewer in number. Thus, the generic boundaries and higher ranks in the basal clades of fungi are poorly known. Recent DNA based taxonomic studies have provided reliable and accurate information. It is therefore necessary to compile all available information since basal clades genera lack updated checklists or outlines. Recently, Tedersoo et al. (MycoKeys 13:1--20, 2016) accepted Aphelidiomycota and Rozellomycota in Fungal clade. Thus, we regard both these phyla as members in Kingdom Fungi. We accept 16 phyla in basal clades viz. Aphelidiomycota, Basidiobolomycota, Blastocladiomycota, Calcarisporiellomycota, Caulochytriomycota, Chytridiomycota, Entomophthoromycota, Glomeromycota, Kickxellomycota, Monoblepharomycota, Mortierellomycota, Mucoromycota, Neocallimastigomycota, Olpidiomycota, Rozellomycota and Zoopagomycota. Thus, 611 genera in 153 families, 43 orders and 18 classes are provided with details of classification, synonyms, life modes, distribution, recent literature and genomic data. Moreover, Catenariaceae Couch is proposed to be conserved, Cladochytriales Mozl.-Standr. is emended and the family Nephridiophagaceae is introduced

Modified Golden Jackal Optimization Assisted Adaptive Fuzzy PIDF Controller for Virtual Inertia Control of Micro Grid with Renewable Energy

Frequency regulation of low inertia symmetric micro grids with the incorporation of asymmetric renewable sources such as solar and wind is a challenging task. Virtual Inertia Control (VIC) is the idea of increasing micro grids’ inertia by energy storage systems. In the current study, an adaptive fuzzy PID structure with a derivative filter (AFPIDF) controller is suggested for VIC of a micro grid with renewable sources. To optimize the proposed controllers, a modified Golden Jackal Optimization (mGJO) has been proposed, where variable Sine Cosine adopted Scaling Factor (SCaSF) is employed to adjust the Jackal’s location in the course of search process to improve the exploration and exploitation capability of the original Golden Jackal Optimization (GJO) algorithm. The performance of the mGJO algorithm is verified by equating it with original GJO, as well as Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA), Teaching Learning Based Optimization (TLBO) and Ant Lion Optimizer (ALO), considering various standard benchmark test functions. In the next stage, conventional PID and proposed FPIDF controller parameters are optimized using the proposed mGJO technique and the superiority of mGJO over other symmetric optimization algorithms is demonstrated. The robustness of the controller is also investigated under intermittent load disturbances, as well as different levels of asymmetric RESs integration

Micro-simulation insights into the safety and operational benefits of autonomous vehicles

Several past studies showed that Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) can reduce crash risk, stop-and-go traffic, and travel time. To analyze the safety benefits of AVs, most of the researchers proposed algorithms and simulation-based techniques. However, these studies have not assessed the safety benefits of AVs for different vehicle types under heterogeneous conditions. With this opportunity, this study focuses on the benefits of AVs in terms of safety for different penetration rates under heterogeneous conditions. This study considered three driving logics during peak hour conditions to assess the performance of AVs in terms of safety. In VISSIM, default driving behavior models for AVs were adopted to consider cautious and all-knowing driving logic and the third driving logic (Atkins) was modeled in VISSIM using parameters adopted from the previous studies. To this end, using VISSIM, the travel time output results were obtained. Also, using Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM), conflicts were extracted from output trajectory files (VISSIM). The results suggest that “cautious driving logic” reduced travel time and crash risk significantly when compared to the other two driving logics during peak hour conditions. Furthermore, the statistical analysis clearly demonstrated that “cautious driving logic” differs significantly from the other two driving logics. When Market Penetration Rates (MPR) were 50% or greater, the “cautious driving logic” significantly outperforms the other two driving logics. The results highlight that adopting “cautious driving logic” at an expressway may significantly increase safety at higher AV penetration rates (above 50%)

New design methodology for adaptive switching gain based discrete-time sliding mode control

The adaptive sliding mode control technique relaxes the assumption of known bound of the disturbance in discrete-time systems. However, the existing technique of gain adaptation in discrete-time sliding mode control has issues of gain overestimation and underestimation. Therefore, this paper proposes a technique to adapt the switching gain such that the adaptive gain can tackle the uncertainty without any knowledge of the bound of uncertainty while overcoming the over- and under-estimation problems of switching gain.Ship Design, Production and Operation