Keeping animal spirits asleep: the case of Chile

Chilean legislation is quite conservative, especially compared with international practice. However, its application has not been free of criticism, and it proved necessary to seek mechanisms that combine limitations set forth in the GATT/WTO regulations and others self-imposed by Chilean law. Legislation on antidumping measures was introduced in Chile in 1992. The Distortions Commission has recommended and the President has adopted such measures on just six occasions, of which two correspond to extensions of existing measures. Legislation on safeguard measures was introduced in 1999. In the 1999-2002 period, seven safeguard measures were adopted. The traditional agricultural sector was the main user of the measures, and no measure was in place for more than 12 months. The context in which the Commission was created in 1981 and the type of measures adopted by this entity support the idea that the objective of the Commission was to alleviate the political pressures generated by the difficult economic situation rather than to correct problems originated by the price distortions of goods. In the second half of the 1980s, the Commission supported the liberalization process that started in 1985. Adopting safeguard legislation in 1999 helped to gain approval of further tariff reductions from 11 percent to 6 percent. During the decade of the 1990s and until the present day, the philosophy of minimal use to further liberalization has been maintained. The legislation has undergone modifications to adjust the instruments used to support the economic opening and international commitments.Economic Theory&Research,National Governance,Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Children and Youth

Uncovering Developing Countries’ Performance in Trade in Services

Services play a broad and strategic role in the economy. Trade in services has been expanding rapidly because technological improvements have reduced the cost of cross-border exchange from infinity to virtually zero, thereby allowing for new export activities. Trade in services, particularly business services, has become an element of export diversification for many developing countries. Besides traditional activities such as tourism, activities such as health and information and communication services are among the most successful services exports. This note focuses on the determinants of trade in services for developing countries.developing countries, trade, services, exports, imports, business services, export diversification, tourism, health, information, communications

Generalized f(R,ϕ,X)f(R,\phi,X) gravity and the late-time cosmic acceleration

High-precision observational data have confirmed with startling evidence that the Universe is currently undergoing a phase of accelerated expansion. This phase, one of the most important and challenging current problems in cosmology, represents a new imbalance in the governing gravitational equations. Historically, physics has addressed such imbalances by either identifying sources that were previously unaccounted for, or by altering the gravitational theory. Several candidates, responsible for this expansion, have been proposed in the literature, in particular, dark energy models and modified gravity models, amongst others. Outstanding questions are related to the nature of this so-called "dark energy" that is driving this acceleration, and whether it is due to the vacuum energy or a dynamical field. On the other hand, the late-time cosmic acceleration may be due to modifications of General Relativity. In this work we explore a generalised modified gravity theory, namely $f(R,\phi,X)$ gravity, where $R$ is the Ricci scalar, $\phi$ is a scalar field, and $X$ is a kinetic term. This theory contains a wide range of dark energy and modified gravity models. We considered specific models and applications to the late-time cosmic acceleration.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure; slightly revised version, displayed name corrected. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1412.086

Molecular causality in the advent of foundation models

Correlation is not causation. As simple as this widely agreed-upon statement may seem, scientifically defining causality and using it to drive our modern biomedical research is immensely challenging. In this perspective, we attempt to synergise the partly disparate fields of systems biology, causal reasoning, and machine learning, to inform future approaches in the field of systems biology and molecular networks.Comment: 22 pages, 0 figures, 87 references; submitted to MS

Visual setup of logical models of signaling and regulatory networks with ProMoT

BACKGROUND: The analysis of biochemical networks using a logical (Boolean) description is an important approach in Systems Biology. Recently, new methods have been proposed to analyze large signaling and regulatory networks using this formalism. Even though there is a large number of tools to set up models describing biological networks using a biochemical (kinetic) formalism, however, they do not support logical models. RESULTS: Herein we present a flexible framework for setting up large logical models in a visual manner with the software tool ProMoT. An easily extendible library, ProMoT's inherent modularity and object-oriented concept as well as adaptive visualization techniques provide a versatile environment. Both the graphical and the textual description of the logical model can be exported to different formats. CONCLUSION: New features of ProMoT facilitate an efficient set-up of large Boolean models of biochemical interaction networks. The modeling environment is flexible; it can easily be adapted to specific requirements, and new extensions can be introduced. ProMoT is freely available from

Transmission of Similar Mcr-1 Carrying Plasmids among Different Escherichia coli Lineages Isolated from Livestock and the Farmer

Colistin use has mostly been stopped in human medicine, due to its toxicity. However, nowadays, it still is used as a last-resort antibiotic to treat hospital infections caused by multi-drug resistant Enterobacteriaceae. On the contrary, colistin has been used in veterinary medicine until recently. In this study, 210 fecal samples from pigs (n = 57), calves (n = 152), and the farmer (n = 1) were collected from a farm where E. coli harboring mcr-1-mcr-3 was previously detected. Samples were plated, and mcr-genes presence was confirmed by multiplex-PCR. Hybrid sequencing which determined the presence and location of mcr-1, other antibiotic resistance genes, and virulence factors. Eighteen colistin resistant isolates (13 from calves, four from pigs, and one from the farmer) contained mcr-1 associated with plasmids (IncX4, IncI2, and IncHI2), except for two that yielded mcr-1 in the chromosome. Similar plasmids were distributed in different E. coli lineages. Transmission of mcr-1 to the farmer most likely occurred by horizontal gene transfer from E. coli of calf origin, since plasmids were highly similar (99% coverage, 99.97% identity). Moreover, 33 virulence factors, including stx2 for Shiga toxin E. coli (STEC) were detected, highlighting the role of livestock as a reservoir of pathotypes with zoonotic potential.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Epidemiological investigation of bovine tuberculosis herd breakdowns in Spain 2009/2011

We analyzed the most likely cause of 687 bovine tuberculosis (bTB) breakdowns detected in Spain between 2009 and 2011 (i.e., 22% of the total number of breakdowns detected during this period). Seven possible causes were considered: i) residual infection; ii) introduction of infected cattle from other herds; iii) sharing of pastures with infected herds; iv) contiguous spread from infected neighbor herds; v) presence of infected goats in the farm; vi) interaction with wildlife reservoirs and vii) contact with an infected human. For each possible cause a decision tree was developed and key questions were included in each of them. Answers to these key questions lead to different events within each decision tree. In order to assess the likelihood of occurrence of the different events a qualitative risk assessment approach was used. For this purpose, an expert opinion workshop was organized and ordinal values, ranging from 0 to 9 (i.e., null to very high likelihood of occurrence) were assigned. The analysis identified residual infection as the most frequent cause of bTB breakdowns (22.3%; 95%CI: 19.4-25.6), followed by interaction with wildlife reservoirs (13.1%; 95%CI: 10.8-15.8). The introduction of infected cattle, sharing of pastures and contiguous spread from infected neighbour herds were also identified as relevant causes. In 41.6% (95%CI: 38.0-45.4) of the breakdowns the origin of infection remained unknown. Veterinary officers conducting bTB breakdown investigations have to state their opinion about the possible cause of each breakdown. Comparison between the results of our analysis and the opinion from veterinary officers revealed a slight concordance. This slight agreement might reflect a lack of harmonized criteria to assess the most likely cause of bTB breakdowns as well as different perceptions about the importance of the possible causes. This is especially relevant in the case of the role of wildlife reservoirs

Different Impacts of Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Oxidative Stress

The objective of the study was to evaluate oxidative stress (OS) status in subjects with different cardiovascular risk factors. With this in mind, we have studied three models of high cardiovascular risk: hypertension (HT) with and without metabolic syndrome, familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCH) with and without insulin resistance. Oxidative stress markers (oxidized/reduced glutathione ratio, 8-oxo-deoxyguanosine and malondialdehide) together with the activity of antioxidant enzyme triad (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase) and activation of both pro-oxidant enzyme (NAPDH oxidase components) and AGTR1 genes, as well as antioxidant enzyme genes (CuZn-SOD, CAT, GPX1, GSR, GSS and TXN) were measured in mononuclear cells of controls (n = 20) and patients (n = 90) by assessing mRNA levels. Activity of some of these antioxidant enzymes was also tested. An increase in OS and pro-oxidant gene mRNA values was observed in patients compared to controls. The hypertensive group showed not only the highest OS values, but also the highest pro-oxidant activation compared to those observed in the other groups. In addition, in HT a significantly reduced antioxidant activity and mRNA induction of antioxidant genes were found when compared to controls and the other groups. In FH and FCH, the activation of pro-oxidant enzymes was also higher and antioxidant ones lower than in the control group, although it did not reach the values obtained in hypertensives. The thioredoxin system was more activated in patients as compared to controls, and the highest levels were in hypertensives. The increased oxidative status in the presence of cardiovascular risk factors is a consequence of both the activation of pro-oxidant mechanisms and the reduction of the antioxidant ones. The altered response of the main cytoplasmic antioxidant systems largely contributes to OS despite the apparent attempt of the thioredoxin system to control it

CALIDAD DE LA EVALUACIÓN FORMATIVA PARA EL APRENDIZAJE DE MATEMÁTICA EN VIRTUALIDAD, INSTITUCIÓN JOSÉ ANTONIO LIZARZABURU

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, education has been affected and forced with new ways to face the new demands. Educational institutions have modified their modality of face-to-face to virtual education. However, new difficulties appear to face. The interest then arises to know if one of the main elements of educational quality meets these demands, educational evaluation. The present scientific research aims to estimate the quality level from formative evaluation in mathematics learning in virtual education. The approach is quantitative. The field study and descriptive scope, the survey as a technique to collect information, and the questionnaire as an instrument used. The population was made up of 80 tenth-year students from Unidad Educativa José Antonio Lizarzaburu, with a sample of 30 students determined by simple random sampling. It determined that the formative evaluation that the students develop has 67.9% of the minimum established within the parameters of educational quality (70.0%), concluding that the assessments designed by the teachers are very close to standard quality.Debido a la pandemia de Covid-19 el área educativa se ha visto afectada y obligada a innovarse para enfrentar las nuevas exigencias de la realidad. Las instituciones educativas han optado por modificar su modalidad de educación presencial a virtual, pero con ella aparecen nuevas dificultades a enfrentar. Surge entonces el interés por conocer si uno de los elementos más importantes de la calidad educativa está atendiendo dichas exigencias, la evaluación educativa. El presente estudio tiene el objetivo de estimar la calidad de la evaluación formativa para el aprendizaje de la matemática en la educación virtual, utilizando un enfoque de investigación cuantitativo, estudio de campo, alcance descriptivo, empleando como técnica de recolección de datos la encuesta y al cuestionario como instrumento, con una población de 80 estudiantes de décimo año de la Unidad Educativa José Antonio Lizarzaburu, y con una muestra de 30 estudiantes determinada mediante un muestreo aleatorio simple. Se determinó que la evaluación formativa que desarrollan los estudiantes posee un 67,9 % del mínimo establecido dentro de los parámetros de calidad educativa (70,0 %), concluyendo que las evaluaciones diseñadas por los docentes se aproximan mucho a una calidad estándar

Spatial and temporal patterns of Holocene precipitation change in the Iberian Peninsula

Precipitation is a key climate parameter of vegetation and ecosystems in the Iberian Peninsula. Here, we use a regional pollen-climate calibration model and fossil pollen data from eight sites from the Atlantic coast to southern Spain to provide quantitative reconstructions of annual precipitation trends and excursions and their regional patterns for the last 11 700 years. The Early Holocene (11 700 to 11 000 cal. a BP) was characterized by high precipitation values followed by a slowly declining trend until about 9000 cal. a BP in the south and about 8000 cal. a BP in the north. From 8000 to 6000 cal. a BP the reconstructed precipitation values are the highest in most records, especially in those located in the Mediterranean climatic region in the southern part of the peninsula, with maximum values nearly 100% higher than the modern reconstructed values. The results suggest a declining precipitation during the Late Holocene in the south, with a positive excursion at around 2500 cal. a BP, while in the north precipitation remained high until 500 cal. a BP. However, the Late Holocene climate reconstructions in the Iberian Peninsula are biased by intensifying human impact on vegetation. The statistical time series analyses using SiZer technique do not indicate any statistically significant high-frequency drought events in the region. In general, our results suggest regional differences in the precipitation patterns between the northern and southern parts of the peninsula, with a more distinct Middle Holocene period of high humidity in the south.Peer reviewe