Intra-Industry Trade in Agricultural Products Between the United States, NAFTA and European Union Trading Partners

This study provides an overview of trends and identifies country-specific determinants of intra-industry trade (IIT) between the United States (U.S.), the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) trading partners. We analyze the food and live animal industry at the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) revision 4 at the 4-digit level to calculate IIT and cover the period between 2007 and 2014. To determine the country-specific determinants of IIT, we used a Generalized Least Squares (GLS) random effect model. Results indicate that the size of an economy, the relative difference in level of economic development, the real exchange rate and research and development (R&D) are positively associated with IIT, while, trade imbalance, geographical distance and available arable land are negatively correlated with the IIT share. The results suggest that countries with relatively large economies, with high levels of per capita income, that are geographically near to one another and with a low trade imbalance are associated with having comparatively high levels of IIT in the food and live animal industry. Results also show an increasing IIT trend for most U.S. trading partners in the food and live animal industry during the period of analysis. IIT and value-added agriculture both involve trade and production of differentiated products, so their increased importance is closely linked. Value-added products involve high profit margins relative to raw commodities and increased importance of value-added agriculture activities goes hand-in-hand with the growing role of IIT in total international trade in agriculture and food products and it may open the door for additional international trade

Lessons from the "non-critical" patient during a pandemic: developmental-behavioural pediatric populations & COVID-19

Seemingly overnight, in March 2020, the world was turned upside down by the global SARS-CoV 2 (novel coronavirus) pandemic. As COVID-19 affected all aspects of clinical care, Canadian ambulatory clinics for any service deemed "non-urgent" or "non-critical," were suspended for several months. When outpatient care slowly resumed during the summer and fall of 2020, the backlog of patients in these areas and subsequent requests for follow-up significantly outpaced the number of available appointments. In fact, it became apparent that certain patients' needs had grown in unprecedented ways during the pandemic, even though their issues had previously been given low priority during the acute crisis period. Among these groups were youth with underlying mental health conditions, those with chronic but non-life-threatening illnesses, and the subgroups seen in Developmental-Behavioural Pediatrics. In Montréal, they were among the least likely to have their needs met as the waves of COVID-19 moved through the community, and many still struggle to find relevancy in the discussions about the hidden impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, even one year later. What can the experiences of these marginalised youth teach us about what our system labels less relevant care in the context of an acute health care crisis? A short narrative presentation will demonstrate insights gleaned from 2020 & early 2021 to underscore the often unrecognised challenges faced by these populations and their families

Development of a Portable GSM SMS-Based Patient Monitoring System for Healthcare Applications

Although health care is a vital problem in recent years mobile communication has become a widespread part and parcel of everyday life even in the rural areas of developing countries This paper proposed a model to include the mobile communication for monitoring vital signs of health such as blood pressure heart rate body temperature blood glucose level and sends result as Short Message Service SMS for the physician so as to monitor their patients continuously Cuffless pressure sensing transducer is taken into consideration to measure pressure pulse and then combined with oscillometric method to measure Blood Pressure BP Availability of different sensors and measurement techniques to determine heart rate is presented Conventional glucometry in low cost electronics and body temperature measurement using electronic thermistor is also described here Sensed parameters are processed and stored into an array in ARM7 processor and sent via GSM SIM300 Modem This portable vital sensing system is useful to analyze daily health condition can be used both in home and hospital to prevent Hypertension Heart Attack and to control Diabete

Negative Emotions in Fieldwork: A Narrative Inquiry of Three EFL Researchers’ Lived Experiences

Through narrative inquiry this research depicts and interprets the negative emotions that three English as Foreign Language (EFL) researchers experienced in different research sites during their fieldwork. Narrative inquiry informs the design of this investigation as the approach is particularly useful for understanding lived experiences. The study draws on autobiographical as well as narrative data to report the negative emotions that evolve during English language education fieldwork, an aspect absent in the existing literature. Findings suggest that the researchers experienced a wide range of negative emotions namely ethical dilemma, anger, anxiety, guilt, and shame. These results carry implications for language education research methodology, teaching, and fieldwork related ethical requirements of Institutional Review Board (IRB), and language education researchers’ necessary psychological support

Long-term monitoring of biophysical characteristics of tidal wetlands in the northern Gulf of Mexico — A methodological approach using MODIS

Accurate and efficient monitoring is critically important for the effective restoration and conservation of threatened tidal wetlands in the Gulf Coast. The high carbon sequestration potential, habitat for important wildlife and fish, and numerous ecosystem services make these tidal wetlands highly valuable both ecologically and economically to Gulf Coast communities. Our study developed a new methodological approach for mapping biophysical health of coastal tidal wetland habitats in terms of green leaf area index (GLAI), canopy level chlorophyll content (CHL), vegetation fraction (VF), and above ground green biomass (GBM). We measured these biophysical characteristics in tidal wetlands of the northern Gulf of Mexico using a combination of ground data collected from field surveys during the growing seasons of 2010 and 2011 and NASA\u27s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250 m and 500 m images. Additionally, we compared and evaluated the performances of both in situ proximal and satellite remote sensing measurements in terms of their potential for mapping the wetland biophysical characteristics. MODIS-based models proved superior at the landscape level compared to models developed from in situ proximal sensing, as species level signals seemed to be diluted at coarser spatial scales. We selected Wide Dynamic Range Vegetation Index (WDRVI) for MODIS 250 m and Visible Atmospheric Resistant Index (VARI) for MODIS 500 m to map biophysical characteristics of tidal wetlands. Time-series composites and phenological information derived using the MODIS based models captured the impact of the selected disturbances in the last decade on the ecological and physiological status of the tidal wetland habitats in the Gulf Coast. This is the first study to employ MODIS data to analyze the biophysical characteristics of tidal wetlands in the Gulf Coast, which, in turn, has the potential to improve our ability to predict their productivity and carbon sequestration potential. These techniques could also be used to assess the success of previous and ongoing tidal wetland restoration projects, and evaluate the productivity of marshes under threat from developmental activity, sea level rise, and industrial pollution

Technique for Configuring an Actively Cooled Thermal Shield in a Flight System

Broad area cooling shields are a mass-efficient alternative to conductively cooled thermal radiation shielding. The shield would actively intercept a large portion of incident thermal radiation and transport the heat away using cryogenic helium gas. The design concept consists of a conductive and conformable surface that maximizes heat transfer and formability. Broad Area Cooled (BAC) shields could potentially provide considerable mass savings for spaceflight applications by eliminating the need for a rigid thermal radiation shield for cryogen tanks. The BAC consists of a network of capillary tubes that are thermally connected to a conductive shield material. Chilled helium gas is circulated through the network and transports unwanted heat away from the cryogen tanks. The cryogenic helium gas is pumped and chilled simultaneously using a specialized pulse-tube cryocooler, which further improves the mass efficiency of the system. By reducing the thermal environment temperature from 300 to 100 K, the radiative heat load on a cryogen tank could be reduced by an order of magnitude. For a cryogenic liquid propellant scenario of oxygen and hydrogen, the boiloff of hydrogen would be significantly reduced and completely eliminated for oxygen. A major challenge in implementing this technology on large tanks is that the BAC system must be easily scalable from lab demonstrations to full-scale missions. Also, the BAC shield must be conformable to complex shapes like spheres without losing the ability to maintain constant temperature throughout. The initial design maximizes thermal conductivity between the capillary tube and the conductive radiation shielding by using thin, corrugated aluminum foil with the tube running transverse to the folds. This configuration has the added benefit of enabling the foil to stretch and contract longitudinally. This allows the BAC to conform to the complex curvature of a cryogen tank, which is key to its success. To demonstrate a BAC shield system with minimal impact to current cryogen tank designs, the shielding must be applied after the final assembly of the tank and supporting structure. One method is to pre-fabricate the shield in long strips. A spool of corrugated aluminum foil with a thermally sunk aluminum capillary running through the center could then be simply wound around the cryogen tanks and encapsulated within the multi-layer insulation (MLI) blanket. Then, on orbit, the BAC would intercept thermal radiation coming in through the MLI and transport it away from the cryogen tanks. An optimization of the design could be done to take into account mass savings from thinner MLI blankets, eliminating solid thermal shields, and ultimately, a reduction in the required cryogen tank size