Agricultural Trade Face to Non-Tariff Barriers: A Gravity Model for the Euro-Med Area

At first, Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and environmental standards have been aimed at protecting human health, animal and plant safety as well as the environment, wildlife and human security. However, overbearing usage of NTBs can significantly restrict trade. In this regard, many experts hold the view that agricultural exports from developing countries are adversely affected by NTBs. With respect to the present study, the objective is to quantify the actual impact of non-tariff barriers on agricultural trade in the Euro-Med area for the two years 1996 and 2008. For this purpose, a Gravity model use multilateral resistance variables (BNT TTRI) has been applied. Moreover, we have opted for a cross-sectional estimate of bilateral flows between the set of countries making up our sample. Two "dummy" variables are then introduced to specify the non-tariff barriers effects on imports of each block apart. The achieved results show that the coefficients of the standard gravity equation turn out to be significant and bear the expected signs. These indices of trade restrictiveness appear to be significant and negative, reflecting the restrictive effect of tariff and nontariff barriers on these countries "˜agricultural trade. Yet, these two variables evolution has shown a degradation of their effects on such a trade. It is also worth noting that the EU imports from the SEMC have proven to be affected by the first block imposed NTBs exclusively for the year 2008. As for the SEMC imposed on EU exports, they have had a negative and significant impact for the two years: 1996 and 2008

Crowdequity and Crowdlending : two alternative funding solutions for entrepreneurial ventures. The case of the French firm Gifts for change

International audienceFinancial return crowdfunding (crowdlending and equity crowdfunding) has thrived in recent years. It is proposed as an alternative solution to the problem of funding entrepreneurial ventures. This research studies the advantages and drawbacks of financial return crowdfunding, compared with traditional funding. It highlights the special features of crowdlending and equity crowdfunding. The study is based on the case of the firm Gifts for Change - Treez, which is distinctive in that it was funded by both types of financial return crowdfunding. Our analysis shows that financial return crowdfunding uses different mechanisms that are only appropriate for certain projects. Thus, the choice between crowdlending and equity crowdfunding does not arise at the same stage of the firm's development. We also make several recommendations, based on our study, for entrepreneurs hoping to obtain funding via financial return crowdfunding

Construction of singular limits for four-dimensional elliptic problems with exponentially dominated nonlinearity

AbstractThe authors consider the existence of singular limit solution for a family of nonlinear elliptic problems with exponentially dominated nonlinearity and Navier boundary condition

Euclidean Distance Distortion Based Robust and Blind Mesh Watermarking

The three-dimensional (3D) polygonal meshes are recently widely used in several domains, which necessitate the realistic visualization of the objects. Moreover, there is an urgent need to protect the 3D data properties for preventing unauthorized reproduction. The 3D digital watermarking technology is one of the best solutions to protect data from piracy during transmission through the internet. The current work proposed a novel robust watermarking scheme of polygonal meshes for copyright protection purposes. The proposed algorithm is based on the characteristics of the mesh geometry to embed a sequence of data bits into the object by slightly adjusting the vertex positions. Furthermore, the proposed method used a blind detection scheme. The watermarked model is perceptually indistinguishable from the original one and the embedded watermark is invariant to affine transformation. Through simulations, the quality of the watermarked object as well as the inserted watermark robustness against various types of attacks were tested and evaluated to prove the validity and the efficiency of our algorithm

158 Prothetic abcess complicating Infective endocarditis

The cardiac abscess formation is appraised to 20–30% during the infectious endocarditis (IE). It is more frequent during prosthesis endocarditis and it can reach 60%. The prognosis is generally reserved. Objective To determine echocardiographic, bacteriological and evolutive features of prothetic IE complicated of abscess.Retrospective study including 51 patients having certain or probable IE according to Duke criterias between 2002 and 2005. At 9 patients (17,64%) the endocarditis was complicated of prothetic abscess. It was about 6 men and 3 women with a middle age of 39 ± years. IE was la ate IE in 5 cases. Clinical and biological infectious syndrome was constant. Isolated germs were staphylococcus aureus in 2 cases, GRAM négatif Bacillus in 2 cases. Culture negative endocarditis were noted in 5 cases. Brucellosis serology was positive at one patient. Prothetic abcess was diagnosed by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) at 2 patients and by transesophagal echocardiography (TEE) at all patients.The abcess was localized on the aortic prosthesis at 5 patients, mitral prothesis at 3 patients and mitroaortic prothesis at one patient. TEE identified annular abcess at 2 patients and a myocardial abcess at 1 patient. Secondary septic localizations were noted at 6 patients: 4 cerebral abscesses, 2 splenic localization, a renal localization and an articular localization. High degree atrioventricular blocks were observed at 3 patients. The recourse to the surgery was frequent (7 patient/9 patient). It was an emergent sugery at 2 patients because of a heart failure. For the others, the indication for surgery was medical failure treatment at a mean delay of 19 days. The evolution was fatal at 5 patients. and the evolution was favorable at the others.Prothetic endocarditis complicated of abscess are serious requiring frequently a prothetic replacement, a very high risked surgery. TEE must be systematic at all patients carrier of prosthesis if they have infectious syndrome in order to carry the early diagnosis of IE and to avoid abcess formation

Biomarcadores de estrés oxidativo en las branquias del bivalvo Mactra stultorum expuesto a acrilamida

Acrylamide (ACR) is among the most deleterious pollutants in the environment and presents a serious risk to humans and ecosystems. The purpose of this study was to assess its effects when administered at different concentrations (5, 10 and 20 mg L–1) to evaluate antioxidant status in the gills of Mactra stultorum. Our results showed, after five days of treat­ment, an increase in malondialdehyde (MDA), lipid hydroperoxides (LOOH), advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP), reduced glutathione (GSH), ascorbic acid (Vit C) and metallothionein (MDA) levels in gills of treated clams compared with controls. Moreover, an increase in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and a significant decrease in glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities were also observed. Acrylamide induced neurotoxicity, as evidenced by the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in a dose-dependent manner. Overall, our results indicated that oxidative stress may be considered one of the mechanisms behind acrylamide toxicity in bivalves, although the subject requires more research.La acrilamida (ACR) es uno de los contaminantes más perjudiciales en el medio ambiente y presenta un grave riesgo para los seres humanos y los ecosistemas. El objetivo de este estudio es evaluar los efectos del ACR administrado a diferentes concentraciones (5, 10 y 20 mg L–1) con el fin de evaluar el estado antioxidante en las branquias de Mactra stulto­rum. Nuestros resultados mostraron, después de 5 días de tratamiento, un aumento en los niveles de malondialdehído (MDA), hidroperóxidos lipídicos (LOOH), proteínas de oxidación avanzada (AOPP), glutatión reducido (GSH), ácido ascórbico (vit C) y metalotioneínas (MTs) en las branquias de las almejas tratadas en comparación con los controles. Además, también se observó un aumento en la superóxidodismutasa (SOD) y una disminución significativa en las actividades de glutatión pero­xidasa (GPx). La acrilamida indujo neurotoxicidad como lo demuestra la inhibición de la actividad de la acetilcolinesterasa (AChE) de una manera dependiente de la dosis. En general, nuestros resultados indicaron que el estrés oxidativo puede con­siderarse como uno de los mecanismos detrás de la toxicidad por ACR en los bivalvos, aunque el tópico debería beneficiarse de más investigaciones