Growth, debt, and sovereign risk in a small, open economy

The continuing debt crisis that many developing countries have faced in the current decade has underscored the need to understand the relationships between debt accumulation and growth, as well as the need to develop policy approaches that foster adjustment in the external account while maintaining the growth of output. The purpose of this paper is to develop a macroeconomic model for a small open developing economy that borrows abroad. This model will assist in studying the dynamic interaction between debt and growth, as well as the impact of various policies and exogenous shocks on the rate of capital accumulation, the current account and debt. From this analysis, the authors make the following conclusions. An upward shift in the supply of debt leads to a long run decline in external debt, a higher domestic interest rate, less capital stock, and a reduced trade surplus. An increase in the marginal cost of debt may or may not lower long run external debt as well. An increase in productivity raises the long run stock of capital but leaves the level of external debt and the interest rate unchanged in the long run. Finally, fiscal expansion has almost no effect in either the short run or the long run.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Strategic Debt Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation

Involvement of Mycoplasma synoviae in Respiratory Distress Cases of Broilers

Mycoplasma synoviae (MS) is an important pathogen of poultry worldwide, causing respiratory tract infection and infectious synovitis in chickens and turkeys. The study was designed to detect M. synoviae through serology, culture isolation and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to document the involvement of MS infection in respiratory distress cases of broiler birds. The validated PCR assay amplifying the conserved gene region of 16SrRNA gene was applied for the detection of M. synoviae from culture as well as in clinical samples. The results indicated that 04 out of total 17 commercial broiler flocks showing respiratory distress signs were found positive with M. synoviae infection indicating 76.57% sero-positivity as, determined with rapid serum agglutination (RSA) test. Out of 85 clinical specimens (collected from sero-positive birds); M. synoviae culture isolation was successfully attained in 36 (42.35%) samples. Whereas, PCR test has detected 84 (98.82%) positive cases. The prevalence of MS in broiler birds was observed maximum as measured through PCR. It is suggested that the true prevalence of MS may best be reflected by combining RSA and PCR test findings

Molecular analysis of genetic diversity in elite II synthetic hexaploid wheat screened against Barley yellow dwarf virus

The presence of sufficient genetic diversity in the germplam is an important prerequisite for the improve-ment and efficient use of available material. Traditionally, the data on agronomic, morphological and physiological plants traits are used to estimate the genetic diversity. But now molecular markers are available for authenticated and reliable studies for genetic diversity. The present study was conducted to assess the genetic diversity of Elite-II synthetic hexaploid (SH) wheat by genome DNA fingerprinting as revealed by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. Ten decamer RAPD primers (OPG-1, OPG-2, OPG-3, OPG-4, OPG-5, OPA-3, OPA-4, OPA-5, OPA-8, and OPA-15) were used to evaluate the diversity profile of the selected SH entries. Primers OPG-2 andOPA-4 gave the highly polymorphic results. The pair wise similarity values shows that genotypes 1, 20 and 30 have most closest relationship with highest similarity values i.e., 100% while genotypes 9and 13 show dictinct relationship with minimum similarity value that is, 54%. Therefore, the allelic variation of the SH resistance germplasm is a potent means to enrich and improve bread wheat cultivars where BYDV is a production threat and these can be used in future wheat breeding programme

Learning to speak on behalf of a group: medium access control for sending a shared message

The rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies has not only enabled new applications, but also presented new challenges for reliable communication with limited resources. In this work, we define a novel problem that can arise in these scenarios, in which a set of sensors need to communicate a joint observation. This observation is shared by a random subset of the nodes, which need to propagate it to the rest of the network, but coordination is complex: as signaling constraints require the use of random access schemes over shared channels, sensors need to implicitly coordinate, so that at least one transmission gets through without collisions. Unlike the majority of existing medium access schemes, the goal is to make sure that the shared message gets through, regardless of the sender. We analyze this coordination problem theoretically and provide low-complexity solutions. While a clustering-based approach is near-optimal if the sensors have prior knowledge, we provide a distributed multi-armed bandit (MAB) solution for the more general case and validate it by simulation

A unique bacteriohopanetetrol stereoisomer of marine anammox

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) is a major process of bioavailable nitrogen removal from marine systems. Previously, a bacteriohopanetetrol (BHT) isomer, with unknown stereochemistry, eluting later than BHT using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), was detected in ‘Ca. Scalindua profunda’ and proposed as a biomarker for anammox in marine paleo-environments. However, the utility of this BHT isomer as an anammox biomarker is hindered by the fact that four other, non-anammox bacteria are also known to produce a late-eluting BHT stereoisomer. The stereochemistry in Acetobacter pasteurianus, Komagataeibacter xylinus and Frankia sp. was known to be 17β, 21β(H), 22R, 32R, 33R, 34R (BHT-34R). The stereochemistry of the late-eluting BHT in Methylocella palustris was unknown. To determine if marine anammox bacteria produce a unique BHT isomer, we studied the BHT distributions and stereochemistry of known BHT isomer producers and of previously unscreened marine (‘Ca. Scalindua brodeae’) and freshwater (‘Ca. Brocadia sp.’) anammox bacteria using HPLC and gas chromatographic (GC) analysis of acetylated BHTs and ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)-high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) analysis of non-acetylated BHTs. The 34R stereochemistry was confirmed for the BHT isomers in Ca. Brocadia sp. and Methylocella palustris. However, ‘Ca. Scalindua sp.’ synthesise a stereochemically distinct BHT isomer, with still unconfirmed stereochemistry (BHT-x). Only GC analysis of acetylated BHT and UHPLC analysis of non-acetylated BHT distinguished between late-eluting BHT isomers. Acetylated BHT-x and BHT-34R co-elute by HPLC. As BHT-x is currently only known to be produced by ‘Ca. Scalindua spp.’, it may be a biomarker for marine anammox

Quality of service optimization in IoT driven intelligent transportation system

High mobility in ITS, especially V2V communication networks, allows increasing coverage and quick assistance to users and neighboring networks, but also degrades the performance of the entire system due to fluctuation in the wireless channel. How to obtain better QoS during multimedia transmission in V2V over future generation networks (i.e., edge computing platforms) is very challenging due to the high mobility of vehicles and heterogeneity of future IoT-based edge computing networks. In this context, this article contributes in three distinct ways: to develop a QoS-aware, green, sustainable, reliable, and available (QGSRA) algorithm to support multimedia transmission in V2V over future IoT-driven edge computing networks; to implement a novel QoS optimization strategy in V2V during multimedia transmission over IoT-based edge computing platforms; to propose QoS metrics such as greenness (i.e., energy efficiency), sustainability (i.e., less battery charge consumption), reliability (i.e., less packet loss ratio), and availability (i.e., more coverage) to analyze the performance of V2V networks. Finally, the proposed QGSRA algorithm has been validated through extensive real-time datasets of vehicles to demonstrate how it outperforms conventional techniques, making it a potential candidate for multimedia transmission in V2V over self-adaptive edge computing platforms

Isolation and biochemical characterizations of the bacteria (Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae) associated with red stripe disease of sugarcane

Studies on Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae, associated with red stripe disease of sugarcane was conducted in the Department of Plant Pathology, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi during 2009 to 2010, in collaboration with Shakarganj Sugar Research Institute (SSRI), Jhang, Pakistan. Red stripe of sugarcane were recently observed on promising clones of sugarcane planted in autumn 2009 at Ashaba Research Farm of SSRI. Bacteria were isolated from diseased plants. These isolates yielded off white convex colonies on potato dextrose agar (PDA) media at 29°C with 1.7 to 1.9 mm diameter and were yellow on yeast extract dextrose chalk agar (YDC) media at 27°C with 1.8 to 2.0 mm diameter. The bacteria were rod shape measuring 0.5 to 0.6 × 1.4 to 1.6 μm on PDA and 0.6 to 0.7 × 1.5 to 1.7 μm on YDC. Bacterial culture was stored at different temperature levels for 150 days. Reisolation of bacterial culture which was stored at 4°C showed best result on YDC at 27°C after 150 days, whereas it showed positive result after 120 days on PDA at 29°C. Bacteria were gram negative, citrate utilization was positive, oxidase was negative, catalase was positive and urease was negative. Morphological appearance and biochemical characterizations identified the bacteria as A. avenae subsp. Avenae. In vitro screening for the efficacy of various antibiotics to inhibit the growth of A. avenae subsp. avenae on YDC media showed that ampicillin and vancomycin were most effective. Artificial inoculation on sugarcane against red stripe disease was observed. Observations were made upto six weeks for disease development. Out of 27 varieties, 16 were found resistant, four moderately resistant, five moderately susceptible and two susceptible.Key words: Sugarcane, yeast extract dextrose chalk agar (YDC), potato dextrose agar (PDA), Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae, biochemical characterization, antibiotics