WHEAT DISPUTES UNDER NAFTA

International Relations/Trade,

Hydrodynamic propulsion of human sperm

The detailed fluid mechanics of sperm propulsion are fundamental to our understanding of reproduction. In this paper, we aim to model a human sperm swimming in a microscope slide chamber. We model the sperm itself by a distribution of regularized stokeslets over an ellipsoidal sperm head and along an infinitesimally thin flagellum. The slide chamber walls are modelled as parallel plates, also discretized by a distribution of regularized stokeslets. The sperm flagellar motion, used in our model, is obtained by digital microscopy of human sperm swimming in slide chambers. We compare the results of our simulation with previous numerical studies of flagellar propulsion, and compare our computations of sperm kinematics with those of the actual sperm measured by digital microscopy. We find that there is an excellent quantitative match of transverse and angular velocities between our simulations and experimental measurements of sperm. We also find a good qualitative match of longitudinal velocities and computed tracks with those measured in our experiment. Our computations of average sperm power consumption fall within the range obtained by other authors. We use the hydrodynamic model, and a prototype flagellar motion derived from experiment, as a predictive tool, and investigate how sperm kinematics are affected by changes to head morphology, as human sperm have large variability in head size and shape. Results are shown which indicate the increase in predicted straight-line velocity of the sperm as the head width is reduced and the increase in lateral movement as the head length is reduced. Predicted power consumption, however, shows a minimum close to the normal head aspect ratio

Competing for a duopoly : international trade and tax competition

Oligopoly is empirically prevalent in the industries where MNEs operate and national governments compete with fiscal inducements for their FDI projects. Despite this, existing formal treatments of fiscal competition generally focus on the polar cases of perfect competition and monopoly. We consider the competition between two potential host governments to attract the investment of both firms in a duopolistic industry. Competition by identical countries for a monopoly firm's investment is known to result in a 'race to the bottom' where all rents are captured by the firm through subsidies. We demonstrate that with two firms, both are taxed in equilibrium, despite the explicit non-cooperation between governments. When countries differ in size, a single firm will be attracted to the larger market. We explore the conditions under which both firms in the duopoly co-locate and when each nation attracts a firm in equilibrium. Our results are consistent with the observed stability of effective corporate tax rates in the face of ongoing globalization, and our analysis readily generalizes to many specifications with oligopoly in the product markets

Demand Enhancement through Food-Safety Regulation: Benefit-Cost Analysis of Collective Action in the California Pistachio Industry

Food safety shocks can threaten the health of consumers, create havoc within an industry and result in severe losses to producers. Governments often attempt to enhance food safety by mandating standards and inspection of food products to supplement the voluntary efforts by private firms. This paper assesses a form of collective action that falls between typical government mandates and purely private action. The California pistachio industry recently established a U.S. federal marketing order. This order sets quality standards and requires inspection and certification, aiming to reduce the likelihood of dangerous or poor quality pistachios being sold to consumers and to provide some quality assurance to consumers. Simulation results indicate that, across the full range of parameters used in the analysis, the benefit-cost analysis was always favorable to the new policy. Continuing work is extending the analysis to account for some particular features of the pistachio industry, to consider alternative policies, and to draw inferences for the application of similar policies to other California specialty crops.Food Safety, Collective Action, Specialty Crops, Government Regulation, Marketing Orders, Pistachios, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Q18, Q13, I18, H4,

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF MANDATED GRADING AND TESTING TO AVOID A NEGATIVE FOOD SAFETY EVENT: EX ANTE ANALYSIS OF THE FEDERAL MARKETING ORDER FOR PISTACHIOS

The California pistachio industry led an initiative to establish a federal marketing order, which mandates quality standards and an inspection program to assure food safety and consistency in the quality of California pistachios. We develop a stochastic dynamic simulation model of the pistachio market to investigate quantitatively the likely effects of such collective action enforced by government mandates. Simulation results indicate that, across the full range of parameters used in the analysis, the benefit-cost analysis was always favorable to the proposed policy. The measured benefits to producers, the nation, or the world always well exceeded the corresponding measure of costs, typically by many times.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Industry-mandated testing to improve food safety: the new US marketing order for pistachios

Food safety shocks can threaten the health of consumers, create havoc within an industry and result in severe losses to producers. Governments often attempt to aid food safety by mandating standards and inspection of food products to supplement the efforts by private firms and industries. This article assesses a form of collective action that falls between typical government mandates and purely private action. The California pistachio industry recently established a U.S. federal marketing order, which sets quality standards and inspection to reduce the likelihood of dangerous or poor quality pistachios. Simulation results indicate that, across the full range of parameters used in the analysis, the benefit-cost analysis was always favorable to the new policy. In the case of California pistachios, collective action is likely to be a helpful tool to ensure a safe product and increase benefits to producers and consumers.food safety, food scare, collective action, marketing orders, pistachios, public good, food regulations, cost-benefit analysis, Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Acute tryptophan depletion attenuates conscious appraisal of social emotional signals in healthy female volunteers

Rationale: Acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) decreases levels of central serotonin. ATD thus enables the cognitive effects of serotonin to be studied, with implications for the understanding of psychiatric conditions, including depression. Objective: To determine the role of serotonin in conscious (explicit) and unconscious/incidental processing of emotional information. Materials and methods: A randomized, double-blind, cross-over design was used with 15 healthy female participants. Subjective mood was recorded at baseline and after 4 h, when participants performed an explicit emotional face processing task, and a task eliciting unconscious processing of emotionally aversive and neutral images presented subliminally using backward masking. Results: ATD was associated with a robust reduction in plasma tryptophan at 4 h but had no effect on mood or autonomic physiology. ATD was associated with significantly lower attractiveness ratings for happy faces and attenuation of intensity/arousal ratings of angry faces. ATD also reduced overall reaction times on the unconscious perception task, but there was no interaction with emotional content of masked stimuli. ATD did not affect breakthrough perception (accuracy in identification) of masked images. Conclusions: ATD attenuates the attractiveness of positive faces and the negative intensity of threatening faces, suggesting that serotonin contributes specifically to the appraisal of the social salience of both positive and negative salient social emotional cues. We found no evidence that serotonin affects unconscious processing of negative emotional stimuli. These novel findings implicate serotonin in conscious aspects of active social and behavioural engagement and extend knowledge regarding the effects of ATD on emotional perception

Life long learning in rural areas: a report to the Countryside Agency

Lifelong Learning is a broad umbrella term which includes many different kinds of provision and different forms of learning. At its heart is formal learning, often classroom based, or involving paper and electronic media, undertaken within educational institutions such as colleges and universities. It may or may not lead to an award and it includes learning undertaken for vocational reasons as well as for general interest. It encompasses what are sometimes also known as adult education, continuing education, continuing professional development (cpd), vocational training and the acquisition of basic skills. It may also include work-based learning, and may overlap with post compulsory (post 16) education, i.e. with further education and higher education, but normally applies to all ‘adult learning’ i.e. by people over the age of 19, in particular those who are returning to study after completing their initial education. From the perspective of the individual learner, however, non-formal learning (organised, systematic study carried on outside the framework of the formal system) is also important. This forms a continuum with informal learning that occurs frequently in the process of daily living, sometimes coincidentally for example through information media or through interpretive provision (such as at museums or heritage sites ). This report focuses on those aspects of adult learning which are directly affected by government policies, and thus of prime concern for rural proofing