Latin America and Asia Pacific trade and investment relations at a time of international financial crisis

Includes BibliographyThe global economic crisis has put an end to a period of worldwide expansion and halted the integration of Latin America and developing Asia with the international economy. Current and expected economic weakness in the advanced economies has led us to look elsewhere for sources of growth. Emerging economies in Asia and Latin America have increased their contributions to world production, finance, and trade in the past decades. In doing so, the two regions have deepened their economic ties with significant implications for the recovery of their respective economies. In this paper we discuss the impact of the crisis on the commercial patterns inside and outside the Forum for East Asia Latin American Cooperation (FEALAC) bloc. We describe the FEALAC economy and identify existing trade and investment structures, and find important structural shortcomings such as a high dependence on inter-industry trade between Asia and Latin America. We argue that this is also an opportunity for greater integration into bi-regional value-added chains and that trade and cooperation between the two regions can be an effective means to counterbalance the adverse effects of the current financial turmoil

Identification of potential novel proteomic markers of Leishmania spp.-derived exosomes

IntroductionExtracellular vesicles (EVs) are heterogenous cell-derived membrane-bound structures which can be subdivided into three distinct classes according to distinct morphological characteristics, cellular origins, and functions. Small EVs, or exosomes, can be produced by the protozoan parasite Leishmania through the evolutionarily conserved ESCRT pathway, and act as effectors of virulence and drivers of pathogenesis within mammalian hosts. Techniques for the identification of EVs of non-mammalian origin, however, remain inaccurate in comparison to their well-characterized mammalian counterparts. Thus, we still lack reliable and specific markers for Leishmania-derived exosomes, which poses a significant challenge to the field.MethodsHerein, we utilized serial differential ultracentrifugation to separate Leishmania-derived EV populations into three distinct fractions. Nanoparticle tracking analysis and transmission electron microscopy were used to validate their morphological characteristics, and bioinformatic analysis of LC-MS/MS proteomics corroborated cellular origins and function.DiscussionProteomic data indicated potential novel proteic markers of Leishmania-derived exosomes, including proteins involved in endosomal machinery and the ESCRT pathway, as well as the parasitic phosphatase PRL-1. Further investigation is required to determine the specificity and sensitivity of these markers

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

The liberalization of environmental goods and services: overview and implications for Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes BibliographyThis paper focuses primarily on proposals to liberalize trade of Environmental Goods, characterizing the trade of these products in Latin America and the Caribbean. The objective is to help identify trends, risks and opportunities for exporters as well as for importers, in a context of increased global competition in manufactured products from Asia and China in particular. For Latin America and the Caribbean, implementing policies aimed at both lowering trade barriers to environmental goods and services and "greening" the region's export basket will result in gains both for the environment and for productive and export diversification since some countries are already leaders in global markets of environmental goods and services and are well positioned to expand their positions. There are large risks, however, given the existing preferential access by some developing countries and the significant differences in manufacturing capacity that threaten domestic industries of key technologies

Exchange rate policy among trading partners: Does it pay to be different?

Most models of monetary coordination overlook two important aspects of exchange rate regimes in developing countries: countries generally peg to a single currency, and they may or may not adopt the same exchange rate regime as many of their trading partners, especially during periods of financial instability (such as the 1990s). This paper develops a model in which two trading partners initially peg their currency to that of a “large” country. Then we ask: does it matter if these countries adopt different currency regimes? We show that under certain circumstances the choice of a trading partner to float can impair the economic performance of the economy which maintains a hard peg. In other words, countries that maintain a pegged exchange rate can suffer welfare losses if their trading partners switch to more flexible forms of exchange rates. To test the empirical impact of these “third country” effects, we develop a new index of exchange regime “similarity” across trading partners using a variation of the de jure exchange rate regime derived from the IMF\u27s Annual Report on Exchange Rate Arrangements and Restrictions. Estimates based on panels of 23 and 154 countries show the decision of one\u27s trading partners to adopt “different” (more flexible) regimes imposes a statistically significant cost in terms of slower real growth and higher interest rates. Terms of trade shocks also impact pegged and different economies more, suggesting that flexible rate countries can shift some of the burden of adjustment to less flexible trading partners. The policy implications of these results are straight-forward: when trading partners float, the benefits of a pegged regimes diminish. An example of this phenomenon is Argentina during the late 1990s. Post 1994 both Argentina and Brazil linked their currencies to the dollar. In 1998 Brazil switched to floating rate regime while Argentina ignored the decision of her trading partner at considerable cost in lost output. The empirical results of this paper show that these “third country”, effects are common to other countries as well

Trade, poverty and complementary policies

Includes bibliograph

The new era of carbon accounting: issues and implications for Latin American and Caribbean exports

Includes BibliographyThis paper focuses on the recent trends of private and unilateral efforts to account for the carbon emissions of traded goods, with the objective of identifying possible risks and opportunities for Latin American and Caribbean exporters. It presents a description of the ongoing initiatives, standards and proposed legislation that are relevant to the discussion. It follows this by identifying the shortfalls and challenges of carbon footprinting, and the implications for Latin American and Caribbean export competitiveness. Finally it provides policy suggestions for the region, assuming the growing demand for carbon emissions accountin

Improving SDG Classification Precision Using Combinatorial Fusion

Combinatorial fusion algorithm (CFA) is a machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML/AI) framework for combining multiple scoring systems using the rank-score characteristic (RSC) function and cognitive diversity (CD). When measuring the relevance of a publication or document with respect to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, a classification scheme is used. However, this classification process is a challenging task due to the overlapping goals and contextual differences of those diverse SDGs. In this paper, we use CFA to combine a topic model classifier (Model A) and a semantic link classifier (Model B) to improve the precision of the classification process. We characterize and analyze each of the individual models using the RSC function and CD between Models A and B. We evaluate the classification results from combining the models using a score combination and a rank combination, when compared to the results obtained from human experts. In summary, we demonstrate that the combination of Models A and B can improve classification precision only if these individual models perform well and are diverse

Effects of trade opening on household welfare: the Chilean case

Includes BibliographyThe document presents an ex-post analysis of the effects of trade policy changes on poverty and income distribution in Chile between 1999 and 2006. We follow the methodology developed by Porto (2006) and Nicita (2009), both of whom identify three channels of transmission through which a change in trade policy variables (e.g., tariffs) affects the welfare of households. The effect is estimated by characterizing the labor demand elasticities, the effect of border prices on revenues, and the ensuing effect on the wage bill of each industry