Agricultural Trade, Biodiversity Effects and Food Price Volatility

Production risks in agriculture due to biotic elements such as pests create biodiversity effects that impede productivity. Pesticides reduce these effects but are damaging for the environment and human health. When regulating farming practices, governments weigh these side-effects against the competitiveness of their agriculture. In a Ricardian two-country setup, we show that free trade results in an incomplete production specialization, that restrictions on pesticides are generally more stringent than under autarky and that trade increases the price volatility of crops produced by both countries and some of the specialized crops. If biodiversity effects are large, the price volatility of all crops is larger than under autarky

Spontaneous circadian rhythms in a cold-Adapted natural isolate of Aureobasidium pullulans

Indexación: Scopus.Circadian systems enable organisms to synchronize their physiology to daily and seasonal environmental changes relying on endogenous pacemakers that oscillate with a period close to 24 h even in the absence of external timing cues. The oscillations are achieved by intracellular transcriptional/translational feedback loops thoroughly characterized for many organisms, but still little is known about the presence and characteristics of circadian clocks in fungi other than Neurospora crassa. We sought to characterize the circadian system of a natural isolate of Aureobasidium pullulans, a cold-Adapted yeast bearing great biotechnological potential. A. pullulans formed daily concentric rings that were synchronized by light/dark cycles and were also formed in constant darkness with a period of 24.5 h. Moreover, these rhythms were temperature compensated, as evidenced by experiments conducted at temperatures as low as 10 °C. Finally, the expression of clock-essential genes, frequency, white collar-1, white collar-2 and vivid was confirmed. In summary, our results indicate the existence of a functional circadian clock in A. pullulans, capable of sustaining rhythms at very low temperatures and, based on the presence of conserved clock-gene homologues, suggest a molecular and functional relationship to well-described circadian systems.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14085-

Estudio del esfuerzo de rodadura en tractores articulados (4WD) y de tracción delantera asistida (FWA)

p.221-229En el autotransporte del tractor se producen tros tipos de pérdidas de transmisión, pérdidas por rodadura y pérdida por patinaje. Las pérdidas por transmisión conciernen al diseño de la misma, las pérdidas por patinaje y rodadura son las que más preocupan al productor (FWA y 4WD) comunes a nuestro mercado agrícola, sobre estas condiciones de suelo diferentes, suelo arado, cama de siembra y siembra directa. Los parámetros evaluados fueron: esfuerzos de rodadura fueron contrastados con las fórmulas de predicción de Wismer y Luth y de MCallister. Las conclusiones obtenidas fueron 1) La potencia pérdida en rodadura se incrementó en suelos de baja capacidad portante; 2) Para predecir esfuerzo de rodadura en tractores (FWA y 4WD) cuando transitan sobre suelos arados se puede utilizar la ecuación de predicción de Wismer y Luth; 3) El porcentaje de potencia del motor pérdida por rodadura fue mayor para el tractor FWA cuando transitó sobre suelos de baja capacidad portante, 4) La menor relación potencia pérdida en rodadura 7 potencia motor fue mejor para el 4 WD en suelo cama de siembra y suelo arado, no así en siembra directa y 5) Se encontró, sobre los suelos blandos, una relación directa entre profundidad de huella y el peso del tractor que lo transitó

Nuclear matrix protein Matrin3 regulates alternative splicing and forms overlapping regulatory networks with PTB.

Matrin3 is an RNA- and DNA-binding nuclear matrix protein found to be associated with neural and muscular degenerative diseases. A number of possible functions of Matrin3 have been suggested, but no widespread role in RNA metabolism has yet been clearly demonstrated. We identified Matrin3 by its interaction with the second RRM domain of the splicing regulator PTB. Using a combination of RNAi knockdown, transcriptome profiling and iCLIP, we find that Matrin3 is a regulator of hundreds of alternative splicing events, principally acting as a splicing repressor with only a small proportion of targeted events being co-regulated by PTB. In contrast to other splicing regulators, Matrin3 binds to an extended region within repressed exons and flanking introns with no sharply defined peaks. The identification of this clear molecular function of Matrin3 should help to clarify the molecular pathology of ALS and other diseases caused by mutations of Matrin3.We thank Nejc Haberman (UCL) for assisting in the generation of the splicing maps and preparation of the iCLIP data. This work was supported by Wellcome Trust programme grants to CWJS (077877 and 092900), and by grants to EE and NB BIO2011-23920 and RNAREG (CSD2009-00080) from the Spanish Government and by the Sandra Ibarra Foundation for Cancer (FSI2013). JA was supported by a Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds studentship.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from EMBO Press/Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.15252/embj.20148985

Quasi-static solution procedures for the finite element analysis of delaminations

LAUREA MAGISTRALEIl cedimento di strutture in materiale composito é determinato dall'accumulo di molteplici meccanismi di danno. Solitamente, il collasso di tali strutture avviene per carichi superiori a quelli per cui si ha l'inizio del danneggiamento. Alcuni meccanismi di danno, come le delaminazioni, non sono inoltre rilevabili ispezionando la super cie della struttura. Per questi motivi, le simulazioni numeriche per prevedere la propagazione del danneggiamento e il collasso delle strutture in materiale composito hanno assunto negli anni un ruolo chiave nella progettazione strutturale. Spesso, la propagazione delle delaminazioni é simulata per mezzo degli elementi coesivi. L'utilizzo di questi elementi puó portare a problemi numerici se l'analisi é eseguita utilizzando i tradizionali algoritmi quasi-statici. In questo lavoro, vengono sviluppate procedure quasi-statiche innovative per simulare la propagazione di delaminazioni con gli elementi coesivi. Nella prima parte della tesi, viene presentata una nuova classe di metodi arc-length, detti a vincolo ibrido, basati sull'idea di combinare un'equazione di vincolo geometrica ed una dissipativa per mezzo di una somma pesata. In questo ambito, vengono presentati tre algoritmi. Nella seconda parte del lavoro, sono introdotti due nuovi metodi di continuazione per studiare il comportamento in post-buckling di strutture in composito che contengono elementi coesivi. Il primo é una versione modi cata del metodo di continuazione di Riks basata su un'equazione di vincolo che contiene solo gli spostamenti nodali ed é sviluppato per l'analisi di problemi dominati da nonlinearitá geometriche. Il secondo é un nuovo metodo dipendente da un'equazione di vincolo basata sull'energia dissipata, ed é sviluppato appositamente per problemi dominati da nonlinearitá del materiale. Un'approfondita analisi delle caratteristiche dei diversi metodi proposti viene in ne presentata attraverso una serie di esempi numerici.The collapse of composite structures is determined by the accumulation of multiple damage mechanisms. These structure can usually bear higher loads after damage initiation, and the occurrence of some damage mechanisms, like delaminations, is not visible on the surface of the structure. For these reasons, numerical simulations to predict damage propagation and collapse in composite structures are assuming a key role in structural design. In recent years, delamination growth is usually predicted by means of cohesive elements. This approach can lead to numerical problems if traditional quasi-static algorithms are adopted to perform the analyses. In this work, innovative quasi-static procedures to simulate delamination growth using cohesive elements are developed. In the rst part of the thesis, a new class of arc-length techniques, the hybrid-constraint methods, is developed based on the idea of combining geometric and dissipative constraint equations by means of a weighted sum. Three algorithms belonging to this class are presented. In the second part of the work, two novel continuation methods are introduced to study the post-buckling behaviour of composite structures involving cohesive elements. The rst one is a modi ed version of the popular Riks' continuation method based on a constraint equation concerning only the nodal displacements, and is suited for problems dominated by geometric nonlinearities. The second one is an innovative method relying on a constraint equation based on energy dissipation, and is speci cally developed for problems dominated by material nonlinearities. The performance of the presented methods demonstrated by means of numerical tests

Accounting and innovation: evidence from external disclosure and internal management control systems

This dissertation is composed of three research papers that deal with the topic of “accounting and innovation” and provide evidence for the area of innovation from two accounting perspectives, i.e., the external disclosure perspective and the internal management control system perspective. The disclosure perspective is addressed in the first paper. Using content analysis, it examines the innovation capital disclosure characteristics, i.e., disclosure quantity and quality, in intellectual capital statements of 51 European for-profit firms. Additionally, the relationship between innovation capital disclosure characteristics and industry, firm size, region of domicile, and disclosure guidelines adopted are analyzed. The second and third paper address the management control system perspective. The second paper contributes to the research on management control systems in product development by exploring the performance effects and the interplay of the levers of control, i.e., interactive, diagnostic, beliefs, and boundary control systems, based on data from a survey of 468 senior managers from the manufacturing industry. Therefore, I compare by structural equation modeling a base model of unrelated levers of control (additive model) with (a) a model of mutual association of levers of control (interdependence model), (b) a model of joint use of levers of control (interaction model), and (c) a combined model of mutual association and joint use of levers of control (combined interdependence/interaction model). The best fitting and most parsimonious model is analyzed in terms of the performance effects of the levers of control. Based on the sample of the second paper, the third paper contributes to the recent literature on the relationship between management control systems and innovation by considering how the four levers of control are used as “packages” in product development. I employ cluster analysis to determine how the levers of control are combined, depending on the type of strategy formation (i.e., intended or emergent) and the degree of innovativeness of the firm. Furthermore, I explore which of these combinations are equifinal in terms of product development and organizational performance

The genome sequence of Saccharomyces Eubayanus and the domestication of Lager-Brewing yeasts

The dramatic phenotypic changes that occur in organisms during domestication leave indelible imprints on their genomes. Although many domesticated plants and animals have been systematically compared with their wild genetic stocks, the molecular and genomic processes underlying fungal domestication have received less attention. Here, we present a nearly complete genome assembly for the recently described yeast species Saccharomyces eubayanus and compare it to the genomes of multiple domesticated alloploid hybrids of S. eubayanus × S. cerevisiae (S. pastorianus syn. S. carlsbergensis), which are used to brew lager-style beers. We find that the S. eubayanus subgenomes of lager-brewing yeasts have experienced increased rates of evolution since hybridization, and that certain genes involved in metabolism may have been particularly affected. Interestingly, the S. eubayanus subgenome underwent an especially strong shift in selection regimes, consistent with more extensive domestication of the S. cerevisiae parent prior to hybridization. In contrast to recent proposals that lager-brewing yeasts were domesticated following a single hybridization event, the radically different neutral site divergences between the subgenomes of the two major lager yeast lineages strongly favor at least two independent origins for the S. cerevisiae × S. eubayanus hybrids that brew lager beers. Our findings demonstrate how this industrially important hybrid has been domesticated along similar evolutionary trajectories on multiple occasions.Fil: Baker, Emily Clare. University Of Wisconsin; Estados UnidosFil: Wang, Bing. University Of Wisconsin; Estados UnidosFil: Bellora, Nicolás. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad de Bariloche. Departamento de Biologia. Laboratorio de Microbiologia Aplicada y Biotecnologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Peris, David. University Of Wisconsin; Estados UnidosFil: Hulfachor, Amanda Beth. University Of Wisconsin; Estados UnidosFil: Koshalek, Justin A.. University Of Wisconsin; Estados UnidosFil: Adams, Marie. University Of Wisconsin; Estados UnidosFil: Libkind Frati, Diego. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad de Bariloche. Departamento de Biologia. Laboratorio de Microbiologia Aplicada y Biotecnologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Hittinger, Chris Todd. University Of Wisconsin; Estados Unido