A cadeia têxtil/confecções perante os desafios da Alca e do acordo comercial com a União Européia

The article discusses the opportunities and risks that are facing the textile/garment manufacturing productive chain (TGC), bearing in mind the prospects of creating free trade areas in the Americas (Alca) and with the European Union (EU). The article looks at both the external trends and the internal prospects for Brazil. As for the former, the article shows that inequalities in the international trade of the TGC are manifold and have been prejudicial to the country. The article also shows that the Brazilian TGC is very competitive when it comes to cotton cultivation, and cotton spinning and weaving. In the two latter sectors, the leadership of the chain is in the hands of a small group of large, internationally competitive companies. In the TGC, however, there are two serious problems: a large number of inefficient companies and a less competitive sub-chain, that of synthetic and artificial fiber-based products. There is, therefore, an economic policy dilemma. The exporting companies need Alca and the EU accord to remain competitive. But these agreements may prove detrimental to a significant part of the TGC, which is less competitive.ALCA, free trade area, textile industry, garment manufacture, competitiviness

UMA ANÁLISE DO BAIXO GRAU DE INOVAÇÃO NA INDÚSTRIA BRASILEIRA A PARTIR DO ESTUDO DAS FIRMAS MENOS INOVADORAS

This paper analyses the patterns of technological activities found in 53,102 Brazilian industrial firms that do not differentiate products and have lower productivity, a set which encompasses 78.5% of the total number of Brazilian industrial firms (foreign capital firms and firms dedicated to extractive activities were not considered). The revenue of firms that innovate is twice as large as those that do not. The size of the firm is an obstacle to innovation. Also, the innovation is predominantly "process innovation". Even among the firms that introduce innovations in products, the innovation is many times due to the acquisition of machines with different capacities than the pre existent ones. The absolute expenditure in R&D is very low and almost always discontinuous. In this context, industrial extensionism is the best policy to support product innovation. Policy support to the innovation process is also beneficial, as it swims with the tide, besides it induce product innovation. Thus, the development of the capital good sector has a fundamental impact on the expansion of innovative behavior in Brazil. In any case, a larger credit availability and lower interest rates would be useful policies.

La inserción de América Latina en las cadenas globales de valor

Se examina la integración de firmas latinoamericanas al modelo de Cadenas Globales de Valor (CGV), analizando la formación de cadenas lideradas por firmas de los países de América Latina y evaluando su impacto sobre el comercio, la inversión y el dualismo estructural. Aunque la adopción de cadenas globales de valor aún es incipiente en la región y es bastante heterogénea entre países, existen prácticas diversas de esta nueva forma de organizar la producción que son relevantes no sólo para la comprensión de su impacto en la economía de la región, sino también para la concepción de políticas e incentivos en este dominio. Se presentan reseñas sobre los países de América del Sur, América Central y México, así como análisis de casos específicos de las cadenas electrónica y automovilística brasileñas

Genome sequence comparisons reveal interspecific hybridizations and admixture in citrus domestication : [W317]

Citrus is the most globally significant tree fruit, but its history of domestication is not well understood. Cultivated citrus types are believed to be direct selections from, or hybrids of, several progenitor species; however, the identities of these species and their contributions to modern cultivars remain unclear and controversial. A collection of different genomes of mandarins, pummelos, and oranges, including a high quality reference sequence from a haploid Clementine mandarin, has been assembled. By comparative analyses we show that these cultivated types were derived from two progenitor species, C. maxima and C. reticulata. Although it was determined that the sequenced cultivated pummelos represent selections from C. maxima, the cultivated mandarins proved to be introgressions of C. maxima into a distinct second population identified as the ancestral wild mandarin species, C. reticulata. Sweet and sour oranges were found to be hybrids between these two species. Sweet orange, the most widely cultivated citrus, arose as the offspring of previously admixed individuals. Sour (or Seville) orange was found to be an F1 hybrid of pure C. maximaand C. reticulata parents, indicating that wild mandarins were at least a part of the early breeding germplasm. Sequence analysis also revealed that at least one Chinese "wild mandarin" actually represents a citrus species distinct from C. reticulata, suggesting the possibility that other unrecognized wild citrus species may be identified. Understanding the phylogeny of cultivated citrus by comparative genome analysis will clarify taxonomic relationships and potentially lead to previously inconceivable opportunities for genetic improvement. (Texte intégral

The Chlamydomonas genome project: A decade on

The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a popular unicellular organism for studying photosynthesis, cilia biogenesis, and micronutrient homeostasis. Ten years since its genome project was initiated an iterative process of improvements to the genome and gene predictions has propelled this organism to the forefront of the omics era. Housed at Phytozome, the plant genomics portal of the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), the most up-to-date genomic data include a genome arranged on chromosomes and high-quality gene models with alternative splice forms supported by an abundance of whole transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) data. We present here the past, present, and future of Chlamydomonas genomics. Specifically, we detail progress on genome assembly and gene model refinement, discuss resources for gene annotations, functional predictions, and locus ID mapping between versions and, importantly, outline a standardized framework for naming genes

Functional diversification of Argonautes in nematodes:an expanding universe

In the last decade, many diverse RNAi (RNA interference) pathways have been discovered that mediate gene silencing at epigenetic, transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. The diversity of RNAi pathways is inherently linked to the evolution of Ago (Argonaute) proteins, the central protein component of RISCs (RNA-induced silencing complexes). An increasing number of diverse Agos have been identified in different species. The functions of most of these proteins are not yet known, but they are generally assumed to play roles in development, genome stability and/or protection against viruses. Recent research in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has expanded the breadth of RNAi functions to include transgenerational epigenetic memory and, possibly, environmental sensing. These functions are inherently linked to the production of secondary siRNAs (small interfering RNAs) that bind to members of a clade of WAGOs (worm-specific Agos). In the present article, we review briefly what is known about the evolution and function of Ago proteins in eukaryotes, including the expansion of WAGOs in nematodes. We postulate that the rapid evolution of WAGOs enables the exceptional functional plasticity of nematodes, including their capacity for parasitism