Neckties in the Tropics: a Model of International Trade and Cultural Diversity

Some cultural goods, like clothes and films, are consumed socially and are thus characterized by the same consumption network externalities as languages. At the same time, producers of new cultural goods in any one country draw on the stock of ideas generated by previous cultural production in all countries. For such goods, costless trade and communication tend to lead to the dominance of one cultural style, increasing utility in the short run but reducing quality and generating cultural stagnation in the long run. Increasing trade costs while keeping communication costs low may reduce welfare by stimulating production of cultural goods that are “compatible†with the dominant style, thereby capturing consumption network externalities, but that add little to the stock of usable ideas. Our two-country analysis suggests a reform of cultural policy whereby import restrictions in the smaller country are replaced by subsidies to the fixed costs of production of “authentic†new cultural goods, funded by contributions from the larger countryGains from trade; Cultural goods; Diversity; Network externalities

Neckties in the Tropics: A Model of International Trade and Cultural Diversity

Some cultural goods, like clothes and films, are consumed socially and are thus characterized by the same consumption network externalities as languages. At the same time, producers of new cultural goods in any one country draw on the stock of ideas generated by previous cultural production in all countries. For such goods, costless trade and communication tend to lead to the dominance of one cultural style, increasing utility in the short run but reducing quality and generating cultural stagnation in the long run. Increasing trade costs while keeping communication costs low may reduce welfare by stimulating production of cultural goods that are "compatible" with the dominant style, thereby capturing consumption network externalities, but that add little to the stock of usable ideas. A reform of cultural policy suggested by our two-country analysis could be to remove import restrictions in the smaller country and replace them with subsidies to the fixed costs of production of new cultural goods in its traditional style.

Neckties in the Tropics: A Model of International Trade and Cultural Diversity

Some cultural goods, like clothes and films, are consumed socially and are thus characterized by the same consumption network externalities as languages. At the same time, producers of new cultural goods in any one country draw on the stock of ideas generated by previous cultural production in all countries. For such goods, costless trade and communication tend to lead to the dominance of one cultural style, increasing utility in the short run but reducing quality and generating cultural stagnation in the long run. Increasing trade costs while keeping communication costs low may reduce welfare by stimulating production of cultural goods that are compatible with the dominant style, thereby capturing consumption network externalities, but that add little to the stock of usable ideas. Our two-country analysis suggests a reform of cultural policy whereby import restrictions in the smaller country are removed, and are replaced by subsidies to the fixed costs of production of new cultural goods in its traditional style.consumption network externalities, home market effect, globalization, cultural policy

Improving Physics learning with virtual environments: an example on the phases of water

Usually students have misconceptions on the microscopic structure and behaviour of matter. In order to overcome these difficulties computer-based worlds seem useful to visualize physical and chemical processes allowing for a better conceptual understanding. Since more 3-D virtual environments need to be explored and evaluated in science education, we have built a 3-D virtual environment – “Virtual Water” – to support the learning of Physics and Chemistry at the final high school and first-year university levels. It is centered in the microscopic structure of water and explores concepts related to water phases and the transitions between them.Usually students have misconceptions on the microscopic structure and behaviour of matter. In order to overcome these difficulties computer-based worlds seem useful to visualize physical and chemical processes allowing for a better conceptual understanding. Since more 3-D virtual environments need to be explored and evaluated in science education, we have built a 3-D virtual environment – “Virtual Water” – to support the learning of Physics and Chemistry at the final high school and first-year university levels. It is centered in the microscopic structure of water and explores concepts related to water phases and the transitions between them

Neckties in the Tropics: A Model of International Trade and Cultural Diversity

Some cultural goods, like clothes and films, are consumed socially and are thus characterized by the same consumption network externalities as languages. At the same time, producers of new cultural goods in any one country draw on the stock of ideas generated by previous cultural production in all countries. For such goods, costless trade and communication tend to lead to the dominance of one cultural style, increasing utility in the short run but reducing quality and generating cultural stagnation in the long run. Increasing trade costs while keeping communication costs low may reduce welfare by stimulating production of cultural goods that are “compatible” with the dominant style, thereby capturing consumption network externalities, but that add little to the stock of usable ideas. Our two-country analysis suggests a reform of cultural policy whereby import restrictions in the smaller country are removed, and are replaced by subsidies to the fixed costs of production of new cultural goods in its traditional style

Doenças da seringueira.

Atualmente, como no passado, varios fatores afetam de forma significativa a expansao da heveicultura e o desenvolvimento da seringueira no Brasil, desde a fase de viveiro ate a manutencao dos seringais em producao. As condicoes de umidade e temperatura da regiao sao extremamente favoraveis ao desenvolvimento de varios agentes patogenicos da seringueira. Assim, elaborou-se este documento com a finalidade de levar, aos plantadores de seringueira, conhecimentos sobre as doencas provocadas por esses patogenos em todas as suas particularidades, bem como as medidas para seu controle, fatores decisivos para o sucesso de um empreendimento heveicola, dada a importancia economica que assumem os prejuizos causados por tais molestias.bitstream/item/108584/1/CPAA-CIRC.-TEC.-4-84.pd

Exploring the spectroscopic diversity of type Ia supernovae with DRACULA: a machine learning approach

The existence of multiple subclasses of type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) has been the subject of great debate in the last decade. One major challenge inevitably met when trying to infer the existence of one or more subclasses is the time consuming, and subjective, process of subclass definition. In this work, we show how machine learning tools facilitate identification of subtypes of SNeIa through the establishment of a hierarchical group structure in the continuous space of spectral diversity formed by these objects. Using Deep Learning, we were capable of performing such identification in a 4 dimensional feature space (+1 for time evolution), while the standard Principal Component Analysis barely achieves similar results using 15 principal components. This is evidence that the progenitor system and the explosion mechanism can be described by a small number of initial physical parameters. As a proof of concept, we show that our results are in close agreement with a previously suggested classification scheme and that our proposed method can grasp the main spectral features behind the definition of such subtypes. This allows the confirmation of the velocity of lines as a first order effect in the determination of SNIa subtypes, followed by 91bg-like events. Given the expected data deluge in the forthcoming years, our proposed approach is essential to allow a quick and statistically coherent identification of SNeIa subtypes (and outliers). All tools used in this work were made publicly available in the Python package Dimensionality Reduction And Clustering for Unsupervised Learning in Astronomy (DRACULA) and can be found within COINtoolbox (https://github.com/COINtoolbox/DRACULA).Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Necessidades de pesquisa e desenvolvimento no Brasil nas culturas da banana e do mamão - percepções das cadeias produtivas.

Para que as ações de pesquisa e desenvolvimento (P&D) de instituições públicas sejam melhor direcionadas às demandas do setor produtivo, é necessária interação direta com o mesmo. Em 2011 ocorreram no Brasil dois importantes encontros das cadeias produtivas da banana e do mamão: o Simpósio Internacional Promusa ? ISHS ? Bananas e Plátanos: Produção global sustentável e usos alternativos; o Papaya Brasil 2011 ? V Simpósio do Papaya Brasileiro. Os dois eventos reuniram uma série de especialistas, produtores, extensionistas, representantes dos setores de insumos e pesquisadores envolvidos com essas culturas