UM ESTUDO PRELIMINAR DAS INFLUÊNCIAS DO MERCADO DE COMMODITIES NA VARIAÇÃO DO CUSTO DA ALIMENTAÇÃO DO TRABALHADOR: ANÁLISE DE RISCO DA SEGURANÇA ALIMENTAR E NUTRICIONAL

A Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional do trabalhador brasileiro é uma das formas de garantia de saúde e conseqüente aumento de produtividade refletido pelo compromisso do PAT Programa de Alimentação do Trabalhador que completou 30 anos em 2006. O objetivo do estudo é relacionar a variação de preços das commodities de alimentos presentes na refeição do trabalhador de acordo com o sistema normativo do PAT, identificando possíveis conseqüências negativas à Segurança Alimentar do Trabalhador no Brasil. A metodologia, por meio da análise de regressão múltipla, utiliza os dados de ICV Índice de Custo de Vida - de alimentação fora do domicílio como proxy a alimentação do trabalhador. Os resultados sugerem que os alimentos que apresentaram variação negativa com os tipos de refeições analisadas, como a carne suína e a soja, podem ser substituídos por outro valor nutricional semelhante como a carne bovina, o frango e o óleo de milho. Apenas a variação do preço do feijão foi seguida pelo aumento do preço do prato comercial, cuja alternativa é a mudança na maneira de oferecer a refeiç ão ao trabalhador, como os restaurantes por quilo. Diante do cenário exposto, há indícios de que a variação de preços dos alimentos no mercado de commodities teria pouca influência no preço final das refeições, mas a discussão em torno da futura escassez de oferta de alimentos devido ao aumento da população mundial e a mudança dos padrões alimentares com as sociedades urbanizadas insere o risco da SAN no contexto político e econômico da nutrição.(AU)

The Staple Commodities of the Knowledge Market

In this paper, the “Information Market” is introduced as a payable information exchange and based on it information interaction. In addition, special kind of Information Markets - the Knowledge Markets are outlined. The main focus of the paper is concentrated on the investigation of the staple commodities of the knowledge markets. They are introduced as kind of information objects, called “knowledge information objects”. The main theirs distinctive characteristic is that they contain information models, which concern sets of information models and interconnections between them.

Termos de troca, preço das commodities e o crescimento brasileiro : uma análise sob o prisma da restrição externa

This study aims to investigate the relationship between terms of trade and the long-term growth of Brazilian economy, from the perspective of external constraint, between the period 1994 to 2014. For this purpose, it is based on Thirlwall's (1979) original contribution, in order to empirically test the terms of trade contribution for determining the Brazilian growth potential product equivalent with Balance of Payments equilibriun. Using cointegration method, which seeks to analyze the long-term relationship between the variables, and subdividing the period into two sub-periods, 1994-2004 and 2004-2014, we estimate and compare real and hypothetical income elasticities and predicted and observed growth rates, with and without the terms of trade, for each period. The obteined results show that the inclusion of terms of trade in the empirical procedure to test the validity of Thirlwall's Law lead to higher growth rates obtained by the model (hypothetical), for the entire period 1994-2014 and for the sub-period 2004 -2014. This "theoretical" relaxation of the external constraint, caused by the inclusion of the terms of trade in traditional Thirlwall's rule, overestimated the average real growth rate for these periods, while the traditional Thirlwall's Law - without terms of trade - has adapted better to the real behavior of Brazilian economy. Thus, despite having contributed potentially for the relaxation of external constraint on Brazilian growth, the effect of terms of trade may have been offset by the negative performance of other Balance of Payments components, as capital flows and interest, profits and dividends payments abroad.

Restrição externa, dependência estrutural de commodities primárias e o investimento direto externo no Brasil

As the beginning of the discussion about the reprimarization process of the Brazilian exportations, or about a deindustrialization process of the country foreign sales, this study purpose that the discussion, actually, should be about the existence of the commodities structural dependence as a way to face the foreign restrictions. Therefore the intention is to show that, historically, the way that the Brazilian economy has crossed for its development depends of the foreign capital, mainly in its way of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and in the balance generated by the primary products, which make us try to understand the impact of this capital for the equilibrium of the Brazilian Payment Balance and also for the economy. These points were discussed not only based on the Brazilian classic writers as Francisco Oliveira, Caio Prado Jr. and Celso Furtado, but also using the newest studies which contributes to point the causes and consequences of the external capital dependence in the actual scenario. The conclusions acquired in the end of the study, indicates the fact that the Brazilian specialization in products of low aggregated value is not recent. Brazil is, historically, a competitive country in primary products. At the same time, the country importation always was a pressure factor of the National Payments Balance, being composed by products with more aggregated value. According to some authors, this characteristic of the Brazilian Economy will be surpassed with the economic opening process, which will attract external capital making possible the modernization of the Brazilian productive sector. Therefore, we can claim that the FDI, in the way it has been inserted in the country, does not offer the opportunity to get out of the commodities dependence, as generators of the payment balances, because the country international competitive standard didn t get any important changes, keeping itself out of the step related to the global standard which has been intensified in products with more aggregated value. The changes in the national insertion standard directed to more technological products is really important to surpass the historical scenario of commodities dependence, making the country less vulnerable to external crisis.

From traditional resource to global commodities: a comparison of Rhodiola species using NMR spectroscopy - metabolomics and HPTLC

The fast developing international trade of products based on traditional knowledge and their value chains has become an important aspect of the ethnopharmacological debate. The structure and diversity of value chains and their impact on the phytochemical composition of herbal medicinal products has been overlooked in the debate about quality problems in transnational trade. Different government policies and regulations governing trade in herbal medicinal products impact on such value chains. Medicinal Rhodiola species, including Rhodiola rosea L. and Rhodiola crenulata (Hook.f. & Thomson) H.Ohba, have been used widely in Europe and Asia as traditional herbal medicines with numerous claims for their therapeutic effects. Faced with resource depletion and environment destruction, R. rosea and R. crenulata are becoming endangered, making them more economically valuable to collectors and middlemen, and also increasing the risk of adulteration and low quality. We compare the phytochemical differences among Rhodiola raw materials available on the market to provide a practical method for Rhodiola authentication and the detection of potential adulterant compounds. Samples were collected from Europe and Asia and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy coupled with multivariate analysis software and high performance thin layer chromatography techniques were used to analyse the samples. A method was developed to quantify the amount of adulterant species contained within mixtures. We compared the phytochemical composition of collected Rhodiola samples to authenticated samples. Rosavin and rosarin were mainly present in R. rosea whereas crenulatin was only present in R. crenulata. 30% of the Rhodiola samples purchased from the Chinese market were adulterated by other Rhodiola spp. Moreover, 7 % of the raw-material samples were not labelled satifactorily. The utilisation of both 1H-NMR and HPTLC methods provided an integrated analysis of the phytochemical differences and novel identification method for R. rosea and R. crenulata. Using 1H-NMR spectroscopy it was possible to quantify the presence of R. crenulata in admixtures with R. rosea. This quantitative technique could be used in the future to assess a variety of herbal drugs and products. This project also highlights the need to further study the links between producers and consumers in national and trans-national trade.

PRODUÇÃO DE COMMODITIES, DESMATAMENTO E INSEGURANÇA ALIMENTAR NA AMAZÔNIA BRASILEIRA

A abertura comercial no Brasil tem implicado significativas alterações na dinâmica socioeconômica da região amazônica, através da expansão da área ocupada pela produção de commodities, tendo impactos diretos na devastação da floresta e na desestruturação dos sistemas locais de produção de alimentos. Assim, agrava-se o risco de insegurança alimentar e nutricional da população, ao se desarticular a produção de alimentos básicos; quebram-se vínculos culturais e altera-se o equilíbrio ambiental. Ampliam-se, pois, os desafios que a serem enfrentados pelo continente latino-americano, contraditoriamente, num contexto histórico em que se manifestam intenções de diversos governos e organismos internacionais, a exemplo da Organização das Nações Unidas, no sentido da promoção das condições de existência no Planeta.

Thermolysed and active yeast to reduce the toxicity of aflatoxin

Aflatoxins are hepatotoxic metabolites produced by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus on a number of agricultural commodities. This research was carried out to evaluate the ability of thermolysed and active Saccharomyces cerevisiae to attenuate liver damage caused by aflatoxin. Diets were prepared containing 0 aflatoxin; 400 mug kg-1 aflatoxin; 400 mug kg-1 aflatoxin plus 1% of dehydrated active yeast, and 400 mug kg-1 aflatoxin plus 1% of thermolysed yeast. A bioassay with Wistar rats was conducted for 28 days, and body organs were weighted and analyses of the liver tissue of the animals were performed. The relative weight of heart, kidneys and liver from animals submitted to the different treatments did not show any difference, and liver tissue of animals feeding on the aflatoxin-free diet was adopted as a toxicity-free pattern. Hepatic tissue of animals feeding on diets containing 400 mug kg-1 aflatoxin or the diet supplemented with 1% thermolysed yeast showed clear signs of toxicity and damage. Hepatic tissue of animals feeding on the diet containing 1% of dehydrated active yeast showed less toxicity signs and damage than those receiving the diet containing 400 mug kg-1 aflatoxin. Active, dehydrated yeast had the ability to reduce toxic effects caused by aflatoxin, but thermolysed yeast was not able to alleviate the effects of aflatoxin toxicity.

Genotoxic potential generated by biomass burning in the Brazilian Legal Amazon by Tradescantia micronucleus bioassay: a toxicity assessment study

Background: The Brazilian Amazon has suffered impacts from non-sustainable economic development, especially owing to the expansion of agricultural commodities into forest areas. The Tangara da Serra region, located in the southern of the Legal Amazon, is characterized by non-mechanized sugar cane production. In addition, it lies on the dispersion path of the pollution plume generated by biomass burning. The aim of this study was to assess the genotoxic potential of the atmosphere in the Tangara da Serra region, using Tradescantia pallida as in situ bioindicator. Methods: The study was conducted during the dry and rainy seasons, where the plants were exposed to two types of exposure, active and passive. Results: The results showed that in all the sampling seasons, irrespective of exposure type, there was an increase in micronucleus frequency, compared to control and that it was statistically significant in the dry season. A strong and significant relationship was also observed between the increase in micronucleus incidence and the rise in fine particulate matter, and hospital morbidity from respiratory diseases in children. Conclusions: Based on the results, we demonstrated that pollutants generated by biomass burning in the Brazilian Amazon can induce genetic damage in test plants that was more prominent during dry season, and correlated with the level of particulates and elevated respiratory morbidity.

A hybrid commodity price-forecasting model applied to the sugar-alcohol sector

Accurate price forecasting for agricultural commodities can have significant decision-making implications for suppliers, especially those of biofuels, where the agriculture and energy sectors intersect. Environmental pressures and high oil prices affect demand for biofuels and have reignited the discussion about effects on food prices. Suppliers in the sugar-alcohol sector need to decide the ideal proportion of ethanol and sugar to optimise their financial strategy. Prices can be affected by exogenous factors, such as exchange rates and interest rates, as well as non-observable variables like the convenience yield, which is related to supply shortages. The literature generally uses two approaches: artificial neural networks (ANNs), which are recognised as being in the forefront of exogenous-variable analysis, and stochastic models such as the Kalman filter, which is able to account for non-observable variables. This article proposes a hybrid model for forecasting the prices of agricultural commodities that is built upon both approaches and is applied to forecast the price of sugar. The Kalman filter considers the structure of the stochastic process that describes the evolution of prices. Neural networks allow variables that can impact asset prices in an indirect, nonlinear way, what cannot be incorporated easily into traditional econometric models.

Hypercapitalism: New media, language, and social perceptions of value

Every day trillions of dollars circulate the globe in a digital data space and new forms of property and ownership emerge. Massive corporate entities with a global reach are formed and disappear with breathtaking speed, making and breaking personal fortunes the size of which defy imagination. Fictitious commodities abound. The genomes of entire nations have become corporately owned. Relationships have become the overt basis of economic wealth and political power. Hypercapitalism explores the problems of understanding this emergent form of global political economic organization by focusing on the internal relations between language, new media networks, and social perceptions of value. Taking an historical approach informed by Marx, Phil Graham draws upon writings in political economy, media studies, sociolinguistics, anthropology, and critical social science to understand the development, roots, and trajectory of the global system in which every possible aspect of human existence, including imagined futures, has become a commodity form.

Adjusting prices in the multiple-partners assignment game

Starting with an initial price vector, prices are adjusted in order to eliminate the excess demand and at the same time to keep the transfers to the sellers as low as possible. In each step of the auction, to which set of sellers should those transfers be made is the key issue in the description of the algorithm. We assume additively separable utilities and introduce a novel distinction by considering multiple sellers owing multiple identical objects and multiple buyers with an exogenously defined quota, consuming more than one object but at most one unit of a seller`s good and having multi-dimensional payoffs. This distinction induces a necessarily more complicated construction of the over-demanded sets than the constructions of these sets for the other assignment games. For this approach, our mechanism yields the buyer-optimal competitive equilibrium payoff, which equals the buyer-optimal stable payoff. The symmetry of the model allows to getting the seller-optimal stable payoff and the seller-optimal competitive equilibrium payoff can then be also derived.