The impact of international trade on income inequality in the United States since 1970’s

This research analyzes the impact of openness to trade on the level of income inequality in the United States. Using time series data of periods between 1970 and 2014, this study found that trade increases income inequality. It is also found that an increase in trade volume leads to a wider income gap as more income goes to the top 10% wealthiest people in the United States. When elaborating trade into export side and import side, it is found that both of them significantly contribute to a higher income inequality when it is measured by GINI. However, it is only the import side that contributes to the increase in the income share of the top 10%. This study also found that there is a negligible effect of FDI inflow on income inequality in the United States.peer-reviewe

La construcción socioimaginaria de la protesta social en el discurso de la prensa latinoamericana: análisis de las editoriales de los diarios El Mercurio (Chile) y La Nación (Argentina) en el contexto de la crisis argentina de 2001

The present research work is proposed as a space for theoretical discussion and empirical analysis around the problematic of the power of the media in contexts of social conflict. Explicitly, this paper aims to analyze the socioimaginary construction of social protest in the editorial discourse produced by El Mercurio (Chile) and La Nación (Argentina) newspapers, based on the popular demonstrations that took place during December 2001 in the framework of the economic crisis in Argentina. To answer our research question and meet the goal of the study, we used a discourse analysis model that was applied to a corpus of 40 leading articles, selected from a sample of 80 journalistic texts published by El Mercurio and La Nación from December 1, 2001 to March 31, 2002. The main findings of the research regarding the mobilizations that took place in the context of the economic crisis in Argentina allow us to show that both newspapers built an imaginary of social protest that was based on a discourse with four categories: Civilization, barbarism, exclusion, and inclusion. Therefore, El Mercurio and La Nación newspapers not only made visible in the public space the events associated with the protests of December 2001, but also, these media channeled, through their leading articles, explanations about the conflict. They also participated in the public debate regarding collective protest actions, constructed representations and imaginary articulations about the events and social actors that participated in the interactions framed in the conflict, and, of course, assumed an ideological position in their quality of actors of the political system regarding the economic crisis and the social conflict that happened in the Argentine society during 2001.O presente trabalho de pesquisa propõe-se como um espaço para a discussão teórica e a análise empírica em torno da problemática do poder dos meios de comunicação em contextos de conflitividade social. De forma mais precisa, este artigo tem por finalidade analisar a construção socioimaginária do protesto social no discurso editorial produzido pelos jornais El Mercurio (Chile) e La Nación (Argentina) a partir das mobilizações populares que ocorreram durante dezembro de 2001 no âmbito da crise econômica na Argentina. Para responder a nossa pergunta de pesquisa e cumprir o objetivo do estudo, utilizou-se um modelo de análise do discurso que foi aplicado a um corpus de 40 editoriais selecionados a partir de uma amostra de 80 textos jornalísticos publicados pelos jornais El Mercurio e La Nación durante o período que vai do dia 1 dezembro de 2001 a 31 março de 2002. As principais descobertas da pesquisa obtidas a partir da análise dos editoriais publicados pelos jornais El Mercurio e La Nación com relação às mobilizações que ocorreram no contexto da crise econômica na Argentina, permitem-nos evidenciar que ambos os meios de comunicação construíram um imaginário do protesto social sobre a base de um discurso centrado em quatro categorias: civilização, barbárie, exclusão e inclusão. Portanto, os jornais El Mercurio e La Nación não apenas permitiram visibilizar no espaço público os acontecimentos associados aos protestos de dezembro de 2001, como também canalizaram, por meio de seus discursos editoriais, as explicações em torno do conflito, participaram do debate público com relação às ações coletivas de protesto, construíram representações e articularam imaginários sobre os acontecimentos e sobre os atores sociais que participaram das interações enquadradas no conflito, e que, desse modo, assumiram uma posição ideológica no papel de atores do sistema político com relação à crise econômica e o conflito social que se desenvolve na sociedade argentina durante 2001.El presente trabajo de investigación se propone como un espacio para la discusión teórica y EL análisis empírico en torno a la problemática del poder de los medios de comunicación en contextos de conflictividad social. De forma más precisa, este artículo tiene por finalidad analizar la construcción socioimaginaria de la protesta social en el discurso editorial producido por los diarios El Mercurio (Chile) y La Nación (Argentina) a partir de las movilizaciones populares que ocurrieron durante diciembre de 2001 en el marco de la crisis económica en Argentina. Para responder a nuestra pregunta de investigación y cumplir con el objetivo del estudio, se utilizó un modelo de análisis del discurso que fue aplicado a un corpus de 40 editoriales seleccionadas a partir de una muestra de 80 textos periodísticos publicados por los diarios El Mercurio y La Nación durante el periodo de tiempo que va desde el 1 diciembre de 2001 al 31 marzo de 2002. Los principales hallazgos de la investigación obtenidos a partir del análisis de las editoriales publicadas por los diarios El Mercurio y La Nación en relación a las movilizaciones que ocurrieron en el contexto de la crisis económica en Argentina, nos permiten evidenciar que ambos medios de comunicación construyeron un imaginario de la protesta social sobre la base de un discurso centrado en cuatro categorías: civilización, barbarie, exclusión e inclusión. Por consiguiente, los diarios El Mercurio y La Nación no solo permitieron visibilizar en el espacio público los acontecimientos asociados a las protestas de diciembre de 2001, sino que, además, estos medios canalizaron, a través de sus discursos editoriales, las explicaciones en torno al conflicto, participaron del debate público respecto a las acciones colectivas de protesta, construyeron representaciones y articularon imaginarios acerca de los sucesos y de los actores sociales que participaron de las interacciones enmarcadas en el conflicto, y, por supuesto, asumieron una posición ideológica en su calidad de actores del sistema político respecto a la crisis económica y el conflicto social que se desarrolla en la sociedad argentina durante el 2001.https://revistas.udem.edu.co/index.php/anagramas/article/view/206

Soroprevalência do anticorpo NMO-IgG em pacientes brasileiros com neuromielite óptica

OBJECTIVE: To determine the seroprevalence of neuromyelitis optica antibody (NMO)-IgG in Brazilian patients with clinical diagnosis of relapsing neuromyelitis optica, also known as Devic's disease. METHOD: We determined NMO-IgG titers in 28 patients (25 of them females) that fulfilled the 1999 NMO diagnostic criteria proposed by Wingerchuk et al. RESULTS: NMO-IgG was detected in 18 NMO patients (64.3%). CONCLUSION: Our results showed that seroprevalence of NMO-IgG in Brazilian NMO patients was similar to the observed in other studies.OBJETIVO: Determinar a soroprevalência do anticorpo neuromielite óptica (NMO)-IgG em pacientes brasileiros com diagnóstico de neuromielite óptica recorrente, também conhecida como doença de Devic. MÉTODO: Nós pesquisamos a presença do anticorpo NMO-IgG em 28 pacientes (25 do sexo feminino) que preenchiam os critérios diagnósticos para NMO propostos por Wingerchuk et al. em 1999. RESULTADOS: Dezoito pacientes (64,3%) apresentaram a pesquisa positiva do NMO-IgG. CONCLUSÃO: Nossos resultados demonstraram que a soroprevalência do anticorpo NMO-IgG em pacientes brasileiros com NMO é semelhante àquela encontrada em outros estudos

Aldehyde functionalised poly(acryloyl hydrazide) polymers for modulating E. coli K-12 biofilm formation and subsequent biofilm functionality in the biocatalysis arena

The use of bacterial biofilms in industry has emerged as an alternative to whole cell biotransformations, where they can use many of their resilient properties to overcome some of the environmental, physical and chemical stresses required for many industrial reactions, e.g. substrate/product or solvent toxicity. As such, a host of research can now be found to optimise biofilm mediated process by optimising biofilm properties, either through genetic regulation or through bacterial interaction with soft materials enabling a level control over biofilm structure. Recently, synthetic polymers have been used to interact and aggregate bacteria with interesting changes in phenotype, including the expression of biofilm factors. In this project, poly(acryloyl hydrazide) was used as the polymer scaffold onto which biologically relevant functional groups could be easily introduced post polymerisation, resulting in a library of functional poly(acryloyl hydrazide) polymers that could be used to aggregate bacteria to potentially induce and control biofilm levels. Firstly however, we describe the optimisation of poly(acryloyl hydrazide) synthesis via RAFT polymerisation, resulting in greater control over polymer chain lengths and dispersities. Then, the ability of aldehyde functionalised poly(acryloyl hydrazide) polymers to interact and aggregate the E. coli K-12 overproducing mutant PHL644 (which contains an ompR234 mutation, leading to overexpression of the biofilm adhesin curli) and its parental MC4100 strain was investigated. In general, polymer induced cell aggregation and overall induced biofilm quantities were found to be directly modulated by polymer hydrophobicity, with the most hydrophobic polymers enabling MC4100 biofilm quantities (as measured by crystal violet) to exceed that of the overproducing PHL644. Importantly, the expression of curli within MC4100 polymer induced biofilms was influenced greatly by the addition of different polymers, with curli expression levels being highly linked to the physiochemical properties of the aggregating polymer (hydrophobicity and heteroaromaticity) so much so that MC4100 curli expression levels were made to match and exceed that of the overproducing PHL644. The functionality of these polymer induced biofilms were then assessed in the biocatalytic arena, again with polymer induced biofilm properties being linked to the ability of the recombinant biofilms to convert 5-fluoroindole to 5-fluorotryptophan. We also harnessed the natural metabolic esterase generation of the polymer induced E. coli biofilms to catalyse the lipid ester 4-Nitrophenyl dodecanoate into 4-Nitrophenol in toxic reaction conditions

Estudo de bandas oligoclonais restritas ao líquido cefalorraquidiano em pacientes com esclerose múltipla na cidade de São Paulo

The frequency of oligoclonal bands (OCB) restricted to the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) varies widely in different populations. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of these OCB in a group of MS patients in the city of São Paulo. Techniques used to detect OCB consisted of isoelectric focusing followed by immunoblotting. Oligoclonal bands were found in 49 (54.4%) out of 90 patients with clinically definite MS; in (31.2%) of the 16 patients with clinically isolated syndrome; in 7 (17.9%) of 39 patients with inflammatory disorders of the central nervous system (IDCNS), and in none of the individuals with no neurological condition (control group). The specificity of the method was 100% when compared to the control group and 82.1% when compared to the IDCNS group. These results suggest that the frequency of CSF OCB is much lower in Brazilian MS patients from São Paulo city than that reported in MS series from Caucasian populations.A frequência da detecção de bandas oligoclonais (BOC) restritas ao líquido cerebrorraquidiano (LCR) em pacientes com esclerose múltipla (EM) varia amplamente em diferentes populações. O objetivo deste estudo foi determinar a frequência destas BOC em pacientes com EM em amostra de população da cidade de São Paulo. A técnica utilizada para a detecção das BOC foi a focalização isoelétrica, seguida do immunoblotting. BOC foram detectadas: em 49 (54,4%) de 90 pacientes com EM clinicamente definida; em 5 (31,2%) de 16 pacientes com síndrome clínica isolada; em 7 (17,9%) de 30 pacientes com doenças inflamatórias do sistema nervoso central (DISNC); e em nenhum indivíduo sem doença neurológica. A especificidade do método foi 100% quando comparada ao grupo controle e 82,1% quando comparada ao grupo de DISNC. Estes resultados sugerem que a freqüência de BOC no LCR é mais baixa em pacientes da cidade de São Paulo portadores de EM do que aquelas descritas em populações caucasianas

Some Placement Techniques of Test Components Inspired by Fog Computing Approaches

In this work we are interested in placing test components for Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Cities. Our work is inspired by similar works aiming the placement of application components in Fog computational nodes. First we give an overview about the decision variables to consider. Then, we define several types of constraints that may be included in the placement problem. Moreover, We list a set of possible Objectives Functions to maximize or minimize. Finally, we propose some algorithms and techniques to solve the considered Test Component Placement Problem (TCPP) taken from the literature