Survey of heavy metal (copper, iron, lead, cadmium, zinc and nickel) concentrations and their effects on the water quality of Anzali wetland

Anzali International wetland is one of the most valuable water resources as registered in Ramsar convention with an extent of about 150 km2 in the south Caspian Sea. This wetland, not only has ecological and biological importance for migratory birds and rare fish species, but also is used for farms to discharge into the Caspian Sea through this wetland. Therefore its pollution control is very important for human life. In this study 6 elements (copper, iron, lead, zinc, cadmium and nickel ) in Anzali wetland were analyzed by Atomic Absorption spectroscopy method. . Water samples were collected from ten sampling sites seasonally and the results were compared with each other. The detection limits obtained were 0.016 ng/ml for cadmium, 0.02 ng/ml for copper (Cu), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn), 0.025 ng/ml for iron (Fe) and 0.026 ng/ml for nickel (Ni). Relative Standard Deviation (RSD) was 1.7%. The results showed that these heavy metals were present in the water. Concentrations of Cu (0.6 mg/l) were higher than international standards reported in some stations. This can be due to industries around the wetland. The average level of heavy metals was higher in spring than in the other seasons which can be due to increase in seasonal rainfall and intensity of flow from rivers to wetland

Globalization, uneven development and the North-South ‘big switch’

An apparent ‘big switch’ in attitudes towards and discourse over economic globalization has occurred since the turn of the Millennium. Economic globalization was formerly widely identified as being orchestrated in the interests of the global North. Sceptics, mostly left - leaning, expressed particular concern for its impacts in the global South. However, a recent backlash against globalization has emerged within the global North from the political right, while support for globalization has been expressed within the global South. This ‘big switch’ defies many theoretical predictions, and can be situated in relation to a shifting geography of global uneven developmen

Monogenic Primary Immunodeficiency Disorder Associated with Common Variable Immunodeficiency and Autoimmunity

Background: Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is the most frequent primary immunodeficiency disorder mainly characterized by recurrent bacterial infections besides other immunological defects including loss of or dysfunction of B cells and decreased immunoglobulin levels. In this study, our aim is to evaluate clinical, immunological, and molecular data of patients with a primary clinical diagnosis of CVID and autoimmune phenotype with a confirmed genetic diagnosis. Methods: Among 297 patients with CVID, who were registered in the Iranian Primary Immunodeficiency Registry at Children's Medical Center Hospital in Iran, 83 patients have been genetically examined and 27 patients with autoimmunity and confirmed genetic mutations were selected for analysis. Whole-exome sequencing and confirmatory Sanger sequencing methods were used for the study population. A questionnaire was retrospectively filled for all patients to evaluate demographic, laboratory, clinical, and genetic data. Results: In the 27 studied patients, 11 different genetic defects were identified, and the most common mutated gene was LRBA, reported in 17 (63.0) patients. Two patients (7.7) showed autoimmune complications as the first presentation of immunodeficiency. Eleven patients (40.7) developed one type of autoimmunity, and 16 patients (59.3) progressed to poly-autoimmunity. Most of the patients with mono-autoimmunity (n = 9, 90.0) primarily developed infectious complications, while in patients with poly-autoimmunity, the most common first presentation was enteropathy (n = 6, 37.6). In 13 patients (61.9), the diagnosis of autoimmune disorders preceded the diagnosis of primary immunodeficiency. The most frequent autoimmune manifestations were hematologic (40.7), gastrointestinal (48.1), rheumatologic (25.9), and dermatologic (22.2) disorders. Patients with poly-autoimmunity had lower regulatory T cells than patients with mono-autoimmunity. Conclusion: In our cohort, the diagnosis of autoimmune disorders preceded the diagnosis of primary immunodeficiency in most patients. This association highlights the fact that patients referring with autoimmune manifestations should be evaluated for humoral immunity. © 2020 Georg Thieme Verlag. All rights reserved

Labour market effects of international trade when mobility is costly

I build and estimate a dynamic structural model of sectoral choices with heterogeneous workers accumulating human capital that is imperfectly transferable across sectors. Utility costs of switching sectors provides an additional barrier to mobility. Estimating the utility costs by Simulated Minimum Distance on administrative data covering the population of Danish workers and firms, costs are found to be in the range of 10% to 18% of average annual wages. By conducting counterfactual policy experiments, it is shown that the both the imperfect transferability of human capital and the utility costs are important for explaining the slow adjustment of the labour market following shocks to the economy

A Service of zbw The Impact of Chinese Import Penetration on Danish Firms and Workers The Impact of Chinese Import Penetration on Danish Firms and Workers The Impact of Chinese Import Penetration on Danish Firms and Workers *

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The impact of Chinese import penetration on Danish firms and workers

The impact of imports from low-wage countries on domestic labor market outcomes has been a hotly debated issue for decades. The recent surge in imports from China has reignited this debate. Since the 1980s several developed economies have experienced contemporaneous increases in the volume of imports and in the wage gap between high- and low-skilled workers. However, the literature has not been able to document a strong causal relationship between imports and the wage gap. Instead, past studies have attributed the widening wage gap to skill biased technological change. This paper finds evidence for the direct impact of low wage imports on the wage gap. Using detailed Danish panel data for firms and workers, it measures the effects of Chinese import penetration at the firm level on wages within job-spells and over the longer term taking transitions in the labor market into account. We find that greater exposure to Chinese imports corresponds to a negative firm-level demand shock, which is biased towards low-skill intensive products. Consistent with this an increase in Chinese import penetration results in lower wages for low skilled employees