National Income Inequality, Society, and Multinational Enterprises

This chapter calls for understanding the perspective of multinational enterprises (MNEs) on international differences in income inequality. The authors set a research agenda on how national differences in income inequality influence MNE expansion strategies. Applying a transaction cost framework, both negative and positive economic outcomes of income inequality, from the MNE\u27s perspective, are identified. Low levels of income inequality may deter foreign investment, as MNEs prefer countries where they incur lower levels of transaction costs arising from interactions with various market and non-market actors. However, the positive effect of income inequality on location attractiveness will likely diminish at higher levels of inequality when benefits are increasingly offset by additional monitoring, bargaining and security costs owing to instability and conflict. The chapter further explores the implications for level of MNE equity applied in the choice of entry mode under different levels of income inequality

¿Tiene futuro el pasado? La renovación urbana en tiempos de globalización

Inicio con un par de anécdotas que luego iré entrelazando. En año 2016 se publicaron en la prensa colombiana dos noticias: 1. La recuperación de una pieza arqueológica precolombina de la cultura Quimbaya —ubicada en la actualidad en lo que sería el centro del país, la parte andina—, cuyo rastro había desaparecido hace 80 años y fue recobrada en Londres antes de ser subastada (Revista Semana, 2016); 2. El encuentro fortuito, ese mismo año, por parte del profesor universitario colombiano Alberto Gómez Gutiérrez, de uno de los cuadernos perdidos del “sabio” y prócer de la independencia colombiana, Francisco José de Caldas, el cual se había extraviado hace 200 años y para la fecha estaba en poder de un anticuario en París (Correa, 2016).1a edició

Late Protein Synthesis-Dependent Phases in CTA Long-Term Memory: BDNF Requirement

It has been proposed that long-term memory (LTM) persistence requires a late protein synthesis-dependent phase, even many hours after memory acquisition. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is an essential protein synthesis product that has emerged as one of the most potent molecular mediators for long-term synaptic plasticity. Studies in the rat hippocampus have been shown that BDNF is capable to rescue the late-phase of long-term potentiation as well as the hippocampus-related LTM when protein synthesis was inhibited. Our previous studies on the insular cortex (IC), a region of the temporal cortex implicated in the acquisition and storage of conditioned taste aversion (CTA), have demonstrated that intracortical delivery of BDNF reverses the deficit in CTA memory caused by the inhibition of IC protein synthesis due to anisomycin administration during early acquisition. In this work, we first analyze whether CTA memory storage is protein synthesis-dependent in different time windows. We observed that CTA memory become sensible to protein synthesis inhibition 5 and 7 h after acquisition. Then, we explore the effect of BDNF delivery (2 μg/2 μl per side) in the IC during those late protein synthesis-dependent phases. Our results show that BDNF reverses the CTA memory deficit produced by protein synthesis inhibition in both phases. These findings support the notion that recurrent rounds of consolidation-like events take place in the neocortex for maintenance of CTA memory trace and that BDNF is an essential component of these processes

National Income Inequality and International Business Expansion

We examine the extent to which host country income inequality influences multinational enterprises’ (MNE) expansion strategy for foreign production investment, depending on their specific strategic objectives. Applying a transaction cost framework, we predict that national income inequality has an inverted U-shaped relationship with foreign production investment. As inequality increases, MNEs accrue lower transaction costs arising from interactions with various local actors, leading to higher probability of investment. As income inequality increases further, its effect on location attractiveness will become negative, as its attraction effect is increasingly offset by additional monitoring, bargaining, and security costs owing to the more fractious nature of high inequality societies. In addition, we suggest that the impact of income inequality is contingent on investment objectives: The inverted U-shaped relationship is stronger for efficiency-seeking investment but weaker for market-seeking and competence-enhancing investments. We find substantial support for our hypotheses through an analysis of 27 years (1986-2012) of data on Japanese MNEs’ overseas production entries

Successful strategies implemented towards the elimination of canine rabies in the Western Hemisphere

Almost all cases of human rabies result from dog bites, making the elimination of canine rabies a global priority. During recent decades, many countries in the Western Hemisphere have carried out large-scale dog vaccination campaigns, controlled their free-ranging dog populations and enforced legislation for responsible pet ownership. This article reviews progress in eliminating canine rabies from the Western Hemisphere. After briefly summarizing the history of control efforts and describing the approaches listed above, we note that programs in some countries have been hindered by societal attitudes and severe economic disparities, which underlines the need to discuss measures that will be required to complete the elimination of canine rabies throughout the region. We also note that there is a constant threat for dog-maintained epizootics to re-occur, so as long as dog-maintained rabies "hot spots" are still present, free-roaming dog populations remain large, herd immunity becomes low and dog-derived rabies lyssavirus (RABLV) variants continue to circulate in close proximity to rabies-naïve dog populations. The elimination of dog-maintained rabies will be only feasible if both dog-maintained and dog-derived RABLV lineages and variants are permanently eliminated. This may be possible by keeping dog herd immunity above 70% at all times, fostering sustained laboratory-based surveillance through reliable rabies diagnosis and RABLV genetic typing in dogs, domestic animals and wildlife, as well as continuing to educate the population on the risk of rabies transmission, prevention and responsible pet ownership. Complete elimination of canine rabies requires permanent funding, with governments and people committed to make it a reality. An accompanying article reviews the history and epidemiology of canine rabies in the Western Hemisphere, beginning with its introduction during the period of European colonization, and discusses how spillovers of viruses between dogs and various wild carnivores will affect future eradication efforts (Velasco-Villa et al., 2017)

On the existence of initial data containing isolated black holes

We present a general construction of initial data for Einstein's equations containing an arbitrary number of black holes, each of which is instantaneously in equilibrium. Each black hole is taken to be a marginally trapped surface and plays the role of the inner boundary of the Cauchy surface. The black hole is taken to be instantaneously isolated if its outgoing null rays are shear-free. Starting from the choice of a conformal metric and the freely specifiable part of the extrinsic curvature in the bulk, we give a prescription for choosing the shape of the inner boundaries and the boundary conditions that must be imposed there. We show rigorously that with these choices, the resulting non-linear elliptic system always admits solutions.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX

Algunos aspectos preliminares de biología de la reproducción en canavalia ensiformis (l.) dc

En un lote de Canavalia ensiformis (L.) DC, sembrada en Santa Fe de Antioquia (550 m.s.n.m.), con 145 plantas, se seleccionaron al azar 24 plantas con el fin de estimar el porcentaje de formación de frutos por polinización natural y autogamia, en la primera y la segunda producción de flores. Estos porcentajes fueron muy semejan/es en ambos tipos de polinización. El ensayo de flujo de polen dio resultados negativos. En una segunda parcela sembrada en Medellín, con 12 plantas, se hizo un seguimiento de la cantidad de flores y frutos producidos por polinización natural, cleistogamia y agamospermia y se obtuvo un porcentaje muy semejante entre aquellos producidos por la polinización natural, autogamia y cleistogamia. Se observó, además, que la hora de dehiscencia de las anteras fue a las 12 pm y la antesis entre las 4 Y las 4:30 am, dando suficiente tiempo para que el polen se ponga en contacto con el estigma antes de la arnesis y ocurra la fecundación por vía cleistógama

Nunduva, a new marine genus of Rivulariaceae (Nostocales, Cyanobacteria) from marine rocky shores

Several populations of a non–tapering and tapering, fasciculated, single and geminate false branch- ing heterocytous cyanobacterium were collected from rocky shores in the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The populations were provisionally placed in Brasilonema based on morphology, but upon sequencing of both environmental and culture material it was discovered that the populations/cultures belonged to the Rivulariaceae, in a marine subclade of the family containing Kyrtuthrix huatulcensis. In culture, the taxon exhibited tapering in isopolar filaments, providing further evidence that it was a member of the rivulariacean clade. Based on molecular data for other cyanobacteria within the rivulariacean clade, we identified at least three more species morphologically distinguishable from the Brasilonema–like material, all of which show more pronounced ta- pering. These cyanobacteria include not only tropical marine strains, but also a strain isolated from the English coastline in the Atlantic Ocean. We propose a new genus and four species for members of this distinctive clade, Nunduva fasciculata gen. nov., sp. nov., N. kania sp. nov., N. biania sp. nov., and N. britannica sp. nov. Other strains that others and we have isolated are sister to Nunduva and may eventually be placed within this genus, but at present, we consider the evidence for inclusion in Nunduva to be insufficient

Epidemiology of leptospirosis in Tolima Deparment - Colombia, 2009 - 2011

ABSTRACT: To describe the epidemiological behavior of patients with presumptive diagnosis of leptospirosis in the department of Tolima (Colombia), between 2009 and 2011. Methodology: a cross sectional study was conducted, and the epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory findings of 243 patients with presumptive leptospirosis were analyzed using the modified faine criteria. Results: there were 48 cases with positive presumptive diagnosis of leptospirosis (19.8%), 87 negative cases (35.8%), and 108 inconclusive cases (44%). Icterohaemorrhagiae was the most common serovar among presumptively positive patients. Most of the affected patients were male (87%), their mean age was 38 years (sd = 18,4), and they resided in urban areas with poor public services (80.9%). Additionally, hospital treatment was required by 87.6% of the patients, and there were acute cases of the disease (91%), cases with hepatic impairment (65.9%), and a mortality rate of 19%. Conclusions: Leptospirosis is a disease with different demographic and clinical characteristics; moreover, its diagnosis is difficult and sometimes late. Therefore, if an adequate record of some of its features were available, a presumptive diagnosis could be made a priori. Finally, presumptive diagnosis of leptospirosis was associated with outdoor labor, inhabiting places with unsanitary conditions, and having calf pain and fever.RESUMEN: Describir el comportamiento epidemiológico de pacientes con diagnóstico presuntivo de leptospirosis en el departamento del Tolima (Colombia), entre 2009 y 2011. Metodología: estudio descriptivo transversal. Se analizaron variables epidemiológicas, clínicas y de laboratorio de 243 pacientes con diagnóstico presuntivo de leptospiroris, utilizando los criterios de faine modificados. Resultados: se encontraron 48 casos con diagnóstico presuntivo positivo (19,8%), 87 casos negativos (35,8%) y 108 casos no concluyentes (44%). El icterohemorrágico fue el serovar más frecuente entre los presuntamente positivos, con una edad promedio de aparición de la enfermedad de 38 años (de = 18,4) , se presentó principalmente en hombres (87%), residentes de zona urbana, con deficiencia de servicios públicos (80,9%). El tratamiento hospitalario fue necesario para el 87,6% de los pacientes, se encontraron casos en forma aguda (91%),conalteración hepática (65,9%); la mortalidad fue del 19%. Conclusiones: la leptospirosis es una patología con diferentes características demográficas y clínicas, con un diagnóstico difícil y en ocasiones tardío; si se tuviera un registro adecuado de algunas características en las fichas podría hacerse un diagnóstico presuntivo a priori. Se sugiere asociación entre el diagnóstico presuntivo de leptospiroris y laborar en ambiente abierto, residir en condiciones sanitarias deficientes, presentar dolor en las pantorrillas y presentar fiebre

From contigs towards chromosomes: automatic improvement of long read assemblies (ILRA)

Recent advances in long read technologies not only enable large consortia to aim to sequence all eukaryotes on Earth, but they also allow individual laboratories to sequence their species of interest with relatively low investment. Long read technologies embody the promise of overcoming scaffolding problems associated with repeats and low complexity sequences, but the number of contigs often far exceeds the number of chromosomes and they may contain many insertion and deletion errors around homopolymer tracts. To overcome these issues, we have implemented the ILRA pipeline to correct long read-based assemblies. Contigs are first reordered, renamed, merged, circularized, or filtered if erroneous or contaminated. Illumina short reads are used subsequently to correct homopolymer errors. We successfully tested our approach by improving the genome sequences of Homo sapiens, Trypanosoma brucei, and Leptosphaeria spp., and by generating four novel Plasmodium falciparum assemblies from field samples. We found that correcting homopolymer tracts reduced the number of genes incorrectly annotated as pseudogenes, but an iterative approach seems to be required to correct more sequencing errors. In summary, we describe and benchmark the performance of our new tool, which improved the quality of novel long read assemblies up to 1 Gbp. The pipeline is available at GitHub: https://github.com/ThomasDOtto/ILRA