Productive Development Policies in Latin American Countries: The Case of Peru, 1990-2007

This paper assesses the institutional setting and productive impact of selected productive development policies (PDPs), institutions, and programs implemented in Peru during the period 1990-2007. The assessment is based on a simple, basic framework of a series of economic or market failures that may have constrained the transformation of the productive structure, the process of innovation, and the growth of total factor productivity. Evidence indicates that the PDPs and structural reforms implemented in Peru did not significantly alter the productive structure of the Peruvian economy. If the objectives of the PDPs are to transform the productive structure, increase total factor productivity, and enhance innovation, government interventions need to focus directly on the source of market failures and create quality productive changes within the private sector

Improving Metadata Collection and Aggregation in Plant Phenotyping Experiments with MIAPPE Wizard and DataPLANT

As part of the BioHackathon Germany 2022, we hereby report on the success of the two projects “MIAPPE Wizard: Enabling easy creation of MIAPPE-compliant ISA metadata for Plant Phenotyping Experiments” and “DataPLANT - Facilitating Research Data Management to combat the reproducibility crisis”. Shortly before the actual hackathon, it became apparent to the participants that close coordination between the projects would be very beneficial. Both projects aimed to improve the process of collecting and aggregating metadata on plant experiments, but with different approaches

BioHackEU23 report: Enabling continuous RDM using Annotated Research Contexts with RO-Crate profiles for ISA

A prevailing paradigm in Research Data Management (RDM) is to publish research datasets in designated archives upon conclusion of a research process. However, it is beneficial to abandon the notion of final or static data artifacts and instead adopt a continuous approach towards working with research data, where data is constantly shared, versioned, and updated. This immutable yet evolving perspective allows for the application of existing technologies and processes from software engineering, such as continuous integration, release practices, and version management backed by decades of experience, and adaptable to RDM. To facilitate this, we propose the Annotated Research Context (ARC), a data and metadata layout convention based on the well-established ISA model for metadata annotation and implemented using Git repositories. ARCs are amenable towards frequent, lightweight data management operations, such as (meta)data validation and transformation. The Omnipy Python library is designed to help develop stepwise validated (meta)data transformations as scalable data flows that can be incrementally designed, updated, and rerun as requirements or data evolve. To demonstrate the concept of continuous RDM we will use Omnipy to define and orchestrate Git-backed CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) data flows to convert ISA metadata present in ARCs into validated RO-Crate representations adhering to the Bioschemas convention. A RO-Crate package combines the actual research data with its metadata description. Downstream, this allows semantic interpretation by Galaxy for e.g. workflow execution as well as machine-readable data access and data harvesting for search engines such as FAIDARE

Transportation infrastructure impacts on firm location: the effect of a new metro line in the suburbs of Madrid

Firm location patterns emerge as a consequence of multiple factors, including firm considerations, labor force availability, market opportunities, and transportation costs. Many of these factors are influenced by changes in accessibility wrought by new transportation infrastructure. In this paper we use spatial statistical techniques and a micro-level data base to evaluate the effects of Madrid’s metro line 12 (known as Metrosur) expansion on business location patterns. The case study is the municipality of Alcorcon, which is served by the new metro line since 2003. Specifically, we explore the location patterns by different industry sectors, to evaluate if the new metro line has encouraged the emergence of a “Metrosur spatial economy”. Our results indicate that the pattern of economic activity location is related to urban accessibility and that agglomeration, through economies of scale, also plays an important role. The results presented in this paper provide evidence useful to inform efficient transportation, urban, and regional economic planning

A chimeric hemagglutinin-based universal influenza virus vaccine approach induces broad and long-lasting immunity in a randomized, placebo-controlled phase I trial

Seasonal influenza viruses constantly change through antigenic drift and the emergence of pandemic influenza viruses through antigenic shift is unpredictable. Conventional influenza virus vaccines induce strain-specific neutralizing antibodies against the variable immunodominant globular head domain of the viral hemagglutinin protein. This necessitates frequent re-formulation of vaccines and handicaps pandemic preparedness. In this completed, observer-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled phase I trial (NCT03300050), safety and immunogenicity of chimeric hemagglutinin-based vaccines were tested in healthy, 18–39-year-old US adults. The study aimed to test the safety and ability of the vaccines to elicit broadly cross-reactive antibodies against the hemagglutinin stalk domain. Participants were enrolled into five groups to receive vaccinations with live-attenuated followed by AS03-adjuvanted inactivated vaccine (n = 20), live-attenuated followed by inactivated vaccine (n = 15), twice AS03-adjuvanted inactivated vaccine (n = 16) or placebo (n = 5, intranasal followed by intramuscular; n = 10, twice intramuscular) 3 months apart. Vaccination was found to be safe and induced a broad, strong, durable and functional immune response targeting the conserved, immunosubdominant stalk of the hemagglutinin. The results suggest that chimeric hemagglutinins have the potential to be developed as universal vaccines that protect broadly against influenza viruses