Growth and employment in Mexico: A quantitative analysis of policies

Mexico has sustained unusual rates of real income growth (6.4 % of average annual GDP growth between 19 50 and 1970) by following an economic policy giving first priority to manufacturing industries. Import substitution has been the dominating trade strategy since the late 1940s with only cautious steps to a more export oriented strategy since the mid-1960s. Mexico has not been spared the well known problems of regional and sectoral imbalances, a skewed personal income distribution and unemployment accompanying the industrialization of other developing countries. Beginning with the presidentship of Diaz Ordaz (1966-70) the attenuation of imbalances and inequities is proclaimed as a specific policy goal in plan documents, while employment creation is added to the list in the Echeverrîa administration. Although based on another stratum of the Mexican political economy the stepwise execution of a massive land reform has obvious complementary effects to the industrial policy. The agricultural sector absorbs much of the fast growing labor force which cannot be employed in the more capital-intensive industries under socially acceptable conditions. The land reform allows for a minimum wage and a working conditions policy in urban regions without increasing the urban unemployment to a level where it would disrupt the political system. Land reform and minimum wages help to keep political stability despite the social strains created by rapid industrialization as well as population growth.

Neutron-Absorbing Coatings for Safe Storage of Fissile Materials with Enhanced Shielding & Criticality Safety

Neutron-absorbing Fe-based amorphous-metal coatings have been developed that are more corrosion resistant than other criticality-control materials, including Al-B{sub 4}C composites, borated stainless steels, and Ni-Cr-Mo-Gd alloys. The presence of relatively high concentration of boron in these coatings not only enhances its neutron-absorption capability, but also enables these coatings to exist in the amorphous state. Exceptional corrosion resistance has been achieved with these Fe-based amorphous-metal alloys through additions of chromium, molybdenum, and tungsten. The addition of rare earth elements such as yttrium has lowered the critical cooling rate of these materials, thereby rendering them more easily processed. Containers used for the storage of nuclear materials, and protected from corrosion through the application of amorphous metal coatings, would have greatly enhanced service lives, and would therefore provide greater long-term safety. Amorphous alloy powders have been successfully produced in multi-ton quantities with gas atomization, and applied to several half-scale spent fuel storage containers and criticality control structures with the high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) thermal spray process. Salt fog testing and neutron radiography of these prototypes indicates that such an approach is viable for the production of large-scale industrial-scale facilities and containers. The use of these durable neutron-absorbing materials to coat stainless steel containers and storage racks, as well as vaults, hot-cell facilities and glove boxes could substantially reduce the risk of criticality in the event of an accident. These materials are particularly attractive for shielding applications since they are fire proof. Additionally, layers of other cold and thermal sprayed materials that include carbon and/or carbides can be used in conjunction with the high-boron amorphous metal coatings for the purpose of moderation. For example, various carbides, including boron, tungsten, and chromium carbide, as well as graphite particles can be co-deposited with a metallic binder phase with either thermal spray or cold spray technology. These moderator layers would also be fire resistant. By coating the vessels and piping used for spent fuel reprocessing, including slab and pencil tanks, enhanced criticality safety and substantially better corrosion resistance can be achieved simultaneously. Since these alloys are Fe-based, any substitution of these for high-performance Ni-based alloys is expected to result in a cost savings. Ultimately, the cost of these materials should comparable to that of stainless steels

Status Of The FAIR Synchrotron Projects SIS18 And SIS100

A large fraction of the program to upgrade the existingheavy ion synchrotron SIS18 as injector for the FAIR synchrotron SIS100 has been successfully completed. With the achieved technical status, a major increase of theaccelerated number of heavy ions could be reached. Thenow available performance especially demonstrates thefeasibility of high intensity beams of medium charge stateheavy ions with a sufficient control of the dynamicvacuum and connected charge exchange loss. Two furtherupgrade measures, the installation of additional magneticalloy (MA) acceleration cavities and the exchange of themain dipole power converter, are presently beingimplemented. For the FAIR synchrotron SIS100, theprocurement of all major components with longproduction times has been started. With the delivery andtesting of several pre-series components, the phase ofoutstanding technical reserach and developments could becompleted and the readiness for series productionachieved

Habitable Zones in the Universe

Habitability varies dramatically with location and time in the universe. This was recognized centuries ago, but it was only in the last few decades that astronomers began to systematize the study of habitability. The introduction of the concept of the habitable zone was key to progress in this area. The habitable zone concept was first applied to the space around a star, now called the Circumstellar Habitable Zone. Recently, other, vastly broader, habitable zones have been proposed. We review the historical development of the concept of habitable zones and the present state of the research. We also suggest ways to make progress on each of the habitable zones and to unify them into a single concept encompassing the entire universe.Comment: 71 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; to be published in Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres; table slightly revise

Natural Killer T Cells Activated by a Lipopeptidophosphoglycan from Entamoeba histolytica Are Critically Important To Control Amebic Liver Abscess

The innate immune response is supposed to play an essential role in the control of amebic liver abscess (ALA), a severe form of invasive amoebiasis due to infection with the protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica. In a mouse model for the disease, we previously demonstrated that Jα18-/- mice, lacking invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, suffer from more severe abscess development. Here we show that the specific activation of iNKT cells using α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) induces a significant reduction in the sizes of ALA lesions, whereas CD1d−/− mice develop more severe abscesses. We identified a lipopeptidophosphoglycan from E. histolytica membranes (EhLPPG) as a possible natural NKT cell ligand and show that the purified phosphoinositol (PI) moiety of this molecule induces protective IFN-γ but not IL-4 production in NKT cells. The main component of EhLPPG responsible for NKT cell activation is a diacylated PI, (1-O-[(28∶0)-lyso-glycero-3-phosphatidyl-]2-O-(C16:0)-Ins). IFN-γ production by NKT cells requires the presence of CD1d and simultaneously TLR receptor signalling through MyD88 and secretion of IL-12. Similar to α-GalCer application, EhLPPG treatment significantly reduces the severity of ALA in ameba-infected mice. Our results suggest that EhLPPG is an amebic molecule that is important for the limitation of ALA development and may explain why the majority of E. histolytica-infected individuals do not develop amebic liver abscess

Increased peri-ductal collagen micro-organization may contribute to raised mammographic density

BACKGROUND: High mammographic density is a therapeutically modifiable risk factor for breast cancer. Although mammographic density is correlated with the relative abundance of collagen-rich fibroglandular tissue, the causative mechanisms, associated structural remodelling and mechanical consequences remain poorly defined. In this study we have developed a new collaborative bedside-to-bench workflow to determine the relationship between mammographic density, collagen abundance and alignment, tissue stiffness and the expression of extracellular matrix organising proteins. METHODS: Mammographic density was assessed in 22 post-menopausal women (aged 54–66 y). A radiologist and a pathologist identified and excised regions of elevated non-cancerous X-ray density prior to laboratory characterization. Collagen abundance was determined by both Masson’s trichrome and Picrosirius red staining (which enhances collagen birefringence when viewed under polarised light). The structural specificity of these collagen visualisation methods was determined by comparing the relative birefringence and ultrastructure (visualised by atomic force microscopy) of unaligned collagen I fibrils in reconstituted gels with the highly aligned collagen fibrils in rat tail tendon. Localised collagen fibril organisation and stiffness was also evaluated in tissue sections by atomic force microscopy/spectroscopy and the abundance of key extracellular proteins was assessed using mass spectrometry. RESULTS: Mammographic density was positively correlated with the abundance of aligned periductal fibrils rather than with the abundance of amorphous collagen. Compared with matched tissue resected from the breasts of low mammographic density patients, the highly birefringent tissue in mammographically dense breasts was both significantly stiffer and characterised by large (>80 μm long) fibrillar collagen bundles. Subsequent proteomic analyses not only confirmed the absence of collagen fibrosis in high mammographic density tissue, but additionally identified the up-regulation of periostin and collagen XVI (regulators of collagen fibril structure and architecture) as potential mediators of localised mechanical stiffness. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary data suggest that remodelling, and hence stiffening, of the existing stromal collagen microarchitecture promotes high mammographic density within the breast. In turn, this aberrant mechanical environment may trigger neoplasia-associated mechanotransduction pathways within the epithelial cell population. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13058-015-0664-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Abstracts from the 8th International Conference on cGMP Generators, Effectors and Therapeutic Implications

This work was supported by a restricted research grant of Bayer AG