NAFTA and the changing pattern of state exports

The trade liberalization associated with NAFTA has affected the pattern of state exports by altering the origin as well as the destination of merchandise exports. We find that NAFTA has increased US merchandise exports to Mexico and Canada by just over 15 percent, and has increased total US merchandise exports by nearly 8 percent. We also find that although many states have seen large increases in exports to both Mexico and Canada, others have seen large decreases. NAFTA has also affected states’ exports to non-NAFTA regions of the world, tending to decrease exports to Europe and Latin America and increase exports to Asia. States in the northeast regions of the United States have seen the smallest increases in exports in the wake of NAFTA.North American Free Trade Agreement ; International trade

Ethnic networks and trade: intensive vs. extensive margins

Ethnic networks?as proxies for information networks?have been associated with higher levels of international trade. Previous research has not differentiated between the roles of these networks on the extensive and intensive margins. The present paper does so using a model with fixed effects, finding that ethnic networks increase trade on the intensive margin but not on the extensive margin.International trade ; Exports

Ethnic networks and U.S. exports

This paper provides new estimates of the effects of ethnic networks on U.S. exports. In line with recent research, our dataset is a panel of exports from U.S. states to 29 foreign countries. Our analysis departs from the literature in two ways, both of which show that previous estimates of the ethnic-network elasticity of trade are sensitive to the restrictions imposed on the estimated models. Our first departure is to control for unobserved heterogeneity with properly specified fixed effects, which we can do because our dataset contains a time dimension absent from previous studies. Our second departure is to remove the restriction that the network effect is the same for all ethnicities. We find that ethnic-network effects are much larger than has been estimated previously, although they are important only for a subset of countries.Exports ; Regional economics

Production of oxygen free radicals by Ehrlich ascites tumour cells: effect of lipids

Phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), calcium ionophore A23187 and platelet activating factor (PAF) stimulated the generation of oxygen free radicals (nitro-blue tetrazolium reduction) in Ehrlich ascites tumour (EAT) cells. PAF was effective at an optimal concentration of 4 μM, but was inhibited by BN 52021, a specific PAF antagonist. Lyso-PAF was ineffective. Inclusion of different lipids during incubation prior to the addition of PAF, resulted in the activation/inhibition of free radical generation. Among the phospholipids at a concentration of 50 μg/ml, the order of activation was phosphatidylserine > phosphatidylglycerol > phosphoinositides > phosphatidylinositol > phosphatidylethanolamine. Phosphatidylcholine was not effective, while sphingolipids were inhibitory. In addition, Ehrlich ascites tumour cells grown in mice under marginal vitamin A deficiency, showed an augmented production of free radicals compared to control cells. This was suppressed by exogenous addition of vitamin A or superoxide dismutase. These results suggest that membrane lipids and dietary factors like vitamin A probably function as physiological modulators in regulating the free radical generation

Impact of pharmaceutical care interventions on the CD4+ lymphocytes counts (therapeutic outcome) of patients on antiretroviral drugs

CD4 count and viral load determine the progression of HIV infection. HIV actively infects and destroys CD4 cells. High viral load results in higher transmission risk and is also a sign of more severe disease. Measurements of CD4 counts can be used as an indirect means of estimating HIV viral load and as such determine disease progression and/or therapeutic outcome of antiretroviral therapy. Pharmaceutical care (PC) has been shown to improve the outcome of drug therapy in many disease conditions. HIV/AIDS is one of the disease conditions that are fraught with many problems that can benefit from this new emphasis of pharmacy practice also known as ‘pharmacists care’. This study is designed to evaluate the impact of pharmaceutical care activities on the CD4 cell counts of HIV/AIDS patients receiving antiretroviral drugs. The components of the American society of health-system pharmacists (ASHP) guidelines on ‘standardized method for pharmaceutical care’ was used as a data collection instrument to evaluate, document and intervene and re-evaluate the antiretroviral therapy of about one thousand four hundred and seventy three (1,473) patients. The results showed that that 55.2% of the patients recorded significant increases in their CD4 cells count, 14.1% of them maintained their pre - intervention CD4 cells count while 10.3% of them recorded decreases in their CD4 cell count. However, in 20.4% of the patients the CD4 cell counts could not be determined. The study showed that pharmacists’ interventions in antiretroviral drug therapy through Pharmaceutical care can significantly improve the CD4 cells counts of patients receiving antiretroviral drugs hence therapeutic outcome of antiretroviral drug therapy

Insecticidal Activities of Azadirachta indica A.J (Meliaceae) leaf and Seed on Stored Grain Weevils and Toxicological Studies of Pesticide-protected Stored Grains in Nigeria

Introduction: Azadirachta indica has been used in Nigeria for decades in traditional medicine for managing various diseases notably are fever, aches, common cold, as well as  urinary tract infections.Methods: A. indica  leaves and seeds were prepared after air drying into powder forms(PF), aqueous extract(AE) and ethanol extract(EE). Two kilograms of dried leaves and seeds were each prepared by grinding with electronic blender into fine powder, fresh leaves and seeds were  each macerated in 1000mL of water in a basin while 2000g of the other powdered parts were extracted using cold maceration techniques in 1.5 litres of absolute ethanol and concentrated using rotary evaporator. The grains tested were maize, bean, millet and guinea corn; each bagged in 25Kg storage bags and arranged in randomized block design in the laboratory for 8 weeks. Various preparations of A. indica PF, AE, and EE were used to store the grains for the period. % Mortality of weevils, as well as oviposition deterrence were determined in each bag and for each preparation. Results: The result showed that AE of leaf and seed exhibited 100% insecticidal and oviposition deterrence on Acanthoscelides obtestus (bean weevil) than maize and guinea corn weevil(Sitophilus spp.). Insecticidal activities increases with increased storage time. These results were comparable to the standard pesticide DD force at p≤0.05 (ANOVA).  Acute toxicity determination showed that  LD50 value were  363.10 mg/Kg and 977.10 mg/Kg for beans and maize respectively

Modelling nasal high flow therapy effects on upper airway resistance and resistive work of breathing

Aim The goal of this paper is to quantify upper airway resistance with and without nasal high flow (NHF) therapy. For adults, NHF therapy feeds 30–60 L/min of warm humidified air into the nose through short cannulas which do not seal the nostril. NHF therapy has been reported to increase airway pressure, increase tidal volume (Vt) and decrease respiratory rate (RR), but it is unclear how these findings affect the work done to overcome airway resistance to air flow during expiration. Also, there is little information on how the choice of nasal cannula size may affect work of breathing. In this paper, estimates of airway resistance without and with different NHF flow (applied via different cannula sizes) were made. The breathing efforts required to overcome airway resistance under these conditions were quantified. Method NHF was applied via three different cannula sizes to a 3-D printed human upper airway. Pressure drop and flow rate were measured and used to estimate inspiratory and expiratory upper airway resistances. The resistance information was used to compute the muscular work required to overcome the resistance of the upper airway to flow. Results NHF raises expiratory resistance relative to spontaneous breathing if the breathing pattern does not change but reduces work of breathing if peak expiratory flow falls. Of the cannula sizes used, the large cannula produced the greatest resistance and the small cannula produced the least. The work required to cause tracheal flow through the upper airway was reduced if the RR and minute volume are reduced by NHF. NHF has been observed to do so in COPD patients (Bräunlich et al., 2013). A reduction in I:E ratio due to therapy was found to reduce work of breathing if the peak inspiratory flow is less than the flow below which no inspiratory effort is required to overcome upper airway resistance. Conclusion NHF raises expiratory resistance but it can reduce the work required to overcome upper airway resistance via a fall in inspiratory work of breathing, RR and minute volume

Determinants of social capital: prioritising issues for holistic urban sustainability assessments

The concept of social capital is gaining increasing recognition as a concomitant for social and economic development. Robert Putnam's (2000) exposition of the crucial correspondence between the decline of social capital on one hand and the economic lives of American people on the other received wide acclaim at home and abroad. Contemporary literature on development studies is equally replete with references to the World Bank's subscription that social capital has an important role to play fostering sustainable development. There is a general agreement among proponents of social capital that well-governed cities which exhibit strong economic growth do so because of their high stocks of social capital (Portes, 1998). There is also a similar realisation that the design and form of cities, neighbourhoods and individual buildings have significant implications on social capital as they can affect the way people interact and bond with each other and the sense of community among individuals (Dannenberg et al, 2003; Lindström et al, 2003). The fundamental premise is that some urban designs encourage social ties and informal contact among residents while others violate the evolutionary pattern of civicness within the urban existence. The aim of this paper is to identify and examine the key determinants of social capital within an urban development context. This should set the platform for a predictive model of social capital, which will enable the incorporation of the concept in a holistic urban sustainability assessment framework. The paper argues that social capital is a subject of self-organisation, whose evolution to higher levels can be catalysed by the prevalence of a critical balance in the design of the physical urban environment

Microstructural Study of Cold-Sprayed CoCrFeNiMn High Entropy Alloy

The rapid development of cold spraying technology for additive manufacturing of engineering components has made it a viable option for developing thick deposits from high-entropy alloys (HEAs). The microstructure of cold-sprayed CoCrFeNiMn deposit was investigated in this study using electron backscattered diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and finite element analysis (FEA). The limited studies on the impact deformation behavior of the HEA during cold spraying, limiting our understanding of impact phenomena, and interactions between the HEA particles under ultra-high strain rate deformation motivated this study. From the microstructural characterization, heterogeneous microstructure appears to be formed in the cold-sprayed HEA deposit, comprising of equiaxed ultrafine grains at the particle–particle interfacial regions and coarse grains at the particle interiors. The FEA reveals large strain (> 250%) and temperature (> 90% of the alloy solidus temperature), mainly at the splat’s interfaces. Adiabatic shear instability and rotational dynamic recrystallization resulting from heat accumulation and high strain are believed to be responsible for these observations during the ultra-high strain rate deformation of the HEA. The large deformation and grain refinement experienced by the HEA resulted in greater deposit hardness when compared with the sprayed powder, with the nanohardness increasing from 1.16 GPa in the powder to 5.14 GPa in the deposit. This study explores and provides an understanding of the deformation behavior of the HEA and the resulting microstructure during cold spraying