Functional upgrading in China’s export processing sector

Functional upgrading occurs when a firm acquires more sophisticated functions within an existing value chain. In this paper, we analyze if there is evidence of this type of upgrading in China’s export processing regime by investigating dynamics in the relative prevalence of Import & Assembly (IA) versus Pure Assembly (PA) processing trade over the period 2000-2013. Firms in both regimes provide similar manufacturing services to foreign companies, but IA firms also conduct the sophisticated tasks of quality control, searching, financing and storing imported materials. Consistent with a trend of functional upgrading, we show that the share of IA trade in total processing trade has increased rapidly during the period 2000-2006, both overall and within product categories. Furthermore, we find that this trend has gone hand in hand with improvements in a sector’s labor productivity and unit values. Against expectations, we find that this process has slowed down notably during the period 2006-2013.status: publishe

Insulinoma de páncreas que imita epilepsia

El insulinoma es una neoplasia endocrina funcional rara, que provoca un estado hiperinsulínico hipoglucémico derivado de la ausencia de regulación endocrina de la secreción de insulina. Su incidencia es de 1 a 5 caso por millón de personas al año a nivel mundial. Es la sintomatología más comúnmente manifestada por síntomas neuroglucopénicos y simpaticoadrenales. El diagnóstico se establece por la tríada de Whipple, los niveles elevados de insulina, el péptido C, la proinsulina y los niveles disminuidos de betahidroxibutirato, además de descartar el uso de sulfonilureas. El manejo de elección es la resección quirúrgica, dado su alto nivel de benignidad y curación total. Se presenta el caso de un hombre en manejo anticonvulsivante por epilepsia con refractariedad de síntomas, quien debutó con cuadro de hipoglucemia grave necesaria para el diagnóstico de insulinoma, con manejo quirúrgico y resolución del cuadro de base

EPIdemiology of Surgery-Associated Acute Kidney Injury (EPIS-AKI) : Study protocol for a multicentre, observational trial

More than 300 million surgical procedures are performed each year. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication after major surgery and is associated with adverse short-term and long-term outcomes. However, there is a large variation in the incidence of reported AKI rates. The establishment of an accurate epidemiology of surgery-associated AKI is important for healthcare policy, quality initiatives, clinical trials, as well as for improving guidelines. The objective of the Epidemiology of Surgery-associated Acute Kidney Injury (EPIS-AKI) trial is to prospectively evaluate the epidemiology of AKI after major surgery using the latest Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) consensus definition of AKI. EPIS-AKI is an international prospective, observational, multicentre cohort study including 10 000 patients undergoing major surgery who are subsequently admitted to the ICU or a similar high dependency unit. The primary endpoint is the incidence of AKI within 72 hours after surgery according to the KDIGO criteria. Secondary endpoints include use of renal replacement therapy (RRT), mortality during ICU and hospital stay, length of ICU and hospital stay and major adverse kidney events (combined endpoint consisting of persistent renal dysfunction, RRT and mortality) at day 90. Further, we will evaluate preoperative and intraoperative risk factors affecting the incidence of postoperative AKI. In an add-on analysis, we will assess urinary biomarkers for early detection of AKI. EPIS-AKI has been approved by the leading Ethics Committee of the Medical Council North Rhine-Westphalia, of the Westphalian Wilhelms-University Münster and the corresponding Ethics Committee at each participating site. Results will be disseminated widely and published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at conferences and used to design further AKI-related trials. Trial registration number NCT04165369

Genetic diversity of HLA system in two populations from San Luis Potosí, Mexico: San Luis Potosí City and rural San Luis Potosí

We studied HLA class I (HLA-A, -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1, -DQB1) alleles by PCR-SSP based typing in 117 Mexicans from the state of San Luis Potosí living in the city of San Luis Potosí (N = 30) and rural communities (N = 87), to obtain information regarding allelic and haplotypic frequencies. We find that the most frequent haplotypes in the state include 13 Native American, six European, two African and two Asian haplotypes. Admixture estimates revealed that the main genetic components are Native American (52.72 ± 0.66 by ML; 48.29 of Native American haplotypes) and European (34.62 ± 4.28 by ML; 32.48 of European haplotypes), and a relatively high African genetic component (12.66 ± 4.61 by ML; 10.26 of African haplotypes)

Genetic diversity of HLA system in two populations from Durango, Mexico: Durango city and rural Durango

We studied HLA class I (HLA-A, -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1, -DQB1) alleles by PCR-SSP based typing in 479 Mexicans from the state of Durango living in Durango city (N = 153) and rural communities (N = 326), to obtain information regarding allelic and haplotypic frequencies. We find that the ten most frequent haplotypes found in the state of Durango include eight Native American and two European haplotypes. Admixture estimates revealed that the main genetic components in Durango are European (54.34 ± 1.68) and Native American (45.66 ± 2.24), while African genetic component was virtually absent (0.00 ± 2.03). However, African haplotypes could be estimated at a proportion of 9.13