The Economic Impact of a U.S. Slowdown on the Americas

this paper shows that the U.S.' biggest trading partners in the Americas will likely see a significant loss in exports and GDP as the U.S. economy slows. Countries less reliant on the U.S. market will not be as negatively impacted. The paper makes two sets of projections for the decline in exports countries in the Americas may experience. The low-adjustment scenario assumes that the U.S. trade deficit falls from 5.2 percent of GDP in 2007 to 3.0 percent of GDP in 2010. The high adjustment scenario assumes that the U.S. trade deficit falls back to 1.0 percent of GDP by 2010. The paper finds that the countries that will likely suffer most as the result of a reduction in U.S. imports are the same countries with which the United States has implemented "free trade" agreements in recent decades, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), which includes the United States along with Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, countries that are less dependent on the United States, or more reliant on domestic demand, will see smaller impacts of the U.S. recession on their exports and national GDP

The Economic Impact of a U.S. Slowdown on the Americas

This paper shows that the U.S.'s biggest trading partners in the Americas will likely see a significant loss in exports and GDP as the U.S. economy slows. Countries less reliant on the U.S. market will not be as negatively impacted. The paper makes two sets of projections for the decline in exports countries in the Americas may experience. The low-adjustment scenario assumes that the U.S. trade deficit falls from 5.2 percent of GDP in 2007 to 3.0 percent of GDP in 2010. The high adjustment scenario assumes that the U.S. trade deficit falls back to 1.0 percent of GDP by 2010. The paper finds that the countries that will likely suffer most as the result of a reduction in U.S. imports are the same countries with which the United States has implemented “free trade” agreements in recent decades, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), which includes the United States along with Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, countries that are less dependent on the United States, or more reliant on domestic demand, will see smaller impacts of the U.S. recession on their exports and national GDP.trade, Latin America

Pacific Nortwest Perspective: The Impact of the America Invents Act on Nonprofit Global Health Organizations

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011 (AIA) makes fundamental changes to the legislative landscape governing patent law in the United States and will bring about corresponding changes in the manner in which inventors and attorneys address patent issues. While the law is newly implemented, inventors in all sectors of the economy are eager to formulate reactions to it. In this Article, we explore the effects of the AIA on nonprofit research organizations dedicated to global health and life sciences. We report the perspectives of counsel representing such organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest. We also consider the patent system, and the Act’s effects on the system, in the context of scientific and humanitarian motivations

Mechanism of Alkyl Migration in Diorganomagnesium 2,6-Bis(imino)pyridine Complexes: Formation of Grignard-Type Complexes with Square-Planar Mg(II) Centers

Dialkylmagnesium compounds [MgR2L2] (R = n-Bu, L = none or R = Bn, L = THF) react with 2,6-bis(imino)pyridines (BIP) to afford different types of Mg(II) alkyl complexes, depending on the nature of R. For R = n-Bu, thermally stable products resulting from selective alkyl transfer to the pyridine nitrogen (N1) atom are obtained. However, NMR studies showed that the reaction of [Mg(Bn)2THF2] with iPrBIP at −65 °C leads to a thermally unstable product arising from benzyl migration to position C2 in the pyridine ring. Above +5 °C, this compound rearranges, cleanly yielding a mixture of two isomeric complexes, in which the benzyl group has migrated to positions C3 or C4 of the central ring, respectively. Similar isomeric mixtures were obtained when [Mg(Bn)2THF2] was reacted with iPrBIP or MesBIP at room temperature. Such mixtures are thermally stable below 80 °C, but at this temperature, the 3-benzyl isomer converts into the thermodynamically favored 4-benzyl product, albeit not quantitatively. An alternate route was devised for the selective syntheses of the latter type of compounds. The X-ray diffraction structure of one of them provided an unusual example of a square-planar alkylmagnesium(II) center.Ministerio de Economía e Innovación CTQ2015-68978-

Performance of MV distributed energy power systems under model-predictive control and conventional power systems state estimators

© 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.In this paper, the performance of a middle voltage (MV) distributed power generation system under a Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy is tested. The designed controller receives process information from an state estimation unit, composed of a Weighted Least-Squares strategy (WLS). The contribution is focused on performing the frequency and voltage regulation of the system, considering moreover the dynamic behavior of storage units and capacitors, and feeding back information to the control system considering the transmission delay. The results show that the closed loop based on the proposed strategy achieves the required performance and can be useful to be applied to more complex systems such as low-voltage (LV) generation systems.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Oxygen-Induced Dimerization of Alkyl-Manganese(II) 2,6-Bisiminopyridine Complexes: Selective Synthesis of a New Ditopic NNN-Pincer Ligand

The outcome of the reaction of manganese(II) dialkyls with 2,6-bisiminopyridine (BIP) ligands is dramatically altered by the presence of very small amounts of oxygen (< 0.5 mol %), leading to binuclear species. These arise from the dimerization of the initial product, a Mn(II) 4-alkyl-2,6-bisiminodihydropyridinate alkyl complex. Cleavage of the binuclear Mn products with methanol affords the free dimeric bases, which can be regarded as a special type of ditopic NNN pincer ligand with an unusual tricyclic framework. The coordinative ability of the new ligands has been probed with the syntheses of Zn and Pd organometallic derivativesMinisterio de Economía e Innovación TQ2015- 68978-

Alpha-Fetoprotein in Malignant Pediatric Conditions

Abnormal serum α-fetoprotein (AFP) levels are frequently observed in common disorders such as spina bifida or Down’s syndrome in the fetus and cancer in children and adults. The focus of this chapter summarizes on the role of serum α-fetoprotein (AFP) as a useful biomarker in malignant pediatric tumors. The fetal yolk sac and liver generate high levels of AFP during gestation and decline over the next 12 months of infancy, and only trace amounts are detected in childhood. As a result, persistent elevation of AFP correlates with a number of select pediatric malignant conditions. Serum AFP is overexpressed in a considerable fraction of germ cell tumors (GCTs), hepatoblastoma (HB), and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We provide the reader with a review of AFP as a useful specific marker for the diagnosis, management, and follow-up in select pediatric cancers

Asociación entre los contenidos de la clase de educación física con los niveles de actividad física en escolares de primaria de la localidad de Teusaquillo, Bogotá

Introducción: Los estudios sobre la asociación entre los niveles de actividad física y los contenidos de la clase de educación física en escolares de Bogotá son escasos. Objetivo: El propósito de este estudio fue estimar las asociaciones entre los contenidos de la clase de educación física (EF) con los niveles de actividad física (AF) en escolares de la localidad de Teusaquillo en Bogotá, Colombia. Materiales y Método: Estudio descriptivo de corte- transversal donde se observaron 344 niños en 86 clases de EF. Los criterios de inclusión fueron escolares de básica primaria entre 5 y 12 años, y de exclusión fueron escolares con limitaciones para realizar AF. Se aplicó el instrumento sistema de observación de tiempo instrucción fitness (SOFIT). Resultados: El contenido condición física (fitness) fue el más realizado por los escolares durante la clase, en promedio de clase 12,02 min, y el juego libre representó los mayores niveles de AF (85%). Los estudiantes permanecieron caminando en promedio 15,46 min por clase, que equivale a un porcentaje de 36,45% del total de las clases. Se encontró asociación entre contenidos de la clase y niveles de AF moderada vigorosa (p0,010) y general de conocimiento (p> 0,00). Conclusiones: Conclusiones: La clase de EF aporta 24 min de las recomendaciones de AF para la salud según la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS).Introduction: Studies on the association between physical activity levels and the contents of the physical education class in schoolchildren in Bogotá are scarce. Objective: The purpose of this study was to estimate the association between the contents of the physical education (PE) class and physical activity (PA) levels in schoolchildren of the Teusaquillo locality of Bogota, Colombia. Materials and methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study in which 344 children were observed in 86 PE classes. The inclusion criteria were school children of basic primary between 5 and 12 years. The exclusion were school children with limitations for PA. The instrument applied was the Time Observation System Instruction Fitness (SOFIT). Results: The physical condition content (fitness) was the most performed by school children during the PE class, on average 12. 02 minutes by class. The content of free play represented the highest levels of PA (85%). Students walked 15. 46 minutes on average per class, representing 36. 45% of the total classes. There was found an association between the class content and moderately vigorous physical activity levels (p&lt; 0. 05). Sedentary behaviors were associated with skill drills (p&gt; 0. 010) and general knowledge (p &gt; 0. 00). Conclusions: The PE class provided 24 minutes of PA for health according to the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations

Modeling the Prospects for Hydrogen Powered Transportation Through 2100

Abstract in HTML and technical report in PDF available on the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://mit.edu/globalchange/www/).Hydrogen fueled transportation has been proposed as a low carbon alternative to the current gasoline-powered fleet. Using a computable general equilibrium model of the world economy we explore the economic viability of hydrogen transportation in several different tax and carbon dioxide stabilization policy scenarios. We represent the capital, labor, fuel and other costs of hydrogen production and hydrogen powered vehicles in the economic model. We examine scenarios where the hydrogen fuel price and vehicle cost are varied over a wide range to evaluate what technology improvements would be needed, in terms of cost reductions, for hydrogen vehicles to penetrate the market. We consider scenarios with and without climate policy, and in competition with other reduced-carbon fuel substitutes, such as ethanol-blend fuels. We find that hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles could make a significant contribution to de-carbonization of the transportation fuel cycle if production of hydrogen itself is not carbon-intensive. Cost targets needed for the technology to penetrate in the USA are such that the hydrogen fuel would need to be in the range of 1 to 1.7 times the 1997 price of gasoline and the vehicle mark-up above an average fuel cell automobile would need no more than 1.3 to 1.5 times an average conventional vehicle. At the lower end of these cost ranges, the vehicle fleet could be competitive by 2020 but at the upper end we would only see entry of the fleet toward the end of the century. High fuel taxes in Europe makes fuel-efficient hydrogen fuel cell technology more competitive there than in the USA. Along with cost reductions, these results assume that technical issues are solved and that market hurdles of establishing the fuel distribution system are overcome. For those involved in hydrogen vehicle research this analysis provides cost targets that would need to met and, given they are achieved, an idea of when vehicles could be competitive and under what conditions.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this work provided by the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change through a consortium of industrial sponsors, Federal grants that have supported the development of the modeling framework, especially the US Department of Energy, Integrated Assessment Program in the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) grant DE-FG02-94ER61937 and US EPA agreement XA- 83344601-0 and XA-83240101, and an anonymous donor