Productivity growth in one country affects the relative income and welfare of its trade partners

Large-scale changes in relative economic size necessarily involve heightened political tension and realignments, write Benny Kleinman, Ernest Liu and Stephen Reddin

International friends and enemies

We develop sufficient statistics of countries’ bilateral income and welfare exposure to foreign productivity shocks that are exact for small shocks in the class of models with a constant trade elasticity. For large shocks, we characterize the quality of the approximation, and show it to be almost exact. We compute these sufficient statistics for over 140 countries from 1970-2012. We show that our exposure measures depend on market-size, cross-substitution and cost of living effects. As countries become greater economic friends in terms of welfare exposure, they become greater political friends in terms of United Nations voting and strategic rivalries

Dynamic spatial general equilibrium

We develop a dynamic spatial general equilibrium model with forward-looking investment and migration decisions. We characterize analytically the transition path of the spatial distribution of economic activity in response to shocks. We apply our framework to the re-allocation of US economic activity from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt from 1965-2015. We find slow convergence to steady-state, with US states closer to steady-state at the end of our sample period than at its beginning. We find substantial heterogeneity in the effects of local shocks, which depend on capital and labor dynamics, and the spatial and sectoral incidence of these shocks

Neoclassical growth in an interdependent world

We generalize the closed-economy neoclassical growth model (CNGM) to allow for costly goods trade and capital flows with imperfect substitutability between countries. We develop a tractable, multi-country, quantitative model that matches key features of the observed data (e.g., gravity equations for trade and capital holdings) and is well suited for analyzing counterfactual policies that affect both goods and capital market integration (e.g., U.S.-China decoupling). We show that goods and capital market integration interact in non-trivial ways to shape impulse responses to counterfactual changes in productivity and goods and capital market frictions and the speed of convergence to steady-state

Predictors of change in health-related quality of life among older people with depression: a longitudinal study

Background: Depression is a common psychological problem among older people. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is now recognized by healthcare providers as an important treatment goal for people with depression. This study aimed to identify predictors of change in HRQoL among older people with depression. Methods: In a longitudinal study, data were collected when participants were newly diagnosed with a depressive disorder at a regional outpatient department in Hong Kong and 12 months later. Seventy-seven Chinese participants aged 65 years or older completed the study. Measures included the Physical Health Condition Checklist (PHCC),Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS),Modified Barthel Index (MBI), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scale, Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ), and World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale-Brief Version (WHOQOL). Results: Significant improvements between the first and second assessments were noted in the total WHOQOL scores, GDS scores, and the number of the social support. The results of linear regression models showed that the increases in the IADL scores and decreases in the PHCC and GDS scores were significantly associated with higher final WHOQOL scores. Discussion: Treatment for depression was effective in improving the participants’ overall condition and their perceivedHRQoL. The results suggest that interventions to alleviate older people’s level of depression,manage their physical ill health and enhance their instrumental activities of daily living ability could help improve their perceived HRQoL

The Collagen Suprafamily: From Biosynthesis to Advanced Biomaterial Development

Collagen is the oldest and most abundant extracellular matrix protein that has found many applications in food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries. First, an overview of the family of collagens and their respective structures, conformation, and biosynthesis is provided. The advances and shortfalls of various collagen preparations (e.g., mammalian/marine extracted collagen, cell-produced collagens, recombinant collagens, and collagen-like peptides) and crosslinking technologies (e.g., chemical, physical, and biological) are then critically discussed. Subsequently, an array of structural, thermal, mechanical, biochemical, and biological assays is examined, which are developed to analyze and characterize collagenous structures. Lastly, a comprehensive review is provided on how advances in engineering, chemistry, and biology have enabled the development of bioactive, 3D structures (e.g., tissue grafts, biomaterials, cell-assembled tissue equivalents) that closely imitate native supramolecular assemblies and have the capacity to deliver in a localized and sustained manner viable cell populations and/or bioactive/therapeutic molecules. Clearly, collagens have a long history in both evolution and biotechnology and continue to offer both challenges and exciting opportunities in regenerative medicine as nature's biomaterial of choice.This work forms part of the Teagasc Walsh Fellowship (grant award number: 2014045) and the ReValueProtein Research Project (grant award number: 11/F/043) supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) under the National Development Plan 2007–2013 funded by the Irish Government. This work has also been supported from the: Health Research Board, Health Research Awards Programme (grant agreement number: HRA_POR/2011/84); Science Foundation Ireland, Career Development Award Programme (grant agreement number: 15/CDA/3629); Science Foundation Ireland and the European Regional Development Fund (grant agreement number: 13/RC/2073); College of Engineering and Informatics, National University of Ireland Galway; EU FP7/2007-2013, NMP award, Green Nano Mesh Project (grant agreement number: 263289); EU FP7/2007-2013, Health award, Neurograft Project (grant agreement number: 304936); EU H2020, ITN award, Tendon Therapy Train Project (grant agreement number: 676338); National University of Singapore Tissue Engineering Programme (NUSTEP). The authors would like to thank M Doczyk, E Collin, W Daly, M Abu-Rub, D Thomas, S Browne, C Tapeinos, A Satyam and D Cigognini for their help in producing the figures. A.S., L.M.D., Z.W., N.S., A.K., R.N.R., A.M.M., A.P., M.R., and D.I.Z. have no competing interests. Y.B. is an employee of Sofradim Production – A Medtronic Company. D.I.Z would like to dedicate the manuscript to A.G.Z. who left and A.D.Z. who camepeer-reviewe