Competition between Latin America and China for US direct investment.

There is a belief that the Chinese economy competes with the Latin-American ones for investment flows. Here we analyze the determinants of the US FDI outflows to the most representative Latin-American economies. We develop such assessment with a double-procedure cointegration analysis based on the time-series methodologies of Toda and Yamamoto (1995) and Liu, Song and Romilly (1997). The results suggest that long-run investment to the Latin-American region mainly depends on the performance of the US economy. Furthermore, they suggest the existence of a substitution effect between the Latin American countries and China for US investment flows.FDI; Latin America; China; US; Cointegration

The effect of virtual classes on the development of writing skills in second baccalaureate students.

The Covid-19 pandemic has generated a revolution in education, forcing institutions and educators to rapidly adopt new forms of teaching, such as virtual classes. This shift from face-to-face to online education has had a profound impact on various educational aspects, including the development of writing skills. The main objective of this research is to know the effects of virtual classes on the development of English writing skills in high school sophomores. The present work used the qualitative method with a phenomenological study using a questionnaire through a one-on-one interview with 5 teachers from institutions in Santa Elena, for data collection and bibliographic sources, carrying out the analysis and interpretation of the results. The work concluded that because of the online classes the students had a setback in the development of their writing skills, since they were not able to create texts with a respective and correct structure including a lack of motivation therefore through the interviews it is carried out that there are strategies that can be implemented in the students to promote the development of teaching-learning in the students

The Accreting White Dwarf in SS Cygni Revealed

We have carried out a combined Hubble Space Telescope (HST/GHRS) and Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer FUSE) analysis of the prototype dwarf nova SS Cygni during quiescence. The FUSE and HST spectra were obtained at comparable times after outburst and have matching flux levels where the two spectra overlap. In our synthetic spectral analysis, we have used SS Cygni's accurate HST FGS parallax giving d = 166pc, a newly determined mass for the accreting white dwarf (Bitner et al. 2007) of Mwd=0.81Msun (lower than the previous, widely used 1.2 Msun) and the reddening E_{B-V} values 0.04 (Verbunt 1987; La Dous 1991) and 0.07 (Bruch and Engel 1994) derived from the 2175A absorption feature in the IUE LWP spectra. From the best-fit model solutions to the combined HST + FUSE spectral energy distribution, we find that the white dwarf is reaching a temperature Teff of 45-55,000K in quiescence, assuming Log(g)= 8.3 with a solar composition accreted atmosphere. The exact temperature of the WD depends on the reddening assumed and on the inclusion of a quiescent low mass accretion rate accretion disk. Accretion disk models alone fit badly in the FUSE range while, and if we take the distance to be a free parameter, the only accretion disk model which fits well is for a discordant distance of at least several hundred pc and an accretion rate (1.E-8 Msun/yr which is unacceptably high for a dwarf nova in quiescence. We discuss the implications of the white dwarf's temperature on the time-averaged accretion rate and long term compressional heating models.Comment: ApJ, accepte

Glutamate Concentration in the Serum of Patients with Schizophrenia

Glutamate is the major neurotransmitter with multiple functions in the central nervous system. Glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity is involved in the pathophysiological processes in schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to determine the concentration of glutamate in the serum of patients with paranoid schizophrenia compared with healthy individuals, and depending on the duration of the schizophrenic process and leading clinical symptoms. We investigated the level of glutamate in the serum of 158 patients with paranoid schizophrenia and 94 healthy persons. Higher concentrations of glutamate in schizophrenic patients compared with healthy persons have been found. The maximum concentrations of glutamate were detected in patients with disease duration of more than ten years. Glutamate level in the serum does not depend on the prevailing negative or positive clinical symptoms. The increased concentration of glutamate can hypothetically contribute to dopaminergic and glutamatergic imbalance, leading to the development of psychotic symptoms and cognitive dysfunction

Fractured reservoir discrete feature network technologies. Annual report, March 7, 1996--February 28, 1997

This report describes progress on the project, {open_quotes}Fractured Reservoir Discrete Feature Network Technologies{close_quotes} during the period March 7, 1996 to February 28, 1997. The report presents summaries of technology development for the following research areas: (1) development of hierarchical fracture models, (2) fractured reservoir compartmentalization and tributary volume, (3) fractured reservoir data analysis, and (4) integration of fractured reservoir data and production technologies. In addition, the report provides information on project status, publications submitted, data collection activities, and technology transfer through the world wide web (WWW). Research on hierarchical fracture models included geological, mathematical, and computer code development. The project built a foundation of quantitative, geological and geometrical information about the regional geology of the Permian Basin, including detailed information on the lithology, stratigraphy, and fracturing of Permian rocks in the project study area (Tracts 17 and 49 in the Yates field). Based on the accumulated knowledge of regional and local geology, project team members started the interpretation of fracture genesis mechanisms and the conceptual modeling of the fracture system in the study area. Research on fractured reservoir compartmentalization included basic research, technology development, and application of compartmentalized reservoir analyses for the project study site. Procedures were developed to analyze compartmentalization, tributary drainage volume, and reservoir matrix block size. These algorithms were implemented as a Windows 95 compartmentalization code, FraCluster

Competition between Latin America and China for US direct investment.

There is a belief that the Chinese economy competes with the Latin-American ones for investment flows. Here we analyze the determinants of the US FDI outflows to the most representative Latin-American economies. We develop such assessment with a double-procedure cointegration analysis based on the time-series methodologies of Toda and Yamamoto (1995) and Liu, Song and Romilly (1997). The results suggest that long-run investment to the Latin-American region mainly depends on the performance of the US economy. Furthermore, they suggest the existence of a substitution effect between the Latin American countries and China for US investment flows

Short Gamma Ray Bursts: a bimodal origin?

Short-hard Gamma Ray Bursts (SGRBs) are currently thought to arise from gravitational wave driven coalescences of double neutron star systems forming either in the field or dynamically in globular clusters. For both channels we fit the peak flux distribution of BATSE SGRBs to derive the local burst formation rate and luminosity function. We then compare the resulting redshift distribution with Swift 2-year data, showing that both formation channels are needed in order to reproduce the observations. Double neutron stars forming in globular clusters are found to dominate the distribution at z<0.3, whereas the field population from primordial binaries can account for the high-z SGRBs. This result is not in contradiction with the observed host galaxy type of SGRBs.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Competition between Latin America and China for US direct investment.

There is a belief that the Chinese economy competes with the Latin-American ones for investment flows. Here we analyze the determinants of the US FDI outflows to the most representative Latin-American economies. We develop such assessment with a double-procedure cointegration analysis based on the time-series methodologies of Toda and Yamamoto (1995) and Liu, Song and Romilly (1997). The results suggest that long-run investment to the Latin-American region mainly depends on the performance of the US economy. Furthermore, they suggest the existence of a substitution effect between the Latin American countries and China for US investment flows

An estimate of the cost of administering intravenous biological agents in Spanish day hospitals

Objective: to estimate the unit costs of administering intravenous (IV) biological agents in day hospitals (DHs) in the Spanish National Health System. Patients and methods: data were obtained from 188 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, collected from nine DHs, receiving one of the following IV therapies: infliximab (n=48), rituximab (n=38), abatacept (n=41), or tocilizumab (n=61). The fieldwork was carried out between March 2013 and March 2014. The following three groups of costs were considered: 1) structural costs, 2) material costs, and 3) staff costs. Staff costs were considered a fixed cost and were estimated according to the DH theoretical level of activity, which includes, as well as personal care of each patient, the DH general activities (complete imputation method, CIM). In addition, an alternative calculation was performed, in which the staff costs were considered a variable cost imputed according to the time spent on direct care (partial imputation method, PIM). All costs were expressed in euros for the reference year 2014. Results: The average total cost was is an element of 146.12 per infusion (standard deviation [SD] +/- 87.11; CIM) and is an element of 29.70 per infusion (SD +/- 11.42; PIM). The structure-related costs per infusion varied between is an element of 2.23 and is an element of 62.35 per patient and DH; the cost of consumables oscillated between is an element of 3.48 and is an element of 20.34 per patient and DH. In terms of the care process, the average difference between the shortest and the longest time taken by different hospitals to administer an IV biological therapy was 113 minutes. Conclusion: the average total cost of infusion was less than that normally used in models of economic evaluation coming from secondary sources. This cost is even less when the staff costs are imputed according to the PIM. A high degree of variability was observed between different DHs in the cost of the consumables, in the structure-related costs, and in those of the care process