U.S. Multinational Services Companies: Effects of Foreign Affiliate Activity on U.S. Employment

This working paper examines the effect that U.S. services firms’ establishment abroad has on domestic employment. Whereas many papers have explored the employment effects of foreign direct investment in manufacturing, few have explored the effects of services investment. We find that services multinationals’ activities abroad increase U.S. employment by promoting intrafirm exports from parent firms to their foreign affiliates. These exports support jobs at the parents’ headquarters and throughout their U.S. supply chains. Our findings are principally based on economic research and econometric analysis performed by Commission staff, services trade and investment data published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and employment data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the aggregate, we find that services activities abroad support nearly 700,000 U.S. jobs. Case studies of U.S. multinationals in the banking, computer, logistics, and retail industries provide the global dimensions of U.S. MNC operations and identify domestic employment effects associated with foreign affiliate activity in each industry

Identification of a Novel Keyhole Phenotype in Double-Disk Diffusion Assays of Clindamycin-Resistant Erythromycin-Sensitive Strains of Streptococcus agalactiae

Our objective was to characterize 46 unique, erythromycin-sensitive, and clindamycin-resistant Streptococcus agalactiae strains from S. Korea that displayed a novel phenotype in double-disk diffusion assay. We used polymerase chain reaction to determine presence of erythromycin and clindamycin resistance genes, disc diffusion assays to determine resistance phenotype, and microbroth dilution to determine minimal inhibitory concentration. We detected a novel phenotype in the double-disk diffusion assay for inducible resistance among 46 S. agalactiae strains that were both erythromycin sensitive and clindamycin resistant. Thirty-two strains with the novel phenotype tested positive for erm(B) by DNA-DNA hybridization; sequencing of the erm(B) gene revealed mutations in the ribosomal binding site region in the erm(B) open reading frame, which is consistent with a lack of erythromycin resistance phenotype. Although identified from patients at multiple hospitals, genotyping suggested that the strains are closely related. The new phenotype shows increased sensitivity to clindamycin in the presence of erythromycin.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90482/1/mdr-2E2010-2E0040.pd

Treatment patterns and blood counts in patients with polycythemia vera treated with hydroxyurea in the United States: An analysis from the REVEAL study

BACKGROUND: Polycythemia vera (PV) is associated with increased blood cell counts, risk of thrombosis, and symptoms including fatigue and pruritus. National guidelines support the use of hydroxyurea (HU) in high-risk patients or those with some other clinical indication for cytoreduction. PATIENTS AND METHODS: REVEAL is a prospective, observational study designed to collect data pertaining to demographics, disease burden, clinical management, patient-reported outcomes, and health care resource utilization of patients with PV in the United States. In this analysis, HU treatment patterns and outcomes were assessed from 6 months prior to enrollment to the time of discontinuation, death, or data cutoff. RESULTS: Of the 1381 patients who received HU for ≥ 3 months, the median HU exposure was 23.6 months (range, 3.1-38.5 months). The most common maximum daily HU doses were 1000 mg (30.6%) and 500 mg (30.1%); only 6.4% received ≥ 2 g/d HU. Approximately one-third (32.3%) of patients had dose adjustments, 23.8% had dose interruptions, and 257 (18.6%) discontinued HU. The most common reasons for HU discontinuations and interruptions were adverse events/intolerance (37.1% and 54.5%, respectively) and lack of efficacy (35.5% and 22.1%, respectively). Of those who received HU for ≥ 3 months, 57.1% had hematocrit values \u3e 45% on ≥ 1 occasion, 33.1% continued to receive phlebotomies, and 27.4% had uncontrolled myeloproliferation. CONCLUSION: The results of this analysis emphasize the need for active management of patients with PV with appropriate HU dose titration to maintain blood count control while monitoring for signs and symptoms of HU intolerance

Reproductive isolation between two populations of Aglaoctenus lagotis , a funnel-web wolf spider

Aglaoctenus lagotis (Lycosidae: Sosippinae) is a spider that, in contrast to the predominant wandering habit of the family, constructs funnel webs. The species is widely distributed throughout the Neotropics and is credited with high levels of intraspecific variation. Here, we evaluate whether reproductive isolating barriers operate between some populations of A. lagotis. We used heterotypic encounters between individuals from two distant localities: southern Uruguay (SU) and Central Argentina (CA). Additionally, we used spiders from an ntermediate locality, western Uruguay (WU), where both forms of the species overlap (SU.WU was used to describe individuals from WU reminiscent of those from SU; and CA.WU was used to describe individuals from WU reminiscent of those from CA). No copulations occurred between SU and CA individuals, whereas a single and atypical copulation occurred between SU.WU and CA.WU individuals. Attacks (only by females on males) were rare. In tests of choice based on silk cues, SU males did not prefer homotypic cues but almost did not court CA females, whereas CA males preferred homotypic cues but usually courted heterotypic females. These findings, with a previously reported temporal asynchrony between populations, suggest the occurrence of reproductive isolation between both spider forms and a speciation process favoured by the wide distribution and plasticity of the species.Fil: González Pérez, María de la Macarena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Cátedra de Diversidad Animal I; ArgentinaFil: Peretti, Alfredo Vicente. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Cátedra de Diversidad Animal I; ArgentinaFil: Costa, Fernando G.. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas "Clemente Estable"; Urugua

Synthesis of fused indoline-cyclobutanone derivatives via an intramolecular [2+2] cycloaddition

We thank the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Critical Resource Catalysis (CRITICAT, grant code EP/L016419/1, R.M.N.) for funding. We thank the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) ERC grant agreement no. 279850 (A.D.S.). A.D.S. thanks the Royal Society for a Wolfson Research Merit Award. We also thank the EPSRC UK National Mass Spectrometry Service at Swansea. The research data supporting this publication can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.17630/00aff760-0732-438f-a9d1-30c7cf3a87a0A serendipitously-discovered process for the synthesis of heterocyclic products containing a novel fused indoline-cyclobutanone ring system is reported. This process is believed to take place through in situ generation of a ketene intermediate, followed by intramolecular [2+2] cycloaddition with a pendant enamide. The formation of a ketene intermediate in this process is significant as the reaction conditions employed are analogous to those commonly used in tertiary amine Lewis base catalysis, where the potential intermediacy of ketenes is an important consideration that is often overlooked.PostprintPeer reviewe

Data S1: Supplementary data containing, details of datasets used for this study, accuracy comparison of different methods per datasets, runtime and memory consumption of each method for individual datasets and statistical details (STDDEV, MEAN, Variance, Q1, Q2(median), Q3) of the differences b/n real and predicted abundances.

Identification and quantification of microorganisms is a significant step in studying the alpha and beta diversities within and between microbial communities respectively. Both identification and quantification of a given microbial community can be carried out using whole genome shotgun sequences with less bias than when using 16S-rDNA sequences. However, shared regions of DNA among reference genomes and taxonomic units pose a significant challenge in assigning reads correctly to their true origins. The existing microbial community profiling tools commonly deal with this problem by either preparing signature-based unique references or assigning an ambiguous read to its least common ancestor in a taxonomic tree. The former method is limited to making use of the reads which can be mapped to the curated regions, while the latter suffer from the lack of uniquely mapped reads at lower (more specific) taxonomic ranks. Moreover, even if the tools exhibited good performance in calling the organisms present in a sample, there is still room for improvement in determining the correct relative abundance of the organisms. We present a new method Species Level Identification of Microorganisms from Metagenomes (SLIMM) which addresses the above issues by using coverage information of reference genomes to remove unlikely genomes from the analysis and subsequently gain more uniquely mapped reads to assign at lower ranks of a taxonomic tree. SLIMM is based on a few, seemingly easy steps which when combined create a tool that outperforms state-of-the-art tools in run-time and memory usage while being on par or better in computing quantitative and qualitative information at species-level

Synergy of IL-21 and IL-15 in regulating CD8+ T cell expansion and function

Interleukin (IL)-21 is the most recently recognized of the cytokines that share the common cytokine receptor γ chain (γc), which is mutated in humans with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency. We now report that IL-21 synergistically acts with IL-15 to potently promote the proliferation of both memory (CD44high) and naive (CD44low) phenotype CD8+ T cells and augment interferon-γ production in vitro. IL-21 also cooperated, albeit more weakly, with IL-7, but not with IL-2. Correspondingly, the expansion and cytotoxicity of CD8+ T cells were impaired in IL-21R−/− mice. Moreover, in vivo administration of IL-21 in combination with IL-15 boosted antigen-specific CD8+ T cell numbers and resulted in a cooperative effect on tumor regression, with apparent cures of large, established B16 melanomas. Thus, our studies reveal that IL-21 potently regulates CD8+ T cell expansion and effector function, primarily in a synergistic context with IL-15