Financial VAT may improve trade openness

This paper theoretically and empirically analyzes how the taxation of financial services under VAT (‘financial VAT’) influences trade openness. The empirical analysis uses data from the OECD and 36 European Union countries for the period 1960–2019. Dynamic panel data techniques are used, concretely the GMM System, and an unbalanced panel is handled. The results corroborate that financial VAT, and in particular the ‘option-to-tax’ method applied by some countries in the European Union, are positively associated with a country’s trade openness. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Efectos del mercado laboral sobre el sector financiero en la OCDE

Introducción: este trabajo estudia el impacto del desempleo sobre el desarrollo financiero a través de una relación no lineal. La literatura ha estudiado el tema del impacto del desarrollo financiero en la tasa de desempleo, pero en cambio el análisis de los efectos del desempleo en el desarrollo financiero casi no ha sido estudiado. Material y métodos: utilizamos un panel no balanceado con los 35 países miembros de la OCDE de 1996 a 2014, realizando un análisis descriptivo y estimando modelos econométricos dinámicos de datos de panel a través de los métodos GMM System y en diferencias. Resultados: observamos un impacto significativo y negativo del desempleo sobre los costes bancarios, a través de una relación no lineal de proporcionalidad inversa. Discusión: las estimaciones corroboran la relación no lineal que ha sido observada en el análisis descriptivo. Una reforma del sector financiero que desvinculara los efectos del desempleo sobre el desarrollo financiero permitiría reducir los efectos no deseables de los vínculos entre economía real y financiera. Introduction: this paper analyzes the impact of unemployment on financial development through a non-linear relationship. Some papers have analyzed the impact of financial development on unemployment, but only a few papers have studied the inverse effect, namely the impact of unemployment on financial development. Material and methods: a non-balanced panel is used, covering all the 34 members of the OECD from 1996 to 2014, and a descriptive analysis performed. Econometric models for dynamic panel data are subsequently estimated using System GMM and Difference GMM methods. Results: a significant negative impact of unemployment on banking costs through a non-linear relationship of inverse proportionality is found. Discussion: the non-linear relationship revealed by a descriptive analysis is corroborated by these estimations. A reform of the financial sector delinking the effects of unemployment from the financial sector would avoid the undesirable effects of the links between the financial economy and the real economy

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

Long-term effects of medical management on growth and weight in individuals with urea cycle disorders

Low protein diet and sodium or glycerol phenylbutyrate, two pillars of recommended long-term therapy of individuals with urea cycle disorders (UCDs), involve the risk of iatrogenic growth failure. Limited evidence-based studies hamper our knowledge on the long-term effects of the proposed medical management in individuals with UCDs. We studied the impact of medical management on growth and weight development in 307 individuals longitudinally followed by the Urea Cycle Disorders Consortium (UCDC) and the European registry and network for Intoxication type Metabolic Diseases (E-IMD). Intrauterine growth of all investigated UCDs and postnatal linear growth of asymptomatic individuals remained unaffected. Symptomatic individuals were at risk of progressive growth retardation independent from the underlying disease and the degree of natural protein restriction. Growth impairment was determined by disease severity and associated with reduced or borderline plasma branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) concentrations. Liver transplantation appeared to have a beneficial effect on growth. Weight development remained unaffected both in asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals. Progressive growth impairment depends on disease severity and plasma BCAA concentrations, but cannot be predicted by the amount of natural protein intake alone. Future clinical trials are necessary to evaluate whether supplementation with BCAAs might improve growth in UCDs

International nosocomial infection control consortium (INICC) report, data summary of 36 countries, for 2004-2009

The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system [NNIS]) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium's ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries' ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.8 per 1,000 central line-days was more than 3-fold higher than the 2.0 per 1,000 central line-days reported in comparable US ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia also was far higher (15.8 vs 3.3 per 1,000 ventilator-days), as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (6.3 vs. 3.3 per 1,000 catheter-days). Notably, the frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to imipenem (47.2% vs 23.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (76.3% vs 27.1%), Escherichia coli isolates to ceftazidime (66.7% vs 8.1%), Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (84.4% vs 56.8%), were also higher in the consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 7.3% (for catheter-associated urinary tract infection) to 15.2% (for ventilator-associated pneumonia). Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Immagini aeree a Tusculum: un approccio multidisciplinare

Trabajo presentado en el 2nd International Conference of Aerial Archaeology (Secondo Convegno Internazionale di Archeologia Aerea), celebrado en Roma del 3 al 5 de febrero de 2016.Since 1994, the Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma-CSIC coordinates a research project focusing on the ancient site of Tusculum (Monte Porzio Catone) located less than 30 km. south-east of Rome. This is the institutional project of the CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) in Italy to which many universities and research bodies both Spanish and Italian have contributed. In 2012, a new multidisciplinary archaeological project, titled "Tusculum medievale: territorio, paesaggio economia e società" (Medieval Tusculum: territory, landscape, economy and society), focusing on the post-classical phases of the site, was initiated with a clear willingness to explore novel research trends and different methodological approaches. These have included aerial archaeology, geophysical surveys and archeobiological studies which have been developed with the aim of improving our knowledge on the less-known phases of the city During the last 4 years, the use of aerial images has allowed a better understanding of the urban structure of the medieval city. In fact, in 2012 and 2013 a series of UAV low-level flights over the entire archaeological area were carried out in collaboration with the International Research School of Planetary Science (Università ¿G. D¿Annunzio¿ from Chieti-Pescara) which have allowed the development of a new digital cartographic base of the site. Furthermore, during the 2013-2014 season of excavation, a series of kite aerial photographies (KAP) were taken over the acropolis (Rocca), heart of the Medieval city, producing a new set of medium/low-level (at 50-100 m. of altitude) georeferenced photographs. Finally, during the 2015 archaeological campaign, in cooperation with the Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS-CSIC) new flights have been carried out using thermal, hyperspectral, infrared and RGB cameras to obtain a diverse range of images. The integration of the data provided by aerial archaeology together with the analysis of the underground features through the use of geophysical techniches (georadar and magnetometry) and the archaeological data coming from excavations are making possible a detailed study of the city urban development as well as the exploration of the real extension of the Medieval city. What is more, the development of non-invasive techniques have permitted the identification of areas of higher archaeological interest and, therefore, the possibility of planning theis excavation saving time and costs.N