Differential Economic Performance (DEP) in the periphery: Evidence from Swedish rural areas

Understanding Differential Economic Performance (DEP) at the local and regional level is a key element in devising practical strategies and programmes for sustainable regional development in different contexts. This paper contributes to the understanding of the factors underlying persistent differences in DEP between rural localities. The basic hypothesis is that the DEP of rural areas can be explained by a combination of ‘tangible’ and ‘less tangible’ factors and the way in which these interact in specific national, regional and local contexts. Natural and human resources, infrastructure, economic structure and investments are together with institutions, networks and community values the most decisive factors that help to characterise DEP for the Swedish case studies. Findings show that such factors not only define the different opportunities and constraints for local development, but also illustrate how effective the local and regional system is in tapping into resources and opportunities and in ameliorating constraints. This sheds light on the importance of taking a broader perspective regarding policies towards regional development, making them much more focused on contextual and environmental aspects than uni-faceted, sectoral measures. The paper also provides a discussion of the implications of the results for policy and gives an account of new research questions for future studies

Differential Economic Performance (DEP) in the periphery: Evidence from Swedish rural areas

Understanding Differential Economic Performance (DEP) at the local and regional level is a key element in devising practical strategies and programmes for sustainable regional development in different contexts. This paper contributes to the understanding of the factors underlying persistent differences in DEP between rural localities. The basic hypothesis is that the DEP of rural areas can be explained by a combination of ‘tangible’ and ‘less tangible’ factors and the way in which these interact in specific national, regional and local contexts. Natural and human resources, infrastructure, economic structure and investments are together with institutions, networks and community values the most decisive factors that help to characterise DEP for the Swedish case studies. Findings show that such factors not only define the different opportunities and constraints for local development, but also illustrate how effective the local and regional system is in tapping into resources and opportunities and in ameliorating constraints. This sheds light on the importance of taking a broader perspective regarding policies towards regional development, making them much more focused on contextual and environmental aspects than uni-faceted, sectoral measures. The paper also provides a discussion of the implications of the results for policy and gives an account of new research questions for future studies

Gender in the allocation of organs in kidney transplants: meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE To analyze whether gender influence survival results of kidney transplant grafts and patients.METHODS Systematic review with meta-analysis of cohort studies available on Medline (PubMed), LILACS, CENTRAL, and Embase databases, including manual searching and in the grey literature. The selection of studies and the collection of data were conducted twice by independent reviewers, and disagreements were settled by a third reviewer. Graft and patient survival rates were evaluated as effectiveness measurements. Meta-analysis was conducted with the Review Manager® 5.2 software, through the application of a random effects model. Recipient, donor, and donor-recipient gender comparisons were evaluated.RESULTS : Twenty-nine studies involving 765,753 patients were included. Regarding graft survival, those from male donors were observed to have longer survival rates as compared to the ones from female donors, only regarding a 10-year follow-up period. Comparison between recipient genders was not found to have significant differences on any evaluated follow-up periods. In the evaluation between donor-recipient genders, male donor-male recipient transplants were favored in a statistically significant way. No statistically significant differences were observed in regards to patient survival for gender comparisons in all follow-up periods evaluated.CONCLUSIONS The quantitative analysis of the studies suggests that donor or recipient genders, when evaluated isolatedly, do not influence patient or graft survival rates. However, the combination between donor-recipient genders may be a determining factor for graft survival

Safety of Immunosuppressive Drugs Used as Maintenance Therapy in Kidney Transplantation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

To evaluate the safety of regimens containing calcineurin inhibitors (CNI), proliferation signal inhibitors (TOR-I) and antimetabolites, we conducted a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and observational studies. A total of 4,960 citations were identified in our electronic search and 14 additional articles were identified through hand searching. Forty-eight articles (11,432 participants) from 42 studies (38 RCTs and four cohorts) met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis results revealed the following: (i) tacrolimus was associated with an increased risk for diabetes and lower risk of dyslipidemia, compared to cyclosporine; (ii) mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) was associated with increased risk for total infections, abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting, compared with azathioprine; (iii) sirolimus was associated with higher risk of anemia, diabetes, dyslipidemia, lymphoceles and withdrawal compared to tacrolimus or cyclosporine, and cyclosporine was associated with an increased risk of CMV infection; (iv) the combination of CNI with antimetabolites was associated with more adverse events than CNI alone; (v) TOR-I was related to more adverse events than MMF. The data observed in this meta-analysis are similar to those describe by others authors; thus, the choice of treatment must be made by the clinical staff based on specific patient characteristics