Impact of services liberalization on productivity of manufacturing firms: evidence from Ukrainian firm-level data

This paper brings new evidence on the impact of services liberalization on performance of manufacturing firms. Using a unique database of Ukrainian firms in 2001-2007, we utilize an external push for liberalization in services sector as a source of exogenous variation to identify the impact of services liberalization on total factor productivity (TFP) of manufacturing firms. Results indicate that a standard deviation increase in services liberalization is associated with a 9 percent increase in TFP. Allowing services liberalization to dynamically influence TFP through the investment channel leads to even higher effect. The effect is robust to different estimation methods and to different sub-samples of the data. In particular, it is more pronounced for domestic and small firms.services liberalization, productivity, trade

Effects of Ownership on Agglomeration Economies: Evidence from Ukrainian Firm Level Data

We use establishment level longitudinal data to estimate agglomeration economies in the Ukraine for machine manufacturing and hi-tech industries. We differentiate state-owned, private-domestic-owned and private-internationally-owned firm types. Our baseline results are comparable to other firm level measures of similar industries and to other research in the former Soviet Union. We find that state owned firms accrue little or no agglomeration benefits, while privately-owned firms are able to take advantage of agglomeration effects. Foreign-owned firms may gain the most from agglomeration. These results suggest that agglomeration economies are typically gained at the management level.Agglomeration, Localization Economies, Ownership Structure, Transition, Production Function

Services liberalization and productivity of manufacturing firms : evidence from Ukraine

This paper brings new evidence on the impact of services liberalization on the performance of manufacturing firms. Using a unique database of Ukrainian firms in 2001-2007, the authors utilize an external push for liberalization in the services sector as a source of exogenous variation to identify the impact of services liberalization on total factor productivity (TFP) of manufacturing firms. The results indicate that a standard deviation increase in services liberalization is associated with a 9 percent increase in TFP. Allowing services liberalization to dynamically influence TFP through the investment channel leads to an even larger effect. The effect is robust to different estimation methods and to different sub-samples of the data. In particular, it is more pronounced for domestic and small firms.Economic Theory&Research,E-Business,Emerging Markets,ICT Policy and Strategies,Public Sector Corruption&Anticorruption Measures

Factors Affecting the Thrombolytic-Treatment-Related Outcomes in Patients with Acute Lower Limb Ischaemia

Akuutti alaraajaiskemia (AAI) on tilanne, joka vaati kiireellistä tai välitöntä kirurgista tai suonensisäistä hoitoa, ja on yhteydessä lisääntyneeseen amputaatio- ja kuoleman riskiin. AAI:n etiopatogeneesi on muuttunut viime vuosikymmenien aikana. Nykyään suurin osa iskemiasta johtuu ateroskleroosin aiheuttamista valtimoahtaumista. Viimeaikaiset tutkimukset ovat osoittaneet, että bakteeritulehdus saattaa vaikuttaa tromboosiin, varsinkin potilailla, joilla on ateroskleroottisia muutoksia. AAI-potilaat ovat usein iäkkäitä ja monisairaita, jolloin liuotushoitoa pidetään hyvänä vaihtoehtona avokirurgialle. Siitä huolimatta katetriohjattu trombolyysi saattaa epäonnistua, ja tämä voi liittyä lisääntyneisiin amputaatioihin. Onnistuneenkin liuotushoidon jälkeen joillekin potilaille kehittyy uusintaiskemia, johon liittyy uusintatoimenpiteitä. Hoidon pitkäaikaistulokset AAI-potilailla jäävät usein epäselviksi. Väitöstutkimuksen aiheena oli selvittää AAI:n taustatekijöitä mukaan lukien uusia etiologisia tekijöitä, hoidon pitkäaikaistuloksia ja niihin vaikuttavia tekijöitä. Tutkimuksen retrospektiivisissa töissä aineistona käytettiin Tampereen ja Turun yliopistollisissa sairaaloissa hoidettujen potilaiden tietoja. Prospektiivisessa osiossa kerättiin AAI-potilaiden trombiaspiraatteja bakteeri-DNA:n tunnistamiseksi. Yhteensä 303 AAI-tapausta (159 miestä [52,5 %]) rekisteröitiin tutkimuksiin. Potilaiden keski-ikä oli 71 vuotta. Lähes 60 % natiivivaltimoista ja 75 % ohitteista olivat bakteeri-DNA-positiivisia. Synteettiset ohitteet olivat positiivisia lähes 80 %:lla potilaista. Kaikista positiivisista valtimonäytteistä 90 % sisälsi Streptococus mitis ryhmän DNA:ta. Trombolyysillä hoidetuilla potilailla varhainen hoidon epäonnistuminen oli todettavissa 23 %:ssa tapauksista. Hyperkolesterolemia, aikaisempi ohituskirurgia ja hoidon aloituksen viivästyminen liittyivät itsenäisinä tekijöinä epäonnistumiseen, joka oli yhteydessä melkein 40 %:n amputaatioriskiin ensimmäisen kuukauden kuluessa. Uusintaiskemia ilmaantui melkein 43 %:lle potilaista 40 kk:n mediaaniseurannan aikana. Ohitteiden uusintatukoksia esiintyi merkitsevästi useammin natiivivaltimotapahtumiin verrattuna. Asianmukaisen verenohennus- tai antiaggregatorisen lääkityksen puute sekä säärivaltimoiden ulosvirtauksen heikkous ennustivat itsenäisesti uusintaiskemian kehittymistä. Yhden vuoden kohdalla lähes 80 % potilaista oli elossa. Primaarinen aukipysyvyys natiivivaltimoissa oli 87 %. Ohitteiden aukipysyvyys tällä ajankohdalla oli 31 %–62 %. Amputaatiovapaa elossaolo oli 66 %. Pitkäaikaistulokset olivat epäsuotuisia. Kymmenen vuoden kohdalla noin 30 % potilaista oli elossa. Eteisvärinä ja korkea ikä (yli 83 vuotta) ennustivat itsenäisesti huonoa eloonjäämistä. Primaarinen aukipysyvyys oli natiivivaltimoissa 18,7 % ja ohitteissa 15,2 %. Yli 75 vuoden ikä vaikutti itsenäisesti amputaatiovapaaseen elossaoloon ollen 24 % kymmenen vuoden kohdalla. Huolimatta siitä, että bakteereiden DNA:ta löydettiin trombiaspiraateista, tietoon täytyisi suhtautua varovaisesti, sillä syy-yhteyksien osoittaminen vaatii lisätutkimuksia. Katetriohjatun trombolyysin tulokset lyhyellä aikavälillä ovat pitkäaikaistuloksia paremmat. Uusintatapahtumat ovat yleisiä, ja pitkäaikaisennuste on epäsuotuisa. Vain osaan hoidon tuloksiin vaikuttavista tekijöistä voidaan vaikuttaa. Nämä tekijät tulisi huomioida sekä kliinisessä työssä että tulevissa tutkimuksissa.Acute lower limb ischaemia (ALLI) is a condition that often requires urgent or emergent surgical or endovascular treatment. This disorder is associated with major amputations and mortality. The aetiopathogenesis of ALLI has changed within the last decades. Currently, it mainly presents with atherosclerosis-associated thrombotic occlusions. An increasing volume of data has been published in favour of a possible bacterial inflammation that can contribute to the pathogenesis of thrombotic events, particularly in patients with atherosclerotic changes. The patients who present with ALLI are often elderly individuals with multiple comorbidities. Therefore, mini-invasive treatment modalities are preferred. Nonetheless, catheter-directed thrombolysis occasionally fails and leads to amputations. Even after successful fibrinolysis, some patients develop recurrent ischaemia and require new interventions. The aim of this work was to study the possible aetiological issues related to ALLI from the viewpoint of bacterial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) presence in the thrombi. Further aims were to evaluate possible reasons behind thrombolytic treatment failure and recurrent ALLI, and to assess the long-term outcome of thrombolytic treatment. The thrombus aspirates were obtained aseptically and examined for the presence of bacterial DNA with a quantitative polymerase chain reaction from September 2014 to October 2016. A retrospective analysis of the ALLI patients treated at Tampere and Turku University Hospitals from January 2002 to December 2015 was performed to address the other aforementioned questions. A total of 303 cases of ALLI (159 men [52.5%]) were registered in the studies. The mean age of the patients was 71 years. A total of 58% of the native arterial and 75% of the bypass graft thrombi were identified as positive for bacterial DNA. Synthetic graft thrombi demonstrated positivity for bacterial DNA in 77.8% of the cases. Of the positive samples, 90% contained the Streptococcus mitis group DNA. In patients managed with thrombolysis, an early treatment failure occurred in 23%. A delay in treatment initiation increased the risk of failure by 5% per day. Hyperlipidaemia and previous bypass grafting were also independently associated with failure. This resulted in an almost 40% risk of major amputations within the first month. Nearly 43% of the patients developed recurrent ischaemia within a median of 40 months. Bypass graft reocclusions were predominant (65%). The absence of appropriate antiplatelet or anticoagulant treatment in native arteries and worsened tibial runoff in bypass grafts were independently associated with the risk of recurrent ALLI. At one year, almost 80% of the patients were alive. The primary patency rate at this point for native arteries was 87%. The primary patency rates for bypass grafts ranged from 31% to 62%, with the lowest rates found in autologous vein grafts. The amputation-free survival rate was 66%. The long-term outcomes were unfavourable. At five and ten years, 56% and approximately 30% of the patients, respectively, were alive. The survival was independently associated with the presence of atrial fibrillation and an age of over 83 years. The 10-year primary patency rates for native arteries and conduits were 18.7% and 15.2%, respectively. The amputation- free survival was independently affected by an age of over 75 years and represented a rate of 24% at 10 years. The information on the presence of bacterial DNA in the thrombi must be interpreted with caution. Additional studies are needed to establish whether these findings are involved in the actual thrombotic process. The short-term post-thrombolytic outcomes are superior to the long-term outcomes, which are poor. Recurrent ischaemia is frequent and affects the results. Both modifiable and non-modifiable factors have an impact on the treatment outcome. They should be taken into consideration in the clinical work and further investigations

AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES AND GEOGRAPHIC CONCENTRATION OF MANUFACTURING IN UKRAINE

As a post-Soviet economy, Ukraine has inherited substantial production assets and qualified personnel. However, the economy was dominated by large-scale enterprises designed for much bigger markets. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Ukrainian firms faced lack of planning, breaks in contacts with their former suppliers and customers, and distortion of prices. There was a clear need in restructuring of the entire economy. Restructuring included splitting firms into smaller parts and privatization. The first phase of transition was completed by 2000 when the output grew for the first time after a long recession in nineties, and most firms became private property. In this work I explore trends in geographic and industrial concentration of Ukrainian manufacturing firms over the period of 2001 to 2005. I found that this period was characterized by relocation of firms between sectors and between regions, as well as by an increase in economic concentration of industries. The speed of adjustment was different for various sectors and even for different industries within manufacturing. Even though the economy is still dominated by large firms, the average firm size decreases due to a rapid growth in the number of new firms. Geographically, manufacturing tends to increasingly concentrate mostly around a few big cities, apparently at the expense of other regions. I also estimate the external scale effects and compare them with Western studies. In particular I focus on machinery and high tech. I found strong localization and urbanization effects in both industry groups. An important contribution of this work is the analysis of the effect of ownership structure on agglomeration economies. I found that private firms tend to enjoy external scale effects to a greater extent than state owned, and foreign owned firms appear to be the most efficient in extracting benefits form agglomeration. Aggregation of the data may distort the estimates of agglomeration effects. I show that most effects take place at the nearest neighborhoods. When the physical distance between firms increases agglomeration effects attenuate quickly. However, localization effects reveal themselves at different level of industrial aggregation for various industries. This may reflect more complicated relationships within sectors and requires further analysis

Reaction features of pump function of heart of wheelchair basketball players on the muscular loading depending on degree of loss of the lower limbs

In this article, the response of the heart rate and stroke volume of disabled athletes to the standard muscular load was studied. The athletes of the basketball team are divided into two groups. The first groups are wheelchair basketball players with amputated lower limbs. The second group is wheelchair basketball players with lower limb atrophy. A comparative analysis of heart rate and stroke volume was performed at rest and when performing a muscular load. It has been revealed that basketball players with amputated lower limbs have heart rate indicators at rest significantly higher, and ASW is lower than basketball players with atrophy of lower limbs. It has been established that in basketball players with amputated lower limbs when performing a muscular load, large changes occur on the part of the stroke blood volume and the values of the heart rate change to a lesser extent. Whereas, athletes with atrophy of the lower extremities when performing muscular load, there are large changes in the frequency of heartbeats and to a lesser extent the indices of stroke blood volume change

Two-dimensional discrete solitons in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates

We analyze the formation and dynamics of bright unstaggered solitons in the disk-shaped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate, which features the interplay of contact (collisional) and long-range dipole-dipole (DD) interactions between atoms. The condensate is assumed to be trapped in a strong optical-lattice potential in the disk's plane, hence it may be approximated by a two-dimensional (2D) discrete model, which includes the on-site nonlinearity and cubic long-range (DD) interactions between sites of the lattice. We consider two such models, that differ by the form of the on-site nonlinearity, represented by the usual cubic term, or more accurate nonpolynomial one, derived from the underlying 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Similar results are obtained for both models. The analysis is focused on effects of the DD interaction on fundamental localized modes in the lattice (2D discrete solitons). The repulsive isotropic DD nonlinearity extends the existence and stability regions of the fundamental solitons. New families of on-site, inter-site and hybrid solitons, built on top of a finite background, are found as a result of the interplay of the isotropic repulsive DD interaction and attractive contact nonlinearity. By themselves, these solutions are unstable, but they evolve into robust breathers which exist on an oscillating background. In the presence of the repulsive contact interactions, fundamental localized modes exist if the DD interaction (attractive isotropic or anisotropic) is strong enough. They are stable in narrow regions close to the anticontinuum limit, while unstable solitons evolve into breathers. In the latter case, the presence of the background is immaterial

Influence of orthostatic loading probes on pumping function of the heart of athletes with disabilities of health

In the present research, the reaction of the pumping function of the heart (PFH) of disabled athletes to an orthostatic test was studied. Analysis of indicators of the pumping function of the heart was carried out in two stages. At the first stage, the PFH indicators of disabled athletes in the prone position were investigated. In the second stage, the urgent reaction of the indicators of the pumping function of wheelchair basketball players was carried out for 5–20 seconds after an active transition from a prone position to a sitting position. It was revealed that in wheelchair basketball players with amputated lower limbs, the difference in heart rate parameters during an orthostatic test was significantly higher than in basketball players with atrophy of the lower limbs. Basketball players with amputated lower limbs react to large changes in body position with active changes in body position than athletes with atrophied lower limbs

Regularities of restoration of NFS indicators of disabled athletes after completion of muscle loading depending on the degree of lower limbs

In this article, the reaction of heart rate and stroke volume of athletes with disabilities to the performance of a standardized muscular load and the characteristics of their recovery after the completion of the load was studied. Athletes are divided into two groups. The first groups are wheelchair basketball players with amputated lower limbs. The second group is wheelchair basketball players with lower limb atrophy. A comparative analysis of heart rate and stroke volume was performed at rest when performing a muscular load and after it was completed. It was revealed that among basketball players with amputated lower limbs, heart rate indices are higher, while the values of ASW are significantly lower than among basketball players with atrophy of lower limbs. It has been established that basketball players with amputated lower limbs react to muscle load with large changes in AEC than athletes with atrophied lower limbs. It was revealed that basketball amputated lower limbs recovery of heart rate and CRM approximately to the level of the initial values after the completion of muscle load occurs much faster than basketball players with atrophy of the lower extremitie