The World Income Distribution: The Effects of International Unbundling of Production

We build a dynamic trade model to study how international unbundling of production and the emergence of global supply chains affect the world income distribution. We consider a world where countries only differ in their productivity. The level of productivity determines the number of varieties a country produces. To manufacture each variety a bundle of intermediates, which require capital and labor in different proportions, needs to be assembled. We characterize two trade regimes: (i) trade only in varieties and (ii) trade in both varieties and intermediates (unbundling). We show that unbundling of production generates income divergence among ex-ante identical countries (symmetry breaking). With heterogeneous countries, it increases top-bottom inequality and it has non-monotonic effects on the world income distribution (it reduces relatively more the income share of middle-productivity countries). We also show that when the South joins the global supply chain, the income share of all northern and the most productive southern countries increase, at the expense of the least productive countries. In addition, we find that the effect of a labor-saving technology, computerization, depends on the trade regime. Without unbundling, computerization has no effect on the world income distribution. With unbundling, computerization raises world inequality. Finally, we show that technology diffusion leads to income convergence under both trade regimes. However, with unbundling of production more low-productivity countries benefit from technological catch-up

Mergers along the Global Supply Chain: Information Technologies and Routineness

This paper empirically analyzes how the adoption of Information Technologies (IT) has changed the organization of global supply chains. We focus on international mergers, which are a growing and important component of foreign direct investment. We use data on North-South vertical mergers and acquisitions for all manufacturing industries. We show that the effect of IT adoption on the number of vertical mergers and acquisitions is decreasing with the “routineness” of the industry. Our interpretation is that the IT revolution has enabled new monitoring mechanisms. This has allowed Northern headquarters to better monitor suppliers, specially those in less routine-intensive industries –which were harder to monitor prior to the IT revolution

El estado de emoción violenta como circunstancia de atenuación para el delito de feminicidio (propuesta legislativa)

La presente tesis es una investigación de enfoque cualitativa donde se analiza las categorías de delito de feminicidio, la circunstancia de emoción violenta como atenuación y el principio de igualdad. Se enfatiza en la problemática que existe con la regulación del artículo 109 del CP, donde no se incorpora como delito atenuado feminicidio, con dicha forma de regular hechos punibles por el ordenamiento jurídico sustantivo se advierte afectación al principio-derecho a la igualdad. En el Capítulo I, comprende el problema y los aspectos metodológicos del estudio que se aborda en el trabajo, siendo el objetivo principal analizar la afectación del principio de igualdad al no haberse considerado el estado de emoción violenta para el delito de feminicidio como circunstancia de atenuación y proponer una alternativa jurídica para superar dicha afectación. En el Capítulo II, se desarrolla los antecedentes de otros investigadores, el marco teórico, categorías de estudios que aborda: orígenes, definición, tipos, modalidades y circunstancias de atenuación y agravación del delito de feminicidio, así como del delito atenuado por emoción violenta y el principio de igualdad. En el Capítulo III, aborda resultado y análisis de hallazgos de la presente investigación. Finalmente llegamos a las conclusiones que arriban en que se ha constatado en los resultados de la presente investigación que el delito de feminicidio al ser regulado como tipo penal autónomo, no incluye circunstancia de atenuación por emoción violenta en el artículo 109° del código penal, con esta forma de regular hechos punibles existe afectación al principio- derecho de igualdad, por lo que se propone la modificatoria del artículo 109° del Código Penal, incorporando el delito de feminicidio cuando concurra la circunstancia de emoción violenta.The present thesis is a qualitative research in which the categories of crime of femicide, the circumstance of violent emotion as mitigation and the principle of equality are analyzed. Emphasis is placed on the problems that exist with the regulation of article 109 of the CP, where femicide is not incorporated as an attenuated crime, with this way of regulating acts punishable by the substantive legal order, it is noted that the principle-right to equality is affected. In Chapter I, he understands the problem and the methodological aspects of the study that is addressed in the work, the main objective being to analyze the affectation of the principle of equality since the state of violent emotion for the crime of femicide has not been considered as a mitigating circumstance and propose a legal alternative to overcome said affectation. In Chapter II, the background of other researchers is developed, the theoretical framework, categories of studies that it addresses: origins, definition, types, modalities and circumstances of mitigation and aggravation of the crime of feminicide, as well as the crime mitigated by violent emotion and the principle of equality. In Chapter III, it deals with the results and analysis of the findings of the present investigation. Finally, we reach the conclusions that arrive in which it has been verified in the results of the present investigation that the crime of femicide, being regulated as an autonomous criminal type, does not include a circumstance of attenuation due to violent emotion in article 109 of the penal code, with This form of regulating punishable acts affects the principle-right of equality, for whichTesi

Propostes de didàctica de la història per a la formació de mestres

Grup d’Innovació Educativa EDIPA (Educació, Didàctica i Patrimoni) Departament de Pedagogi a i Didàctica de les Ciències Socials, la Llengua i la Literatura. Codi de l’assignatura: MP1824 - Didàctica de les Ciències Socials: Història. Àrea de Didàctica de les Ciències SocialsTeniu a les mans una obra que pretén posar a l’abast de l’estudiantat del Grau en Mestre/Mestra d’Educació Primària, de la Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, un seguit de materials i recursos didàctics que desperten la seua curiositat i interés per apropar-se a les ciències socials de manera genèrica, i a la història d’una forma més concreta

Impact of Early Non-Invasive Ventilation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial

Respiratory complications; Respiratory insufficiency; SurvivalComplicaciones respiratorias; Insuficiencia respiratoria; SupervivenciaComplicacions respiratòries; Insuficiència respiratòria; SupervivènciaBackground and objective: Forced vital capacity (FVC) less than 50% of predicted is one of the main parameters used for Non-Invasive Ventilation (NIV) initiation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Recent studies suggest that higher values of FVC could be considered as a threshold. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether early use of NIV improves the prognosis of ALS patients compared with standard initiation. Methods: This is a randomized, parallel, multicenter, open-label, controlled clinical trial, with recruitment at the ALS outpatient multidisciplinary units of six Spanish hospitals. Patients were included when their FVC reached the 75% threshold and were randomized by computer, stratifying by center in an allocation ratio of 1:1 to Early NIV (FVC below 75%) or Standard NIV (FVC below 50%) initiation. The primary outcome was time to death or tracheostomy. Trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01641965. Results: Between May 2012 and June 2014, 42 patients were randomized to two groups, 20 to Early NIV and 22 to Standard NIV initiation. We found differences in survival in favor of the intervention group: an incidence of mortality (2.68 [1.87–5.50] vs. 3.33 [1.34–4.80] person-months) and a median survival (25.2 vs. 19.4 months), although without reaching statistical significance (p = 0.267). Conclusions: This trial did not reach the primary endpoint of survival; nevertheless, it is the first Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) to demonstrate the benefits of early NIV in slowing the decline of respiratory muscle strength and reducing adverse events. Although not all the results reached statistical significance, all the analyzed data favor early NIV. In addition, this study demonstrates good tolerance and compliance with early NIV without quality of sleep impairment. These data reinforce the early respiratory evaluation of ALS patients and NIV initiation with an FVC of around 75%.This study received Health Research Fund (FIS) from Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), and a grant from Catalan Society of Pneumology (SOCAP)

Higher mortality and intubation rate in COVID-19 patients treated with noninvasive ventilation compared with high-flow oxygen or CPAP

COVID-19; Noninvasive ventilation; High-flow oxygenCOVID-19; Ventilación no invasiva; Oxígeno de alto flujoCOVID-19; Ventilació no invasiva; Oxigen d'alt cabalThe effectiveness of noninvasive respiratory support in severe COVID-19 patients is still controversial. We aimed to compare the outcome of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and hypoxemic respiratory failure treated with high-flow oxygen administered via nasal cannula (HFNC), continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or noninvasive ventilation (NIV), initiated outside the intensive care unit (ICU) in 10 university hospitals in Catalonia, Spain. We recruited 367 consecutive patients aged ≥ 18 years who were treated with HFNC (155, 42.2%), CPAP (133, 36.2%) or NIV (79, 21.5%). The main outcome was intubation or death at 28 days after respiratory support initiation. After adjusting for relevant covariates and taking patients treated with HFNC as reference, treatment with NIV showed a higher risk of intubation or death (hazard ratio 2.01; 95% confidence interval 1.32-3.08), while treatment with CPAP did not show differences (0.97; 0.63-1.50). In the context of the pandemic and outside the intensive care unit setting, noninvasive ventilation for the treatment of moderate to severe hypoxemic acute respiratory failure secondary to COVID-19 resulted in higher mortality or intubation rate at 28 days than high-flow oxygen or CPAP. This finding may help physicians to choose the best noninvasive respiratory support treatment in these patients.Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT04668196

Automated Breast Ultrasound Lesions Detection Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Breast lesion detection using ultrasound imaging is considered an important step of Computer-Aided Diagnosis systems. Over the past decade, researchers have demonstrated the possibilities to automate the initial lesion detection. However, the lack of a common dataset impedes research when comparing the performance of such algorithms. This paper proposes the use of deep learning approaches for breast ultrasound lesion detection and investigates three different methods: a Patch-based LeNet, a U-Net, and a transfer learning approach with a pretrained FCN-AlexNet. Their performance is compared against four state-of-the-art lesion detection algorithms (i.e. Radial Gradient Index, Multifractal Filtering, Rule-based Region Ranking and Deformable Part Models). In addition, this paper compares and contrasts two conventional ultrasound image datasets acquired from two different ultrasound systems. Dataset A comprises 306 (60 malignant and 246 benign) images and Dataset B comprises 163 (53 malignant and 110 benign) images. To overcome the lack of public datasets in this domain, Dataset B will be made available for research purposes. The results demonstrate an overall improvement by the deep learning approaches when assessed on both datasets in terms of True Positive Fraction, False Positives per image, and F-measure.authorsversionPeer reviewe

Untargeted Metabolic Profiling of 4-Fluoro-Furanylfentanyl and Isobutyrylfentanyl in Mouse Hepatocytes and Urine by Means of LC-HRMS

The diffusion of new psychoactive substances (NPS) is highly dynamic and the available substances change over time, resulting in forensic laboratories becoming highly engaged in NPS control. In order to manage NPS diffusion, efficient and innovative legal responses have been provided by several nations. Metabolic profiling is also part of the analytical fight against NPS, since it allows to identify the biomarkers of drug intake which are needed for the development of suitable analytical methods in biological samples. We have recently reported the characterization of two new analogs of fentanyl, i.e., 4-fluoro-furanylfentanyl (4F-FUF) and isobutyrylfentanyl (iBF), which were found for the first time in Italy in 2019; 4F-FUF was identified for the first time in Europe and was notified to the European Early Warning System. The goal of this study was the characterization of the main metabolites of both drugs by in vitro and in vivo experiments. To this end, incubation with mouse hepatocytes and intraperitoneal administration to mice were carried out. Samples were analyzed by means of liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC–HRMS), followed by untargeted data evaluation using Compound Discoverer software with a specific workflow, designed for the identification of the whole metabolic pattern, including unexpected metabolites. Twenty metabolites were putatively annotated for 4F-FUF, with the dihydrodiol derivative appearing as the most abundant, whereas 22 metabolites were found for iBF, which was mainly excreted as nor-isobutyrylfentanyl. N-dealkylation of 4F-FUF dihydrodiol and oxidation to carbonyl metabolites for iBF were also major biotransformations. Despite some differences, in general there was a good agreement between in vitro and in vivo samples