Unfinished structural change and sectoral heterogeneity: the case of Mexico

Mexico, as other Latin American countries, undertook far-reaching economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s in a wide array of areas. As a result, the Mexican economy experienced outstanding export growth, successful insertion into global markets and a shift towards medium and high-technology industries. Yet productivity growth was insufficient, leading to low and volatile economic growth. This paper examines the dynamics of productivity growth and in particular inter- and intra-industry dynamics, making use of a shift-share analysis and the rich detail available in a novel industry data set. The paper shows that Mexico has experienced an unfinished structural change, in which spells of intra sectoral productivity expansion have been hampered by severe losses during crises, resulting in insufficient productivity growth over the period 1990-2012 to close the gap with its main trading partner, the United States. Moreover, despite a significant reallocation of hours worked across industries, its aggregate impact has been hindered by the prevalence of flows from industrial sectors with high labor productivity growth towards those with lower or contracting productivity growth

An unfinished business: Economic liberalization and structural change in Mexico

Mexico, as other Latin American countries, undertook far-reaching economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s in a wide array of areas: trade and industrial policy, foreign investment and capital account, privatization of public enterprises and deregulation of economic activities, among others. As a result of the new economic model, the Mexican economy experienced outstanding export growth, successful insertion into international dynamic markets and shift towards medium and high-technology industries. Yet productivity growth has been insufficient, leading to low and volatile economic growth. This paper examines the dynamics of productivity growth and in particular analyzes whether inter- and intra-industry dynamics can account for sluggish productivity growth. It makes use of a shift-share analysis, taking advantage of a recently published industry-level database developed by the Mexican National Statistics Office as part of the LA-KLEMS project. The paper shows that Mexico has experienced an unfinished structural change, where productivity growth within sectors has been insufficient to close the gap with its main trading partner, the United States. Moreover, despite a significant reallocation of hours worked across industries, its aggregate impact has been hampered by the fact that flows have been from industrial sectors with high labor productivity growth towards sectors with lower, or contracting, productivity growth

An unfinished business: Economic liberalization and structural change in Mexico

Mexico, as other Latin American countries, undertook far-reaching economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s in a wide array of areas: trade and industrial policy, foreign investment and capital account, privatization of public enterprises and deregulation of economic activities, among others. As a result of the new economic model, the Mexican economy experienced outstanding export growth, successful insertion into international dynamic markets and shift towards medium and high-technology industries. Yet productivity growth has been insufficient, leading to low and volatile economic growth. This paper examines the dynamics of productivity growth and in particular analyzes whether inter- and intra-industry dynamics can account for sluggish productivity growth. It makes use of a shift-share analysis, taking advantage of a recently published industry-level database developed by the Mexican National Statistics Office as part of the LA-KLEMS project. The paper shows that Mexico has experienced an unfinished structural change, where productivity growth within sectors has been insufficient to close the gap with its main trading partner, the United States. Moreover, despite a significant reallocation of hours worked across industries, its aggregate impact has been hampered by the fact that flows have been from industrial sectors with high labor productivity growth towards sectors with lower, or contracting, productivity growth

The cosmological constant is probably still zero

We consider a wide class of four-dimensional effective field theories in which gravity is coupled to multiple four-forms and their dual scalar fields, with membrane sources charged under the corresponding three-form potentials. Four-form flux, quantised in units of the membrane charges, generically generates a landscape of vacua with a range of values for the cosmological constant that is scanned through membrane nucleation. We list various ways in which the landscape can be made sufficiently dense to be compatible with observations of the current vacuum without running into the empty universe problem. Further, we establish the general criteria required to ensure the absolute stability of the Minkowski vacuum under membrane nucleation and the longevity of those vacua that are parametrically close by. This selects the current vacuum on probabilistic grounds and can even be applied in the classic model of Bousso and Polchinski, albeit with some mild violation of the membrane weak gravity conjecture. We present other models where the membrane weak gravity conjecture is not violated but where the same probabilistic methods can be used to tackle the cosmological constant problem

Deconstruyendo al inmigrante latinoamericano: las políticas migratorias ibéricas como tecnologías neocoloniales

Resumen Las migraciones latinoamericanas hacia la Península Ibérica han experimentado un fuerte crecimiento durante las dos últimas décadas. En este contexto, los estados español y portugués han implementado políticas que construyen al inmigrante latinoamericano como un extranjero excepcional, subrayando una supuesta compatibilidad cultural como garantía de una mejor integración social en la sociedad receptora. El tratamiento político y legal diferenciado hacia esta población entronca así con un discurso que enfatiza la importancia de los vínculos históricos y culturales que unen a Latinoamérica y a la Península Ibérica desde hace cinco siglos. Partiendo de las teorías decoloniales, este trabajo aborda de manera comparada la evolución de este discurso político-legal en España y Portugal a lo largo de los últimos veinte años, prestando especial atención tanto a sus manifestaciones concretas en leyes y políticas públicas como a los distintos momentos en que ha sido adoptado, mantenido y abandonado en función de las circunstancias

Scalar fields, bent branes, and RG flow

This work deals with braneworld scenarios driven by real scalar fields with standard dynamics. We show how the first-order formalism which exists in the case of four dimensional Minkowski space-time can be extended to de Sitter or anti-de Sitter geometry in the presence of several real scalar fields. We illustrate the results with some examples, and we take advantage of our findings to investigate renormalization group flow. We have found symmetric brane solutions with four-dimensional anti-de Sitter geometry whose holographically dual field theory exhibits a weakly coupled regime at high energy.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

Harmonization of VFAs measurement by GC: something more than R2 to evaluate the calibration function

Anaerobic digestion is sensitive to many environmental factors requiring a robust control of this process. One of the analytical measurements considered as key parameter is the volatile fatty acids (VFAs) content. Total amount of volatile acids (TVFA) to control the relative changes over time has been suggested as a useful tool. However, TVFA does not provide sufficient information to reveal the overall reactor performance, and individual components have been considered of particular interest. Although some attempts have been described as on-line measurements for individual VFAs, normally they are determined by off-line chromatographic techniques (GC and HPLC). A previous interlaboratory study showed the lack of harmonization in the analytical methodologies dealing to individual VFAs, and giving an overall analytical performance rather poor. One of the reasons to justify these results was the inappropriate calibration procedures. It is widely used to check the linearity of the calibration curves based on the correlation and determination coefficients. However, these statistical parameters are erroneously interpreted. The objective of this interlaboratory study was to achieve the harmonization of results. By this way, the use of internal standard methodology (ISTD) should be useful to obtain accurate calibration functions. In addition, five different statistical parameters such as lack of fit test, residual standard deviation, relative standard deviation of the slope, relative standard deviation of the sensitivity and relative error were proposed to evaluate the linearity of calibration curves. Of these, lack of fit was unable to detect appropriately the linearity mainly due to its sensitivity to the precision of analytical results. The rest of statistical parameters reported could be considered as starting point for comparative purposes, being useful as acceptance criteria. The principal advantage of the GC/ISTD analytical methodology was the normalization of the slopes obtained by the participating laboratories, being very helpful to the harmonization of results.Peer Reviewe

The diagnosis of hereditary angioedema: family caregivers’ experiences

The aim of this study was to understand the experiences of family caregivers in the process of diagnosing hereditary angioedema. An interpretive and qualitative research methodology based on Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics was carried out. Data collection took place between May 2015 and August 2016 and included a focus group and in-depth interviews with 16 family caregivers. Two themes define the experiences of family caregivers: “Family life focuses on identifying the problem” and “Discovering and coping with a complex diagnosis.” The process of diagnosis generates fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and incomprehension. Family caregivers are the main support for patients diagnosed with hereditary angioedema. As they share in the patients’ suffering, they need a diagnosis to be established to be able to cope with the disease and offer support. Family health nurses can contribute to improving the coping process in this phase of the disease

The Mexican consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of ulcerative colitis

The guidelines presented herein are an updated version of the recommendations published in 2007. Since then, there has been a rapid advance in the knowledge about the pathophysiology of ulcerative colitis and its therapeutic options. New drugs have been approved, novel targeted therapies have emerged, and new strategies have been developed to improve the previously available approaches to the disease.The aim of the present consensus is to promote the current knowledge of and Mexican perspective on the epidemiology, diagnosis, and medical and surgical treatment of chronic idiopathic ulcerative colitis.The final vote on the statements and their ultimate modifications were carried out at the consensus working group meeting. Evidence was evaluated through the GRADE classification. Resumen: Estas guías constituyen una actualización de las guías publicadas en 2007. Desde ese año, los conocimientos acerca de la fisiopatología, así como las opciones terapéuticas, han evolucionado rápidamente, con la aprobación de nuevos agentes, la aparición de nuevos blancos terapéuticos y nuevas estrategias para mejorar los abordajes disponibles previamente.El objetivo de este consenso es promover una actualización y perspectiva mexicana sobre la epidemiología, el diagnóstico así como el tratamiento médico y quirúrgico de la colitis ulcerosa crónica idiopática.Los enunciados fueron finalmente votados y se realizaron las modificaciones finales en la junta de consenso. La evaluación de la evidencia por la clasificación GRADE se realizó al momento del consenso. Keywords: Chronic idiopathic ulcerative colitis, Diagnosis, Treatment, Epidemiology, Colectomy, Pouchitis, Palabras clave: Colitis ulcerosa crónica idiopática, Diagnóstico, Tratamiento, Epidemiología, Colectomía, Pouchiti

Postoperative analgesia in total knee arthroplasty

Total knee arthroplasty is commonly performed in patients with end-stage osteoarthritis or rheumatic knee arthritis to relieve joint pain, increase mobility, and improve quality of life. Despite advances in surgical techniques, postoperative pain management in these types of patients is still deficient. An exhaustive review was performed with the available literature, using the PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Cochrane databases from 2004 to 2021. The search criteria were formulated to identify reports related to total knee replacement and pain management. Pain after total knee arthroplasty has been shown to involve both peripheral and central pain pathways, which is why various postoperative pain management strategies are currently applied, including patient-controlled analgesia, continuous peripheral nerve blocks, or single injection or local infiltration analgesia. Today local techniques such as periarticular injections are becoming more common in total knee replacement due to their effectiveness in controlling pain without causing muscle weakness. The development of minimally invasive techniques associated with multimodal and preventive analgesia improves recovery rates and early rehabilitation in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty, reducing in-hospital costs, risk of complications, and improving patient satisfaction with chronic osteoarthropathy.