GUEST EDITORIAL

Ethnic studies is a rather strange field. In the first place, it is not a field in the traditional sense of other academic disciplines, but rather it seeks to include any and all disciplines. Second, it deals with people, and as our colleagues in the so-called behavioral sciences have discovered, people are perhaps the most unpredictable of all living things to study, thus the problems are many. Third, many of the subjects which we in ethnic studies have chosen to research, by the very nature of the fact that we deal with ethnic minorities, have tended to strike others not in a rational, objective manner, but in a purely emotional manner. For example, the word history does not usually cause any reaction in most people. However, the addition of black, female, Mexican American, or Native American to history immediately causes almost everyone to have an opinion on the subject, and normally retiscent [reticent] individuals now find themselves compelled to voice this opinion

Accounting for Output Fluctuations in Mexico.

During the last years, Mexico has registered relatively large output falls. The business cycle accounting method of Chari, Kehoe and McGrattan (2007) is applied to the two most recent recessions in Mexico (including the “Tequila crisis”) in order to understand what are the most important wedges driving output over the cycle and to evaluate to what extent such falls may be smoothed. First, it is found that efficiency and labor wedges may reasonably account for output fluctuations in each recession. Second, counterfactual exercises suggest that the elimination of distortions represented in terms of the efficiency wedge might result in output falls about one third of those observed in the data.Business cycle accounting, Tequila crisis, Total factor productivity, Mexico

Average Effective Tax Rates in Mexico

The paper estimates average effective tax rates on consumption, labor and capital income for Mexico, using the method of Mendoza et al. (1994) and related extensions, including two novel refinements. On average, it is found that consumption taxes are roughly between 7 and 14%, whereas labor and capital income taxes are between 8 and 12.5%, and 8.5 and 15%, respectively. Tax estimates are found to be consistent with predictions from theory in general, both for Mexico as well as for a sample of OECD countries.effective tax rates, consumption tax, factor income taxes, international tax policy

New Approaches to Oxirane Containing Natural Products: Stereoselective Total Synthesis of the Antitumor Agents Gummiferol and Depudecin

La comunicación presenta la síntesis total de productos naturales con actividad antitumoral caracterizados estructuralmente por la presencia de anillos de oxirano. Para ello se empleó una nueva metodología de epoxidación asimétrica basada en una nueva clase de iluros de azufre quirales. Mediante esta metodología se realizaron las síntesis de los productos naturales Gummiferol y DepudecinaUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Total synthesis of depudecin and analogues via an olefin cross-metathesis based strategy

(-)-Depudecin (1), isolated from the culture broths of the fungus Alternaria brassicicola [1], has been identified as a selective inhibitor of histone deacetylases (HDAC) with an IC50 in the low μM range. In contrast to representative HDAC inhibitors, depudecin represents a unique inhibitor of these enzymes by virtue of its molecular structure, featuring the presence of two oxirane rings separated by a trans double bond. Originally discovered as part of a biological screen directed towards the identification of antitumour agents with detransforming activity [2], depudecin was identified as a bioactive metabolite capable of reverting the transformed morphology of tumor cells. Depudecin induced cell cycle arrest and cellular differentiation [3], and also exhibited anti-angiogenesis activity [4]. Prompted by its striking biological properties and enticing structure, we decided to initiate a research program directed towards the synthesis of natural depudecin which has recently culminated with a linear total synthesis [5]. In order to develop an improved access to natural depudecin and analogues for further biological screenings, we explored a synthetic alternative as a shorter and more convergent approach. In this communication we report a new total synthesis of the natural product (-)-depudecin. A key feature of the synthesis is the utilization of an olefin cross-metathesis strategy, which provides for an efficient and improved access to natural depudecin. This strategy was applied to the preparation of the 10-epi and (+)-depudecin, which represent interesting stereoisomeric analogues for SAR studies.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech