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This study seeks to explain the profound discord currently observable in elite political discourse on Chinese investments in many host countries. Using Argentina as a case study, a combination of quantitative content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis was employed to analyze parliamentary speeches on a controversial space-monitoring station built there by China in 2015. The study finds that the competing discourses about China in Argentinean politics draw primarily on locally embedded contexts and the region’s particular historical experiences and geopolitical position. These local narratives are used in different ways by both sides of the debate to support contradicting positions on relevant issues. Questions of regional hegemony, center-periphery relations, national autonomy as well as Peronist and anti-Peronist ideologies are being drawn on by elite politicians in an attempt to cope with the deep uncertainty about what China’s increased engagement means for the country and to compensate for the lack of predictability about China’s behavior in its future role as a major global power. Ultimately, however, Argentina’s elite politicians end up in a dilemma in which these narratives and historical memories can be spun in both ways to either support or reject a controversial investment project to go ahead on domestic soil that is, at the same time, a symbolic test for the potential depth of the future relationship with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes two contributions to the classical thesis in American Political Science on the existence of "two presidents", as applied to the Argentine case. Analyzing rollcall votes for the recent period, we confirm the validity of the thesis in a markedly presidential and multiparty system. Furthermore, comparing international and domestic legislative topics, we analyze which factors affect the legislative support received by the president. Using robust regressions, we find that popular approval is positively associated with the level of support that the president received for domestic but not international initiatives. The use of Necessity and Urgency Decrees, the economy's performance, the ideological polarization between the parties in Congress, and the chamber in which the initiative is submitted are all variables that affect legislative support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

β-Thalassemia intermedia (β-TI) patients present with a wide spectrum of phenotypes depending on the presence of primary, secondary, and tertiary genetic modifiers which modulate, by different mechanisms, the degree of imbalance between α and β chains. Here we describe a new β(0) frameshift mutation, HBB: c.44delT (p.Leu14ArgfsX5), identified in four members of a family, associated with secondary genetic modifiers in three of them. The different genotype present in this family was suspected after hematological analysis and thorough observation of blood smears highlighting their importance in the identification of β-TI patients among members of the same family.

Type 2B von Willebrand disease (VWD2B) and platelet-type von Willebrand disease (PT-VWD) are rare bleeding disorders characterised by an increased ristocetin-induced platelet aggregation (RIPA) at low dose of ristocetin. It was the objective of this study to detect children with VWD2B and PT-VWD using RIPA at low dose of ristocetin (0.5 mg/ml) in the screening evaluation of bleeding disorders, and to analyse the phenotypic data along with the molecular findings. Over a 14-year period, 641 children with personal and family bleeding symptoms or bleeding from birth with previously uncharacterised haemostatic disorders were prospectively studied. Six unrelated patients (0.93%) showed RIPA at low dose of ristocetin. RIPA-based mixing studies identified that the plasma of the six probands and at least one parent from five unrelated families induced aggregation of normal platelets with the addition of low-dose ristocetin. None of the probands' platelets showed aggregation with cryoprecipitate. Low ristocetin cofactor activity/VWF antigen ratio with absent collagen binding activity or thrombocytopenia were detected respectively in only two patients. Molecular analysis of exon 28 of the VWF gene identified mutations in only three patients. No mutation in the GP1BA gene was found. In this large prospective paediatric study, the screening approach including RIPA at low dose of ristocetin permitted the detection of patients with VWD2B that would otherwise have been missed. No patient with phenotype or genotype of PT-VWD was identified. Heterogeneity of bleeding symptoms and phenotypic parameters were found among members of the same family.

To determine whether factor V Leiden (FVL) and/or prothrombin gene G20210A mutation (PT20210A) are risk factors for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in Argentinean children. One hundred and thirty consecutive children with VTE were prospectively assisted at a single centre. Blood samples were available from 110 of them for detailed haematological analysis. The prevalence of both mutations was compared with a control group. The odds ratio for VTE was significantly increased in patients with FVL (OR 3.64; 95% CI: 1.14-11.6, p < 0.029) whereas odds ratio for VTE was not significantly increased in patients with PT20210A (OR 1.06; 95% CI: 0.24-4.73, p = 0.938). Combined disorders were found in 5 of the 10 children with the aforementioned mutations. In 21 children (19%) without these mutations other inherited and acquired disorders were detected. Our data show that FVL is a risk factor for VTE whereas PT20210A does not seem to be a risk factor in our paediatric population.