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This paper develops a spatial equilibrium model with skill heterogeneity and agglomeration forces that stem from local idea exchange. I structurally estimate the model using American census data to study policy effects on real wage inequality between and within college and noncollege workers. Using the estimated model, I find: (1) Skill composition and local spillovers, respectively, account for 30% and 70% of the city‐level relationship between productivity and employment. (2) Recent skill‐biased technological changes largely increased the welfare inequality between groups and within college workers. (3) Small transfers from larger to smaller cities may reduce inequality without changing aggregate welfare.

Constant Elasticity of Transformation (CET) functions are widely used to allocate land across uses in Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models. These models fail to maintain the physical area of land in balance. This paper examines this issue. It shows that heterogeneity in land prices (rents) is the main source of imbalance in land area, not the curvature of the CET function. It also shows that the available approaches that restore balance to physical area either introduce ad hoc adjustments in land allocation or undermine the conventional welfare assessments of the CET results. An alternative approach involves implementing stochastic productivity distribution functions (e.g. Frechet) to allocate land among uses maintain area of land in balance, thereby respecting conventional welfare assessments. A particular feature of these models is that the aggregate production functions of the land using sectors exhibit decreasing returns to scale even if land is the only factor of production. This approach also requires equalization of land rents across uses. This is not consistent with empirical observation. Both the CET and stochastic methods consider the implicit opportunity costs of moving land across uses but fail to take into account preparation costs associated with land use conversion.

We document that isolated cities have lower skill wage premia in American census data. To explain this correlation and other correlations between population and wages, we build an equilibrium empirical model that incorporates high and low-skill labor, costly trade, and both agglomeration and congestion forces. Our paper bridges the gap between the economic geography literature which abstracts from inequality, and the spatial inequality literature which abstracts from geography. We find that geographical location explains 16.5% of observed variation in the skill wage premium across American cities. We use our model to simulate counterfactual trade and technology shocks. Reductions in domestic trade costs benefit both skill groups but low-skill workers benefit more.

We study the effects of globalization on agricultural productivity across countries. We develop a multi-country general equilibrium model that incorporates choices of crops and technologies in agricultural production at the micro-level of fields covering the surface of the earth. We estimate our model using field-level data on potential yields of crops under different technologies characterized by factor and input intensity. We evaluate the welfare and productivity gains from reductions in trade costs of agricultural outputs and inputs across countries between 1980 and 2015. In addition to gains from international crop specialization, we find notable gains from access to foreign agricultural inputs. This mechanism operates through a shift from traditional (labor-intensive) technologies to modern (input-intensive) ones.

Hairy cell leukemia being defined as a mature B-cell lymphoma shows unique clinicopathological, immunophenotype, and genetic alteration features among another mature B-cell malignancy. Although lymphocytes with hairy appearance and co-expression of CD25, CD11c and CD103 markers on B-cells are compatible with hairy cell leukemia, there are some difficulties in differential diagnosis between HCL with its variant and splenic marginal zone lymphoma. The presence of kinase-activating BRAF V600E mutation in classical HCL clone and in no other mature B-cell lymphomas/ leukemia has implication in differential diagnosis. In this study, we evaluated BRAF V600E mutation detection of H&E stained peripheral blood smears by Sanger sequencing method in patients with classical HCL and findings related to morphology and immunophenotype. Peripheral smear review indicated a subpopulation of atypical lymphocytes with villous cytoplasmic projections. By flow cytometry analysis, B-cells represented immunophenotype of CD19+ CD20(bright)+ CD11c+ CD25+ CD103+. Sanger sequencing demonstrated that presence of BRAF V600E mutation in 86.6% (13/15) of analyzed HCL DNA. Hence, gain-of-function mutation of BRAF V600E is detectable in DNA of peripheral blood smear of patients with classical HCL that were evaluated by immunophenotyping. In conclusion, DNA from peripheral blood smear can be used to identify BRAF V600E mutation using Sanger sequencing method in samples with at least 10% HCL clone as supplementary approach to aid in the diagnosis of classical HCL.

Human T-cell Lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) is endemic in Northeast of Iran. Still, it is unclear that genetic background has role in infection by HTLV-1. Methods: We ascertained the frequency of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop region nucleotide changes in 45 HTLV-1 infected individuals and 463 healthy control subjects using Sanger sequencing method. Results: Out of totally 164 identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) among HTLV-1 patients, 89 SNPs found statistically significant in comparison to the control group (P

Background: Primary mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma is a rare malignancy. We found only 8 cases of MALT lymphoma in literature. Case Presentation: We report here another case of primary prostatic MALT lymphoma which is presented by hematuria and diagnosed primarily as BPH. Immunohistochemistry studies demonstrate the diagnosis and MALT lymphoma. Six months after starting the treatment the patient was alive and well. Conclusions: Prostatic MALTomas are mainly presented with urinary obstruction or hematuria and have an indolent growth with a good prognosis.

This paper develops a multi-country general equilibrium model that incorporates crude oil global sourcing by refineries and refined oil demand by downstream industries that are connected through international trade and input-output linkages. I exploit detailed data on crude oil imports of US refineries, and derive a new procedure that allows for an all-in-one estimation of which suppliers refineries select and how much they buy from each. Using the estimates to evaluate counterfactual policies, I find: (i) A boom in crude oil production of a source changes the relative prices of crude oil across countries modestly which I interpret as the extent to which the behavior of crude oil markets deviates from an integrated global market. (ii) Lifting the ban on U.S. crude oil exports creates notable distributional impact across American crude oil producers and refineries. (iii) Due to the importance of oil trade and consumption, gains from trade are larger compared to the existing benchmarks.

Background: The central nervous system (CNS) belongs to heterogeneous group of glial and non-glial brain tumors. Increase in the frequency of brain and CNS tumors in Iran have been a cause for debate and concern. Objectives: The aim of this study was to estimate the frequency of the principal CNS cancers, using CNS cancer data records in a 7-year period in a hospital in Mashhad, Iran. Methods: This study is based on the records of department of surgical pathology, Razavi hospital, Mashhad, Iran. We analyzed 1,164 brain tumors and CNS cancers diagnosed from 2006 to 2013. It includes data on spinal cord tumors, primary brain such as lymphomas, which are hematological malignancies and metastatic tumors originating from external to the central nervous system. The frequency varies widely across this 7-year period. Results: The majority of brain tumor locations were frontal (13.2), pituitary (11.7), parietal (10.6), Spinal (8.9), Temporal (8), and base of skull (6.3). The most frequently reported histologies were meningiomas (33.6) and glioblastomamultiforme (15.8) that are strongly influenced the overall results. Higher numbers for glioblastoma, myxopapillaryependymoma, fibrillary astrocytoma, craniopharyngioma, hemangio-blastoma, oligodendro-glioma, and sarcoma were observed in male than in female patients. Meningioma, neurofibroma, and choroid plexus papilloma were the only tumors with a significant excess in female. Conclusions: We noted that higher frequency of brain tumors and CNS cancers occurred at age group of 51 to 60 years. Although data are hospital-based, is the first study to delineate the brain tumors and CNS cancers burden in north-east of Iran by age, sex, histology type, anatomical site, and laterality. © 2018, Cancer Research Center (CRC), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

Sharing the role of immune suppression, interleukin-10 (IL-10), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are critical genes in several aspects of tumorigenesis. To elucidate the role of these cytokines in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), their relative mRNA expression in tumoral tissue compared with corresponding tumor-free tissue was evaluated.A total of 49 patients with histologically confirmed ESCC were included in the study prior to any therapeutic interventions. Quantitative analysis of the mRNA expression was performed by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and the clinicopathologic associations were assessed.The mRNA of IL-10, VEGF, and TGF-beta was frequently overexpressed in 53.2%, 44.9%, and 37.5% of ESCC patients, respectively. TGF-beta was significantly co-expressed with IL-10 and with VEGF. Although VEGF was not independently associated with increased tumor size (p = 0.065), concomitant overexpression of VEGF with TGF-beta was significantly correlated with increased size of the tumor (p0.05).Overexpression of IL-10, TGF-beta, and VEGF plays an important role in ESCC and consequently leads to the frequent event of immune evasion in ESCC. TGF-beta is concomitantly overexpressed with IL-10 and with VEGF in ESCC. A stimulatory signal from TGF-beta to VEGF is necessary for VEGF to promote tumor progression.

Background Statins are widely used in the management of coronary risk because of their efficacy in reducing LDL and their potentially protective pleiotropic effects. Imbalances in the status of trace elements such as zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) have been reported to be implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The present study investigated the effects of simvastatin on serum Zn, Cu, Zn:Cu ratio, selenium (Se), ceruloplasmin (Cp), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in dyslipidemic patients. Methods Seventy-seven dyslipidemic patients, who were not originally taking lipid lowering agents, were assigned to receive simvastatin (40 mg/day) and placebo in alternate orders in a double-blind cross-over trial for a period of 4 weeks with a 2-week wash-out period. Serum concentrations of Zn, Cu, Se, Cp, and SOD were measured before and after each treatment period. Results Statistical analysis did not reveal any significant effect of statin therapy on serum concentrations of Zn, Cu, Zn:Cu ratio, Se, Cp, and SOD (p > 0.05). Conclusions Four-week treatment with simvastatin (40 mg/day) is not associated with any beneficial or adverse effect on serum trace element (Zn, Cu and Se) status as well as enzymatic activities of Cp and SOD. However, the impacts of statin type as well as treatment dose and duration on these parameters remain to be clarified.

Early clinical studies have suggested that administration of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) may improve the clinical condition of patients suffering from myocardial infarction (MI).This prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled single-centre trial aims to assess the safety and clinical efficacy of G-CSF administration in patients with subacute MI and impaired LV function undergoing delayed primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).A total of 16 patients (13 men, mean age 51 years) with subacute ST-segment elevation MI and a left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) of less than 45% at baseline who underwent late revascularization, were included in the study. Patients were randomized in a double-blind fashion to receive either G-CSF (at a dose of 10 microg/kg body weight) or placebo for five consecutive days. End points consisted of assessment of safety parameters as well as changes of global and regional myocardial function from baseline until six months following PCI.G-CSF administration resulted in a significant mobilization of different cell populations (four-fold increase in WBC count and a six-fold increase in CD34+ cells). G-CSF treatment was well tolerated in most patients and no major adverse cardiac events or severe G-CSF-related side effects were identified during hospitalization and at follow-up. No significant differences were observed between the G-CSF and placebo groups regarding global and regional myocardial function parameters.G-CSF administration is safe, but not effective, in improving impaired LV functional parameters in patients with subacute MI who had an impaired baseline EF of less than 45%.