Another View of the War in Mexico

Business owners and investors!I’ll be in San Antonio for the annual AHOU meeting.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the city has changed since my last visit.

Who’s creating US jobs? Mexicans. / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com

“In fiscal year 2008, the US issued E-1 and E-2 visas to 1901 Mexicans and their families, nearly three times the level of a decade before. “

Where are all of these Mexican immigrant investors going? San Antonio!

Don’t Take Plavix if You Are a Poor Metabolizer

A “poor metabolizer” does not effectively convert Plavix to its active form because of low CYP 2C19 activity.

How does someone figure out they are a “poor metabolizer”?

Read the FDA communication if you’re seriously interested in the answer to this question.

FDA Drug Safety Communication: Reduced effectiveness of Plavix (clopidogrel) in patients who are poor metabolizers of the drug

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has added a Boxed Warning to the label for Plavix, the anti-blood clotting medication. The Boxed Warning is about patients who do not effectively metabolize the drug (i.e. “poor metabolizers”) and therefore may not receive the full benefits of the drug.

CTE = Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

NFL Brain Collector Shows Violence in Slices of Gray Matter – Bloomberg.com

Healthy tau helps strengthen the neurons in the brain, like steel reinforcements in a concrete bridge. Repetitive trauma can lead to a change in tau, making it clump like tangles of yarn. The more tangles, the more the communication between cells is hampered. Functions such as memory and anger control can disappear; dementia and death can follow.

CTE is a unique pathological condition, according to Stern. The postmortem diagnosis of Alzheimer’s requires the presence of deformed tau and another protein, beta amyloid. The diagnosis of CTE requires only the presence of deformed tau.

Outsourcing v. Permanent Hires

Calculated Risk: Diffusion Index and Temporary Help

The thinking is that before companies hire permanent employees following a recession, employers will first increase the hours worked of current employees and also hire temporary employees. Since the number of temporary workers increased sharply, some people think this might be signaling the beginning of an employment recovery.

However, there has been some evidence of a shift by employers to more temporary workers, and the saying may become “We are all temporary now!”, so use this increase with caution. For more, including some cautionary comments from a BLS economist on using temporary help, see Tom Abate’s article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The problem, of course, is the fact that temps and perma-temps are the first to be terminated at the beginning of a business cycle downturn and the first to be hired when the cycle turns back upwards.  If you’re a temp, that is.  Read the entire SF Chronicle article.  It’s a good, short read.

Proximal PAD BAD

Medical News: Proximal PAD Portends Worse Outcomes – in Cardiovascular, Peripheral Artery Disease from MedPage Today

A proximal location significantly increases the risk of poor outcomes in peripheral arterial disease (PAD), independent of risk factors and comorbidities, a review of records on 400 patients showed.

Proximal (aortoiliac) involvement tripled the risk of cardiovascular events compared with distal disease. The findings contrast with evidence of poorer limb prognosis in patients with distal PAD, according to an article published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.