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Tae Hwa Indonesia - A Case Study of Labour Conditions in the Sportswear Industry

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Chemically stabilized subtilisins in peptide synthesis

We have stabilized alcalaseTM and subtilisin Carlsberg (SC) against heat by chemical modification with ethylene glycol bis-succinimidyl succinate (EGNHS), a procedure not previously reported for subtilisins. The increases in thermal stability at 65oC were 1.8-fold and 4.7-fold respectively. Caseinolytic activity of alcalase in aqueous buffer was unchanged following modification but apparent Km of SC decreased 2.5-fold. Native and modified forms of both enzymes synthesized the tripeptide Z-Tyr-Gly-Gly-NH2 under kinetic control in mixtures based on 0.2M barbitone buffer, pH 9.0 and 50% v/v dimethyl formamide/ barbitone buffer. Native enzymes gave faster rates of product formation than their modified counterparts in buffer but differences were much less pronounced in the mixed solvent. We also compared native alcalase and SC in terms of thermal stability, tolerance of organic solvents and autolysis. Alcalase was approx. 4.6-fold more stable than SC at 65oC and was more tolerant of acetone, acetonitrile and 1,4-dioxane. Alcalase underwent autolysis at approx. half the rate of SC. Against succinyl- Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe substrates, alcalase showed a much higher esterase/ amidase ratio (567) than SC (29) in aqueous buffer but this was reversed in 50% v/v dimethylformamide, where the esterase/ amidase ratios were 43 and 113 respectively

TumbleBit: an untrusted Bitcoin-compatible anonymous payment hub

This paper presents TumbleBit, a new unidirectional unlinkable payment hub that is fully compatible with today s Bitcoin protocol. TumbleBit allows parties to make fast, anonymous, off-blockchain payments through an untrusted intermediary called the Tumbler. TumbleBits anonymity properties are similar to classic Chaumian eCash: no one, not even the Tumbler, can link a payment from its payer to its payee. Every payment made via TumbleBit is backed by bitcoins, and comes with a guarantee that Tumbler can neither violate anonymity, nor steal bitcoins, nor print money by issuing payments to itself. We prove the security of TumbleBit using the real/ideal world paradigm and the random oracle model. Security follows from the standard RSA assumption and ECDSA unforgeability. We implement TumbleBit, mix payments from 800 users and show that TumbleBits offblockchain payments can complete in seconds.https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/575.pdfPublished versio

Breaking Free With Fair Elections: A New Declaration of Independence for Congress

The problem of money and its influence in elections is fundamental and must be addressed with a fundamental solution: the public funding of congressional elections -- also called Fair Elections.Public funding of congressional races would end the chase for campaign dollars, restoring honesty and accountability to Congress. A Fair Elections bill now pending in the Senate would free our representatives from deep-pocketed donors, cost just a fraction of the nation's budget and save billions by ending wasteful corporate kickbacks.In a Fair Elections system, candidates establish their credibility by collecting a number of small contributions, such as $5, from supporters. A set number of these donations make them eligible for public funds, if the candidate agrees to accept no additional private money and abide by strict spending limits. When candidates face privately funded opponents who outspend them or independent expenditures made on behalf of their opposition, they qualify for additional funding, up to a limit

Opportunity Knocks: An Economic Analysis of Television Advertisements

Certain aspects of advertising–especially on television–are not easily explained with conventional economic models. In particular, much of the imagery and repetitive thematic content seen in advertisements suggests it is "psychological" in nature, as opposed to "informative". To understand the economic rationale for incorporating such material, we develop a theory of preferences in which information about threshold payoffs induces sudden shifts in demand. These threshold payoffs are best understood in the context of human evolutionary history. Furthermore, the presence of threshold payoffs in consumer preferences gives firms incentive for providing threshold-type information. To examine the use of threshold-related content in television advertisements, we look for this con- tent in a sample of 370 television advertisements. We find considerable evidence that advertisers make strategic use of threshold-type content in television advertisements. Specifically, threshold-related content occurred in 83% of food and beverage advertisements for children and in 71% of advertisements for general audiences. Furthermore, the threshold-related content in children’s food and beverage advertisements occurred with statistically greater frequency than factual content, which isn’t true for food and beverage advertisements for general audiences

15 years of VLBI observations of two compact radio sources in Messier 82

We present the results of a second epoch of 18cm global Very Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations, taken on 23 February 2001, of the central kiloparsec of the nearby starburst galaxy Messier 82. These observations further investigate the structural and flux evolution of the most compact radio sources in the central region of M82. The two most compact radio objects in M82 have been investigated (41.95+575 and 43.31+592). Using this recent epoch of data in comparison with our previous global VLBI observations and two earlier epochs of European VLBI Network observations we measure expansion velocities in the range of 1500-2000km/s for 41.95+575, and 9000-11000km/s for 43.31+592 using various independent methods. In each case the measured remnant expansion velocities are significantly larger than the canonical expansion velocity (500km/s) of supernova remnants within M82 predicted from theoretical models. In this paper we discuss the implications of these measured expansion velocities with respect to the high density environment that the SNR are expected to reside in within the centre of the M82 starburst.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 9 pages, 8 figure

Real Exchange Rates, Dollarization and Industrial Employment in Latin America

This paperuses a panel dataset on industrial employment and trade for 9 Latin American countries for which liability dollarization data at the industrial level is available. It tests whether real exchange rate fluctuations have a significant impact on employment, and analyze whether the impact varies with the degree of trade openness and liability dollarization. Econometric evidence supports the view that real exchange rate depreciations can impact employment growth positively, but this effect is reversed as liability dollarization increases. In industries with high liability dollarization, the overall impact of a real exchange rate depreciation can be negative.