Antidumping Petition: To File or Not To File

Given the “normal value†of a product as common knowledge in an import-competing market, the profitability of a home firm in filing an antidumping (AD) petition against its foreign rival is shown to depend on the marginal cost differential between the home and foreign firms. When the marginal cost differential is “significantly large,†the home firm's ability to put the foreign firm at the risk of an AD violation is limited. But when the marginal cost differential is “significantly small,†the home firm is able to increase its output and lower the price of the product below its normal value, putting the foreign firm in the situation of an illegal dumping. One interesting implication is that, relative to the case without an AD law, the home firm has a stronger incentive to undertake cost-reducing activities (e.g., R&D investment or the adoption of a more efficient technology) under the law.antidumping laws, antidumping duties, dumping margins

Disordered Fe vacancies and superconductivity in potassium-intercalated iron selenide (K2-xFe4+ySe5)

The parent compound of an unconventional superconductor must contain unusual correlated electronic and magnetic properties of its own. In the high-Tc potassium intercalated FeSe, there has been significant debate regarding what the exact parent compound is. Our studies unambiguously show that the Fe-vacancy ordered K2Fe4Se5 is the magnetic, Mott insulating parent compound of the superconducting state. Non-superconducting K2Fe4Se5 becomes a superconductor after high temperature annealing, and the overall picture indicates that superconductivity in K2-xFe4+ySe5 originates from the Fe-vacancy order to disorder transition. Thus, the long pending question whether magnetic and superconducting state are competing or cooperating for cuprate superconductors may also apply to the Fe-chalcogenide superconductors. It is believed that the iron selenides and related compounds will provide essential information to understand the origin of superconductivity in the iron-based superconductors, and possibly to the superconducting cuprates

Surface Metallization of Polyimide as a Photoanode Substratefor Rear-Illuminated Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Plastic film is promising as a photoanode substrate of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) for flexible applications, while a lowtemperaturesintering process is generally adopted for the TiO2 mesoporous film due to unstable thermal property of general plastics.This study demonstrates that typical high-temperature TiO2 sintering can be adopted for preparing the photoanode when using asurface-metallized polyimide (PI) film. A Sn/Ni bi-layer is formed on a PI film via a chemical process as the conductive layer. TheSn/Ni-coated PI photoanode can withstand high-temperature TiO2 sintering at a peak temperature of 430◦C for 30 min withoutsignificant visual deformation due to high thermal stability of PI and strength reinforcement caused by surface metallization. TheDSSC employing the Sn/Ni-coated PI film as the photoanode substrate reaches an energy conversion efficiency of 3.44% under1 sun rear-side illumination

A 9 bp cis-element in the promoters of class I small heat shock protein genes on chromosome 3 in rice mediates L-azetidine-2-carboxylic acid and heat shock responses

In rice, the class I small heat shock protein (sHSP-CI) genes were found to be selectively induced by L-azetidine-2-carboxylic acid (AZC) on chromosome 3 but not chromosome 1. Here it is shown that a novel cis-responsive element contributed to the differential regulation. By serial deletion and computational analysis, a 9 bp putative AZC-responsive element (AZRE), GTCCTGGAC, located between nucleotides –186 and –178 relative to the transcription initiation site of Oshsp17.3 was revealed. Deletion of this putative AZRE from the promoter abolished its ability to be induced by AZC. Moreover, electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) revealed that the AZRE interacted specifically with nuclear proteins from AZC-treated rice seedlings. Two AZRE–protein complexes were detected by EMSA, one of which could be competed out by a canonical heat shock element (HSE). Deletion of the AZRE also affected the HS response. Furthermore, transient co-expression of the heat shock factor OsHsfA4b with the AZRE in the promoter of Oshsp17.3 was effective. The requirement for the putative AZRE for AZC and HS responses in transgenic Arabidopsis was also shown. Thus, AZRE represents an alternative form of heat HSE, and its interaction with canonical HSEs through heat shock factors may be required to respond to HS and AZC

Evaluation of prognostic factors and the role of chemotherapy in unfavorable carcinoma of unknown primary site: a 10-year cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Carcinoma of unknown primary site (CUP) has a poor prognosis and the prognostic factors in these patients are not well established. Furthermore, there are no selection criteria for patients who should benefit from chemotherapy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The medical records of 179 CUP patients who were treated at Taipei Veterans General Hospital from 2000 to 2009 were reviewed. Factors associated with survival were determined by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Differences between the groups with and without palliative chemotherapy were analyzed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Univariate analysis revealed multiple prognostic factors, including performance status, lung metastasis, number of metastatic organs, serum albumin, corrected serum calcium, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), sodium, and cholesterol levels, palliative chemotherapy, and white blood cell and lymphocyte counts. Multivariate analysis showed that performance status < 2, serum albumin level ≥ 3.5 g/dl, corrected serum calcium level < 10.7 mg/dl, single metastatic organ, and palliative chemotherapy were independent factors of better prognosis. Patients with better performance status, higher serum albumin, and lower serum LDH levels had significantly greater benefit from palliative chemotherapy.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Certain patients with unfavorable CUP will have better survival. Identification of patients with unfavorable CUP who could benefit from palliative chemotherapy warrants future prospective studies.</p

Identification of a New Peptide for Fibrosarcoma Tumor Targeting and Imaging In Vivo

A 12-mer amino acid peptide SATTHYRLQAAN, denominated TK4, was isolated from a phage-display library with fibrosarcoma tumor-binding activity. In vivo biodistribution analysis of TK4-displaying phage showed a significant increased phage titer in implanted tumor up to 10-fold in comparison with normal tissues after systemic administration in mouse. Competition assay confirmed that the binding of TK4-phage to tumor cells depends on the TK4 peptide. Intravenous injection of 131I-labeled synthetic TK4 peptide in mice showed a tumor retention of 3.3% and 2.7% ID/g at 1- and 4-hour postinjection, respectively. Tumor-to-muscle ratio was 1.1, 5.7, and 3.2 at 1-, 4-, and 24-hour, respectively, and tumors were imaged on a digital γ-camera at 4-hour postinjection. The present data suggest that TK4 holds promise as a lead structure for tumor targeting, and it could be further applied in the development of diagnostic or therapeutic agent

Microtesla Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Imaging with a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device

本文旨在研究超低磁場下的超導量子干涉元件核磁共振與造影；系統使用室溫的接收線圈並將其感測到的核磁共振訊號經由液態氮冷卻的變壓線圈藕和到高溫超導磁量計，待測樣品會先在600高斯的預先極化磁場磁化，再切換到100微米磁場量測；實驗的磁場產生裝置在實驗室自行建造，其中，測量磁場B0是由一組三對線圈組合的改良版Helmholtz線圈，梯度線圈則是由Maxwell對(Gz)，與雙平面線圈(Gx, Gy)等組成，從測量的核磁共振頻譜分析得到測量磁場能在5 x 5米見方的範圍內具有100 ppm的均勻度；此外，與在射頻磁場操作的傳統核磁共振系統相比，超低磁場超導量子干涉元件核磁共振系統在音頻範圍量測，具有電路簡化的優勢。 實驗研究去離子水含磁流體樣品的弛豫特性，透過改變預極化磁場磁化時間測量自旋-晶格弛豫速率(1/T1)，並使用多重自旋回波序列測量自旋-自旋弛豫速率(1/T2) ，結果顯示1/T1與1/T2兩者均與磁流體的磁化率成正比，推測是由於磁流體含量較高的樣品具有較高的磁化率，散佈在去離子水中會破壞局域的磁場均勻度，導致質子間的自旋相位分散，使得弛豫速率增加；實驗最後並以磁流體為對比劑實現T1對比影像，其造影的方法將在文中進一步的說明討論，此結果亦顯示超低磁場超導量子干涉元件核磁共振具有潛力進一步發展為癌症造影的檢驗工具。This work studied nuclear magnetic resonance with a high-Tc superconducting quantum interference device(SQUID) in the microtesla magnetic fields. In the scheme of measurement, the NMR signal was detected by a cooper solenoid at room temperatures and coupled to a very sensitive high-Tc SQUID magnetometer via a cooper transformer at liquid-nitrogen temperature. The samples were pre-polarized at higher magnetic fields, 600 Gauss, and measured at 100 μT magnetic field. In such a low measurement field, apparatus can be easily obtained by homemade. We constructed a three-pair Helmholtz-like coil for Bo measurement field, a Maxwell pair for Gz gradient field, biplanar pairs for Gx and Gy gradient fields. The analysis from the linewidth of NMR spectrum revealed a very uniform measurement field ~ 100 ppm in range of 5 x 5 cm2. Since the measurement field was low as in audio frequency, it takes the advantage of the simplified electronics in contrast to the conventional NMR experiment working with radio-frequency electronics. To demonstrate the potential application of the SQUID NMR/MRI, samples of ferrofluid diluted in water were examined to study the relaxation properties and magnetic resonance imaging. The intensity of spin-echo NMR signal as function of prepolarization time was used to drive the rate of spin-lattice relaxation (1/T1). The rate of spin-spin relaxation (1/T2) was derived by peak strength of multi-echo NMR signals which follow the free induction decay. It was found that both 1/T1 and 1/T2 increase linearly when the magnetic susceptibility χ of SPIO increases by increasing the concentration of SPIO dispersed in water. In an applied field, magnetic moments of SPIO generate microscopic field gradients that weaken the field homogeneity, in turn dephasing the proton’s nuclear spin and enhancing the relaxation rates. A T1-contrast image is demonstrated, using SPIO as the contrast agent and high-Tc superconducting quantum interference devices as the detector. T1-contrast imaging in microtesla fields might provide a potential modality for discriminating cancer