Relationship between Crude Oil Prices and Stock Prices of Alternative Energy Companies with Recent Evidence

This paper examines the recent interactive relationships between crude oil prices and stock performances of alternative energy companies. Oil prices and stock index of alternative energy sector are found independent from each other before late 2006. Contrary to existing studies, however, we find significant interdependence between oil prices and stock index of alternative energy industry in the recent years. Since late 2006, oil prices become significantly responsible for the stock performances of alternative energy companies. This finding suggests that the stock market investors of alternative energy sector incorporate oil price shocks into their trading decisions only recently.Crude oil price; Alternative energy; Oil stock index

On the Generalized Bertrand Curves in Euclidean NN-spaces

In this article, we give a necessary condition for a $C^\infty$-special Frenet curve in $\mathbb{R}^{N}$ being a generalized Bertrand curve

Absorption refrigeration system

Call number: LD2668 .R4 1966 C44

IsaB Inhibits Autophagic Flux to Promote Host Transmission of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has emerged as a major nosocomial pathogen that is widespread in both health-care facilities and in the community at large, as a result of direct host-to-host transmission. Several virulence factors are associated with pathogen transmission to naive hosts. Immunodominant surface antigen B (IsaB) is a virulence factor that helps Staphylococcus aureus to evade the host defense system. However, the mechanism of IsaB on host transmissibility remains unclear. We found that IsaB expression was elevated in transmissible MRSA. Wild-type isaB strains inhibited autophagic flux to promote bacterial survival and elicit inflammation in THP-1 cells and mouse skin. MRSA isolates with increased IsaB expression showed decreased autophagic flux, and the MRSA isolate with the lowest IsaB expression showed increased autophagic flux. In addition, recombinant IsaB rescued the virulence of the isaB deletion strain and increased the group A streptococcus (GAS) virulence in vivo. Together, these results reveal that IsaB diminishes autophagic flux, thereby allowing MRSA to evade host degradation. These findings suggest that IsaB is a suitable target for preventing or treating MRSA infection

Trust-Building Mechanisms and Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Communities

Although trust has received much intention in the virtual communities (VCs) literature, few studies have been conducted to examine how trust develops in VCs. Drawing from prior literature on trust and knowledge sharing, a research model for understanding the antecedents of trust and the role of trust in VCs is presented. Data was collected from 324 members of a technical virtual community to test the model. The results help in identifying how the factors fall into three trust-building mechanisms build trust in the context VCs. The study discusses the theoretical and managerial implications of this study and proposes several future research directions