Foreign Direct Investment in the City of Qingdao: Experiences of Chinese Workers in Foreign-Invested Enterprises, 1996 to 2009

The debate concerning whether foreign investment in developing nations benefits or exploits workers is a highly emotive and unresolved debate. This dissertation contributes to literature that explores the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on a host economy, more specifically on the experiences workers employed within foreign-invested enterprises in a developing nation. Amongst developing nations, China has absorbed the lion’s share of FDI throughout the 2000s and is therefore a sensible location to study the effects of FDI on a developing nation host economy. Given the variety in levels of economic development across China, we avoid errors of generalisation by targeting a specific location. Shandong is one of the most important – and understudied – provinces in China, contributing significantly to China’s economy and being the destination for an increasing share of China’s FDI; within Shandong, Qingdao is the most popular destination for FDI. Existing literature that explores the effects of FDI on host nation employees either takes a quantitative, macro-economic level approach, such as International Business literature, or uses qualitative methodology to give anecdotal evidence of worker experiences, such as in the globalisation and labour studies bodies of literature. We combine both these approaches to investigate the experiences of FIE employees in Qingdao. The key research findings are: a domination of South Korean, wholly foreign-owned enterprises targeting the relatively more labour-intensive manufacturing sectors from 1996 to 2006 in Qingdao, having implications in terms of FIE employment opportunities and human capital accumulation; a sharp decline in the size of the FIE workforce from 2007 to 2009, highlighting the potential problems a developing nation may face if it has a large concentration of ‘flexible’ foreign investments; and reports of a wide range of experiences of FIE employees engaged in more white-collar roles, including positive development opportunities and negative experiences of discrimination

Probing the Primordial Power Spectrum with Cluster Number Counts

We investigate how well galaxy cluster number counts can constrain the primordial power spectrum. Measurements of the primary anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) may be limited, by the presence of foregrounds from secondary sources, to probing the primordial power spectrum at wave numbers less than about 0.30 h Mpc^{-1}. We break up the primordial power spectrum into a number of nodes and interpolate linearly between each node. This allows us to show that cluster number counts could then extend the constraints on the form of the primordial power spectrum up to wave numbers of about 0.45 h Mpc^{-1}. We estimate combinations of constraints from PLANCK and SPT primary CMB and their respective SZ surveys. We find that their constraining ability is limited by uncertainties in the mass scaling relations. We also estimate the constraint from clusters detected from a SNAP like gravitational lensing survey. As there is an unambiguous and simple relationship between the filtered shear of the lensing survey and the cluster mass, it may be possible to obtain much tighter constraints on the primordial power spectrum in this case.Comment: Clarifications added and a few minor corrections made. Matches version to appear in PR

Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation for Supraclavicular and Femoral Nerve Blocks Utilizing Ultrasound Guidance for Student Nurse Anesthetists

The purpose of this DNP project was to create a tool to teach and evaluate student registered nurse anesthetists (SRNAs) at TheUniversity of Southern Mississippi (USM) on supraclavicular and femoral nerve blocks to promote safety in the clinical setting. An objective structured clinical evaluation (OSCE) for ultrasound-guided supraclavicular and femoral nerve blocks was created as the basis for this project. Best-practice techniques as identified by the AANA’s 14thstandard of nurse anesthesia practice were researched and used in the development of the OSCE to promote a culture of safety for SRNAs and patients (AANA, 2019). A culture of safety was promoted by creating an OSCE that can be used to test and evaluate SRNAs before they enter into a clinical setting. This will allow SRNAs to become more comfortable with performing these nerve blocks by practicing the process of the blocks as well as the techniques used to perform the blocks. Becoming more comfortable with these types of blocks will translate into increased safety for patients receiving these blocks from future USM SRNAs. Step-by-step guides for the nerve blocks were developed. A survey was sent out to current second-year SRNAs and nurse anesthesia faculty at USM. The OSCE was edited based on their feedback after participating in the OSCE and completing the survey. Feedback from the survey was positive and minimal changes were made to the OSCE. All participants agreed that the OSCE was beneficial in presenting clear and exact instructions on the execution of supraclavicular and femoral nerve blocks and that it included all of the necessary information to help SRNAs be successful in the clinical arena

Large Scale Structure Forecast Constraints on Particle Production During Inflation

Bursts of particle production during inflation provide a well-motivated mechanism for creating bump like features in the primordial power spectrum. Current data constrains these features to be less than about 5% the size of the featureless primordial power spectrum at wavenumbers of about 0.1 h Mpc^{-1}. We forecast that the Planck cosmic microwave background experiment will be able to strengthen this constraint to the 0.5% level. We also predict that adding data from a square kilometer array (SKA) galaxy redshift survey would improve the constraint to about the 0.1% level. For features at larger wave-numbers, Planck will be limited by Silk damping and foregrounds. While, SKA will be limited by non-linear effects. We forecast for a Cosmic Inflation Probe (CIP) galaxy redshift survey, similar constraints can be achieved up to about a wavenumber of 1 h Mpc^{-1}.Comment: 10 pages. Matches PRD accepted versio

The olive biophenols oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol selectively reduce proliferation, influence the cell cycle, and induce apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells

Current chemotherapy drugs for pancreatic cancer only offer an increase in survival of up to six months. Additionally, they are highly toxic to normal tissues, drastically affecting the quality of life of patients. Therefore, the search for novel agents, which induce apoptosis in cancer cells while displaying limited toxicity towards normal cells, is paramount. The olive biophenols, oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol, have displayed cytotoxicity towards cancer cells without affecting non-tumorigenic cells in cancers of the breast and prostate. However, their activity in pancreatic cancer has not been investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the anti-pancreatic cancer potential of oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol. Pancreatic cancer cells (MIA PaCa-2, BxPC-3, and CFPAC-1) and non-tumorigenic pancreas cells (HPDE) were treated with oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol to determine their effect on cell viability. Oleuropein displayed selective toxicity towards MIA PaCa-2 cells and hydroxytyrosol towards MIA PaCa-2 and HPDE cells. Subsequent analysis of Bcl-2 family proteins and caspase 3/7 activation determined that oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol induced apoptosis in MIA PaCa-2 cells, while oleuropein displayed a protective effect on HPDE cells. Gene expression analysis revealed putative mechanisms of action, which suggested that c-Jun and c-Fos are involved in oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol induced apoptosis of MIA PaCa-2 cells

High Resolution STIS/HST and HIRES/Keck Spectra of Three Weak MgII Absorbers Toward PG 1634+706

High resolution optical (HIRES/Keck) and UV (STIS/HST) spectra, covering a large range of chemical transitions, are analyzed for three single-cloud weak MgII absorption systems along the line of sight toward the quasar PG 1634+706. Weak MgII absorption lines in quasar spectra trace metal-enriched environments that are rarely closely associated with the most luminous galaxies (>0.05L^*). The two weak MgII systems at z=0.81 and z=0.90 are constrained to have >=solar metallicity, while the metallicity of the z=0.65 system is not as well-constrained, but is consistent with >1/10th solar. These weak MgII clouds are likely to be local pockets of high metallicity in a lower metallicity environment. All three systems have two phases of gas, a higher density region that produces narrower absorption lines for low ionization transitions, such as MgII, and a lower density region that produces broader absorption lines for high ionization transitions, such as CIV. The CIV profile for one system (at z=0.81) can be fit with a single broad component (b~10 km/s), but those for the other two systems require one or two additional offset high ionization clouds. Two possible physical pictures for the phase structure are discussed: one with a low-ionization, denser phase embedded in a lower density surrounding medium, and the other with the denser clumps surrounding more highly ionized gas.Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures; to appear in ApJ on May 20, 200

ErythropoieSIS stimulating agent (ESA) use is increased following missed dialysis sessions

Missed dialysis sessions can have a cascading effect on patient clinical outcomes. In addition to missing the dialysis itself, patients fail to receive medications—such as ESAs—that are dosed at each session. This analysis assessed ESA dose changes following missed session episodes in order to evaluate “catch-up dosing.”In a retrospective analysis, we assessed missed session and epoetin alfa (EPO) utilization data in 2010 from adult (≥ 18 yrs old), hemodialysis (HD) patients. Consecutive misses were considered part of a missed session “episode.” All misses were included (even if patient was hospitalized). Differences in EPO utilization in the periods 14 days, 30 days and 31-60 days before and after missed session episodes were calculated and stratified by length of episode, and whether additional sessions were missed in the before/after periods. Total monthly EPO dose was also calculated and stratified by number of missed sessions.Patients used significantly more EPO after a missed session episode, and differences in per session EPO dose were generally greater the longer the episode. For missed session episodes with no additional misses in the 30 day before/after period, increases of 18% to 30% per session were seen, depending on episode length. For longer episodes, usually due to hospitalization, differences were sustained over 60 days. Analyses which included additional missed sessions in the before/after period showed similar patterns. Beyond these per-session associations, the total amount of EPO used in a month increased with number of missed sessions (through up to 5 missed sessions), even though these patients (by definition) were not receiving as many administrations of EPO.Missed session episodes result in significant increases in ESA utilization in the post-miss period, and also in total monthly ESA use. Such increases should be considered in any assessment of impact of missed sessions: both clinical and economic

SeMi-Supervised Adaptive Resonance Theory (SMART2)

Adaptive resonance theory (ART) algorithms represent a class of neural network architectures which self-organize stable recognition categories in response to arbitrary sequences of input patterns. The authors discuss incorporation of supervision into one of these architectures, ART2. Results of numerical experiments indicate that this new semi-supervised version of ART2 (SMART2) outperformed ART for classification problems. The results and analysis of runs on several data sets by SMART2, ART2, and backpropagation are analyzed. The test accuracy of SMART2 was similar to that of backpropagation. However, SMART2 network structures are easier to interpret than the corresponding structures produced by backpropagation