Product Market Regulation and Competition in China

The extent of competition in product markets is an important determinant of economic growth in both developed and developing countries. This paper uses the 2008 vintage of the OECD indicators of product market regulation to assess the extent to which China’s regulatory environment is supportive of competition in markets for goods and services. The results indicate that, although competition is increasingly robust across most markets, the overall level of product market regulation is still restrictive in international comparison. These impediments to competition are likely to constrain economic growth as the Chinese economy continues to develop and becomes more sophisticated. The paper goes on to review various aspects of China’s regulatory framework and suggests a number of policy initiatives that would improve the extent to which competitive market forces are able to operate. Breaking the traditional links between state-owned enterprises and government agencies is an ongoing challenge. Reducing administrative burdens, increasing private sector involvement in network sectors and lowering barriers to foreign direct investment in services would also increase competition and enhance productivity growth going forward. Some of the reforms introduced by the Chinese government over the past two years go in this direction and should therefore help foster growth.

Constraints on soluble aerosol iron flux to the Southern Ocean at the Last Glacial Maximum.

Relief of iron (Fe) limitation in the Southern Ocean during ice ages, with potentially increased carbon storage in the ocean, has been invoked as one driver of glacial-interglacial atmospheric CO2 cycles. Ice and marine sediment records demonstrate that atmospheric dust supply to the oceans increased by up to an order of magnitude during glacial intervals. However, poor constraints on soluble atmospheric Fe fluxes to the oceans limit assessment of the role of Fe in glacial-interglacial change. Here, using novel techniques, we present estimates of water- and seawater-soluble Fe solubility in Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) atmospheric dust from the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) Dome C and Berkner Island ice cores. Fe solubility was very variable (1-42%) during the interval, and frequently higher than typically assumed by models. Soluble aerosol Fe fluxes to Dome C at the LGM (0.01-0.84 mg m(-2) per year) suggest that soluble Fe deposition to the Southern Ocean would have been ≥10 × modern deposition, rivalling upwelling supply.This work is a contribution to the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), a joint European Science Foundation/European Commission (EC) scientific programme. This study was funded by a NERC studentship to T.M.C. and E.W.W. is funded by a Royal Society professorship.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms885

Approaching a strong fourth family

A heavy fourth family is an example of new physics which is well defined and familiar in some respects, but which nevertheless has radical implications. In particular it eliminates a light Higgs description of electroweak symmetry breaking. We discuss an early signal for heavy quarks at the LHC in the form of an excess of "$W$-jets", and as well show how $W$-jets may be useful in the reconstruction of the heavy quark masses. We argue that fourth family quarks can be distinguished from vector-like quarks of a similar mass at roughly the same time that a same sign lepton signal becomes visible. Given the large mass of the fourth neutrino we describe how a picture for neutrino mass emerges in the absence of right-handed neutrinos, and how it suggests the existence of a remnant flavor gauge symmetry. Based on talk given at "Second Workshop on Beyond 3 Generation Standard Model -- New Fermions at the Crossroads of Tevatron and LHC", January 2010, Taipei Taiwan.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, references added and slight change

Collapse models with non-white noises II: particle-density coupled noises

We continue the analysis of models of spontaneous wave function collapse with stochastic dynamics driven by non-white Gaussian noise. We specialize to a model in which a classical "noise" field, with specified autocorrelator, is coupled to a local nonrelativistic particle density. We derive general results in this model for the rates of density matrix diagonalization and of state vector reduction, and show that (in the absence of decoherence) both processes are governed by essentially the same rate parameters. As an alternative route to our reduction results, we also derive the Fokker-Planck equations that correspond to the initial stochastic Schr\"odinger equation. For specific models of the noise autocorrelator, including ones motivated by the structure of thermal Green's functions, we discuss the qualitative and qantitative dependence on model parameters, with particular emphasis on possible cosmological sources of the noise field.Comment: Latex, 43 pages; versions 2&3 have minor editorial revision

Transformations among large c conformal field theories

We show that there is a set of transformations that relates all of the 24 dimensional even self-dual (Niemeier) lattices, and also leads to non-lattice objects that however cannot be interpreted as a basis for the construction of holomorphic conformal field theory. In the second part of this paper, we extend our observations to higher dimensional conformal field theories build on extremal partition functions, where we generate c=24k theories with spectra decomposable into the irreducible representations of the Fischer-Griess Monster. We observe interesting periodicities in the coefficients of extremal partition functions and characters of the extremal vertex operator algebras.Comment: 14 pages, minor corrections, new references adde

The assessment of areal surface texture parameters for characterizing the adhesive bond strength of copper plated micro-machined glass.

The micro-electronics industry is investigating glass as an alternative printed circuit board material and interposer. Electroless copper plating of glass is required for tracks and interconnects, but understanding of how the surface topography of the glass substrate affects the mechanics of the copper/glass bond quality is limited. Areal surface texture parameters provide the potential for characterizing key surface features associated with improving copper/glass bonding. Laser ablation techniques have been used to prepare glass surfaces with micro-scale structured features, and these features have been quantified using areal parameters. The copper/glass bond strength has been quantified using scratch testing techniques, with statistical analysis identifying strongly correlating areal parameters that may be used for predictive design of glass surfaces

The use of areal surface texture parameters to characterize the mechanical bond strength of copper on glass plating applications

This report describe research into the role that surface topography plays in influencing the mechanical bond strength of the electroless copper plating of novel glass substrates. The work considers bespoke laser machining of glass substrates, electroless plating chemistry, areal surface topography analysis using non-contact optical techniques, paramaterization of the surfaces using ISO 25178 areal parameters, and scratch testing of plated copper to measure the adhesive bond strength. By correlating bond strength to appropriate areal parameters, it is anticipated that better mechanical adhesive potential of machined glass surfaces can be achieved

Cusps, congruence groups and Monstrous dessins

We study general properties of the dessins d’enfants associated with the Hecke congruence subgroups Γ0(N) of the modular group PSL2(Z). The definition of the Γ0(N) as the stabilisers of couples of projective lattices in a two-dimensional vector space gives an interpretation of the quotient set Γ0(N)∖PSL2(Z) as the projective lattices N-hyperdistant from a reference one, and hence as the projective line over the ring Z∕NZ. The natural action of PSL2(Z) on the lattices defines a dessin d’enfant structure, allowing for a combinatorial approach to features of the classical modular curves, such as the torsion points and the cusps. We tabulate the dessins d’enfants associated with the 15 Hecke congruence subgroups of genus zero, which arise in Moonshine for the Monster sporadic group

Ursolic Acid Inhibits Collective Cell Migration and Promotes JNK-Dependent Lysosomal Associated Cell Death in Gioblastoma Multiforme Cells

Ursolic acid (UA) is a bioactive compound which has demonstrated therapeutic efficacy in a variety of cancer cell lines. UA activates various signalling pathways in Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and offers a promising starting point in drug discovery; however, understanding the relationship between cell death and migration has yet to be elucidated. UA induces a dose dependent cytotoxic response demonstrated by flow cytometry and biochemical cytotoxicity assays. Inhibitor and fluorescent probe studies demonstrate that UA induces a caspase independent, JNK dependent, mechanism of cell death. Migration studies established that UA inhibits GBM collective cell migration in a time dependent manner that is independent of the JNK signalling pathway. Cytotoxicity induced by UA results in the formation of acidic vesicle organelles (AVOs), speculating the activation of autophagy. However, inhibitor and spectrophotometric analysis demonstrated that autophagy was not responsible for the formation of the AVOs. Confocal microscopy and isosurface visualisation determined co-localisation of lysosomes with the previously identified AVOs, thus providing evidence that lysosomes are likely to be playing a role in UA induced cell death. Collectively, our data identify that UA rapidly induces a lysosomal associated mechanism of cell death in addition to UA acting as an inhibitor of GBM collective cell migration

BCAT1 redox function maintains mitotic fidelity

The metabolic enzyme branched-chain amino acid transaminase 1 (BCAT1) drives cell proliferation in aggressive cancers such as glioblastoma. Here, we show that BCAT1 localizes to mitotic structures and has a non-metabolic function as a mitotic regulator. Furthermore, BCAT1 is required for chromosome segregation in cancer and induced pluripotent stem cells and tumor growth in human cerebral organoid and mouse syngraft models. Applying gene knockout and rescue strategies, we show that the BCAT1 CXXC redox motif is crucial for controlling cysteine sulfenylation specifically in mitotic cells, promoting Aurora kinase B localization to centromeres, and securing accurate chromosome segregation. These findings offer an explanation for the well-established role of BCAT1 in promoting cancer cell proliferation. In summary, our data establish BCAT1 as a component of the mitotic apparatus that safeguards mitotic fidelity through a moonlighting redox functionality