Labor Productivity In Emerging Markets: Evidence From Brazil, China, India, And Russia (BRIC)

Despite the great amount of attention to emerging markets, much still remains unknown about firm performance in emerging economies. To fill this gap, this study aims to investigate factors that influence labor productivity of firms in Brazil, China, India, and Russia (BRIC countries). This study focuses on features of business environments of emerging markets such as informality, corruption, foreign ownership, and external audit. Using a cross-national sample of 8,885 firms from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys dataset, we find that informality is negatively associated with labor productivity, while corruption and external audit are positively related to labor productivity. Implications will be discussed

ADADA 2016 14TH international Conference for Asia Digital Art and Design Association - Relationship between perceived value in Omni-Channel Shopping and repurchase intention

Along with the development of ICT, the distribution strategy of existing companies has been changing to the ‘Omni-Channel’ strategy. According to the diversification of distribution channels, the value of customer shopping has also been changing. Consumers that shop within various distribution channels want to acquire benefits through new and diversified experiences. Thus, it is important to perform studies on whether continuous purchase is possible by continuing from values that are being satisfied by certain elements of the Omni-Channel by grasping the cognition of consumers. This study identifies the characteristics of Omni-Channel consumption, perceived usefulness through the ease-of-use by consumers, and relationships with repurchase intention. This study provides a theoretical basis to activate the Omni-Channel which may satisfy the demand of consumers by setting causal relationship between each element by conducting a survey

One-pot Enzymatic Synthesis of Deoxy-thymidine-diphosphate (TDP)-2-deoxy-∝-d-glucose Using Phosphomannomutase

Production of deoxy-thymidine-diphosphate (TDP)-sugars as substrates of glycosyltransferases, has been one of main hurdles for combinatorial antibiotic biosynthesis, which combines sugar moiety with aglycon of various antibiotics. Here, we report the one-pot enzymatic synthesis of TDP-2-deoxy-glucose employing high efficient TMP kinase (TMK; E.C. 2.7.2.12), acetate kinase (ACK; E.C. 2.7.1.21), and TDP-glucose synthase (TGS; E.C. 2.7.7.24) with phosphomannomutase (PMM; E.C. 5.4.2.8). In this study, replacing phosphoglucomutase (PGM; E.C. 5.4.2) by PMM from Escherichia coli gave four times higher specific activity on 2-deoxy-6-phosphate glucose, suggesting that the activity on 2-deoxy-glucose-6-phosphate was mainly affected by PMM activity, not PGM activity. Using an in vitro system starting from TMP and 2-deoxy-glucose-6-phosphate glucose, TDP-2-deoxy-glucose (63% yield) was successfully synthesized. Considering low productivity of NDP-sugars from cheap starting materials, this paper showed how production of NDP-sugars could be enhanced by controlling mutase activity

Alpha-tocopherol exerts protective function against the mucotoxicity of particulate matter in amphibian and human goblet cells

Exposure to particulate matter (PM) in ambient air is known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disorders and mortality. The cytotoxicity of PM is mainly due to the abnormal increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which damage cellular components such as DNA, RNA, and proteins. The correlation between PM exposure and human disorders, including mortality, is based on long-term exposure. In this study we have investigated acute responses of mucus-secreting goblet cells upon exposure to PM derived from a heavy diesel engine. To this end, we employed the mucociliary epithelium of amphibian embryos and human Calu-3 cells to examine PM mucotoxicity. Our data suggest that acute exposure to PM significantly impairs mucus secretion and results in the accumulation of mucus vesicles in the cytoplasm of goblet cells. RNA-seq analysis revealed that acute responses to PM exposure significantly altered gene expression patterns; however, known regulators of mucus production and the secretory pathway were not significantly altered. Interestingly, pretreatment with alpha-tocopherol nearly recovered the hyposecretion of mucus from both amphibian and human goblet cells. We believe this study demonstrates the mucotoxicity of PM and the protective function of alpha-tocopherol on mucotoxicity caused by acute PM exposure from heavy diesel engines

Performance Improvement of a High Side Scroll Compressor by Thrust Surface Oil Groove

Performance analysis has been carried out on a high side scroll compressor having a fixed scroll equipped with a circular oil groove on its thrust surface. Oil is supplied to the oil groove through an intermittent opening from a high pressure oil reservoir formed inside the orbiting scroll hub. Oil in the groove is then delivered to both suction and back pressure chambers by pressure differentials and viscous pumping action of the orbiting scroll base plate. Mathematical modeling of this oil groove system has been incorporated into main compressor performance simulation program for optimum oil groove design. Pressure in the oil groove can be controlled by changing the oil passage area and oil groove configuration. With an enlarged oil passage, pressure in the oil groove increases due to increased flow rate, but pressure increase in the back pressure chamber is not that large, resulting in reduced friction loss at the thrust surface between the two scrolls. On the other hand, by increasing the oil passage area, oil content in the refrigerant flow increases, and the orbiting scroll stability could be negatively affected by oil groove pressure increase. Considering all these factors, EER could be improved by about 3.6% at ARI condition by optimum oil groove design

A synthetic approach to a fullerene-rich dendron and its linear polymer via ring-opening metathesis polymerization

Through the esterification of an acyl chloride functionalized fullerene precursor with dendritic alcohol, a fullerene-rich dendron containing a norbornene unit at the focal point is prepared for ring-opening metathesis polymerization to obtain its linear polymer with a unimodal and narrow molar mass distribution (PDI = 1.08) by a progressive addition of catalysts.close181