Financial Development and International Trade inside Asia

This study attempts to document the impact of "Financial development" on international trade between selected Asian economies and rest of the Asian region. Financial development index is used to represent financial development level which includes four dimensions from two perspectives; institutional and market. An "overall financial development index" is calculated by combining institutional and market level financial development indices. Effect of market and institutional dimension is measured separately on international trade of Asian economies with rest of the Asia. Different macro-variables are controlled including GDP per capita, total population, Inward FDI flow, Outward FDI flow and real effective exchange rates for modeling. Sample includes data for twenty years ranging from 1997-2016 for 16 large economies of Asia. Panel data modeling technique "fixed effects regression" is used with two different proxies of dependent variable. "Overall financial development" is found to have positive and significant relationship with international trade. Study confirms the robustness of the results to different measures of international trade. Results from fixed effects model confirm positive and significant relationship between all components of financial development and international trade, and between overall financial development and international trade in Asian economies. Singapore, Japan and South Korea represent highest levels of financial development while other countries showed relatively less development financial development level according to measure used in this study. An important policy implication is if a country wants to grow economically by using instrument of trade policy especially exports improvement, then it has to develop its financial system to efficiently fulfill "international trade finance" needs. Keywords: Financial Development Index, International Trade, Asia DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-11-04 Publication date: April 30th 201

Synthesis, spectroscopic characterization and pharmacological evaluation of oxazolone derivatives

A series of 4-aryl methylidene-2-phenyl/methyl-5-(4H)-oxazolone derivatives (2-7) have been synthesized using the reported method by condensation of aldehydes with N-benzoyl / N-acetyl glycine in the presence of zinc oxide as a catalyst and acetic anhydride at room temperature in ethanol. The compounds (2-6) are new derivatives. The structures of compounds were evaluated on the basis of 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, EIMS, FT-IR and elemental analysis. All the compounds were screened for their antibacterial and urease inhibition activity. Antibacterial activity was tested by agar well diffusion method using Mueller Hinton Agar medium. Compound (2) showed excellent activity against S. aureus which has 16 mm (80%) inhibition and above 24 mm (70%) against S. typhi. The most active compound against E. coli was compound (6) having 20 mm (80%) inhibition followed by compound (5) having above 18 mm (70%) inhibition. Urease inhibition activity of all the compounds was determined by indophenol method. Compounds (3, 6) and (7) showed significant inhibition against Jacks bean urease

EVALUATION OF A STANDARDIZED EXTRACT OF GINKGO BILOBA IN VITILIGO REMEDY

Introduction Vitiligo is a common acquired, idiopathic skin disorder, this study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of Ginkgo biloba in patients with vitiligo. Material and Methods Fifty persons were included, twelve patients received Ginkgo biloba capsule (75mg) twice daily compared with twelve patients received placebo capsule for 8 weeks at Al-Kadhimyia Teaching Hospital. Twenty six healthy volunteers considered as control. Patient's history was taken and measurement of neutrophils percentage, serum Glutathione (Elleman methods), Malonialdehyde (Stocks and Dormandy methods), Interlukine -6 (Elisa) and Vitiligo area scoring index (VASI) at baseline, 4 and 8 weeks interval, as a parameters to indicate the impact of Ginkgo biloba on the disease.  Results and discussion showed significant decrease in serum interlukin-6 (S. IL-6) after 4 weeks between Ginkgo biloba group and placebo group. No significant difference was found in Neutrophils percent between Ginkgo biloba group and placebo group after 4 and 8 weeks. There was a significant increase in serum glutathione (S. GSH) after 4 and 8 weeks in Ginkgo biloba. Serum malondialdehyde (S. MDA) showed no significant difference between Ginkgo biloba group and placebo group after 4 and 8 weeks and no changes in VASI were found after 8 weeks between Ginkgo biloba and placebo group. Conclusion Ginkgo biloba may has good activity in vitiligo treatment. Keywords: Ginkgo biloba, vitiligo, antioxidant

A novel AI approach for optimal deployment of EV fast charging station and reliability analysis with solar based DGs in distribution network

The transportation sector is one of the most prevalent fossil fuel users worldwide. Therefore, to mitigate the impacts of carbon-dioxide emissions and reduce the use of non-environmentally friendly traditional energy resources, the electrification of the transportation system, such as the development of electric vehicles (EV), has become crucial. For impeccable EVs deployment, a well-developed charging infrastructure is required. However, the optimal placement of fast charging stations (FCSs) is a critical concern. Therefore, this article provides a functional approach for identifying the optimal location of FCSs using the east delta network (EDN). In addition, the electrical distribution network’s infrastructure is susceptible to changes in electrifying the transportation sector. Therefore, actual power loss, reactive power loss, and investment cost are three areas of consideration in deploying FCSs. Furthermore, including FCSs in the electricity distribution network increases the energy demand from the electrical grid. Therefore, this research paper recommends integrating solar-based distributed generations (SDGs) at selected locations in the distribution network, to mitigate the burden of FCSs on the system. Hence, making the system self-sustaining and reliable. In addition, the reliability of the distribution system is also analyzed after deploying the FCSs and SDGs. Furthermore, six case studies (CS) have been proposed to deploy FCSs with or without DG integration. Consequently, the active power loss went from 1014.48 kW to 829.68 kW for the CS-6

Optimal location of electric vehicle charging station and its impact on distribution network: A review

At present, the limited existence of fossil fuels and the environmental issues over greenhouse gas emissions have been directly affected to the transition from conventional vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs). In fact, the electrification of transportation system and the growing demand of EVs have prompted recent researchers to investigate the optimal location of electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs). However, there are numerous challenges would face when implementing EVs at large scale. For instance, underdeveloped EVCSs infrastructure, optimal EVCS locations, and charge scheduling in EVCSs. In addition, the most fundamental EV questions, such as EV cost and range, could be partly answered only by a well-developed EVCS infrastructure. According to the literature, the researchers have been followed different types of approaches, objective functions, constraints for problem formulation. Moreover, according to the approaches, objective functions, constraints, EV load modeling, uncertainty, vehicle to grid strategy, integration of distributed generation, charging types, optimization techniques, and sensitivity analysis are reviewed for the recent research articles. Furthermore, optimization techniques for optimal solution are also reviewed in this article. In addition, the EV load impact on the distribution network, environmental impacts and economic impact are discussed

Aspirin and its Metabolites Enhance the Expression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cell Cultures – Implications in the Pathophysiology of Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Purpose: An estimated 19.3% of adults, especially the elderly in the United States regularly use Aspirin for cardioprotection. Recently, multiple cohort studies have concluded that regular aspirin use for 10-15 years was associated with a statistically significant increase in the risk of incident age-related and neovascular acute macular degeneration. It has been hypothesized that aspirin or its metabolites induce the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Materials & Methods: Retinal pigment epithelial cells, ARPE-19 (ATCC®CRL-2302™) were cultured. The cells were grown to achieve 95% confluence and then the media was changed. Cells cultured under blue light, red light, or darkness were subjected to a challenge with high dose aspirin (0.925 mg/dL), low dose aspirin (0.325 mg/dL), or hippuric acid (0.325 mg/dL). Light was generated using 2 red or blue LEDs powered by 3v CR2032 batteries. The 24-well plate was incubated with or without drugs in blue light, red light or darkness at 37C for 16 hours. The supernatants were harvested, and VEGF was quantified. One-way ANOVA using Dunnett’s multiple comparison test was performed to analyze statistical significance. Results: Cells exposed to blue light or darkness and hippuric acid showed a statistically significant increase in VEGF secretion (P=0.0012). However, cells exposed to red light with hippuric acid challenge showed no significant difference from the mean of cells exposed to darkness and sham control. Conclusions: Retinal pigment epithelial cells challenged with oxidative stress provided by blue light or darkness in the presence of hippuric acid increased VEGF secretion, suggesting a possible cause for neovascularization in age-related macular degeneration. RPE cells exposed to red light, known to abrogate oxidative stress, had decreased levels of VEGF induction by hippuric acid

Making the great transformation, November 13, 14, and 15, 2003

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Conference Series, a publication series that began publishing in 2006 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. This Conference took place during November 13, 14, and 15, 2003. Co-organized by Cutler Cleveland and Adil Najam.The conference discussants and participants analyze why transitions happen, and why they matter. Transitions are those wide-ranging changes in human organization and well being that can be convincingly attributed to a concerted set of choices that make the world that was significantly and recognizably different from the world that becomes. Transition scholars argue that that history does not just stumble along a pre-determined path, but that human ingenuity and entrepreneurship have the ability to fundamentally alter its direction. However, our ability to ‘will’ such transitions remains in doubt. These doubts cannot be removed until we have a better understanding of how transitions work

Upregulation of Inflammatory Cytokines in Pulmonary Embolism Using Biochip-Array Profiling.

The complex pathophysiology of pulmonary embolism (PE) involves hemostatic activation, inflammatory processes, cellular dysfunction, and hemodynamic derangements. Due to the heterogeneity of this disease, risk stratification and diagnosis remains challenging. Biochip-array technology provides an integrated high throughput method for analyzing blood plasma samples for the simultaneous measurement of multiple biomarkers for potential risk stratification. Using biochip-array method, this study aimed to quantify the inflammatory biomarkers such as interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), interferon gamma (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and epidermal growth factor (EGF) in 109 clinically confirmed PE patients in comparison to the control group comprised of plasma samples collected from 48 healthy subjects. Cytokines IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-1β, and MCP-1 demonstrated varying level of significant increase (P \u3c 0.05) in massive-risk PE patients compared to submassive- and low-risk PE patients. The upregulation of inflammatory cytokines in PE patients observed in this study suggest that inflammation plays an important role in the overall pathophysiology of this disease. The application of biochip-array technology may provide a useful approach to evaluate these biomarkers to understand the pathogenesis and risk stratification of PE patients