Total Factor Productivity and R&D Capital in Manufacturing Industries

This study analyzes total factor productivity in manufacturing industries for a sample of OECD countries. The estimates of Malmquist indexes clearly indicate that research and development (R&D) capital is an important determinant of productivity growth in manufacturing industries. The empirical results also show that it is the pace, not the intensity, of R&D investment that is significantly related to the extent to which R&D capital formation contributes to output growth. Furthermore, this study finds that productivity gains in manufacturing industries depend importantly on R&D spillovers as well.

Currency crisis contagion, capital flows, and sovereign ratings: empirical studies of emerging markets

Followed by the introduction, we begin the thesis by focusing on providing a quantitative indicator of the currency crisis contagion during the 1997-98 East Asian crisis. The severity of contagion is measured using a state-space model and a technical apparatus known as the Kalman filter. The results show that the contagion level is exceptionally high during the peak of the Asian crisis from June 1997 to January 1998. Further econometric tests were carried out to identify whether the crisis is transmitted to countries linked through trade or to countries characterized by macroeconomic similarities. The results indicate that the macroeconomic similarity dominates trade linkage as the major crisis transmission channel. Further, the high level of domestic claims which were financed by foreign capital inflows were shown to be the most significant factor in explaining crisis contagion in 1997-98. The next part of the thesis develops and implements a method for fore-casting capital flows to emerging markets. We provide capital flow forecasts to thirty-two developing countries using a vector autoregressive (VAR) framework based on the underlying fundamental factors driving capital flows. We also use our estimated models to carry out simulation exercises for the behaviour of capital flows under various economic scenarios. In the following part of thesis, using an unobserved components model and maximum likelihood Kalman filtering estimation, we separate out permanent and temporary components of capital flows. Based on these models, and using monthly data up to December 2000, forecasts of various capital flows are presented for the period January 2001 to December 2003. The results of the time series-based forecasts are then compared to those obtained using the fundamentals-based approach

Picturing Queer Death: Alternative Instantiations of Temporality within Process Art

During the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, the U.S.’ hegemonic heteronormative society saw AIDS as an epidemic threat to the future rather than as a threat to the present, which helped mark queer bodies affected by the virus as being erasable and replaceable. In response to this rise in fear and rage as the only potential affective productions of AIDS-related deaths, much of the queer art produced during this time sought to capture the permanence as well as ephemerality of queer desire and mourning. This project seeks to locate these alternative instantiations of temporality within queer art’s vivification of death during this time period in order to disrupt the narrative of chrononormativity—as passage of time being only linear and one-directional—that is employed by neoliberal biopolitics to police and exclude subaltern bodies. To do so, this thesis applies a critical visual analysis to two photography pieces and two process art pieces that depict forms of loss or death by way of a reparative reading that is affectively driven and motivated by desire, pleasure, and curiosity

Technical Efficiency in the Iron and Steel Industry: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

In this paper we examine the technical efficiency of firms in the iron and steel industry and try to identify the factors contributing to the industry's efficiency growth, using a time-varying stochastic frontier model. Based on our findings, which pertain to 52 iron and steel firms over the period of 1978-1997, POSCO and Nippon Steel were the most efficient firms, with their production, on average, exceeding 95 percent of their potential output. Our findings also shed light on possible sources of efficiency growth in the industry. If a firm is government-owned, its privatization is likely to improve its technical efficiency to a great extent. A firm's technical efficiency also tends to be positively related to its production level as measured by a share of the total world production of crude steel. Another important source of efficiency growth identified by our empirical findings is adoption of new technologies and equipment. Our findings clearly indicate that continued efforts to update technologies and equipment are critical in pursuit of efficiency in the iron and steel industry.

Human hair genealogies and stem cell latency

BACKGROUND: Stem cells divide to reproduce themselves and produce differentiated progeny. A fundamental problem in human biology has been the inability to measure how often stem cells divide. Although it is impossible to observe every division directly, one method for counting divisions is to count replication errors; the greater the number of divisions, the greater the numbers of errors. Stem cells with more divisions should produce progeny with more replication errors. METHODS: To test this approach, epigenetic errors (methylation) in CpG-rich molecular clocks were measured from human hairs. Hairs exhibit growth and replacement cycles and "new" hairs physically reappear even on "old" heads. Errors may accumulate in long-lived stem cells, or in their differentiated progeny that are eventually shed. RESULTS: Average hair errors increased until two years of age, and then were constant despite decades of replacement, consistent with new hairs arising from infrequently dividing bulge stem cells. Errors were significantly more frequent in longer hairs, consistent with long-lived but eventually shed mitotic follicle cells. CONCLUSION: Constant average hair methylation regardless of age contrasts with the age-related methylation observed in human intestine, suggesting that error accumulation and therefore stem cell latency differs among tissues. Epigenetic molecular clocks imply similar mitotic ages for hairs on young and old human heads, consistent with a restart with each new hair, and with genealogies surreptitiously written within somatic cell genomes

Preliminary evidence for the psychophysiological effects of technologic feature in e-commerce

As information and communication technologies are advanced, consumers are now able to enhance their e-commerce experiences regardless the channel, and it leads fashion retailers to develop better innovative experiential strategy to secure sustainable competency. The purpose of this study is to focus on apparel website to investigate the effect of branded contents on consumer\u27s pleasure and arousal that in turn may influence consumer\u27s response behaviors. This study employed S-O-R paradigm which explains that consumers\u27 inner organisms change according to the exposed external stimulation, and the changes antedate behavioral responses. Pleasure and arousal were measured with BioPAC MP150, which indicates the changes of electromyogram (EMG: pleasure), galvanic skin reflex (GSR: arousal), and heart rate (HR: pleasure) follow by the self-reported survey about behavioral responses. This study found that the effect for e-commerce\u27s branded content video on consumer\u27s response is indirect, and change of arousal is an indicator of hedonic shopping behavior

Clinical Characteristics and Genotypes of Rotaviruses in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

BackgroundThere are few reports on the symptoms of rotavirus infections in neonates. This study aims to describe clinical signs of rotavirus infections among neonates, with a particular focus on preterm infants, and to show the distribution of genotypes in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).MethodsA prospective observational study was conducted at a regional NICU for 1 year. Stool specimens from every infant in the NICU were collected on admission, at weekly intervals, and from infants showing symptoms. Rotavirus antigens were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and genotypes were confirmed by Reverse transcription-Polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The infants were divided into three groups: symptomatic preterm infants with and without rotavirus-positive stools [Preterm(rota+) and Preterm(rota–), respectively] and symptomatic full- or near-term infants with rotavirus-positive stools [FT/NT(rota+)]. Demographic and outcome data were compared among these groups.ResultsA total of 702 infants were evaluated for rotaviruses and 131 infants were included in this study. The prevalence of rotavirus infections was 25.2%. Preterm(rota+) differed from Preterm(rota–) and FT/NT(rota+) with respect to frequent feeding difficulty (p = 0.047 and 0.034, respectively) and higher percentage of neutropenia (p = 0.008 and 0.011, respectively). G4P[6] was the exclusive strain in both the Preterm(rota+) (97.7%) and FT/NT(rota+) (90.2%), and it was the same for nosocomial, institutional infections, and infections acquired at home.ConclusionSystemic illness signs such as feeding difficulty and neutropenia are specific for preterm infants with rotavirus infections. G4P[6] was exclusive, regardless of preterm birth or locations of infections. This study might be helpful in developing policies for management and prevention of rotavirus infections in NICUs