Labor training and foreign direct investment

The Conference proceedings' website is located at http://www.etsg.org/ETSG2012/Programme/ETSG2012%20Preliminary%20Programme,%2029%20August%202012.htmEvidence shows that most foreign direct investment (FDI) flows from developed to developed countries (North-to-North) in skilled-labor-intensive industries. This paper builds a model which incorporates labor training to the proximity-concentration tradeoffs to analyze multinationals’ entry mode to a foreign country. Production requires both skilled labor and unskilled labor. A multinational taking FDI needs to provide training to some workers in the host country to equip them with skills which are specific to the firm’s production. Labor training and skill specificity leads to contract friction. We show that in skilled-labor-intensive industries, FDI increases with the host country’s economic development level; but in unskilled-labor-intensive industries, the reverse is true. This paper provides a theoretical explanation to the empirical findings on the prevalence of North-to-North FDI in skilled-labor-industries and North-to-South FDI in unskilled-labor-intensive industries.postprin

Foreign acquisitions, ownership changes, and exports

We develop a three-country model to examine the effects of foreign acquisitions on the decision of target firms to export (to a third market). We show that foreign acquisitions may raise or reduce the targets’ probability to export (extensive margin), depending on whether the targets have exports before the acquisitions. Due to ownership changes in the target firms, three possible channels through which the acquirers (new owners) alter the targets’ (previous owners) export decision are identified: fixed-cost jumping, technology transfer, and global market reorganization. We then use firm-level data of foreign acquisitions on Chinese firms from 2000 to 2006 to test the main predictions of the model. We find evidence that foreign acquisitions raise (reduce) the Chinese target firms’ probability of exporting to a third market if the targets do not (do) have exports to that market before the acquisitions. Technology transfer is not observed. Evidence implies that fixed-cost jumping is used to raise the targets’ export extensive margin, while global market reorganization is a key motive for the acquirers to reduce the targets’ export extensive margin.postprin

TGFβ1 single-nucleotide polymorphism C-509T alters mucosal cell function in pediatric eosinophilic esophagitis.

Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic Th2 antigen-driven disorder associated with tissue remodeling. Inflammation and remodeling lead to esophageal rigidity, strictures, and dysphagia. TGFβ1 drives esophageal remodeling including epithelial barrier dysfunction and subepithelial fibrosis. A functional SNP in the TGFβ1 gene that increases its transcription (C-509T) is associated with elevated numbers of esophageal TGFβ1-expressing cells. We utilized esophageal biopsies and fibroblasts from TT-genotype EoE children to understand if TGFβ1 influenced fibroblast and epithelial cell function in vivo. Genotype TT EoE esophageal fibroblasts had higher baseline TGFβ1, collagen1α1, periostin, and MMP2 (p < 0.05) gene expression and distinct contractile properties compared with CC genotype (n = 6 subjects per genotype). In vitro TGFβ1 exposure caused greater induction of target gene expression in genotype CC fibroblasts (p < 0.05). Esophageal biopsies from TT-genotype subjects had significantly less epithelial membrane-bound E-cadherin (p < 0.01) and wider cluster distribution at nanometer resolution. TGFβ1 treatment of stratified primary human esophageal epithelial cells and spheroids disrupted transepithelial resistance (p < 0.001) and E-cadherin localization (p < 0.0001). A TGFβ1-receptor-I inhibitor improved TGFβ1-mediated E-cadherin mislocalization. These data suggest that EoE severity can depend on genotypic differences that increase in vivo exposure to TGFβ1. TGFβ1 inhibition may be a useful therapy in subsets of EoE patients

Co-benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation: A review and classification by type, mitigation sector, and geography

The perceived inability of climate change mitigation goals alone to mobilize sufficient climate change mitigation efforts has, among other factors, led to growing research on the co-benefits of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study conducts a systematic review (SR) of the literature on the co-benefits of mitigating GHG emissions resulting in 1554 papers. We analyze these papers using bibliometric analysis, including a keyword co-occurrence analysis. We then iteratively develop and present a typology of co-benefits, mitigation sectors, geographic scope, and methods based on the manual double coding of the papers resulting from the SR. We find that the co-benefits from GHG mitigation that have received the largest attention of researchers are impacts on ecosystems, economic activity, health, air pollution, and resource efficiency. The co-benefits that have received the least attention include the impacts on conflict and disaster resilience, poverty alleviation (or exacerbation), energy security, technological spillovers and innovation, and food security. Most research has investigated co-benefits from GHG mitigation in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU), electricity, transport, and residential sectors, with the industrial sector being the subject of significantly less research. The largest number of co-benefits publications provide analysis at a global level, with relatively few studies providing local (city) level analysis or studying co-benefits in Oceanian or African contexts. Finally, science and engineering methods, in contrast to economic or social science methods, are the methods most commonly employed in co-benefits papers. We conclude that given the potential mobilizing power of understudied co-benefits (e.g. poverty alleviation) and local impacts, the magnitude of GHG emissions from the industrial sector, and the fact that Africa and South America are likely to be severely affected by climate change, there is an opportunity for the research community to fill these gaps

Shocks and Universal Statistics in (1+1)-Dimensional Relativistic Turbulence

We propose that statistical averages in relativistic turbulence exhibit universal properties. We consider analytically the velocity and temperature differences structure functions in the (1+1)-dimensional relativistic turbulence in which shock waves provide the main contribution to the structure functions in the inertial range. We study shock scattering, demonstrate the stability of the shock waves, and calculate the anomalous exponents. We comment on the possibility of finite time blowup singularities.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figure

Experiments on Multidimensional Solitons

This article presents an overview of experimental efforts in recent years related to multidimensional solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates. We discuss the techniques used to generate and observe multidimensional nonlinear waves in Bose-Einstein condensates with repulsive interactions. We further summarize observations of planar soliton fronts undergoing the snake instability, the formation of vortex rings, and the emergence of hybrid structures.Comment: review paper, to appear as Chapter 5b in "Emergent Nonlinear Phenomena in Bose-Einstein Condensates: Theory and Experiment," edited by P. G. Kevrekidis, D. J. Frantzeskakis, and R. Carretero-Gonzalez (Springer-Verlag

Providing alternative measures for addressing adverse drug-drug interactions

First Online 30 March 2019Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) are documents used in daily clinical practice that provide advice on how to best diagnose and treat diseases in the form of a list of clinical recommendations. When simultaneously applying multiple CPGs to patients, this can lead to complex multiple drug regimens (polypharmacy) with the potential for harmful combinations of drugs. The need to address these adverse drug events calls forth for systems capable of not only automatically represent the common potential conflicts or interactions that can happen when merging CPGs but also systems capable of providing conflict-free alternatives. This paper presents a solution that represents CPGs as Computer-Interpretable Guidelines (CIGs) and allows the automatic identification of drug conflicts and the provision of alternative measures to resolve these conflicts.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-0070 43 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope UID/CEC/ 00319/2013. The work of Tiago Oliveira was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP18K18115

Thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes functionalized with graphene oxide–silver nanocomposites for biofouling control

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Innovative approaches to prevent bacterial attachment and biofilm growth on membranes are critically needed to avoid decreasing membrane performance due to biofouling. In this study, we propose the fabrication of anti-biofouling thin-film composite membranes functionalized with graphene oxide–silver nanocomposites. In our membrane modification strategy, carboxyl groups on the graphene oxide–silver nanosheets are covalently bonded to carboxyl groups on the surface of thin-film composite membranes via a crosslinking reaction. Further characterization, such as scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, revealed the immobilization of graphene oxide–silver nanocomposites on the membrane surface. Graphene oxide–silver modified membranes exhibited an 80% inactivation rate against attached Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells. In addition to a static antimicrobial assay, our study also provided insights on the anti-biofouling property of forward osmosis membranes during dynamic operation in a cross-flow test cell. Functionalization with graphene oxide–silver nanocomposites resulted in a promising anti-biofouling property without sacrificing the membrane intrinsic transport properties. Our results demonstrated that the use of graphene oxide–silver nanocomposites is a feasible and attractive approach for the development of anti-biofouling thin-film composite membranes

Identification of the major chemical constituents and their metabolites in rat plasma and various organs after oral administration of effective Erxian Decoction (EXD) fraction by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

A simple and specific LC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS method has been developed and applied for the primary investigation of the chemical constituents absorbed or metabolized in vivo, after the rat oral administration of Erxian Decoction (EXD), a Chinese medicine prescription for menopausal syndromes. Through the online ESI-MS n analysis, a total of 35 compounds have been identified or tentatively characterized from the seven tested samples, and 13 of them were unambiguously identified through a direct comparison of the retention time, UV spectra and MS n fragmentation patterns with the authentic ones. The results showed that 21 compounds were detected from rat plasma, 20 compounds were detected from rat kidneys and adrenal glands, 19 compounds were detected from rat ovaries, 12 compounds were found in rat intestines, nine compounds were identified from rat livers and nine compounds were detected from rat brains at certain time points after oral administration of the eff ective EXD fraction. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.postprin

Effect of organic loading rate on the recovery of nutrients and energy in a dual-chamber microbial fuel cell

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd This study aimed to assess the impacts of organic loading rate (OLR) (435–870 mgCOD/L·d) on nutrients recovery via a double-chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) for treating domestic wastewater. Electricity generation was also explored at different OLRs, including power density and coulombic efficiency. Experimental results suggested the MFC could successfully treat municipal wastewater with over 90% of organics being removed at a wider range of OLR from 435 to 725 mgCOD/L·d. Besides, the maximum power density achieved in the MFC was 253.84 mW/m2 at the OLR of 435 mgCOD/L·d. Higher OLR may disrupt the recovery of PO43−-P and NH4+-N via the MFC. The same pattern was observed for the coulombic efficiency of the MFC and its highest value was 25.01% at the OLR of 435 mgCOD/L·d. It can be concluded that nutrients and electrical power can be simultaneously recovered from municipal wastewater via the dual-chamber MFC