Photoluminescence of transparent strontium–barium–niobate-doped silica nanocomposites

Author name used in this publication: C. L. MakAuthor name used in this publication: K. H. Wong2001-2002 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

A decade’s debate on the nexus between corporate social and corporate financial performance: a critical review of empirical studies 2002-2011

Theoretical discussions and empirical studies on the nexus between corporate social responsibility/corporate social performance and corporate financial performance have never ceased since the origin of the concepts. The development trajectories of such studies should be articulated with a view to informing practical corporate social responsibility applications and theoretical studies in the future. This paper presents a critical review of relevant empirical research articles on the nexus between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance published during the ten-year period from 2002 to 2011. Using mixed-methods of content analyses and statistical analyses, the paper reviews 84 empirical studies of this kind published during the period. The results indicate that, despite the enormous amount of previous studies, the corporate social performance and corporate financial performance nexus is a line of inquiry that remains inconclusive. The pattern of corporate social performance-corporate financial performance relationship research in the decade examined has shifted towards exploring the linkages between specific aspects of the two constructs. The positive relationships between these specific aspects in dual directions are confirmed by most of the studies examined in this paper. The paper also examines the impact of time and space change on the corporate social performance-corporate financial performance nexus. The findings show that researchers have gradually recognized that the relationship is not static but changes over time. Furthermore, the paper finds that corporate social responsibility has been increasingly debated in developing countries and in specified industrial settings. The review concludes that to explore the corporate social performance-corporate financial performance nexus by contextualizing it in a specified community, and/or examine its dynamics is a promising research area that can yield significant academic and practical values.postprin

Benefit sharing for BIM implementation: Tackling the moral hazard dilemma in inter-firm cooperation

Building information modeling (BIM) plays an important role in furthering value-creation of construction projects by advocating the inter-firm cooperation. When implementing BIM, however, individual firms inherently safeguard their self-interests regardless of the fact that inter-firm cooperation might reap joint BIM benefits for a project overall, which epitomizes a typical problem of moral hazards in project-based organizations. This paper develops an outcome-linked benefit sharing model that considers sharing joint BIM benefits among stakeholders including designers, contractors, and clients for tracking moral hazards therein. By modeling stakeholders' behaviors as evolutionary games within a principal–agent formalism, it has been deducted that (1) designers/contractors could be incentivized to cooperate had each stakeholder received a share higher than the quotient of BIM costs over value-creation in the design/construction phase; and (2) how joint BIM benefits can be more than noncooperation outcomes is key for clients to support BIM implementation

Gypenosides inhibited invasion and migration of human tongue cancer SCC4 cells through down-regulation of NF kappa B and matrix metalloproteinase-9

[[abstract]]Gypenosides (Gyp), components of Gynostemma pentaphyllum Makino, were found to induce suppression of human tongue squamous cell carcinoma SCC4 cell growth and induce apoptosis in response to overexpression of reactive oxygen species, calcium (Ca+2) and to decrease mitochondrial membrane potential in vitro. In this study, the effect of Gyp on cell migration and invasion of human tongue SCC4 cells was examined. SCC4 cells treated in vitro with Gyp migrated and invaded less than cells treated with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) as a control. Gyp inhibited migration and invasion by down-regulating the production of RAS, NFKB, COX2, ERK1/2 and MMP-9 relative to PBS only. These results show that Gyp inhibits invasion and migration of human tongue SCC4 cells by down-regulating proteins associated with these processes, resulting in reduced metastasis

Leakage field modeling of spiral winding transformer for contactless power converters

Author name used in this publication: K. W. E. ChengAuthor name used in this publication: Y. LuAuthor name used in this publication: K. W. ChanAuthor name used in this publication: Y. L. KwokAuthor name used in this publication: K. W. KwokAuthor name used in this publication: X. D. XueRefereed conference paper2005-2006 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperVersion of RecordPublishe

Deformation and stress of a composite-metal assembly

Compliant structures, e.g. automobile body panel and airplane wing box are widely used. A compliant structure consists of one or more flexible parts, and these parts share the mating features among them. Because of process-induced deformation and part-to-part variations, external forces are applied during the assembly process and the parts are deformed. As a result, the final assembly is pre-stressed and its geometrical shape may deviate from the designed shape. Therefore, the assembly variation and residual stress need to be analysed in order to evaluate the structure performance. In this study, a new approach based on response surface methodology is developed. A number of organised virtual experiments are conducted with the aid of finite element analysis and regression models are fitted to the resulting data. These regression models relate part variations to assembly variation and residual stress. Monte Carlo simulation can be conveniently done using these simple regression models. The effectiveness of this method was illustrated using a composite–metal assembly. It is shown that the method presented in this paper provides a practical and reliable solution to the analysis of compliant structures

Synthesis and analysis of three-port dc/dc converters with two bidirectional ports based on power flow graph technique

This paper presents a systematic topological study to derive all possible basic and non-isolated three-port converters (TPCs) using power flow diagrams. Unlike most reported TPCs with one bidirectional port, this paper considers up to two bidirectional ports and provides a comprehensive analytical tool. This tool acts as a framework for all power flow combinations, selection, and design. Some viable converter configurations have been identified and selected for further analysis

Anti-CD47 antibody suppresses tumor growth and augments the effect of chemotherapy treatment in hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is often associated with metastasis and recurrence leading to a poor prognosis. Therefore, development of novel treatment regimens is urgently needed to improve the survival of HCC patients. In this study, we aimed to investigate the in vitro and in vivo effects of anti-CD47 antibody alone and in combination with chemotherapy in HCC. METHODS: In this study, we examined the functional effects of anti-CD47 antibody (B6H12) on cell proliferation, sphere formation, migration and invasion, chemosensitivity, macrophage-mediated phagocytosis, and tumorigenicity both in vitro and in vivo. The therapeutic efficacy of anti-CD47 antibody alone or in combination with doxorubicin was examined in patient-derived HCC xenograft. RESULTS: Blocking CD47 with anti-CD47 monoclonal antibody (B6H12) at 10mug/mL could suppress self-renewal, tumorigenicity and migration and invasion abilities of MHCC-97L and Huh-7 cells. Interestingly, anti-CD47 antibody synergized the effect of HCC cells to chemotherapeutic drugs including doxorubicin and cisplatin. Blockade of CD47 by anti-CD47 antibody induced macrophage-mediated phagocytosis. Using a patient-derived HCC xenograft mouse model, we found that anti-CD47 antibody (400mug/mouse) in combination with doxorubicin (2mg/kg) exerted maximal effects on tumor suppression, as compared with doxorubicin and anti-CD47 antibody alone. CONCLUSIONS: Anti-CD47 antibody treatment could complement chemotherapy which may be a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of HCC patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.postprin

Time-resolved photoluminescence of barium titanate ultrafine powders

Author name used in this publication: C. L. MakAuthor name used in this publication: K. H. Wong2005-2006 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe