"Old Wine in a New Bottle: Subprime Mortgage Crisis—Causes and Consequences"

This paper seeks to explain the causes and consequences of the United States subprime mortgage crisis, and how this crisis has led to a generalized credit crunch in other financial sectors that ultimately affects the real economy. It postulates that, despite the recent financial innovations, the financial strategies—leveraging and financial risk mismatching—that led to the present crisis are similar to those found in the United States savings-and-loan debacle of the late 1980s and in the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. However, these strategies are based on market innovations that have heightened, not reduced, systemic risks and financial instability. They are as the title implies: old wine in a new bottle. Going beyond these financial practices, the underlying structural causes of the crisis are located in the loose monetary policies of central banks, deregulation, and excess liquidity in financial markets that is a consequence of the kind of economic growth that produces various imbalances—trade imbalances, financial sector imbalances, and wealth and income inequality. The consequences of excessive risk, moral hazards, and rolling bubbles are discussed.

In Silico Analysis of Oncogenes for Renal Cancer

Computational tools and methods play a vital role in handling and analyzing a large volume of genomic data. In cancer research, in silico methods such as computational algorithm and protein databases are indispensable. In this paper, we adopted an in silico approach to analyze oncogenes that cause  renal cancer. Our objective is to identify and analyze the genes which are over expressed in the renal cancer tissues. The identification of oncogenes for renal cancer could provide directions and insights for molecular cancer treatment

Computational Analysis of PTEN Gene Mutation

Post-genomic data can be efficiently analyzed using computational tools. It has the advantage over the biochemical and biophysical methods in term of higher coverage. In this research, we adopted a computational analysis on PTEN gene mutation.  Mutation in PTEN is responsible for many human diseases. The results of this research provide insights into the protein domains of PTEN and the distribution of mutation

Characterization of xylanase from microbulbifer sp. CL37 for industrial applications

Xylan is the most abundant sugar in hemicellulose and can be found in plant biomass. Xylanase produced by microorganisms such as bacteria can be used in industries such as paper and pulp for deinking process. A halophilic bacterium, Microbulbifer sp. strain CL37, was previously isolated from mangrove sediment and its extracellular xylanase was characterized in this study. Strain CL37 is a motile Gram-negative bacterium with rod shape, catalase, and oxidase positive. Strain CL37 also can hydrolyse xylan, casein, gelatin, Tween 20, Tween 40, Tween 60 and Tween 80. Cells are sensitive to gentamicin, tetracycline, polymyxin B, doxycycline, minocycline and rifampicin. The xylanase exhibited maximum activity at 70°C, pH7, and absent of NaCl. The xylanase remained activity up to 14% (w/v) NaCl indicates it is halotolerant xylanase. The xylanase activity was enhanced in the presence of Al3+, Ca2+, Co2+, Cu+, Cu2+, Fe2+, Fe3+, Mn2+, and Zn2+ (112-175% relative activity), stable in K+, Na+, and Ni2+ (>80% relative activity), but reduced in the presence of Mg2+ (59% relative activity). The xylanase activity also enhanced in the presence of acetone (127% relative activity) and remains stable (>70% relative activity) in most of the tested detergent constituents. Xylanase is also compatible with commercial detergents such as Top®, Dynamo®, Sunlight®, Glo®, Breeze® and Dixan®. Evaluation of the enzymatic deinking activity demonstrated that xylanase from strain CL37 has the ability to detach the adsorbed ink particle from the surface of paper. Collectively, xylanase from Microbulbifer sp. strain CL37 could have potential in various applications, such as detergent formulation, lignocellulolytic biofuel production and paper deinking

The policy responses and implications of the global financial crisis on Asia : a case study for Malaysia

This paper examines the impact of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on Malaysia’s economy as well as challenges and responses of the government in countering this crisis. It argues that the impact of the GFC is different from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis (AFC). The AFC impacted the financial industry with the resultant collapse of Malaysia’s currency, while the GFC impacted the export sector with direct repercussions on Malaysia’s real economy. This paper explores the structural weaknesses of Malaysia’s economy exposed by the GFC. Given that Malaysia’s economic growth had become more trade-dependent after the AFC, domestic investments, including foreign direct investments, could only grow anemically. This had jeopardized long-term economic growth and productivity, which were crucial in offsetting the impact of the GFC. This paper shows that the expansionary policies implemented by the government to counter the GFC were lacking in meaningful structural changes and could not yield the desirable results. Lastly, it assesses the extent to which the New Economic Model proposed by the present government could spur economic growth in dealing with the GFC.peer-reviewe

Chemistry and cytotoxic activity of essential oil from the stem bark of Calophyllum soulattri

GCMS analysis of the essential oil from the stem bark of Calophyllum soulattri detected twenty components. Allo-aromadendrene was present as the most abundant component. Two other major constituents are α-gurjunene and β-eudesmene. The volatile oil exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against SNU-1, Hep G2, NCI-H23, K562, Raji, IMR-32 and SK-MEL-28 cells

Financial stability and the Trans-Pacific Partnership: lessons from Chile and Malaysia

This repository item contains a working paper from the Boston University Global Economic Governance Initiative. The Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) is a research program of the Center for Finance, Law & Policy, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. It was founded in 2008 to advance policy-relevant knowledge about governance for financial stability, human development, and the environment.There is growing recognition that nations may need to deploy cross-border financial regulations to prevent and mitigate financial crises. Indeed, in December of 2012 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed on a new ‘institutional view’ that notes how the IMF will begin to recommend that nations deploy cross-border financial regulations going forward. However, many nations have become party to global, regional, and bi-lateral trade and investment treaties that may restrict their ability to effectively deploy such regulations. This paper examines the cases of two countries currently in negotiations for a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP): Chile and Malaysia. The paper examines the extent to which each nation has deployed cross-border financial regulations in the past, and the extent to which they have negotiated the policy space for such regulations in its previous trade and investment treaties. Finally, it analyzes the extent to which such measures would be permitted if the TPP’s investment provisions looked like the model bi-lateral investment treaty of the United States. We find that, with some important exceptions, both countries have successfully deployed crossborder financial regulations and have carved out the ability to do so under a sample of representative trading commitments. However, such policy space would be jeopardized if the TPP conformed to the US model rather than arrangements that each country has been able to broker in other arenas

Cytotoxicity and structure-activity relationships of xanthone derivatives from Mesua beccariana, Mesua ferrea and Mesua congestiflora towards nine human cancer cell lines.

The cytotoxic structure-activity relationships among a series of xanthone derivatives from Mesua beccariana, Mesua ferrea and Mesua congestiflora were studied. Eleven xanthone derivatives identified as mesuarianone (1), mesuasinone (2), mesuaferrin A (3), mesuaferrin B (4), mesuaferrin C (5), 6-deoxyjacareubin (6), caloxanthone C (7), macluraxanthone (8), 1,5-dihydroxyxanthone (9), tovopyrifolin C (10) and α-mangostin (11) were isolated from the three Mesua species. The human cancer cell lines tested were Raji, SNU-1, K562, LS-174T, SK-MEL-28, IMR-32, HeLa, Hep G2 and NCI-H23. Mesuaferrin A (3), macluraxanthone (8) and α-mangostin (11) showed strong cytotoxicities as they possess significant inhibitory effects against all the cell lines. The structure-activity relationship (SAR) study revealed that the diprenyl, dipyrano and prenylated pyrano substituent groups of the xanthone derivatives contributed towards the cytotoxicities

Formulation and In Vitro Evaluation of Ethosomes as Vesicular Carrier for Enhanced Topical Delivery of Isotretinoin

Purpose: The purpose of the present research was to evaluate the ability of ethosomes for topical delivery of isotretinoin. The ethosomal vesicles were prepared with various concentrations of lecithin and ethanol by using hot method. The ethosomal based isotretinoin gel (GEL-ES) was compared to that of marketed formulations isotretinoin (GEL-MF) by using hydrophobic hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose as gel base. The physicochemical and stability of ethosomal based isotretinoin and a marketed gel (control) were evaluated for organoleptic properties, drug entrapment, drug content uniformity and in vitro drug release and skin permeation studies. F2 ethosomal vesicles containing 2%w/w lecithin and 30%w/w ethanol was found to have shown the best entrapment percentage (99.21%) and also showed suitable physicochemical characteristics for topical administration. Physical stability studies were also conducted for 45 days at 4°C and 25°C. GEL-ES and GEL-MF were applied to rat skin and penetration was assessed by Franz diffusion cells. In vitro release studies showed that less than 10% of isotretinoin reached the receptor compartment compared to GEL-MF till 8 h. On comparing F2 and F4 gel formulations, F2 gel has shown better controlled release by in vitro drug release and in vitro skin permeation profile than F4 gel. However, the in vitro skin permeation was increased with the addition of enhancers. From the experimental data, it may be concluded that the ethosomal vesicles and enhancers increased the skin permeation and depot formation of drug in the skin