Convergence Behaviour of Growth Triangle: The Case of IMT-GT

Regional disparities and their evolution displayed a vital economic as well as political issue for most regions or countries (Blizkovsky, 2012). Due to realizing this shocking fact, it has drawn a lot of attention from all over the world to tackle this issue in order to avoid its adverse implication towards holistic economic development. The beauty of Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) is that it aims to increase the trade and investment among the three regions as it pursues private sector-led economic growth. However, evidence shows that the progress of development in this sub-region is either stagnant or slow. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate the convergence hypothesis of the participating states and determine the reason behind each of the convergence behaviour portrayed. Non-linear time varying factor model namely Phillip and Sul has been employed in this study. The result implies that Negeri Sembilan is the only diverging group while the rest is converging. This phenomenon indicates that most of the states and provinces in this sub-region have positive performance towards the economic growth. Effective development planning can be done by policy makers after determining the performance of each of the states and provinces

Environmental factors influencing pipe failures

This report details work carried out under NERC grants NE/M008339/1 and NE/NO13026/1 which were collaborations between the British Geological Survey and Yorkshire Water, with an additional knowledge transfer component involving Scottish Water and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water. The work examines whether models developed using environmental, topographical and geohazard information could complement existing management tools, and increase the understanding as to how pipe networks of different materials interact with their broader environment. This can be seen as a first step in identifying ways in which greater resilience could be built into pipe networks

Flying Geese of Japan: Asian Electronic Industry

Although Japan is known as the largest electronics goods manufacturer, many Japanese companies are facing high cost production due to limited resources. Some Asian countries have been proven to surpass Japan due to their low cost production and cheaper labour. This study analyse the development of Asian leading electronic industries and validity Japan as the flying geese in Asian electronic industries. The empirical result shows that all Asian countries are divergence except Italy, India, United Kingdom and Indonesia. The study suggest that each of the Asian convergence countries should cooperate, give their obligation and commitment to track in the same direction of economic structure, political will and the income distribution of a country. This action could promote economic integration between Asian countries as a whole

SUMO-2 and PIAS1 modulate insoluble mutant Huntingtin protein accumulation

A key feature in Huntington disease (HD) is the accumulation of mutant Huntingtin (HTT) protein, which may be regulated by posttranslational modifications. Here, we define the primary sites of SUMO modification in the amino-terminal domain of HTT, show modification downstream of this domain, and demonstrate that HTT is modified by the stress-inducible SUMO-2. A systematic study of E3 SUMO ligases demonstrates that PIAS1 is an E3 SUMO ligase for both HTT SUMO-1 and SUMO-2 modification and that reduction of dPIAS in a mutant HTT Drosophila model is protective. SUMO-2 modification regulates accumulation of insoluble HTT in HeLa cells in a manner that mimics proteasome inhibition and can be modulated by overexpression and acute knockdown of PIAS1. Finally, the accumulation of SUMO-2-modified proteins in the insoluble fraction of HD postmortem striata implicates SUMO-2 modification in the age-related pathogenic accumulation of mutant HTT and other cellular proteins that occurs during HD progression