The role of public procurement policy in driving industrial development

Given the large sums that are spent in public purchasing, the government of every state is itself an actor in the market, and often a relatively large actor. Government activities in the marketplace, the purchasing of goods and services or sometimes the marketing of the same, thereby impact and in some cases shape the market itself. Governments have therefore explored the possibility of using government purchases to promote not only redistribution among different sections of the population, but also industrial strategy, innovation technologies, or environmental protection through products or services that offer a reduced environmental impact – in an economy. Procurement policy is typically viewed as a legitimate tool to stimulate domestic production and consumption. By targeting contracts towards particular sectors or groups in society, the government could push forward policies to redistribute wealth, promote industrial strategies or ensure sustainable development. The following report sets out an overview of different industrial policy objectives commonly pursued through procurement contracts in India, Jamaica, South Africa, Brazil, Republic of Korea and the UK

K*{\Lambda}(1116) photoproduction and nucleon resonances

In this presentation, we report our recent studies on the $K^*\Lambda(1116)$ photoproduction off the proton target, using the tree-level Born approximation, via the effective Lagrangian approach. In addition, we include the nine (three- or four-star confirmed) nucleon resonances below the threshold $\sqrt{s}_\mathrm{th}\approx2008$ MeV, to interpret the discrepancy between the experiment and previous theoretical studies, in the vicinity of the threshold region. From the numerical studies, we observe that the $S_{11}(1535)$ and $S_{11}(1650)$ play an important role for the cross-section enhancement near the $\sqrt{s}_\mathrm{th}$. It also turns out that, in order to reproduce the data, we have the vector coupling constants $g_{K^*S_{11}(1535)\Lambda}=(7.0\sim9.0)$ and $g_{K^*S_{11}(1650)\Lambda}=(5.0\sim6.0)$.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, talk given at International Conference on the structure of baryons, BARYONS'10, Dec. 7-11, 2010, Osaka, Japa

An experimental study on the shear property dependency of high-damping rubber bearings

This paper investigates the characteristics of high-damping rubber bearings (HDRBs) through various prototype tests. The characteristics were dependent on the displacements, number of load cycles, frequencies, vertical pressure, temperature, shear deformation capability, and vertical stiffness. The prototype tests showed that the displacement was the most influential factor on the characteristics of the HDRB. The effective stiffness and equivalent damping of the HDRB decreased with the displacement and increased with the frequency. The effective stiffness decreased at higher vertical pressure, while the equivalent damping increased. The equivalent damping was more dependent on the vertical pressure than the effective stiffness. The results show that careful examination is required to design the effective stiffness and equivalent damping ratio while considering the dependencies of the design displacement and excitation velocity

Clinical and Pathological Characteristics of Four Korean Patients with Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy type 2B

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2B (LGMD2B), a subtype of autosomal recessive limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (ARLGMD), is characterized by a relatively late onset and slow progressive course. LGMD2B is known to be caused by the loss of the dysferlin protein at sarcolemma in muscle fibers. In this study, the clinical and pathological characteristics of Korean LGMD2B patients were investigated. Seventeen patients with ARLGMD underwent muscle biopsy and the histochemical examination was performed. For the immunocytochemistry, a set of antibodies against dystrophin, α, β, γ, δ-sarcoglycans, dysferlin, caveolin-3, and β-dystroglycan was used. Four patients (24%) showed selective loss of immunoreactivity against dysferlin at the sarcolemma on the muscle specimens. Therefore, they were classified into the LGMD2B category. The age at the onset of disease ranged from 9 yr to 33 yr, and none of the patients was wheelchair bound at the neurological examination. The serum creatine kinase (CK) was high in all the patients (4010-5310 IU/L). The pathologic examination showed mild to moderate dystrophic features. These are the first Korean LGMD2B cases with a dysferlin deficiency confirmed by immunocytochemistry. The clinical, pathological, and immunocytochemical findings of the patients with LGMD2B in this study were in accordance with those of other previous reports

Contribution of higher nucleon resonances to K*{\Lambda} photoproduction

We investigate K*{\Lambda}(1116) photoproduction off the proton and neutron targets in the effective Lagrangian method in the tree-level Born approximation. In addition to the K, K*, and {\kappa} exchanges which are the main contributions to the reaction, we consider the contributions from the higher nucleon resonances D13(2080) and the D15(2200). We find that the D13(2080) plays a crucial role in explaining the enhancement of the near-threshold production rate, which results in a good agreement with the experimental data for the proton targets, while the contribution of the D15(2200) is rather small. A similar conclusion is drawn for K* photoproduction off the neutron targets. In addition to the energy and angular dependence of the cross sections, we present the predictions on the photon-beam asymmetry.Comment: 12 pages, 19 figure

The Impact of Overactive Bladder on Health-Related Quality of Life, Sexual Life and Psychological Health in Korea

Purpose We aimed to estimate the prevalence of overactive bladder (OAB) in Korea, to assess the variation in prevalence by sex and age, and to measure the impact of OAB on quality of life. Methods A population-based, cross-sectional telephone survey was conducted between April and June 2010 with a questionnaire regarding the prevalence of OAB, demographics, and the impact of OAB on quality of life. A geographically stratified random sample of men and women aged ≥30 years was selected. Results The overall prevalence of OAB was 22.9% (male, 19%; female, 26.8%). Of a total of 458 participants with OAB, 37.6% and 19.9% reported moderate or severe impact on their daily life and sexual life (5.6% and 3.5%, respectively, in participants without OAB). Anxiety and depression were reported by 22.7% and 39.3% of participants with OAB, respectively (9.7% and 22.8%, respectively, in participants without OAB). Only 19.7% of participants with OAB had consulted a doctor for their voiding symptoms, but 50.7% of respondents with OAB were willing to visit a hospital for the management of their OAB symptoms. Conclusions This study confirmed that OAB symptoms are highly prevalent in Korea, and many sufferers appear to have actively sought medical help. OAB has severe effects on daily and sexual life as well as psychological health

Reconstituting ring-rafts in bud-mimicking topography of model membranes.

During vesicular trafficking and release of enveloped viruses, the budding and fission processes dynamically remodel the donor cell membrane in a protein- or a lipid-mediated manner. In all cases, in addition to the generation or relief of the curvature stress, the buds recruit specific lipids and proteins from the donor membrane through restricted diffusion for the development of a ring-type raft domain of closed topology. Here, by reconstituting the bud topography in a model membrane, we demonstrate the preferential localization of cholesterol- and sphingomyelin-enriched microdomains in the collar band of the bud-neck interfaced with the donor membrane. The geometrical approach to the recapitulation of the dynamic membrane reorganization, resulting from the local radii of curvatures from nanometre-to-micrometre scales, offers important clues for understanding the active roles of the bud topography in the sorting and migration machinery of key signalling proteins involved in membrane budding

Enhancement of angiogenic and vasculogenic potential of endothelial progenitor cells by haptoglobin

AbstractEndothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) were transfected with the haptoglobin (Hp) gene to investigate the effect of Hp on cell function. Hp potentiated the gene expression of various pro-angiogenic factors in the EPCs. The Hp-modified EPCs also increased in vitro tube formation on Matrigel compared with control cells. In hindlimb ischaemia models, Hp–EPCs showed a greater ability for improving blood perfusion and recovery from ischaemic injury. These results indicate that Hp improves EPC function in neovasculogenesis, which suggests that ex vivo modification of EPCs with the Hp gene can be applied to the treatment of vascular damage