Measuring Spillovers from Alternative Forms of Foreign Investment

Much of the endogenous growth literature has dwelled on evaluating the spillover effects of trade on growth, but much less efforts have been directed towards tracing and quantifying the spillover effects of foreign investments. This paper, in incorporating the effects of various types of foreign investments, namely foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign portfolio investment (FPI) and other foreign investment (OFI) fills this gap in the literature. Adopting the stochastic frontier approach, this paper constructs an OECD frontier based on a panel dataset of 20 OECD countries over the 1981-2000 period. Spillover effects of FDI, FPI, OFI and trade are gauged by their respective contributions towards reducing technical inefficiencies, which are represented by the distance of each country from the constructed frontier. Results from the multiple models examined in the paper indicate that inflows of foreign investment and trade have been instrumental in reducing inefficiencies across OECD countries, whereas outflows of foreign investment exacerbate inefficiencies. The study also confirms some previous findings that the spillover effects of FDI inflows are larger than that of trade but does not find evidence in favour of the view that the spillover effects of trade are overestimated when FDI flows are excluded from the analysis. Moreover, the impact of FDI inflows is larger than those of FPI and OFI inflows. The importance of absorptive capacities of host economies in capturing spillover gains from FDI inflows is also examined. Amongst the various measures of absorptive capacity considered, only human capital was found to be important.

Measuring Efficiency externalities from Trade and Alternative Forms of Foreign Investment

The literature has concentrated on evaluating technological spillovers from trade and inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI). Little effort has been directed towards identifying efficiency externalities arising from international linkages. We evaluate these for a sample of 20 OECD countries between 1982 and 2000 using a stochastic frontier approach. The analysis includes trade, inflows and outflows of FDI, foreign portfolio investment (FPI), and other foreign investment (OFI), and a measure of the absorptive capacities of host economies. We find trade and all foreign investment inflows to lead to increased efficiency. Outflows of FDI are found to exacerbate inefficiency.

Ballistic accretion on a point seed

We carefully discuss the two-dimensional ballistic aggregation process. Studying the microscopic discrete process, we theoretically derive the probability density function describing the single-particle accretion. Using this function, we describe the properties of the “fan”, obtained for ballistic aggregation on the single seed, and we predict its mean density and its opening angle. We discuss the shadowing effect on a microscopic scale, between the single particles and, on a larger scale, between grown structures, deriving the columnar microstructure direction law. Comparisons with numerical experiments are shown

Measuring Spillovers from Alternative Forms of Foreign Investment

Much of the endogenous growth literature has dwelled on evaluating the spillover effects of trade on growth, but much less efforts have been directed towards tracing and quantifying the spillover effects of foreign investments. This paper, in incorporating the effects of various types of foreign investments, namely foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign portfolio investment (FPI) and other foreign investment (OFI) fills this gap in the literature. Adopting the stochastic frontier approach, this paper constructs an OECD frontier based on a panel dataset of 20 OECD countries over the 1981-2000 period. Spillover effects of FDI, FPI, OFI and trade are gauged by their respective contributions towards reducing technical inefficiencies, which are represented by the distance of each country from the constructed frontier. Results from the multiple models examined in the paper indicate that inflows of foreign investment and trade have been instrumental in reducing inefficiencies across OECD countries, whereas outflows of foreign investment exacerbate inefficiencies. The study also confirms some previous findings that the spillover effects of FDI inflows are larger than that of trade but does not find evidence in favour of the view that the spillover effects of trade are overestimated when FDI flows are excluded from the analysis. Moreover, the impact of FDI inflows is larger than those of FPI and OFI inflows. The importance of absorptive capacities of host economies in capturing spillover gains from FDI inflows is also examined. Amongst the various measures of absorptive capacity considered, only human capital was found to be important

Frequency map analysis of a three-dimensional particle in the core model of a high intensity linac

We consider the dynamical properties of a particle-core model for a uniformly filled triaxial ellipsoid in a periodic lattice of a high intensity linac. The mismatched oscillation modes are analytically computed in the smooth approximation and are compared with the numerical results of a tracking program. The study of the phase space in the mismatched case is performed by the frequency map analysis. In particular, we can analyze the effect of the nonlinear resonances between the envelope modes and the single particle sincrobetatron frequencies. A chaoticity criterion based on the frequency map analysis allows one to compute the stability region around the beam core. An estimate of the transport and its enhancement due to mismatch is provided by tracking orbits at the border of the stability region

Human umbilical cord blood-borne fibroblasts contain marrow niche precursors that form a bone/marrow organoid in vivo

Human umbilical cord blood (CB) has attracted much attention as a reservoir for functional hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, and, recently, as a source of blood-borne fibroblasts (CB-BFs). Previously, we demonstrated that bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) and CB-BF pellet cultures make cartilage in vitro. Furthermore, upon in vivo transplantation, BMSC pellets remodelled into miniature bone/marrow organoids. Using this in vivo model, we asked whether CB-BF populations that express characteristics of the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) niche contain precursors that reform the niche. CB ossicles were regularly observed upon transplantation. Compared with BM ossicles, CB ossicles showed a predominance of red marrow over yellow marrow, as demonstrated by histomorphological analyses and the number of hematopoietic cells isolated within ossicles. Marrow cavities from CB and BM ossicles included donor-derived CD146-expressing osteoprogenitors and host-derived mature hematopoietic cells, clonogenic lineage-committed progenitors and HSCs. Furthermore, human CD34+ cells transplanted into ossicle-bearing mice engrafted and maintained human HSCs in the niche. Our data indicate that CB- BFs are able to recapitulate the conditions by which the bone marrow microenvironment is formed and establish complete HSC niches, which are functionally supportive of hematopoietic tissue

Stochastic Properties of Colliding Hard Spheres in a Non-equilibrium Thermal Bath

We consider the problem of describing the dynamics of a test particle moving in a thermal bath using the stochastic differential equations. We briefly recall the stochastic approach to the Brownian based on the statistical properties of collision theory for a gas of elastic particles and the molecular chaos hypothesis. The mathematical formulation of the Brownian motion leads to the formulation of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck equation that provides a stationary solution consistent with the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. According to the stochastic thermodynamics, we assume that the stochastic differential equations allow to describe the transient states of the test particle dynamics in a thermal bath and it extends their application to the study of the non-equilibrium statistical physics. Then we consider the problem of the dynamics of a test massive particle in a non homogeneous thermal bath where a gradient of temperature is present. We discuss as the existence of a local thermodynamics equilibrium is consistent with a Stratonovich interpretation of the stochastic differential equations with a multiplicative noise. The stochastic model applied to the test particle dynamics implies the existence of a long transient state during which the particle shows a net drift toward the cold region of the system. This effect recalls the thermophoresis phenomenon performed by large molecule in a solution in response to a macroscopic temperature gradient and it can be explained as an effect of the non-locality character of the collision interactions between the test particle and the thermal bath particles. To validate the stochastic model assumptions we analyze the simulation results of the 2-dimensional hard sphere gas obtained by using an event-based computer code, that solves exactly the sphere dynamics. The temperature gradient is simulated by the presence of two reflecting boundary conditions at different temperature. The simulations suggest that existence of a local thermodynamic equilibrium is justified and highlight the presence of a drift in the average dynamics of an ensemble of massive particles. The results of the paper could be relevant for the applications of stochastic dynamical systems to the non-equilibrium statistical physics that is a key issue for the Complex Systems Physics

Blinatumomab compared with standard of care for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed/refractory Philadelphia chromosome–positive B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Background: A single-arm, phase 2 trial demonstrated the efficacy and safety of blinatumomab, a bispecific T-cell\u2013engaging antibody construct, in patients with relapsed/refractory (r/r) Philadelphia chromosome\u2013positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a rare hematologic malignancy with limited treatment options. This study compared outcomes with blinatumomab with those of a historical control treated with the standard of care (SOC). Methods: The blinatumomab trial enrolled adult patients with Ph+ ALL who were r/r to at least 1 second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (n = 45). Propensity score analysis (PSA) was used to compare outcomes with blinatumomab with those of an external cohort of similar patients receiving SOC chemotherapy (n = 55). The PSA mitigated confounding variables between studies by adjusting for imbalances in the age at diagnosis and start of treatment, sex, duration from diagnosis to most recent treatment, prior allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, prior salvage therapy, and number of salvage therapies. Bayesian data augmentation was applied to improve power to 80% with data from a phase 3 blinatumomab study in r/r Philadelphia chromosome\u2013negative ALL. Results: In the PSA, the rate of complete remission or complete remission with partial hematologic recovery was 36% for blinatumomab and 25% for SOC, and this resulted in an odds ratio of 1.54 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61-3.89) or 1.70 (95% credible interval [CrI], 0.94-2.94) with Bayesian data augmentation. Overall survival favored blinatumomab over SOC, with a hazard ratio of 0.81 (95% CI, 0.57-1.14) or 0.77 (95% CrI, 0.61-0.96) with Bayesian data augmentation. Conclusions: These results further support blinatumomab as a treatment option for patients with r/r Ph+ ALL