Capital Budgeting Evaluation Practices of Building Contractors in Hong Kong

This paper reports the results of an investigation into capital budgeting evaluation practicesin the construction industry of Hong Kong. The aim of this study was to identify thepopularity and extent of usage of various techniques for capital budget evaluation, investmentappraisal, risk analysis, and management science. The current study was comparedwith a similar survey conducted in 1994 to establish the changes in the capital budgetingevaluation practices of contracting firms over time. The results indicate that there was ageneral increase in the popularity and extent of usage in certain capital budget evaluationtechniques such as “best/worst estimate” and “formal financial evaluation”. In addition,the evaluation techniques examined were fitted into a discriminant function analysis (DFA),and a model has been developed which allows contracting firms to be classified accordingto their predominant characteristics in capital budget evaluation

Stemness and chemoresistance in epithelial ovarian carcinoma cells under shear stress

One of greatest challenges to the successful treatment of cancer is drug resistance. An exciting approach is the eradication of cancer stem cells (CSCs). However, little is known about key signals regulating the formation and expansion of CSCs. Moreover, lack of a reliable predictive preclinical model has been a major obstacle to discover new cancer drugs and predict their clinical activity. Here, in ovarian cancer, a highly chemoresistant tumor that is rapidly fatal, we provide the first evidence demonstrating the causal involvement of mechanical stimulus in the CSC phenotype using a customizable microfluidic platform and three-dimensional spheroids, which most closely mimic tumor behavior. We found that ovarian cancer cells significantly acquired the expression of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and CSC markers and a remarkable chemoresistance to clinically relevant doses of frontline chemotherapeutic drugs cisplatin and paclitaxel when grown under fluid shear stress, which corroborates with the physiological attainable levels in the malignant ascites, but not under static condition. Furthermore, we uncovered a new link of microRNA-199a-3p, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt, and multidrug transporter activation in shear stress-induced CSC enrichment. Our findings shed new light on the significance of hydrodynamics in cancer progression, emphasizing the need of a flow-informed framework in the development of therapeutics

Can the Zee Model Explain the Observed Neutrino Data?

The eigenvalues and mixing angles in the Zee model are investigated parameter-independently. When we require |\Delta m^2_{12}/\Delta m^2_{23}| \ll 1 in order to understand the solar and atmospheric data simultaneously, the only solution is one which gives bi-maximal mixing. It is pointed out that the observed values \sin^2 2\theta_{solar} \simeq 0.66 in the MSW LMA solution cannot be explained within the framework of the Zee model, because we derive a severe constraint on the value of \sin^2 2 \theta_{solar}, \sin^2 2 \theta_{solar} \geq 1 -(1/16)(\Delta m^2_{solar}/\Delta m^2_{atm})^2.Comment: Latex file, 10 pages, 1 figure, explanations and references added, typos corrected, to be published in Phys.Rev.

Neutrino masses from beta decays after KamLAND and WMAP (Updated including the NC enhanced SNO data)

The first data released by the KamLAND collaboration have confirmed the strong evidence in favour of the LMA solution of the solar neutrino problem. Taking into account the ranges for the oscillation parameters allowed by the global analysis of the solar, CHOOZ and KamLAND data, we update the limits on the neutrinoless double beta decay effective neutrino mass parameter and analyze the impact of all the available data from neutrinoless double beta decay experiments on the neutrino mass bounds, in view of the latest WMAP results. For the normal neutrino mass spectrum the range (0.05-0.23) eV is obtained for the lightest neutrino mass if one takes into account the Heidelberg-Moscow evidence for neutrinoless double beta decay and the cosmological bound. It is also shown that under the same conditions the mass of the lightest neutrino may not be bounded from below if the spectrum is of the inverted type. Finnaly, we discuss how future experiments can improve the present bounds on the lightest neutrino mass set by the Troitsk, Mainz and WMAP results. In the addendum we update the allowed ranges for the effective Majorana neutrino mass parameter in view of the latest NC enhanced SNO data.Comment: Updated including the recent NC enhanced SNO data. Refferences added and typos correcte

Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies from Scaling Seeds: Global Defect Models

We investigate the global texture model of structure formation in cosmogonies with non-zero cosmological constant for different values of the Hubble parameter. We find that the absence of significant acoustic peaks and little power on large scales are robust predictions of these models. However, from a careful comparison with data we conclude that at present we cannot safely reject the model on the grounds of present CMB data. Exclusion by means of galaxy correlation data requires assumptions on biasing and statistics. New, very stringent constraints come from peculiar velocities. Investigating the large-N limit, we argue that our main conclusions apply to all global O(N) models of structure formation.Comment: LaTeX file with RevTex, 27 pages, 23 eps figs., submitted to Phys. Rev. D. A version with higher quality images can be found at http://mykonos.unige.ch/~kunz/download/lam.tar.gz for the LaTeX archive and at http://mykonos.unige.ch/~kunz/download/lam.ps.gz for the compiled PostScript fil

Charged lepton Flavor Violation in Supersymmetry with Bilinear R-Parity Violation

The simplest unified extension of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with bi-linear R-parity violation naturally predicts a hierarchical neutrino mass spectrum, suitable to explain atmospheric and solar neutrino fluxes. We study whether the individual violation of the lepton numbers L_{e,mu,tau} in the charged sector can lead to measurable rates for BR(mu->e gamma)and $BR(tau-> mu gamma). We find that some of the R-parity violating terms that are compatible with the observed atmospheric neutrino oscillations could lead to rates for mu->e gamma measurable in projected experiments. However, the Delta m^2_{12} obtained for those parameters is too high to be compatible with the solar neutrino data, excluding therefore the possibility of having measurable rates for mu->e gamma in the model.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures. Constraint from solar neutrino data included, conclusions changed respect v

Search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓

A search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓ is performed with a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0  fb-1 of pp collisions at √s=7  TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. The observed number of Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓ candidates is consistent with background expectations. Upper limits on the branching fractions of both decays are determined to be B(Bs0→e±μ∓)101  TeV/c2 and MLQ(B0→e±μ∓)>126  TeV/c2 at 95% C.L., and are a factor of 2 higher than the previous bounds

Measurements of long-range near-side angular correlations in sNN=5\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5TeV proton-lead collisions in the forward region

Two-particle angular correlations are studied in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5$TeV, collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC. The analysis is based on data recorded in two beam configurations, in which either the direction of the proton or that of the lead ion is analysed. The correlations are measured in the laboratory system as a function of relative pseudorapidity, $\Delta\eta$, and relative azimuthal angle, $\Delta\phi$, for events in different classes of event activity and for different bins of particle transverse momentum. In high-activity events a long-range correlation on the near side, $\Delta\phi \approx 0$, is observed in the pseudorapidity range $2.0<\eta<4.9$. This measurement of long-range correlations on the near side in proton-lead collisions extends previous observations into the forward region up to $\eta=4.9$. The correlation increases with growing event activity and is found to be more pronounced in the direction of the lead beam. However, the correlation in the direction of the lead and proton beams are found to be compatible when comparing events with similar absolute activity in the direction analysed.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-040.htm