599 research outputs found
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
Nobiletin Stimulates Chloride Secretion in Human Bronchial Epithelia via a cAMP/PKA-Dependent Pathway
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 TeV 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 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, , and relative
azimuthal angle, , 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, , is observed in the pseudorapidity range . This
measurement of long-range correlations on the near side in proton-lead
collisions extends previous observations into the forward region up to
. 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
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