52 research outputs found
Location patterns of urban industry in Shanghai and implications for sustainability
China’s economy has undergone rapid transition and industrial restructuring. The term “urban industry” describes a particular type of industry within Chinese cities experiencing restructuring. Given the high percentage of industrial firms that have either closed or relocated from city centres to the urban fringe and beyond, emergent global cities such as Shanghai, are implementing strategies for local economic and urban development, which involve urban industrial upgrading numerous firms in the city centre and urban fringe. This study aims to analyze the location patterns of seven urban industrial sectors within the Shanghai urban region using 2008 micro-geography data. To avoid Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) issue, four distance-based measures including nearest neighbourhood analysis, Kernel density estimation, K-function and co-location quotient have been extensively applied to analyze and compare the concentration and co-location between the seven sectors. The results reveal disparate patterns varying with distance and interesting co-location as well. The results are as follows: the city centre and the urban fringe have the highest intensity of urban industrial firms, but the zones with 20–30 km from the city centre is a watershed for most categories; the degree of concentration varies with distance, weaker at shorter distance, increasing up to the maximum distance of 30 km and then decreasing until 50 km; for all urban industries, there are three types of patterns, mixture of clustered, random and dispersed distribution at a varied range of distances. Consequently, this paper argues that the location pattern of urban industry reflects the stage-specific industrial restructuring and spatial transformation, conditioned by sustainability objectives
The multiple faces of self-assembled lipidic systems
Lipids, the building blocks of cells, common to every living organisms, have the propensity to self-assemble into well-defined structures over short and long-range spatial scales. The driving forces have their roots mainly in the hydrophobic effect and electrostatic interactions. Membranes in lamellar phase are ubiquitous in cellular compartments and can phase-separate upon mixing lipids in different liquid-crystalline states. Hexagonal phases and especially cubic phases can be synthesized and observed in vivo as well. Membrane often closes up into a vesicle whose shape is determined by the interplay of curvature, area difference elasticity and line tension energies, and can adopt the form of a sphere, a tube, a prolate, a starfish and many more. Complexes made of lipids and polyelectrolytes or inorganic materials exhibit a rich diversity of structural morphologies due to additional interactions which become increasingly hard to track without the aid of suitable computer models. From the plasma membrane of archaebacteria to gene delivery, self-assembled lipidic systems have left their mark in cell biology and nanobiotechnology; however, the underlying physics is yet to be fully unraveled
Social media conflicts during the financial crisis: Managerial implications for retail banks
Social media can be used proactively to disseminate accurate corporate information and address undesirable consumer behaviors online in order to help counteract negativity in the business environment in the wake of a financial crisis. Social media thus has become a popular open forum for financial institutions such as retail banks to engage in corporate dialogue with consumers. We recommend that financial services firms preemptively use their social media?based online communities in order to disseminate accurate corporate information in times of a financial crisis. Particularly, firms can choose between a range of reactive and proactive strategies to manage social conflict in the wake of a financial crisis
A new class of glycomimetic drugs to prevent free fatty acid-induced endothelial dysfunction
Background: Carbohydrates play a major role in cell signaling in many biological processes. We have developed a set of glycomimetic drugs that mimic the structure of carbohydrates and represent a novel source of therapeutics for endothelial dysfunction, a key initiating factor in cardiovascular complications. Purpose: Our objective was to determine the protective effects of small molecule glycomimetics against free fatty acidinduced endothelial dysfunction, focusing on nitric oxide (NO) and oxidative stress pathways. Methods: Four glycomimetics were synthesized by the stepwise transformation of 2,5dihydroxybenzoic acid to a range of 2,5substituted benzoic acid derivatives, incorporating the key sulfate groups to mimic the interactions of heparan sulfate. Endothelial function was assessed using acetylcholineinduced, endotheliumdependent relaxation in mouse thoracic aortic rings using wire myography. Human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) behavior was evaluated in the presence or absence of the free fatty acid, palmitate, with or without glycomimetics (1µM). DAF2 and H2DCFDA assays were used to determine nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, respectively. Lipid peroxidation colorimetric and antioxidant enzyme activity assays were also carried out. RTPCR and western blotting were utilized to measure Akt, eNOS, Nrf2, NQO1 and HO1 expression. Results: Ex vivo endotheliumdependent relaxation was significantly improved by the glycomimetics under palmitateinduced oxidative stress. In vitro studies showed that the glycomimetics protected HUVECs against the palmitateinduced oxidative stress and enhanced NO production. We demonstrate that the protective effects of preincubation with glycomimetics occurred via upregulation of Akt/eNOS signaling, activation of the Nrf2/ARE pathway, and suppression of ROSinduced lipid peroxidation. Conclusion: We have developed a novel set of small molecule glycomimetics that protect against free fatty acidinduced endothelial dysfunction and thus, represent a new category of therapeutic drugs to target endothelial damage, the first line of defense against cardiovascular disease
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