Macroeconomic Analysis on the Basis of Trade Theory: A Review Essay

This paper reviews the branch of literature that applies models developed in international trade theory (Microeconomics) to explain phenomena found in international finance (Macroeconomics). Among all international trade models, the New New Trade Theory with productivity heterogeneity across firms in the same industry has proved to be a powerful tool to bridge the gap between international trade and finance. As a result, this review focuses on several papers in this nascent field, where the behavior of macroeconomic indicators are generated from sound microeconomic foundation.Heterogeneous firm; Price fluctuation; Innovation

Constitutional Conflict and the Development of Canadian Aboriginal Law

This paper argues that aboriginal rights in Canada have been greatly affected by 19 th century governmental and social conflicts within the Canadian colonial state. These conflicts, largely over the ownership of land and regulatory authority between the federal government and the provinces necessarily impacted the First Nations on the ground while affecting how their legal claims were recognized and implemented. In particular they impacted the legal efficacy of treaty rights, the scope of rights recognised by the courts and an expansive legally protected notion of indigenous sovereignty. As a result, the rights now protected under sec. 25 and 35 of the Constitution Act 1982 are more restricted than the text might imply

Private firms as global borrowers: foreign and domestic lenders need equal protection

The period 1990 to 2009 has witnessed private firms being promoted as independent borrowers in the global capital market

Efficient wound assessment system with an RGB-D camera

Continuous monitoring of changes in wound size, wound area, and volume, is key to predict whether wounds will heal on time. Wound measurement methods can be subdivided into non- contact and contact methods. Contact methods are prone to errors given the human intervention and it increases the chance of discomfort during measurement. Alternative methods, such as image- based non-contact methods, eliminate any discomfort and have good reliability for measuring a wound. However, existing image-based non-contact methods are expensive. This is because these methods build a 3D model of the wound using expensive devices in order to allow the clinician to obtain the necessary wound measurements. To alleviate the cost of these systems, the proposed system described in this report measures wounds using low-cost depth cameras such as the Microsoft Kinect. This report describes methods that take in an RGB image from the Microsoft Kinect, computes the necessary parts of a 3D wound model, and finally reports wound measurements. The proposed system requires the user to draw the contour of the wound on the image. Then, the system automatically extracts all the necessary information from the RGB and depth images to create a minimal 3D model of the wound. Subsequently, the system processes the 3D model in order to facilitate the estimation of the wound area and volume. Finally, the system reports the measurements to the user. This report presents experiments demonstrating that the proposed system achieves acceptable measurements despite the fact that it uses a low-cost and noisy imaging sensor

Studying the replication mechanism of the yeast retrotransposon Ty5 by molecular and computational approaches

The yeast retrotransposon Ty5 is a Ty1/copia element. It is in the Hemivirus genus of the Pseudoviridae family. The ability to genetically manipulate retrotransposons and the yeast host cell was taken advantage of to explore replication mechanisms unique to Ty5 and common to most retrotransposons. Because of the abundance and diversity of retroelement sequences, along with the fact that many retroelement enzymes have evolved unique functional specificities, computational approaches were also developed to study functional divergence in replication. By screening a randomly mutagenized Ty5 library, two mutations (Y68C, D252N) causing higher transposition frequencies were identified. Both mutations increased Ty5 cDNA levels, but did not have dramatic effects on the steps after cDNA synthesis (i.e. integration and recombination), or protein synthesis, processing, or solubility. The D252N mutation increased the hydrogen bonding potential of the CCHC zinc finger of nucleocapsid protein (NCp), making the Ty5 NCp zinc finger more like Ty1/copia consensus zinc fingers in terms of hydrogen bonding potential. Other mutations that increased the hydrogen bonding potential (D252R, D252K) provided the same fold increase in Ty5 transposition. These results suggest that NCp and its CCHC domain play an important role in Ty5 reverse transcription, and natural occurring mutations in the Ty5 zinc finger repress this function. Hydrogen bonding is suggested to be a universal requirement for the function of retroviral type zinc fingers and cellular zinc fingers. A half-tRNA priming mechanism for Ty5 reverse transcription was also demonstrated. Mutations in the anticodon of tRNAi Met (IMT) and the putative PBS of Ty5 decreased transposition, but transposition was restored when complementarity between the IMT and PBS was restored. A tree-based method and supplemental Split Tester software were developed to study the functional divergence of reverse transcriptase (RT) with respect to half tRNA and full-tRNA priming mechanisms. The domains identified by this computational approach were previously experimentally demonstrated to bind with the tRNA primer/template in HIV RT. Using this software, another domain related to integrase functional specificity, namely whether or not integrase carries out 3\u27-end processing during integration, was also consistently identified in different integrase datasets. A model describing this functional divergence is proposed

Cholesterol Modulates Huntingtin Binding to and Aggregation on Lipid Membranes

Huntington disease is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder. The abnormally long CAG-repeats in the huntingtin gene that encode an expanded polyglutamine stretch which promotes self-assemble of huntingtin into different aggregation species that are disease related. Huntingtin intimately interacts with a variety of lipid membranes. Lipid composition is altered in HD, especially cholesterol content. Here we investigate how cholesterol content modulates the interaction between huntingtin and lipid membranes. TBLE/PDA binding assay is performed to test the binding affinity of huntingtin with lipid bilayers containing different amount of cholesterol. As the cholesterol content increases, the extent of huntingtin binding to lipid bilayers decreases. Also, atomic force microscopy (AFM) is used to directly monitor the formation of aggregates on supported lipid bilayers containing exogenously added cholesterol. Morphological and mechanical changes in the bilayers exposed to huntingtin are observed by the presence of cholesterol. On pure TBLE, globular aggregates are formed and grainy in appearance. Most of the bilayers are disrupted. In contrast, lipid bilayers enriched in different amount of cholesterol facilitate the formation of plateau-like aggregates with a smooth appearance. With the increase of cholesterol content in lipid bilayers, the percentage of the surface disrupted by the protein aggregation decreases. In sum, the presence and amount of cholesterol in lipid bilayers modulates the huntingtin binding and aggregation on lipid membranes