From East to West: The Evolution of China’s FDI Preferential Policies

Since 1978, China has gradually opened up and has successfully used its foreign direct investment (FDI) preferential policies to steer FDI into its desired locations and industries in order to facilitate its uneven development strategy. The unbalanced strategy initially gave development priority to China’s eastern coastal region in hopes of establishing viable and strong economic “engines” along the coast and thus spreading out positive effects into its vast interior areas. China’s FDI favored policies, reflecting this strategy, were accordingly skewed to the eastern region in the first 20 years, from 1978 to 1997. This uneven growth distribution has been clearly manifested by the disproportionate FDI concentration in China’s coastal area. It is estimated that over 85% of FDI in the period of 1978-1998 has been located in the eastern coastal region while merely 3% in the western area

EVALUATION WITHOUT BIAS: A METHODOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON PERFORMANCE MEASURES FOR BUSINESS INCUBATORS

Business growth and formation are fundamental drivers of job crea-tion and economic growth. Business incubators provide a nurturing environment, through an array of business support resources and services, where entrepre-neurs, start-ups, and small businesses can commercially validate and transform their ideas and concepts into viable and tangible products and services. Despite growing attention to evaluate the performance and impact of business incuba-tors, the existing literature continues to suffer from methodological, theoretical, and empirical limitations. In particular, existing performance measures have inherent biases that lead them to underestimate the role of business incubators in entrepreneurship and economic development in economically distressed are-as, which typically face disadvantageous local economic conditions. The pur-pose of this paper is to explain the need for better performance measures and the difficulties in creating them.ECONOMICALLY DISTRESSED AREAS, BUSINESS START-UPS, BUSINESS INCUBATORS

Fostering Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in China: A Policy Review

Entrepreneurship has become vital to the success of a company and economic growth. There is increasing evidence to show significant correlation between entrepreneurship and economic growth. Countries in the world are experiencing a surge of interest in the formation of new businesses especially in the developing world. This escalating interest of entrepreneurship has become a focal strategy of regional and national economic development in many regions and countries. Strong emphasis on enterprise development as a platform for economic development is thus an important dimension in development policy

Virtual Planning and 3D printing modeling for mandibular reconstruction with fibula free flap

This study was to evaluate the use of virtual planning and 3D printing modeling in mandibular reconstruction and compare the operation time and surgical outcome of this technique with conventional method. Between 2014 and 2017, 15 patients underwent vascularized fibula flap mandibular reconstruction using virtual planning and 3D printing modeling. Titanium plates were pre-bent using the models and cutting guides were used for osteotomies. 15 patients who underwent mandibular reconstruction using fibula flap without aid of virtual planning and 3D printing models were selected as control group. The operation time was recorded and compared in two groups. Accuracy of reconstruction was measured by superimposing the preoperative image onto the postoperative image of mandible. The selected bony landmark, distance and angle were measured. The mean total operation time and reconstruction time were 1.60±0.37 and 5.54±0.50 hours in computer-assisted group, respectively; These were 2.58±0.45 and 6.54±0.70 hours in conventional group, respectively. Both operation time and reconstruction time were shorter in computer-assisted group. The difference between the preoperative and postoperative intercondylar distances, intergonial angle distances, anteroposterior distances and gonial angles were 2.92±1.15 and 4.48±1.41mm, 2.93±1.19 and 4.79±1.48mm, 4.31±1.24 and 5.61±1.41mm, 3.85±1.68° and 5.88±2.12° in the computer-assisted and conventional group, respectively. The differences between the preoperative and postoperative mandible is smaller in the computer-assisted group. Virtual planning and 3D printing modeling have the potential to increase mandibular reconstruction accuracy and reduce operation time. we believe that this technology for mandibular reconstruction in selected patients will become a used method and improve the quality of reconstruction

Identification of diagnostic biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease by integrated bioinformatic analysis and machine learning strategies

BackgroundAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent form of dementia, and is becoming one of the most burdening and lethal diseases. More useful biomarkers for diagnosing AD and reflecting the disease progression are in need and of significance.MethodsThe integrated bioinformatic analysis combined with machine-learning strategies was applied for exploring crucial functional pathways and identifying diagnostic biomarkers of AD. Four datasets (GSE5281, GSE131617, GSE48350, and GSE84422) with samples of AD frontal cortex are integrated as experimental datasets, and another two datasets (GSE33000 and GSE44772) with samples of AD frontal cortex were used to perform validation analyses. Functional Correlation enrichment analyses were conducted based on Gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and the Reactome database to reveal AD-associated biological functions and key pathways. Four models were employed to screen the potential diagnostic biomarkers, including one bioinformatic analysis of Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA)and three machine-learning algorithms: Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), support vector machine-recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) and random forest (RF) analysis. The correlation analysis was performed to explore the correlation between the identified biomarkers with CDR scores and Braak staging.ResultsThe pathways of the immune response and oxidative stress were identified as playing a crucial role during AD. Thioredoxin interacting protein (TXNIP), early growth response 1 (EGR1), and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 5 (IGFBP5) were screened as diagnostic markers of AD. The diagnostic efficacy of TXNIP, EGR1, and IGFBP5 was validated with corresponding AUCs of 0.857, 0.888, and 0.856 in dataset GSE33000, 0.867, 0.909, and 0.841 in dataset GSE44770. And the AUCs of the combination of these three biomarkers as a diagnostic tool for AD were 0.954 and 0.938 in the two verification datasets.ConclusionThe pathways of immune response and oxidative stress can play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of AD. TXNIP, EGR1, and IGFBP5 are useful biomarkers for diagnosing AD and their mRNA level may reflect the development of the disease by correlation with the CDR scores and Breaking staging

Business cycle, industrial composition, or regional advantage? A decomposition analysis of new firm formation in the United States

M13, R11,

ICRIER Project on Intra-Asian FDI Flows, New Delhi, India, April 25-26, 2007

PowerPoint presentationThe presentation provides background to China’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI); the relation between FDI outflows, inflows, and GDP; the geographic distribution in total investment amounts; the scale of projects; and China’s emergence as a large FDI sourcing country

Pattern and magnitude of China’s outward FDI in Asia

This paper examines the pattern and magnitude of China’s outward FDI in Asia to shed light on China’s outward FDI policy development and Chinese firms’ globalization strategies. This paper first surveys previous theories on outward FDI from developing countries to provide an analytical and theoretical background for examining China’s FDI outflows. Then a review of China’s political and ideological debates over FDI policy development and multinational operations is presented to provide a historical and evolutionary policy and regulatory framework for examining the emergence and growth of China’s outward FDI. The paper then examines the characteristics, geographic distribution, and investment scale of Chinese FDI flows in Asia. Finally, the paper ends with an assessment of past and present outward FDI patterns, discussion of both “pushing” and “pulling” factors behind China’s outward FDI, and future prospects and policy implications