Human Capital and Regional Entry of Firms

This paper studies the effect of human capital on the regional entry of firms. An econometric model for a system of disjoint regions and frequency data is constructed, making the comparison between the regions a random discrete choice problem. Empirical evidence from Swedish labour market regions for the manufacturing and the professional service sectors, 1986-1989, is presented. For both sectors, the share with higher education has a positive effect on the regional entry probability of firms in the medium range of the share variable. Sector specific experience has a positive but declining effect on the regional entry probability of firms in the professional service sector whereas it has a negative effect in the manufacturing sector. In relation to other variables in the models the levels of education have moderate effects while the shares with sector specific experience have larger impacts.Number of Regional Entries; Labour Market Regions; Poisson Regression

Options, Timing, and Regional Entry of Firms

This paper studies how the possibility to postpone the unrecoverable entry and location cost affects regional entry when post-entry earnings are uncertain. We find that the opportunity cost to enter today is higher when entering a region with high uncertainty relative to a region with low uncertainty.Timing; Regional uncertainty; Brownian motion

Photocoagulation of human retinal pigment epithelial cells in vitro: evaluation of necrosis, apoptosis, cell migration, cell proliferation and expression of tissue repairing and cytoprotective genes.

Sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy has been treated with photocoagulation for decades but the mechanisms behind the beneficial clinical effects are poorly understood. One target of irradiation and a potential player in this process is the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). Here we establish an in vitro model for photocoagulation of human RPE cells

Diet and body constitution in relation to subgroups of breast cancer defined by tumour grade, proliferation and key cell cycle regulators

BACKGROUND: The general lack of clear associations between diet and breast cancer in epidemiological studies may partly be explained by the fact that breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease that may have disparate genetic associations and different aetiological bases. METHOD: A total of 346 incident breast cancers in a prospective cohort of 17,035 women enrolled in the Malmö Diet and Cancer study (Sweden) were subcategorized according to conventional pathology parameters, proliferation and expression of key cell cycle regulators. Subcategories were compared with prediagnostic diet and body measurements using analysis of variance. RESULTS: A large hip circumference and high body mass index were associated with high grade tumours (P = 0.03 and 0.009, respectively), whereas low energy and unadjusted fat intakes were associated with high proliferation (P = 0.03 and 0.004, respectively). Low intakes of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids were also associated with high proliferation (P = 0.02, 0.004 and 0.003, respectively). Low energy and unadjusted fat intakes were associated with cyclin D(1 )overexpression (P = 0.02 and 0.007, respectively), whereas cyclin E overexpression was positively correlated with fat intake. Oestrogen receptor status and expression of the tumour suppressor gene p27 were not associated with either diet or body constitution. CONCLUSION: Low energy and low total fat (polyunsaturated fatty acids in particular) intakes, and high body mass index were associated with relatively more malignant breast tumours. Dietary behaviours and body constitution may be associated with specific types of breast cancer defined by conventional pathology parameters and cyclin D(1 )and cyclin E expression. Further studies including healthy control individuals are needed to confirm our results

Dietary Fiber and Saturated Fat Intake Associations with Cardiovascular Disease Differ by Sex in the Malmö Diet and Cancer Cohort: A Prospective Study

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to examine associations between intake of macronutrients and dietary fiber and incident ischemic cardiovascular disease (iCVD) in men and women. METHODS: We used data from 8,139 male and 12,535 female participants (aged 44-73 y) of the Swedish population-based Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort. The participants were without history of CVD and diabetes mellitus, and had reported stable dietary habits in the study questionnaire. Diet was assessed by a validated modified diet history method, combining a 7-d registration of cooked meals and cold beverages, a 168-item food questionnaire (covering other foods and meal patterns), and a 1-hour diet interview. Sociodemographic and lifestyle data were collected by questionnaire. iCVD cases, which included coronary events (myocardial infarctions or deaths from chronic ischemic heart disease) and ischemic strokes, were ascertained via national and local registries. Nutrient-disease associations were examined by multivariate Cox regressions. RESULTS: During a mean follow-up of 13.5 years, we identified 1,089 male and 687 female iCVD cases. High fiber intakes were associated with lower incidence rates of iCVD in women and of ischemic stroke in men. In post-hoc analysis, we discovered statistically significant interactions between intake of fiber and saturated fat; these interactions also differed between men and women (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In this well-defined population, a high fiber intake was associated with lower risk of iCVD, but there were no robust associations between other macronutrients and iCVD risk. Judging from this study, gender-specific nutrient analysis may be preferable in epidemiology