Controlled synthesis of monodisperse nanocrystals by a two-phase approach without the separation of nucleation and growth processes

The synthesis of monodisperse nanocrystals is an important topic in the field of nanomaterials not only for practical applications, but also for scientific interest in fundamental research. In this feature article, we mainly focus on synthesis of monodisperse nanocrystals by a two-phase approach without the separation of nucleation and growth processes, and report some progress made recently in the observation and understanding of nucleation and growth of semiconductor nanocrystals. Firstly, a novel two-phase approach to monodisperse nanocrystals, which is different from the well-established synthesis models, is discussed. We demonstrate that the two-phase approach has a quite lengthy nucleation process, and can be applied to the synthesis of many kinds of binary monodisperse nanocrystals.

Feasibility of a Clinical Chemical Analysis Approach to Predict Misuse of Growth Promoting Hormones in Cattle

A study was performed to determine if targeted metabolic profiling of cattle sera could be used to establish a predictive tool for identifying hormone misuse in cattle. Metabolites were assayed in heifers (n ) 5) treated with nortestosterone decanoate (0.85 mg/kg body weight), untreated heifers (n ) 5), steers (n ) 5) treated with oestradiol benzoate (0.15 mg/kg body weight) and untreated steers (n ) 5). Treatments were administered on days 0, 14, and 28 throughout a 42 day study period. Two support vector machines (SVMs) were trained, respectively, from heifer and steer data to identify hormonetreated animals. Performance of both SVM classifiers were evaluated by sensitivity and specificity of treatment prediction. The SVM trained on steer data achieved 97.33% sensitivity and 93.85% specificity while the one on heifer data achieved 94.67% sensitivity and 87.69% specificity. Solutions of SVM classifiers were further exploited to determine those days when classification accuracy of the SVM was most reliable. For heifers and steers, days 17-35 were determined to be the most selective. In summary, bioinformatics applied to targeted metabolic profiles generated from standard clinical chemistry analyses, has yielded an accurate, inexpensive, high-throughput test for predicting steroid abuse in cattle.

Repression of NHE1 Expression by PPAR gamma Activation Is a Potential New Approach for Specific Inhibition of the Growth of Tumor Cells In vitro and In vivo

Ligand-induced activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAIR gamma) inhibits proliferation in cancer cells in vitro and in vivo; however, the downstream targets remain undefined. We report the identification of a peroxisome proliferator response element in the promoter region of the Na+/ H transporter gene NHE1, the overexpression of which has been associated with carcinogenesis. Exposure of breast cancer cells expressing high levels of PPAR gamma to its natural and synthetic agonists resulted in downregulation of NHE1 transcription as well as protein expression. Furthermore, the inhibitory effect of activated PPAR gamma on tumor colony-forming ability was abrogated on overexpression of NHE1, whereas small interfering RNA-mediated gene silencing of NHE1 significantly increased the sensitivity of cancer cells to growth-inhibitory stimuli. Finally, histopathologic analysis of breast cancer biopsies obtained from patients with type II diabetes treated with the synthetic agonist rosiglitazone showed significant repression of NHE1 in the tumor tissue. These data provide evidence for tumor-selective downregulation of NHE1 by activated PPAR gamma in vitro and in pathologic specimens from breast cancer patients and could have potential implications for the judicious use of low doses of PPAR gamma ligands in combination chemotherapy regimens for an effective therapeutic response. [Cancer Res 2009;69(22):8636-44]

Clinical and testing protocols for the analysis of epidermal growth factor receptor mutations in East Asian patients with non-small cell lung cancer:a combined clinical-molecular pathological approach

Several randomized phase III studies in advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) confirmed the superior response rate and progression-free survival of using epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor as first-line therapy compared with chemotherapy in patients with activating EGFR mutations. Despite the need for EGFR mutation tests to guide first-line therapy in East Asian NSCLC, there are no current standard clinical and testing protocols.

Real convergence in per capita output and growth in Eurozone: A time-series approach

The real convergence hypothesis has spurred a myriad of empirical tests and approaches in the economic literature. This Work Project intends to test for real output and growth convergence in all N(N-1)/2 possible pairs of output and output growth gaps of 14 Eurozone countries. This paper follows a time-series approach, as it tests for the presence of unit roots and persistence changes in the above mentioned pairs of output gaps, as well as for the existence of growth convergence with autoregressive models. Overall, significantly greater evidence has been found to support growth convergence rather than output convergence in our sample.

Predicting random level and seasonality of hotel prices. A structural equation growth curve approach

This article examines the effect on price of different characteristics of holiday hotels in the sun-and-beach segment, under the hedonic function perspective. Monthly prices of the majority of hotels in the Spanish continental Mediterranean coast are gathered from May to October 1999 from the tour operator catalogues. Hedonic functions are specified as random-effect models and parametrized as structural equation models with two latent variables, a random peak season price and a random width of seasonal fluctuations. Characteristics of the hotel and the region where they are located are used as predictors of both latent variables. Besides hotel category, region, distance to the beach, availability of parking place and room equipment have an effect on peak price and also on seasonality. 3- star hotels have the highest seasonality and hotels located in the southern regions the lowest, which could be explained by a warmer climate in autumn

Productivity growth in electric energy retail in Colombia. A bootstrapped malmquist indices approach

This paper offers a productivity growth estimate for electric energy commercialization firms in Colombia, using a non-parametric Malmquist bootstrap methodology. The estimation and methodology serve two main purposes. First, in Colombia Commercialization firms are subject to a price-cap regulation scheme, a non-common arrangement in the international experience for this part of the industry. Therefore the paper’s result suggest an estimate of the productivity factor to be used by the regulator, not only in Colombia but in other countries where commercialization is a growing part of the industry (renewable energy, for instance). Second, because of poor data collection from regulators and firms themselves, regulation based on a single estimation of productivity seems inappropriate and error-prone. The nonparametric Malmquist bootstrap estimation allows an assessment of the result in contrast to a single one estimation. This would open an opportunity for the regulator to adopt a narrower and more accurate productivity estimation or override an implausible result and impose a productivity factor in the price-cap to foster the development of the industry.

ICT for growth: a targeted approach. Bruegel Policy Contribution 2012/10, June 2012

This Policy Contribution assesses the broad obstacles hampering ICT-led growth in Europe and identifies the main areas in which policy could unlock the greatest value. We review estimates of the value that could be generated through take-up of various technologies and carry out a broad matching with policy areas. According to the literature survey and the collected estimates, the areas in which the right policies could unlock the greatest ICT-led growth are product and labour market regulations and the European Single Market. These areas should be reformed to make European markets more flexible and competitive. This would promote wider adoption of modern data-driven organisational and management practices thereby helping to close the productivity gap between the United States and the European Union. Gains could also be made in the areas of privacy, data security, intellectual property and liability pertaining to the digital economy, especially cloud computing, and next generation network infrastructure investment. Standardisation and spectrum allocation issues are found to be important, though to a lesser degree. Strong complementarities between the analysed technologies suggest, however, that policymakers need to deal with all of the identified obstacles in order to fully realise the potential of ICT to spur long-term growth beyond the partial gains that we report.

A moving mesh approach for modelling avascular tumour growth

A key step in many numerical schemes for time-dependent partial differential equations with moving boundaries is to rescale the problem to a fixed numerical mesh. An alternative approach is to use a moving mesh that can be adapted to focus on specific features of the model. In this paper we present and discuss two different velocity-based moving mesh methods applied to a two-phase model of avascular tumour growth formulated by Breward et al. (2002) J. Math. Biol. 45(2), 125-152. Each method has one moving node which tracks the moving boundary. The first moving mesh method uses a mesh velocity proportional to the boundary velocity. The second moving mesh method uses local conservation of volume fraction of cells (masses). Our results demonstrate that these moving mesh methods produce accurate results, offering higher resolution where desired whilst preserving the balance of fluxes and sources in the governing equations.

The impact of OFDI on economic growth countries. An econometric approach using panel data and time-series evidence

The thesis at hand adds to the existing literature by investigating the relationship between economic growth and outward foreign direct investments (OFDI) on a set of 16 emerging countries. Two different econometric techniques are employed: a panel data regression analysis and a time-series causality analysis. Results from the regression analysis indicate a positive and significant correlation between OFDI and economic growth. Additionally, the coefficient for the OFDI variable is robust in the sense specified by the Extreme Bound Analysis (EBA). On the other hand, the findings of the causality analysis are particularly heterogeneous. The vector autoregression (VAR) and the vector error correction model (VECM) approaches identify unidirectional Granger causality running either from OFDI to GDP or from GDP to OFDI in six countries. In four economies causality among the two variables is bidirectional, whereas in five countries no causality relationship between OFDI and GDP seems to be present.

Long term growth in the Caribbean: a balance of payments constraint approach

Includes bibliography