Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-115).

Background and purpose: Rhizoma Chuanxiong (CX), the dry rhizome of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort., is a commonly used Chinese herbal medicine to treat gynecological diseases. So far, more than 60 chemical components have been identified from CX such as volatile oils (ligustilide, etc.), phenolic acids (ferulic acid, etc.) and alkaloids (chuanxiongzine, etc.). These components in CX are the basis of its wide pharmacodynamic actions including estrogen-like, progesterone-like and anti-coagulant/anti- platelet effects. In our recent survey based on previous published clinical trials, CX was ranked as one of the top 20 herbs commonly used for anti-miscarriages amongst Chinese pregnant women. However, CX should be used with caution during pregnancy as its property of 2invigorating blood circulation and removing blood stagnation3. Despite its wide applications, the safe dosage of CX in pregnant women remains unclear with no records found in the current Chinese Pharmacopoeia or other guidelines. Thus, verification regarding the impacts of CX preparations and its components in embryonic development is urgently required. In view of the limited experimental evidence that is currently available to assess the safety of CX, this project aims to (1) identify the general impacts of CX aqueous extract in maternal function and fetal development with an in vivo mouse model; and to (2) investigate the adverse impacts and underlying mechanisms of CX aqueous extract in fetal bone development with a biomarker assay and metabolomics analysis.;Concusion: CX aqueous extract at a low dosage of 2 g/kg/day (equals to the daily dosage of human adults) did not cause adverse effect in pregnant mice, and it suggested that this dosage of CX preparations should be safe for pregnant women. Our data demonstrated that high dosage and long-term use of CX aqueous extract might result in embryonic toxicities including fetal bone malformations for the first time. As the CX aqueous extract in this study was not contaminated by pesticide residues and heavy metals, the adverse impacts of CX aqueous extract should be considered as a result of its intrinsic components in the herb. Furthermore, CX aqueous extract might significantly down-regulate biomarkers related to bone formation and metabolism during osteogenesis. It is therefore valuable to establish a practical approach to systematically assess the safety of CX and other herbal medicines.;Method: Referred to the guidelines of WHO, the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and the Hong Kong Chinese Materia Medica Standards, CX aqueous extract was prepared, and its reference marker (ligustilide and ferulic acid) were quantitatively authenticated by HPLC analysis. LC/MS fingerprint analysis was performed for the quality control purposes. In addition, pesticide residues and heavy metals found in CX aqueous extract were examined using GC-MS and ICP-MS analysis. In the Segment II study as per FDA and OECD guidelines, pregnant mice were randomly assigned into 6 groups (n=18 per group): i.e. mice were orally administrated with distilled water as the negative controls (Group 1); or CX aqueous extract of 2, 16, 24 and 32 g/kg/day respectively from the gestation day (GD)6 to 16(Group 2, 3, 4 and 5); or vitamin A (200,000 IU) on GD7, 9 and 11 as the positive controls (Group 6). All mice were sacrificed to assess maternal and fetal parameters on the GD18. In the mechanistic study, the expressions of biomarkers related to fetal bone development including PICP, ICTP, B-ALP, BGP, Gdf-5, BMPs, BMP-6, BMP-8, BMP-11, IL-4, IL-4r, IL-10 and IL-10r in fetal tissue samples of the Group 1 and 5 (32 g/kg/day, n=18) were measured using ELISA analyses on GD16. Meanwhile, the metabolites of two-group samples were also analyzed by the UHD Accurate-Mass Q- TOF LC/MS, and profiling data was further analyzed by specific software. During statistical analysis, measurement data from G1, 2, 3 4 and 5 groups were analyzed using one-way ANOVA(SPSS software, version 16.0). LSD test in Post hoc method was applied to compare differences between every two groups. Pearsons x 2 - test was used to analyze category data from G1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 groups, and Fishers exact test was applied to compare differences between different groups. The student t-test was also used to compare differences between G1 and G6 groups in animal studies as well as G1 and G5 groups using ELISA or metabolomics results. An intragroup difference with a p-value less than 0.05 was considered as statistical significant.;Resutt:(1) There was no statistical significant difference in maternal and fetal parameters found between the Group 1 and 2 (p> 0.05). However, the maternal body weight (BW), gravid uterine weight, corrected BW change, live fetus/litter, mean fetal BW in the Group 4 and 5 were significantly lower than those in the Group 1(p

During normal placental development, a primitive vascular network develops through vasculogenesis and angiogenesis, and is then remodelled through maturation and regression. The mechanism behind this regression is unknown, but data from other systems suggests that it could be due to an endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndMT). If this is the case, then dysregulated EndMT could lead to increased vascular regression, which could result in placental hypovascularisation. As the placental vasculature is the area of exchange between maternal and fetal circulations, a reduction in its surface area could result in fetal growth restriction (FGR). The hypothesis of this thesis is that EndMT occurs during normal placental development, but is increased during FGR and contributes to placental hypovascularisation. A primary cell model consisting of endothelial and mesenchymal cells was isolated from human first trimester placental villous stroma. These cells were shown to lose CD31 mRNA (n = 1-3) and protein (n = 15) over 4 passages, with no loss of cell viability (n = 8). EndMT-associated transcription factors were also present in these cells at all 4 passages (n = 2-4). When cells were isolated from this mixed cell model based on their CD31-positivity and examined immediately after isolation, a small proportion also expressed αSMA (n = 5). Co-expression of endothelial and mesenchymal markers suggests that an EndMT was occurring. After 24 hours in culture, the proportion of these cells expressing αSMA increased (n = 5), and some cells co-expressed vWF and αSMA, while others lost their CD31-positivity, indicating that these cells had undergone EndMT. Cells isolated based on their CD31-positivity were treated with factors shown to inhibit EndMT in other systems. However, culture with 10µM SB431542 (TGFβ receptor inhibitor; n = 6), 10µM Dorsomorphin (BMP receptor inhibitor; n = 3), or 0.1µM PDGFR-β Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor IV (n = 3) did not inhibit gain of αSMA by these cells. Culture on Matrigel in endothelial growth medium containing VEGF and FGF also failed to stabilise the endothelial phenotype (n = 3). The possibility that EndMT occurs in placenta in vivo was examined; genes associated with EndMT were shown to be present in placenta (n = 5), and there was limited evidence of CD31 or vWF co-expression with αSMA in tissue. Preliminary evidence was obtained to suggest that expression of EndMT-associated genes was altered in FGR placentas compared to normal. In summary, the data presented in this thesis demonstrate that an EndMT occurs in primary placental microvascular endothelial cells in vitro. Furthermore, these studies provide evidence to suggest that this transition also occurs in vivo and could be altered in placentas from pregnancies complicated by FGR.

This research aimed to assess the potential of social entrepreneurship to contribute in increasing the economic participation of the youth in South Africa. With South Africa experiencing high levels of youth unemployment and characterised by a population “youth bulge”, an economically excluded youth impedes the economic development plans of the country. Therefore all economic sectors in South Africa should be assessed for the potential to increase the economic participation of the youth to aid the delivery of the economic development goals. The research was conducted using a qualitative research methodology as the nature of the research problem lent itself to more descriptive and rich answers. The field of social entrepreneurship is also relatively new and the data available for quantitative analysis is limited.The research found that social entrepreneurship has a potential to increase the economic participation of the youth but is failing to deliver results mainly as a result of legislation not recognising a legal entity for social entrepreneurial activities. The disparities in the definitions of key social entrepreneurship terms, lack of awareness about the sector and the challenges surrounding the sustainability of social enterprises do not render social entrepreneurship as an economic opportunity of choice for the youth. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

Despite the growing literature on financial development-economic growth nexus, there exists a paucity of empirical studies that explore the impact of financialisation on economic growth while focusing on the competitiveness of the financial sector. This study examines the revealed comparative advantages of 34 developing African countries from the period 2008 to 2017 and goes further to determine the impact of the revealed comparative advantage indices on economic growth. Revealed comparative advantage is used as an alternative proxy to financialisation, while economic growth is measured in terms of GDP per capita. In order to determine the impact, a panel study approach was followed, using a multiple linear regression model. The study produces two findings. Firstly, we find that the majority of African countries do not reveal a comparative advantage in financial services. This finding confirms our expectation. Secondly, we find that there exists a negative and significant relationship between financialisation and economic growth. The findings suggest that as developing countries in Africa gain comparative advantages in financial services, those gains have a detrimental impact on their economic growth. Informed by the findings of this study, which have implications for financial market development in Africa, the main recommendations are firstly that regulators need to play their part in reducing the cost of business for financial services institutions—particularly compliance costs, so as to encourage competition and development in the financial services sector, without compromising their responsibility to protect consumers. Secondly, better insights regarding cross-border trading and its impact on economic growth, profitability and the accumulation of foreign currency reserves need to be gained, in order to come up with more conducive regulatory frameworks that do not result in penalties for local firms, rendering them uncompetitive relative to foreign firms. Additionally, management at financial institutions have the responsibility of ensuring that benefits derived from their cross-border business go beyond shareholder value, but that reinvestment into the real economy takes place either through increased lending or equity investments and should also ensure that sufficient investments are made into the infrastructure required to increase the institution's competitiveness. Finally, Government and regulators needs to pay attention to how cross-border financial transactions are taxed, especially considering the new era of FinTech's, cryptocurrencies, and deepening regional integration, while at the same time ensuring that there is greater depth, bread and liquidity of their local financial markets.

The aim of master thesis Degrowth as an Alternative of Sustainable Development? is a comparison of two complex concepts, sustainable development and degrowth, which both try to reach sustainable human existence within environmental limits of our planet. The first part of this thesis consist of literature research investigating consequences of our reliance on economic growth and two chapters in which I try to cover main features of both concepts. In second part I compare degrowth and sustainable development and summarize my findings and conclusions. Methodology of this theoretical thesis is based on hermeneutics and grounded theory.

No / For over three decades, the capability approach proposed and developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum has had a distinct impact on development theories and approaches because it goes beyond an economic conception of development and engages with the normative aspects of development. This book explores the new frontiers of the capability approach and its links to human development in three main areas. First, it delves into the philosophical foundations of the approach, re-examining its links to concepts of common good, collective agency and epistemic diversity. Secondly, it addresses its 'operational frontier', aiming to give inclusive explanations of some of the most advanced methods available for capability researchers. Thirdly, it offers a wide range of the applications of this approach, as carried out by a mix of renowned capability scholars and researchers from different disciplines. This broad interdisciplinary range includes the areas of human and sustainable development, inequalities, labour markets, education, special needs, cities, urban planning, housing, social capital and happiness studies, among others.

My dissertation investigates three separate issues pertaining to a country's financial development. The first essay provides an introduction to the three essays. The second essay examines the combined effect of financial development and human capital on economic growth. While both financial development and human capital are individually positively correlated with growth, the literature has not emphasized their combined effect on growth. In this essay, I analyze the extent to which the effect of financial development on growth depends on a country's level of human capital. Using dynamic panel difference and system GMM, as well as the pooled OLS, I find that an increase in human capital decreases the impact of financial development on growth and that countries that lack financial development can achieve greater economic growth through an improvement in human capital. The third essay analyzes how currency unions affect the financial development of a country. This essay tests two forms of asymmetries on the effect of currency unions on financial development; I analyze if currency unions have an equal effect on various forms of financial development, and whether high-income and low-income countries are impacted differently. I find some evidence in favor of both forms of asymmetries with pooled OLS and fixed effect estimation using data on 152 countries and territories over the 1970-2006 time period. The fourth essay tests how financial development affects firms' export market participations and the volume of exports utilizing a firm-level data set which incorporates about 43,500 firms from 80 countries for the time period 2002-2009. Using an instrumental variable approach, I find that a country's financial development negatively affects the extensive margin of trade and positively affects the intensive margin of trade. Furthermore, this study finds that financial development has a disproportionate positive affect on firms with a higher level of external dependence for both margins of trade. Finally, I find that financial development exerts an asymmetric effect on young and mature firms in their export participations but not on the volume of exports.

This thesis is based on three empirical essays in financial development and economic growth. The first essay, investigated in the third chapter, the effect of financial development on economic growth in the context of Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich economy. In doing so, the study distinguishes between the effects of financial development on the oil and non-oil sectors of the economy. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test methodology is applied to yearly data over the period 1968 to 2010. The finding of this study is that financial development has a positive impact on the growth of the non-oil sector. In contrast, its impact on the oil-sector growth and total GDP growth is either negative or insignificant. This suggests that the relationship between financial development and growth may be fundamentally different in resource-dominated economies. The second essay revisited, in the fourth chapter, the relationship between financial development and economic growth in a panel of 52 middle-income countries over the 1980-2008 period. Using pooled mean group estimations in a dynamic heterogeneous panel setting, we show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between finance and growth in the long-run. In the short run, the relationship is insignificant. This suggests that too much finance can exert a negative influence on growth in middle-income countries. The finding of a non-monotonic effect of financial development on growth is confirmed by estimating a dynamic panel threshold model. The third essay empirically explores cross-country evidence of the effects of financial development shocks on economic growth. It employs a Global Vector Autoregressive (GVAR) model, which allows us to capture the dynamics of this relationship in a multi-country setting, and connects countries through bilateral international trade. Given the progressive role that Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) play in the world economic arena, this essay focuses on whether financial development in one BRICS member state affects economic growth in the other BRICS. To this end, the study finds empirical evidence that credit to the private sector has a positive spillover effect on growth in some of the BRICS countries. However, the results imply that the current level of financial integration among the BRICS countries is still not mature enough to spur economic growth for all the BRICS members.

Esta tese analisa os fatores determinantes do investimento e seus efeitos sobre o crescimento econômico das nações, em geral, e do Brasil, em particular. O foco da discussão na acumulação de capital decorre do fato de que 2/3 do crescimento econômico brasileiro foi devido a esse processo. Para avaliar a questão, a tese combina três abordagens complementares: a visão teórica, a avaliação histórica e a análise econométrica. O trabalho está dividido em duas partes: a primeira trata dos determinantes teóricos do investimento e faz a análise econométrica com dados internacionais. A segunda traz a análise do crédito e do investimento no Brasil, reunindo as abordagens histórica e econométrica. A visão teórica fundamenta a análise e define as variáveis-chave que afetam o investimento: juros, crédito de longo prazo, retorno do capital e preço dos ativos. Parte-se da visão de que as mudanças institucionais afetam o investimento porque buscam preservar o retorno dos investidores e dos bancos. A análise econométrica avalia o comportamento dos investimentos em três níveis: macroeconômico internacional, macroeconômico brasileiro e setorial brasileiro. A análise internacional considera um painel com dados de 39 economias entre 1995 e 2011. São utilizadas as técnicas de cointegração em painel conforme as metodologias de Kao (1999) e Pedroni (1999, 2004). A avaliação econométrica do agregado da economia brasileira é feita com dados anuais entre 1953 e 2013 e utiliza as técnicas de cointegração de Johansen (1995) e de Gregory e Hansen (1996), para avaliar a possibilidade de quebras estruturais. A análise desagregada é feita com base em dados de 31 setores de atividade econômica entre 1995 e 2009 e nas técnicas de cointegração em painel. Os resultados das avaliações econométricas de painel (internacional e setorial) mostram relações estáveis e positivas entre investimento, crédito e retorno do capital, e relações negativas entre investimento, taxa de juros de longo prazo e taxa real de câmbio, corroborando os princípios teóricos. Os resultados para o agregado da economia brasileira (séries de tempo) confirmam haver relações estáveis e positivas entre investimento, crédito e retorno do capital, mesmo na presença de quebra estrutural. A abordagem histórica analisa a constituição dos mecanismos de financiamento ao investimento no Brasil e suas principais alterações ao longo da história. São avaliados os papéis do crédito hipotecário, do mercado acionário, da implantação do Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico (BNDE) e do Banco Nacional da Habitação (BNH) e das reformas institucionais dos anos 1960. Também são descritas as principais mudanças institucionais ocorridas nas décadas de 1990, 2000 e 2010. A interpretação histórica do contexto institucional brasileiro e os resultados das análises econométricas sugerem que as mudanças institucionais ocorridas ao longo da história econômica do país foram fundamentais para a retomada do crédito de longo prazo na economia. Elas também contribuíram para amenizar a queda do retorno do capital. / This doctoral dissertation analyzes the determining investment factors and their effects on economic growth of the nations in general and on Brazil in particular. This discussion focuses especially on capital accumulation because this process has accounted for two thirds of Brazilian economic growth. To investigate this question, this study combines three complementary approaches: a theoretical vision, a historical assessment, and an econometric analysis. The dissertation is divided into two parts. The first discusses the theoretical determining factors of investment and presents an econometric analysis using international data. The second analyzes credit and investment in Brazil, combining historical and econometric approaches. The theoretical overview provides a basis for the analysis and defines the key variables that influence investment: interest rates, longterm credit, return of capital, and the price of assets. This investigation is based on the premise that institutional changes affect investment because they attempt to preserve the return of both investors and banks. The econometric analysis evaluates the behavior of investment on three levels: international macroeconomic, Brazilian macroeconomic, and Brazilian industries. The international analysis considers a panel of 39 economies containing data from 1995 to 2011. This study employed panel cointegration techniques based on the methods described by Kao (1999) and Pedroni (1999, 2004). The econometric evaluation of the aggregate of the Brazilian economy uses annual data from 1953 to 2013 and cointegration techniques described by Johansen (1995) and by Gregory and Hansen (1996), to assess the possibility of structural changes. The disaggregated analysis uses data from 31 economic industries, from 1995 to 2009, and panel cointegration techniques. The results of the panel econometric evaluations (international and sector) show stable and positive relations between investment, credit and return of capital, and negative relations between investment, long-term interest rate, and real exchange rate, confirming the theoretical principles. The results for the aggregate of the Brazilian economy (time series) confirm positive and stable relations between investment, credit, and return of capital, even when there is a structural change. The historical overview investigates the creation of investment financing mechanisms in Brazil and how they have changed over time. This dissertation analyzes mortgage securities, equity market, the establishment of the National Economic Development Bank (BNDE) and the National Housing Bank (BNH), and the institutional reforms of the 1960s. It also describes the main institutional changes of the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. The historical interpretation of the Brazilian institutional setting and the findings of the econometric analyses suggest that the institutional changes that have taken place over Brazil\'s economic history were essential in making long-term credit again available in the economy. They have also helped to minimize the decreasing trends in the returns of capital.