<p> </p><p>The purpose of this paper is to examine whether foreign direct investment, FDI, has any impact on economic growth in Mexico. In order to find a possible connection I use a multiple regression analysis with GDP per capita as dependent variable. Furthermore, I critically examine previous studies of FDI and its effect on GDP per capita in Mexico as well as other studies with several developed and developing countries. The difference between this paper and previous studies is that the data is more up-to-date here. My results, like most of the previous studies, do not indicate on any statistical significance that FDI has a positive effect on economic growth. FDI do however seem to produce positive spillover effects on the domestic economy, mainly through knowledge and technological spillovers.</p><p> </p><p> </p>

Cancer of the prostate (CaP) is the most common malignancy diagnosed in men in the Western society. During the last years, prostate specific antigen (PSA) has been used as a biomarker for CaP, although a high PSA value is not specific for CaP. Thus, there is an urgent need for new and improved diagnostic markers for CaP. In this thesis, the aim was to find a miRNA signature for diagnosis of CaP and to elucidate if differences in behavior between transition zone and peripheral zone tumors are reflected in miRNA expression. One of the major findings is anexpression signature based on nine miRNAs that with high accuracy (85%) could classify normal and malignant tissues from the transition zone of the prostate. The results furthermore show that the major differences in miRNA expression are found between normal and malignant tissues, rather than between the different zones. In addition, tumors arising in the peripheral zone have fewer changes in miRNA expression compared to tumors in the transition zone, indicating that the peripheral zone is more prone to tumor development compared to the transition zone of the prostate. A crucial step in pre-processing of expression data, in order to differentiate true biological changes, is the normalization step. Therefore, an additional aim of this thesis was to compare different normalization methods for qPCR array data in miRNA expression experiments. The results show that data-driven methods based on quantile normalization performs the best. The results also show that in smaller miRNA expression studies, only investigating a few miRNAs, RNU24 is the most suitable endogenous control gene for normalization. Taken together, the results in this thesis show the importance of miRNAs and the possibility of their future use as biomarkers in the field of prostate cancer.

We explored the role that exogenous and endogenous competitors for attention play in infants’ abilities to encode and retain information over a 6‐month period. Sixty‐six children visited the laboratory at 15 months, and 32 returned for a second visit at 21 months. Children observed models of conventional‐ relation and enabling‐relation action sequences. Half the children were distracted by a “Mister Monkey” mechanical toy during the conventional‐relation sequence, while the other half was distracted during the enabling‐relation sequence. The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire indexed endogenous factors at both ages. Immediate postmodel production of target actions indexed encoding efficiency, and 6‐month production of target actions indexed long‐term recall. The exogenous distracter impacted encoding efficiency (i.e., immediate recall), but not long‐term recall. Endogenous factors (i.e., temperament) were primarily associated with long‐term recall. Of special interest was our finding that endogenous factors, especially surgency, moderated the effect of the exogenous distracter. It appears that when learning conventional‐relation sequences in the presence of exogenous distracters, surgency mobilizes attentional resources toward the learning objective; however, when learning enabling‐relation sequences under the same conditions, surgency either boosts the saliency of the distracters or boosts children’s susceptibility to them.

Suen Ming-hon. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-49). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Table of Contents --- p.iv / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 1 --- The Benchmark Model --- p.9 / Chapter 1.1 --- The Model --- p.9 / Chapter 1.2 --- Comparative Statics --- p.12 / Chapter 1.3 --- Local Stability --- p.13 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Long-Run Relationships Between Money and Growth --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1 --- The Money-in-the-Utility-Function (MIUF) Model --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2 --- The Cash-in-Advance (CIA) Model --- p.19 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- The Clower-Lucas Model --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- The Stockman Model --- p.22 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Pecuniary Transactions Costs (PTC) Model --- p.26 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Transitional Dynamics --- p.31 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Money-in-the-Utility-Function (MIUF) Model --- p.31 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Cash-in-Advance (CIA) Model --- p.32 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- The Clower-Lucas Model --- p.32 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- The Stockman Model --- p.33 / Chapter 3.3 --- The Pecuniary Transactions Costs (PTC) Model --- p.34 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Conclusion --- p.37 / Mathematical Appendix / Chapter A.1 --- The Benchmark Model --- p.39 / Chapter A.2 --- The Money-in-the-Utility-Function (MIUF) Model --- p.39 / Chapter A.3 --- The Cash-in-Advance (CIA) Model --- p.40 / Chapter A.3.1 --- The Clower-Lucas Model --- p.40 / Chapter A.3.2 --- The Stockman Model --- p.41 / Chapter A.4 --- The Pecuniary Transactions Costs (PTC) Model --- p.43 / Table 1 Summary of Findings --- p.45 / Reference --- p.45

Neste trabalho realizou-se estudos comparativos da fototransformação da protoporfirina IX (PpIX) sintética e endógena, extraída de glândulas Harderianas dos ratos da espécie Rattus Novergicus Albinus, quando irradiada pela luz visível. A fototransformação foi analisada através de monitoramento dos espectros de absorção ótica e de fluorescência em soluções aquosas homogêneas de tampão fosfato e na presença de micelas e albumina de soro bovino (ASB) e em soluções não aquosas de Acetonitrila e Dimetilsulfóxido na proporção 3:1 e em acetona, todos na presença e ausência de oxigênio. Além disso, foram obtidos através de técnica de flash fotólise as curvas cinéticas da absorção do Tripleto da PpIX e da fosforescência do oxigênio singleto. Observamos que sob ação de luz visível, a PplX sobre fototransformação cujas características dependem tanto da natureza da PplX qunto do ambiente onde a PplX se encontra. Devido a sua alta hidrofobicidade a PplX sintética em solução aquosa está presente em forma de agregados o que diminui a velocidade da sua fototransformação. Já a PplX endógena, quando em soluções aquosas, não sofre agregação, pois continua ligada com algumas estruturas biológicas de natureza anfifílica, que sobraram após sua extração de glândulas, e sua velocidade de fototransformação é elevada. A ligação com essas estruturas aumenta a afinidade da PplX endógena com micelas e dificulta sua ligação com a ASB. Os processos de fototransformação de ambas as PplX na interação com as micelas, com ASB e em tecidos glandulares in vivo são semelhantes. Isso mostra que o processo de fototransformação em meio micelar e na interação com ASB modela com sucesso o processo dentro de tecidos.Baseando-se nos fatos que a taxa de fototransformação da PplX aumenta na presença do oxigênio e que foi observada a formação do oxigênio singleto pela transferência de energia do estado tripleto da PplX para o oxigênio molecular, podemos dizer que o mecanismo tipo II contribui na fototransformação da PplX e esse mecanismo é responsável pela formação de fotoproduto, caracterizado pelos novos picos nos espectros de absorção óptica e de fluorescência. Entretanto, a existência de fototransformação da PplX na ausência do oxigênio mostra a participação de outros mecanismos de fototransformação. / In this work we carried out comparative studies of phototransformation of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) both synthetic and endogenous, extracted from the Harderian glands of the Rattus Novergicus Albinus, when irradiated by visible light. The phototransformation was analyzed by monitoring the PpIX optical absorption and fluorescence spectra in homogeneous aqueous solution (phosphate buffer) and in the presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA), micelles, formed from different surfactants, in non-aqueous acetonitrile and dimethyl sulfoxide 3:1 solutions, and in acetone, both in the presence and absence of oxygen. Besides, the kinetic curves of the PpIX Triplet state absorption and the singlet oxygen phosphorescence were obtained using the flash photolysis technique. It was observed that when irradiated with visible light PplX suffers phototransformation with characteristics depending on its nature and on the environment. Due to high hydrophobicity the synthetic PplX forms aggregates, which reduces its phototransformation rate, while the endogenous PplX is not aggregated due to its interaction with the residues of some biological amphiphilic structures, which continue after it extraction from glands, and its phototransformation rate is elevated. Besides, the interaction with these structures increases the endogenous porphyrin affinity with micelles and reduces that with BSA. The characteristics of both PplX phototransformation in micellar media, at the interaction with BSA and in the gland tissues in vivo are similar. This demonstrates that the phototransformation process in micellar media and at the interaction with BSA may successfully simulate the process in the tissue.Basing on the facts that the phototransformation rate increases in the presence of molecular oxygen and that the singlet oxygen formation due to energy transfer from the PplX triplet state to oxygen was observed we can conclude that the type II mechanism contributes on the PplX phototransformation and is responsible on the formation of a photoproduct with observed new optical absorption and fluorescence peaks. At the same time, the PplX phototransformation in the oxygen absence shows the participation of other mechanisms on the PplX phototransformation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether foreign direct investment, FDI, has any impact on economic growth in Mexico. In order to find a possible connection I use a multiple regression analysis with GDP per capita as dependent variable. Furthermore, I critically examine previous studies of FDI and its effect on GDP per capita in Mexico as well as other studies with several developed and developing countries. The difference between this paper and previous studies is that the data is more up-to-date here. My results, like most of the previous studies, do not indicate on any statistical significance that FDI has a positive effect on economic growth. FDI do however seem to produce positive spillover effects on the domestic economy, mainly through knowledge and technological spillovers.

Denna uppsats består av två delar, den första behandlar kortfattat elementens och solsystemets genes för att fortsätta med en mer omfattande beskrivning av meteoriterna, deras klassifikation, mineralogi och upprinnelse. Den andra delen av uppsatsen beskriver prepareringen, innefattande montering, slipning, polering och etsning, samt undersökningen av Muonionalustameteoriten. Muonionalusta är en Fe,Ni-meteorit av typen oktaedrit tillhörande den kemiska gruppen IVA. Meteoriten undersöks både med hjälp av malmmikroskopi och med FE-EPMA/WDS-analys. Fem stycken metalliska faser identifierades, nämligen kamacit, taenit, troilit, schreibersit och daubréelit samt viss förekomst av vad som tros vara kromit. Texturer av olika slag identifierades även, däribland chockinducerade Neumannlinjer.

<p>In my dissertation, I study the link between economic growth and asset prices in stochastic endogenous growth models. In these settings, long-term growth prospects are endogenously determined by innovation and R\&D. In equilibrium, R\&D endogenously drives a small, persistent component in productivity which generates long-run uncertainty about economic growth. With recursive preferences, this growth propagation mechanism helps reconcile a broad spectrum of equity and bond market facts jointly with macroeconomic fluctuations.</p> / Dissertation

In this paper, we have employed the Kourtellos et al. (2007) threshold model to examine the relationship between inflation and relative price variability in Hong Kong, Argentina, Germany, Japan, Mexico and Philippines. Empirical results from Hong Kong, Japan and Mexico show that inflation are endogenous variables, and the relationship between these two variables appears to be a V shape for Hong Kong and Japan. However, the relationship appears to be positive for Mexico. Empirical results fail to reject the hypothesis of exogenous inflation for Argentina, Germany and Philippines, and the relationship between these two variables appears to be a V shape for Philippines and Argentina. There is no significant relationship between these two variables for Germany.

This paper apply a threshold model to examine the nonlinear relationship between economic growth and unemployment rate. The key innovation of our model is that it takes into account endogenous explanatory variables and endogenous threshold variables. Empirical results show that Okun¡¦s law is nonlinear. Among different models under consideration,the absolute value of Okun¡¦s coefficient during contraction period is larger than that during expansion period.