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Purpose -The issue of varying stakeholder expectations has significant implications for successful enterprise information system implementation. This issue becomes more prevalent in e-government situations where a variety of stakeholders are influenced by inter-organizational knowledge sharing. This paper presents an exploratory investigation of the diverging and converging expectations of various stakeholders at the initiation of e-government projects with regard to the benefits of and barriers to interorganizational knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach -Survey data were collected from seven cases within the New York State (NYS) government setting. We identified two sets of stakeholder groupings in this paper; core/key project participants and general participants (similar to developer/user stakeholder groupings); and; various organizational participants (state government, local government, non-profit organization, and private organization stakeholders). Findings -Research results indicated that key participants' expectations were similar to those of general participants/users. Their perceptions converge on the relative likelihood of achieving benefits and relative severity of barriers; although significant differences do exist in discernment of the opportunity for achieving wider professional networks and the magnitude of control-oriented management. Finally, we found significant differences among stakeholders groups based on the types of organizational membership. Local government stakeholders are considerably less optimistic in achieving goals, and more concerned about a variety of organizational, technological, and financial barriers. Originality/value -The results provide guidance for e-government design and implementation strategies that amplify common interests, contend with shared difficulties, and mitigate differences.
Europe's debt crisis casts doubt on the effectiveness of fiscal austerity in highly-integrated economies. Closed-economy models overestimate its effectiveness, because they underestimate tax-base elasticities and ignore cross-country tax externalities. In contrast, we study tax responses to debt shocks in a two-country model with endogenous utilization that captures those externalities and matches the capital-tax-base elasticity. Quantitative results show that unilateral capital tax hikes cannot restore fiscal solvency in Europe, and have large negative (positive) effects at "home" ("abroad"). Restoring solvency via either Nash competition or Cooperation reduces (increases) capital (labor) taxes significantly, and leaves countries with larger debt shocks preferring autarky.
Helicobacter pylori infection is related to the development of gastric diseases. Various virulence factors are responsible for the pathogenic mechanisms of H. pylori infection. Our previous studies using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis showed that H. pylori thioredoxin-1 (Trx1) is overexpressed in gastric carcinomas. Here, we examined whether H. pylori Trx1 is a novel virulence factor associated with gastric tumorigenesis. We found that Trx1 expression in H. pylori isolated from gastric cancer tissues was significantly higher than that from tissues exhibiting gastritis. In the gastric epithelial cell line GES-1, infection of H. pylori with high Trx1 expression significantly induced cell apoptosis, decreased the expression of cyclin D1 and upregulated p21. However, in the gastric cancer cell line BGC823, high Trx1 expression in H. pylori significantly increased cell proliferation, and upregulated cyclin D1. The effects on cell lines were confirmed using the H. pylori Trx1-knockout mutant strain. Our observations indicate that high Trx1 expression in H. pylori is associated with gastric carcinogenesis. In H. pylori, Trx1 likely participates in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer and H. pylori expressing high levels of Trx1 would be expected to be highly pathogenic in gastric diseases in China.
This work investigated the mechanical properties of epoxy resin composites embedded with graphene oxide (GO) using a novel two-phase extraction method. The graphene oxide from water phase was transferred into epoxy resin forming homogeneous suspension. Hyperbranched polyamine-ester (HBPE) anchored graphene oxide (GO HBPE ) was prepared by modifying GO with HBPE using a neutralization reaction. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that the HBPE was successfully grafted to the GO surface. The mechanical properties and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) of the composites demonstrated that GO HBPE played a critical role in mechanical reinforcement owing to the layered structure of GO, wrinkled topology, surface roughness and surface area ascending from various oxygen groups of GO itself, and the inarching of HBPE and the reaction among GO, HBPE, and epoxy resin. The transferred GO HBPE /epoxy resin composites showed 69.1% higher impact strength, 129.1% more tensile strength, 45.3% larger modulus, and 70.8% higher strain compared to that of cured neat epoxy resin. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of GO HBPE /epoxy resin composites was increased from 135 to 141°C and their damping capacity was also improved from 0.71 to 0.91. This study provides guidelines for the fabrication of strengthened polymer composites using phase transfer approach.
Association of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with cerebral glucose hypometabolism, likely due to impairments of insulin signaling, has been reported recently, with encouraging results when additional insulin is provided to AD patients. Here, we tested the potential effects of the anti-diabetic vanadium, vanadyl (IV) acetylacetonate (VAC), on AD in vitro and in vivo models. The experimental results showed that VAC at sub-micromolar concentrations improved the viability of neural cells with or without increased β-amyloid (Aβ) burden; and in APP/PS1 transgenic mice, VAC treatment (0.1 mmol kg d) preserved cognitive function and attenuated neuron loss, but did not reduce brain Aβ plaques. Further studies revealed that VAC attenuated Aβ pathogenesis by (i) activation of the PPARγ-AMPK signal transduction pathway, leading to improved glucose and energy metabolism; (ii) up-regulation of the expression of glucose-regulated protein 75 (Grp75), thus suppressing p53-mediated neuronal apoptosis under Aβ-related stresses; and (iii) decreasing toxic soluble Aβ peptides. Overall, our work suggested that vanadyl complexes may have great potential for effective therapeutic treatment of AD.
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