No abstract

This paper provides a brief review of the increasing importance of China in the world economy and discusses the spillover effects of the global financial crisis on China's financial markets and macroeconomy. It presents and critiques alternative ways of estimating these effects. Contrary to much popular discussion, China was hit fairly hard by the global recession generated by the financial crisis. It suffered a huge drop in exports, and these effects on the economy were only partially offset by China's huge stimulus program. While growth remained well above international averages, its drop was of the same order of magnitude as for the United States. The paper closes with a brief discussion of some of the major challenges facing China to rebalance its economy in order to sustain high growth.

Pyrolysis characteristics of a North Korean oil shale and its pyrolysates were investigated in temperatures show that the higher the retorting temperature the greater the oil and retorting gas yields. The optimal retorting temperature for the North Korean oil shale is about 500 o C. The properties of the North compared with those of shale oil from FuShun, China. The gasoline fraction, diesel fraction and heavy oil 4 (the most abundant), H 2 , CO 2 , H 2 S, CO, and C 2-C 5 hydrocarbons. The heat value of retorting gas is more than 900 kJ/mol, and the retorting gas has high sulfur content.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men worldwide, and novel therapies for advanced PCa are urgently needed. Cardiac glycosides represent an attractive group of candidates for anticancer repurposing, but the cardiac glycoside deslanoside has not been tested for potential anticancer activity so far. We found that deslanoside effectively inhibited colony formation in vitro and tumor growth in nude mice of PCa cell lines 22Rv1, PC-3, and DU 145. Such an anticancer activity was mediated by both the cell cycle arrest at G2/M and the induction of apoptosis, as demonstrated by different functional assays and the expression status of regulatory proteins of cell cycle and apoptosis in cultured cells. Moreover, deslanoside suppressed the invasion and migration of PCa cell lines. Genome-wide expression profiling and bioinformatic analyses revealed that 130 genes were either upregulated or downregulated by deslanoside in both 22Rv1 and PC-3 cell lines. These genes enriched multiple cellular processes, such as response to steroid hormones, regulation of lipid metabolism, epithelial cell proliferation and its regulation, and negative regulation of cell migration. They also enriched multiple signaling pathways, such as necroptosis, MAPK, NOD-like receptor, and focal adhesion. Survival analyses of the 130 genes in the TCGA PCa database revealed that 10 of the deslanoside-downregulated genes (ITG2B, CNIH2, FBF1, PABPC1L, MMP11, DUSP9, TMEM121, SOX18, CMPK2, and MAMDC4) inversely correlated, while one deslanoside-upregulated gene (RASD1) positively correlated, with disease-free survival in PCa patients. In addition, one deslanoside-downregulated gene (ENG) inversely correlated, while three upregulated genes (JUN, MXD1, and AQP3) positively correlated with overall survival in PCa patients. Some of the 15 genes have not been implicated in cancer before. These findings provide another candidate for repurposing cardiac glycosides for anticancer drugs. They also suggest that a diverse range of molecular events underlie deslanoside’s anticancer activity in PCa cells.

Purpose -Study of the interdependence among economies is of considerable importance. This area includes issues such as the increasing importance of regional economic interactions, the effects of economic growth and recession in the advanced economies on emerging market countries, and financial contagion. A wide range of related terms and methodologies are used in the literature of interdependence. The purpose of this paper is to review the major concepts and various measurements of interdependence in financial markets and the real economy, serving as a reference and benchmark for future research on interdependence among specific regional or global economies. Design/methodology/approach -Major measurements of interdependence are reviewed from simple approach to more complicated ones, and strengths and weaknesses of the various measurements of interdependence are discussed. Findings -This paper surveys the various major measurements of interdependence and illustrates how they have been used to address a substantial range of issues. Originality/value -The paper shows that studies of macroeconomic and financial interdependence use the same types of econometric measurements. The review and critiques of these various types of measures should be of value to those wishing to do research in these areas and also to those wishing to have a better understanding of papers that they read.