Conflict, wages, and multiple equilibria, a private path to prosperity

Firms´ compensation practices affect the protection of investors´ interests and the degree of economic inequality by changing the stakes of engaging in appropriation activities versus respecting the status quo. We use a general equilibrium model where workers can either work peacefully or join a guerrilla movement that expropriates entrepreneurs. If workers are peaceful, they receive a competitive wage. If they join a guerrilla movement, they receive a share of the appropriated wealth, which depends positively on the number of guerrilla members. In this framework, we find one low-income, low-wage equilibrium with guerrilla activity and one peaceful, high-income, high-wage equilibrium. The peaceful equilibrium can be reached through redistribution policies such as efficiency wages, which are also used to control agency problems. In essence, through their compensation policies entrepreneurs might be able to control the internal principal-agent issues and simultaneously protect their assets against expropriation, while alleviating economic inequality.conflict; efficiency wages; general equilibrium; income distribution; multiple equilibria

Political institutions and the development of telecomunications

It has traditionally been argued that the development of telecommunications infrastructure is dependent on the quality of countries’ political institutions. We estimate the effect of political institutions on the diffusion of three telecommunications services and find it to be much smaller in cellular telephony than in the others. By evaluating the importance of institutions for technologies rather than for industries, we reveal important growth opportunities for developing countries and offer policy implications for alleviating differences between countries in international telecommunications development.Political constraints, Telecommunications, GMM, Economic development.

Judges' cognition and market order

We argue that during the crystallization of common and civil law in the 19th century, the optimal degree of discretion in judicial rulemaking, albeit influenced by the comparative advantages of both legislative and judicial rulemaking, was mainly determined by the anti-market biases of the judiciary. The different degrees of judicial discretion adopted in both legal traditions were thus optimally adapted to different circumstances, mainly rooted in the unique, market-friendly, evolutionary transition enjoyed by English common law as opposed to the revolutionary environment of the civil law. On the Continent, constraining judicial discretion was essential for enforcing freedom of contract and establishing a market economy. The ongoing debasement of pro-market fundamentals in both branches of the Western legal system is explained from this perspective as a consequence of increased perceptions of exogenous risks and changes in the political system, which favored the adoption of sharing solutions and removed the cognitive advantage of parliaments and political leaders.Legal systems, institutional development, law enforcement

Communicative success in spatial dialogue: The impact of functional features and dialogue strategies

This paper addresses the impact of dialogue strategies and functional features of spatial arrangements on communicative success. To examine the sharing of cognition between two minds in order to achieve a joint goal, we collected a corpus of 24 extended German-language dialogues in a referential communication task that involved furnishing a dolls’ house. Results show how successful communication, as evidenced by correct placement of furniture items, is affected by a) functionality of the furniture arrangement, b) previous task experience, and c) dialogue features such as description length and orientation information. To enhance research in this area, our 'Dolldialogue' corpus is now available as a free resource on www.dolldialogue.spac

Cued by What We See and Hear: Spatial Reference Frame Use in Language

To what extent is the choice of what to say driven by seemingly irrelevant cues in the visual world being described? Among such cues, how does prior description affect how we process spatial scenes? When people describe where objects are located their use of spatial language is often associated with a choice of reference frame. Two experiments employing between-participants designs (N = 490) examined the effects of visual cueing and previous description on reference frame choice as reflected in spatial prepositions (in front of, to the left of, etc.) to describe pictures of object pairs. Experiment 1 examined the effects of visual and linguistic cues on spatial description choice through movement of object(s) in spatial scenes, showing sizeable effects of visual cueing on reference frame choice. Experiment 2 monitored eye movements of participants following a linguistic example description, revealing two findings: eye movement “signatures” associated with distinct reference frames as expressed in language, and transfer of these eye movement patterns just prior to spatial description for different (later) picture descriptions. Both verbal description and visual cueing similarly influence language production choice through manipulation of visual attention, suggesting a unified theory of constraints affecting spatial language choice

Political institutions and the development of telecomunications

It has traditionally been argued that the development of telecommunications infrastructure is dependent on the quality of countries' political institutions. We estimate the effect of political institutions on the diffusion of three telecommunications services and find it to be much smaller in cellular telephony than in the others. By evaluating the importance of institutions for technologies rather than for industries, we reveal important growth opportunities for developing countries and offer policy implications for alleviating differences between countries in international telecommunications development

Mechanistic investigation of the reduction of NOx over Pt-and Rh-based LNT catalysts

The influence of the noble metals (Pt vs. Rh) on the NOx storage reduction performances of lean NOx trap catalysts is here investigated by transient micro-reactor flow experiments. The study indicates a different behavior during the storage in that the Rh-based catalyst showed higher storage capacity at high temperature as compared to the Pt-containing sample, while the opposite is seen at low temperatures. It is suggested that the higher storage capacity of the Rh-containing sample at high temperature is related to the higher dispersion of Rh as compared to Pt, while the lower storage capacity of Rh-Ba/Al2O3 at low temperature is related to its poor oxidizing properties. The noble metals also affect the catalyst behavior upon reduction of the stored NOx, by decreasing the threshold temperature for the reduction of the stored NOx. The Pt-based catalyst promotes the reduction of the adsorbed NOx at lower temperatures if compared to the Rh-containing sample, due to its superior reducibility. However, Rh-based material shows higher reactivity in the NH3 decomposition significantly enhancing N2 selectivity. Moreover, formation of small amounts of N2O is observed on both Pt- and Rh-based catalyst samples only during the reduction of highly reactive NOx stored at 150 °C, where NOx is likely in the form of nitrites

Synthetic Polymer-Based Nanoparticles: Intelligent Drug Delivery Systems

One of the most promising strategies to improve the bioavailability of active pharmaceutical ingredients is based on the association of the drug with colloidal carriers, for example, polymeric nanoparticles, which are stable in biological environment, protective for encapsulated substances and able to modulate physicochemical characteristics, drug release and biological behaviour. The synthetic polymers possess unique properties due to their chemical structure. Some of them are characterized with mucoadhesiveness; another can facilitate the penetration through mucous layers; or to be stimuli responsive, providing controlled drug release at the target organ, tissues or cells; and all of them are biocompatible and versatile. These are suitable vehicles of nucleic acids, oligonucleotides, DNA, peptides and proteins. This chapter aims to look at the ‘hot spots’ in the design of synthetic polymer nanoparticles as an intelligent drug delivery system in terms of biopharmaceutical challenges and in relation to the route of their administration: the non-invasive—oral, transdermal, transmucosal (nasal, buccal/sublingual, vaginal, rectal and ocular) and inhalation routes—and the invasive parenteral route

Understanding and targeting the architecture in cancer : novel therapies in neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide after cardiovascular diseases. In Sweden, childhood cancer is the most common cause of death in children 1-14 years of age. Owing to advances in treatment and a better understanding of tumor biology, survival rates have increased to over 80% in most Western countries. However, neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma, two embryonal childhood cancers that arise in neural tissues, do not have equally satisfactory survival rates, especially not in the high-risk patient groups. Neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma are cancers considered to arise as undifferentiated cells during embryonal development. An orchestra of inductive signals occur during embryonal development that are important to induce cells from totipotent to differentiated normal cells. One of the pathways that is essential during embryogenesis is the Wingless (Wnt) signaling pathway. While Wnt is necessary during early development, dysregulated Wnt signaling may interfere with the differentiation process and participate in the transformation into cancer. The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate the importance of Rho/Rac signaling (a part of Wnt signaling), in neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma. We especially aimed to gain insights in the function of Rho/Rac signaling in the differentiation process, in search for better understanding of the cancers and new therapies. The first two papers focused on the protein Rho Associated Coiled Coil Kinase proteins (ROCK1 and ROCK2), located downstream of Rho signaling. The teneurin family of proteins have been reported to have reoccurring genetic alterations in neuroblastoma and are suggested to be associated with Rho/Rac signaling. The third paper is exploring the role of teneurins in neuroblastoma tumorigeneses. In paper I, we investigated mutations in neuroblastoma. We showed that 27.5% of neuroblastoma patients harbor at least one somatic protein changing alteration in a gene involved in neuritogenesis, related to the Rho/Rac signaling cascade. Furthermore, RhoA and ROCK2 were found to be upregulated and more active in high-risk neuroblastoma compared to non-high-risk. In addition, higher expression of ROCK2 was associated with poor patient survival. Pharmacological or genetic inhibition of ROCK caused neuroblastoma cells to differentiate and repressed neuroblastoma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Furthermore, downregulation of ROCK induced degradation of the MYCN protein. Finally, studies in two different neuroblastoma mouse models demonstrated that ROCK inhibition with the drug HA1077 significantly delayed tumor growth and may hence be a new therapeutic target in neuroblastoma. In paper II, we continued studying ROCK inhibitors, but selected a more specific and potent pan-ROCK-inhibitor, RKI-1447. We demonstrated that ROCKs are present in medulloblastoma, with higher ROCK2 mRNA expression in metastatic compared to nonmetastatic tumors. Treatment with RKI-1447 inhibited medulloblastoma proliferation as well as repressed cell migration and invasion. Inhibition of ROCK through RKI-1447 also led to downregulation of genes associated with key signaling pathways in proliferation and metastasis e.g., TNFα and epithelial mesenchymal transition according to differential gene expression analysis. Lastly, we demonstrated that ROCK inhibition by RKI-1447 repressed medulloblastoma growth in vivo. Our findings propose that ROCK inhibition is a possible new therapeutic option in medulloblastoma, particularly for children with metastatic disease. In paper III, we investigated the function of teneurins (TENM1-4). TENMs have been found to have genetic alternations in neuroblastoma and are important proteins during the embryonal development in the nervous system of many species. We identified a significant role of TENM4 in neuroblastoma tumorigenicity and differentiation. Silencing TENM4 with transient knockdown led to an upregulation of genes associated with neuronal differentiation and downregulation of genes associated to pathways related to cancer. Consistent with this, a knockout model of TENM4 of the MYCN-amplified cell line SK-N-BE(2)C induced an evident morphological change consistent with a neuronal like differentiation in the knockout cells. The TENM4 knockout showed an impaired growth rate and decreased MYCN expression compared to wild type cells. Furthermore, the TENM4 knockout cells did not form tumors when injected subcutaneously in mice, in contrast to wild type cells that developed tumors within four weeks. Moreover, we detected a significantly higher protein and mRNA expression of TENM4 in high-risk vs. non-high-risk and MYCN-amplified vs. non-MYCN-amplified human tumors. Our data proposes that a subpopulation of neuroblastomas with MYCN-amplification expresses TENM4, and that TENM4 exhibits functions in neuroblastoma development. Consequently, TENM4 may be a potential therapeutic target in neuroblastoma