FDI Effects of ASEAN Integration

For the past two decades, ASEAN Member States have pursued intra-regional market liberalization in order to provide more flexibility to multinationals and therefore promote the region as a competitive production platform. Attracting FDI has been a key objective of this regional project. This paper describes and analyzes recent trends in FDI to and among ASEAN countries, mainly comparing FDI patterns before and after the Asian Crisis, to characterize and assess the region‟s strategies to liberalize and facilitate investment. We find that FDI flows to ASEAN countries suffered after the Asian Crisis but have picked up since 2005. Moreover, ASEAN FDI is dominated by Singapore. In addition, the sectoral distribution of FDI has changed in some members of ASEAN (i.e., Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand) but not in others. We also perform an econometric analysis of the determinants of FDI to check for ASEAN-specific changes in FDI in the post-Crisis period. Our results, after controlling for a host of factors, indicate that ASEAN countries suffered a fall in total FDI but experienced an increase in intra-regional FDI after 1998. Moreover, we do not find any significant impact of FDI in China on ASEAN FDI.Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN); Foreign Direct Investment (FDI); Economic Integration; Knowledge Capital Model

FDI EFFECTS OF ASEAN INTEGRATION

For the past two decades, ASEAN Member States have pursued intra-regional market liberalization in order to provide more flexibility to multinationals and therefore promote the region as a competitive production platform. Attracting FDI has been a key objective of this regional project. This paper describes and analyzes recent trends in FDI to and among ASEAN countries, mainly comparing FDI patterns before and after the Asian Crisis, to characterize and assess the region?s strategies to liberalize and facilitate investment. We find that FDI flows to ASEAN countries suffered after the Asian Crisis but have picked up since 2005. Moreover, ASEAN FDI is dominated by Singapore. In addition, the sectoral distribution of FDI has changed in some members of ASEAN (i.e., Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand) but not in others. We also perform an econometric analysis of the determinants of FDI to check for ASEAN-specific changes in FDI in the post-Crisis period. Our results, after controlling for a host of factors, indicate that ASEAN countries suffered a fall in total FDI but experienced an increase in intra-regional FDI after 1998. Moreover, we do not find any significant impact of FDI in China on ASEAN FDI.ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH EAST ASIAN NATIONS (ASEAN), FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI), ECONOMIC INTEGRATION, ASEAN INVESTMENT AREA, KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL MODEL

Identifications of Einstein Slew Survey sources

The status of identifications of the Einstien Slew Survey, a bright soft x-ray catalog with 550 new x-ray sources, is discussed. Possible counterparts were found for greater than 95 percent of the Slew Survey based on positional coincidences and color-color diagnostics. The survey will be fully identified via upcoming radio and optical observations

Einstein Slew Survey: Data analysis innovations

Several new methods were needed in order to make the Einstein Slew X-ray Sky Survey. The innovations which enabled the Slew Survey to be done are summarized. These methods included experimental approach to large projects, parallel processing on a LAN, percolation source detection, minimum action identifications, and rapid dissemination of the whole data base

Harnessing autophagy to overcome mitogen‐activated protein kinase kinase inhibitor‐induced resistance in metastatic melanoma

Background Patients with malignant melanoma often relapse after treatment with BRAF and/or mitogen‐activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitors (MEKi) owing to development of drug resistance. Objectives To establish the temporal pattern of CD271 regulation during development of resistance by melanoma to trametinib, and determine the association between development of resistance to trametinib and induction of prosurvival autophagy. Methods Immunohistochemistry for CD271 and p62 was performed on human naevi and primary malignant melanoma tumours. Western blotting was used to analyse expression of CD271, p62 and LC3 in melanoma subpopulations. Flow cytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy was used to evaluate trametinib‐induced cell death and CD271 expression. MTS viability assays and zebrafish xenografts were used to evaluate the effect of CD271 and autophagy modulation on trametinib‐resistant melanoma cell survival and invasion, respectively. Results CD271 and autophagic signalling are increased in stage III primary melanomas vs. benign naevi. In vitro studies demonstrate MEKi of BRAF‐mutant melanoma induced cytotoxic autophagy, followed by the emergence of CD271‐expressing subpopulations. Trametinib‐induced CD271 reduced autophagic flux, leading to activation of prosurvival autophagy and development of MEKi resistance. Treatment of CD271‐expressing melanoma subpopulations with RNA interference and small‐molecule inhibitors to CD271 reduced the development of MEKi resistance, while clinically applicable autophagy modulatory agents – including Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol and Vps34 – reduced survival of MEKi‐resistant melanoma cells. Combined MEK/autophagy inhibition also reduced the invasive and metastatic potential of MEKi‐resistant cells in an in vivo zebrafish xenograft. Conclusions These results highlight a novel mechanism of MEKi‐induced drug resistance and suggest that targeting autophagy may be a translatable approach to resensitize drug‐resistant melanoma cells to the cytotoxic effects of MEKi

Qualitative Research in Counseling: A Reflection for Novice Counselor Researchers

Counselors practice in a wide range of disciplines, but also represent a distinct discipline separate from medicine, psychology, and social work. Particularly in countries like Australia, Canada, and the Asia Pacific nations, as a relatively new field, counseling is taking up the challenges of encouraging a research culture that can both critique and support clinical practice and counselor education. This paper is thus written to support novice counselor researchers, and to inspire an emerging research culture through sharing formative experiences and lessons learned during a qualitative research project exploring minority issues in counseling

Why do These Match? Explaining the Behavior of Image Similarity Models

Explaining a deep learning model can help users understand its behavior and allow researchers to discern its shortcomings. Recent work has primarily focused on explaining models for tasks like image classification or visual question answering. In this paper, we introduce Salient Attributes for Network Explanation (SANE) to explain image similarity models, where a model's output is a score measuring the similarity of two inputs rather than a classification score. In this task, an explanation depends on both of the input images, so standard methods do not apply. Our SANE explanations pairs a saliency map identifying important image regions with an attribute that best explains the match. We find that our explanations provide additional information not typically captured by saliency maps alone, and can also improve performance on the classic task of attribute recognition. Our approach's ability to generalize is demonstrated on two datasets from diverse domains, Polyvore Outfits and Animals with Attributes 2. Code available at: https://github.com/VisionLearningGroup/SANEComment: Accepted at ECCV 202

Long-Term Evolution of Massive Black Hole Binaries. II. Binary Evolution in Low-Density Galaxies

We use direct-summation N-body integrations to follow the evolution of binary black holes at the centers of galaxy models with large, constant-density cores. Particle numbers as large as 400K are considered. The results are compared with the predictions of loss-cone theory, under the assumption that the supply of stars to the binary is limited by the rate at which they can be scattered into the binary's influence sphere by gravitational encounters. The agreement between theory and simulation is quite good; in particular, we are able to quantitatively explain the observed dependence of binary hardening rate on N. We do not verify the recent claim of Chatterjee, Hernquist & Loeb (2003) that the hardening rate of the binary stabilizes when N exceeds a particular value, or that Brownian wandering of the binary has a significant effect on its evolution. When scaled to real galaxies, our results suggest that massive black hole binaries in gas-poor nuclei would be unlikely to reach gravitational-wave coalescence in a Hubble time.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

Psychosocial outcomes of an inclusive adapted sport and adventurous training course for military personnel.

PURPOSE: To explore the psychosocial outcomes of an inclusive adapted sport and adventurous training course that aims to support the rehabilitation and personal development of military personnel who have sustained physical and/or psychological disability. METHOD: Narrative life story interviews were conducted with 11 men aged 20-43 taking part in one of the 5-day courses. A thematic narrative analysis was conducted, focusing on accounts that provided insights into personally meaningful psychosocial outcomes of the course. FINDINGS: We identified six themes, falling into two distinct clusters. "Bringing me back to myself" was achieved through the themes of (1) returning to activity, (2) rediscovering a sense of purpose, and (3) reconnecting to others. "New rooms to explore" was realised through (4) experiencing new activities, (5) being valued/respected/cared for and (6) being inspired by other people. CONCLUSION: Involvement in the course stimulated a balance of present- and future-oriented psychosocial outcomes through which participants both recreated aspects of themselves that had been lost through injury/trauma and moved forward with their lives as a result of new horizons of possibility. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION: This 5-day inclusive adapted sport and adventurous training course offered meaningful psychosocial outcomes among military personnel who had experienced physical and/or psychological disability. The course helped participants recover aspects of their previous life and self through becoming physically active again, rediscovering a sense of purpose and reconnecting to others. Participants describe a broadening of life horizons as a result of the course, through new activities, being valued/respected/cared for, and being inspired by other people