title: The term structure of interest rates, the expectations hypothesis and international financial integration: Evidence from Asian economies

authors: Holmes, Mark J.

subjects: heterogeneous dynamic panels

abstract: The validity of the expectations hypothesis of the term structure is examined for a sample of Asian countries. A panel stationarity testing procedure is employed that addresses both structural breaks and cross-sectional dependence. Asian term structures are found to be stationary and supportive of the expectations hypothesis. Further analysis suggests that international financial integration is associated with interdependencies between domestic and foreign term structures insofar as cross-term structures based on differentials between domestic (foreign) short- and foreign (domestic) long-rates are also stationary.

text: The term structure of interest rates, the expectations hypothesis and international financial integration: Evidence from Asian economies The validity of the expectations hypothesis of the term structure is examined for a sample of Asian countries. A panel stationarity testing procedure is employed that addresses both structural breaks and cross-sectional dependence. Asian term structures are found to be stationary and supportive of the expectations hypothesis. Further analysis suggests that international financial integration is associated with interdependencies between domestic and foreign term structures insofar as cross-term structures based on differentials between domestic (foreign) short- and foreign (domestic) long-rates are also stationary.

year: 2010

title: The Development of ELISA and SPR-Based Immunoassays for the Detection of Heat Shock Proteins.

authors: Gong, Bei

subjects: ELISA

abstract: Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are highly conserved molecules in all eukaryotes and prokaryotes. They are named on the basis of their molecular weight and their synthesis is up-regulated by stress conditions such as inflammation, oxidative stress and exposure to high temperature. They function by assisting the folding of newly synthesized proteins and thus prevent aggregation or damage to other cellular components. Beside the role in intracellular protein folding, heat shock proteins can particularly act as intercellular signals with a wide variety of biological effects, such as to stimulate cells to produce proinflammatory cytokines, like TNFα, and other proteins involved in immunity and inflammation, or they are also thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of a wide range of diseases such as diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Thus, screening for aberrant expression of this protein could be an easy and useful tool to detect at risk individuals for developing and those more susceptible towards developing these diseases. 

Currently, the Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) is the main immunoassay method used for the measurement of heat shock proteins levels in both clinical and research laboratories. It is relatively more rapid and sensitive than RadioImmunoassay (RIA), and most importantly, it is safer because enzymes are used as labels instead of harmful radioactive substances. However, a newly developed biosensor method, the Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), offers a number of advantageous over ELISA. For example, it is much more simple and rapid because a lot of steps can be set up automatically and no labels are required for SPR immunoassays. 

In this study, a comparison of different types of ELISA assays was made. The results showed that the Sandwich format of ELISA is much more sensitive than Indirect ELISA for detection of the concentrations of Heat Shock Protein 70 (Hsp70), and this sensitivity can be further improved by applying an Avidin-Biotin system together with Sandwich ELISA under certain conditions.

To develop the SPR protocol for the detection of heat shock protein concentrations, two Hsp70 binding curves using different assay formats, the Sandwich SPR immunoassay and the Competitive SPR immunoassay, were set up by using CM 5 sensor chip. Another sensor chip, the mixed Self-Assembled Monolayer (mSAM), was also examined using Sandwich SPR format. No subsequent experimental steps were carried on for SPR studies since the regeneration conditions of these tests for both sensor chips need to be well studied. Thus, this study suggests that in order to set up a SPR immunoassay protocol that is a better choice for the detection of heat shock protein levels in complex matrixes than ELISA, experimental conditions, such as the choice of regeneration buffer and the duration of regeneration cycle, need to be well optimized.

text: The Development of ELISA and SPR-Based Immunoassays for the Detection of Heat Shock Proteins. Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are highly conserved molecules in all eukaryotes and prokaryotes. They are named on the basis of their molecular weight and their synthesis is up-regulated by stress conditions such as inflammation, oxidative stress and exposure to high temperature. They function by assisting the folding of newly synthesized proteins and thus prevent aggregation or damage to other cellular components. Beside the role in intracellular protein folding, heat shock proteins can particularly act as intercellular signals with a wide variety of biological effects, such as to stimulate cells to produce proinflammatory cytokines, like TNFα, and other proteins involved in immunity and inflammation, or they are also thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of a wide range of diseases such as diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Thus, screening for aberrant expression of this protein could be an easy and useful tool to detect at risk individuals for developing and those more susceptible towards developing these diseases. 

Currently, the Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) is the main immunoassay method used for the measurement of heat shock proteins levels in both clinical and research laboratories. It is relatively more rapid and sensitive than RadioImmunoassay (RIA), and most importantly, it is safer because enzymes are used as labels instead of harmful radioactive substances. However, a newly developed biosensor method, the Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), offers a number of advantageous over ELISA. For example, it is much more simple and rapid because a lot of steps can be set up automatically and no labels are required for SPR immunoassays. 

In this study, a comparison of different types of ELISA assays was made. The results showed that the Sandwich format of ELISA is much more sensitive than Indirect ELISA for detection of the concentrations of Heat Shock Protein 70 (Hsp70), and this sensitivity can be further improved by applying an Avidin-Biotin system together with Sandwich ELISA under certain conditions.

To develop the SPR protocol for the detection of heat shock protein concentrations, two Hsp70 binding curves using different assay formats, the Sandwich SPR immunoassay and the Competitive SPR immunoassay, were set up by using CM 5 sensor chip. Another sensor chip, the mixed Self-Assembled Monolayer (mSAM), was also examined using Sandwich SPR format. No subsequent experimental steps were carried on for SPR studies since the regeneration conditions of these tests for both sensor chips need to be well studied. Thus, this study suggests that in order to set up a SPR immunoassay protocol that is a better choice for the detection of heat shock protein levels in complex matrixes than ELISA, experimental conditions, such as the choice of regeneration buffer and the duration of regeneration cycle, need to be well optimized.

year: 2009

title: Processes of Pakeha change in response to the Treaty of Waitangi

authors: Huygens, Ingrid Louise Maria

subjects: Pakeha change

abstract: The sense of crisis that marks our times may be seen as a crisis for dominant groups whose once-secure hegemony is being challenged by marginalised others. It is in theorising the reply from the dominant group to the voices of the oppressed that existing Western conceptions of social change fall silent. The dominant Pakeha group in Aotearoa New Zealand has used discourses of benign colonisation and harmonious race relations to resist 165 years of communication from indigenous Māori about their oppression and a dishonoured treaty for settlement. My research documents the appearance of the Treaty of Waitangi into the Pakeha consciousness, and the now 30 year-long response by a Pakeha antiracism movement to educate their own cultural group about its agreements. Targeting government, community and social services organisations, activist educators used Freire's (1975) approach of conscientising dialogue to present a more critical view of colonisation, and to encourage participants to consider the complicity of their organisations in ongoing structural and cultural racism.

Based on my membership of local and national networks of activist educators, I was able to organise and facilitate data gathering from three sources to investigate processes of Pakeha change in: (i) unpublished material describing the antiracism and Treaty movement's historical theorising and strategies over 30 years, (ii) a country-wide process of co-theorising among contemporary Treaty educator groups about their work and perceived influence, and (iii) a collection of organisational accounts of Treaty-focused change. The collected records confirmed that a coherent anti-colonial discourse, which I have termed 'Pakeha honouring the Treaty', was in use to construct institutional and constitutional changes in non-government organisations. My interpretation of key elements in a local theory of transforming action included emotional responses to counter-cultural information, collective work for cultural and institutional change and practising a mutually agreed relationship with Māori. I concluded that these emotional, collective and relationship processes in dominant group change were crucial in helping to construct the new conceptual resources of 'affirming Māori authority' and 'striving towards a right relationship with Māori'. These counter-colonial constructions allowed Pakeha a non-resistant and facilitative response to Māori challenge, and enabled a dialogue with Māori about decolonisation. 

By examining in one research programme the genealogy and interdependencies of a new discourse, my research contributes to theorising about the production of new, counter-hegemonic discourses, and confirms the crucial part played by social movements in developing new, liberatory constructions of the social order.

My research calls for further theory-building on (i) emotional and spiritual aspects of transformational learning, (ii) processes involved in consciously-undertaken cultural change by dominant/coloniser groups, and (iii) practising of mutually agreed relationships with indigenous peoples by dominant/coloniser groups. 

My research has implications for theorising how coloniser and dominant groups generally may participate in liberatory social change and decolonisation work, and  the part played by the Western states in the global struggles by indigenous people for recognition of their world-views and aspirations.  

It remains to be seen whether counter-colonial discourses and organisational changes aimed at 'honouring the Treaty' with indigenous peoples will be sufficiently widely adopted to help transform Western dominating cultures and colonial projects. In the meantime, acknowledging and documenting these counter-colonial discourses and their constructions opens up increasing possibilities for constructing, from a history of colonisation, a different future.

text: Processes of Pakeha change in response to the Treaty of Waitangi The sense of crisis that marks our times may be seen as a crisis for dominant groups whose once-secure hegemony is being challenged by marginalised others. It is in theorising the reply from the dominant group to the voices of the oppressed that existing Western conceptions of social change fall silent. The dominant Pakeha group in Aotearoa New Zealand has used discourses of benign colonisation and harmonious race relations to resist 165 years of communication from indigenous Māori about their oppression and a dishonoured treaty for settlement. My research documents the appearance of the Treaty of Waitangi into the Pakeha consciousness, and the now 30 year-long response by a Pakeha antiracism movement to educate their own cultural group about its agreements. Targeting government, community and social services organisations, activist educators used Freire's (1975) approach of conscientising dialogue to present a more critical view of colonisation, and to encourage participants to consider the complicity of their organisations in ongoing structural and cultural racism.

Based on my membership of local and national networks of activist educators, I was able to organise and facilitate data gathering from three sources to investigate processes of Pakeha change in: (i) unpublished material describing the antiracism and Treaty movement's historical theorising and strategies over 30 years, (ii) a country-wide process of co-theorising among contemporary Treaty educator groups about their work and perceived influence, and (iii) a collection of organisational accounts of Treaty-focused change. The collected records confirmed that a coherent anti-colonial discourse, which I have termed 'Pakeha honouring the Treaty', was in use to construct institutional and constitutional changes in non-government organisations. My interpretation of key elements in a local theory of transforming action included emotional responses to counter-cultural information, collective work for cultural and institutional change and practising a mutually agreed relationship with Māori. I concluded that these emotional, collective and relationship processes in dominant group change were crucial in helping to construct the new conceptual resources of 'affirming Māori authority' and 'striving towards a right relationship with Māori'. These counter-colonial constructions allowed Pakeha a non-resistant and facilitative response to Māori challenge, and enabled a dialogue with Māori about decolonisation. 

By examining in one research programme the genealogy and interdependencies of a new discourse, my research contributes to theorising about the production of new, counter-hegemonic discourses, and confirms the crucial part played by social movements in developing new, liberatory constructions of the social order.

My research calls for further theory-building on (i) emotional and spiritual aspects of transformational learning, (ii) processes involved in consciously-undertaken cultural change by dominant/coloniser groups, and (iii) practising of mutually agreed relationships with indigenous peoples by dominant/coloniser groups. 

My research has implications for theorising how coloniser and dominant groups generally may participate in liberatory social change and decolonisation work, and  the part played by the Western states in the global struggles by indigenous people for recognition of their world-views and aspirations.  

It remains to be seen whether counter-colonial discourses and organisational changes aimed at 'honouring the Treaty' with indigenous peoples will be sufficiently widely adopted to help transform Western dominating cultures and colonial projects. In the meantime, acknowledging and documenting these counter-colonial discourses and their constructions opens up increasing possibilities for constructing, from a history of colonisation, a different future.

year: 2007