The matrix of the stationary phase is a crucial element in affinity chromatography for protein purification. Various materials, including polymer or magnetic materials, have been employed as the ...matrix in the purification of His-tagged protein. Here, for the first time, we utilized a combination of melanin and alginate, both natural polymer materials, to synthesize Ni-melanin/alginate (Ni-M/A) beads for His-tagged protein purification. We investigated the binding of His-tagged Mpro on the Ni-M/A beads, referred to as Ni-M/A-Mpro, and assessed the elution efficiency of Mpro from the beads. Our examination involved FTIR, EDS, XRD, SDS-PAGE, and Western blotting methods. FTIR spectra revealed notable changes in the stretching patterns and intensities of hydroxyl, amine, carbonyl, imine and amide chemical groups, when Mpro protein was present in the Ni-M/A sample. XRD spectra demonstrated the occurrence of two Nickel peaks at 35–40 deg and 40–45 deg in Ni-M/A, but only one nickel peak at 35–40 deg in Ni-M/A-Mpro, indicating the binding of Mpro on the Nickel ions. EDS analysis reported a decrease in the concentration of Nickel on the surface of Ni-M/A from 16% to 7% when Mpro protein was loaded into the stationary phase. Importantly, our data indicated that the purity of the His-tagged protein Mpro after purification reached 97% after just one-step purification using the Ni-M/A stationary phase. Moreover, the binding capacity of Ni-M/A for Mpro was approximately 5.2 mg/g with recovery efficiency of 40%. Our results suggested Ni-M/A as a highly potential solid phase for affinity chromatography in the purification of His-tagged protein.
•Novel Ni-melanin/alginate (Ni-M/A) beads were created for His-tagged protein purification.•The purity of the His-tagged protein Mpro after purification reached to 97% using the Ni-M/A beads as stationary phase.•The binding capacity of Ni-M/A beads for His-tagged protein Mpro was around 5.2 mg/g with recovery efficiency of 40%.•Ni-M/A beads acted as a very potential solid phase of affinity chromatography for His-tagged protein purification.
Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are increasingly used in sandwich construction to improve mechanical performance of structures. The effective material properties used in modelling FGM ...structures, however, are dependent on a chosen homogenization scheme. For the first time, the influence of different homogenization schemes on large deflections of dual-phase FGM sandwich beams is studied in this paper by using a nonlinear finite element procedure. The material properties of the sandwich beams are considered to vary in the thickness direction by a power function. Four homogenization schemes, namely the schemes due to Voigt, Mori–Tanaka, Hashin–Shtrikman and Tamura–Tomota–Ozawa, are employed to estimate the effective elastic moduli of the beams. Based on the total Lagrange formulation, a first-order shear deformable nonlinear beam element is formulated and employed in the study. Newton–Raphson iterative method is used in combination with the arc-length technique to obtain the large deflection curves and stress distribution of the beams. Numerical results reveal that the material distribution indicated by the material grading index and the homogenization scheme have play an important role on the behaviour of the beams, and the influence of the material grading index on the large deflection response is dependent on the homogenization scheme. Among the four homogenization schemes studied, it is shown that the large deflection response obtained by the Voigt model is more conservative than that using the other schemes.
This paper presents an analytical investigation on buckling and postbuckling of eccentrically stiffened functionally graded thin truncated conical shells subjected to axial compressive load and ...resting on elastic foundations. Shells are reinforced by rings and stringers attached to their inside. The shell material properties are graded in the thickness direction according to a volume fraction power-law distribution. The change in spacing between stringers in the meridional direction is taken into account. The theoretical formulations based on the Donnell shell theory with von Karman geometrical nonlinearity and the smeared stiffeners technique are derived. The resulting equations, which are a coupled set of three variable coefficients nonlinear partial differential equations in terms of displacement components, are solved by the Galerkin method. The closed-form expressions for determining the critical buckling load and for analyzing the postbuckling load–deflection curves are obtained. The influences of various parameters such as stiffeners, foundations, material properties and geometric dimensions on the stability of shells are considered in detail.
This paper investigates the non-linear effects of two aspects of economic openness, namely, trade openness and financial openness, on banking system stability. We use a panel of 42 emerging markets ...from 2000 to 2014 to test whether bank risk-taking behaviour varies with the level of openness. We find that a higher degree of trade openness promotes bank stability linearly. Conversely, the non-linear effect of financial openness on bank risk-taking is evident. When the financial system is not sufficiently open, the impact of financial openness on bank stability is insignificant. However, as the domestic financial market becomes more open, financial openness can help discipline the behaviour of banks, making them more stable. We also find evidence that these effects are transmitted through the market discipline channel. Our findings highlight the importance of strengthening the domestic regulatory framework and transparency as the economy becomes more integrated.
•We control for both nonlinearity and heterogeneity in bank risk-taking.•We find a nonlinear impact of financial openness on bank risk-taking.•Beneficial effects on bank stability only appear at high levels of financial openness.•Trade openness only impacts bank risk-taking linearly.•Economic openness affects bank risk-taking through the market discipline channel.
The development and main characteristics of global research related to cultural and creative industries from 1995 to 2020 have been investigated using bibliographic data derived from the Scopus ...database. We identified 746 single-authored documents among a total of 1099 documents indexed in the Scopus database during this period, with an annual growth rate of 18%. English-speaking countries such as the UK, the USA, Australia and Canada were the most important contributors to this research field, participated in more than 50% of documents of the collection. The most productive scholars and institutions were all located in Australia and the UK. Quality of the publication collection was good, as nine over ten most popular journals who published a quarter of the collection, were classified into the first quartile of the SCImago Journal & Country Rank. Cultural policy and creative economy were the most important research directions of the collection.
This paper investigates the role of institutional development on the relationship between financial openness and bank risk-taking behavior. In particular, we investigate how institutional improvement ...can change the impact of financial openness on bank stability. Using a panel of 37 emerging markets and 21 advanced economies over the period 2000–2015, the results show that opening the financial market affects bank risk-taking behaviors differently, depending on the degree of institutional development. Empirical evidence also supports the competition-fragility view in the case of developing countries, while it favors the competition-stability hypothesis in developed economies.
•Higher financial openness and better institutional quality contribute to stronger financial stability.•Impact of financial openness on bank risk-taking depends on institutional development.•These effects are different in developed and developing countries.
ObjectiveThis study aimed to measure the exposure of residents to health education messages about non-communicable diseases (NCD)-related risk factors, and activities of village health workers (VHWs) ...in NCDs prevention and control in the mountainous setting of Vietnam.MethodA cross-sectional study was performed in Dap Thanh commune (Ba Che, Quang Ninh province, Vietnam), a mountainous area. There were 151 residents aged 18 years or above recruited for this study. Information regarding exposure to messages about risk factors of NCDs, and activities of VHWs was collected via face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression was employed to identify associated factors with exposing messages about NCD-related risk factors.ResultsThe majority of participants heard about messages related to risk factors of NCDs in the last 30 days, from 56.3% (physical inactivity message), 59.6% (diet message), 75.5% (alcohol use message) to 79.5% (smoking message). Radio/television was the most common source of the messages (from 91.8% to 95.8%) and the majority of participants heard these messages from one source (from 77.1% to 80.9%). Most of sample reported the unavailability of VHWs in their locals (53.6%). Among locals having VHWs, health communication and education was the most common service provided (54.3%); however, only 30% received NCD management services. Participants who had other jobs were less likely to hear about diet-related messages (OR = 0.32; 95%CI = 0.11-0.92), and those ever smoking were more likely to hear these messages in the last 30 days (OR = 6.86; 95%CI = 1.06-44.51). People who had diabetes mellitus were more likely to hear physical activity-related messages in the last 30 days (OR = 2.55; 95%CI = 1.20-5.41).ConclusionOur findings indicated that health communication regarding risk factors of NCDs in mountainous areas in Vietnam was insufficient, and the role of health workers as formal information source was not recognized. Efforts should be made to increase the capacity and involvement of VHWs in health education and NCD prevention in mountainous regions.
This study aimed to measure the exposure of residents to health education messages about non-communicable diseases (NCD)-related risk factors, and activities of village health workers (VHWs) in NCDs ...prevention and control in the mountainous setting of Vietnam. A cross-sectional study was performed in Dap Thanh commune (Ba Che, Quang Ninh province, Vietnam), a mountainous area. There were 151 residents aged 18 years or above recruited for this study. Information regarding exposure to messages about risk factors of NCDs, and activities of VHWs was collected via face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression was employed to identify associated factors with exposing messages about NCD-related risk factors. The majority of participants heard about messages related to risk factors of NCDs in the last 30 days, from 56.3% (physical inactivity message), 59.6% (diet message), 75.5% (alcohol use message) to 79.5% (smoking message). Radio/television was the most common source of the messages (from 91.8% to 95.8%) and the majority of participants heard these messages from one source (from 77.1% to 80.9%). Most of sample reported the unavailability of VHWs in their locals (53.6%). Among locals having VHWs, health communication and education was the most common service provided (54.3%); however, only 30% received NCD management services. Participants who had other jobs were less likely to hear about diet-related messages (OR = 0.32; 95%CI = 0.11-0.92), and those ever smoking were more likely to hear these messages in the last 30 days (OR = 6.86; 95%CI = 1.06-44.51). People who had diabetes mellitus were more likely to hear physical activity-related messages in the last 30 days (OR = 2.55; 95%CI = 1.20-5.41). Our findings indicated that health communication regarding risk factors of NCDs in mountainous areas in Vietnam was insufficient, and the role of health workers as formal information source was not recognized. Efforts should be made to increase the capacity and involvement of VHWs in health education and NCD prevention in mountainous regions.
The link between gender inequality and foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries is also a contentious issue. Gender inequality is also considered to have a negative impact on economic ...development due to the constraints on the labor market and women’s empowerment. This study aims to investigate the impact of gender inequality on the FDI inflow in developing countries. Our data consist of 27 developing economies in the Asia–Pacific region covering the period from 1992 to 2011. Employing the two steps system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), we find that gender equality plays an important role in attracting FDI flows into developing countries.
Pro-cyclical fiscal policy has raised concern in many emerging economies due to its adverse consequences to the economic activities. This paper takes a different approach to the issue, which aims to ...examine the bidirectional relationships between fiscal policy and stock market activities, using a panel of 12 emerging Asia-Pacific economies from 1990 to 2015. We estimate a variety of Panel Vector Autoregressive models to test for the consistence of the results. The empirical results show that fiscal policies in these countries tend to a pro-cyclical path in responding to stock market movements. The pro-cyclical behavior is found with both government expenditure and government revenue. On the other hand, a fiscal consolidation attempt has a rewarding effect on stock prices.
•Confirm the bidirectional relationship between stock return and fiscal policy•Pro-cyclical fiscal policy with respect to stock market movements•Both government expenditure and government revenue are pro-cyclical.•A fiscal consolidation attempt has a rewarding effect on stock prices.
