In early breast cancer progression, cancer cells invade through a nanoporous basement membrane (BM) as a first key step toward metastasis. This invasion is thought to be mediated by a combination of proteases, which biochemically degrade BM matrix, and physical forces, which mechanically open up holes in the matrix. To date, techniques that quantify cellular forces of BM invasion in 3D culture have been unavailable. Here, we developed cellular-force measurements for breast cancer cell invasion in 3D culture that combine multiple-particle tracking of force-induced BM-matrix displacements at the nanoscale, and magnetic microrheometry of localized matrix mechanics. We find that cancer-cell protrusions exert forces from picoNewtons up to nanoNewtons during invasion. Strikingly, the protrusions extension involves stepwise increases in force, in steps of 0.2 to 0.5 nN exerted from every 30 s to 6 min. Thus, this technique reveals previously unreported dynamics of force generation by invasive protrusions in cancer cells.

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This paper analyses the bankruptcy prediction based on the population of companies representative of the total business sector in Croatia. The representativity of the sample is achieved through the propensity score matching of the full population of bankrupt and similar non-bankrupt companies. The robust estimation of bankruptcy prediction is carried out through the multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) and logistic regression (logit). The results indicate high classification accuracy of both models, but more favourable performance of the logit estimation. Overall accuracy of the MDA model was 73.7%, while the overall accuracy of the logit model was 76.3%. The results serve as a bankruptcy estimation benchmark for the business sector in Croatia.

The goal of the paper is to estimate relative importance of channels of technological diffusion between new member states and core EU countries. Based on neoclassical growth theory and extensive literature survey on technological diffusion we explore movements in the relative TFP in EU member states and try to identify relative importance of channels of technological diffusion as suggested by theory: imports, exports, FDI, R&D, human capital and fixed capital formation, etc. In the first step we employ Phillips and Sul (2007) log t test which has power to detect convergence even in the absence of cointegration between time series. In the second part we employ Abrigo and Love (2016) PVAR model in order to detect channels of diffusion of technology. The data is sampled from Eurostat and PWT repository and covers the period from 1995-2016 for panel analysis and 1950-2014 for TFP convergence analysis. Our results indicate that in the overall sample FDI and R&D are major drivers of technological change, while, contrary to conventional wisdom, trade openness and human capital are dominant channels for TFP diffusion in periphery countries. The overall results point that productivity gap reduction is a heterogeneous process, country specific problem, but on average in the periphery it can be supported through various economic policies focused on openness and human capital.

Purpose – The COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented in terms of the speed at which it spread globally, affected the whole world swiftly after the initial outbreak and has produced heterogeneous effects on various industrial sectors and particularly pronounced effects on the tourism industry. This paper analyses the effect of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic through Europe on the tourist stocks in Croatia by means of application of the event study methodology. Methodology – The analysis starts with a descriptive overview of the market-wide performance of different sectors in the period before, during and after the initial pandemic outbreak and subsequently explicitly tests for the COVID-19 outbreak effects on the tourist sector. First, a 35- day event window is specified so that important events related to the pandemic can be identified. Second, the first officially reported COVID-19 incidence in Italy and the World Health Organization’s declaration of a global pandemic are used as identified events in a shorter 10day window event study estimation. Findings – The results robustly point to the significant negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the returns of tourist stocks on the Zagreb Stock Exchange. However, the overall results do not provide evidence of the relatively stronger COVID-19 effects on the tourist sector, but rather equal effects across different sectors. Contribution – This research offers a novel comprehensive review of the literature regarding the research topic and provides insights into the sectoral effects of the global financial shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the local market. As this pandemic is increasing the market volatility, this research will be of importance to fund managers and carries implications for economic policy in terms of sectoral stimulus distribution and debt refinancing.