Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Leverage effects in a multiasset framework

This article uses a bivariate stochastic volatility model to examine the leverage effects for two stock returns. The results show that the leverage effect estimates for each stock depend on the degree to which the risk premium is affected by the information about the other stock and that different leverage effect measures may not react in the same way to a change in this information. The results suggest that an additional factor that may explain the leverage effects observed for a given stock return is the relevant information about other stocks, and also that leverage effects may be better studied in a multiasset framework than by considering the stock returns separately.
Rational Expectations and Price Determination in the US Oats Market

This paper develops a simultaneous rational expectations model of the U.S. oats market. Consistent estimates of the structural parameters are obtained by the instrumental variables method, and 15 of 16 parameter estimates are significant at the 5 percent level. Estimated elasticities suggest that hedged stocks are more responsive to price changes than unhedged stocks, and that consumption demand for oats is more responsive to income changes than to changes in price. Post-sample forecasts of the spot price derived from this model are employed to test the semi-strong form efficient markets hypothesis (EMH), although the futures price outperforms the model as a predictor of the spot price. Hence the EMH cannot be rejected. Copyright 1992 by The Economic Society of Australia.
Globalisation and the foreignisation of space: seven processes driving the current global land grab

The current global land grab is causing radical changes in the use and ownership of land. The main process driving the land grab, or ‘foreignisation of space’, as highlighted in the media and the emerging literature is the production of food and biofuel for export in the aftermath of recent food and energy crises. However, there are several other processes driving the land rush. In this article I argue that an analytical framework that focuses on only one or two processes that drive the global land grab offers a narrow perspective on this complex process. It will be unable to take into account the full range and extent of agrarian and social changes that occur in light of the land grab and their strategic implications for poor people's livelihoods. An important starting point is to identify the broad processes driving the current land rush, and trace their structural and institutional origins. To do so, I identify and examine seven factors that are giving rise to radical changes in landownership and land use in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Finally, ‘codes of conduct’ as proposed by several quarters in the context of global land grab are unlikely to work in favour of the poor.
Interest Rate Spreads in the Eastern Caribbean

This paper examines interest rate spreads in the Eastern Caribbean and seeks to explain why they are persistently high by comparison with other low-inflation countries. The paper concludes that operating costs appear to be a key determinant of observed interest rate spreads, giving rise to the policy recommendation that efforts to expand the market size of efficient banks might help pave the way for greater efficiency.
Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Defects in a Mouse Model of Human Barth Syndrome*

Barth syndrome is an X-linked genetic disorder caused by mutations in the tafazzin (taz) gene and characterized by dilated cardiomyopathy, exercise intolerance, chronic fatigue, delayed growth, and neutropenia. Tafazzin is a mitochondrial transacylase required for cardiolipin remodeling. Although tafazzin function has been studied in non-mammalian model organisms, mammalian genetic loss of function approaches have not been used. We examined the consequences of tafazzin knockdown on sarcomeric mitochondria and cardiac function in mice. Tafazzin knockdown resulted in a dramatic decrease of tetralinoleoyl cardiolipin in cardiac and skeletal muscles and accumulation of monolysocardiolipins and cardiolipin molecular species with aberrant acyl groups. Electron microscopy revealed pathological changes in mitochondria, myofibrils, and mitochondrion-associated membranes in skeletal and cardiac muscles. Echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed severe cardiac abnormalities, including left ventricular dilation, left ventricular mass reduction, and depression of fractional shortening and ejection fraction in tafazzin-deficient mice. Tafazzin knockdown mice provide the first mammalian model system for Barth syndrome in which the pathophysiological relationships between altered content of mitochondrial phospholipids, ultrastructural abnormalities, myocardial and mitochondrial dysfunction, and clinical outcome can be completely investigated.
Equity and CDS Sector Indices: Dynamic Models and Risk Hedging

The recent financial crisis had a substantial impact on equity and bond markets, as well as on the performances of managed portfolios which have been hit by the decrease of both indices. Nevertheless, the availability of indices monitoring the equity market volatility, the VIX index, credit markets default risk, and CDS indices, allows for the construction of hedging strategies. In this paper, we take the point of view of an equity investor who wants to hedge the equity risk by taking positions either on the VIX index or on CDS indices. In deriving the hedge ratios, we consider the joint dynamic of variables taking into account mean relations, variance spillovers, and asymmetry, as well as correlation changes over time. Our analysis is based on sectorial indices and shows the advantages of hedging and the impact of a model specification.
Long-term safety evaluation of natalizumab for the treatment of multiple sclerosis

ABSTRACT Introduction: Natalizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody highly effective in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). Important concerns about its safety have been pointed out mainly because of the risk of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), caused by the opportunistic John-Cunningham virus (JCV). Areas covered: This review analyzes all the safety aspects related to the use and safety of natalizumab in MS patients. Other than PML, post-marketing, safety red-flags have been reported, as liver or haematological serious adverse events. Pregnancy evidences will be pointed out. The risk of PML depends on: concomitant or previous immunosuppression, exposure duration, anti–JCV antibody level. In natalizumab-related PML the average survival is 77%; prognostic features and information for the earliest identification of PML have been identified to maximally reduce its incidence, mortality and morbidity. Expert opinion: Natalizumab is a highly effective drug for MS patients but its safety issues represent a relevant limitation and impose strict clinical surveillance of treated patients. Some post-marketing safety red-flags have been pointed out, with higher attention to severe liver failures and limphoma cases. If PML and its consequences are considered the most relevant issues, a continuous surveillance must be maintained also regarding other possible SAEs like liver diseases and malignancies.
Primary Systemic Amyloidosis Presenting as Extensive Cutaneous Ulceration

Background: We report a case of primary systemic amyloidosis in a 78-year-old Caucasian woman presented as a nonhealing ulcer on the right thigh for 3 months. Histopathology of the skin revealed widely thickened walls of middermal and subcutaneous vessels from deposition of amorphous eosinophilic material that stained positively with Congo red and crystal violet. Objective: This case represents a very unusual presentation of primary systemic amyloidosis, one in which the cutaneous manifestations provided the first signs of a devastatingly widespread multiorgan infiltration of amyloid protein. Conclusion: This presentation of the disease may signify an advanced stage with a grave prognosis as our patient passed away 3 months after development of the cutaneous ulceration.
Seasonality and the Valuation of Commodity Options

Price movements in many commodity markets exhibit significant seasonal patterns. However, given an observed futures price, a deterministic seasonal component at the price level is not relevant for the pricing of commodity options. In contrast, this is not true for the seasonal pattern observed in the volatility of the commodity price. Analyzing an extensive sample of soybean, corn, heating oil and natural gas options, we find that seasonality in volatility is an important aspect to consider when valuing these contracts. The inclusion of an appropriate seasonality adjustment significantly reduces pricing errors in these markets and yields more improvement in valuation accuracy than increasing the number of stochastic factors.
The Great Depression as a Credit Boom Gone Wrong

The experience of the 1990s renewed economists’ interest in the role of credit in macroeconomic fluctuations. The locus classicus of the credit-boom view of economic cycles is the expansion of the 1920s and the Great Depression. In this paper we ask how well quantitative measures of the credit boom phenomenon can explain the uneven expansion of the 1920s and the slump of the 1930s. We complement this macroeconomic analysis with three sectoral studies that shed further light on the explanatory power of the credit boom interpretation: the property market, consumer durables industries, and high-tech sectors. We conclude that the credit boom view provides a useful perspective on both the boom of the 1920s and the subsequent slump. In particular, it directs attention to the role played by the structure of the financial sector and the interaction of finance and innovation. The credit boom and its ultimate impact were especially pronounced where the organization and history of the financial sector led intermediaries to compete aggressively in providing credit. And the impact on financial markets and the economy was particularly evident in countries that saw the development of new network technologies with commercial potential that in practice took considerable time to be realized. In addition, the structure and management of the monetary regime mattered importantly. The procyclical character of the foreign exchange component of global international reserves and the failure of domestic monetary authorities to use stable policy rules to guide the more discretionary approach to monetary management that replaced the more rigid rules-based gold standard of the earlier era are key for explaining the developments in credit markets that helped to set the stage for the Great Depression.
Rapid maxillary expansion in children with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of rapid maxillary expansion on children with nasal breathing and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. METHOD Recruitment of children with maxillary contraction, without of adenoid hypertrophy, with a body mass index < 24 kg/m2, with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome demonstrated by polysomnography, and whose parents signed informed consent. Otolaryngologic and orthognathic-odontologic evaluation with clinical evaluation, anterior rhinometry and nasal fibroscopy, panoramic radiographs, anteroposterior and laterolateral telecephalometry were performed at entry and follow-up. INTERVENTION Rapid maxillary expansion (ie, active phase of treatment) was performed for 10 to 20 days; maintenance of device (for consolidation) and orthodontic treatment on teeth lasted 6 to 12 months. RESULTS 31 children (19 boys), mean age 8.7 years, participated in the study. The mean apnea-hypopnea index was 12.2 events per hour. At the 4-month follow-up, the anterior rhinometry was normal, and all children had an apnea-hypopnea index < 1 event per hour. The mean cross-sectional expansion of the maxilla was 4.32 +/- 0.7 mm. There was a mean increase of the pyriform opening of 1.3 +/- 0.3 mm. CONCLUSION Rapid maxillary expansion may be a useful approach in dealing with abnormal breathing during sleep.
Determinants of Current Account Developments in the Central and East European EU Member States - Consequences for the Enlargement of the Euro Area

The current accounts of most EU member states in central and eastern Europe have been showing growing deficits in recent years. According to panel estimates the deficits can be attributed primarily to factors characteristic for the stage of development, ie the relative income level and high capital building. The positive impact of a closing income gap, however, is largely compensated by real appreciation. The net effect of government budget deficits is rather small, since they are mostly financed by private saving. Further integration of the financial sector is likely to improve the current accounts. Although the current account positions do not require fundamental policy reversals, there are clear risks of exchange rate adjustments that should be reduced before entering the euro area.
The trypanosome leucine repeat gene in the variant surface glycoprotein expression site encodes a putative metal-binding domain and a region resembling protein-binding domains of yeast, Drosophila, and mammalian proteins

We have identified a new variant surface glycoprotein expression site-associated gene (ESAG) in Trypanosoma brucei, the trypanosome leucine repeat (T-LR) gene. Like most other ESAGs, it is expressed in a life cycle stage-specific manner. The N-terminal 20% of the predicted T-LR protein resembles the metal-binding domains of nucleic acid-binding proteins. The remainder is composed of leucine-rich repeats that are characteristic of protein-binding domains found in a variety of other eucaryote proteins. This is the first report of leucine-rich repeats and potential nucleic acid-binding domains on the same protein. The T-LR gene is adjacent to ESAG 4, which has homology to the catalytic domain of adenylate cyclase. This is intriguing, since yeast adenylate cyclase has a leucine-rich repeat regulatory domain. The leucine-rich repeat and putative metal-binding domains suggest a possible regulatory role that may involve adenylate cyclase activity or nucleic acid binding.
Stimulation of the phosphoinositide signalling system as a possible mechanism for glucocorticoid action in blood pressure control

Cortisol stimulates the phosphoinositide signalling system in smooth muscle cells of the rat aorta. After stimulation of the cells with cortisol, epinephrine or both compounds, inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate concentrations were analysed by standardized ionexchange chromatography procedure. A 15-min stimulation with physiological concentrations of cortisol (0.02–5.0 μg/ml) led to a dose-dependent increase of the inositol trisphosphate concentrations (up to 500%) and also to a translocation of the calcium-and lipid-dependent protein kinase C activity from the cytosolic to the membranous compartment. Incubation of smooth muscle cells with epinephrine (10-9 to -5 mol/l) did not lead to an increase in the inositol trisphosphate concentrations. However, after pre-incubation with an average dose of cortisol (0.2 μg/ml) the inositol trisphosphate response was potentiated by 10-7 mol/l epinephrine. Our results suggest that stimulation of the phosphoinositide system is a still unknown mechanism of glucocorticoid action in smooth muscle cells, which could influence intracellular free calcium and thus vascular reactivity and blood pressure.
Regional Analysis of Tourism Resources for Marketing Purposes

This article identifies spatial patterns in Michigan's tourism resource base, reports the extent to which these patterns explain the spatial distribution of aggregate tourist expendi tures in Michigan, and delineates the state's tourism regions. Strong regional variations in tourism resources were discovered. Urban tourism resources had the greatest influence in explaining spatial variations in tourist spending, and regions formed on the basis of tourism resource patterns differed significantly from the jurisdictions of multicounty tourism promotion organizations in the state. Marketing implications are discussed and sugges tions for further research are advanced.
The fall of Nikita Khrushchev

ON 14 OCTOBER 1964 Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev's 11-year period of dominance within the Soviet leadership came to an end. He was stripped of his party and state posts and sent into an obscure retirement by the very men who had been closest to him throughout his long career. Virtually overnight he became something of an 'un-person' in the Soviet Union: his name disappeared from the mass media and was scarcely mentioned even in such denunciations as followed his ouster. Nor were there even very many of these: there were no show trials, no ritual attacks at party congresses, no public confessions nor even any expulsions from the party. The circumstances surrounding his removal remained a mystery and the coup itself was euphemistically referred to as 'the October plenum'. The Khrushchev era had indeed ended not with a bang but a whimper and the long, debilitating reign of Leonid Brezhnev had begun. In terms of Soviet history 'the October plenum' is an event of tremendous importance. It represents one of the key turning points along the path which has led the Soviet Union from the upheavals of 1917 to the crisis of the present day. The 'Great October Palace Revolution' inaugurated two decades of political stagnation, the effects of which are still painfully in evidence in the USSR today. Moreover, an understanding of Khrushchev's ouster in 1964 would contribute greatly to our broader understanding of Soviet politics in the post-war period. It is therefore most fortunate that a number of interviews, memoirs and analyses of Khrushchev's fall-many of them by the very men involved-have recently appeared in the Soviet Union. Though often contradictory, when taken together they present enough information to allow a fairly confident reconstruction of what took place. The picture which emerges is in many ways sharply at odds with accounts of the coup advanced by Western observers since 1964. It also challenges certain Western images of Soviet high politics during the post-Stalin era. Much Western misunderstanding of the 1964 coup stems from the incorrect assumption that the plot to remove Khrushchev was hatched and executed with great speed, in October 1964. Michel Tatu, in what is arguably the best early reconstruction of Khrushchev's ouster, reckoned that the plot finally took shape
[Hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance in children].

BACKGROUND Obesity during childhood is a risk factor for developing cardiovascular diseases during adulthood. AIM To measure insulin and glucose levels and parameters of insulin resistance in obese, overweight and normal weight Mexican children. MATERIAL AND METHODS Comparative study of 21 obese children with a body mass index (BMI) over percentile 95, aged 10 ± 1 years (10 males), 14 children aged 10 ± 2 (7 males) with a BMI between percentiles 85 and 94 and 16 children aged 9 ± 2 years (3 males) with a body mass index between percentiles 10 and 84. Body weight, blood pressure and waist circumference were measured and a blood sample was obtained to measure fasting glucose and insulin levels. Homeostasis model of insulin resistance (HOMA) and quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI) were calculated. RESULTS Among obese, overweight and normal weight children, insulin levels were 14.9 (95% CI 10.90-18.99), 7.20 (CI 5.12-9.28) and 4.73 (CI 95% 1.92-7.53) uU/ml, respectively. The figures for HOMA were 3.16 (95% CI 2.20-4.12), 1.49 (95% CI 1.03-1.94) and 0.97 (95% CI 0.35-1.60), respectively. The figures for QUICKI were 0.331 (95% CI 0.319-0.343), 0.371 (95% CI 0.349-0.393) and 0.419 (95% CI 0.391-0.446), respectively. Compared to their normal weight counterparts, the risk of obese children and those with a waist circumference over percentile 90 of having a HOMA over 3.16 was 17 and 10 times higher, respectively. BMI correlated better than waist circumference with insulin levels. CONCLUSIONS Obese children have higher levels of insulin resistance than their normal weight counterparts.
Debt Dynamics and Global Imbalances: Some Conventional Views Reconsidered

We use a general-equilibrium model to explain the rise in global trade and payments imbalances since the mid-1990s, and then to construct adjustment paths to a steady state. Assuming that the shocks giving rise to the imbalances do not suddenly reverse, simulated movements in the U.S. trade deficit and exchange rate are smaller and more gradual than suggested by partial-equilibrium analyses. An important factor reducing the size of the adjustments is a simulated real interest rate on U.S. external liabilities that is below both the interest rate on external assets and the U.S. real economic growth rate. In addition, the adjustment takes place over an extended period without significantly raising the share of U.S. assets in foreign portfolios, in part because depreciation of the dollar requires continued foreign accumulation of U.S. assets just to keep their portfolio share constant.
Patterns of adherence of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli to HEp-2 cells.

A total of 516 Escherichia coli strains randomly isolated from coprocultures of 154 Chilean children with diarrhea and 66 controls were examined with DNA probes and tested for adherence to HEp-2 cells. Three adherence patterns were distinguished, localized, true diffuse and "aggregative. " Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) were detected by EPEC adherence factor probe among 86 of the 372 isolates (23%) from patients with diarrhea vs. 14 of 144 (10%) strains from controls (P less than 0.0002). Of 95 strains that manifested localized adherence, 97% were EPEC adherence factor probe-positive; thus the HEp-2 assay may serve as an alternative to the probe in identifying EPEC adherence factor-positive EPEC. True diffuse adherence was not associated with diarrhea. In contrast the aggregative pattern appears to signify a new, distinct class of diarrheagenic E. coli (enteroadherent-aggregative E. coli). The aggregative pattern was found in only 3 of 27 enterotoxigenic, 0 of 4 enteroinvasive, 0 of 2 enterohemorrhagic and 2 of 86 EPEC strains but in 84 of 253 probe-negative strains (P less than 0.00001) from patients with diarrhea; in comparison only 20 of 134 probe-negative strains from controls were aggregative E. coli (P less than 0.00001 vs. probe-negative strains from diarrhea patients).
Review of existing terrestrial bioaccumulation models and terrestrial bioaccumulation modeling needs for organic chemicals

Protocols for terrestrial bioaccumulation assessments are far less‐developed than for aquatic systems. This article reviews modeling approaches that can be used to assess the terrestrial bioaccumulation potential of commercial organic chemicals. Models exist for plant, invertebrate, mammal, and avian species and for entire terrestrial food webs, including some that consider spatial factors. Limitations and gaps in terrestrial bioaccumulation modeling include the lack of QSARs for biotransformation and dietary assimilation efficiencies for terrestrial species; the lack of models and QSARs for important terrestrial species such as insects, amphibians and reptiles; the lack of standardized testing protocols for plants with limited development of plant models; and the limited chemical domain of existing bioaccumulation models and QSARs (e.g., primarily applicable to nonionic organic chemicals). There is an urgent need for high‐quality field data sets for validating models and assessing their performance. There is a need to improve coordination among laboratory, field, and modeling efforts on bioaccumulative substances in order to improve the state of the science for challenging substances. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2016;12:123–134. © 2015 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.