pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Sculpting Metal‐binding Environments in De Novo Designed Three‐helix Bundles

De novo protein design is a biologically relevant approach used to study the active centers of native metalloproteins. In this review, we will first discuss the design process in achieving α3D, a de novo designed three‐helix bundle peptide with a well‐defined fold. We will then cover our recent work in functionalizing the α3D framework by incorporating a tris(cysteine) and tris(histidine) motif. Our first design contains the thiol‐rich sites found in metalloregulatory proteins that control the levels of toxic metal ions (Hg, Cd, and Pb). The latter design recapitulates the catalytic site and activity of a natural metalloenzyme carbonic anhydrase. The review will conclude with future design goals aimed at introducing an asymmetric metal‐binding site in the α3D framework
Computational approaches to understanding the self-assembly of peptide-based nanostructures

The interest in the self-assembly of peptide-based systems has grown significantly over the past 10–15 years, as more and more applications are shown to benefit from the useful properties of the amino acid based monomers. With the desire to apply the principals of self-assembly to systems within new application areas, there has been an increasing emphasis in understanding the governing forces involved in the self-assembly process, and using this understanding to predict the behaviour of, and design, new materials. To this end, computational approaches have played an increasingly important role over the past decade in helping to decode how small changes in the primary structure can lead to significantly different nanostructures with new function. In this review, a brief survey of the different computational approaches employed in this quest for understanding are provided, along with representative examples of the types of questions that can be answered with each of the different approaches
The G-JF Thermostat for Accurate Configurational Sampling in Soft-Matter
  Simulations

We implement the statistically sound G-JF thermostat for Langevin Dynamics
simulations into the ESPREesSo molecular package for large-scale simulations of
soft matter systems. The implemented integration method is tested against the
integrator currently used by the molecular package in simulations of a fluid
bilayer membrane. While the latter exhibits deviations in the sampling
statistics that increase with the integration time step dt, the former
reproduces near-correct configurational statistics for all dt within the
stability range of the simulations. We conclude that, with very modest
revisions to existing codes, one can significantly improve the performance of
statistical sampling using Langevin thermostats.Comment: Six pages, seven figures. Accepted for publication in Israel Journal
  of Chemistr
Distance and Political Boundaries: Estimating Border Effects under Inequality Constraints

The ‘border effects’ literature finds that political boundaries have a large impact on relative prices across locations. In this paper, we show that the standard empirical specification suffers from selection bias and propose a new methodology based on binned-quantile regressions. We use a novel micro-price dataset from Uruguay and focus on city borders. We find that, when the standard methodology is used, two supermarkets separated by 10 km across two different cities have the same price dispersion as two supermarkets separated by 30 km within the same city, implying that crossing a city border is equivalent to tripling the distance. By contrast, when upper quantiles are used the city border effect disappears. These findings imply that transport cost have been systematically underestimated by the previous literature. Our methodology can be applied to measure any kind of border effect. We illustrate this in the context of online–offline price dispersion to measure an ‘online-border’ effect in the city of Montevideo.Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (Uruguay) (Grant # ‘FMV_2_2011_1_6318
What Does Rebalancing Really Achieve?

There is now a substantial literature on the effects of rebalancing on portfolio performance. However, this literature contains frequent misattribution between ‘rebalancing returns’ which are specific to the act of rebalancing, and ‘diversification returns’ which can be earned by both rebalanced and unrebalanced strategies. Confusion on this issue can encourage investors to follow strategies which involve insufficient diversification and excessive transactions costs. This paper identifies the misleading claims that are made for rebalanced strategies and demonstrates theoretically and by simulation that the apparent advantages of rebalanced strategies over infinite horizons give an inaccurate impression of their performance over finite horizons
Islamic banking, credit, and economic growth : some empirical evidence.

This paper examines the effects of Islamic banking on the causal linkages between credit and gross domestic product (GDP) by comparing two sets of seven emerging countries, the first without Islamic banks and the second with a dual banking system including both Islamic and conventional banks. Unlike previous studies, it checks the robustness of the results by applying both time series and panel methods; moreover, it tests for both long‐ and short‐run causality. In brief, the findings highlight significant differences between the two sets of countries reflecting the distinctive features of Islamic banks. Specifically, the time series analysis provides evidence of long‐run causality running from credit to GDP in countries with Islamic banks. This is confirmed by the panel causality tests, although in this case short‐run causality in countries without Islamic banks is also found
How has the global financial crisis affected syndicated loan terms in emerging markets? Evidence from China

This paper examines the impact of the recent global financial crisis on the cost of debt capital (syndicated loans) in a leading emerging market, namely China, using the difference-in-differences approach. Before the crisis China adopted banking reforms allowing the entry of foreign banks and more domestic participation in the syndicated loan market. As a result, during the crisis the volume of syndicated loans grew steadily, in contrast to other countries. In addition, the amount of foreign syndicated loans decreased and average maturity increased compared to the pre-crisis period. Our findings provide useful information to policy makers for devising effective responses to financial crises
Transmission of equity returns and volatility in Asian developed and emerging markets : a multivariate Garch analysis

This paper examines the transmission of equity returns and volatility among Asian equity markets and investigates the differences that exist in this regard between the developed and emerging markets. Three developed markets (Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore) and six emerging markets (Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan andThailand) are included in the analysis. A multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (MGARCH) model is used to identify the source and magnitude of spillovers. The results generally indicate the presence of large and predominantly positive mean and volatility spillovers. Nevertheless, mean spillovers from the\ud
developed to the emerging markets are not homogeneous across the emerging markets, and own-volatility spillovers are generally higher than cross-volatility spillovers for all markets, but especially for the emerging markets
Limits to international arbitrage: An empirical evaluation

This paper studies international financial integration by testing the law of one price across national borders. We use the distance between national discount factors as an integration measure and analyze the level of cross-border mispricing. The empirical analysis shows that pricing differentials are relatively large in economic terms. This lack of international financial integration is subsequently analyzed in the market micro-finance literature. We find that market characteristics explain a considerable part of the variance in our cross-section of pricing differentials. Copyrigh
'Noise trader risk' and Bayesian market making in FX derivatives: rolling loaded dice?

ABSTRACT
This paper develops and simulates a model of a Bayesian market maker who transacts with noise and position traders in derivative markets. The impact of noise trading is examined relative to price determination in FX futures, noise transmission from futures to options, and risk-management behaviour linking the two markets. The model simulations show noise trading in futures results in wider bid–ask spreads, increased price volatility, and greater variation in hedging costs. Above all, the Bayesian market maker manages price-risk by trend chasing not for speculative purposes, but to avoid being caught on the wrong side of the market. The pecuniary effects from this risk-management strategy suggest that noise trading tends to constrain the market maker’s capacity to arbitrage; particularly when the underlying price is mean averting as opposed to a Martingale and trading sessions exhibit significant price volatility. Copyright r 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright r 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Short- and long-run determinants of sovereign debt credit ratings

We study the determinants of sovereign debt ratings from the three main international rating agencies, for the period 1995-2005. Using linear and ordered response models we employ a specification that allows us to distinguish between short and long-run effects, on a country’s rating, of macroeconomic and fiscal variables. The results point to a good performance of the models in explaining a country’s rating, both across agencies and time. Changes in GDP per capita, GDP growth, government debt, and government balance have a short-run impact on a country’s credit rating, while government effectiveness, external debt, foreign reserves and default history are important long-run determinants
Oil and portfolio risk diversification

The growing presence of financial operators in the oil market has brought about the diffusion of techniques - such as feedback trading - which lead to departures of prices from their fundamental values and increase their variability. Oil price changes are here associated with changes in stocks, bonds and effective USD exchange rate. The feedback trading mechanism is combined with an ICAPM scheme. This original model is  estimated in a four asset CCC GARCH non linear framework, where the risk premium and the feedback trading components of the conditional means are multiplicative functions of the system’s conditional variances and covariances. The empirical analysis, which encompasses the 2008-2009  financial crisis, identifies a structural change in the year 2000. From then on oil returns tend to become more reactive to the remaining assets of the model and feedback trading more pervasive. A comparison is drawn between three and four asset minimum variance portfolios in the two sub-periods, 1992-1999 and 2000-2009. Indeed, the trade-off between risk and returns – measured here by the average return per unit of risk index – indicates that in the last decade oil diversifies away the empirical risk of our portfolio.
Order flow and exchange rate dynamics: an application to emerging markets

The paper examines short-run exchange rate dynamics in an emerging market based on the recent microstructure framework of foreign exchange markets where the main explanatory variable is the order flow of end-user customers. The study makes two main contributions to the literature: it modifies the basic microstructural FX model to take account of key features of the majority of emerging markets, namely the existence of a black market for FX and the presence of market inefficiencies; and it uses a unique database covering almost the complete Ghanaian market, and for a long time span compared with previous studies. We find that the unexpected component of order flow has a positive and long-lived effect on the official exchange rate in both stable and crisis periods, consistent with the basic microstructural approach. The price impact of unexpected order flow is related to the level of liquidity in the market. Expected order flow also impacts the exchange rate, suggesting inefficiencies in the market
Socially responsible investing in the global market : the performance of US and European funds

This paper investigates the style and performance of US and European global
socially responsible funds. Several specifications of the return generating process are
applied as well as their corresponding conditional versions.
Most European global socially responsible funds do not show significant
performance differences in relation to both conventional benchmarks and socially
responsible benchmarks. US funds and Austrian funds show evidence of
underperformance. By applying conditional models, we find evidence of time-varying
betas, but not of time-varying alphas. With respect to investment style, we find evidence
that socially responsible funds are strongly exposed to small cap and growth stocks.
While these results are consistent with previous studies, they uncover some
misclassification issues in these funds. Finally, we also document a significant home
bias for global socially responsible funds.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT
Overview of the benefitsand potential issues of the nonavalent HPV vaccine

HPV-related diseases affect anogenital and oropharyngeal regions, heavily affecting the psychosexual dimension of both male and female individuals. HPV vaccination programs based on a bivalent or quadrivalent vaccine have opened broad perspectives for primary prevention. A nonavalent HPV vaccine (9vHPV), covering nine genotypes (HPV6, HPV11, HPV16, HPV18, HPV31, HPV33, HPV45, HPV52, and HPV58), might provide further improvement in terms of direct protection. In the present report, efficacy and safety data from 9vHPV vaccine development programs are examined.\ud
Efficacy data come from a pivotal trial, which was conducted among women aged 16–26 years randomly assigned to receive either the 9vHPV or the quadrivalent HPV (4vHPV) vaccine. The 9vHPV vaccine was shown to have potential benefits as compared with 4vHPV, increasing the overall estimated rate of prevention to 90% for cervical cancer and up to 80% for precancerous cervical lesions. For all other HPV-related\ud
pre-invasive and invasive lesions, 9vHPV showed potentially greater disease reduction, depending on the anatomic region examined. Thus, the 9vHPV vaccine\ud
shows clinical potential for the prevention of HPV-related diseases in both sexes.\ud
Future adoption of 9vHPV will depend on factors including market price, cost-effectiveness data, use of a two-dose schedule, and safety and efficacy monitoring in real-life programs
Surgical pelvic anatomy in gynecologic oncology.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Puntambekar, S. and R. Manchanda (2018). "Surgical pelvic anatomy in gynecologic oncology." International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics 143(S2): 86-92., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/ijgo.12616 . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived VersionsLaparoscopy, with its many advantages, has revolutionized the field of pelvic surgery and enabled surgeons to gain a far greater understanding of pelvic anatomy. As technology evolves, our understanding is continuously improving. This article is a tribute to the anatomy of the pelvis, which itself has resisted evolutionary changes and remained the same, whereas our understanding of how to view and approach various organ structures has evolved
Amplification of Attentional Blink by Distress Related Facial Expressions: Relationships with Alexithymia and Affectivity

The present studies aimed to analyse the modulatory effect of distressing facial expressions on attention processing. The attentional blink (AB) paradigm is one of the most widely used paradigms for studying temporal attention, and is increasingly applied to study the temporal dynamics of emotion processing. The aims of this study were to investigate how identifying fear and pain facial expressions (Study 1) and fear and anger facial expressions (Study 2) would influence the detection of subsequent stimuli presented within short time intervals, and to assess the moderating influence of alexithymia and affectivity on this effect. It has been suggested that high alexithymia scorers need more attentional resources to process distressing facial expressions and that negative affectivity increases the AB. We showed that fear, anger and pain produced an AB and that alexithymia moderated it such that difficulty in describing feelings (Study 1) and externally oriented thinking (Study 2) were associated with higher interference after the processing of fear and anger at short time presentations. These studies provide evidence that distressing facial expressions modulate the attentional processing at short time intervals and that alexithymia influences the early attentional processing of fear and anger expressions. Controlling for state affect did not change these conclusions
Twenty-two years of psychological science in Psychological Science

The journal Psychological Science (PS) has undergone various changes over 22 years since its birth in 1990. Analysis of Web of Science's records shows that the publication has increased in volume and collaborations between authors, and has become more international. Keyword analysis suggests the new role of neuroscience in contemporary psychology and indicates that the PS of today is more oriented than in the 1990s towards psychosocial and emotional issues as well as natural situations in our daily lives (ecological validity)
Personal choice: a blessing or a burden, or both? A cross-cultural investigation on need for closure effects in two western and two East-Asian societies

The present study investigates the role of dispositional need for closure (NFC) in how individuals within a particular culture perceive and appreciate choice. Data sets from the US (283 adults), Europe (263 adults and 427 students), China (218 adults and 309 students) and Singapore (258 students) were collected. The results showed that in Western cultures, people perceived choice in a linear way as either a burden or a blessing, whereas in Chinese culture, such opposition between perspectives did not appear, and individuals generally saw choice as both burden and blessing simultaneously. In Western cultures, high dispositional NFC was strongly associated with viewing choice-as-a-burden, whereas Chinese respondents with a high need for closure perceived choice as a blessing and a burden simultaneously. The Singaporean results were similar to the Western pattern. These findings are discussed in terms of the NFC literature and cultural differences in dialectic versus differentiation thinking styles
How personal resources predict work engagement and self-rated performance among construction workers: A social cognitive perspective

Traditionally, research focussing on psychosocial factors in the construction industry has focused mainly on the negative aspects of health and on results such as occupational accidents. This study, however, focuses on the specific relationships among the different positive psychosocial factors shared by construction workers that could be responsible for occupational well-being and outcomes such as performance. The main objective of this study was to test whether personal resources predict self-rated job performance through job resources and work engagement. Following the predictions of Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory and the motivational process of the Job Demands-Resources Model, we expect that the relationship between personal resources and performance will be fully mediated by job resources and work engagement. The sample consists of 228 construction workers. Structural equation modelling supports the research model. Personal resources (i.e. self-efficacy, mental and emotional competences) play a predicting role in the perception of job resources (i.e. job control and supervisor social support), which in turn leads to work engagement and self-rated performance. This study emphasises the crucial role that personal resources play in determining how people perceive job resources by determining the levels of work engagement and, hence, their self-rated job performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed
Bonds to the homeland: Patterns and determinants of women’ transnational travel frequency among three immigrant groups in Germany

Data for this project came from a larger study funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; reference number 01GWS068). All responsibility concerning the content is with the authors, whereas the funding source did not have any involvement other than the financial support for gathering data. We also thank the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for making this project possible through facilitating international collaborations. Svitlana Iarmolenko was involved in conception and design; analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the article. Peter F. Titzmann was involved in conception and design; collection, analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the article. Rainer K. Silbereisen was involved in securing funding, managing data collection, and critical revisions of the article. The authors confirm that they have access to the original data on which the article reports
Adolescents in conflict: Intercultural contact attitudes of mothers and adolescents as predictors of family conflicts

Recent research demonstrates that intergenerational differences in immigrant families' adaptation can be detrimental for family functioning. However, most of the findings originate from immigrant groups in North America who face different situations compared with European Diaspora returnees. This comparative study investigated whether ethnic German Diaspora immigrant adolescents' and mothers' disagreement about the desirability of adolescents' intercultural contact with native peers relates to more conflict in the family domain. In addition, we accounted for general developmental factors predicting family conflict by considering adolescents' background in terms of prosocial behaviour and hyperactivity. Participants comprised 185 Diaspora immigrant mother–adolescent dyads from the former Soviet Union living in Germany (adolescents: mean age 15.7 years, 60% female) and 197 native German mother–adolescent dyads (adolescents: mean age 14.7 years, 53% female). Results indicated a similar level of family conflict in immigrant and native families. However, conflict was elevated in those immigrant families disagreeing on intercultural contact attitudes, independent of the significant effects of adolescents' background of prosocial behaviour or hyperactivity. Our study highlights potential side effects in the family domain, if immigrant adolescents and parents disagree in their attitude regarding adaptation to the host culture's life domains, such as contact with native peers