This paper investigates the role of sentiment in the US economy from 1920 to 1934 using digitised articles from The Wall Street Journal. We derive a monthly sentiment index and use a 10‐variable ...vector error correction model to identify sentiment shocks that are orthogonal to fundamentals. We show the timing and strength of these shocks and their resultant effects on the economy using historical decompositions. Intermittent impacts of up to 15 per cent on industrial production, 10 per cent on the S&P 500 and bank loans, and 37 basis points for the credit risk spread suggest a large role for sentiment.
Despite combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) limiting HIV replication to undetectable levels in the blood, people living with HIV continue to experience HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder ...(HAND). HAND is associated with neurocognitive impairment, including motor impairment, and memory loss. HIV has been detected in the brain within 8 days of estimated exposure and the mechanisms for this early entry are being actively studied. Once having entered into the central nervous system (CNS), HIV degrades the blood-brain barrier through the production of its gp120 and Tat proteins. These proteins are directly toxic to endothelial cells and neurons, and propagate inflammatory cytokines by the activation of immune cells and dysregulation of tight junction proteins. The BBB breakdown is associated with the progression of neurocognitive disease. One of the main hurdles for treatment for HAND is the latent pool of cells, which are insensitive to cART and prolong inflammation by harboring the provirus in long-lived cells that can reactivate, causing damage. Multiple strategies are being studied to combat the latent pool and HAND; however, clinically, these approaches have been insufficient and require further revisions. The goal of this paper is to aggregate the known mechanisms and challenges associated with HAND.
Glycosyl 1-phosphates enriched in the α-anomer are obtained without the use of protecting groups in two steps starting from the free hemiacetal. Condensation of free hemiacetals with ...toluenesulfonylhydrazide yields a range of glycosylsulfonohydrazide donors which can be oxidized using cupric chloride in the presence of phosphoric acid and the coordinating additive 2-methyl-2-oxazoline to give useful yields of the fully deprotected glycosyl 1-phosphates.
The highly glycosylated glycoprotein spike of Ebola virus (EBOV-GP1,2) is the primary target of the humoral host response. Recombinant EBOV-GP ectodomain (EBOV-GP1,2ecto) expressed in mammalian cells ...was used to immunize sheep and elicited a robust immune response and produced high titers of high avidity polyclonal antibodies. Investigation of the neutralizing activity of the ovine antisera in vitro revealed that it neutralized EBOV. A pool of intact ovine immunoglobulin G, herein termed EBOTAb, was prepared from the antisera and used for an in vivo guinea pig study. When EBOTAb was delivered 6 hours after challenge, all animals survived without experiencing fever or other clinical manifestations. In a second series of guinea pig studies, the administration of EBOTAb dosing was delayed for 48 or 72 hours after challenge, resulting in 100% and 75% survival, respectively. These studies illustrate the usefulness of EBOTAb in protecting against EBOV-induced disease.
Vulnerability to Poverty Gang, Ira N.; Gatskova, Kseniia; Landon-Lane, John ...
Social indicators research,
08/2018, Letnik:
138, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We use a new formal, practical, and easily decomposable measure to examine vulnerability to poverty in Tajikistan during the global financial crisis. Our strategy is to estimate a first-order Markov ...model of household expenditure with the aim of identifying the vulnerability of households to poverty. We use Bayesian methods which allow us to estimate the limiting expenditure distribution. Importantly, by introducing the index of vulnerability as the weighted probability of a household falling into poverty over a given time horizon, we can use the estimated dynamics to assess short, medium and long-run vulnerability. We find that during the “recession transition” almost all households were vulnerable to poverty while almost none were during the “recovery period”. Overall, urban households, more educated households and households receiving remittances from international labor migrants were less vulnerable to poverty. While households with a current or very recent migrant did not have a significantly lower measured vulnerability to poverty, those households receiving remittances from migrants had a lower vulnerability to poverty. Our findings stress that the international labor migration from Tajikistan may not be a reliable means of welfare security for households because external economic shocks and internal political decisions can negatively affect the Russian economy and lead to a reduction of remittance flows to Tajikistan.
Despite sporadic outbreaks of Ebola virus (EBOV) over the last 4 decades and the recent public health emergency in West Africa, there are still no approved vaccines or therapeutics for the treatment ...of acute EBOV disease (EVD). In response to the 2014 outbreak, an ovine immunoglobulin therapy was developed, termed EBOTAb. After promising results in the guinea pig model of EBOV infection, EBOTAb was tested in the cynomolgus macaque non-human primate model of lethal EBOV infection. To ensure stringent therapeutic testing conditions to replicate likely clinical usage, EBOTAb was first delivered 1, 2 or 3 days post-challenge with a lethal dose of EBOV. Results showed a protective effect of EBOTAb given post-exposurally, with survival rates decreasing with increasing time after challenge. Viremia results demonstrated that EBOTAb resulted in a decreased circulation of EBOV in the bloodstream. Additionally, assay of liver enzymes and histology analysis of local tissues identified differences between EBOTAb-treated and untreated groups. The results presented demonstrate that EBOTAb conferred protection against EBOV when given post-exposure and should be explored and developed further as a potential intervention strategy for future outbreaks, which are likely to occur.
Medically important cases of snakebite in Europe are predominately caused by European vipers of the genus Vipera. The mainstay of snakebite therapy is polyclonal antibody therapy, referred to as ...antivenom. Here we investigate the capability of the monospecific V. berus antivenom, ViperaTAb®, to cross-react with, and neutralise lethality induced by, a variety of European vipers. Using ELISA and immunoblotting, we find that ViperaTAb® antibodies recognise and bind to the majority of toxic components found in the venoms of the Vipera species tested at comparably high levels to those observed with V. berus. Using in vivo pre-clinical efficacy studies, we demonstrate that ViperaTAb® effectively neutralises lethality induced by V. berus, V. aspis, V. ammodytes and V. latastei venoms and at much higher levels than those outlined by regulatory pharmacopoeial guidelines. Notably, venom neutralisation was found to be superior to (V. berus, V. aspis and V. latastei), or as equally effective as (V. ammodytes), the monospecific V. ammodytes "Zagreb antivenom", which has long been successfully used for treating European snake envenomings. This study suggests that ViperaTAb® may be a valuable therapeutic product for treating snakebite by a variety of European vipers found throughout the continent.
Repudiations rarely occur due to their extreme nature. This paper provides an empirical study based on an original database: prices of a Tsarist bond traded in Paris before and after its repudiation ...by the Soviets. A structural VAR is used to disentangle French market shocks from repudiation specific ones. After the repudiation, we identify shocks that are related with bailouts, hopes of partial bailouts, negotiations with the Soviets and the Russian civil war. We argue that bond prices essentially reflected expected extreme events that never took place and were thus subject to a “Peso problem”. Copyright Oxford University Press Science+Business Media, LLC 2006
Can barriers to capital accumulation account for large differences in GDP per capita? We reconsider the claim that these barriers have an amplified effect on income levels in a model where both ...modern and traditional sector technologies are active. We show that this claim is not correct. We do find, however, that the removal of barriers to capital accumulation can cause large changes in the employment shares of labor. Thus the model can account for an important stylized fact of the development process, with labor moving from the traditional to the modern sector as income levels rise.
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