The financial crisis of 2007-2009 has given way to the sovereign debt crisis of 2010-2012, yet many of the banking issues remain the same. We discuss a method to estimate the capital that a financial ...firm would need to raise if we have another financial crisis. This measure of capital shortfall is based on publicly available information but is conceptually similar to the stress tests conducted by US and European regulators. We argue that this measure summarizes the major characteristics of systemic risk and provides a reliable interpretation of the past and current financial crises. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Psyllidae), is an important pest of citrus because it transmits phloem-limited bacteria Candidatus Liberibacter spp., notably Ca. ...L. asiaticus (LAS) associated with huanglongbing (HLB; citrus greening disease), currently considered the world's most serious disease of citrus. Asian citrus psyllid transmits LAS in a persistent manner and, although the rate of LAS transmission by ACP individuals usually is low, HLB can spread rapidly in a citrus grove and the geographic range of the disease is expanding, threatening citrus industries in new areas. Intensive chemical control of ACP is the primary management strategy currently advocated for HLB, but this strategy is costly, unsustainable, and generally ineffective. The scientific community is searching aggressively for solutions to HLB on many fronts, but it could still be years before solutions are found and implemented. Plant resistance to LAS is one area of research being pursued, whereby traits that confer resistance are identified and incorporated into citrus germplasm through conventional or transgenic methods. It remains to be seen if a solution to HLB can be found that specifically targets ACP, but research on ACP has been stepped up in a number of areas, notably on ACP-LAS-plant interactions, on host plant resistance to ACP, and on molecular methods of silencing ACP genes to induce mortality or to block its ability to transmit HLB-causing bacteria. Advancements in these and other research areas may depend greatly on a better understanding of basic ACP biology and vector-pathogen-host plant interactions at the molecular, cellular, and community levels. Here we present an updated review of ACP and HLB with an emphasis on the problem in Florida.
Whole blood transcriptional signatures distinguishing active tuberculosis patients from asymptomatic latently infected individuals exist. Consensus has not been achieved regarding the optimal reduced ...gene sets as diagnostic biomarkers that also achieve discrimination from other diseases. Here we show a blood transcriptional signature of active tuberculosis using RNA-Seq, confirming microarray results, that discriminates active tuberculosis from latently infected and healthy individuals, validating this signature in an independent cohort. Using an advanced modular approach, we utilise the information from the entire transcriptome, which includes overabundance of type I interferon-inducible genes and underabundance of IFNG and TBX21, to develop a signature that discriminates active tuberculosis patients from latently infected individuals or those with acute viral and bacterial infections. We suggest that methods targeting gene selection across multiple discriminant modules can improve the development of diagnostic biomarkers with improved performance. Finally, utilising the modular approach, we demonstrate dynamic heterogeneity in a longitudinal study of recent tuberculosis contacts.
Hibiscus species (Family: Malvaceae) have long been used in traditional medicine to treat a variety of maladies such as abscesses, bilious conditions, cancer, cough, fatigue, gastrointestinal ...discomfort, fever, veisalgia, cardiovascular disorders, neurosis, scurvy, and urinary tract disorders. Its antioxidants have the capacity to destroy free radicals that damage cells and increase risk of inflammatory conditions such as metabolic syndrome, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.
This review synthesizes findings from animal studies and clinical trials to assess effectiveness of hibiscus for treating biomarkers of metabolic syndrome including hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia, low high-density lipoprotein, obesity, and hypertension.
We searched for 12 edible species of hibiscus in the Google Scholar database. Each scientific name of these species, their common names and their edible plant parts were searched in conjunction with fourteen key words associated with metabolic syndrome. A total of 68 articles met all inclusion criteria for this review, including 18 that tested human subjects, 48 that tested other animals, one that tested humans and other animals, and one that did not specify.
Hibiscus often improved blood glucose, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, weight, lipid absorption and oxidation of fatty acids within vital organs around the abdominal cavity. Higher doses led to greater benefits in some cases, especially for body mass of animals, but lower doses were often equally effective. Hibiscus was often equally or more effective than pharmaceuticals in improving some biomarkers of metabolic syndrome, especially blood glucose and insulin sensitivity.
Hibiscus shows great promise for improving biomarkers of metabolic syndrome, but there are limitations that need to be addressed by future work, including increasing the number and size of human clinical trials, expanding human trials to include people from a greater diversity of ethnicities, taking into account the health and physical activity of human participants, investigating the influence of growing conditions and extraction/preparation techniques on nutrients in hibiscus, comparing the efficacy of several plant parts and plant products of hibiscus to a reference control group within the same experiment, incorporating rigorous statistical analysis of treatments and investigating the influence of dosage.
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An insightful look at how to reform our broken financial systemThe financial crisis that unfolded in September 2008 transformed the United States and world economies. As each day's headlines brought ...stories of bank failures and rescues, government policies drawn and redrawn against the backdrop of an historic Presidential election, and solutions that seemed to be discarded almost as soon as they were proposed, a group of thirty-three academics at New York University Stern School of Business began tackling the hard questions behind the headlines. Representing fields of finance, economics, and accounting, these professors-led by Dean Thomas Cooley and Vice Dean Ingo Walter-shaped eighteen independent policy papers that proposed market-focused solutions to the problems within a common framework. In December, with great urgency, they sent hand-bound copies to Washington. Restoring Financial Stabilityis the culmination of their work.Proposes bold, yet principled approaches-including financial policy alternatives and specific courses of action-to deal with this unprecedented, systemic financial crisisCreated by the contributions of various academics from New York University's Stern School of BusinessProvides important perspectives on both the causes of the global financial crisis as well as proposed solutions to ensure it doesn't happen againContains detailed evaluations and analyses covering many spectrums of the marketplaceEdited by Matthew Richardson and Viral Acharya, this reliable resource brings together the best thinking of finance and economics from the faculty of one of the top universities in world.
Endothelial progenitor cells: Quo Vadis? Richardson, Matthew R; Yoder, Mervin C
Journal of molecular and cellular cardiology,
02/2011, Letnik:
50, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Abstract The term endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) was coined to refer to circulating cells that displayed the ability to display cell surface antigens similar to endothelial cells in vitro, to ...circulate and lodge in areas of ischemia or vascular injury, and to facilitate the repair of damaged blood vessels or augment development of new vessels as needed by a tissue. More than 10 years after the first report, the term EPC is used to refer to a host of circulating cells that display some or all of the qualities indicated above, however, essentially all of the cells are now known to be members of the hematopoietic lineage. The exception is a rare viable circulating endothelial cell with clonal proliferative potential that displays the ability to spontaneously form inosculating human blood vessels upon implantation into immunodeficient murine host tissues. This paper will review the current lineage relationships among all the cells called EPC and will propose that the term EPC be retired and that each of the circulating cell subsets be referred to according to the terms already existent for each subset. This article is part of a special issue entitled, "Cardiovascular Stem Cells Revisited".
Electrically evoked frequency-following responses (eFFRs) provide insight in the phase-locking ability of brainstem of cochlear-implant (CI) users. eFFRs can potentially be used to gain insight in ...the individual differences in the biological limitation on temporal encoding of the electrically stimulated auditory pathway, which can be inherent to the electrical stimulation itself and/or the degenerative processes associated with hearing loss. One of the major challenge of measuring eFFRs in CI users is the process of isolating the stimulation artifact from the neural response, as both the response and the artifact overlap in time and have similar frequency characteristics. Here we introduce a new artifact removal method based on template subtraction that successfully removes the stimulation artifacts from the recordings when CI users are stimulated with pulse trains from 128 to 300 pulses per second in a monopolar configuration. Our results show that, although artifact removal was successful in all CI users, the phase-locking ability of the brainstem to the different pulse rates, as assessed with the eFFR differed substantially across participants. These results show that the eFFR can be measured, free from artifacts, in CI users and that they can be used to gain insight in individual differences in temporal processing of the electrically stimulated auditory pathway.
The mobilization and transport of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) via surface runoff (runoff) from aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF)-contaminated soils during rainfall, flooding, or ...irrigation has not been thoroughly evaluated, and the effectiveness of carbonaceous sorbents in limiting PFASs in runoff is similarly unquantified. Here, laboratory-scale rainfall simulations evaluate PFAS losses in runoff and in leaching to groundwater (leachate) from AFFF-contaminated soils varying in texture, PFAS composition and concentration, and remediation treatment. Leaching dominated PFAS losses in soils with a concentration of ∑PFAS = 0.2–2 mg/kg. However, with higher soil PFAS concentrations (∑PFAS = 31 mg/kg), leachate volumes were negligible and runoff dominated losses. The concentration and variety of PFASs were far greater in leachates regardless of the initial concentrations in soil. Losses of PFASs were dependent on the C-chain length for leachates and more on the initial concentration in soil for runoff. Suspended materials did not meaningfully contribute to runoff losses. While concentrations of most PFASs declined significantly after the first rainfall event, desorption and transport in both runoff and leachates persisted over several rainfall events. Finally, results showed that sorption to AC mostly occurred during, not prior to, rainfall events and that 1% w/w AC substantially reduced losses in runoff and leachates from all soils.
This paper explores a model based on agents with heterogenous beliefs facing short sales restrictions, and its explanation for the rise, persistence, and eventual fall of Internet stock prices. ...First, we document substantial short sale restrictions for Internet stocks. Second, using data on Internet holdings and block trades, we show a link between heterogeneity and price effects for Internet stocks. Third, arguing that lockup expirations are a loosening of the short sale constraint, we document average, long-run excess returns as low as -33 percent for Internet stocks postlockup. We link the Internet bubble burst to the unprecedented level of lockup expirations and insider selling.
When classifying objects in 3D LiDAR data, it is important to use efficient collection methods and processing algorithms. This paper considers the resolution needed to classify 3D objects accurately ...and discusses how this resolution is accomplished for the RedTail RTL-450 LiDAR System. We employ VoxNet, a convolutional neural network, to classify the 3D data and test the accuracy using different data resolution levels. The results show that for our data set, if the neural network is trained using higher resolution data, then the accuracy of the classification is above 97%, even for the very sparse testing set (10% of original test data set point density). When the training is done on lower resolution data sets, the classification accuracy remains good but drops off at around 3% of the original test data set point density. These results have implications for determining flight altitude and speed for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to achieve high accuracy classification. The findings point to the value of high-resolution point clouds for both the training of the convolutional neural network and in data collected from a LiDAR sensor.
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