Securities Pricing with Information-Sensitive Discounting

In this paper incomplete-information models are developed for the pricing of securities in a stochastic interest rate setting. In particu- lar we consider credit-risky assets that may include random recovery upon default. The market filtration is generated by a collection of information processes associated with economic factors, on which in- terest rates depend, and information processes associated with mar- ket factors used to model the cash flows of the securities. We use information-sensitive pricing kernels to give rise to stochastic interest rates. Semi-analytical expressions for the price of credit-risky bonds are derived, and a number of recovery models are constructed which take into account the perceived state of the economy at the time of default. The price of European-style call bond options is deduced, and it is shown how examples of hybrid securities, like inflation-linked credit-risky bonds, can be valued. Finally, a cumulative information process is employed to develop pricing kernels that respond to the amount of aggregate debt of an economy.Asset pricing, incomplete information, stochastic interest rates, credit risk, recovery models, credit-inflation hybrid securities, information-sensitive pricing kernels

MicroRNA applications for prostate, ovarian and breast cancer in the era of precision medicine.

The high degree of conservation in microRNA from Caenorhabditiselegans to humans has enabled relatively rapid implementation of findings in model systems to the clinic. The convergence of the capacity for genomic screening being implemented in the prevailing precision medicine initiative and the capabilities of microRNA to address these changes holds significant promise. However, prostate, ovarian and breast cancers are heterogeneous and face issues of evolving therapeutic resistance. The transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ) signaling axis plays an important role in the progression of these cancers by regulating microRNAs. Reciprocally, microRNAs regulate TGFβ actions during cancer progression. One must consider the expression of miRNA in the tumor microenvironment a source of biomarkers of disease progression and a viable target for therapeutic targeting. The differential expression pattern of microRNAs in health and disease, therapeutic response and resistance has resulted in its application as robust biomarkers. With two microRNA mimetics in ongoing restorative clinical trials, the paradigm for future clinical studies rests on the current observational trials to validate microRNA markers of disease progression. Some of today's biomarkers can be translated to the next generation of microRNA-based therapies

A Landau fluid model for warm collisionless plasmas

A Landau fluid model for a collisionless electron-proton magnetized plasma, that accurately reproduces the dispersion relation and the Landau damping rate of all the magnetohydrodynamic waves, is presented. It is obtained by an accurate closure of the hydrodynamic hierarchy at the level of the fourth order moments, based on linear kinetic theory. It retains non-gyrotropic corrections to the pressure and heat flux tensors up to the second order in the ratio between the considered frequencies and the ion cyclotron frequency.Comment: to appear in Phys. Plasma