Evaluating the productive efficiency and performance of U.S. commercial banks

This paper reviews various approaches to the measurement of core inflation that have been proposed in recent years. The objective is to determine whether the European Central Bank (ECB) should pay special attention to one or other of these measures in assessing inflation developments in the euro area. I put particular emphasis on the conceptual and practical problems that arise in the measurement of core inflation, and propose some criteria that could be used by the ECB to choose a core inflation measure.Banks and banking

Clinical and Parasitological Effects of Aspilia africana (Pers.) C.D. Adams in Fifteen Patients with Uncomplicated Malaria

This paper reports the findings of a clinical study of a herbal preparation of Aspilia africana (Pers.) C.D. Adams against malaria, corroborated by in vitro antiplasmodial and cytotoxicity tests. In a non-controlled prospective design, 15 patients with uncomplicated malaria were administered with the herbal preparation and assessed for clinical manifestations of malaria, parasitaemia and global quality of life using the Kanorfsky Performance Scale. Antiplasmodial activity of extracts against the chloroquine-resistant strain of Plasmodium falciparum Dd2 was determined using the [3H]-hypoxanthine radioactive method while cytotoxicity against human urinary bladder carcinoma (ECV-304) and human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell lines was determined using the MTT assay. Remarkable clinical improvements occurred 3 to 21 days after initiation of treatment. Forty nine days after starting treatment, all 15 patients had complete resolution of malaria symptoms and were cleared of parasitaemia and attained a Karnofsky Performance score of 100. The petroleum ether/ethyl acetate extract possessed in vitro antiplasmodial activity (IC50 30μg/ml) but no remarkable cytotoxicity. The A. africana preparation shows potential as an alternative for the management of uncomplicated malaria.East and Central African Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Vol. 12 (2009) 37-4

Amorfrutin B is an efficient natural peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) agonist with potent glucose-lowering properties

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) is an important gene regulator in glucose and lipid metabolism. Unfortunately, PPARgamma-activating drugs of the thiazolidinedione class provoke adverse side effects. As recently shown, amorfrutin A1 is a natural glucose-lowering compound that selectively modulates PPARgamma. In this study we aimed to characterise, in vitro, a large spectrum of the amorfrutins and similar molecules, which we isolated from various plants. We further studied in vivo the glucose-lowering effects of the so far undescribed amorfrutin B, which featured the most striking PPARgamma-binding and pharmacological properties of this family of plant metabolites. METHODS: Amorfrutins were investigated in vitro by binding and cofactor recruitment assays and by transcriptional activation assays in primary human adipocytes and murine preosteoblasts, as well as in vivo using insulin-resistant high-fat-diet-fed C57BL/6 mice treated for 27 days with 100 mg kg(-1) day(-1) amorfrutin B. RESULTS: Amorfrutin B showed low nanomolar binding affinity to PPARgamma, and micromolar binding to the isotypes PPARalpha and PPARbeta/delta. Amorfrutin B selectively modulated PPARgamma activity at low nanomolar concentrations. In insulin-resistant mice, amorfrutin B considerably improved insulin sensitivity, glucose tolerance and blood lipid variables after several days of treatment. Amorfrutin B treatment did not induce weight gain and furthermore showed liver-protecting properties. Additionally, amorfrutins had no adverse effects on osteoblastogenesis and fluid retention. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: The application of plant-derived amorfrutins or synthetic analogues thereof constitutes a promising approach to prevent or treat complex metabolic diseases such as insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes

Ion-pairing chromatography and amine derivatization provide complementary approaches for the targeted LC-MS analysis of the polar metabolome.

Liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry is a key metabolomics/metabonomics technology. Reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) is very widely used as a separation step, but typically has poor retention of highly polar metabolites. Here, we evaluated the combination of two alternative methods for improving retention of polar metabolites based on 6-aminoquinoloyl-N-hydroxysuccinidimyl carbamate derivatization for amine groups, and ion-pairing chromatography (IPC) using tributylamine as an ion-pairing agent to retain acids. We compared both of these methods to RPLC and also to each other, for targeted analysis using a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer, applied to a library of ca. 500 polar metabolites. IPC and derivatization were complementary in terms of their coverage: combined, they improved the proportion of metabolites with good retention to 91%, compared to just 39% for RPLC alone. The combined method was assessed by analyzing a set of liver extracts from aged male and female mice that had been treated with the polyphenol compound ampelopsin. Not only were a number of significantly changed metabolites detected, but also it could be shown that there was a clear interaction between ampelopsin treatment and sex, in that the direction of metabolite change was opposite for males and females

Simultaneous X-Ray and TeV Gamma-Ray Observations of the TeV Blazar Markarian 421 during February and May 2000

In this paper we present the results of simultaneous observations of the TeV blazar Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) at X-ray and TeV Gamma-ray energies with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and the stereoscopic Cherenkov Telescope system of the HEGRA (High Energy Gamma Ray Astronomy) experiment, respectively. The source was monitored from February 2nd to February 16th and from May 3rd to May 8th, 2000. We discuss in detail the temporal and spectral properties of the source. Remarkably, the TeV observations of February 7th/8th showed statistically significant evidence for substantial TeV flux variability on 30 min time scale. We show the results of modeling the data with a time dependent homogeneous Synchrotron Self-Compton (SSC) model. The X-ray and TeV gamma-ray emission strengths and energy spectra together with the rapid flux variability strongly suggest that the emission volume is approaching the observer with a Doppler factor of 50 or higher. The different flux variability time scales observed at X-rays and TeV Gamma-rays indicate that a more detailed analysis will require inhomogeneous models with several emission zones.Comment: Accepted for Publication in ApJ, 21 Pages, 5 Figure

Lidar ratios of stratospheric volcanic ash and sulfate aerosols retrieved from CALIOP measurements

We apply a two-way transmittance constraint to nighttime CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) observations of volcanic aerosol layers to retrieve estimates of the particulate lidar ratio (Sp) at 532 nm. This technique is applied to three volcanic eruption case studies that were found to have injected aerosols directly into the stratosphere. Numerous lidar observations permitted characterization of the optical and geometric properties of the volcanic aerosol layers over a time period of 1–2 weeks. For the volcanic ash-rich layers produced by the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption (June 2011), we obtain mean and median particulate lidar ratios of 69 ± 13 sr and 67 sr, respectively. For the sulfate-rich aerosol layers produced by Kasatochi (August 2008) and Sarychev Peak (June 2009), the means of the retrieved lidar ratios were 66 ± 19 sr (median 60 sr) and 63 ± 14 sr (median 59 sr), respectively. The 532 nm layer-integrated particulate depolarization ratios (δp) observed for the Puyehue layers (δp = 0.33 ± 0.03) were much larger than those found for the volcanic aerosol layers produced by the Kasatochi (δp = 0.09 ± 0.03) and Sarychev (δp = 0.05 ± 0.04) eruptions. However, for the Sarychev layers we observe an exponential decay (e-folding time of 3.6 days) in δp with time from 0.27 to 0.03. Similar decreases in the layer-integrated attenuated colour ratios with time were observed for the Sarychev case. In general, the Puyehue layers exhibited larger colour ratios (χ′ = 0.53 ± 0.07) than what was observed for the Kasatochi (χ′ = 0.35 ± 0.07) and Sarychev (χ′ = 0.32 ± 0.07) layers, indicating that the Puyehue layers were generally composed of larger particles. These observations are particularly relevant to the new stratospheric aerosol subtyping classification scheme, which has been incorporated into version 4 of the level 2 CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) data products

Examining the potential for energy-positive bulk-water infrastructure to provide long-term urban water security: a systems approach

Urban centres are increasingly requiring more water than existing groundwater and surface water sources can supply. Water authorities must consider energy intensive supply alternatives such as recycling and desalination, leading to a water-energy-climate conundrum. In this study, a systems perspective of the water-energy-climate nexus is applied to South-East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. Under a changing climate, SEQ is predicted to experience reduced reservoir inflows and increased evaporation rates, which will consequently lead to reduced water availability. To exacerbate this issue, anticipated high population growth in SEQ will increase water demand, putting even more stress on the traditional water supply sources. Clearly, there is a strong incentive to pursue solutions that increase water security without contributing to anthropogenic climate change. Using a system dynamics model, the water balance of the bulk water supply system is evaluated over a 100-year life cycle. The outputs of the model are used to investigate potential management and infrastructure options available to SEQ for adapting to increased water scarcity. The historical rainfall patterns of SEQ requires significant contingency to be built into surface water capacity in order to mitigate low rainfall years, and provide adequate water security. In contrast, reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plants do not require this excess capacity because they are rain-independent. However, RO has high energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions when operating and their potential long periods of redundancy due to periods of sufficient surface water supplies remain unresolved issues. The model demonstrates that dual purpose pressure retarded osmosis desalination plants offer a potential solution, by providing water security at a lower cost than surface water reservoir augmentation, while offsetting energy use through renewable energy generation when RO plants would otherwise be sitting idle. Potentially this technology represents a future sustainable solution to overcome water security concerns

Rejection of the hypothesis that Markarian 501 TeV photons are pure Bose-Einstein condensates

The energy spectrum of the Blazar type galaxy Markarian 501 (Mrk 501) as measured by the High-Energy-Gamma-Ray Astronomy (HEGRA) air Cerenkov telescopes extends beyond 16 TeV and constitutes the most energetic photons observed from an extragalactic object. A fraction of the emitted spectrum is possibly absorbed in interactions with low energy photons of the diffuse extragalactic infrared radiation, which in turn offers the unique possibility to measure the diffuse infrared radiation density by TeV spectroscopy. The upper limit on the density of the extragalactic infrared radiation derived from the TeV observations imposes constraints on models of galaxy formation and stellar evolution. One of the recently published ideas to overcome severe absorption of TeV photons is based upon the assumption that sources like Mrk 501 could produce Bose-Einstein condensates of coherent photons. The condensates would have a higher survival probability during the transport in the diffuse radiation field and could mimic TeV air shower events. The powerful stereoscopic technique of the HEGRA air Cerenkov telescopes allows to test this hypothesis by reconstructing the penetration depths of TeV air shower events: Air showers initiated by Bose-Einstein condensates are expected to reach the maximum of the shower development in the atmosphere earlier than single photon events. By comparing the energy-dependent penetration depths of TeV photons from Mrk 501 with those from the TeV standard-candle Crab Nebula and simulated air shower events, we can reject the hypothesis that TeV photons from Mrk 501 are pure Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, published by ApJ Letters, revised version (simulation results added