INVESTING IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR OF EMERGING COUNTRIES: POTENTIAL RISK AND HOW TO MANAGE THEM

The purpose of this article is to assess how the changing operations of international banks in emerging countries in the last decades have altered the risks they face as well as their mitigation techniques. The recent expansion of the international banking business through the setup of branches and subsidiaries has increased business potential, but has also changed the nature of the risks faced. Nevertheless, it is hard to determine whether risks, on the whole, are larger now than when cross- border operations were the main instrument for international banks’ activity. In addition, the article describes the various channels through which the risks faced by banks operating in emerging countries increase in times of crisis, especially when operating locally and in highly dollarized host countries, as shown in the latest crisis events. While the financial independence of subsidiaries may be considered an important tool of risk control, the possibilities to mitigate risks in local markets during times of crisis are generally scarce. This could be due to the relatively recent expansion of foreign banks’ local operations in emerging countries, as compared to the cross-border business, together with the relative underdevelopment of local financial markets, or perhaps to the nature of the local business itself.financial, foreign direct investment, emerging countries, risk management

PARADISE: A Framework for Evaluating Spoken Dialogue Agents

This paper presents PARADISE (PARAdigm for DIalogue System Evaluation), a general framework for evaluating spoken dialogue agents. The framework decouples task requirements from an agent's dialogue behaviors, supports comparisons among dialogue strategies, enables the calculation of performance over subdialogues and whole dialogues, specifies the relative contribution of various factors to performance, and makes it possible to compare agents performing different tasks by normalizing for task complexity.Comment: 10 pages, uses aclap, psfig, lingmacros, time

Ethnobotany, volatile iols and secretion tissues of Werneria poposa from Argentina

Folk medicines are gaining great importance as information sources on traditional medicinal plants. The aim of this paper is the study of a plant traditionally employed by the Puna inhabitants: Werneria poposa Phil. Morphology of its secretory tissue and other histological diagnostic features, as well as the chemical composition of its essential oil, is described. Puna inhabitants use W. poposa mainly as an infusion for mountain sickness ('soroche'), stomach and hepatic disorders and cold. It is also used externally as a hot bath or unguent for rheumatic pains or traumas. Secretory tissues are schizogenous ducts in leaves and stems. Thirty-one components were detected in the essential oil by means of GC/MS analysis. Oil was characterized by the presence of high content of β-pinene (21.7%), α-pinene (5.5%), terpinen-4-ol (5.3%), α-terpinene (5.2%), β-phellandrene + 1,8-cineole (4.8%), isopulegol (4.8%) and β-citronellal (4.6%). At the present time, W. poposa is consumed as a medicinal plant, mainly in the northwest of Argentina, not being commercialized in the urban centers.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Ethnobotany, volatile iols and secretion tissues of Werneria poposa from Argentina

Folk medicines are gaining great importance as information sources on traditional medicinal plants. The aim of this paper is the study of a plant traditionally employed by the Puna inhabitants: Werneria poposa Phil. Morphology of its secretory tissue and other histological diagnostic features, as well as the chemical composition of its essential oil, is described. Puna inhabitants use W. poposa mainly as an infusion for mountain sickness ('soroche'), stomach and hepatic disorders and cold. It is also used externally as a hot bath or unguent for rheumatic pains or traumas. Secretory tissues are schizogenous ducts in leaves and stems. Thirty-one components were detected in the essential oil by means of GC/MS analysis. Oil was characterized by the presence of high content of β-pinene (21.7%), α-pinene (5.5%), terpinen-4-ol (5.3%), α-terpinene (5.2%), β-phellandrene + 1,8-cineole (4.8%), isopulegol (4.8%) and β-citronellal (4.6%). At the present time, W. poposa is consumed as a medicinal plant, mainly in the northwest of Argentina, not being commercialized in the urban centers.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Multiteide Project: Multiparametric characterization of the activity of Teide-Pico Viejo volcanic system

European Geosciences Union General Assembly (2017. Viena)Teide-Pico Viejo complex stands for one of the major natural volcanic hazards in the Canary Islands, due to the expected types of eruptions in the area and the high number of inhabitants in Tenerife Island. Therefore, it is necessary to have a volcanic alert system able to afford a precise assessment of the current state of the complex. For this purpose, the knowledge of the expected signals at each volcanic activity level is required. Moreover, the external effects that can affect the measurements shall be distinguished, external influences as the atmosphere are qualitatively known but have not been quantified yetCentro Geofísico de Canarias, Instituto Geográfico Nacional, EspañaObservatorio Geofísico Central, Instituto Geográfico Nacional, EspañaInstituto Geológico y Minero de España, EspañaLaboratoire GéoSciences Réunion, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, EspañaPeer reviewe

Healthcare workers hospitalized due to COVID-19 have no higher risk of death than general population. Data from the Spanish SEMI-COVID-19 Registry

Aim To determine whether healthcare workers (HCW) hospitalized in Spain due to COVID-19 have a worse prognosis than non-healthcare workers (NHCW). Methods Observational cohort study based on the SEMI-COVID-19 Registry, a nationwide registry that collects sociodemographic, clinical, laboratory, and treatment data on patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in Spain. Patients aged 20-65 years were selected. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed to identify factors associated with mortality. Results As of 22 May 2020, 4393 patients were included, of whom 419 (9.5%) were HCW. Median (interquartile range) age of HCW was 52 (15) years and 62.4% were women. Prevalence of comorbidities and severe radiological findings upon admission were less frequent in HCW. There were no difference in need of respiratory support and admission to intensive care unit, but occurrence of sepsis and in-hospital mortality was lower in HCW (1.7% vs. 3.9%; p = 0.024 and 0.7% vs. 4.8%; p<0.001 respectively). Age, male sex and comorbidity, were independently associated with higher in-hospital mortality and healthcare working with lower mortality (OR 0.211, 95%CI 0.067-0.667, p = 0.008). 30-days survival was higher in HCW (0.968 vs. 0.851 p<0.001). Conclusions Hospitalized COVID-19 HCW had fewer comorbidities and a better prognosis than NHCW. Our results suggest that professional exposure to COVID-19 in HCW does not carry more clinical severity nor mortality

Role of age and comorbidities in mortality of patients with infective endocarditis

[Purpose]: The aim of this study was to analyse the characteristics of patients with IE in three groups of age and to assess the ability of age and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) to predict mortality. [Methods]: Prospective cohort study of all patients with IE included in the GAMES Spanish database between 2008 and 2015.Patients were stratified into three age groups:<65 years,65 to 80 years,and ≥ 80 years.The area under the receiver-operating characteristic (AUROC) curve was calculated to quantify the diagnostic accuracy of the CCI to predict mortality risk. [Results]: A total of 3120 patients with IE (1327 < 65 years;1291 65-80 years;502 ≥ 80 years) were enrolled.Fever and heart failure were the most common presentations of IE, with no differences among age groups.Patients ≥80 years who underwent surgery were significantly lower compared with other age groups (14.3%,65 years; 20.5%,65-79 years; 31.3%,≥80 years). In-hospital mortality was lower in the <65-year group (20.3%,<65 years;30.1%,65-79 years;34.7%,≥80 years;p < 0.001) as well as 1-year mortality (3.2%, <65 years; 5.5%, 65-80 years;7.6%,≥80 years; p = 0.003).Independent predictors of mortality were age ≥ 80 years (hazard ratio [HR]:2.78;95% confidence interval [CI]:2.32–3.34), CCI ≥ 3 (HR:1.62; 95% CI:1.39–1.88),and non-performed surgery (HR:1.64;95% CI:11.16–1.58).When the three age groups were compared,the AUROC curve for CCI was significantly larger for patients aged <65 years(p < 0.001) for both in-hospital and 1-year mortality. [Conclusion]: There were no differences in the clinical presentation of IE between the groups. Age ≥ 80 years, high comorbidity (measured by CCI),and non-performance of surgery were independent predictors of mortality in patients with IE.CCI could help to identify those patients with IE and surgical indication who present a lower risk of in-hospital and 1-year mortality after surgery, especially in the <65-year group