An Empirical Analysis of the Canadian Term Structure of Zero-Coupon Interest Rates

Zero-coupon interest rates are the fundamental building block of fixed-income mathematics, and as such have an extensive number of applications in both finance and economics. The risk-free government zero-coupon term structure is, however, not directly observable and needs to be generated from the prices of marketable, coupon-bearing bonds. The authors introduce the first public-domain database of constant-maturity zero-coupon yield curves for the Government of Canada bond market. They first outline the mechanics of the curve-fitting algorithm that underlie the model, and then perform some preliminary statistical analysis on the resulting yield curves. The full sample period extends from January 1986 to May 2003; it is broken down into two subsamples, reflecting the structural and macroeconomic changes that impacted the Canadian fixed-income markets over that time. The authors examine the evolution of a number of key interest rates and yield-curve measures over the period, perform a principal-components analysis of the common factors that have influenced yield changes over time, and compare holding-period returns over the sample for assets of various maturities.Financial markets; Interest rates; Econometric and statistical methods

The Evolution of Yōkai in Relationship to the Japanese Horror Genre

In 2007, popular mystery author Kyōgoku Natsuhiko attempted to adapt a collection of random stories known as the Mimi bukuro or Tales Heard into kaidan, tales of the strange and mysterious for today’s readership. The writing experiment ended with Kyōgoku questioning his own writing abilities and publishing his small collection of adapted stories into a book that was not considered very frightening. Although the experiment failed, Kyōgoku’s efforts raise the question, “if not kaidan, what is frightening in the twentieth century?” The reason why kaidan are no longer frightening is because their central characters, yōkai, have been displaced from the horror genre. Today the yōkai that were once popular in the Edo period have been “cutesified” for businesses, films, and children’s shows. What is frightening today is no longer the Edo period monster, but rather aliens, ghosts, scientific monsters, and serial killers that represent a fear of the unknown. While the unknown has been a fear of man since the beginning, how it is symbolized and interpreted changes over time based on society and individual experiences. Chapter one traces the development of yōkai’s transformation from traditional horror story icons to children’s characters and role models. Chapter two analyzes and compares four of the original stories from the Mimi bukuro to Kyōgoku’s adaptation to understand what was scary during the Edo period, and what Kyōgoku deemed frightening in modern times. Chapter three analyzes three different monsters and explains why they were frightening and what problems or unknown situations each monster represented for modern audiences

A Temple Framework of the Atonement

This article builds on G. K. Beale\u27s work on the temple, exploring the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in relation to the biblical theology of the temple. It explores the work of Christ as the one who fulfilled the role of the temple both in terms of its prophesied destruction and in terms of its rebuilding and the culmination of its purpose as the presence of God in the midst of his holy people. In conclusion, the article considers some of the practical ramifications of seeing Christ\u27s work from this particular vantage-point

Travelling Salesman Problem with a Center

We study a travelling salesman problem where the path is optimized with a cost function that includes its length $L$ as well as a certain measure $C$ of its distance from the geometrical center of the graph. Using simulated annealing (SA) we show that such a problem has a transition point that separates two phases differing in the scaling behaviour of $L$ and $C$, in efficiency of SA, and in the shape of minimal paths.Comment: 4 pages, minor changes, accepted in Phys.Rev.

The identification of mitochondrial DNA variants in glioblastoma multiforme

Background: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) encodes key proteins of the electron transfer chain (ETC), which produces ATP through oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and is essential for cells to perform specialised functions. Tumor-initiating cells use aerobic glycolysis, a combination of glycolysis and low levels of OXPHOS, to promote rapid cell proliferation and tumor growth. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an aggressively malignant brain tumor and mitochondria have been proposed to play a vital role in GBM tumorigenesis. Results: Using next generation sequencing and high resolution melt analysis, we identified a large number of mtDNA variants within coding and non-coding regions of GBM cell lines and predicted their disease-causing potential through in silico modeling. The frequency of variants was greatest in the D-loop and origin of light strand replication in non-coding regions. ND6 was the most susceptible coding gene to mutation whilst ND4 had the highest frequency of mutation. Both genes encode subunits of complex I of the ETC. These variants were not detected in unaffected brain samples and many have not been previously reported. Depletion of HSR-GBM1 cells to varying degrees of their mtDNA followed by transplantation into immunedeficient mice resulted in the repopulation of the same variants during tumorigenesis. Likewise, de novo variants identified in other GBM cell lines were also incorporated. Nevertheless, ND4 and ND6 were still the most affected genes. We confirmed the presence of these variants in high grade gliomas. Conclusions: These novel variants contribute to GBM by rendering the ETC. partially dysfunctional. This restricts metabolism to anaerobic glycolysis and promotes cell proliferation

Pharmacotherapy for Chronic Insomnia: A Brief Survey of PCP Attitudes and Preferences

Purpose: To examine primary care professionals (PCP) attitudes and prescribing preferences toward hypnotic medications to treat chronic insomnia. Methods: An online survey was sent to members of the Dartmouth CO-OP, a practice-based primary care research network in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The survey begins with a case vignette of a 64-year old woman suffering from chronic insomnia. Clinicians were then presented with eight questions about management of the patient and their attitudes toward prescribing medications, focusing on benzodiazepines/benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BDZ/BZRAs). Results: 103 of 198 clinicians (52%) responded. Regarding choice of medication for the case vignette, 80% of respondents preferred the off-label use of hypnotics such as trazodone or melatonin; 11% stated they would choose BDZs and 21% would choose BZRAs. Strong majorities expressed that negative consequences would occur with use of BDZ/BZRAs, including tolerance (77%), dependence (68%), other side effects (53%), and addiction (51%). PCP preference for off- label prescribing was correlated to levels of concern about harms (addiction, dependence, tolerance, side effects) of BDZ/BZRAs as measured on a global medication risk score in this survey. In addition, 14% of respondents felt that pharmacotherapy was not an appropriate therapeutic option for chronic insomnia in the case vignette. Conclusion: Most of the clinicians surveyed acknowledged a legitimate role for hypnotic medications in chronic insomnia but expressed reservations toward BDZ/BZRAs despite their FDA approval and proven efficacy. There appears to be a gap between published guidelines for selection of sedative-hypnotic medications and PCP preferences