Financial bubbles: A study of co-explosivity in the cryptocurrency market

Cryptocurrencies have recently captured the interest of the econometric literature, with several works trying to address the existence of bubbles in the price dynamics of Bitcoins and other cryptoassets. Extremely rapid price accelerations, often referred to as explosive behaviors, followed by drastic drops pose high risks to investors. From a risk management perspective, testing the explosiveness of individual cryptocurrency time series is not the only crucial issue. Investigating co-explosivity in the cryptoassets, i.e., whether explosivity in one cryptocurrency leads to explosivity in other cryptocurrencies, allows indeed to take into account possible shock propagation channels and improve the prediction of market collapses. To this aim, our paper investigates the relationships between the explosive behaviors of cryptocurrencies through a unit root testing approach

Las analogías entre el primer acto de fe y el conocimiento interno de los ejercicios de San Ignacio

Quienquiera conozea la psicología de la religión, aunque no sea más que someramente, se da cuenta que el papel tan importante que S. Ignacio asigna al «conocimiento interno» en el engranaje de sus Ejercicios Espirituales, proviene de una raíz de psicología general a la que se llega, más o menos, de la siguiente forma: toda forma de piedad, toda la actividad religiosa —para generalizar más— es una actividad profunda de toda la persona del hombre hacia Dios.

Market-Driven Management and Intangible Assets in Global Television Set Manufacturers

The television set industry is a global sector where the most competitive companies are market-driven. Their competitive advantage is based not only on their ability to innovate products but also on their capability to develop and strengthen intangible assets, such as corporate culture, brand image and relationships between organisations.Television set industry, Market Driven Management, Competitiveness, Intangible Assets DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.4468/2010.2.07silvestrelli

Pediatric Physical Therapists’ Perceptions of Caregivers’ Attitudes Toward Powered Mobility for Children with Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to understand current caregiver attitudes towards powered mobility devices for young children with disabilities. This data was obtained by collecting surveys from pediatric physical therapists who interact with many caregivers on a daily basis and often act as the bridge between families and access to powered mobility devices. Overall, physical therapists reported that they did not always have conversations regarding powered mobility and that caregivers were not likely to initiate these conversations. Results showed that 79.1% of physical therapists indicated that none or very few caregivers brought up the topic of powered mobility and 28.7% of physical therapists rarely or never talk about powered mobility to caregivers with children who are potential candidates. Physical therapists also reported there is a wide range of emotions that caregivers express toward powered mobility for young children, with the most common being negative attitudes (34%). The attitudes of caregivers and pediatric physical therapists towards powered mobility devices for young children affects the number of caregivers who obtain information about the benefits of powered mobility and the number of children who gain access to these devices early in life. Key words: powered mobility, pediatric physical therapy, caregivers, attitudes, modified ride-on cars, disabilit

Gemcitabine, Ifosfamide and Navelbine (GIN): activity and safety of a non-platinum-based triplet in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

To evaluate activity and toxicity of a non platinum-based triplet including Gemcitabine, Ifosfamide and Navelbine (GIN) in advanced NSCLC. Stage IIIB/IV NSCLC patients with WHO PS < 2 and bidimensionally measurable disease entered the study. Gemcitabine 1000 mg/sqm day 1 and 1000–800 mg/sqm day 4, Ifosfamide 3 g/sqm day 1 (with Mesna), Navelbine 25 mg/sqm day 1 and 25–20 mg/sqm day 4 were administered intravenously every 3 weeks. Objective responses (ORs) were evaluated every 2 courses: a maximum of 6 courses were administered in responding patients. According to Simon's optimal two-stage design more than 18 ORs out of 54 patients were required to establish the activity of this regimen. Fifty patients entered the study. Main characteristics of the 48 evaluated patients were: median age 63 years, ECOG performance status 0 = 65%, stage IV disease 79% and non-squamous histology 71%. The total number of courses administered was 200, median per patient 4 (range 1–6). Toxicities were evaluated according to WHO criteria: neutropenia grade 3–4 occurred in 47% of the courses; thrombocytopenia grade 3–4 in 6.6%; anaemia grade 3 in 3.5%. Twelve episodes of febrile neutropenia were reported and three patients required hospital admission. No toxic death was reported. Non-haematological toxicity, including skin rash, alopecia and fatigue, were generally. Twenty-five ORs (1 complete response and 24 partial responses) were obtained for a response rate of 52% (95% CI: 37.4–66.5%). One-year survival was 46.5%. This non-platinum-based outpatient triplet showed promising activity against NSCLC with myelosuppression, in particular neutropenia, being dose-limiting. The GIN regimen may represent a valuable alternative to standard platinum-based doublets and triplets in the treatment of advanced NSCLC and further studies with this platinum-free combination are warranted. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign  http://www.bjcancer.co

Tumor Associated Stromal Cells Play a Critical Role on the Outcome of the Oncolytic Efficacy of Conditionally Replicative Adenoviruses

The clinical efficacy of conditionally replicative oncolytic adenoviruses (CRAd) is still limited by the inefficient infection of the tumor mass. Since tumor growth is essentially the result of a continuous cross-talk between malignant and tumor-associated stromal cells, targeting both cell compartments may profoundly influence viral efficacy. Therefore, we developed SPARC promoter-based CRAds since the SPARC gene is expressed both in malignant cells and in tumor-associated stromal cells. These CRAds, expressing or not the Herpes Simplex thymidine kinase gene (Ad-F512 and Ad(I)-F512-TK, respectively) exerted a lytic effect on a panel of human melanoma cells expressing SPARC; but they were completely attenuated in normal cells of different origins, including fresh melanocytes, regardless of whether cells expressed or not SPARC. Interestingly, both CRAds displayed cytotoxic activity on SPARC positive-transformed human microendothelial HMEC-1 cells and WI-38 fetal fibroblasts. Both CRAds were therapeutically effective on SPARC positive-human melanoma tumors growing in nude mice but exhibited restricted efficacy in the presence of co-administered HMEC-1 or WI-38 cells. Conversely, co-administration of HMEC-1 cells enhanced the oncolytic efficacy of Ad(I)-F512-TK on SPARC-negative MIA PaCa-2 pancreatic cancer cells in vivo. Moreover, conditioned media produced by stromal cells pre-infected with the CRAds enhanced the in vitro viral oncolytic activity on pancreatic cancer cells, but not on melanoma cells. The whole data indicate that stromal cells might play an important role on the outcome of the oncolytic efficacy of conditionally replicative adenoviruses.Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria