An Application of Clustering Analysis to International Private Indebtedness

This paper presents a procedure for clustering analysis that combines Kohone’s Self organizing Feature Map (SOFM) and statistical schemes. The idea is to cluster the data in two stages: run SOFM and then minimize the segmentation dispersion. The advantages of proposed procedure will be illustrated through a synthetic experiment and a real macroeconomic problem. The procedure is then used to explore the relationship between private indebtedness and some macroeconomic variables commonly used to measure macroeconomic performance. The experiences of thirty-nine countries in the early nineties are analyzed. The procedure outperformed others clustering techniques in the job of identifying consistent groups of countries from the economic and statistical viewpoints. It found out similarities in different countries concerning their respective levels of private indebtedness when added to well accepted parameters to measure macroeconomic performance.Vector quantization, Clustering, Self-Organizing Feature Map,Macroeconomic Performance, Private Indebtedness.

Juros e câmbio: haverá combinações de instrumentos menos desgastantes para as metas de inflação?

The main objective of this article is to examine to what extent the determination of the interest rate can be adapted to take into account situations of an excessive offer of external capitals, through the Monetary Conditions Index. This paper presents some evidences that the trade balance is more sensitive to activity level than to exchange-rate in the short-run; that the causality order is as follows: recession precedes improved trade balances; that the exchange-rate has been negatively correlated to activity level. It means that increases in the real exchange-rate and deepens in recession can be seen in the economy, which leads us towonder if the exchange-rate role as a transmission mechanism of monetary policy can justify the use of exchange-rate policies as an alternative to the stale high interest-rate policy

Juros e câmbio: haverá combinações de instrumentos menos desgastantes para as metas de inflação?

The main objective of this article is to examine to what extent the determination of the interest rate can be adapted to take into account situations of an excessive offer of external capitals, through the Monetary Conditions Index. This paper presents some evidences that the trade balance is more sensitive to activity level than to exchange-rate in the short-run; that the causality order is as follows: recession precedes improved trade balances; that the exchange-rate has been negatively correlated to activity level. It means that increases in the real exchange-rate and deepens in recession can be seen in the economy, which leads us towonder if the exchange-rate role as a transmission mechanism of monetary policy can justify the use of exchange-rate policies as an alternative to the stale high interest-rate policy

Uso terapêutico com ácido tranexâmico para o melasma: revisão bibliográfica

Melasma, palavra grega para "melas" que significa negro, é uma condição de hiperpigmentação facilmente diagnosticada causada por fatores como a exposição à luz ultravioleta. Para o tratamento do melasma são utilizadas terapias combinadas, porém, existem opções de tratamento do melasma específicas para cada tipo de pele. AT é um composto inibidor da plasmina hidrofílica usado como agente antifibrinolítico. Objetivo: Descrever a eficácia do ácido tranexâmico no tratamento do melasma segundo o artigo. Métodos: A pesquisa direcionada de bancos de dados em inglês e português e sites de pesquisa como PubMed, BVS, Google Scholar etc., encontrou 6 artigos correspondentes ao nosso tópico, 3 relacionados ao microagulhamento e 1 relacionado ao uso de ácido tranexâmico e esfoliação, 2 com o uso tópico oral. Como critérios de inclusão, foram utilizadas palavras-chave como melasma, ácido tranexâmico, microagulhamento, peeling, tratamento. Os critérios de exclusão utilizados estudos que não estivessem de acordo com tema em discussão, artigos em idiomas que não fossem os que foram listados anteriormente. Resultados: Nos artigos utilizados, pode-se demonstrar que o ácido tranexâmico sozinho ou em combinação com outros tratamentos combinados é seguro e eficaz, com poucos ou leves efeitos colaterais. O uso de vitaminas e cosméticos administrados por via intradérmica produzirá resultados mais eficazes. Conclusões: Resultados gerais desses estudos indicam que o ácido tranexâmico pode ser eficaz no tratamento do melasma, independentemente da via de administração escolhida

Pervasive Sign Epistasis between Conjugative Plasmids and Drug-Resistance Chromosomal Mutations

Multidrug-resistant bacteria arise mostly by the accumulation of plasmids and chromosomal mutations. Typically, these resistant determinants are costly to the bacterial cell. Yet, recently, it has been found that, in Escherichia coli bacterial cells, a mutation conferring resistance to an antibiotic can be advantageous to the bacterial cell if another antibiotic-resistance mutation is already present, a phenomenon called sign epistasis. Here we study the interaction between antibiotic-resistance chromosomal mutations and conjugative (i.e., self-transmissible) plasmids and find many cases of sign epistasis (40%)—including one of reciprocal sign epistasis where the strain carrying both resistance determinants is fitter than the two strains carrying only one of the determinants. This implies that the acquisition of an additional resistance plasmid or of a resistance mutation often increases the fitness of a bacterial strain already resistant to antibiotics. We further show that there is an overall antagonistic interaction between mutations and plasmids (52%). These results further complicate expectations of resistance reversal by interdiction of antibiotic use

Country Study 11

Brazil has undergone three stabilization programmes since 1980: without the IMF in 1981-82; with the IMF in 1983-84, and the Cruzado Plan of 1986. The first two could be said to have been more orthodox in character, given the political and social constraints which have a strong bearing upon the conduct of economic policy, while the third - the 1986 Cruzado programme - was more unorthodox.The first two programmes both helped to improve the trade balance, the immediate policy objective. The effects of the first were however over-ridden by the 1981-82 world recession and the return of positive real interest rates, while the benefits of the second were overshadowed by the effects of the US recovery and the upturn in world trade.The first was thus followed by the deepest recession in Brazilian history, while the second opened up the entrancing prospect of strong internal growth coupled with an easing of external constraints for the first time since 1980. Inflation had however become endemic, thanks to the policy of general indexation. It thus remained the biggest threat to a sustained recovery and the restoration of foreign confidence. The upshot was the Cruzado programme.Essentially, this tried to break inflation expectations by imposing a sudden sharp shock in the form of a currency reform, a price freeze, and de-indexation. The hopes raised by the plan's reception and initial impact were dashed by two main faults of implementation. One lay in the failure to let 'obviously wrong' prices be corrected. This was prompted by the need to erase inflation expectations but it led to debilitating distortions in the demand-supply pattern. The second was the failure to act soon enough when signs of overheating, in the monetary aggregates, for example, became unmistakable

Flujos de capital y desempeño económico del Brasil

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