Responding to Regulatory Uncertainty: Evidence from Basel III

This paper examines how firms respond to proposed regulation. Specifically, we utilize the time period over which banking authorities discussed, adopted, and implemented Basel III to examine how banks responded to the proposed regulatory framework. We find that banks were not only quick to lobby rule makers against the proposal, but that they also simultaneously altered their business models and made strategic financial reporting changes in response to it. We also provide evidence that banks were more likely to make these anticipatory changes when they: 1) benefitted more from signaling an early commitment, or 2) had less uncertainty about whether they would be subjected to the regulation. Taken together, our findings indicate that firms’ incentives lead them to simultaneously respond through multiple channels when faced with regulatory uncertainty.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110908/1/1213_Hendricks_Apr2015.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110908/4/1213_Shakespeare_March2016.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110908/6/1213_Shakespeare_March2016.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110908/7/1213_Hendricks_Nov2016.pdfDescription of 1213_Shakespeare_March2016.pdf : Fixed March 2016 revisionDescription of 1213_Shakespeare_March2016.pdf : March 2016 revisionDescription of 1213_Hendricks_Nov2016.pdf : November 2016 revisio

Dementias show differential physiological responses to salient sounds.

Abnormal responsiveness to salient sensory signals is often a prominent feature of dementia diseases, particularly the frontotemporal lobar degenerations, but has been little studied. Here we assessed processing of one important class of salient signals, looming sounds, in canonical dementia syndromes. We manipulated tones using intensity cues to create percepts of salient approaching ("looming") or less salient withdrawing sounds. Pupil dilatation responses and behavioral rating responses to these stimuli were compared in patients fulfilling consensus criteria for dementia syndromes (semantic dementia, n = 10; behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, n = 16, progressive nonfluent aphasia, n = 12; amnestic Alzheimer's disease, n = 10) and a cohort of 26 healthy age-matched individuals. Approaching sounds were rated as more salient than withdrawing sounds by healthy older individuals but this behavioral response to salience did not differentiate healthy individuals from patients with dementia syndromes. Pupil responses to approaching sounds were greater than responses to withdrawing sounds in healthy older individuals and in patients with semantic dementia: this differential pupil response was reduced in patients with progressive nonfluent aphasia and Alzheimer's disease relative both to the healthy control and semantic dementia groups, and did not correlate with nonverbal auditory semantic function. Autonomic responses to auditory salience are differentially affected by dementias and may constitute a novel biomarker of these diseases

Incidental detection of classical galactosemia through newborn screening for phenylketonuria: a 10-year retrospective audit to determine the efficacy of this approach

In the UK, Classical Galactosaemia (CG) is identified incidentally from the Newborn Screening (NBS) for phenylketonuria (PKU) using an “Other disorder suspected” (ODS) pathway when phenylalanine (Phe) and tyrosine (Tyr) concentrations are increased. We aimed to determine the efficacy of CG detection via NBS and estimate the incidence of CG in live births in the UK. A survey was sent to all UK NBS laboratories to collate CG cases diagnosed in the UK from 2010 to 2020. Cases of CG diagnosed were determined if detected clinically, NBS, or by family screening, as well as age at diagnosis. Cases referred via the ODS pathway were also collated, including the final diagnosis made. Responses were obtained from 13/16 laboratories. Between 2010 and 2020, a total of 6,642,787 babies were screened, and 172 cases of CG were identified. It should be noted that 85/172 presented clinically, 52/172 were identified by NBS, and 17/172 came from family screening. A total of 117 referrals were made via the ODS pathway, and 45/117 were subsequently diagnosed with CG. Median (interquartile range) age at diagnosis by NBS and clinically was 8 days (7–11) and 10 days (7–16), respectively (Mann–Whitney U test, U = 836.5, p-value = 0.082). The incidence of CG is 1:38,621 live births. The incidence of CG in the UK is comparable with that of other European/western countries. No statistical difference was seen in the timing of diagnosis between NBS and clinical presentation based on the current practice of sampling on day 5. Bringing forward the day of NBS sampling to day 3 would increase the proportion diagnosed with CG by NBS from 52/172 (30.2%) to 66/172 (38.4%)

Dirty and 40 days in the wilderness: Eliciting childbirth and postnatal cultural practices and beliefs in Nepal.

Background: Pregnancy and childbirth are socio-cultural events that carry varying meanings across different societies and cultures. These are often translated into social expectations of what a particular society expects women to do (or not to do) during pregnancy, birth and/or the postnatal period. This paper reports a study exploring beliefs around childbirth in Nepal, a low-income country with a largely Hindu population. The paper then sets these findings in the context of the wider global literature around issues such as periods where women are viewed as polluted (or dirty even) after childbirth. Methods: A qualitative study comprising five in-depth face-to-face interviews and 14 focus group discussions with mainly women, but also men and health service providers. The qualitative findings in Nepal were compared and contrasted with the literature on practices and cultural beliefs related to the pregnancy and childbirth period across the globe and at different times in history. Results: The themes that emerged from the analysis included: (a) cord cutting & placenta rituals; (b) rest & seclusion; (c) purification, naming & weaning ceremonies and (d) nutrition and breastfeeding. Physiological changes in mother and baby may underpin the various beliefs, ritual and practices in the postnatal period. These practices often mean women do not access postnatal health services. Conclusions: The cultural practices, taboos and beliefs during pregnancy and around childbirth found in Nepal largely resonate with those reported across the globe. This paper stresses that local people’s beliefs and practices offer both opportunities and barriers to health service providers. Maternity care providers need to be aware of local values, beliefs and traditions to anticipate and meet the needs of women, gain their trust and work with them

The Enchanted Hunters in Nabokov’s Lolita

In Nabokov’s Lolita, Humbert Humbert’s The Enchanted Hunters, as a quest for love, aims to reconstruct a felicitous world or integrate various fragmentary details into an organic unity that revives a lost love, experiencing it on the basis of irony, and revealing a simulation of the desire, violence, and despondency which have been expressed in myths of nymphs and Persephone. The protagonist never reaches this unity, but his narrative of erotic and romantic love reveals him as a pathetic addict engaged in mechanical reproduction related to the phenomena of desire, seduction, violence, and sex. His The Enchanted Hunters does not simulate what he expects of his childhood love with Annabel; rather, it simulates the erotic imagination suggested in Mary D. Sheriff’s term “nymphomania,” in which artists fall degenerately to a model of tragedy

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead