The Integration of Securitized Real Estate and Financial Assets

Empirical evidence suggests that U.S. REITs are integrated with common stocks, but not with bonds. The design of the real estate security is likely to impact upon results, however, and it would seem important to analyze the topic of integration for another type of real estate security. Swiss real estate funds constitute an ideal candidate for such an examination as their institutional and legal setup differs substantially from that of other countries. We analyze the integration of such funds with both the stock and bond markets using an APT framework. We employ both the Xu (2003) method and an innovative procedure to determine endogenous and exogenous factors, respectively. Integration is assessed by means of two alternative tests. Our results suggest that Swiss real estate funds are more integrated with stocks than with bonds. Further, we show that the degree of integration between real estate and stocks is due to a stock market factor and changes in expected inflation. No integrating factor is found between real estate and bond funds. Finally, it is found that unexpected inflation is a segmenting factor between real estate securities and financial assets.Securitized Real Estate; Statistical APT; Macroeconomic APT; Market Integration; Risk Factors

The Determinants of Stock Returns in a Small Open Economy

This paper examines the determinants of stock returns in a small open economy using an APT framework. The analysis is conducted for the Swiss stock market which has the particularity of including a large proportion of firms that are exposed to foreign economic conditions. Both a statistical and a macroeconomic implementation of the model are performed for the period 1986-2002 with monthly returns on industrial sector indices. The results show that the statistically determined factors yield a better representation of the determinants of stock returns than the macroeconomic variables and that stock returns are influenced by both global and local economic conditions. This suggests that the Swiss stock market is an internationally imperfectly integrated market.Statistical APT, Macroeconomic APT, Market integration, Risk factors

A Code-Based Group Signature Scheme

International audienceIn this work we propose the first code-based group signature. As it will be described below, its security is based on a relaxation of the model of Bel-lare, Shi and Zhang [3] (BSZ model) verifying the properties of anonymity, traceability and non-frameability. Furthermore, it has numerous advantages over all existing post-quantum constructions and even competes (in terms of properties) with pairing based constructions: it allows to dynamically add new members and signature and public key sizes are constant with respect to the number of group members. Last but not least, our scheme can be extended into a traceable signature according to the definition of Kiayias, Tsiounis and Yung [19] (KTY model) and handles membership revocation. The main idea of our scheme consists in building a collision of two syndromes associated to two different matrices: a random one which enables to build a random syndrome from a chosen small weight vector; and a trapdoor matrix for the syndrome decoding problem, which permits to find a small weight preimage of the previous random syndrome. These two small weight vectors will constitute the group member's secret signing key whose knowledge will be proved thanks to a variation of Stern's authentication protocol. For applications , we consider the case of the code-based CFS signature scheme [11] of Courtois, Finiasz and Sendrier

Challenge testing with Brochothrix thermosphacta on minced pork meat shows interest to couple metagenetics to metabolomics to study food spoilage

The spoilage of perishable foods is mainly caused by bacterial activity. The risk of unwanted bacterial growth is particularly high in the minced pork meat. In this work, the natural microbial contaminants of the minced pork meat were followed by 16S ribosomal DNA deep sequencing (metagenetics) during aging tests at different temperatures. Brochothrix thermosphacta MM008 strain was selected as one of the main contaminants responsible for the spoilage of the meat. Minced pork meat previously sterilized by gamma irradiation was inoculated with B. thermosphacta MM008 for challenge tests measuring growth and then incubated at different temperatures. Minced meat samples were taken and analyzed by H-NMR 1D at time 0 and at final time (from 14 to 19 days, depending on the incubation temperature). Orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) showed that samples, regardless of the incubation temperature, could be splitted into 3 groups according to their spectral profile: 1) samples taken at time 0, 2) samples inoculated with B. thermosphacta and taken at final time, 3) samples uninoculated, taken at final time. From the analysis of the metabolomics data, higher concentrations of glycerol, glucose, taurine, lactate, carnitine, betaine and glycine were identified in the samples of uninoculated minced pork meat and an increased production of creatine, acetate and acetone was found in the samples of minced pork meat inoculated with B. thermosphacta MM008. These observations showed that -omics technologies (metagenetics and metabolomics) could be used conclusively to study microbial spoilage of minced pork meat

Chemical contamination in fish species from rivers in the North of Luxembourg: Potential impact on the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra).

Contamination levels of PCBs, and of the heavy metals cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) were analyzed in four fish species from seven rivers in the North of Luxembourg. During August and September 2007, 85 samples of fish were collected belonging to four species: the stone loach (Barbatula barbatula, n = 12 pools), the chub (Squalius cephalus, n = 36), the barbel (Barbus barbus, n = 23) and eel (Anguilla anguilla, n = 14). The concentration of seven indicator PCBs (P7PCBs) reached a mean of 39 ng g 1 and varied between 4.0 and 346.2 ng g 1 (wet wt) depending on the site and species. Fish collected at Wal- lendorf on the Our River and sites on the Wiltz and the Clerve rivers showed the highest concentrations for PCBs. In comparison with 1994, PCB levels in fish decreased strongly during the last decade in these rivers. Lead was detected at low levels (0–181.4 ng g 1 wet wt). Mercury concentrations ranged between 10.3 and 534.5ngg 1 (wet wt) exceeding maximum tolerable levels for human consumption of 500 ng g 1 in two fish out of 85. Chubs and eels from the Sûre River were the most contaminated by mer- cury. Cadmium levels varied between 4.0 and 103.9 ng g 1 (wet wt). In addition to mercury in fish, cad- mium was the most problematic pollutant on the Our, the Wiltz, the Clerve and the Troine Rivers, because values found in 20% of fish exceeded the threshold of about 10–50 ng g 1 (wet wt) recommended for human health. The total PCB level predicted to accumulate in livers from otter potentially feeding on these fish based on a previously published mathematical model is 37.7 lg g 1 (lipid wt), which is between a proposed ‘‘safe level” and a ‘‘critical level” for otters. Rivers in the North of Luxembourg are thus to some extent polluted, and the establishment of otter populations could be affected by current levels of contamination.Peer reviewe