Essays on monetary policy and international trade

The dissertation consists of three essays. Chapter II examines the asymmetric effects of monetary policy on stock prices by using an unobserved components model with Markov-switching. My results show that monetary policy has negative effects on stock prices, which is consistent with the most recent literature. When the transitory component is in the low volatility state, a contractionary monetary policy significantly reduces stock prices. When the transitory component is in the high volatility state, the negative effect of monetary policy becomes larger, but the difference of the monetary policy effects between two states is not significant. Besides, a contractionary monetary policy will lower the probability of stock prices staying in the low volatility state. Monetary policy also reduces the total volatility of stock prices and the volatility of the transitory component of stock prices. Chapter III employs the smooth transition autoregressive (STAR) models to investigate the nonlinear effect of monetary policy on stock returns. The change in the Federal funds rate is used as an endogenous measure of monetary policy and the growth rate of industrial production is also considered in the model. My empirical results show that excess stock returns, the change in the Federal funds rate, and the growth rate of industrial production all can be expressed in the nonlinear STAR models. The estimated coefficients and the impulse response functions show that the effect of monetary policy on excess returns of stock prices is significantly negative and nonlinear. The change in the Federal funds rate has a larger negative effect on excess returns in the extreme low excess returns regime and the effect becomes smaller when the excess returns are greater than the threshold value. In chapter IV, I use a panel data approach to investigate the impact of exchange rate volatility on bilateral exports of the U.S. to the thirteen major trading partners. I further test the possibility of nonlinear effects of exchange rate volatility on exports by using threshold regression methods for non-dynamic panels with individual-specific fixed effects proposed by Hansen (1999). The results indicate that the effect of exchange rate volatility on bilateral exports is nonlinear. When the relative real GDP per capita of the exporting partner is lower than the threshold value, the response of bilateral U.S. exports to exchange rate volatility is positive. But, exchange rate volatility decreases bilateral exports of the U.S. to the exporting partners when their relative real GDP per capita surpass the threshold value

Decentralized Base-Graph Routing for the Quantum Internet

Quantum repeater networks are a fundamental of any future quantum Internet and long-distance quantum communications. The entangled quantum nodes can communicate through several different levels of entanglement, leading to a heterogeneous, multi-level network structure. The level of entanglement between the quantum nodes determines the hop distance and the probability of the existence of an entangled link in the network. Here, we define a decentralized routing for entangled quantum networks. The proposed method allows an efficient routing to find the shortest paths in entangled quantum networks by using only local knowledge of the quantum nodes. We give bounds on the maximum value of the total number of entangled links of a path. The proposed scheme can be directly applied in practical quantum communications and quantum networking scenarios.Comment: 13 pages, Journal-ref: Phys. Rev.

Surgical treatment for thyrotoxic hypokalemic periodic paralysis: case report

Thyrotoxic hypokalemic periodic paralysis (THPP) is a rare, potentially life-threatening endocrine emergency. It is characterized by recurrent muscle weakness and hypokalemia. Because many THPP patients do not have obvious symptoms and signs of hyperthyroidism, misdiagnosis may occur. The published studies revealed that definitive therapy for THPP is control of hyperthyroidism by medical therapy, radioactive iodine or surgery, but the long-term post-operative follow-up result was not observed. We reported two cases of medically refractory THPP with recurrent paralysis of extremities and hypokalemia, and both were combined with thyroid nodules. Both patients were treated with total thyroidectomy; the pathology revealed that one is Graves' disease with thyroid papillary carcinoma, and the other is adenomatous goiter with papillary hyperplasia. No episode of periodic paralysis was noted and laboratory evaluation revealed normal potassium level during the post-operative follow up. Our experience suggests that total thyroidectomy by experienced surgeon is an appropriate and definite treatment for medically refractory THPP, especially in cases combined with thyroid nodules

X-linked hyper-IgM syndrome with CD40LG mutation: Two case reports and literature review in Taiwanese patients

Hyper-IgM syndrome (HIGM) is a rare primary immunodeficiency disorder characterized by elevated or normal serum IgM and decreased IgG, IgA, and IgE due to defective immunoglobulin class switching. X-linked HIGM (XHIGM, HIGM1) is the most frequent type, is caused by mutations in the CD40 ligand gene, and is regarded as a combined T and B immunodeficiency. We report an 18-year-old male who was diagnosed initially with hypogammaglobulinemia in infancy, but developed repeated pneumonia, sepsis, cellulitis, perianal abscess, pericarditis, and bronchiectasis despite regular intravenous immunoglobulin replacement therapy. The patient died at age 18 years due to pneumonia and tension pneumothorax. Mutation analysis revealed CD40L gene mutation within Exon 5 at nucleotide position 476 (cDNA 476G > A). This nonsense mutation predicted a tryptophan codon (TGG) change to a stop codon (TGA) at position 140 (W140X), preventing CD40L protein expression. Sequence analysis in the family confirmed a de novo mutation. The second case of 6-month-old male infant presented as Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Gene analysis of the CD40L gene revealed G to C substitution in Intron 4 (c.409 + 5G > C) and mother was a carrier. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, the only cure for XHIGM, was arranged in the second case

Detection of SARS-associated Coronavirus in Throat Wash and Saliva in Early Diagnosis

Early detection of SARS-CoV in throat wash and saliva suggests that these specimens are ideal for SARS diagnosis

Worshipers and Warriors

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68415/2/10.1177_009770047600200102.pd

Women's preference for cesarean delivery and differences between Taiwanese women undergoing different modes of delivery

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The rate of cesarean delivery was 35% in 2007 in Taiwan. It is unclear how many of the cesarean deliveries were without medical indications. Women's preference for cesarean delivery during their course of pregnancy has rarely been studied and therefore our objectives were to examine rate of cesarean deliveries without medical indications, to explore women's preference for cesarean delivery as their gestation advances, and to compare background and perinatal factors among women who underwent different modes of delivery in Taiwan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This prospective study applied a longitudinal design. The study participants were 473 women who received prenatal care at four hospitals in Taipei and answered structured questionnaires at 20 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, 34 to 36 weeks of pregnancy, and 5 to 7 weeks after delivery.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the 151 women (31.9%) who had cesarean deliveries, 19.9% were without medical indication. Three indications: malpresentation, prior cesarean section, and dysfunctional labor together accounted for 82.6% of cesarean section with medical indications. The prevalence of maternal preference for cesarean delivery was found to be 12.5% and 17.5% during the second and third trimester, respectively. Of the women who preferred cesarean delivery during the second trimester, 93.2% eventually had a cesarean delivery. Women who were older, with older spouses, and who had health problems before or during pregnancy were more likely to have cesarean deliveries.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>About 20% of cesarean deliveries were without medical indications. Women's preference for cesarean delivery during the second trimester predicts subsequent cesarean delivery. Counseling regarding mode of delivery should be offered early in pregnancy, especially for women who are older or with older spouses, have health problems, or had a prior cesarean section.</p

Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

A principal component meta-analysis on multiple anthropometric traits identifies novel loci for body shape

Large consortia have revealed hundreds of genetic loci associated with anthropometric traits, one trait at a time. We examined whether genetic variants affect body shape as a composite phenotype that is represented by a combination of anthropometric traits. We developed an approach that calculates averaged PCs (AvPCs) representing body shape derived from six anthropometric traits (body mass index, height, weight, waist and hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio). The first four AvPCs explain >99% of the variability, are heritable, and associate with cardiometabolic outcomes. We performed genome-wide association analyses for each body shape composite phenotype across 65 studies and meta-analysed summary statistics. We identify six novel loci: LEMD2 and CD47 for AvPC1, RPS6KA5/C14orf159 and GANAB for AvPC3, and ARL15 and ANP32 for AvPC4. Our findings highlight the value of using multiple traits to define complex phenotypes for discovery, which are not captured by single-trait analyses, and may shed light onto new pathways