Volatility risk premia and exchange rate predictability

© 2016. We discover a new currency strategy with highly desirable return and diversification properties, which uses the predictive ability of currency volatility risk premia for currency returns. The volatility risk premium-the difference between expected realized volatility and model-free implied volatility-reflects the costs of insuring against currency volatility fluctuations. The strategy sells high insurance-cost currencies and buys low insurance-cost currencies. A distinctive feature of the strategy's returns is that they are mainly generated by movements in spot exchange rates instead of interest rate differentials. We explore explanations for the profitability of the strategy, which cannot be understood using traditional risk factors

Policaptil Gel Retard in adult subjects with the metabolic syndrome: Efficacy, safety, and tolerability compared to metformin.

Abstract Background Policaptil Gel Retard® (PGR), is a new macromolecule complex based on polysaccharides slowing the rate of carbohydrate and fat absorption. It proved to significantly reduce body weight, acanthosis nigricans expression, HbA1c levels, and glucose metabolism abnormalities in obese, hyper-insulinemic adolescents. No such data are available for adults. Aim to compare the effects of PGR vs. metformin in adult subjects with the Metabolic Syndrome (MS) and T2DM on a Low Glycemic Index diet. Subjects and methods This spontaneous clinical, longitudinal, single-blind, randomized study based on a per-protocol analysis enrolled 100 outpatients with MS and T2DM consecutively referring to our clinic for three months, and randomly assigned to either the active treatment (Group A:, 6 tablets/day) or the comparator (Group B: Metformin tablets, 1500–2000 mg/day in two divided doses during the two main meals, to minimize side effects) to be taken 30 min before each main meal in equally divided doses. Serum lipid profile, anthropometry, HOMA-IR index, and tolerability parameters were evaluated before and after a 6-month follow-up period. Results all parameters improved at a similar rate in both groups but for the lipid profile, which got even better in Group A. Group A also experienced less prominent gastrointestinal side effects than its counterpart. Conclusion For the first time, we showed the non-inferiority of PGR compared to metformin in obese adult subjects with the MS and T2DM as for glycemic control and a clear-cut superiority of PGR in terms of both serum lipid-lowering capacity and tolerability

土地家屋調査士のための法律学（1） : 土地家屋調査士の業務

１連載開始に際して　　２「弁護士」型業務の獲得　　３認定土地家屋調査士　　４調査士志望者の減

Ethane-beta-Sultam Modifies the Activation of the Innate Immune System Induced by Intermittent Ethanol Administration in Female Adolescent Rats

Intermittent ethanol abuse or ‘binge drinking’ during adolescence induces neuronal damage, which may be associated with cognitive dysfunction. To investigate the neurochemical processes involved, rats were administered either 1 g/kg or 2 g/kg ethanol in a ‘binge drinking’ regime. After only 3 weeks, significant activation of phagocytic cells in the peripheral (alveolar macrophages) and the hippocampal brain region (microglia cells) was present,as exemplified by increases in the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the macrophages and of iNOS in the microglia. This was associated with neuronal loss in the hippocampus CA1 region. Daily supplementation with a taurine prodrug, ethane-β-sultam, 0.028 g/kg, during the intermittent ethanol loading regime, supressed the release of the pro-inflammatory cytokines and of reactive nitrogen species, as well as neuronal loss, particularly in the rats administered the lower dose of ethanol, 1 g/kg. Plasma, macrophage and hippocampal taurine levels increased marginally after ethane-β-sultam supplementation. The ‘binge drinking’ ethanol rats administered 1 g/kg ethanol showed increased latencies to those of the control rats in their acquisition of spacial navigation in the Morris Water Maze, which was normalised to that of the controls values after ethane-β-sultam administration. Such results confirm that the administration of ethane-β-sultam to binge drinking rats reduces neuroinflammation in both the periphery and the brain, suppresses neuronal loss, and improved working memory of rats in a water maze study

Large-scale distribution of microbial and viral populations in the South Atlantic Ocean

Viruses are abundant, diverse and dynamic compo-nents of the marine environments and play a signi?-cant role in the ocean biogeochemical cycles. Toassess potential variations in the relation betweenviruses and microbes in different geographic regionsand depths, viral and microbial abundance and pro-duction were determined throughout the watercolumn along a latitudinal transect in the South Atlan-tic Ocean. Path analysis was used to examine therelationships between several abiotic and bioticparameters and the different microbial and viral popu-lations distinguished by ?ow cytometry.The depth-integrated contribution of microbial andviral abundance to the total microbial and viralbiomass differed signi?cantly among the differentprovinces. Additionally, the virus-to-microbe ratioincreased with depth and decreased laterally towardsthe more productive regions. Our data revealed thatthe abundance of phytoplankton and microbes is themain controlling factor of the viral populations in theeuphotic and mesopelagic layers, whereas in thebathypelagic realm, viral abundance was only weaklyrelated to the biotic and abiotic variables. The relativecontribution of the three viral populations distin-guished by ?ow cytometry showed a clear geographi-cal pattern throughout the water column, suggestingthat these populations are composed of distinct tax

Fatigue crack behaviour: comparing three-point bend test and wedge splitting test data on vibrated concrete using Paris' law

The fatigue behaviour of concrete has become more important for the design of constructions due to the desire to build slimmer structures, which are more sensitive to fatigue loading. This article aims to evaluate and compare the fatigue crack propagation rate in vibrated concrete for four different stress ratios using the Paris-Erdogan law. The data evaluation in this article is based on crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) measurements from cyclic three-point bending tests on single edge notched beams and from wedge splitting tests on notched cubes, obtained from experiments at Ghent University. For this study, finite element analysis is used to obtain a mathematical relationship between the CMOD and the relative crack length a/W, as well as a relationship between the stress intensity ratio ?K and a/W. The obtained mathematical relationships were then combined with the measured CMOD values to correlate the test data to the Paris- Erdogan law. Herein, the crack propagation rate da/dN is plotted against the corresponding stress intensity range ?K in a log-log graph. In a final step, the Paris-Erdogan law parameters C and m were obtained through linear curve fitting on the data points from the obtained graphs. The parameters C and m are then used to compare and evaluate the fatigue crack behavior in vibrated concrete, and the differences between the results from the three-point bend tests and wedge splitting tests

Effects of inspiratory flow on lung stress, pendelluft, and ventilation heterogeneity in ARDS: A physiological study

Background: High inspiratory flow might damage the lungs by mechanisms not fully understood yet. We hypothesized that increasing inspiratory flow would increase lung stress, ventilation heterogeneity, and pendelluft in ARDS patients undergoing volume-controlled ventilation with constant tidal volume and that higher PEEP levels would reduce this phenomenon. Methods: Ten ARDS patients were studied during protective volume-controlled ventilation. Three inspiratory flows (400, 800, and 1200 ml/s) and two PEEP levels (5 and 15 cmH2O) were applied in random order to each patient. Airway and esophageal pressures were recorded, end-inspiratory and end-expiratory holds were performed, and ventilation distribution was measured with electrical impedance tomography. Peak and plateau airway and transpulmonary pressures were recorded, together with the airway and transpulmonary pressure corresponding to the first point of zero end-inspiratory flow (P1). Ventilation heterogeneity was measured by the EIT-based global inhomogeneity (GI) index. Pendelluft was measured as the absolute difference between pixel-level inflation measured at plateau pressure minus P1. Results: Plateau airway and transpulmonary pressure was not affected by inspiratory flow, while P1 increased at increasing inspiratory flow. The difference between P1 and plateau pressure was higher at higher flows at both PEEP levels (p < 0.001). While higher PEEP reduced heterogeneity of ventilation, higher inspiratory flow increased GI (p = 0.05), irrespective of the PEEP level. Finally, gas volume undergoing pendelluft was larger at higher inspiratory flow (p < 0.001), while PEEP had no effect. Conclusions: The present exploratory analysis suggests that higher inspiratory flow increases additional inspiratory pressure, heterogeneity of ventilation, and pendelluft while PEEP has negligible effects on these flow-dependent phenomena. The clinical significance of these findings needs to be further clarified

Least squares optimization: From theory to practice

Nowadays, Nonlinear Least-Squares embodies the foundation of many Robotics and Computer Vision systems. The research community deeply investigated this topic in the last few years, and this resulted in the development of several open-source solvers to approach constantly increasing classes of problems. In this work, we propose a unified methodology to design and develop efficient Least-Squares Optimization algorithms, focusing on the structures and patterns of each specific domain. Furthermore, we present a novel open-source optimization system that addresses problems transparently with a different structure and designed to be easy to extend. The system is written in modern C++ and runs efficiently on embedded systemsWe validated our approach by conducting comparative experiments on several problems using standard datasets. The results show that our system achieves state-of-the-art performances in all tested scenarios

Low-level laser therapy in neurosensory recovery : case series in dental and maxillofacial rehabilitation

Abstract in proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of CiiEM: Health, Well-Being and Ageing in the 21st Century, held at Egas Moniz’ University Campus in Monte de Caparica, Almada, from 3–5 June 2019.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio