Analisi del rischio sistemico a livello globale

Uno studio del rischio sistemico a livello globale è reso necessario dagli effetti della crescente globalizzazione che rendono le grandi banche internazionali parte di un network bancario globale. Di conseguenza, la fragilità finanziaria all’interno di questo network globale non influenza i mercati a livello di singolo paese ma interessa i mercati di più paesi diversi. In questo capitolo si analizzano in particolare i risultati di un interessante studio di Bostandzic, Pelster e Weiss (2014) condotto sulle determinanti del rischio sistemico utilizzando un campione internazionale di grandi banche che permette loro di analizzare il rischio sistemico a livello globale, anziché limitarsi ad uno studio del rischio sistemico a livello di area geografica e/o paese. Gli autori, potendo analizzare il rischio sistemico attraverso sistemi regolamentari e di supervisione eterogenei nel mondo, tentano di identificare i fattori sotto il diretto controllo delle autorità regolamentari che guidano la fragilità finanziaria globale. Il quesito dal quale parte il dibattito recente (nel quale si colloca questo contributo) è in che misura la regolamentazione e la vigilanza bancaria internazionale possano contenere l’alimentazione del rischio di instabilità del sistema finanziario? L’evidenza empirica disponibile mostra come una regolamentazione e una vigilanza più stringenti possano ridurre il grado di accettazione del rischio delle banche (vedi Barth et al., 2004; Buch e DeLong, 2008; Laeven e Levine, 2008) e, di conseguenza, rafforzare la solidità del sistema finanziario. D’altro canto, le richieste anche da parte dell’opinione pubblica di regole e controlli più severi sulle banche hanno sollevato le proteste dei grandi manager bancari. Questi ultimi lamentano che i recenti obblighi (Basilea 3) così onerosi in termini di qualità e quantità di capitale regolamentare minimo bancario abbiano un’influenza negativa sulla performance delle banche deteriorando la redditività bancaria e quindi, in seconda battuta, anche la stabilità del sistema finanziario. Dagli anni ‘90 la letteratura finanziaria evidenzia come livelli più alti di capitale bancario possano funzionare come cuscinetti contro le perdite, rendendo i fallimenti bancari meno probabili e allineando maggiormente gli interessi di azionisti, creditori e depositanti della banca (vedi Keeley e Furlong, 1990; Dewatripont e Tirole, 1994; Berger et al., 1995; Acharya et al., 2011; Herring e Calomiris, 2011). Tuttavia, la teoria economica ha anche sottolineato come elevati requisiti di capitale possano, diversamente, incentivare la banca ad accettare livelli di rischio più elevati minando la stabilità finanziaria globale (vedi Koehn e Santomero, 1980; Kim e Santomero, 1988; Besanko e Kanatas, 1996; Calem e Rob, 1999). Il maggior risultato al quale perviene questo studio sui driver di rischio sistemico sotto il diretto controllo delle autorità regolamentari bancarie è l’esistenza di una relazione negativa tra livello di capitale (Tier 1) bancario e rischio sistemico e di una relazione positiva tra ampiezza o dimensione della banca e alimentazione del rischio sistemico. Le implicazioni politiche di questi risultati empirici sono duplici. La prima è che la scelta politica intrapresa dalle autorità a livello mondiale di innalzare l’ammontare di capitale di tipo Tier1 va nella giusta direzione di ridurre il contributo delle banche al rischio sistemico, come misurato coerentemente dalle diverse misure di fragilità finanziaria analizzate. La seconda è che anche la decisione di monitorare in maniera particolarmente stringente le caratteristiche della dimensione e del grado di interconnessione delle grandi banche, fino all’eventualità di dividerle se too-big-to-fail, è pienamente giustificata dalla necessità di contrastare la fragilità del sistema finanziario nella sua globalità. Questi risultati scientifici sembrano quindi concordano con la scelta attualmente intrapresa dalle autorità regolamentari di imporre alle grandi banche dei requisiti di capitalizzazione aggiuntivi che tengono conto di alcune caratteristiche bancarie, prime tra tutte, l’ampiezza e l’interconnessione, oltre che di indicatori contabili strettamente legati al modello di business e di finanziamento adottato dalle banche

An exploratory study of the hard X-ray variability properties of PG quasars with RXTE

We have monitored with the RXTE PCA the variability pattern of the 2-20 keV flux in four PG quasars (QSOs) from the Laor et al. (1994) sample. Six observations of each target at regular intervals of 1 day were performed. The sample comprises objects with extreme values of Balmer line width (and hence soft X-ray steepness) and spans about one order of magnitude in luminosity. The most robust result is that the variability amplitude decreases as energy increases. Several options for a possible ultimate driver of the soft and hard X-ray variability, such as the influx rate of Comptonizing relativistic particles, instabilities in the accretion flow or the number of X-ray active sites, are consistent with our results.Comment: Contributed talk presented at the Joint MPE,AIP,ESO workshop on NLS1s, Bad Honnef, Dec. 1999, to appear in New Astronomy Reviews; also available at http://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/conferences/nls1-worksho

The effect of exposure to low frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) as an integral part of the housing system on anxiety-related behaviour, cognition and welfare in two strains of laboratory mouse.

Electromagnetic field (EMF) technology has the potential to improve scientific data capture and welfare assessment by allowing automated data collection from individual cages. How- ever, it is important to determine any impact that a new technology itself may have on animal welfare, and previous studies have found contrasting results of EMF on laboratory rodent anxiety-like behaviour and cognition. We therefore investigated whether there was an effect of low frequency EMF experienced continuously over a six-week period, as an integral part of the animal housing system, on measures of mouse anxiety-related behaviour, cognition and welfare. We housed mice (N = 80) of two strains (BALB/cAnNCrl and C57BL/6NCrl) separately in Individually Ventilated Cages (IVCs) in groups of four, either with the EMF plate turned ‘on’ or ‘off’ (n = 5). Some measures, e.g. food and water utilisation, were col- lected at regular intervals, whereas measures of anxiety-like behaviour (e.g. open field test) and cognitive performance (novel-object recognition test) were collected only at the end of the study. We found expected strong strain differences in most measures, e.g. latency to leave the starting square in an open field test, with C57BL/6NCrl mice moving away sooner, and interactions between strain and time for those measures recorded at more than one time point, e.g. significant weight gain over time for both strains, but with BALB/cAnNCrl mice weighing more. However, we found no significant effects of treatment (EMF ‘on’/‘off’) for any of the measures collected. These results indicate that, for the measures recorded here, there was no measurable impact on the behaviour and welfare of low frequency EMF exposure experienced continuously over a six-week period. Housing systems that include EMF monitoring technology may therefore be suitable for use without influencing either ani- mal welfare or scientific outcomes

Massive Neutrinos and the Higgs Mass Window

If neutrino masses are produced by a see-saw mechanism the Standard Model prediction for the Higgs mass window (defined by upper (perturbativity) and lower (stability) bounds) can be substantially affected. Actually the Higgs mass window can close completely, which settles an upper bound on the Majorana mass for the right-handed neutrinos, $M$, ranging from $10^{13}$ GeV for three generations of quasi-degenerate massive neutrinos with $m_\nu\simeq 2$ eV, to $5\times 10^{14}$ GeV for just one relevant generation with $m_\nu\simeq 0.1$ eV. A slightly weaker upper bound on $M$, coming from the requirement that the neutrino Yukawa couplings do not develop a Landau pole, is also discussed.If neutrino masses are produced by a see-saw mechanism the Standard Model prediction for the Higgs mass window (defined by upper (perturbativity) and lower (stability) bounds) can be substantially affected. Actually the Higgs mass window can close completely, which settles an upper bound on the Majorana mass for the right-handed neutrinos, $M$, ranging from $10^{13}$ GeV for three generations of quasi-degenerate massive neutrinos with $m_\nu\simeq 2$ eV, to $5\times 10^{14}$ GeV for just one relevant generation with $m_\nu\simeq 0.1$ eV. A slightly weaker upper bound on $M$, coming from the requirement that the neutrino Yukawa couplings do not develop a Landau pole, is also discussed

An Updated Review of Bioactive Peptides from Mushrooms in a Well-Defined Molecular Weight Range

Here, we report the current status of the bioactive peptides isolated and characterized from mushrooms during the last 20 years, considering ‘peptide’ a succession from to 2 to 100 amino acid residues. According to this accepted biochemical definition, we adopt ~10 kDa as the upper limit of molecular weight for a peptide. In light of this, a careful revision of data reported in the literature was carried out. The search revealed that in the works describing the characterization of bioactive peptides from mushrooms, not all the peptides have been correctly classified according to their molecular weight, considering that some fungal proteins (>10 kDa MW) have been improperly classified as ‘peptides’. Moreover, the biological action of each of these peptides, the principles of their isolation as well as the source/mushroom species were summarized. Finally, this review highlighted that these peptides possess antihypertensive, antifungal, antibiotic and antimicrobial, anticancer, antiviral, antioxidant and ACE inhibitory properties

Supersymmetry breaking with quasi-localized fields in orbifold field theories

We study the Scherk-Schwarz supersymmetry breaking in five-dimensional orbifold theories with five-dimensional fields which are not strictly localized on the boundaries (quasi-localized fields). We show that the Scherk-Schwarz (SS) mechanism, besides the SS parameter \omega, depends upon new parameters, e.g. supersymmetric five-dimensional odd mass terms, governing the level of localization on the boundaries of the five-dimensional fields and study in detail such a dependence. Taking into account radiative corrections, the value of \omega is dynamically allowed to acquire any value in the range 0< \omega < 1/2.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

The Italian primary school-size distribution and the city-size: A complex nexus

This is the final version. Available from Nature Research via the DOI in this record.We characterize the statistical law according to which Italian primary school-size distributes. We find that the school-size can be approximated by a log-normal distribution, with a fat lower tail that collects a large number of very small schools. The upper tail of the school-size distribution decreases exponentially and the growth rates are distributed with a Laplace PDF. These distributions are similar to those observed for firms and are consistent with a Bose-Einstein preferential attachment process. The body of the distribution features a bimodal shape suggesting some source of heterogeneity in the school organization that we uncover by an in-depth analysis of the relation between schools-size and city-size. We propose a novel cluster methodology and a new spatial interaction approach among schools which outline the variety of policies implemented in Italy. Different regional policies are also discussed shedding lights on the relation between policy and geographical features

Valle agricola chickpeas: Nutritional profile and metabolomics traits of a typical landrace legume from southern Italy

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) from Valle Agricola is a legume cultivated in Southern Italy whose intake is strictly linked to rural traditions. In order to get new biochemical insight on this landrace and to promote its consumption and marketing, nutritional values (moisture content, total proteins, lipids, total and free amino acids) and metabolic traits are deeply investigated. Valle Agricola chickpea is nutritionally rich in proteins (19.70 g/100 g) and essential amino acids (7.12 g/100 g; ~40% of total). Carbohydrates, whose identity was unraveled by means of UHPLC-HR MS/MS analysis, were almost 60% of chemicals. In particular, a di-galactosylglycerol, a pinitol digalactoside, and a galactosylciceritol were found as constitutive, together with different raffinose-series oligosaccharides. Although lipids were the less constitutive compounds, glycerophospholipids were identified, while among free fatty acids linoleic acid (C18:2) was the most abundant, followed by oleic (C18:1) and palmitic (C16:0) acids. Isoflavones and hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives were also detected. Valle Agricola chickpeas showed very good levels of several mineral nutrients, especially magnesium (164 mg/100 g), potassium (748 mg/100 g), calcium (200 mg/100 g), zinc (4.20 mg/100 g) and manganese (0.45 mg/100 g). The boiling process favorably decreases anti-trypsin and anti-chymotrypsin activities, depleting this precious seed of its intrinsic antinutritional factors