Corporate Governance, Opaque Bank Activities, and Risk/Return Efficiency: Pre- and Post-Crisis Evidence from Turkey

Does better corporate governance unambiguously improve the risk/return efficiency of banks? Or does either a re-orientation of banks' revenue mix towards more opaque products, an economic downturn, or tighter supervision create off-setting or reinforcing effects? The authors relate bank efficiency to shortfalls from a stochastic risk/return frontier. They analyze how internal governance mechanisms (CEO duality, board experience, political connections, and education profile) and external governance mechanisms (discipline exerted by shareholders, depositors, or skilled employees) determine efficiency in a sample of Turkish banks. The 2000 financial crisis was a wakeup call for bank efficiency and corporate governance. As a result, better corporate governance mechanisms have been able to improve risk/return efficiency when the economic, regulatory, and supervisory environments are more stable and bank products are more complex.corporate governance;bank risk;noninterest income;crisis;frontier

A combination of LCPUFA ameliorates airway inflammation in asthmatic mice by promoting pro-resolving effects and reducing adverse effects of EPA

Cusanuswerk, who supported D.F. with a stipend. J.D. is funded by European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant no: 677542) and the Barts Charity (grant no: MGU0343) to J.D. J.D. is also supported by a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (grant 107613/Z/15/Z)

Downregulation of Mcl-1 has anti-inflammatory pro-resolution effects and enhances bacterial clearance from the lung

Phagocytes not only coordinate acute inflammation and host defense at mucosal sites, but also contribute to tissue damage. Respiratory infection causes a globally significant disease burden and frequently progresses to acute respiratory distress syndrome, a devastating inflammatory condition characterized by neutrophil recruitment and accumulation of protein-rich edema fluid causing impaired lung function. We hypothesized that targeting the intracellular protein myeloid cell leukemia 1 (Mcl-1) by a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (AT7519) or a flavone (wogonin) would accelerate neutrophil apoptosis and resolution of established inflammation, but without detriment to bacterial clearance. Mcl-1 loss induced human neutrophil apoptosis, but did not induce macrophage apoptosis nor impair phagocytosis of apoptotic neutrophils. Neutrophil-dominant inflammation was modelled in mice by either endotoxin or bacteria (Escherichia coli). Downregulating inflammatory cell Mcl-1 had anti-inflammatory, pro-resolution effects, shortening the resolution interval (R(i)) from 19 to 7 h and improved organ dysfunction with enhanced alveolar–capillary barrier integrity. Conversely, attenuating drug-induced Mcl-1 downregulation inhibited neutrophil apoptosis and delayed resolution of endotoxin-mediated lung inflammation. Importantly, manipulating lung inflammatory cell Mcl-1 also accelerated resolution of bacterial infection (R(i); 50 to 16 h) concurrent with enhanced bacterial clearance. Therefore, manipulating inflammatory cell Mcl-1 accelerates inflammation resolution without detriment to host defense against bacteria, and represents a target for treating infection-associated inflammation

Elevated expression of both mRNA and protein levels of IL-17A in sputum of stable Cystic Fibrosis patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>T helper 17 (Th17) cells can recruit neutrophils to inflammatory sites through production of IL-17, which induces chemokine release. IL-23 is an important inducer of IL-17 and IL-22 production. Our aim was to study the role of Th17 cells in cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease by measuring IL-17 protein and mRNA levels and IL-22 and IL-23 mRNA in sputum of clinically stable CF patients and by comparing these levels with healthy controls.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Sputum induction was performed in adult CF patients outside of an exacerbation and healthy control subjects. IL-17A protein levels were measured in supernatants with cytometric bead array (CBA) and RNA was isolated and quantitative RT-PCR was performed for IL-17A, IL-22 and IL-23.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found significantly higher levels of IL-17A protein and mRNA levels (both: p < 0.0001) and IL-23 mRNA levels (p < 0.0001) in the sputum of CF group as compared to controls. We found very low levels of IL-22 mRNA in the CF group. The levels of IL-17 and IL-23 mRNA were higher in patients chronically infected with <it>Pseudomonas aeruginosa </it>(<it>P. aeruginosa</it>) as compared to those who were not chronically infected with <it>P. aeruginosa</it>. The presence of <it>Staphylococcus aureus </it>(<it>S. aureus</it>) on sputum did not affect the IL-17 or IL-23 levels. There was no correlation between IL-17 or IL-23 levels and FEV₁nor sputum neutrophilia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The elevated levels of IL-17 and IL-23 might indicate that Th17 cells are implicated in the persistent neutrophil infiltration in CF lung disease and chronic infection with <it>P. aeruginosa</it>.</p

Dynamic factor model with infinite-dimensional factor space:forecasting

The paper compares the pseudo real-time forecasting performance of three Dynamic Factor Models: (i) The standard principal-component model introduced by Stock and Watson in 2002, (ii) The model based on generalized principal components, introduced by Forni, Hallin, Lippi and Reichlin in 2005, (iii) The model recently proposed by Forni, Hallin, Lippi and Zaffaroni in 2015. We employ a large monthly dataset of macroeconomic and financial time series for the U.S. economy, which includes the Great Moderation, the Great Recession and the subsequent recovery (an update of the so-called Stock and Watson dataset). Using a rolling window for estimation and prediction, we find that (iii) significantly outperforms (i) and (ii) in the Great Moderation period for both Industrial Production and Inflation, that (iii) is also the best method for Inflation over the full sample. However, (iii) is outperformed by (ii) and (i) over the full sample for Industrial Production