Climate change challenges for central banks and financial regulators

The academic and policy debate regarding the role of central banks and financial regulators in addressing climate-related financial risks has rapidly expanded in recent years. This Perspective presents the key controversies and discusses potential research and policy avenues for the future. Developing a comprehensive analytical framework to assess the potential impact of climate change and the low-carbon transition on financial stability seems to be the first crucial challenge. These enhanced risk measures could then be incorporated in setting financial regulations and implementing the policies of central banks

How expectations became governable: institutional change and the performative power of central banks

Central banks have accumulated unparalleled power over the conduct of macroeconomic policy. Key for this development was the articulation and differentiation of monetary policy as a distinct policy domain. While political economists emphasize the foundational institutional changes that enabled this development, recent performativity-studies focus on central bankers’ invention of expectation management techniques. In line with a few other works, this article aims to bring these two aspects together. The key argument is that, over the last few decades, central banks have identified different strategies to assume authority over “expectational politics” and reinforced dominant institutional forces within them. I introduce a comparative scheme to distinguish two different expectational governance regimes. My own empirical investigation focuses on a monetarist regime that emerged from corporatist contexts, where central banks enjoyed “embedded autonomy” and where commercial banks maintained conservative reserve management routines. I further argue that innovations towards inflation targeting took place in countries with non-existent or disintegrating corporatist structures and where central banks turned to finance to establish a different version of expectation coordination. A widespread adoption of this “financialized” expectational governance has been made possible by broader processes of institutional convergence that were supported by central bankers themselves

The epidemiology of enterococci

The enterococci are emerging as a significant cause of nosocomial infections, accounting for approximately 10 % of hospital acquired infections. They are found as normal inhabitants of the human gastrointestinal tract, but may also colonize the oropharynx, vagina, perineal region and soft tissue wounds of asymtomatic patients. Until recently, evidence indicated that most enterococcal infections arose from patients' own endogenous flora. Recent studies, however, suggest that exogeneous acquisition may occur and that person-to-person spread, probably on the hands of medical personnel, may be a significant mode of transmission of resistant enterococci within the hospital. The use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, especially cephalosporins, is another major factor in the increasing incidence of enterococcal infections. These findings suggest that barrier precautions, as applied with other resistant nosocomial pathogens, along with more judicial use of antibiotics may be beneficial in preventing nosocomial spread of resistant enterococci.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47899/1/10096_2005_Article_BF01963631.pd

Contested meanings of transparency in central banking

Over the last two decades, there have been far-reaching transformations in the ways central banks operate, especially in regard to how openly they communicate with other actors. Transparency in central banking has two quite distinct motivations. The first is to provide a means of holding the central bankers to account, while the second is about the efficiency of their policy-making. These two motivations for transparency reflect contestable norms about the choices central banks make. The paper discusses how transparency in central banking functions and explores how the underlying norms might be open to contestation. A typology showing the rationale for, and effects of, different forms of transparency is constructed and its implications assessed

Double-layered mucoadhesive tablets containing nystatin

The objective of this work was to design a mucoadhesive tablet with a potential use in the treatment of oral candidosis. A 2-layered tablet containing nystain was formulated. Lactose CD (direct compression), carbomer (CB), and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) were used as excipients. Tablets were obtained through direct compression. Properties such as in vitro mucoadhesion, water uptake, front movements, and drug release were evaluated. The immediate release layer was made of lactose CD (100 mg) and nystatin (30 mg). The CB:HPMC 9∶1 mixture showed the best mucoadhesion properties and was selected as excipient for the mucoadhesive polymeric layer (200 mg). The incorporation of nystatin (33.3 mg) in this layer affected the water uptake, which, in turn, modified the erosion front behavior. Nystatin showed a first-order release. The polymeric layer presented an anomalous kinetic (n=0.82) when this layer layer was individually evaluated. The mucoadhesive tablet formulated in this work releases nystatin quickly from the lactose layer and then in a sustained way, during approximately 6 hours. from the polymeric layer. The mixture CB:HPMC 9∶1 showed good in vitro mucoadhesion. A swelling-diffusion process modulates the release of nystatin from this layer. A non-Fickian (anomalous) kinetic was observed

Influence of ibuprofen as a solid-state plasticizer in eudragit® RS 30 D on the physicochemical properties of coated beads

The purpose of this study was to investigate the physicochemical properties of nonpareil beads coated with Eudragit® RS 30 D containing ibuprofen as a multifunctional agent. The influence of the concentration of ibuprofen in the film coating and the effect of the coating level on drug release from coated beads was determined in pH 7.2 phosphate buffer solution. The influence of storage time at 23°C and 60°C on the release of ibuprofen from coated beads was also investigated. The thermal properties of the films were determined using a differential scanning calorimeter. Scanning electron microscopy was employed to image the surface morphology of the coated beads. Infrared spectroscopy was used to study the interaction of Eudragit RS 30 D and ibuprofen. Results from the dissolution studies demonstrated that increasing the amount of ibuprofen in the polymeric film reduced the rate of drug release, mainly because of a more complete coalescence of the polymeric particles of the latex dispersion. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of Eudragit RS 30 D films decreased and the surface of the coated beads became smoother as the concentration of ibuprofen was increased. Hydrogen bonding between the polymer and ibuprofen was demonstrated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. No significant differences were found in drug dissolution between the coated beads stored at 23°C for 12 months and those stored at 60°C for 12 hours. The results of this study demonstrated that the ibuprofen plasticized the Eudragit RS 30 D. Furthermore, the dissolution rate of ibuprofen can be controlled and changes in the drug release rate can be minimized by using the drug-induced plasticization technique with this polymer