Automatic Dehumanization Across Menstrual Cycle

In the current study we address the role of hormonal fluctuations across menstrual cycle in female dehumanization of women and men. Using a sequential priming procedure in a lexical decision task, we test whether increased levels of conception risk lead to dehumanization of other women and men on both animal and human dimensions. Results showed that for word woman as the prime, animal words were more accessible in the high than in the low conception risk of the menstrual cycle; whereas human words were more inhibited in the high compared to the low conception risk. As for word man prime, no difference in terms of accessibility was found between the high and the low conception risk on both animaland human-words. This study demonstrates that dehumanization of women is automatically elicited by menstrual cycle–related processes and associated with women’s mate-attraction goals

Explaining Deviations from Okun’s Law

Despite its stability over time, as for any statistical relationship, Okun’s law is subject to deviations that can be large at times. In this paper, we provide a mapping between residuals in Okun’s regressions and structural shocks identified using a SVAR model by inspecting how unemployment responds to the state of the economy. We show that deviations from Okun’s law are a natural and expected outcome once one takes a multi-shock perspective, as long as shocks to automation, labor supply and structural factors in the labor market are taken into account. Our simple recipe for policy makers is that, if a positive deviation from Okun’s law arises, it is likely to be generated by either positive labor supply or automation shocks or by negative structural factors shocks.publishedVersio

Are low frequency macroeconomic variables important for high frequency electricity prices?

Recent research finds that forecasting electricity prices is very relevant. In many applications, it might be interesting to predict daily electricity prices by using their own lags or renewable energy sources. However, the recent turmoil of energy prices and the Russian-Ukrainian war increased attention in evaluating the relevance of industrial production and the Purchasing Managers' Index output survey in forecasting the daily electricity prices. We develop a Bayesian reverse unrestricted MIDAS model which accounts for the mismatch in frequency between the daily prices and the monthly macro variables in Germany and Italy. We find that the inclusion of macroeconomic low frequency variables is more important for short than medium term horizons by means of point and density measures. In particular, accuracy increases by combining hard and soft information, while using only surveys gives less accurate forecasts than using only industrial production data

Are low frequency macroeconomic variables important for high frequency electricity prices?

We analyse the importance of low frequency hard and soft macroeconomic information, respectively the industrial production index and the manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index surveys, for forecasting high-frequency daily electricity prices in two of the main European markets, Germany and Italy. We do that by means of mixed-frequency models, introducing a Bayesian approach to reverse unrestricted MIDAS models (RU-MIDAS). Despite the general parsimonious structure of standard MIDAS models, the RU-MIDAS has a large set of parameters when several predictors are considered simultaneously and Bayesian inference is useful for imposing parameter restrictions. We study the forecasting accuracy for different horizons (from $1$ day ahead to $28$ days ahead) and by considering different specifications of the models. Results indicate that the macroeconomic low frequency variables are more important for short horizons than for longer horizons. Moreover, accuracy increases by combining hard and soft information, and using only surveys gives less accurate forecasts than using only industrial production data.Comment: This paper has previously circulated with the title: "Forecasting daily electricity prices with monthly macroeconomic variables" (ECB Working paper Series No. 2250

Density Forecasts with MIDAS Models

In this paper we derive a general parametric bootstrapping approach to compute density forecasts for various types of mixed-data sampling (MIDAS) regressions. We consider both classical and unrestricted MIDAS regressions with and without an autoregressive component. First, we compare the forecasting performance of the different MIDAS models in Monte Carlo simulation experiments. We find that the results in terms of point and density forecasts are coherent. Moreover, the results do not clearly indicate a superior performance of one of the models under scrutiny when the persistence of the low frequency variable is low. Some differences are instead more evident when the persistence is high, for which the ARMIDAS and the AR-U-MIDAS produce better forecasts. Second, in an empirical exercise we evaluate density forecasts for quarterly US output growth, exploiting information fromtypical monthly series. We find that MIDAS models provide accurate and timely density forecasts

Hyaluronan mixed esters of butyric and retinoic acid drive cardiac and endothelial fate in term placenta human mesenchymal stem cells and enhance cardiac repair in infarcted rat hearts.

We have developed a mixed ester of hyaluronan with butyric and retinoic acid (HBR) that acted as a novel cardiogenic/vasculogenic agent in human mesenchymal stem cells isolated from bone marrow, dental pulp, and fetal membranes of term placenta (FMhMSCs). HBR remarkably enhanced vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), KDR, and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gene expression and the secretion of the angiogenic, mitogenic, and antiapoptotic factors VEGF and HGF, priming stem cell differentiation into endothelial cells. HBR also increased the transcription of the cardiac lineage-promoting genes GATA-4 and Nkx-2.5 and the yield of cardiac markerexpressing cells. These responses were notably more pronounced in FMhMSCs. FMhMSC transplantation into infarcted rat hearts was associated with increased capillary density, normalization of left ventricular function, and significant decrease in scar tissue. Transplantation of HBR-preconditioned FMhM-SCs further enhanced capillary density and the yield of human vWF-expressing cells, additionally decreasing the infarct size. Some engrafted, HBR-pretreated FMhMSCs were also positive for connexin 43 and cardiac troponin I. Thus, the beneficial effects of HBR-exposed FMhMSCs may be mediated by a large supply of angiogenic and antiapoptotic factors, and FMhMSC differentiation into vascular cells. These findings may contribute to further development in cell therapy of heart failure

The association between OCD and shame : A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Due to rumination and self-criticism over unwanted obsessions and repetitive rituals, shame is a common emotion experienced by individuals with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Shame is also theorized to have relevance to unacceptable thoughts in OCD. However, empirical research looking at the relationship between OCD and shame is still emerging and findings have been mixed. Objectives Our review systematically examines the association of shame with OCD and unacceptable thoughts. Methods The last updated search was conducted across five databases between 27 and 29 February 2022. The final selection included 20 papers, 18 of which were used in the primary meta-analysis to calculate pooled effect sizes between OCD and shame measures using a random effects model. In a separate analysis, three papers were used to calculate pooled effect sizes between shame and OCD symptom dimensions also using a random effects model. Results The meta-analyses identified a significant, moderate and positive correlation between total OCD and shame scores r = .352, 95% CI [0.260, 0.438]. In addition, significant, weak and positive relationships were found between shame and three OCD symptom dimensions: unacceptable thoughts r = .252, 95% CI [−0.467, 0.9708], harm obsessions r = .224, CI [−0.190, 0.638] and symmetry concerns r = .200, CI [−0.108, 0.509]. Limitations Shame measures in the reviewed studies were not specific to OCD, and between-study variance in the analyses examining unacceptable thoughts was significant. Conclusions Our findings support a medium positive relationship between shame and OCD. As shame in OCD can be a barrier to seeking treatment and impair quality of life, it is imperative to address this emotion through psychoeducation, assessment and treatment

The role of associative learning in healthy and sustainable food evaluations : An event-related potential study

Individuals in industrialized societies frequently include processed foods in their diet. However, overconsumption of heavily processed foods leads to imbalanced calorie intakes as well as negative health consequences and environmental impacts. In the present study, normal-weight healthy individuals were recruited in order to test whether associative learning (Evaluative Conditioning, EC) could strengthen the association between food-types (minimally processed and heavily processed foods) and concepts (e.g., healthiness), and whether these changes would be reflected at the implicit associations, at the explicit ratings and in behavioral choices. A Semantic Congruency task (SC) during electroencephalography recordings was used to examine the neural signature of newly acquired associations between foods and concepts. The accuracy after EC towards minimally processed food (MP-food) in the SC task significantly increased, indicating strengthened associations between MP-food and the concept of healthiness through EC. At the neural level, a more negative amplitude of the N400 waveform, which reflects semantic incongruency, was shown in response to MP-foods paired with the concept of unhealthiness in proximity of the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This implied the possible role of the left DLPFC in changing food representations by integrating stimuli’s features with existing food-relevant information. Finally, the N400 effect was modulated by individuals’ attentional impulsivity as well as restrained eating behavior