What Explains the Varying Monetary Response to Technology Shocks in G-7 Countries?

In a recent paper, Galí, López-Salido, and Vallées (2003) examined the Federal Reserve’s response to VAR-identified technology shocks. They found that during the Martin-Burns- Miller era, the Federal Reserve responded to technology shocks by overstabilizing output, while in the Volcker-Greenspan era, the Federal Reserve adopted an inflation-targeting rule. We extend their analysis to countries of the G-7; moreover, we consider the factors that may contribute to differing monetary responses across countries. Specifically, we find a relationship between the volatility of capital investment, the type of monetary policy rule, the responsiveness of the rule to output and inflation fluctuations, and the response to technology shocks.price setting; nominal rigidity; real rigidity; inflation persistence; survey data

What Explains the Varying Monetary Response to Technology SHocks in G7-Countries

Structural vector autoregressions (SVARs) have become a standard tool used to determine the roles of monetary policy shocks in generating cyclical fluctuations in the United States. Using both long- and short-run identifying restrictions, various authors have explored the empirical response of the economy to exogenous monetary innovations. While the majority of the studies of monetary policy have focused on the effect of exogenous money growth or interest rate shocks, recent research has begun to investigate the effect of endogenous monetary policy -- that is, the central bank's reaction to non-monetary shocks. One exogenous shock that many economists believe contributes to the business cycle fluctuations that feed into the Taylor rule is the technology shock. In an effort to identify the empirical effects of technology shocks, Gali (1999) estimated two models: a bivariate model of productivity and hours and a five-variable model adding money, inflation, and interest rates. His identification estimates a decomposition of productivity and hours into innovations to technology and non-technology components by assuming that only the former can have long-run effects on labor productivity. Empirical identification of the technology shock was a key first step in developing a unified reduced-form framework with which to examine the role that monetary policy has played in smoothing economic fluctuations. Along these lines, Gali, Lopez-Salido, and Valles (2003 -- henceforth GLV) examined the endogenous response of monetary policy to identified technology shocks in the United States. GLV examine a four-variable structural VAR for the United States with labor productivity, labor hours, the real interest rate, and inflation. Using the Gali (1999) identification, they find that during the Volcker-Greenspan (VG) era the Fed's response to the technology shock is to raise the nominal interest rate, while during the Martin-Burns-Miller (MBM) era the Fed lowers the nominal rate. Moreover, they find that the inflation and hours responses in the two periods differ in sign. Our goal is to expand the scope of GLV to an international context to determine whether the effect of technology shocks is consistent across the major industrialized countries. In particular, we are interested in how the different central banks respond to technology shocks. We investigate the possibility that technology shocks in different countries produce fundamentally different inflation and employment responses and to what extent those effects alter the monetary response. Using a theoretical model adapted from King and Wolman (1996), we find that the empirical responses can be matched with theoretical responses. Differences in these theoretical responses can be attributed to alternative policy rules and changes in the cost of capital adjustment. Further tests verify that these country characteristics could, indeed, have some explanatory power. Our results are by no means conclusive; however, they do suggest a number of theoretically consistent similarities across countries in each subgroup. While we believe more investigation into these cross-country comparisons is warranted, the initial indication is that the manner in which monetary policy is conducted and the degree of rigidity in capital markets may be determining factors in a country's response to technology shocks. Gali, Jordi (1999). "Technology, Employment, and the Business Cycle: Do Technology Shocks Explain Aggregate Fluctuations?" American Economic Review, March 1999, 89(1), pp. 249-271. Gali, Jordi; Lopez-Salido, J. David; and Valles, Javier (2003). "Technology Shocks and Monetary Policy: Assessing the Fed's Performance." Journal of Monetary Economics, May 2003, 50(4), pp. 723-743. King, Robert G., and Wolman, Alexander L. (1996). "Inflation Targetting in a St. Louis Model of the 21st Century." Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, May/June 1996, 78(3), pp. 83-107.Technology, Productivity, Monetary Policy, Taylor Rule, Capital Adjustment Costs

What Explains the Varying Monetary Response to Technology Shocks in G-7 Countries?

In a recent paper, Galí, López-Salido, and Vallées (2003) examined the Federal Reserve’s response to VAR-identified technology shocks. They found that during the Martin-Burns- Miller era, the Federal Reserve responded to technology shocks by overstabilizing output, while in the Volcker-Greenspan era, the Federal Reserve adopted an inflation-targeting rule. We extend their analysis to countries of the G-7; moreover, we consider the factors that may contribute to differing monetary responses across countries. Specifically, we find a relationship between the volatility of capital investment, the type of monetary policy rule, the responsiveness of the rule to output and inflation fluctuations, and the response to technology shocks

3D biomimetic tongue-emulating surfaces for tribological applications

Oral friction on the tongue surface plays a pivotal role in mechanics of food transport, speech, sensing and hedonic responses. The highly specialized biophysical features of human tongue such as micro-papillae-dense topology, optimum wettability and deformability present architectural challenges in designing artificial tongue surfaces, and absence of such biomimetic surface impedes fundamental understanding of tongue-food/ fluid interaction. Herein, we fabricate for the first time, a 3D soft biomimetic surface that replicates the topography and wettability of a real human tongue. The 3D-printed fabrication contains a Poisson point process-based (random) papillae distribution, and is employed to micro-mould soft silicone surfaces with wettability modifications. We demonstrate the unprecedented capability of these surfaces to replicate the theoretically-defined and simulated collision probability of papillae, and to closely resemble the tribological performances of human tongue masks. These de novo biomimetic surfaces pave the way for accurate quantification of mechanical interactions in the soft oral mucosa

Comparison of printed glycan array, suspension array and ELISA in the detection of human anti-glycan antibodies

Anti-glycan antibodies represent a vast and yet insufficiently investigated subpopulation of naturally occurring and adaptive antibodies in humans. Recently, a variety of glycan-based microarrays emerged, allowing high-throughput profiling of a large repertoire of antibodies. As there are no direct approaches for comparison and evaluation of multi-glycan assays we compared three glycan-based immunoassays, namely printed glycan array (PGA), fluorescent microsphere-based suspension array (SA) and ELISA for their efficacy and selectivity in profiling anti-glycan antibodies in a cohort of 48 patients with and without ovarian cancer. The ABO blood group glycan antigens were selected as well recognized ligands for sensitivity and specificity assessments. As another ligand we selected P1, a member of the P blood group system recently identified by PGA as a potential ovarian cancer biomarker. All three glyco-immunoassays reflected the known ABO blood groups with high performance. In contrast, anti-P1 antibody binding profiles displayed much lower concordance. Whilst anti-P1 antibody levels between benign controls and ovarian cancer patients were significantly discriminated using PGA (p = 0.004), we got only similar results using SA (p = 0.03) but not for ELISA. Our findings demonstrate that whilst assays were largely positively correlated, each presents unique characteristic features and should be validated by an independent patient cohort rather than another array technique. The variety between methods presumably reflects the differences in glycan presentation and the antigen/antibody ratio, assay conditions and detection technique. This indicates that the glycan-antibody interaction of interest has to guide the assay selection

Phase I/II study of first-line irinotecan combined with 5-fluorouracil and folinic acid Mayo Clinic schedule in patients with advanced colorectal cancer

BACKGROUND: This multicentre phase I/II study was designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose of irinotecan when combined with 5-fluorouracil and folinic acid according to the Mayo Clinic schedule and to evaluate the activity of this combination as first-line therapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. METHODS: Sixty-three patients received irinotecan (250 or 300 mg/m(2), 30- to 90-minute intravenous infusion on day 1), immediately followed by folinic acid (20 mg/m(2)/day) and 5-fluorouracil (425 mg/m(2), 15-minute bolus infusion) days 1 to 5, every four weeks. RESULTS: Diarrhoea was dose limiting at 300 mg/m(2 )irinotecan in combination with 5-fluorouracil and folinic acid, and this was determined to be the maximum tolerated dose. Grade 3–4 neutropenia was the most frequently reported toxicity. The recommended dose of irinotecan for the phase II part of the study was 250 mg/m(2). The response rate for the evaluable patient population was 36% (13/36), and 44% (16 patients) had stable disease (including 19% of minor response). For the intention-to-treat population, the response rate was 29% (14/49) and 35% (17 patients) stable disease (including 14% of minor response). The median time to progression was 7.0 months and the median survival was 12.0 months. Grade 3–4 non-haematological drug-related toxicities included delayed diarrhoea, stomatitis, fatigue, and nausea/vomiting. There were three deaths due to septic shock that were possibly or probably treatment-related. CONCLUSIONS: This regimen of irinotecan in combination with the Mayo Clinic schedule of bolus 5-fluorouracil/folinic acid every four weeks showed activity as first-line therapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. In keeping with other published results of studies using bolus 5-fluorouracil combined with irinotecan, the use of this regimen is limited by a relatively high rate of grade 3–4 neutropenia, and the combination of irinotecan and infusional 5-fluorouracil / folinic acid should remain the regimen of first choice

Loss of Secreted Frizzled-Related Protein 4 Correlates with an Aggressive Phenotype and Predicts Poor Outcome in Ovarian Cancer Patients

Background: Activation of the Wnt signaling pathway is implicated in aberrant cellular proliferation in various cancers. In 40% of endometrioid ovarian cancers, constitutive activation of the pathway is due to oncogenic mutations in β-catenin or other inactivating mutations in key negative regulators. Secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (SFRP4) has been proposed to have inhibitory activity through binding and sequestering Wnt ligands. Methodology/Principal Findings: We performed RT-qPCR and Western-blotting in primary cultures and ovarian cell lines for SFRP4 and its key downstream regulators activated β-catenin, β-catenin and GSK3β. SFRP4 was then examined by immunohistochemistry in a cohort of 721 patients and due to its proposed secretory function, in plasma, presenting the first ELISA for SFRP4. SFRP4 was most highly expressed in tubal epithelium and decreased with malignant transformation, both on RNA and on protein level, where it was even more profound in the membrane fraction (p<0.0001). SFRP4 was expressed on the protein level in all histotypes of ovarian cancer but was decreased from borderline tumors to cancers and with loss of cellular differentiation. Loss of membrane expression was an independent predictor of poor survival in ovarian cancer patients (p = 0.02 unadjusted; p = 0.089 adjusted), which increased the risk of a patient to die from this disease by the factor 1.8. Conclusions/Significance: Our results support a role for SFRP4 as a tumor suppressor gene in ovarian cancers via inhibition of the Wnt signaling pathway. This has not only predictive implications but could also facilitate a therapeutic role using epigenetic targets

Linking soil microbial community structure to potential carbon mineralization: A continental scale assessment of reduced tillage

Potential carbon mineralization (Cmin) is a commonly used indicator of soil health, with greater Cmin values interpreted as healthier soil. While Cmin values are typically greater in agricultural soils managed with minimal physical disturbance, the mechanisms driving the increases remain poorly understood. This study assessed bacterial and archaeal community structure and potential microbial drivers of Cmin in soils maintained under various degrees of physical disturbance. Potential carbon mineralization, 16S rRNA sequences, and soil characterization data were collected as part of the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements (NAPESHM). Results showed that type of cropping system, intensity of physical disturbance, and soil pH influenced microbial sensitivity to physical disturbance. Furthermore, 28% of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), which were important in modeling Cmin, were enriched under soils managed with minimal physical disturbance. Sequences identified as enriched under minimal disturbance and important for modeling Cmin, were linked to organisms which could produce extracellular polymeric substances and contained metabolic strategies suited for tolerating environmental stressors. Understanding how physical disturbance shapes microbial communities across climates and inherent soil properties and drives changes in Cmin provides the context necessary to evaluate management impacts on standardized measures of soil microbial activity