The Impact of Merger and Acquisition on Value at Risk (VaR): A Case Study of China Eastern Airline

This paper attempts to examine the impact of merger and acquisition on Value at Risk (VaR) of China Eastern Airline. The VaR is estimated for the whole sample and pre-merger periods by three methods: RiskMetrics , AR-GARCH and Generalized Extreme Value (GEV). The regression-based model reports the highest VaR followed by RiskMetrics and GEV. All models report a low VaR after the 11 June, 2009 merger, indicating a negative impact of merger and acquisition on VaR

Effects of combined administration of FK 506 and the purine biosynthesis inhibitors mizoribine or mycophenolic acid on lymphocyte DNA synthesis and T cell activation molecule expression in human mixed lymphocyte cultures

Our objective was to obtain new information on the in vitro antilymphocytic action of the cytokine synthesis inhibitor FK 506 and the purine biosynthesis inhibitors mycophenolic acid (MPA; the active moiety of RS61443) and mizoribine (MZB) when used alone or in combination. When added at the initiation of six-day human mixed lymphocyte cultures (MLC), FK 506, MPA or MZB exhibited dose-dependent inhibition of T-lymphocyte DNA synthesis. FK 506, however, was 100-fold more potent than MPA, and 10000-fold more potent than MZB. Combination of FK 506 with either MPA or MZB, each at suboptional concentrations, produced no more than additive inhibitory effects on 3H thymidine incorporation. Two-colour flow cytometric analysis of lymphocytes revealed that none of the drugs affected cell surface activation molecule expression (CD25 = IL-2R 55 kD α-chain, HLA-DR or CD71 = transferrin receptor [TR]) on allostimulated CD4+ or CD8+ cells harvested at three days of culture. By day six, however, all three agents, at levels which markedly inhibited proliferation, suppressed the expression of activation markers on both CD4+ and CD8+ cells. Also at day six, inhibition of activation molecule expression on CD4+ cells was achieved with the combination of FK 506 and either MPA or MZB at concentrations which, on their own, were ineffective. These data provide new, additional information on the in vitro antilymphocytic action of FK 506, MPA and MZB when used alone and in combination. © 1993

Administering asylum seekers in Hong Kong : government policies and action

published_or_final_versionPolitics and Public AdministrationMasterMaster of Public Administratio

Electromagnetic Response of Layered Superconductors with Broken Lattice Inversion Symmetry

We investigate the macroscopic effects of charge density waves (CDW) and superconductivity in layered superconducting systems with broken lattice inversion symmetry (allowing for piezoelectricity) such as two dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD). We work with the low temperature time dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory and study the coupling of lattice distortions and low energy CDW collective modes to the superconducting order parameter in the presence of electromagnetic fields. We show that superconductivity and piezoelectricity can coexist in these singular metals. Furthermore, our study indicates the nature of the quantum phase transition between a commensurate CDW phase and the stripe phase that has been observed as a function of applied pressure.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. Final version. Accepted in Phys.Rev.

Developments in the negative-U modelling of the cuprate HTSC systems

The paper deals with the many stands that go into creating the unique and complex nature of the HTSC cuprates above Tc as below. Like its predecessors it treats charge, not spin or lattice, as prime mover, but thus taken in the context of the chemical bonding relevant to these copper oxides. The crucial shell filling, negative-U, double-loading fluctuations possible there require accessing at high valent local environment as prevails within the mixed valent, inhomogeneous two sub-system circumstance of the HTSC materials. Close attention is paid to the recent results from Corson, Demsar, Li, Johnson, Norman, Varma, Gyorffy and colleagues.Comment: 44 pages:200+ references. Submitted to J.Phys.:Condensed Matter, Sept 7 200

Calcium dependent plasticity applied to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation with a neural field model

The calcium dependent plasticity (CaDP) approach to the modeling of synaptic weight change is applied using a neural field approach to realistic repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) protocols. A spatially-symmetric nonlinear neural field model consisting of populations of excitatory and inhibitory neurons is used. The plasticity between excitatory cell populations is then evaluated using a CaDP approach that incorporates metaplasticity. The direction and size of the plasticity (potentiation or depression) depends on both the amplitude of stimulation and duration of the protocol. The breaks in the inhibitory theta-burst stimulation protocol are crucial to ensuring that the stimulation bursts are potentiating in nature. Tuning the parameters of a spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) window with a Monte Carlo approach to maximize agreement between STDP predictions and the CaDP results reproduces a realistically-shaped window with two regions of depression in agreement with the existing literature. Developing understanding of how TMS interacts with cells at a network level may be important for future investigation

The Breakdown of Alfven's Theorem in Ideal Plasma Flows

This paper presents both rigorous results and physical theory on the breakdown of magnetic flux conservation for ideal plasmas, by nonlinear effects. Our analysis is based upon an effective equation for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes at length-scales $>\ell,$ with smaller scales eliminated, as in renormalization-group methodology. We prove that flux-conservation can be violated for an arbitrarily small length-scale $\ell,$ and in the absence of any non-ideality, but only if singular current sheets and vortex sheets both exist and intersect in sets of large enough dimension. This result gives analytical support to and rigorous constraints on theories of fast turbulent reconnection. Mathematically, our theorem is analogous to Onsager's result on energy dissipation anomaly in hydrodynamic turbulence. As a physical phenomenon, the breakdown of magnetic-flux conservation in ideal MHD is similar to the decay of magnetic flux through a narrow superconducting ring, by phase-slip of quantized flux lines. The effect should be observable both in numerical MHD simulations and in laboratory plasma experiments at moderately high magnetic Reynolds numbers.Comment: 38 pages, 1 figur