Multiple cyclical fractional structures in financial time series

This paper analyses multiple cyclical structures in financial time series. In particular, we focus on the monthly structure of the Nasdaq, the Dow Jones and the Standard&Poor stock market indices. The three series are modelled as long-memory processes with poles in the spectrum at multiple frequencies, including the long-run or zero frequency

How has the global financial crisis affected syndicated loan terms in emerging markets? Evidence from China

This paper examines the impact of the recent global financial crisis on the cost of debt capital (syndicated loans) in a leading emerging market, namely China, using the difference-in-differences approach. Before the crisis China adopted banking reforms allowing the entry of foreign banks and more domestic participation in the syndicated loan market. As a result, during the crisis the volume of syndicated loans grew steadily, in contrast to other countries. In addition, the amount of foreign syndicated loans decreased and average maturity increased compared to the pre-crisis period. Our findings provide useful information to policy makers for devising effective responses to financial crises

The performance of banks in the MENA region during the global financial crisis

This paper examines the impact of the global financial crisis on the banking sector in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as well as the main determinants of the profitability of both domestic and foreign banks. The empirical findings suggest that during the crisis the former outperformed the latter in that region. As for the determinants of profitability, size does not appear to play a role, whilst the liquidity ratio and net interest revenues seem to have a negative and positive effect respectively; GDP has a positive effect in the case of domestic banks

STOCK MARKET DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE CAUSAL LINKAGE

This paper addresses the question: does stock market development cause growth? It examines the causal linkage between stock market development, financial development and economic growth. The argument is that any inference that financial liberalisation causes savings or investment or growth, or that financial intermediation causes growth, drawn from bivariate causality tests may be invalid, as invalid causality inferences can result from omitting an important variable. The empirical part of this study exploits techniques recently developed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995) to test for causality in VARs, and emphasises the possibility of omitted variable bias. The evidence obtained from a sample of seven countries suggests that a well-developed stock market can foster economic growth in the long run. It also provides support to theories according to which well-functioning stock markets can promote economic development by fuelling the engine of growth through faster capital accumulation, and by tuning it through better resource allocation.Financial Development, Economic Growth, Stock Market, Causality Testing, VARs, Incomplete Systems

Transplacental transmission of field and rescued strains of BTV-2 and BTV-8 in experimentally infected sheep

Transplacental transmission of bluetongue virus has been shown previously for the North European strain of serotype 8 (BTV-8) and for tissue culture or chicken egg-adapted vaccine strains but not for field strains of other serotypes. In this study, pregnant ewes (6 per group) were inoculated with either field or rescued strains of BTV-2 and BTV-8 in order to determine the ability of these viruses to cross the placental barrier. The field BTV-2 and BTV-8 strains was passaged once in Culicoides KC cells and once in mammalian cells. All virus inoculated sheep became infected and seroconverted against the different BTV strains used in this study. BTV RNA was detectable in the blood of all but two ewes for over 28 days but infectious virus could only be detected in the blood for a much shorter period. Interestingly, transplacental transmission of BTV-2 (both field and rescued strains) was demonstrated at high efficiency (6 out of 13 lambs born to BTV-2 infected ewes) while only 1 lamb of 12 born to BTV-8 infected ewes showed evidence of in utero infection. In addition, evidence for horizontal transmission of BTV-2 between ewes was observed. As expected, the parental BTV-2 and BTV-8 viruses and the viruses rescued by reverse genetics showed very similar properties to each other. This study showed, for the first time, that transplacental transmission of BTV-2, which had been minimally passaged in cell culture, can occur; hence such transmission might be more frequent than previously thought

Mars Regolith Simulant Ameliorated by Compost as In Situ Cultivation Substrate Improves Lettuce Growth and Nutritional Aspects

Heavy payloads in future shuttle journeys to Mars present limiting factors, making self-sustenance essential for future colonies. Therefore, in situ resources utilization (ISRU) is the path to successful and feasible space voyages. This research frames the concept of planting leafy vegetables on Mars regolith simulant, ameliorating this substrate’s fertility by the addition of organic residues produced in situ. For this purpose, two butterhead lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. capitata) cultivars (green and red Salanova®) were chosen to be cultivated in four dierent mixtures of MMS-1 Mojave Mars simulant:compost (0:100, 30:70, 70:30 and 100:0; v:v) in a phytotron open gas exchange growth chamber. The impact of compost rate on both crop performance and the nutritive value of green- and red-pigmented cultivars was assessed. The 30:70 mixture proved to be optimal in terms of crop performance, photosynthetic activity, intrinsic water use eciency and quality traits of lettuce. In particular, red Salanova® showed the best performance in terms of these quality traits, registering 32% more phenolic content in comparison to 100% simulant. Nonetheless, the 70:30 mixture represents a more realistic scenario when taking into consideration the sustainable use of compost as a limited resource in space farming, while still accepting a slight significant decline in yield and quality in comparison to the 30:70 mixture

A technical framework for human-like motion generation with autonomous anthropomorphic redundant manipulators

The need for users' safety and technology accept-ability has incredibly increased with the deployment of co-bots physically interacting with humans in industrial settings, and for people assistance. A well-studied approach to meet these requirements is to ensure human-like robot motions. Classic solutions for anthropomorphic movement generation usually rely on optimization procedures, which build upon hypotheses devised from neuroscientific literature, or capitalize on learning methods. However, these approaches come with limitations, e.g. limited motion variability or the need for high dimensional datasets. In this work, we present a technique to directly embed human upper limb principal motion modes computed through functional analysis in the robot trajectory optimization. We report on the implementation with manipulators with redundant anthropomorphic kinematic architectures - although dissimilar with respect to the human model used for functional mode extraction - via Cartesian impedance control. In our experiments, we show how human trajectories mapped onto a robotic manipulator still exhibit the main characteristics of human-likeness, e.g. low jerk values. We discuss the results with respect to the state of the art, and their implications for advanced human-robot interaction in industrial co-botics and for human assistance

Business cycles, international trade and capital flows: Evidence from Latin America

This paper adopts a flexible framework to assess both short- and long-run business cycle linkages between six Latin American (LA) countries and the four largest economies in the world (namely the US, the Euro area, Japan and China) over the period 1980:I-2011:IV. The result indicate that within the LA region there are considerable differences between countries, success stories coexisting with extremely vulnerable economies. They also show that the LA region as a whole is largely dependent on external developments, especially in the years after the great recession of 2008 and 2009. The trade channel appears to be the most important source of business cycle comovement, whilst capital flows are found to have a limited role, especially in the very short run

Holocene Sea Level Recorded by Beach Rocks at Ionian Coasts of Apulia (Italy)

Beach rocks are located along many coasts of the Mediterranean basin. The early diagenesis environment and the mean sea level along the shoreline make these landforms useful in the reconstruction of relative sea-level changes and, in particular, as SLIPs (sea-level index points). The beach rocks surveyed along the Ionian coast of Apulia were found to be well preserved at three specific depth ranges: 6–9 m, 3–4 m, and from the foreshore to about 1.20 m. Morpho-bathymetric and dive surveys were performed to assess both the geometries and the extension of the submerged beach rocks. Samples were collected at these different depths in the localities of Lido Torretta, Campomarino di Maruggio, San Pietro in Bevagna, and Porto Cesareo. Bivalve shells were identified and isolated from the beach rock samples collected at a depth of 7 m; AMS dating provided a calibrated age of about 7.8 ka BP. Their morphology and petrological features, along with the time constraints, enabled us to (i) reconstruct the local sea-level curve during the Holocene, (ii) corroborate acquired knowledge of the relative sea-level history, and (iii) identify possible local vertical land movement (VLM)