Was Bernanke Right? Targeting Asset Prices may not be a Good Idea after all

Should the central bank prevent “excessive” asset price dynamics or should it wait until the boom spontaneously turns into a crash and intervene only afterwards? The debate over this issue goes back at least to the exchange between Bernanke-Gertler (BG) and Cecchetti but has not settled yet. In their 1999 paper BG claimed that price stability and financial stability are ‘highly complementary and mutually consistent objectives’ in a flexible inflation targeting regime which ‘dictates that central banks ... should not respond to changes in asset prices, except insofar as they signal changes in expected inflation.’ (BG, 1999, p.18). This conclusion is straightforward within the variant of the NK-DSGE framework used by BG in which asset inflation shows up as a factor ‘augmenting’ the IS curve. In the present paper, we pursue a different modelling strategy so that, in the end, asset price dynamics will be incorporated into the NK Phillips curve. In our context it is not true anymore that by focusing on inflation the central bank is also checking an asset price boom. We put ourselves, therefore, in the best position to obtain a significant stabilizing role for asset price targeting. It turns out, however, that inflation volatility is higher in the asset price targeting case. After all, therefore, targeting asset prices may not be a good idea.cost channel, asset prices, Taylor rules

Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Conjugate Addition of Arylboronic Acids to Five-, Six-, and Seven-Membered β-Substituted Cyclic Enones: Enantioselective Construction of All-Carbon Quaternary Stereocenters

The first enantioselective Pd-catalyzed construction of all-carbon quaternary stereocenters via 1,4-addition of arylboronic acids to β-substituted cyclic enones is reported. Reaction of a wide range of arylboronic acids and cyclic enones using a catalyst prepared from Pd(OCOCF_3)_2 and a chiral pyridinooxazoline ligand yields enantioenriched products bearing benzylic stereocenters. Notably, this transformation is tolerant to air and moisture, providing a practical and operationally simple method of synthesizing enantioenriched all-carbon quaternary stereocenters

Citizenship education through practices and representations

La investigación se llevó a cabo en los años 2008 y 2009, con la intención de identificar las prácticas de educación para la ciudadanía más difundidas en la escuela secundaria superior italiana y las representaciones más comunes presentes entre los estudiantes y profesores. Se suministraron 1308 cuestionarios, en 76 clases, correspondientes a tres regiones de Italia (Emilia-Romagna, Lombardía y Sicilia), 68 fichas han sido recopiladas a partir de los sondeos de 46 profesores. Diez de estos 46 profesores fueron también entrevistados directamente. El estudio describe las prácticas más difundidas y los temas fundamentales (predomina la prevención de accidentes de tráfico, medidas preventivas de la salud en general, con especial atención a las drogas, el alcohol, las enfermedades de transmisión sexual y el SIDA.) Se observa una presencia muy limitada de proyectos específicos de dimensión jurídica, política y ética, de la ciudadanía, en cambio los estudiantes muestran expectativas y un deseo de intervención sobre la ciudadanía. También parece importante el análisis de las representaciones implícitas identificadas en las respuestas abiertas de los estudiantes.This research was conducted in 2008 and 2009, and sought to identify the most popular practices of citizenship education in secondary school, as well as the most common representations among students and teachers. 1308 open-ended questions questionnaires were administered to 76 classes across three Italian regions (Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Sicily); 68 monitoring cards were compiled by 46 teachers. Ten out of these 46 teachers were also interviewed directly. The study describes the most common practices and the privileged topics (road accidents and health care prevention in general with particular regard to drugs, alcohol, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV were among the most popular). The evidence shows a very limited number of projects specifically related to the legal, political and ethical dimensions of citizenship, whilst students express expectation and desire for intervention. Furthermore, the analysis of the implicit representations identified in the open-ended responses provided by the students seems particularly significant.peerReviewe

Disulfoxide Ligands in Rhodium Catalyzed Asymmetric 1,4-Addition: First Studies and Future Directions

Disulfoxides with atropisomeric backbones are introduced as readily available chiral ligands for the rhodium-catalyzed 1,4-addition of arylboronic acids to unsaturated carbonyl compounds. The ligands are obtained in pure form from either commercially available or easily synthesized starting materials. Precatalysts with general formula {(disulfoxide)RhCl}2 were prepared in high yield and were fully characterized. Preliminary results on the influence of steric and electronic modifications of the ligand structure and their impact on the catalytic behavior are presented

Liver Injury with Nintedanib: A Pharmacovigilance-Pharmacokinetic Appraisal

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) with nintedanib has emerged as an adverse event of special interest in premarketing clinical trials. We characterized DILI with nintedanib in the real world and explored the underlying pharmacological basis. First, we assessed serious hepatic events reported to the Food and Drug Administration's Adverse Event Reporting System by combining the disproportionality approach [reporting odds ratio (ROR) with 95% confidence interval (CI)] with individual case assessment. Demographic and clinical features were inspected (seriousness, onset, discontinuation, dechallenge/rechallenge, concomitant drugs) to implement an ad hoc causality assessment scoring system. Second, we appraised physiochemical and pharmacokinetic parameters possibly predictive of DILI occurrence. Significant disproportionality was found for nintedanib as compared to pirfenidone (N = 91; ROR = 4.77; 95% CI = 3.15-7.39). Asian population, low body weight (59 kg), and rapid DILI onset (13.5 days) emerged as clinical features. Hospitalization and discontinuation were found in a significant proportion of cases (32% and 36%, respectively). In 24% of the cases, at least two potentially hepatotoxic drugs (statins, proton pump inhibitors, antibiotics) were recorded. Causality was at least possible in 92.3% of the cases. High lipophilicity and predicted in silico inhibition of liver transporters emerged as potential pharmacokinetic features supporting the biological plausibility. Although causality cannot be demonstrated, clinicians should consider early monitoring and medication review on a case-by-case basis

Strategies to Reverse Endothelial Progenitor Cell Dysfunction in Diabetes

Bone-marrow-derived cells-mediated postnatal vasculogenesis has been reported as the main responsible for the regulation of vascular homeostasis in adults. Since their discovery, endothelial progenitor cells have been depicted as mediators of postnatal vasculogenesis for their peculiar phenotype (partially staminal and partially endothelial), their ability to differentiate in endothelial cell line and to be incorporated into the vessels wall during ischemia/damage. Diabetes mellitus, a condition characterized by cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, and micro- and macroangiopathy, showed a dysfunction of endothelial progenitor cells. Herein, we review the mechanisms involved in diabetes-related dysfunction of endothelial progenitor cells, highlighting how hyperglycemia affects the different steps of endothelial progenitor cells lifetime (i.e., bone marrow mobilization, trafficking into the bloodstream, differentiation in endothelial cells, and homing in damaged tissues/organs). Finally, we review preclinical and clinical strategies that aim to revert diabetes-induced dysfunction of endothelial progenitor cells as a means of finding new strategies to prevent diabetic complications

Conjugating precision and acquisition time in a Doppler broadening regime by interleaved frequency-agile rapid-scanning cavity ring-down spectroscopy

We propose a novel approach to cavity-ring-down-spectroscopy (CRDS) in which spectra acquired with a frequency-agile rapid-scanning (FARS) scheme, i.e., with a laser sideband stepped across the modes of a high-finesse cavity, are interleaved with one another by a sub-millisecond readjustment of the cavity length. This brings to time acquisitions below 20 s for few-GHz-wide spectra composed of a very high number of spectral points, typically 3200. Thanks to the signal-to-noise ratio easily in excess of 10 000, each FARS-CRDS spectrum is shown to be sufficient to determine the line-centre frequency of a Doppler broadened line with a precision of 2 parts over 1011, thus very close to that of sub-Doppler regimes and in a few-seconds time scale. The referencing of the probe laser to a frequency comb provides absolute accuracy and long-term reproducibility to the spectrometer and makes it a powerful tool for precision spectroscopy and line-shape analysis. The experimental approach is discussed in detail together with experimental precision and accuracy tests on the (30 012) â\u86\u90 (00 001) P12e line of CO2at â\u88¼1.57 μm

Synthesis of Diverse β-Quaternary Ketones via Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Conjugate Addition of Arylboronic Acids to Cyclic Enones

The development and optimization of a palladium-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate addition of arylboronic acids to cyclic enone conjugate acceptors is described. These reactions employ air-stable and readily-available reagents in an operationally simple and robust transformation that yields β-quaternary ketones in high yields and enantioselectivities. Notably, the reaction itself is highly tolerant of atmospheric oxygen and moisture and therefore does not require the use of dry or deoxygenated solvents, specially purified reagents, or an inert atmosphere. The ring size and β-substituent of the enone are highly variable, and a wide variety of β-quaternary ketones can be synthesized. More recently, the use of NH_4PF_6 has further expanded the substrate scope to include heteroatom-containing arylboronic acids and β-acyl enone substrates

A Diastereodivergent Synthetic Strategy for the Syntheses of Communesin F and Perophoramidine

An efficient, unified, and stereodivergent approach toward communesin F and perophoramidine was examined. The C(3) all-carbon quaternary center of an oxindole was smoothly constructed by base-promoted indolone-malonate alkylation chemistry. The complementary relative stereochemistry of the crucial vicinal quaternary centers found in communesin F and perophoramidine was selectively installed by substrate-controlled decarboxylative allylic alkylations