Currency Crises During the Great Recession: Is This Time Different?

During the 2007-2009 financial crisis the foreign exchange market was characterized by large volatility and wide currency swings. In this paper we evaluate whether during the period of the Great Recession there has been a structural break in the relationship between fundamentals and exchange rates within an early-warning framework. This is done by extending the original data set by Kaminsky and Reinhart (1999) and including not only the most recent period, but also 17 new countries. Our analysis considers two variations of the original early-warning system. First, we propose two new methods to obtain the probability distribution of the early-warning indicator (conditional on the occurrence of a crisis) – one fully parametric and one based on a novel distribution-free semi-parametric approach. Second, we compare the original early-warning indicator with a core indicator that includes only “pseudo-financial variables” (domestic credit/GDP, the real exchange rate, international reserves and the real interest-rate differential) and we evaluate their performance not only for currency crises during the Great Recession, but also for the Asian Crisis. All tests make us conclude that “this time is different”, i.e. early-warning systems based on traditional macroeconomic variables have not only failed to forecast currency crises during the Great Recession, but have also significantly worsened with respect to the period of the Asian crisis.Early Warning Systems; Exchange Rates; Semi-parametric Meth- ods

State-of-the-Art of Metamaterials: Characterization, Realization and Applications

Metamaterials is a large family of microwave structures that produces interesting ε and μ conditions with huge implications for numerous electromagnetic applications. Following a description of modern techniques to realize epsilon-negative, mu-negative and double-negative metamaterials, this paper explores recent literature on the use of metamaterials in hot research areas such as metamaterial-inspired microwave components, antenna applications and imaging. This contribution is meant to provide an updated overview of complex microwave engineering for the generation of different types of metamaterials and their application in topical electromagnetic scenarios

Analysis and Characterization of Finite-size Curved Frequency Selective Surfaces

Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSSs) are spatial filters that are largely employed in radomes for radars and antennas where high performance is necessary. FSS can be categorised in terms of their frequency behaviour. Band-pass FSS structures are able to let the electromagnetic wave pass in certain frequency ranges and shield others, which are especially suitable for out-of-band stealth of radomes. The properties of frequency selectiveness of these screens are used at microwave and infrared wavelengths. By tuning the electrical size and geometry of the unit-cell (patch or aperture) different frequency behaviours of the structure are generated. Although their analysis and simulation is significantly simplified with the approximation of infinite and planar array, in some real applications FSS are required to be conformal to limited non-planar structures. The literature on the problem of characterizing finite-size and curved FSS has been sparse and more focused on the single application rather than on a unified approach. In the aim of synthesizing valuable techniques, this paper reviews significant research results on truncated and curved FSS which were presented in the dedicated literature

A FACIAL ANIMATION FRAMEWORK WITH EMOTIVE/EXPRESSIVE CAPABILITIES

LUCIA is an MPEG-4 facial animation system developed at ISTC-CNR.. It works on standard Facial Animation Parameters and speaks with the Italian version of FESTIVAL TTS. To achieve an emotive/expressive talking head LUCIA was build from real human data physically extracted by ELITE optotracking movement analyzer. LUCIA can copy a real human by reproducing the movements of passive markers positioned on his face and recorded by the ELITE device or can be driven by an emotional XML tagged input text, thus realizing a true audio/visual emotive/expressive synthesis. Synchronization between visual and audio data is very important in order to create the correct WAV and FAP files needed for the animation. LUCIA\u27s voice is based on the ISTC Italian version of FESTIVAL-MBROLA packages, modified by means of an appropriate APML/VSML tagged language. LUCIA is available in two different versions: an open source framework and the "work in progress" WebG

The use of positron emission tomography with [18F] 2-fluoro-D-2-deoxyglucose (FDG-PET) in Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Positron emission tomography (PET) has obtained a place in the management of patients with hematologic disease particularly those with lymphoproliferative disorders. In the staging and monitoring of cancer, the use of PET in combination with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) has already demonstrated its benefit when compared with conventional imaging modalities. One such area which has already profited from the use of PET is Hodgkin's disease (HD) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are equivalent in staging and monitoring disease, while gallium-67 imaging is more useful in HD and high grade NHL for studies of response to therapy.Paul et al. in 1987 were the first to describe PET imaging in patients with lymphoma; since this time a number of studies have demonstrated that PET technique is superior to 67 Ga imaging in staging lymphoma before therapy and is useful in the evaluation and the prediction of relapse after high dose therapy with stem cell transplantation.PET is based on the utilisation of positron emitting radiopharmaceuticals and the detection in coincidence of the two nearly collinear 511-keV photons emitted following positron annihilation with an electron in vivo. By surrounding the patients with detectors, a large number of acquired coincident events can lead to the construction of an image of the in vivo radioisotope distribution

Analysis and Characterization of Finite-size Curved Frequency Selective Surfaces

Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSSs) are spatial filters that are largely employed in radomes for radars and antennas where high performance is necessary. FSS can be categorised in terms of their frequency behaviour. Band-pass FSS structures are able to let the electromagnetic wave pass in certain frequency ranges and shield others, which are especially suitable for out-of-band stealth of radomes. The properties of frequency selectiveness of these screens are used at microwave and infrared wavelengths. By tuning the electrical size and geometry of the unit-cell (patch or aperture) different frequency behaviours of the structure are generated. Although their analysis and simulation is significantly simplified with the approximation of infinite and planar array, in some real applications FSS are required to be conformal to limited non-planar structures. The literature on the problem of characterizing finite-size and curved FSS has been sparse and more focused on the single application rather than on a unified approach. In the aim of synthesizing valuable techniques, this paper reviews significant research results on truncated and curved FSS which were presented in the dedicated literature

A 3d talking head for mobile devices based on unofficial ios webgl support

In this paper we present the implementation of a WebGL Talking Head for iOS mobile devices (Apple iPhone and iPad). It works on standard MPEG-4 Facial Animation Parameters (FAPs) and speaks with the Italian version of FESTIVAL TTS. It is totally based on true real human data. The 3D kinematics information are used to create lips articulatory model and to drive directly the talking face, generating human facial movements. In the last year we developed the WebGL version of the avatar. WebGL, which is 3D graphic for the web, is currently supported in the major web browsers for desktop computers. No official support has been given for mobile device main platforms yet, although the Firefox beta version enables it on android phones. Starting from iOS 5 WebGL is enabled only for the advertisement library class (which is intended for placing ad-banners in applications). We have been able to use this feature to visualize and animate our WebGL talking head

Epigenetic Treatment of Myelodysplastic Syndromes and Acute Myeloid Leukemias

Epigenetic mechanisms affecting chromatin structure contribute to regulate gene expression and assure the inheritance of information, which are essential for the proper expression of key regulatory genes in healthy cells, tissues and organs. In the medical field, an increasing body of evidence indicates that altered gene expression or de-regulated gene function lead to disease. Cancer cells also suffer a profound change in the genomic methylation patterns and chromatin status. Aberrant DNA methylation patterns, changes in chromatin structure and in gene expression are common in all kind of tumor types. However, studies on leukemias have provided paradigmatic examples for the functional implications of the epigenetic alterations in cancer development and progression as well as their relevance for therapeutical targeting

Introducing Mediterranean Journal of Hematology and Infectious Diseases

Mediterranean Journal of Hematology and Infectious Diseases (MJHID) is a new open access, peer-reviewed, online journal, which encompasses different aspects of clinical and translational research providing an insight into the relationship between acute and chronic infections and hematological diseases. MJHID will be a topical journal on subjects of current importance in clinical haematology and infectious diseases. Every issue should have, beside the editor in chief, a guest editor. Both editor in chief and guest editor provide to invite experts in the selected topic to performe a complete update of the arguments readily available for practising phisicians. The journal will have also a section devoted to original papers, case reports and letters to editor and Editorial comment mostly focusing on the arguments treated in the previous topical issues