EU-15 SOVEREIGN GOVERNMENTS COST OF BORROWING AFTER SEVEN YEARS OF MONETARY UNION

Yield spreads over 10-year German government securities of the EU-15 countries converged dramatically in the seven years after the beginning of Monetary Integration. In this paper, we investigate the relative influence of systemic and idiosyncratic risk factors on their behaviour. Our conclusions suggest that in EMU-countries the relative importance of domestic risk factors (both credit and liquidity risk factors) is higher than that of international factors, which appear to play a secondary but significant role in non-EMU countries.Monetary integration, sovereign securities markets, systemic, idiosyncratic risk.

The Impact of Monetary Union on EU-15 Sovereign Debt Yield Spreads

With European Monetary Union (EMU), there was an increase in the adjusted spreads (corrected from the foreign exchange risk) of euro participating countries sovereign securities over Germany and a decrease in those of non-euro countries. The objective of this paper is to study the reasons for this result, and in particular, whether the change in the price assigned by markets was due to domestic factors such as credit risk and/or market liquidity, or to international risk factors. The empirical evidence suggests that market size scale economies have increased since EMU for all European markets, so the effect of the various risk factors, even though it differs between euro and non-euro countries, is always dependent on the size of the market.sovereign securities markets, monetary integration, market liquidity, international and domestic credit risk

Monetary Integration and the Cost of Borrowing

With the beginning of the European Monetary Union (EMU), euro-area sovereign securities adjusted spreads over Germany (corrected from the foreign exchange risk) experienced an increase that caused a lower than expected decline in borrowing costs. The objective of this paper is to study what explains that rising. In particular, if it took place a change in the price assigned by markets to domestic (credit risk and/or market liquidity) or to international risk factors. The empirical evidence supports the idea that a change in the market value of liquidity occurred with the EMU. International and default risk play a smaller role.sovereign securities markets, monetary integration, market liquidity, international and domestic credit risk

Piezo-generated charge mapping revealed through Direct Piezoelectric Force Microscopy

While piezoelectrics and ferroelectrics are playing a key role in many everyday applications, there are still a number of open questions related to the physics of those materials. In order to foster the understanding of piezoelectrics and ferroelectric and pave the way to future applications, the nanoscale characterization of these materials is essential. In this light, we have developed a novel AFM based mode that obtains a direct quantitative analysis of the piezoelectric coefficient d33. This nanoscale tool is capable of detecting and reveal piezo-charge generation through the direct piezoelectric effect at the surface of the piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials. We report the first nanoscale images of the charge generated in a thick single crystal of Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate (PPLN) and a Bismuth Ferrite (BiFO3) thin film by applying a force and recording the current produced by the materials. The quantification of both d33 coefficients for PPLN and BFO are 13 +- 2 pC/N and 46 +- 7 pC/N respectively, in agreement with the values reported in the literature. This new mode can operate simultaneously with PFM mode providing a powerful tool for the electromechanical and piezo-charge generation characterization of ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials

Bioinformatics strategies for lipidomics analysis: characterization of obesity related hepatic steatosis.

BACKGROUND: Lipids are an important and highly diverse class of molecules having structural, energy storage and signaling roles. Modern analytical technologies afford screening of many lipid molecular species in parallel. One of the biggest challenges of lipidomics is elucidation of important pathobiological phenomena from the integration of the large amounts of new data becoming available. RESULTS: We present computational and informatics approaches to study lipid molecular profiles in the context of known metabolic pathways and established pathophysiological responses, utilizing information obtained from modern analytical technologies. In order to facilitate identification of lipids, we compute the scaffold of theoretically possible lipids based on known lipid building blocks such as polar head groups and fatty acids. Each compound entry is linked to the available information on lipid pathways and contains the information that can be utilized for its automated identification from high-throughput UPLC/MS-based lipidomics experiments. The utility of our approach is demonstrated by its application to the lipidomic characterization of the fatty liver of the genetically obese insulin resistant ob/ob mouse model. We investigate the changes of correlation structure of the lipidome using multivariate analysis, as well as reconstruct the pathways for specific molecular species of interest using available lipidomic and gene expression data. CONCLUSION: The methodology presented herein facilitates identification and interpretation of high-throughput lipidomics data. In the context of the ob/ob mouse liver profiling, we have identified the parallel associations between the elevated triacylglycerol levels and the ceramides, as well as the putative activated ceramide-synthesis pathways.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Prenatal and Postnatal Exposure to DDT by Breast Milk Analysis in Canary Islands

The use of p,p' -dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) has been banned since the late 1970s due to its toxicity. However, its long half-life makes it persistent in the environment and, consequently, almost everyone has DDT residues in the body. Human milk constitutes an ideal non-conventional matrix to investigate environmental chronic exposure to organochlorine compounds (OCs) residues. The study aimed to identify potential population risk factors of exposure to DDT due to the proximity to countries where it is still used. Seventy-two consecutive lactating women were prospectively included in Tenerife, Canary Islands (Spain). A validated questionnaire was used to obtain socioeconomic, demographics data, and daily habits during pregnancy. DDT levels in breast milk were measured by gas chromatography with-electron capture detector (GC-ECD). Anthropometrics measurements in newborns were obtained. Thirty-four out of 72 (47.2%) of the analysed milk samples presented detectable levels of DDT (mean: 0.92 ng/g), ranging between 0.08 to 16.96 ng/g. The socio-demographic variables did not significantly differ between detectable DDT and non-detectable DDT groups. We found positive association between DDT levels and vegetables (OR (95%CI): 1.23 (1.01-1.50)) and poultry meat (OR (95%CI): 2.05 (1.16-3.60)) consumption, and also between the presence of DDT in breast milk and gestational age (OR (95%CI): 0.59 (0.40-0.90)). DDT is present in breast milk of women at the time of delivery. Residual levels and the spread from countries still using DDT explain DDT detection from vegetables and from animal origin food. The presence of this compound in breast milk represents a pre- and postnatal exposure hazard for foetuses and infants due to chronic bioaccumulation and poor elimination, with possible deleterious effects on health. This data should be used to raise awareness of the risks of OCs exposure and to help establish health policies in order to avoid its use worldwide and thus, to prevent its propagation

Modeling and design of an observer-based robust controller for a low-cost inverted pendulum based on the H8 approach

© 2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting /republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksThe inverted pendulum is a mechanical system with a simple configuration that carries a non-linear, unstable nature widely used in control theory as a benchmark for research. The current research presents the modeling of a low-cost commercially available inverted pendulum and the design of a robust state-feedback controller and a robust observer, following the H 8 principle and using a low-cost commercially available inverted pendulum system as a reference. Simulated results compare the performance of the designed controller and observer with a conventional LQR controller and observer.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Lack of Benefit of Extending Temozolomide Treatment in Patients with High Vascular Glioblastoma with Methylated MGMT

[EN] Despite the complete treatment with surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, patients with glioblastoma have a devasting prognosis. Although the role of extending temozolomide treatment has been explored, the results are inconclusive. Recent evidence suggested that tumor vascularity may be a modulating factor in combination with methylation of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promotor gene on the effect of temozolomide-based therapies, opening new possibilities for personalized treatments. Before proposing a prospective interventional clinical study, it is necessary to confirm the beneficial effect of the combined effect of MGMT methylation and moderate tumor vascularity, as well as the lack of benefit of temozolomide in patients with a highly vascular tumor.In this study, we evaluated the benefit on survival of the combination of methylation of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promotor gene and moderate vascularity in glioblastoma using a retrospective dataset of 123 patients from a multicenter cohort. MRI processing and calculation of relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV), used to define moderate- and high-vascular groups, were performed with the automatic ONCOhabitats method. We assessed the previously proposed rCBV threshold (10.7) and the new calculated ones (9.1 and 9.8) to analyze the association with survival for different populations according to vascularity and MGMT methylation status. We found that patients included in the moderate-vascular group had longer survival when MGMT is methylated (significant median survival difference of 174 days, p = 0.0129*). However, we did not find significant differences depending on the MGMT methylation status for the high-vascular group (p = 0.9119). In addition, we investigated the combined correlation of MGMT methylation status and rCBV with the prognostic effect of the number of temozolomide cycles, and only significant results were found for the moderate-vascular group. In conclusion, there is a lack of benefit of extending temozolomide treatment for patients with high vascular glioblastomas, even presenting MGMT methylation. Preliminary results suggest that patients with moderate vascularity and methylated MGMT glioblastomas would benefit more from prolonged adjuvant chemotherapy.M.A-T was supported by DPI2016-80054-R (Programa Estatal de Promocion del Talento y su Empleabilidad en I+D+i). This work was partially supported by the ALBATROSS project (National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2017-2020, No. PID2019-104978RB-I00). This study was partially funded by the Fundacio La Marato TV3 (665/C/2013) (http://www.ccma.cat/tv3/marato/projectes-financats/2012/231/ Accessed on 8th September 2021). (JMGG); H2020-SC1-2016-CNECT Project (No. 727560) (JMGG), and H2020-SC1-BHC-2018-2020 (No. 825750) (JMGG). EFG was supported by the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 844646 and South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority Grant 2021057.Álvarez-Torres, MDM.; Fuster García, E.; Balaña, C.; Puig, J.; Garcia-Gomez, JM. (2021). Lack of Benefit of Extending Temozolomide Treatment in Patients with High Vascular Glioblastoma with Methylated MGMT. Cancers. 13(21):1-14. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13215420S114132

Unlocking Bevacizumab's Potential: rCBVmax as a Predictive Biomarker for Enhanced Survival in Glioblastoma IDH-Wildtype Patients

[EN] Background: Aberrant vascular architecture and angiogenesis are hallmarks of glioblastoma IDH-wildtype, suggesting that these tumors are suitable for antiangiogenic therapy. Bevacizumab was FDA-approved in 2009 following promising results in two clinical trials. However, its use for recurrent glioblastomas remains a subject of debate, as it does not universally improve patient survival. Purposes: In this study, we aimed to analyze the influence of tumor vascularity on the benefit provided by BVZ and propose preoperative rCBVmax at the high angiogenic tumor habitat as a predictive biomarker to select patients who can benefit the most. Methods: Clinical and MRI data from 106 patients with glioblastoma IDH-wildtype have been analyzed. Thirty-nine of them received BVZ, and the remaining sixty-seven did not receive a second-line treatment. The ONCOhabitats method was used to automatically calculate rCBV. Results: We found a median survival from progression of 305 days longer for patients with moderate vascular tumors who received BVZ than those who did not receive any second-line treatment. This contrasts with patients with high-vascular tumors who only presented a median survival of 173 days longer when receiving BVZ. Furthermore, better responses to BVZ were found for the moderate-vascular group with a higher proportion of patients alive at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after progression. Conclusions: We propose rCBVmax as a potential biomarker to select patients who can benefit more from BVZ after tumor progression. In addition, we propose a threshold of 7.5 to stratify patients into moderate- and high-vascular groups to select the optimal second-line treatment.M.Á-T was supported by DPI2016-80054-R (Programa Estatal de Promoción del Talento y su Empleabilidad en I + D + i). This work was partially supported by the ALBATROSS project (National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2017 2020, No. PID2019-104978RB-I00). This study was partially funded by the Fundació La Marató TV3 (665/C/2013). Grant PID2021- 127110OA-I00 (PROGRESS) was funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and ERDF, a way of making Europe.Alvarez-Torres, MDM.; Balaña, C.; Fuster García, E.; Puig, J.; Garcia-Gomez, JM. (2024). Unlocking Bevacizumab's Potential: rCBVmax as a Predictive Biomarker for Enhanced Survival in Glioblastoma IDH-Wildtype Patients. Cancers. 16(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers1601016116