Global economy dynamics? Panel data approach to spillover effects

Over the past year, there has been considerable debate about how the slowing of the United States and other major developed economies affects output growth across the world. The main purpose of this paper is to establish relevant conclusions on how the U.S., Euro Area and Japan gross domestic product growth affect international business cycle fluctuations, with the objective of identifying the main factors that influence spillovers into other countries. Using panel data regression, we conclude that output growth in the U.S. and Euro area are significant in explaining output growth across countries. Depending on the specifications, trade linkages play a significant role while financial linkages with respect to the three regions does not (except in one particular specification). There are signs of potential omitted variable bias in some regression indicating that some relevant variables have not been taken into account. There is also clear evidence of a structural change in the transmission mechanism of shocks after 1985 – since when shocks have become more country-specific.Output Growth, Trade and Financial Linkages, Structural Break, Cross- Section Panel Data.

Instructor Strategies to Alleviate Stress and Anxiety among College and University STEM Students

While student stress and anxiety are frequently cited as having negative effects on students’ academic performance, the role that instructors can play in mitigating these challenges is often underappreciated. We provide summaries of different evidence-based strategies, ranging from changes in instructional strategies to specific classroom interventions, that instructors may employ to address and ameliorate student stress and anxiety. While we focus on students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the strategies we delineate may be more broadly applicable. We begin by highlighting ways in which instructors can learn about and prepare to act to alleviate stress and anxiety. We then discuss how to better connect with students and build an inclusive, equitable, and empowering classroom environment. When coupled with strategies to change student evaluation and assessment, these approaches may collectively reduce student stress and anxiety, as well as improve student performance. We then discuss the roles that instructors may play in empowering students with skills that improve their time management, studying, and approach toward learning, with an eye toward ensuring their success across all their academic endeavors. We conclude by noting areas in which further research is needed to determine best practices for alleviating student stress and anxiety

Individual Differences in Dopamine Are Associated with Reward Discounting in Clinical Groups But Not in Healthy Adults.

Some people are more willing to make immediate, risky, or costly reward-focused choices than others, which has been hypothesized to be associated with individual differences in dopamine (DA) function. In two studies using PET imaging, one empirical (Study 1: N = 144 males and females across 3 samples) and one meta-analytic (Study 2: N = 307 across 12 samples), we sought to characterize associations between individual differences in DA and time, probability, and physical effort discounting in human adults. Study 1 demonstrated that individual differences in DA D2-like receptors were not associated with time or probability discounting of monetary rewards in healthy humans, and associations with physical effort discounting were inconsistent across adults of different ages. Meta-analytic results for temporal discounting corroborated our empirical finding for minimal effect of DA measures on discounting in healthy individuals but suggested that associations between individual differences in DA and reward discounting depend on clinical features. Addictions were characterized by negative correlations between DA and discounting, but other clinical conditions, such as Parkinson's disease, obesity, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, were characterized by positive correlations between DA and discounting. Together, the results suggest that trait differences in discounting in healthy adults do not appear to be strongly associated with individual differences in D2-like receptors. The difference in meta-analytic correlation effects between healthy controls and individuals with psychopathology suggests that individual difference findings related to DA and reward discounting in clinical samples may not be reliably generalized to healthy controls, and vice versa.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Decisions to forgo large rewards for smaller ones due to increasing time delays, uncertainty, or physical effort have been linked to differences in dopamine (DA) function, which is disrupted in some forms of psychopathology. It remains unclear whether alterations in DA function associated with psychopathology also extend to explaining associations between DA function and decision making in healthy individuals. We show that individual differences in DA D2 receptor availability are not consistently related to monetary discounting of time, probability, or physical effort in healthy individuals across a broad age range. By contrast, we suggest that psychopathology accounts for observed inconsistencies in the relationship between measures of DA function and reward discounting behavior

Microwave Components with MEMS Switches

RF MEMS switches with metal-metal contacts are being developed for microwave applications where broadband, high linearity performance is required. These switches provide less than 0.2 dB insertion loss through 40 GHz. This paper describes the integration of these switches into selected microwave components such as reconfigurable antenna elements, tunable filters, switched delay lines, and SPDT switches. Microwave and millimeter wave measured results from these circuits are presented

Cell Death of Melanophores in Zebrafish trpm7 Mutant Embryos Depends on Melanin Synthesis

Transient receptor potential melastatin 7 (TRPM7) is a broadly expressed, non-selective cation channel. Studies in cultured cells implicate TRPM7 in regulation of cell growth, spreading, and survival. However, zebrafish trpm7 homozygous mutants display death of melanophores and temporary paralysis, but no gross morphological defects during embryonic stages. This phenotype implies that melanophores are unusually sensitive to decreases in Trpm7 levels, a hypothesis we investigate here. We find that pharmacological inhibition of caspases does not rescue melanophore viability in trpm7 mutants, implying that melanophores die by a mechanism other than apoptosis. Consistent with this possibility, ultrastructural analysis of dying melanophores in trpm7 mutants reveals abnormal melanosomes and evidence of a ruptured plasma membrane, indicating that cell death occurs by necrosis. Interestingly, inhibition of melanin synthesis largely prevents melanophore cell death in trpm7 mutants. These results suggest that melanophores require Trpm7 in order to detoxify intermediates of melanin synthesis. We find that unlike TRPM1, TRPM7 is expressed in human melanoma cell lines, indicating that these cells may also be sensitized to reduction of TRPM7 levels

Fast and slow Kelvin waves in the Madden-Julian Oscillation of a GCM

The structure of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) in an 1800-day integration of the Hadley Centre Unified Model was analysed, and interpreted within a Kelvin wave framework. The model was forced with constant equinoctial (March) boundary conditions so that a ``clean'' MJO signal could be separated from the effects of the seasonal cycle and forced interannual variability. The simulated MJO was fairly realistic in terms of its large-scale spatial structure and propagation characteristics, although its period of 30 days (corresponding to an average phase speed of 15 \mps) was shorter than that observed. The signal in deep convection was less coherent than in observations, and appeared to move eastward as a sequence of discrete convective anomalies, rather than by a smooth eastward propagation. Both ``fast'' and ``slow'' equatorial Kelvin waves appeared to play an important role in the eastward propagation of the simulated MJO. Enhanced convection over the Indian Ocean was associated with a ``fast'' equatorial Kelvin wave that propagated eastward at 55 m s-1 over the Pacific. On reaching the west coast of South America, a component of this Kelvin wave propagated northward and southward as a trapped wave along the mountain ranges of Central America and the Andes, in agreement with observations. The anomalous surface easterlies over the tropical eastern Pacific associated with this fast Kelvin wave enhanced the climatological mean easterlies and led to positive convective anomalies over the eastern Pacific consistent with the WISHE mechanism. However, WISHE was not able to account for the eastward development of the convective anomalies over the Indian Ocean/western Pacific region. By splitting the equatorial divergence anomalies of the simulated MJO into their du/dx and dv/dy components, the role of Kelvin wave dynamics in the ``slow'' (15 m s-1) average eastward propagation of the simulated MJO was examined. Although the two components were of comparable magnitude, the \dudx\ component exhibited a pronounced eastward propagation which tended to be disrupted by the \dvdy\ component, thus supporting the paradigm of an underlying, but strongly modified, Kelvin wave mechanism