Strategic Asset Allocation Of Credit Guarantors

How to manage the portfolio of credit guarantors is important in practice and public policy, but has not been investigated well in the prior literature. We empirically compare four different approaches in managing credit guarantor portfolios. The four approaches are equal weighted, minimum variance, mean variance optimization and equal risk contribution methods. In terms of risk return ratio, the mean variance optimization model performs best in out-of-sample test. This result contrasts with previous findings against mean variance optimization. Our results are robust. The results do not change as the characteristics of guarantee portfolio vary

Precision genome engineering with programmable DNA-nicking enzymes

Zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) are powerful tools of genome engineering but are limited by their inevitable reliance on error-prone nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), which gives rise to randomly generated, unwanted small insertions or deletions (indels) at both on-target and off-target sites. Here, we present programmable DNA-nicking enzymes (nickases) that produce single-strand breaks (SSBs) or nicks, instead of DSBs, which are repaired by error-free homologous recombination (HR) rather than mutagenic NHEJ. Unlike their corresponding nucleases, zinc finger nickases allow site-specific genome modifications only at the on-target site, without the induction of unwanted indels. We propose that programmable nickases will be of broad utility in research, medicine, and biotechnology, enabling precision genome engineering in any cell or organism.

An Interview with APPLE Lecture Speaker Dr. Paul D. Deane

On February 25, 2022, the Studies in Applied Linguistics and TESOL (SALT) journal had the great pleasure of interviewing Dr. Paul D. Deane, the invited speaker for the 2022 APPLE Lectures Series hosted by the Applied Linguistics and TESOL Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Deane was kind enough to take the time to speak about his research, his work on scenario-based assessment, automated scoring and his thoughts on cognition and L2 assessment

Investigation of thermal resistance and power consumption in Ga-doped indium oxide (In2O3) nanowire phase change random access memory

The resistance stability and thermal resistance of phase change memory devices using similar to 40 nm diameter Ga-doped In2O3 nanowires (Ga:In2O3 NW) with different Ga-doping concentrations have been investigated. The estimated resistance stability (R(t)/R-0 ratio) improves with higher Ga concentration and is dependent on annealing temperature. The extracted thermal resistance (R-th) increases with higher Ga-concentration and thus the power consumption can be reduced by similar to 90% for the 11.5% Ga: In2O3 NW, compared to the 2.1% Ga: In2O3 NW. The excellent characteristics of Ga-doped In2O3 nanowire devices offer an avenue to develop low power and reliable phase change random access memory applications. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.X113sciescopu

Retrospective Analysis of Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation for the Treatment of High-Risk Neuroblastoma

Disease relapse after autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (APBSCT) is the main cause of treatment failure in high-risk neuroblastoma (NBL). To reduce relapse, various efforts have been made such as CD34+ selection and double APBSCT. Here the authors reviewed the clinical features and outcomes of high-risk NBL patients and analyzed their survival. The medical records of 36 patients with stage III or IV NBL who underwent APBSCT at Seoul National University Children's Hospital between May 1996 and May 2004 were reviewed. Total 46 APBSCTs were performed in 36 patients. Disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival of all patients were 47.7% and 68.8%, respectively. The patients were allocated to three groups according to the APBSCT type. The DFS of CD34+ non-selected single APBSCT patients (N=13), CD34+ selected single APBSCT patients (N=14), and CD34+ selected double APBSCT patients (N=9) were 55.6%, 40.6%, and 50.0%, respectively, which were not significantly different. Thus the survival was not found to be affected by CD34+ selection or transplantation number. To improve long-term survival, various efforts should be made such as chemotherapy dose intensification, more effective tumor purging, and control of minimal residual disease via the use of differentiating and immune-modulating agents

Clinical nurses’ experiences of workplace verbal violence: a phenomenological study

Purpose This study aimed to describe clinical nurses’ lived experiences of workplace verbal violence through qualitative research using descriptive phenomenology. Methods Six female Korean nurses who had less than 5 years of clinical experience and had experienced verbal violence in the workplace within the past year participated in the study. Data were collected through one-on-one in-depth interviews with the participants and analyzed using Colaizzi’s phenomenological method. Results A total of 27 codes, eight themes, and four theme clusters were derived from the participants’ statements. The four theme clusters of the clinical nurses’ experiences of verbal violence in the workplace were as follows: “tip of the iceberg,” “beyond me and my control,” “fear and resignation,” and “personal burden.” The participants recognized that nurses experienced verbal violence daily, and that the causes of and responses to verbal violence were determined by external situational factors rather than nurses’ individual problems. This suggests that nurses felt that they had no choice but to personally cope with verbal violence and bear the consequences due to systematic indifference and silence about verbal violence experienced by clinical nurses. Conclusion The findings show that verbal violence was pervasive and unmerited, yet often endured at the cost of a personal burden to nurses. A clear definition of verbal violence and education for employees are needed, and a reporting system should be established to report all forms of violence regardless of the severity of the incident

Association of pulmonary arterial pressure with volume status in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

Background Data on pulmonary hemodynamic parameters in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) are scarce. Methods The associations between pulmonary artery catheter parameters for the first 7 days of ECMO, fluid balance, and hospital mortality were investigated in adult patients (aged ≥19 years) who received venovenous ECMO for refractory ARDS between 2015 and 2017. Results Twenty patients were finally included in the analysis (median age, 56.0 years; interquartile range, 45.5–68.0 years; female, n=10). A total of 140 values were collected for each parameter (i.e., 7 days×20 patients). Net fluid balance was weakly but significantly correlated with systolic and diastolic pulmonary arterial pressures (PAPs; r=0.233 and P=0.011 r=0.376 and P<0.001, respectively). Among the mechanical ventilation parameters, above positive end-expiratory pressure was correlated with systolic PAP (r=0.191 and P=0.025), and static compliance was negatively correlated with diastolic PAP (r=−0.169 and P=0.048). Non-survivors had significantly higher systolic PAPs than in survivors. However, in multivariate analysis, there was no significant association between mean systolic PAP and hospital mortality (odds ratio, 1.500; 95% confidence interval, 0.937–2.404; P=0.091). Conclusions Systolic PAP was weakly but significantly correlated with net fluid balance during the early ECMO period in patients with refractory ARDS receiving ECMO

Influence of the range of data on the performance of ANN- and SVM- based time series models for reproducing groundwater level observations

In the present study, we designed time series models for predicting groundwater level fluctuations using an artificial neural network (ANN) and a support vector machine (SVM). To estimate the model sensitivity to the range of data set for the model building, numerical tests were conducted using hourly measured groundwater level data at a coastal aquifer of Jeju Island in South Korea. The model performance of the two models is similar and acceptable when the range of input variable lies within the data set for the model building. However, when the range of input variables is beyond it, both the models showed abnormal prediction results: an oscillation for the ANN model and a constant value for SVM. The result of the numerical tests indicates that it is necessary to obtain various types of input and output variables and assign them to the model building process for the success of design time series models of groundwater level prediction