The long memory story of real interest rates. Can it be supported?

This papers finds evidence of fractional integration for a number of monthly ex post real interest rate series using the GPH semiparametric estimator on data from fourteen European countries and the US. However, we pose empirical questions on certain time series requirements that emerge from fractional integration and we find that they do not hold pointing to "spurious" long memory and casting doubts with respect to the theoretical origins of long memory in our sample. Common stochastic trends expressed as the sum of stationary past errors do not seem appropriate as an explanation of real interest rate covariation. From an economic perspective, our results suggest that most European countries show higher speed of real interest rate equalization with Germany rather than the US.

On the relationship between inflation persistence and temporal aggregation

This paper examines the impact of temporal aggregation on alternative definitions of inflation persistence. Using the CPI and the core PCE deflator of the US, our results show that temporal aggregation from the monthly to the quarterly to the annual frequency induces persistence in the inflation series.

The mass and environmental dependence on the secular processes of AGN in terms of morphology, colour, and specific star-formation rate

Galaxy mass and environment play a major role in the evolution of galaxies. In the transition from star-forming to quenched galaxies, Active galactic nuclei (AGN) have also a principal action. However, the connections between these three actors are still uncertain. In this work we investigate the effects of stellar mass and the large-scale environment (LSS), on the fraction of optical nuclear activity in a population of isolated galaxies, where AGN would not be triggered by recent galaxy interactions or mergers. As a continuation of a previous work, we focus on isolated galaxies to study the effect of stellar mass and the LSS in terms of morphology (early- and late-type), colour (red and blue), and specific star formation rate (quenched and star-forming). To explore where AGN activity is affected by the LSS we fix the stellar mass into low- and high-mass galaxies. We use the tidal strength parameter to quantify their effects. We found that AGN is strongly affected by stellar mass in 'active' galaxies (namely late-type, blue, and star-forming), however it has no influence for 'quiescent' galaxies (namely early-type, red, and quenched), at least for masses down to $\rm 10^{10}\,[M_\odot]$. In relation to the LSS, we found an increment on the fraction of SFN with denser LSS in low-mass star forming and red isolated galaxies. Regarding AGN, we find a clear increment of the fraction of AGN with denser environment in quenched and red isolated galaxies, independently of the stellar mass. AGN activity would be 'mass triggered' in 'active' isolated galaxies. This means that AGN is independent of the intrinsic property of the galaxies, but on its stellar mass. On the other hand, AGN would be 'environment triggered' in 'quiescent' isolated galaxies, where the fraction of AGN in terms of sSFR and colour increases from void regions to denser LSS, independently of its stellar mass.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures (11 pages and 6 figures without appendix), accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Study of the effect of pH, salinity and DOC on fluorescence of synthetic mixtures of freshwater and marine salts

In order to provide support for the discussion of the fate of organic matter in estuaries, a laboratory simulation was performed by changing freshwater ionic strength, pH and organic matter content. The change in spectroscopic characteristics caused by variations in salinity, pH and organic matter concentration in the filtered samples was observed by UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. The increase in emission fluorescence intensity of dissolved organic matter (DOM) due to increasing salinity (in the range 0 to 5 g l−1) is affected by the pH of the samples. The emission fluorescence intensity at the three maxima observed in the fluorescence spectra, is linearly correlated with dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration at several salinity values in the same sample. The increase in organic matter concentration caused a shift in the emission peak wavelength at 410 nm for several salinity values.We concluded that it is necessary to take into account the influence of salinity and pH on emission fluorescence of dissolved organic matter if it is to be used as a tracer in estuarine or near shore areas

Paenibacillus brasilensis sp nov., a novel nitrogen-fixing species isolated from the maize rhizosphere in Brazil

Sixteen nitrogen-fixing strains isolated from the rhizosphere of maize planted in Cerrado soil, Brazil, which showed morphological and biochemical characteristics similar to the gas-forming Paenibacillus spp., were phenotypically and genetically characterized. Their identification as members of the genus Paenibacillus was confirmed by using specific primers based on the 16S rRNA gene. SDS-PAGE of whole-cell proteins, API 50CH, morphological and biochemical tests, amplified rDNA-restriction analysis (ARDRA), DNA-relatedness analyses, denaturing-gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and 16S rRNA gene sequence determinations were performed to characterize the novel isolates and to compare them to strains of other nitrogen-fixing Paenibacillus spp. Phenotypic analyses showed that the 16 strains were very homogeneous and shared a high level of relatedness with Paenibacillus polymyxa and Paenibacillus peoriae. However, none of the novel isolates was able to ferment glycerol (positive test for P. polymyxa), L-arabinose or D-xylose (positive tests for P. polymyxa and P. peoriae) or utilize succinate (positive test for P. peoriae). Genetic approaches also indicated a high level of similarity among the novel isolates and P. polymyxa and P. peoriae, but the novel strains clearly could not be assigned to either of these two recognized species. On the basis of the features presented in this study, the 16 novel isolates were considered to represent members of a novel species within the genus Paenibacillus, for which the name Paenibacillus brasilensis is proposed. The type strain is PB172(T) (=ATCC BAA-413(T)=DSM 14914(T)