Understanding the empirical literature on purchasing power parity: the post-Bretton Woods era

Foreign exchange ; Purchasing power

The Papers of Thomas A. Edison

This richly illustrated volume explores Edison’s inventive and personal pursuits from 1885 to 1887.Two decades after the American Civil War, no name was more closely associated with the nation’s inventive and entrepreneurial spirit than that of Thomas Edison. The restless changes of those years were reflected in the life of America’s foremost inventor. Having cemented his reputation with his electric lighting system, Edison had decided to withdraw partially from that field. At the start of 1885, newly widowed at mid-life with three young children, he launched into a series of personal and professional migrations, setting in motion chains of events that would influence his work and fundamentally reshape his life. Edison’s inventive activities took off in new directions, flowing between practical projects (such as wireless and high-capacity telegraph systems) and futuristic ones (exploring forms of electromagnetic energy and the convertibility of one to another). Inside of two years, he would travel widely, marry the daughter of a prominent industrialist and religious educator, leave New York City for a grand home in a sylvan suburb, and construct a winter laboratory and second home in Florida. Edison’s family and interior life are remarkably visible at this moment; his papers include the only known diary in which he recorded personal thoughts and events. By 1887, the familiar rhythms of his life began to reassert themselves in his new settings; the family faded from view as he planned, built, and occupied a New Jersey laboratory complex befitting his status. The eighth volume of the series, New Beginnings includes 358 documents (chosen from among thousands) that are the most revealing and representative of Edison’s work, life, and place in American culture in these years. Illustrated with hundreds of Edison’s drawings, these documents are further illuminated by meticulous research on a wide range of sources, including the most recently digitized newspapers and journals of the day

Systematic Analysis and Biomarker Study for Alzheimer's Disease.

Revealing the relationship between dysfunctional genes in blood and brain tissues from patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) will help us to understand the pathology of this disease. In this study, we conducted the first such large systematic analysis to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in blood samples from 245 AD cases, 143 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) cases, and 182 healthy control subjects, and then compare these with DEGs in brain samples. We evaluated our findings using two independent AD blood datasets and performed a gene-based genome-wide association study to identify potential novel risk genes. We identified 789 and 998 DEGs common to both blood and brain of AD and MCI subjects respectively, over 77% of which had the same regulation directions across tissues and disease status, including the known ABCA7, and the novel TYK2 and TCIRG1. A machine learning classification model containing NDUFA1, MRPL51, and RPL36AL, implicating mitochondrial and ribosomal function, was discovered which discriminated between AD patients and controls with 85.9% of area under the curve and 78.1% accuracy (sensitivity = 77.6%, specificity = 78.9%). Moreover, our findings strongly suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction, NF-κB signalling and iNOS signalling are important dysregulated pathways in AD pathogenesis

Metsulfuron-methyl avaliation in the control of weeds in an área of pasture seed production

Conduziu-se um experimento na Fazenda Bom Futuro, município de Rondonópolis, MT, em solo Areia Quartzosa, no ano agrícola 1999/2000, visando avaliar os efeitos do herbicida metsulfuron-methyl, aplicado em pós-emergência, no controle de plantas daninhas em campo de produção de sementes de Brachiaria brizantha (braquiária). Os tratamentos foram constituídos de metsulfuron-methyl a 3,0 glha em aplicação única, metsulfuron-methyl a 3,0 glha em duas épocas de aplicação, metsulfuronmethyl a 3,6 glha em aplicação única, metsulfuron-methyl a 3,6 glha em duas épocas de aplicação, 2,4-D a 288 glha (padrão) e testemunha. As plantas daninhas Tridax procumbens, Spermacoce latifolia e Chamaesyce hirta, foram suficientemente controladas através do metsulfuron-methyl a partir da dose de 3,0 glha, em aplicação única. Foram verificados sintomas leves de fitotoxicidade na braquiária, através dos tratamentos com aplicações em duas épocas e com o tratamento padrão 2,4-D. O rendimento de sementes de braquiária e o peso de 100 panículas foram superiores através dos tratamentos químicos, comparados à testemunha. An experiment was conducted at the Bom Futuro Farm, Rondonópolis, MT during 1999/2000 in a sandy soil, to determine the effects of metsulfuron-methyl on postemergence control of weeds in a field of Brachiaria brizantha seed production. Treatments were: metsulfuron-methyl at 3.0 glha and at 3.6 glha in one application or in two applications, 2,4-D at 288 glha (as a reference) and a check. Tridax procumbens, Spemacoce latifolia, Chamaesyce hirta were controlled by metsulfuron-methyl at 3.0 and 3.6 glha in a sole application. It was observed slight injury-to B. brizantha caused by the treatrnent with two applications of metsulfuron-methyl and by 2,4-D. B. brizantha seed production, weigth of 100 panic\es were ligher in the treatments with herbicides

The determinants of vulnerability to currency crises: country-specific factors versus regional factors

We investigate the determinants of exchange market pressures (EMP) for some new EU member states at both the national and regional levels, where macroeconomic and financial variables are considered as potential sources. The regional common factors are extracted from these variables by using dynamic factor analysis. The linear empirical analysis, in general, highlights the importance of country-specific factors to defend themselves against vulnerability in their external sectors. Yet, given a significant impact of the common component in credit on EMP, a contagion effect is apparent through the conduit of credit market integration across these countries under investigation

PRIVATE SAVINGS IN TRANSITION ECONOMIES: ARE THERE TERMS OF TRADE SHOCKS?

The paper examines the impact of terms of trade shocks on private savings in the transition economies after accounting for the effect of other determinants. Economic agents in the transition economies are subject to tight credit constraints which are more pronounced during bad state of nature. Thus, adverse shocks to commodity prices in the world market can force them to reduce savings by a larger amount than they would otherwise have. Empirical analysis using a dynamic panel model and data from twenty one transition economies confirm that most of the determinants of savings identified in the literature also apply to the transition economies. Favorable movements in both the permanent and transitory components of the terms of trade have a significant positive impact on private savings with transitory movements having a larger impact than the permanent component. This reflects the lack of access to foreign borrowing that many of the transition economies have faced during the last decade. Although the impact of terms of trade shocks are found to be asymmetric, the magnitude of the impact appears to be small. The results are robust for alternative estimators, determinants, and country groupings.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39958/3/wp572.pd

Influence of Annealing on the Optical and Scintillation Properties of CaWO4_4 Single Crystals

We investigate the influence of oxygen annealing on the room temperature optical and scintillation properties of CaWO$_4$ single crystals that are being produced for direct Dark Matter search experiments. The applied annealing procedure reduces the absorption coefficient at the peak position of the scintillation spectrum ($\sim430$ nm) by a factor of $\sim6$ and leads to an even larger reduction of the scattering coefficient. Furthermore, the annealing has no significant influence on the \emph{intrinsic} light yield. An additional absorption occurring at $\sim400$ nm suggests the formation of O$^-$ hole centers. Light-yield measurements at room temperature where one crystal surface was mechanically roughened showed an increase of the \emph{measured} light yield by $\sim40$ and an improvement of the energy resolution at 59.5 keV by $\sim12$ for the annealed crystal. We ascribe this result to the reduction of the absorption coefficient while the surface roughening is needed to compensate for the also observed reduction of the scattering coefficient after annealing