Fear of Sudden Stops: Lessons from Australia and Chile

Latin American economies are exposed to substantial external vulnerability. Domestic imbalances and terms of trade shocks are often exacerbated by sudden stops of capital inflow. In this paper we explore ways of overcoming external vulnerability, drawing lessons from a detailed comparison of the response of Chile and Australia to recent external shocks and from Australia's historical experience. We argue that in order to understand sudden stops and the mechanisms to smooth them, it is useful to identify and then distinguish between two inter-related dimensions of investors' confidence: country-trust and currency-trust. Lack of country-trust is a more fundamental and serious problem behind sudden stops. But lack of currency-trust may both be a source of country-trust problems and weaken a country's ability to deal with sudden stops. We discuss steps to improve along these two dimensions of investors' confidence in the medium run, and policies to reduce the impact of country-trust and currency-trust weaknesses in the short run.

Targeting Nrf2 in Inflammation and Cancer

The transcription factor Nrf2 protects against cellular stress by inducing cytoprotective proteins. Activation of Nrf2 protects against inflammation and oxidative damage in disease models in vitro and in vivo. Nrf2 activation may be a good therapeutic strategy in these diseases. Some dietary components activate Nrf2, which may be partially responsible for their beneficial effects in preventing disease. In this study a novel organosulfur compound from garlic, diallyl pentasulfide (DAPS), was investigated. DAPS strongly activated the Nrf2 pathway. Furthermore, it was a much more powerful activator of heme oxygenase-1 than any diallyl sulfides reported to date. Nrf2 is regulated by Keap1, which targets it for degradation. Disruption of the Nrf2/Keap1 interaction results in Nrf2 activation. In this study, a novel cell-penetrating peptide, based on the Keap1-binding site of Nrf2, disrupted the Nrf2/Keap1 interaction, and activated the Nrf2 pathway. Furthermore, it demonstrated anti-inflammatory activity, significantly inhibiting LPS-induced TNF expression in THP-1 monocytes, suggesting that the interaction is a valid therapeutic target in inflammation. In cancer, Nrf2 plays a dual role. Activation of Nrf2 protects cells from carcinogens. However, once a tumour has developed, Nrf2 can be hijacked by cancer cells to induce chemoresistance. This study examined the role of Nrf2 in malignant melanoma cells. Nrf2 was found to be overexpressed in 11 human melanoma cell lines in comparison with melanocytes. Chemoresistance to dacarbazine, doxorubicin and cisplatin correlated with Nrf2 expression, and Nrf2 siRNA increased the susceptibility of M202 and SK-MEL-5 cells to cisplatin, suggesting that Nrf2 plays a role in chemoresistance in melanoma. In conclusion, this study has identified novel activators of Nrf2, including a dietary compound and a cell penetrating peptide which inhibits inflammation in vitro. In addition, Nrf2 inhibition sensitises melanoma cells to chemotherapy. These results suggest that targeting Nrf2 is a viable strategy in both inflammation and cancer

Seasonal and inter-annual patterns of sediment-water nutrient and oxygen fluxes in Mobile Bay, Alabama (USA): Regulating factors and ecological significance.

Sediment oxygen and nutrient fluxes were measured monthly for 2 yr in Mobile Bay, Alabama, USA. Rates of sediment oxygen consumption (0.1 to 1.25 gO2 m-2 d-1), ammonium flux (-22 to 181 µmol m-2 h-1), nitrate flux (-14 to 67 µmol m-2 h-1), phosphate flux (-2 to 20.4 µmol m-2 h-1), and dissolved silicate flux (-15 to 342 µmol m-2 h-1) were moderate to high compared to values for other estuaries. A step-wise regression analysis revealed that dissolved oxygen concentration and temperature in bottom-waters explained much of the variance in fluxes. This is presumably because of their influence on rates of microbial and physico-chemical processes. Organic matter availability was not found to be an important factor in regulating temporal (month to month) variability of fluxes, possibly because frequent resuspension of the sediments in this shallow system rendered indices of sediment organic matter nearly constant with time. However, warm season-averaged sediment nutrient releases were correlated with sediment chlorophyll a. This relationship in Mobile Bay is in strong agreement with similar relationships found in other estuarine systems, and suggests that the availability of labile organic matter ultimately regulates the maximum rate of nutrient release by the sediments. Annually averaged sediment fluxes supplied 36% of the nitrogen (N) and 25% of the phosphorus (P) required by phytoplankton in Mobile Bay. While this is not particularly high compared to other estuaries, monthly estimates show that the sediments can supply from 0 to 94% of the N, and 0 to 83% of the P required by phytoplankton. In addition, flux ratios show that N and P are released from sediments at N:P ratios that rapidly switch from above (maximum 98) to below (minimum 1.2) that required for phytoplankton growth. This pattern is different from cooler temperate systems, where such switching is seasonally base

Fear of Sudden Stops: Lessons from Australia and Chile

Latin American economies are exposed to substantial external vulnerability. Domestic imbalances and terms of trade shocks are often exacerbated by sudden financial distress. This paper explores ways of overcoming external vulnerability, drawing lessons from a detailed comparison of the response of Chile and Australia to recent external shocks and from Australia`s historical experience. It is argued that, in order to understand sudden stops and the mechanisms to smooth them, it is useful to highlight and then draw a distinction between two dimensions of investor confidence: country-trust and currency-trust. While these two dimensions are interrelated, there are important distinctions. Lack of country-trust is a more fundamental and serious problem behind sudden stops. But lack of currency-trust may be a source of country-trust problems as well as weaken a country`s ability to deal with sudden stops. The paper further discusses steps to improve investor confidence in the medium run along these two dimensions, as well as policies to reduce the impact of country-trust and currency-trust weaknesses in the short run.

Fear of Sudden Stops: lessons from Australia and Chile

Latin American economies are exposed to ubstantial external vulnerability. Domestic imbalances and terms of trade shocks are often exacerbated by sudden financial distress. In this paper we explore ways of overcoming external vulnerability drawing lessons from a detailed comparison of the response of Chile and Australia to recent external shocks and from Australia’s historical experience. We argue that in order to understand sudden stops and the mechanisms to smooth them, it is useful to highlight and then draw a distinction between two dimensions of investors confidence: country-trust and currency-trust. While these two dimensions are interrelated, there are important distinctions. Lack of country-trust is a more fundamental and serious problem behind sudden stops. But lack of currency-trust may both be a source of country-trust problems as well as weaken a country’s ability to deal with sudden stops. We discuss steps to improve along these two dimensions of investors’ confidence in the medium run, and policies to reduce the impact of country-trust and currency-trust weaknesses in the short runsudden stops

Fear of Sudden Stops: Lessons from Australia and Chile

Latin American economies are exposed to substantial external vulnerability. Domestic imbalances and terms of trade shocks are often exacerbated by sudden stops of capital inflow. In this paper we explore ways of overcoming external vulnerability, drawing lessons from a detailed comparison of the response of Chile and Australia to recent external shocks and from Australia’s historical experience. We argue that in order to understand sudden stops and the mechanisms to smooth them, it is useful to identify and then distinguish between two inter-related dimensions of investors’ confidence: country-trust and currency-trust . Lack of country-trust is a more fundamental and serious problem behind sudden stops. But lack of currency-trust may both be a source of country-trust problems and weaken a country’s ability to deal with sudden stops. We discuss steps to improve along these two dimensions of investors’ confidence in the medium run, and policies to reduce the impact of country-trust and currency-trust weaknesses in the short run.sudden stops; Australia; Chile

Hegel Between Criticism and Romanticism: Love & Self-consciousness in the Phenomenology

Hegel’s formulation of self-consciousness has decisively influenced modern philosophy’s notion of selfhood. His famous discussion of it appears in Chapter IV of the Phenomenology of Spirit, and emphasizes that self-consciousness is a dynamic process involving social activity. However, philosophers have struggled to understand some of the central claims Hegel makes: that self-consciousness is (a) “desire itself” which (b) is “only satisfied in another self-consciousness”; and that (c) self-consciousness is “the concept of Spirit.” In this paper, I argue that Hegel’s early writings on love help make sense of the motivation behind these claims, and thereby aids in understanding their meaning. Hegel’s writing on love is usually treated as if it were either a failed precursor to his philosophy of Spirit, or that he eventually demoted love to the ethics of the familial sphere. In my view, both approaches offer valuable insights, but fall short: they inadequately account for the philosophical continuity between his early and later work. In contrast, I claim that the philosophical issues Hegel began investigating via love—i.e., modern individuality, the unity of subject and object, and the nature of life—remained among his central concerns in the Phenomenology. I argue that understanding Hegel’s view of love requires focusing on how the idea rests upon a tension between post-Kantian critical philosophy and Romanticism. By framing his writing on love as philosophical in its own right (rather than merely religious), it becomes clear that Hegel’s early writings are continuous with his mature work; and that his work on love reveals the philosophical motivation underlying the claims about desire, satisfaction, and the concept of Spirit in Chapter IV of the Phenomenology

THOUGHT AND MIND AS THE PROJECTION OF MENTAHOLOMORPHIC FIELDS BY THE BRAIN: A PROPOSED MECHANISM

This paper proposes a new understanding of the relationship between brain, mind and other biofields based on the emergent properties of the brain's parallel structure, which create a brain "laser." Several thalamocortical rhythms, including a 40 cycle per second oscillation associated with event scanning and a faster EEG rhythm found in healers and others. are hypothesized to give rise to coherent electromagnetic radiation, as well as multifaceted coherent radiation in the additional dimensions posited by string theory. These rhythms cause repetitive excitation of the sugar/protein coatings of the parallel axons of the thalamocortical columns. The synchronous excitation of these glycocalyxes of the parallel columns will cause similar chemical bonds to resonate and entrain one another, giving rise to coherent radiation. This electromagnetic/multifaceted radiation forms highly complex interference patterns (termed "mentaholomorphic fields~) when they interact with each other and the elecuomagnetic/multifaceted activity in the cortical layers. The resulting mentaholomorphic fields may be related to thought, mind and particular states of consciousness

Spitzer/MIPS 24 μm Observations of HD 209458b: Three Eclipses, Two and a Half Transits, and a Phase Curve Corrupted by Instrumental Sensitivity Variations

We report the results of an analysis of all Spitzer/MIPS 24 μm observations of HD 209458b, one of the touchstone objects in the study of irradiated giant planet atmospheres. Altogether, we analyze two and a half transits, three eclipses, and a 58 hr near-continuous observation designed to detect the planet's thermal phase curve. The results of our analysis are: (1) a mean transit depth of 1.484% ± 0.033%, consistent with previous measurements and showing no evidence of variability in transit depth at the 3% level. (2) A mean eclipse depth of 0.338% ± 0.026%, somewhat higher than that previously reported for this system; this new value brings observations into better agreement with models. From this eclipse depth we estimate an average dayside brightness temperature of 1320 ± 80 K; the dayside flux shows no evidence of variability at the 12% level. (3) Eclipses in the system occur 32 ± 129 s earlier than would be expected from a circular orbit, which constrains the orbital quantity ecos ω to be 0.00004 ± 0.00033. This result is fully consistent with a circular orbit and sets an upper limit of 140 m s^(–1) (3σ) on any eccentricity-induced velocity offset during transit. The phase curve observations (including one of the transits) exhibit an anomalous trend similar to the detector ramp seen in previous Spitzer/IRAC observations; by modeling this ramp we recover the system parameters for this transit. The long-duration photometry which follows the ramp and transit exhibits a gradual ~0.2% decrease in flux over ~30 hr. This effect is similar to that seen in pre-launch calibration data taken with the 24 μm array and is better fit by an instrumental model than a model invoking planetary emission. The large uncertainties associated with this poorly understood, likely instrumental effect prevent us from usefully constraining the planet's thermal phase curve. Our observations highlight the need for a thorough understanding of detector-related instrumental effects on long timescales when making the high-precision mid-infrared measurements planned for future missions such as EChO, SPICA, and the James Webb Space Telescope

The Cracker Patch Choice: An Analysis of Post Hoc Security Techniques

It has long been known that security is easiest to achieve when it is designed in from the start. Unfortunately, it has also become evident that systems built with security as a priority are rarely selected for wide spread deployment, because most consumers choose features, convenience, and performance over security. Thus security officers are often denied the option of choosing a truly secure solution, and instead must choose among a variety of post hoc security adaptations. We classify security enhancing methods, and compare and contrast these methods in terms of their effectiveness vs. cost of deployment. Our analysis provides practitioners with a guide for when to develop and deploy various kinds of post hoc security adaptations