Monetary Policy, Term Structure and Asset Return: Comparing REIT, Housing and Stock

This paper confirms that a regime-switching model out-performs a linear VAR model in terms of understanding the system dynamics of asset returns. Impulse responses of REIT returns to either the federal funds rate or the interest rate spread are much larger initially but less persistent. Furthermore, the term structure acts as an amplifier of the impulse response for REIT return, a stabilizer for the housing counterpart under some regime, and, perhaps surprisingly, almost no role for the stock return. In contrast, GDP growth has very marginal effect in the impulse response for all assets.monetary policy; yield curve; REITs; house prices; Markov Regime Switching

In the Shadow of the United States: The International Transmission Effect of Asset Returns

We examine how the fluctuations in financial and housing markets in U.S. affect the asset returns and GDP in Hong Kong. In contrast to the results from linear specifications, which concludes that the U.S. and Hong Kong are virtually delinked in terms of the asset markets, our regime-switching models indicate that the unexpected shock of US stock returns, followed by the TED spread, has the most significant effect on HK asset returns and GDP, typically in the regime with high return and low volatility. For the in-sample one-step-ahead forecasting, US Term spread stands out to be the best predictor.currency board, fixed nominal exchange rate, international transmission mechanism, hierarchical Markov regime-switching model, vector autoregressive model

Tunable pulse delay and advancement in a coupled nanomechanical resonator-superconducting microwave cavity system

We theoretically study the transmission of a weak probe field under the influence of a strong pump field in a coupled nanomechanical resonator-superconducting microwave cavity system. Using the standard input-output theory, we find that both pulse delay (slow light effect) and advancement (fast light effect) of the probe field can appear in this coupled system provided that we choose the suitable detuning of the pump field from cavity resonance. The magnitude of the delay (advancement) can be tuned continuously by adjusting the power of the pump field. This technique demonstrates great potential in applications including microwave phase shifter and delay line.Comment: 12pages, 3 figure

Losing Track of the Asset Markets : The Case of Housing and Stock

This paper revisits the relationships among macroeconomic variables and asset returns. Based on recent developments in econometrics, we categorize competing models of asset returns into different “Equivalence Predictive Power Classes” (EPPC). During the pre-crisis period (1975-2005), some models that emphasize imperfect capital markets outperform an AR(1) for the forecast of housing returns. After 2006, a model that includes both an external finance premium (EFP) and the TED spread “learns and adjusts” faster than competing models. Models that encompass GDP experience a significant decay in predictive power. We also demonstrate that a simulation-based approach is complementary to the EPPC methodology

Transient Climate Response in Coupled Atmospheric–Ocean General Circulation Models

The equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) has a large uncertainty range among models participating in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) and has recently been presented as “inherently unpredictable.” One way to circumvent this problem is to consider the transient climate response (TCR). However, the TCR among AR4 models also differs by more than a factor of 2. The authors argue that the situation may not necessarily be so pessimistic, because much of the intermodel difference may be due to the fact that the models were run with their oceans at various stages of flux adjustment with their atmosphere. This is shown by comparing multimillennium-long runs of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies model, version E, coupled with the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (GISS-EH) and the Community Climate System Model, version 4 (CCSM4) with what were reported to AR4. The long model runs here reveal the range of variability (~30%) in their TCR within the same model with the same ECS. The commonly adopted remedy of subtracting the “climate drift” is ineffective and adds to the variability. The culprit is the natural variability of the control runs, which exists even at quasi equilibration. Fortunately, for simulations with multidecadal time horizon, robust solutions can be obtained by branching off thousand-year-long control runs that reach “quasi equilibration” using a new protocol, which takes advantage of the fact that forced solutions to radiative forcing forget their initial condition after 30–40 yr and instead depend mostly on the trajectory of the radiative forcing

Surface Waves and Roughness in Self-Aerated Supercritical Flow

In high-velocity open channel flows, free-surface aeration is commonly observed. The effects of surface waves on the air-water flow properties are tested herein. The study simulates the air-water flow past a fixed-location phase-detection probe by introducing random fluctuations of the flow depth. The present model yields results that are close to experimental observations in terms of void fraction, bubble count rate and bubble/droplet chord size distributions. The results show that the surface waves have relatively little impact on the void fraction profiles, but that the bubble count rate profiles and the distributions of bubble and chord sizes are affected by the presence of surface waves

Call for quality epilepsy neuroimaging—An illustrative case of missed epileptic substrate

No. 779

Cultura Indígena: Una Nueva Mirada para la Enseñanza de la Lengua Española

O CONGRESSO DE INTERNACIONALIZAÇÃO DA EDUCAÇÃO SUPERIOR – CIES 2019 é um evento in- ternacional, que reúne professores, pesquisadores e estudantes de graduação e pós-graduação para divulgar a produção científica no campo da Internacionalização do Ensino Superior e fortalecer a cooperação internacional entre diferentes instituições de ensino e grupos de pesquisa no âmbito do MERCOSUL. A iniciativa é fruto de uma parceria entre pesquisadores da Universidade Federal da Integra- ção Latino-Americana (UNILA - Brasil), a Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL - Argentina), a Uni- versidad Nacional de Asunción (UNA - Paraguay) e a Universidad de la República (UDeLaR - Uru- guay), que atuam em projetos vinculados ao Setor Educacional do MERCOSUL, no Núcleo de Estudos e Investigações em Educação Superior. O evento será realizado nos dias 4, 5 e 6 de Setembro de 2019 no campus PTI da UNILA, dentro do Parque Tecnológico da Usina Hidrelétrica de Itaipu, na cidade de Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brasil. A UNILA, sede do evento, é uma universidade temática criada em 2010 pelo governo federal do Brasil com a missão institucional de formar recursos humanos aptos a contribuir com a integra- ção latino-americana, com o desenvolvimento regional e com o intercâmbio cultural, científico e educacional da América Latina, especialmente no MERCOSUL. Sua finalidade, portanto, é conver- ter-se em um espaço de encontros, de trocas e de aprendizagem mútua, que reforçam o compro- misso em prol da pertinência, da excelência e da construção sustentável de um mundo melhor.El objetivo de este estudio fue averiguar si la enseñanza de la lengua española, con el uso de cuentos y leyendas tradicionales indigenistas contribuyen en la práctica de la cultura de la región de Amajarí/Roraima. La selección del espacio para la realización de este estudio fue el Municipio de Amajarí, específicamente en la comunidad de Araçá, donde predomina las etnias: Macuxi, Wapixana y Taurepang, el referido municipio cuenta con el total de 9.327 habitantes (IBGE, 2017)¹. El estado de Roraima tiene gran presencia de etnias indígenas, así como muchos ríos, montes e instituciones gubernamental, en que sus nombres están relacionados con las lenguas indígenas (SPOTTI, 2011)². Araça es una comunidad tranquila, donde las personas son muy social y cordiales. El material utilizado en proceso de aprendizaje de una segunda lengua debe ser legítimo. Según Leffa (2008)³ estos materiales deben todavía representar el contexto de situación real de uso de la lengua estudiada, incluyendo las conversaciones los ruidos y los textos escritos, no debe se restringir solamente a periódicos, anuncios y carta, más todo que el hablante este expuesto en su rutina. La utilización de los cuentos y leyendas tradicionales indigenistas en el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje de la lengua española fue un factor positivo, luego percibimos que hubo aprendizaje tanto de la lengua española, como de los cuentos y leyendas tradicionales indigenistas de Amajari, pues la mayoría de los estudiantes comprendían las historias contadas en la lengua española y pronunciaban con facilidad las palabras en español. Siendo que los propios estudiantes, ya estaban practicando su cultura, al describieren a sus amigos aún en el espacio de la escuela, las historias contadas en clase de aula. La investigación se caracteriza por ser cualitativa, con el uso de la investigación bibliográfica y la investigación de campo. La recolección de datos se realizó mediante la aplicación de doce clases de lengua española, donde utilizamos como instrumento de enseñanza y aprendizaje las historias indigenistas que son conocidos por los ancianos de la región. Aplicamos entrevistas semiestructurada y aún pesquisa participante, en la cual los jóvenes tuvieron un importante papel en su desarrollo, pues además de conocer los cuentos, leyendas y la lengua española, ellos tuvieron que practicar la tradición de su comunidad, el acto de “narrar”. Analizados los materiales colectados, se pudo verificar que existe un mejor aprendizaje de los contenidos por los alumnos cuando utilizamos las leyendas. Fue notorio que, lo aprendido, por los estudiantes, se lleva al cotidiano, de esta manera si el profesor ministrara sus clases con base en la realidad local, llevando en cuenta las costumbres de la comunidad, se mantendrían activos aspectos culturales importantes. Los resultados apuntan que, más allá de los cuentos y leyendas tradicionales indigenistas contribuyeren en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la lengua española.Núcleo de Estudios e Investigaciones en Educación Superior del Mercosur - NUCLEO Grupo Interdisciplinar de Pesquisa em Educação na América Latina – EducAL/UNILA Instituto Mercosul de Estudos Avançados – IMEA/UNILA Pró-Reitoria de Relações Institucionais e Internacionais – PROINT/UNIL

Correlated fragile site expression allows the identification of candidate fragile genes involved in immunity and associated with carcinogenesis

Common fragile sites (cfs) are specific regions in the human genome that are particularly prone to genomic instability under conditions of replicative stress. Several investigations support the view that common fragile sites play a role in carcinogenesis. We discuss a genome-wide approach based on graph theory and Gene Ontology vocabulary for the functional characterization of common fragile sites and for the identification of genes that contribute to tumour cell biology. CFS were assembled in a network based on a simple measure of correlation among common fragile site patterns of expression. By applying robust measurements to capture in quantitative terms the non triviality of the network, we identified several topological features clearly indicating departure from the Erdos-Renyi random graph model. The most important outcome was the presence of an unexpected large connected component far below the percolation threshold. Most of the best characterized common fragile sites belonged to this connected component. By filtering this connected component with Gene Ontology, statistically significant shared functional features were detected. Common fragile sites were found to be enriched for genes associated to the immune response and to mechanisms involved in tumour progression such as extracellular space remodeling and angiogenesis. Our results support the hypothesis that fragile sites serve a function; we propose that fragility is linked to a coordinated regulation of fragile genes expression.Comment: 18 pages, accepted for publication in BMC Bioinformatic