Transmission of government spending shocks in the euro area: Time variation and driving forces

This paper provides new evidence on the effects of government spending shocks and the fiscal transmission mechanism in the euro area for the period 1980-2008. Our contribution is two-fold. First, we investigate changes in the macroeconomic impact of government spending shocks using time-varying structural VAR techniques. The results show that the short-run effectiveness of government spending in stabilizing real GDP and private consumption has increased until the end-1980s but it has decreased thereafter. Moreover, government spending multipliers at longer horizons have declined substantially over the sample period. We also observe a weaker response of real wages and a stronger response of the nominal interest rate to spending shocks. Second, we provide econometric evidence on the driving forces behind the observed time variation of spending multipliers. We find that a higher ratio of credit to households over GDP, a smaller share of government investment and a larger share of public wages over total government spending have led to decreasing contemporaneous multipliers. At the same time, our results indicate that higher government debt-to-GDP ratios have negatively affected long-term multipliers. JEL Classification: C32, E62, H30, H50Fiscal transmission mechanism, Government spending shocks, Structural change, Structural vector autoregressions, Time-varying parameter models

Recent advances in malaria genomics and epigenomics

Malaria continues to impose a significant disease burden on low- and middle-income countries in the tropics. However, revolutionary progress over the last 3 years in nucleic acid sequencing, reverse genetics, and post-genome analyses has generated step changes in our understanding of malaria parasite (Plasmodium spp.) biology and its interactions with its host and vector. Driven by the availability of vast amounts of genome sequence data from Plasmodium species strains, relevant human populations of different ethnicities, and mosquito vectors, researchers can consider any biological component of the malarial process in isolation or in the interactive setting that is infection. In particular, considerable progress has been made in the area of population genomics, with Plasmodium falciparum serving as a highly relevant model. Such studies have demonstrated that genome evolution under strong selective pressure can be detected. These data, combined with reverse genetics, have enabled the identification of the region of the P. falciparum genome that is under selective pressure and the confirmation of the functionality of the mutations in the kelch13 gene that accompany resistance to the major frontline antimalarial, artemisinin. Furthermore, the central role of epigenetic regulation of gene expression and antigenic variation and developmental fate in P. falciparum is becoming ever clearer. This review summarizes recent exciting discoveries that genome technologies have enabled in malaria research and highlights some of their applications to healthcare. The knowledge gained will help to develop surveillance approaches for the emergence or spread of drug resistance and to identify new targets for the development of antimalarial drugs and perhaps vaccines

Loss of p16(INK4a) is associated with reduced patient survival in soft tissue tumours, and indicates a senescence barrier

Aims: p16(INK4a) is an important factor in carcinogenesis, and its expression is linked to oncogene-induced senescence. Very recently it was shown that upregulation and downregulation of p16 indicates a senescence barrier in the serrated route of colorectal cancer. However, in soft tissue sarcoma (STS), the senescence mechanism is still not understood. In this study, we analysed a well characterised cohort of STS for p16(INK4a) expression and correlated the results with clinicopathological parameters including survival. Methods: Tissue microarrays (TMA) of 183 soft tissue and bone tumours were analysed immunohistochemically. Furthermore, mRNA expression of p16(INK4a) was evaluated in four sarcoma cell lines, and a demethylation test was performed by treatment with 5-aza-2 \grq-deoxycytide. Results: On protein level, expression of p16(INK4a) was observed in undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) in 69.1%, leiomyosarcoma in 85.7%, synovial sarcoma in 77.8%, liposarcoma in 88.9%, angiosarcoma in 60.9% and MPNST in 22.2%. Loss of p16(INK4a) was observed in high grade sarcomas and showed a significant correlation with reduced patient survival (p=0.032). On DNA level, one out of four sarcoma cell lines exhibited a methylated p16(INK4a) promoter analysed by methylation-specific PCR. p16(INK4a) mRNA and protein expression was restored after demethylation using 5-aza-2′-deoxycytide. Conclusions: Upregulation of p16(INK4a) might be associated with the induction of senescence and indicates a senescence barrier. Downregulation of p16(INK4a) is found in malignant progression, and is significantly correlated with reduced patient survival. Downregulation of p16(INK4a) may be explained by DNA-hypermethylation in sarcoma cells

Experimental Research in Synthetic Molecular Communications -- Part II: Long-Range Communication

In this second part of our survey on experimental research in Synthetic Molecular Communication (SMC), we review works on long-range SMC systems, i.e., systems with communication ranges of more than a few millimeters. Despite the importance of experimental research for the evolution of SMC towards a mature communication paradigm that will eventually support revolutionary applications beyond the reach of today's prevalent communication paradigms, the existing body of literature is still comparatively sparse. Long-range SMC systems have been proposed in the literature for information transmission in two types of fluid media, liquid and air. While both types of SMC systems, liquid-based and air-based systems, rely on encoding and transmitting information using molecules, they differ substantially in terms of the physical system designs and in the type of applications they are intended for. In this paper, we present a systematic characterization of experimental works on long-range SMC that reveals the major drivers of these works in terms of the respective target applications. Furthermore, the physical designs for long-range SMC proposed in the literature are comprehensively reviewed. In this way, our survey will contribute to making experimental research in this field more accessible and identifying novel directions for future research.Comment: 10 pages, 2 tables, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in the IEEE Nanotechnology Magazin