Income effects of Federal Reserve liquidity facilities

One of the chief actions taken by the Federal Reserve in response to the financial crisis was the introduction or expansion of facilities designed to provide liquidity to the funding markets. A study of the programs suggests that the liquidity facilities generated $20 billion in interest and fee income between August 2007 and December 2009, or$13 billion after taking into account the estimated $7 billion cost of funds. Moreover, the Fed took important steps to limit the credit exposure it incurred in connection with the facilities.Federal Reserve System ; Liquidity (Economics) ; Bank liquidity ; Treasury bills ; Federal Reserve banks - Profits

Cluster Performance reconsidered: Structure, Linkages and Paths in the German Biotechnology Industry, 1996-2003

This paper addresses the evolution of biotechnology clusters in Germany between 1996 and 2003, paying particular attention to their respective composition in terms of venture capital, basic science institutions and biotechnology firms. Drawing upon the significance of co-location of "money and ideas", the literature stressing the importance of a cluster's openness and external linkages, and the path dependency debate, the paper aims to analyse how certain cluster characteristics correspond with its overall performance. After identifying different cluster types, we investigate their internal and external interconnectivity in comparative manner and draw on changes in cluster composition. Our results indicate that the structure, i.e. to which group the cluster belongs, and the openness towards external knowledge flows deliver merely unsystematic indications with regard to a cluster's overall success. Its ability to change composition towards a more balanced ratio of science and capital over time, on the other hand, turns out as a key explanatory factor. Hence, the dynamic perspective proves effective illuminating cluster growth and performance, where our explorative findings provide a promising avenue for further evolutionary research

Foreign Banks are Branching out: Changing Geographies of Hungarian Banking, 1987–1999

Walking through the streets of Budapest in spring 1999 could have given you the following impression: the supermarkets (Spar), the milk products sold there (Danone, Müller), and the property markets (OBI) come from different Western European countries such as the Netherlands, France and Germany. Almost all fast food restaurants (McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC) and many hotels (Hilton, Mariott) have their origins in the US; shoes and clothes offered in downtown are designed in Italy or France (Benetton, Marco Polo); medicine is predominantly produced in Switzerland (Novartis, Roche) and the banks as well as the car dealerships have their roots everywhere in the so-called Western world - usually including Japan and other Asian countries with major (car) companies - but not in Hungary itself...

Lack of Association between Measles Virus Vaccine and Autism with Enteropathy: A Case-Control Study

Background: The presence of measles virus (MV) RNA in bowel tissue from children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances was reported in 1998. Subsequent investigations found no associations between MV exposure and ASD but did not test for the presence of MV RNA in bowel or focus on children with ASD and GI disturbances. Failure to replicate the original study design may contribute to continued public concern with respect to the safety of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Methodology/Principal Findings: The objective of this case-control study was to determine whether children with GI disturbances and autism are more likely than children with GI disturbances alone to have MV RNA and/or inflammation in bowel tissues and if autism and/or GI episode onset relate temporally to receipt of MMR. The sample was an age-matched group of US children undergoing clinically-indicated ileocolonoscopy. Ileal and cecal tissues from 25 children with autism and GI disturbances and 13 children with GI disturbances alone (controls) were evaluated by real-time reverse transcription (RT)-PCR for presence of MV RNA in three laboratories blinded to diagnosis, including one wherein the original findings suggesting a link between MV and ASD were reported. The temporal order of onset of GI episodes and autism relative to timing of MMR administration was examined. We found no differences between case and control groups in the presence of MV RNA in ileum and cecum. Results were consistent across the three laboratory sites. GI symptom and autism onset were unrelated to MMR timing. Eighty-eight percent of ASD cases had behavioral regression. Conclusions/Significance: This study provides strong evidence against association of autism with persistent MV RNA in the GI tract or MMR exposure. Autism with GI disturbances is associated with elevated rates of regression in language or other skills and may represent an endophenotype distinct from other ASD

Pediatric Measles Vaccine Expressing a Dengue Antigen Induces Durable Serotype-specific Neutralizing Antibodies to Dengue Virus

Dengue disease is an increasing global health problem that threatens one-third of the world's population. Despite decades of efforts, no licensed vaccine against dengue is available. With the aim to develop an affordable vaccine that could be used in young populations living in tropical areas, we evaluated a new strategy based on the expression of a minimal dengue antigen by a vector derived from pediatric live-attenuated Schwarz measles vaccine (MV). As a proof-of-concept, we inserted into the MV vector a sequence encoding a minimal combined dengue antigen composed of the envelope domain III (EDIII) fused to the ectodomain of the membrane protein (ectoM) from DV serotype-1. Immunization of mice susceptible to MV resulted in a long-term production of DV1 serotype-specific neutralizing antibodies. The presence of ectoM was critical to the immunogenicity of inserted EDIII. The adjuvant capacity of ectoM correlated with its ability to promote the maturation of dendritic cells and the secretion of proinflammatory and antiviral cytokines and chemokines involved in adaptive immunity. The protective efficacy of this vaccine should be studied in non-human primates. A combined measles–dengue vaccine might provide a one-shot approach to immunize children against both diseases where they co-exist

Effect of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection on Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Regulation of Allergic Airway Inflammation.

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can infect myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) and regulate their function in the development of allergy. It has been widely reported that plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) play a critical role in antiviral innate immunity. In contrast, not much is known about the role of pDCs in the interaction between allergy and viral infection. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of RSV infection on pDC function in the regulation of allergic airway inflammation in a murine model of Dermatophagoides farinae-sensitized allergic asthma. Methods: Splenic pDCs isolated from D. farinae-sensitized donor mice were infected with live RSV ex vivo. Subsequently, these pDCs were inoculated into the airways of D. farinae-sensitized recipient mice. Lung pathology, lung tissue cytokine profiles, the number of regulatory T cells (T(reg)) and mDCs as well as the effects of IL-10 neutralization in the lung tissue of recipient mice were determined. Results: Intranasal inoculation of D. farinae-sensitized pDCs significantly inhibited the development of allergic airway inflammation and both Th1 and Th2 immunity. Live RSV infection of these pDCs prior to inoculation interfered with their inhibitory effects through decreasing T(reg) and IL-10 and increasing mDCs. Conclusions: In asthmatic airways, pDCs mediate tolerance to inhaled allergens through the regulation of T(reg), IL-10 and mDCs. RSV infection of pDCs potentially inhibits their immunotolerogenic effects and thus exacerbates allergic airway inflammation

Foundationalism and neuroscience; silence and language

Neuroscience offers more than new empirical evidence about the details of cognitive functions such as language, perception and action. Since it also shows many functions to be highly distributed, interconnected and dependent on mechanisms at different levels of processing, it challenges concepts that are traditionally used to describe these functions. The question is how to accommodate these concepts to the recent evidence. A recent proposal, made in Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (2003) by Bennett and Hacker, is that concepts play a foundational role in neuroscience, that empirical research needs to presuppose them and that changing concepts is a philosophical task. In defending this perspective, PFN shows much neuroscientific writing to be dualistic in nature due to our poor grasp of its foundations. In our review article we take a different approach. Instead of foundationalism we plead for a mild coherentism, which allows for a gradual and continuous alteration of concepts in light of new evidence. Following this approach it is also easier to deal with some neurological conditions (like blindsight, synaesthesia) that pose difficulties for our concepts. Finally, although words and concepts seem to seduce us to thinking that many skills and tasks function separately, it is language skill that - as neuroscientific evidence shows - co-emerges with action/perception cycles and thus seems to require revision of some of our central concepts. Distributed cognition; Foundationalism and coherentism; Language and cognition; Mereology and dualism; Neuroscience and philosoph