Information Flows across the Futures Term Structure: Evidence from Crude Oil Prices

International audienceWe apply the concepts of mutual information and information flows and we built directed graphs to investigate empirically the propagation of price fluctuations across a futures term structure. We focus on price relationships for North American crude oil futures because this key market experienced several structural shocks between 2000 and 2014: financialization (starting in 2003), infrastructure limitations (in 2008-2011) and regulatory changes (in 2012-2014). Wefind large variations over time in the amount of information shared by contracts with different maturities. The mutual information increased substantially starting in 2004 but fell back sharply in 2012-2014. In the crude oil space, our findings point to a possible re-segmentation of the futures market by maturity in 2012-2014. This raises questions about the causes of market segmentation. In addition, although on average short-dated contracts (up to 6 months) emit more information than backdated ones, a dynamic analysis reveals that, after 2012, similar amounts of information flow backward as flow forward along the futures maturity curve. Moreover, the directions of the transfers between pairs of maturities become drastically different. This has implications for the Samuelson effect

Cinéma et sens de la ville : la ville idéelle

C’est principalement par le cinéma que nous connaissons et partageons le réel des villes, même celles dans lesquelles nous vivons. Par le cinéma, nous découvrons plus de villes que nous n’en visiterons jamais. Nous connaissons des villes que nous n'avons jamais vues. Nous apprenons à découvrir des villes que nous connaissons déjà. Nous avons en mémoire des villes qui n'existent pas. Que nous soyons spectateur ou créateur, les villes existent d'abord dans notre imaginaire. Percevoir, représenter et créer sont des actes complémentaires qui mobilisent des fonctions communes. Toute perception est conditionnée par le savoir et la mémoire, elle dépend de la culture. Toute représentation, si elle veut communiquer, doit connaître les mécanismes et les codes mémoriels et culturels du public auquel elle s’adresse. Le cinéma ne fait pas que reproduire, il crée et il a appris à utiliser ces codes et ces mécanismes, notamment pour représenter la ville. L’étude du cinéma peut ouvrir aux urbanistes et aux professionnels de l’aménagement, de nouveaux champs de scientificité sur le plan de la représentation et de la perception comme partage du réel de la ville. La ville et le cinéma doivent alors être vus comme un spectacle dans son acception herméneutique, et de ce spectacle il devient possible d’en faire émerger un paradigme; ou dit autrement, the basic belief system or worldview that guides the investigator, not only in choices of methods but in ontologically and episemologically fundamental ways. (Guba & Lincoln, 1994) Ce paradigme, que nous proposons de décrire, de modéliser et dont nous montrons les fonctions conceptuelles; nous le désignons comme la Ville idéelle.It is mainly though movies that we get to know and share cities’ realities, even those where we live. Through movies, we discover more cities than we will ever visit. We know cities we had never seen. We learn to discover cities we already knew. We have memories of non-existing cities. Either as spectators or creators, cities exist first in our imagination. To perceive, represent and create are complementary acts calling for common functions. Every perception is conditioned by knowledge and memory and depends from culture. In order to communicate, representations must be aware of the target audiences’ mechanisms and memory codes. Movie making deals not only with the reproduction. It creates and has learned to use those codes and mechanisms, as in the case of city representation. As for urban planners and other related professionals, the study of cinema can open new scientific fields dealing with representation and perception as means to share city’s reality. City and movies should then be seen as a spectacle (show) in its hermeneutical meaning, a spectacle (show) from which the emergence of a paradigm becomes possible. In other words, the basic belief system or worldview that guides the investigator, not only in choices of methods but in ontologically and episemologically fundamental ways. (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). We propose to describe, to shape and to show the conceptual functions of such paradigm; we call it the ideel city.Mediante el cine conocemos y compartimos la realidad de las ciudades, aun de aquellas en las que vivimos. Mediante el cine descubrimos más ciudades de las que podremos algún día visitar. Conocemos ciudades que nunca hemos visto. Aprendemos a descubrir ciudades que ya conocemos. Tenemos el recuerdo de ciudades inexistentes. Ya sea como espectadores o creadores, la existencia de las ciudades empieza en nuestra imaginación. Percibir, representar y crear son actos complementarios que apelan a funciones comunes. Toda percepción es condicionada por el conocimiento y la memoria, y depende de la cultura. Toda representación que intente comunicar, debe conocer los mecanismos y los códigos culturales del público al cual se dirige. El cine no solamente reproduce: crea y ha aprendido a utilizar dichos códigos y mecanismos, particularmente para representar la ciudad. El estudio del cine puede abrir a los urbanistas y a los profesionales de las disciplinas conexas, nuevos campos disciplinares a propósito de la representación y de la percepción como modos de compartir la realidad de la ciudad. La ciudad y el cine deben ser por tanto vistos como un espectáculo en la acepción hermenéutica del termino; espectáculo a partir del cual es posible que surja un paradigma. Dicho de otra manera, the basic belief system or worldview that guides the investigator, not only in choices of methods but in ontologically and episemologically fundamental ways. (Guba & Lincoln, 1994) A este paradigma, que nos proponemos describir, dar forma y cuyas funciones conceptuales mostramos, lo hemos llamado la Ciudad ideel

Silver oxalate-based solders: New materials for high thermal conductivity microjoining

Micrometric oxalate powders can be decomposed starting from temperatures as low as 90°C, leading to the formation of temporary nanometric grains of metallic silver with a high propensity for sintering. The decomposition being highly exothermic, this additional energy favours the sintering, i.e. the soldering, process. Solders processed at 300°C and very low pressure (<0.5 MPa) displayed a thermal conductivity close to 100 W m-1 K-1, making silver oxalate very promising for safe, moderate temperature and very low pressure bonding

Drosophila melanogaster γ-TuRC is dispensable for targeting γ-tubulin to the centrosome and microtubule nucleation

In metazoans, γ-tubulin acts within two main complexes, γ-tubulin small complexes (γ-TuSCs) and γ-tubulin ring complexes (γ-TuRCs). In higher eukaryotes, it is assumed that microtubule nucleation at the centrosome depends on γ-TuRCs, but the role of γ-TuRC components remains undefined

BCL2L10 is a predictive factor for resistance to Azacitidine in MDS and AML patients

Azacitidine is the leading compound to treat patients suffering myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or AML with less than 30% of blasts, but a majority of patients is primary refractory or rapidly relapses under treatment. These patients have a drastically reduced life expectancy as compared to sensitive patients. Therefore identifying predictive factors for AZA resistance is of great interest to propose alternative therapeutic strategies for non-responsive patients. We generated AZA-resistant myeloid cell line (SKM1-R) that exhibited increased expression of BCL2L10 an anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member. Importantly, BCL2L10 knockdown sensitized SKM1-R cells to AZA effect suggesting that increased BCL2L10 expression is linked to AZA resistance in SKM1-R. We next established in 77 MDS patients that resistance to AZA is significantly correlated with the percentage of MDS or AML cells expressing BCL2L10. In addition, we showed that the proportion of BCL2L10 positive bone marrow cells can predict overall survival in MDS or AML patients. We propose a convenient assay in which the percentage of BCL2L10 expressing cells as assessed by flow cytometry is predictive of whether or not a patient will become resistant to AZA. Therefore, systematic determination of BCL2L10 expression could be of great interest in newly diagnosed and AZA-treated MDS patients