Monetary Policy Shocks and Stock Returns: Evidence from the British Market

This paper examines the impact of anticipated and unanticipated monetary policy announcements, of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee on UK sectoral stock returns. The monetary policy shock is generated from the change in the three-month sterling LIBOR futures contract. Using a panel GMM estimator we find that both the expected and unexpected components of monetary changes are significant, but that only the surprise term is significant when we control for the impact of the sectors financial position

Household portfolios and monetary policy

We show that expansionary monetary policy is associated with higher household portfolio allocation to high risk assets and lower allocation to low risk assets, in line with “reaching for yield” behaviour. Our findings are based on analysis of US household level panel data using two measures of monetary policy shifts over the period 1999-2007. We also show that the impact of monetary policy changes is stronger for active investors. In addition, our hurdle model estimates reveal that monetary shocks strongly affect the decision to hold high risk assets, but not the decision to hold low risk assets. Finally, our results highlight the role of self-reported risk attitudes as well as that of mortgage-holder status in affecting the response of household portfolios to monetary policy changes

PDB24 Budget Impact Analysis of the Use of Aspart Insulin During Hospitalization of Patients with Hyperglycaemia in Italy

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Patient Perspective on Convenience and Intensification of Insulin Treatment In Type 2 Diabetes In Italy

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Early pine root anatomy and primary and lateral root formation are affected by container size: implications in dry-summer climates

Although the presence of root anatomical structures of young Pinus ponderosa seedlings grown in containers of contrasting volume (164 vs. 7000 cm3) was similar, seedlings reared 60 days in the large container had more vascular cambium although the xylem thickness was similar. In addition, seedlings in large containers had nearly twice as many resin ducts within the vascular cambium as their cohorts in small containers. Taproot length closely matched container depth. Though lateral root emission rates were similar between container sizes, large container seedlings had more than 2X the number of lateral roots as those from small containers. These differences in morphophysiological characteristics may be important to seedling establishment on sites that experience dry summer conditions, or for seedlings destined to drier, harsher sites. Further work to elucidate the ramifications of these morphophysiological differences on seedling establishment is warranted

Asymmetrical copper root pruning may improve root traits for reforesting steep and/or windy sites

Our research demonstrates that plant material can be produced in the nursery with asymmetrical root systems, which may have utility for reforestation of difficult planting sites characterized by steep slopes and/or windy conditions. Such a root system can be generated using chemical root pruning by applying cupric carbonate (Cu) that can arrest the development of, or cause mortality to, root apical meristems resulting in the formation of new lateral roots with an overall increase in the biomass, length, and volume of the root system. Our objective was to investigate the effect of chemical root pruning on the morphological and architectural traits of adventitious roots produced by poplar cuttings (Populus nigra L.) grown in containers coated with Cu in various symmetrical (Side, Bottom, Side + Bottom) and asymmetrical (half side + half bottom) patterns. After six weeks, roots of the cuttings were extracted from different container depths (Top, Middle, and Bottom) and portions (non-coated, Cu-coated), and analyzed. The root systems reacted to all coating patterns by increasing length, biomass, volume, and average diameters, but magnitude of increase was further affected by depth. In particular, root growth was unaffected at the Top of the container, and length was the highest at the Bottom depth. The Middle depth had a significant increment in both biomass and volume. Also, the root population increased in diameter as a possible response to Cu exposure. Interestingly, in the asymmetrically coated containers this depth response in the non-coated portions was of higher magnitude than in the Cu-coated portions

Ongoing modifications to root system architecture of Pinus ponderosa growing on a sloped site revealed by tree-ring analysis

Abstract Our knowledge of the root system architecture of trees is still incomplete, especially concerning how biomass partitioning is regulated to achieve an optimal, but often unequal, distribution of resources. In addition, our comprehension of root system architecture development as a result of the adaptation process is limited because most studies lack a temporal approach. To add to our understanding, we excavated 32-year-old Pinus ponderosa trees from a steep, forested site in northern Idaho USA. The root systems were discretized by a low magnetic field digitizer and along with AMAPmod software we examined their root traits (i.e. order category, topology, growth direction length, and volume) in four quadrants: downslope, upslope, windward, and leeward. On one tree, we analyzed tree rings to compare the ages of lateral roots relative to their parental root, and to assess the occurrence of compression wood. We found that, from their onset, first-order lateral roots have similar patterns of ring eccentricity suggesting an innate ability to respond to different mechanical forces; more root system was allocated downslope and to the windward quadrant. In addition, we noted that shallow roots, which all presented compression wood, appear to be the most important component of anchorage. Finally, we observed that lateral roots can change growth direction in response to mechanical forces, as well as produce new lateral roots at any development stage and wherever along their axis. These findings suggest that trees adjust their root spatial deployment in response to environmental conditions, these roots form compression wood to dissipate mechanical forces, and new lateral roots can arise anywhere and at any time on the existing system in apparent response to mechanical forces

A new study of 25^{25}Mg(α\alpha,n)28^{28}Si angular distributions at EαE_\alpha = 3 - 5 MeV

The observation of $^{26}$Al gives us the proof of active nucleosynthesis in the Milky Way. However the identification of the main producers of $^{26}$Al is still a matter of debate. Many sites have been proposed, but our poor knowledge of the nuclear processes involved introduces high uncertainties. In particular, the limited accuracy on the $^{25}$Mg($\alpha$,n)$^{28}$Si reaction cross section has been identified as the main source of nuclear uncertainty in the production of $^{26}$Al in C/Ne explosive burning in massive stars, which has been suggested to be the main source of $^{26}$Al in the Galaxy. We studied this reaction through neutron spectroscopy at the CN Van de Graaff accelerator of the Legnaro National Laboratories. Thanks to this technique we are able to discriminate the ($\alpha$,n) events from possible contamination arising from parasitic reactions. In particular, we measured the neutron angular distributions at 5 different beam energies (between 3 and 5 MeV) in the \ang{17.5}-\ang{106} laboratory system angular range. The presented results disagree with the assumptions introduced in the analysis of a previous experiment.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures - accepted by EPJ