Risk Management with Derivatives by Dealers and Market Quality in Government Bond Markets

This paper examines how bond dealers use futures markets to manage the hedgeable market risk component of their core business risk exposure, and whether market quality is adversely affected by their selective risk taking activity. It also investigates the efficiency of market risk sharing within a decentralized semi-transparent market structure. We find that dealers engage in duration targeting, behaving as if they have a comparative advantage in bearing interest rate risk. They make significant directional bets often by holding futures that are in the same direction as the spot. They actively use futures to hedge changes in the spot exposure. They hedge changes in their spot exposure more when the potential costs of regulatory distress are high, when the cost of such hedging is low, and during periods of greater uncertainty. We find that duration targeting by dealers has adverse price effects due to capital constraints as predicted by Froot and Stein (1998). Finally, we find that trades in the spot market are not executed by dealers with extreme exposures. In this context, we recommend market reforms such as introduction of central quote posting or limit order book that will enable more efficient matching of liquidity demanders and suppliers, reduce trading costs, and improve the quality of risk sharing

Do Correlated Exposures Influence Intermediary Decision-making? Evidence from Trading Behavior of Equity Dealers

This paper investigates whether dealers’ trading and pricing decisions are governed by their equivalent inventories (based on total returns as in Ho and Stoll, 1983 or on unhedgeable returns as in Froot and Stein, 1998) or by their ordinary inventories, as would be the case in a decentralized market-making organizational structure. It finds that ordinary inventories, and not equivalent inventories best explain dealers’ quote placement strategy, which dealer executes trades and the quality of execution offered to the trades. This finding is consistent with decentralized market making where, due to information sharing difficulties or the nature of compensation contracts, individual dealers care only about risk of stocks managed by them, and not the positions of other dealers within the firm

Estimation of Columbia River Virgin Flow: 1879 to 1928

The Columbia River has historically been a major source of economic activity for the Pacific Northwest, and is one of the more heavily modified rivers in the United States today. Understanding human and climate-induced changes in its hydrologic properties is, therefore, a topic of considerable interest. Long streamflow records are essential to determining how runoff has changed over time. Daily streamflow records of the Columbia River at The Dalles dates back to June 1978. However, the observed daily flow does not alone provide enough information to understand or separate anthropogenic and climate effects. It is necessary also to have an estimate of virgin flow of the river to provide a historical perspective of water resources development, separate anthropogenic and climate effects, and compare present water use scenarios with those of the past decades. The United State Geological Survey (USGS) has calculated a monthly averaged adjusted river flow at The Dalles for 1879-1999 that accounts for the effects of flow regulation. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has estimated the monthly averaged virgin (or naturalized) flow at The Dalles, i.e., the flow in the absence of both flow regulation and irrigation depletion for 1929-89. We have estimated the monthly virgin flow of the Columbia River at The Dalles from records of irrigated area for the missing years, i.e., for the period 1879-1928. In addition, a filtered version of the daily observed flows were combined with monthly virgin flow corrections to obtain estimates of daily virgin flows with realistic higher moments and spectral properties. Examination of the virgin flow record shows that climate change since late 19th century has caused a decrease of \u3e7% in its annual average flow volume. The decrease in flow due to irrigation diversion during the same period is also ~7%. Broadly speaking, there are three periods of Columbia River flow management. Before 1900, mainstem dams were absent and flow diversions relatively small. Numerous dams were constructed between 1900 and 1970, and irrigation depletion increased 500%. Since about 1970, river flows have been managed on a system-wide basin, effecting significant interannual transfers of flows for the first time

Risk Management with Derivatives by Dealers and Market Quality in Government Bond Markets

This paper examines how bond dealers use futures markets to manage the hedgeable market risk component of their core business risk exposure, and whether market quality is adversely affected by their selective risk taking activity. It also investigates the efficiency of market risk sharing within a decentralized semi-transparent market structure. We find that dealers engage in duration targeting, behaving as if they have a comparative advantage in bearing interest rate risk. They make significant directional bets often by holding futures that are in the same direction as the spot. They actively use futures to hedge changes in the spot exposure. They hedge changes in their spot exposure more when the potential costs of regulatory distress are high, when the cost of such hedging is low, and during periods of greater uncertainty. We find that duration targeting by dealers has adverse price effects due to capital constraints as predicted by Froot and Stein (1998). Finally, we find that trades in the spot market are not executed by dealers with extreme exposures. In this context, we recommend market reforms such as introduction of central quote posting or limit order book that will enable more efficient matching of liquidity demanders and suppliers, reduce trading costs, and improve the quality of risk sharing

Risk Management with Derivatives by Dealers and Market Quality in Government Bond Markets

This paper examines how bond dealers use futures markets to manage the hedgeable market risk component of their core business risk exposure, and whether market quality is adversely affected by their selective risk taking activity. It also investigates the efficiency of market risk sharing within a decentralized semi-transparent market structure. We find that dealers engage in duration targeting, behaving as if they have a comparative advantage in bearing interest rate risk. They make significant directional bets often by holding futures that are in the same direction as the spot. They actively use futures to hedge changes in the spot exposure. They hedge changes in their spot exposure more when the potential costs of regulatory distress are high, when the cost of such hedging is low, and during periods of greater uncertainty. We find that duration targeting by dealers has adverse price effects due to capital constraints as predicted by Froot and Stein (1998). Finally, we find that trades in the spot market are not executed by dealers with extreme exposures. In this context, we recommend market reforms such as introduction of central quote posting or limit order book that will enable more efficient matching of liquidity demanders and suppliers, reduce trading costs, and improve the quality of risk sharing

Do Correlated Exposures Influence Intermediary Decision-making? Evidence from Trading Behavior of Equity Dealers

This paper investigates whether dealers’ trading and pricing decisions are governed by their equivalent inventories (based on total returns as in Ho and Stoll, 1983 or on unhedgeable returns as in Froot and Stein, 1998) or by their ordinary inventories, as would be the case in a decentralized market-making organizational structure. It finds that ordinary inventories, and not equivalent inventories best explain dealers’ quote placement strategy, which dealer executes trades and the quality of execution offered to the trades. This finding is consistent with decentralized market making where, due to information sharing difficulties or the nature of compensation contracts, individual dealers care only about risk of stocks managed by them, and not the positions of other dealers within the firm

Evaluation of Antioxidant Capacities and Total Polyphenols in Various Edible Parts of Capparis spinosa L. Collected from Trans-Himalayas

The phytochemical screening, antioxidant capacity, and total polyphenols in the methanolic extract of leaves, flower buds, roots and fruits of Capparis spinosa collected from trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh were assessed in an effort to corroborate its medicinal and culinary potential. Highest DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity were observed in the leaves and least in dried fruit samples, even FRAP assay also illustrated the same trend. IC50 values of DPPH assay was highly correlated with that of ABTS (R2=0.9084) and FRAP assay (R2=0.9771). However, IC50 value of ABTS was reasonably correlated with FRAP assay (R2=0.5838). The highest phenolic and flavonoid content was recorded in the leaf samples (24.78 and 5.69 mg GAE/g DW respectively), whereas it was lowest in the dried fruit samples (4.07 mg quercetin equivalent/g DW and nil, respectively). The total phenolic contents were highly correlated with IC50 value of ABTS (R2=0.9084), DPPH (R2=0.9388) and FRAP value (R2=0.9618). But, total flavonoid contents were highly correlated with ABTS (R2=0.7449), DPPH (R2=0.8791) and FRAP values (R2=0.9588). Thus, this study has validated the medicinal potential of all the edible parts of the C. spinosa

Assessment of genetic diversity among 16 promising cultivars of ginger using cytological and molecular markers

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) is an economically important plant, valued all over the world. The existing variation among 16 promising cultivars as observed through differential rhizome yield (181.9 to 477.3 g) was proved to have a genetic basis using different genetic markers such as karyotype, 4C nuclear DNA content and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). The karyotypic analysis revealed a differential distribution of A, B, C, D and E type of chromosomes among different cultivars as represented by different karyotype formulas. A significant variation of 4C DNA content was recorded in ginger at an intraspecific level with values ranging from 17.1 to 24.3 pg. RAPD analysis revealed a differential polymorphism of DNA showing a number of polymorphic bands ranging from 26 to 70 among 16 cultivars. The RAPD primers OPC02, OPA02, OPD20 and OPN06 showing strong resolving power were able to distinguish all 16 cultivars. The extent of genetic diversity among these cultivars was computed through parameters of gene diversity, sum of allele numbers per locus and Shannon's information indices. Cluster analysis, Nei's genetic similarity and genetic distances, distribution of cultivars into special distance classes and principal coordinate analysis and the analysis of molecular variance suggested a conspicuous genetic diversity among different cultivars studied. The genetic variation thus detected among promising cultivars of ginger has significance for ginger improvement programs. Key words: Ginger, Karyotype, RAPD Introduction Zingiber officinale is rich in secondary metabolites such as oleoresin. It possesses an unique combination of properties like anti-inflammatory, aphrodisiac, antioxidant and antibacterial activity S. Nayak et al. · Genetic Diversity among Ginger Cultivars In the past decade, DNA polymorphism has become the marker of choice for the identification and characterization of plants. It is a relatively reliable, generally applicable method to obtain large samples of markers from any species of plant. However, each marker system samples a different fraction of the genomes and therefore has a different resolving power, range of applicability and probability of homology. The random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique has been widely used in cultivar identification programs The objectives of this study were to (1) fingerprint ginger cultivars for identification and (2) detect the genetic diversity and relatedness of 16 cultivars sampled from different geographical regions using karyotypic analysis, 4C DNA content and RAPD analysis. In this study, many analytical procedures such as a n-j method, bootstrapping, spatial genetic structure analysis (SGS), and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) have been widely used to derive genetic distances among cultivars and to assess the structure of genetic data in a reduced dimensional space. Materials and Methods Plant materials Sixteen promising cultivars of ginger (Zingiber officinale) were included in the present study which were collected from the turmeric germplasm collection of the Orissa University of Agriculture and Techology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India. These cultivars were initially collected from different parts of India Karyotype analysis Young and healthy root-tips of different cultivars of ginger were pre-treated in a (0.02 m) hydroxyquinoline mixture (1:1) for 3.5 h at 14 ∞C followed by overnight fixation in propionic ethanol. Chromosome staining was made in 2% lacto propionic orcin after cold hydrolysis in 5 n HCl for 7 min. Root-tips were squashed in 45% propionic acid. Ten well scattered metaphase plates were selected for karyotype analysis of each species. The chromosome morphology was determined following the method of 4C DNA content For Feulgen cytophotometric estimation of 4C DNA, ten fixed root-tips from each cultivar (2n = 22 chromosomes) were hydrolysed in 1 n HCl for 12 min at 60 ∞C, washed in distilled water and stained in Schiff's reagent for 2 h at 14 ∞C; each root-tip squash was prepared in 75% acetic acid. Ten scorings were made from each slide and the 4C DNA content was estimated from metaphase chromosomes using a NIKON Optiphot microscope with a microspectrophotometer following the method of Sharma and Sharma (1980) with monochromatic light at 550 nm. In situ DNA values were obtained on the basis of optical density measurements which were converted to picograms (pg) using Vant Hoff's 4C nuclear DNA value (67.1 pg) for Allium cepa as standard Isolation of DNA Total plant DNA was isolated from fresh and young leaves. The leaves were harvested freshly and washed thoroughly with cold autoclaved distilled water and then blotted to dry. About 2 g leaf was excised from the upper tip portion of the buds. DNA extraction was done on the day of collection. The genomic DNA was isolated following the protocol of Doyle and Doyle (1990) with a little modification. Insoluble poly(vinylpyrrolidone) was added to the leaf tissue prior to grinding. The crude DNA was purified with RNase A (@ 60 µg ml Ð1 of DNA solution) followed by washing with S. Nayak et al. · Genetic Diversity among Ginger Cultivars 487 purified chloroform/isoamylalcohol (24:1). To test the quality and quantity of the purified DNA, the samples were electrophoresed in a 0.8% agarose gel along with a known amount of uncut lambda DNA (Bangalore Genei Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore, India) as standard. The sample DNA was diluted as 25 ng µl Ð1 for RAPD-PCR analysis. RAPD amplification Twenty random decamer primers (Operon Tech., USA) from A, C, D and N series (OPA02, 03, 04, 08, 16; OPAF14; OPC02, 05; OPD03, 07, 08, 18, 20; and OPN02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 10, 12) were used for RAPD analysis. RAPD assays were performed in a final volume of 25 µl containing 10 mm Tris-HCl [tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane], pH 9.0, 1.5 mm MgCl 2 , 50 mm KCl and 0.01% gelatin, 200 µm of each dNTPs, 0.4 µm primer, 25 ng template DNA and 0.5 unit of Taq DNA polymerase (Bangalore Genei, Bangalore, India). The RAPD analysis was performed as per the methodology described by The amplification products were electrophoresed in 1.5% agarose gel containing ethidium bromide (@ 0.5 µg ml Ð1 ) in TAE buffer (40 mm Tris base, 20 mm sodium acetate, 20 mm EDTA, glacial acetic acid to pH 7.2) for 3 h at 60 V. A total of 2.5 µl loading buffer (1.0 X TAE, 50% glycerol, 0.25% bromophenol blue and 0.25% xylene cyanol) was added to each reaction before electrophoresis. After electrophoresis, the gels were observed under an UV-transilluminator, documented in Gel-Doc 2000 (Bio-Rad) and photographed. Resolving power According to Prevost and Wilkinson (1999) the resolving power (Rp) of a primer is: Rp = Σ IB, where IB (band informativeness) takes the value of: 1-[2 ¥ (0.5 Ð p)], p being the proportion of the 16 genotypes (ginger cultivars analyzed) containing the band. Data collection and analysi

A monoclonal antibody against annexin A2 targets stem and progenitor cell fractions in tumors.

The involvement of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in driving tumor dormancy and drug resistance is well established. Most therapeutic regimens however are ineffective in targeting these regenerative populations. We report the development and evaluation of a monoclonal antibody, mAb150, which targets the metastasis associated antigen, Annexin A2 (AnxA2) through recognition of a N-terminal epitope. Treatment with mAb150 potentiated re-entry of CSCs into the cell cycle that perturbed tumor dormancy and facilitated targeting of CSCs as was validated by in vitro and in vivo assays. Epigenetic potentiation further improved mAb150 efficacy in achieving total tumor regression by targeting regenerative populations to achieve tumor regression, specifically in high-grade serous ovarian adenocarcinoma