Confidence Intervals for Diffusion Index Forecasts and Inference for Factor-Augmented Regressions

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73839/1/j.1468-0262.2006.00696.x.pd

Can Modus Vivendi Save Liberalism from Moralism? A Critical Assessment of John Gray’s Political Realism

This chapter assesses John Gray’s modus vivendi-based justification for liberalism. I argue that his approach is preferable to the more orthodox deontological or teleological justificatory strategies, at least because of the way it can deal with the problem of diversity. But then I show how that is not good news for liberalism, for grounding liberal political authority in a modus vivendi undermines liberalism’s aspiration to occupy a privileged normative position vis-à-vis other kinds of regimes. So modus vivendi can save liberalism from moralism, but at cost many liberals will not be prepared to pay

Mice deleted for cell division cycle 73 gene develop parathyroid and uterine tumours:model for the hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumour syndrome

The hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumour (HPT-JT) syndrome is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by occurrence of parathyroid tumours, often atypical adenomas and carcinomas, ossifying jaw fibromas, renal tumours and uterine benign and malignant neoplasms. HPT-JT is caused by mutations of the cell division cycle 73 (CDC73) gene, located on chromosome 1q31.2 and encodes a 531 amino acid protein, parafibromin. To facilitate in vivo studies of Cdc73 in tumourigenesis we generated conventional (Cdc73+/−) and conditional parathyroid-specific (Cdc73+/L/PTH-Cre and Cdc73L/L/PTH-Cre) mouse models. Mice were aged to 18-21 months and studied for survival, tumour development and proliferation, and serum biochemistry, and compared to age-matched wild-type (Cdc73+/+ and Cdc73+/+/PTH-Cre) littermates. Survival of Cdc73+/− mice, when compared to Cdc73+/+ mice was reduced (Cdc73+/−=80%; Cdc73+/+=90% at 18 months of age, Pfourfold higher than that in parathyroid glands of wild-type littermates (P<0.0001). Cdc73+/−, Cdc73+/L/PTH-Cre and Cdc73L/L/PTH-Cre mice had higher mean serum calcium concentrations than wild-type littermates, and Cdc73+/− mice also had increased mean serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentrations. Parathyroid tumour development, and elevations in serum calcium and PTH, were similar in males and females. Cdc73+/− mice did not develop bone or renal tumours but female Cdc73+/− mice, at 18 months of age, had uterine neoplasms comprising squamous metaplasia, adenofibroma and adenomyoma. Uterine neoplasms, myometria and jaw bones of Cdc73+/− mice had increased proliferation rates that were 2-fold higher than in Cdc73+/+ mice (P<0.05). Thus, our studies, which have established mouse models for parathyroid tumours and uterine neoplasms that develop in the HPT-JT syndrome, provide in vivo models for future studies of these tumours

Combination Forecasts of Bond and Stock Returns: An Asset Allocation Perspective

We investigate the out-of-sample forecasting ability of the HML, SMB, momentum, short-term and long-term reversal factors along with their size and value decompositions on U.S. bond and stock returns for a variety of horizons ranging from the short run (1 month) to the long run (2 years). Our findings suggest that these factors contain significantly more information for future bond and stock market returns than the typically employed financial variables. Combination of forecasts of the empirical factors turns out to be particularly successful, especially from an an asset allocation perspective. Similar findings pertain to the European and Japanese markets