Leaders and Followers in the Business Cycle Game. A Case Study of the G7

AbstractThe recent economic crisis has set the scene for new inquires about the nature of this elusive phenomenon from both academics and practitioners. Understanding the driving forces behind of the world's economy starts with the comprehension of the components, and the classification thereof. The aim of this article is to divide the countries from the G7 group in leaders and followers in respect to the business cycle and specifically to the crisis. Markov switch models are employed in MATLAB through the MS_Regress to identify the turning points in a seasonally adjusted quarterly GDP series covering the time span 1991-2012. The stochastic model also gives the recession's probability of persistence together with the estimated duration. The results show a clear demarcation among the leaders and the followers, each country playing a different role during each phase of the business cycle. Furthermore, there is a significant quadratic link between the above mentioned probabilities and the duration of the crisis. The significance of this study resides in highlighting the business cycle anatomy for the most influential economic powers of the world, hence proposing a model which can be extended for another sample of countries in order to assess the transmission of the business cycle and especially the crisis, targeting the prevention or at least to attenuate the results thereof

Cross-species high-resolution transcriptome profiling suggests biomarkers and therapeutic targets for ulcerative colitis

Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a disorder with unknown etiology, and animal models play an essential role in studying its molecular pathophysiology. Here, we aim to identify common conserved pathological UC-related gene expression signatures between humans and mice that can be used as treatment targets and/or biomarker candidates.Methods: To identify differentially regulated protein-coding genes and non-coding RNAs, we sequenced total RNA from the colon and blood of the most widely used dextran sodium sulfate Ulcerative colitis mouse. By combining this with public human Ulcerative colitis data, we investigated conserved gene expression signatures and pathways/biological processes through which these genes may contribute to disease development/progression.Results: Cross-species integration of human and mouse Ulcerative colitis data resulted in the identification of 1442 genes that were significantly differentially regulated in the same direction in the colon and 157 in blood. Of these, 51 genes showed consistent differential regulation in the colon and blood. Less known genes with importance in disease pathogenesis, including SPI1, FPR2, TYROBP, CKAP4, MCEMP1, ADGRG3, SLC11A1, and SELPLG, were identified through network centrality ranking and validated in independent human and mouse cohorts.Conclusion: The identified Ulcerative colitis conserved transcriptional signatures aid in the disease phenotyping and future treatment decisions, drug discovery, and clinical trial design

Broadening the miRNA Catalogue in Livestock Species

201

LIVING STANDARDS IN EUROPE. A REGIONAL VIEW

The European Union aims to be a financial and economic convergent area, yet there still are notable disparities among regions. The goal of this study is to highlight the degree of synchronization of 275 NUTS 2 regions in European countries, between 2002 and 2011, with an emphasis on the impact of the late 2000's economic crisis.In order to focus on the living standard, the chosen variables were the disposable income of the household, the employment rates of adults (20-64 years old) and the regional GDP per inhabitant, which were inserted in a panel data model. Results proved that the regional synchronization is highly influenced by geographical proximity. A notable anomaly concerns capital regions, where, although the regional GDP is higher, disposable income per inhabitant is lower due to higher living costs, not sufficiently compensated by income

Mapping of tissue names to Brenda Tissue Ontology terms

These files contain the mapping from tissue names to Brenda Tissue Ontology terms for the tissue expression datasets used in the publication TISSUES 2.0: An integrative web resource on mammalian tissue expression, Oana Palasca, Alberto Santos, Christian Stolte, Jan Gorodkin, Lars Juhl Jense

TISSUES datasets

Tissue expression datasets available in the TISSUES 2.0. database (including non-confident gene-tissue associations

Datasets

Tissue expression datasets available in the TISSUES 2.0. database including non-confident gene-tissue associations