Financial Integration in Emerging Asia: Challenges and Prospects

Using both quantity- and price-based measures of financial integration, this paper shows an increasing degree of financial openness and integration in emerging Asian markets. This paper also assesses the impact of a regional shock relative to a global shock on local equity and bond markets. The findings of this paper suggest that the region’s equity markets are integrated more globally than regionally, although the degrees of both regional and global integration have increased significantly since the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. However, emerging Asia’s local currency bond markets remain generally segmented, being neither regionally nor globally integrated. A case can be made for the benefits of increased regional integration of financial markets. Financial integration at the regional level allows for the region’s economies to benefit from allocation efficiency and risk diversification. The findings of this paper suggest that policymakers in the region must strike the right balance between maximizing the net benefits from regional and global financial openness, and minimizing the potential costs of financial contagion and crisis.emerging Asia; financial integration; cross-border financial flows; crossborder asset holdings; convergence of asset returns

Emerging Asia: Decoupling or Recoupling

In this paper, we investigate the degree of real economic interdependence between emerging Asia and major industrial countries to shed light on the heated debate over the “decoupling” of emerging Asia. We first document the evolution of macroeconomic interdependence for emerging Asian economies through changing trade and financial linkages at both the regional and global levels. Then, by employing a panel vector autoregression (VAR) model, we estimate the degree of real economic interdependence before and after the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. Empirical findings show that real economic interdependence increased significantly in the post-crisis period, suggesting “recoupling”, rather than decoupling, in recent years. Output shocks from major industrial countries have a significant positive effect on emerging Asian economies. More interestingly, the reverse is also true. Output shocks from emerging Asia (and the People’s Republic of China [PRC]) have a significant positive effect on output in major industrial countries. The result suggests that macroeconomic interdependence between emerging Asia and industrial countries has become “bi-directional,” defying the traditional notion of the “North–South relationship” as one of “uni-directional" dependence.Regional integration; decoupling; macroeconomic interdependence; trade and financial market linkages; VAR

Development of pulse diagnostic devices in Korea

AbstractIn Korean medicine, pulse diagnosis is one of the important methods for determining the health status of a patient. For over 40 years, electromechanical pulse diagnostic devices have been developed to objectify and quantify pulse diagnoses. In this paper, we review previous research and development for pulse diagnostic devices according to various fields of study: demand analysis and current phase, literature studies, sensors, actuators, systems, physical quantity studies, clinical studies, and the U-health system. We point out some confusing issues that have been naively accepted without strict verification: original pressure pulse waveform and derivative pressure pulse waveform, pressure signals and other signal types, and minutely controlled pressure exertion issues. We then consider some technical and clinical issues to achieve the development of a pulse diagnostic device that is appropriate both technically and in terms of Korean medicine. We hope to show the history of pulse diagnostic device research in Korea and propose a proper method to research and develop these devices

Confirmatory and Exploratory Factor Analysis for Validating the Phlegm Pattern Questionnaire for Healthy Subjects

Background. Phlegm pattern questionnaire (PPQ) was developed to evaluate and diagnose phlegm pattern in Korean Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine, but it was based on a dataset from patients who visited the hospital to consult with a clinician regarding their health without any strict exclusion or inclusion. In this study, we reinvestigated the construct validity of PPQ with a new dataset and confirmed the feasibility of applying it to a healthy population. Methods. 286 healthy subjects were finally included and their responses to PPQ were acquired. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted and the model fit was discussed. We extracted a new factor structure by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and compared the two factor structures. Results. In CFA results, the model fit indices are acceptable (RMSEA = 0.074) or slightly less than the good fit values (CFI = 0.839, TLI = 0.860). Many average variances extracted were smaller than the correlation coefficients of the factors, which shows the somewhat insufficient discriminant validity. Conclusions. Through the results from CFA and EFA, this study shows clinically acceptable model fits and suggests the feasibility of applying PPQ to a healthy population with relatively good construct validity and internal consistency

Incidence and clinicopathologic behavior of uterine cervical carcinoma in renal transplant recipients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Renal allograft recipients are reported to have a higher incidence of malignancy than the general population. This single hospital-based study examined the incidence and clinicopathologic behavior of uterine cervical carcinoma in renal transplant recipients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Among 453 women receiving renal transplantation from January 1990 to December 2008, 5 patients were diagnosed with cervical carcinoma. Medical records of these 5 patients were retrospectively reviewed, and clinicopathologic data were collected and analyzed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The incidence of cervical carcinoma in renal transplant recipients was 58.1 out of 100,000 per year, which is 3.5 times higher than in the general Korean population. The mean interval between the time of renal transplantation and the time of cervical carcinoma diagnosis was 80.7 months. After a median follow-up of 96.2 months, there was no recurrence of the disease or death. In 4 patients who were positive from human papillomavirus in situ hybridization (HPV ISH), high or probably high risk HPV DNA was detected in all. Punctate staining of HPV ISH was detected in 3 out of 4 patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Higher incidence of cervical carcinoma is expected in renal transplant recipients, so appropriate surveillance is needed to ensure early detection and treatment of cervical carcinoma.</p

On the effect of the East/Japan Sea SST variability on the North Pacific atmospheric circulation in a regional climate model

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 119 (2014): 418–444, doi:10.1002/2013JD020523.The East/Japan Sea (EJS) is a semi-enclosed marginal sea located in the upstream of the North Pacific storm track, where the leading modes of wintertime interannual variability in sea surface temperature (SST) are characterized by the basin-wide warming-cooling and the northeast-southwest dipole. Processes leading to local and remote atmospheric responses to these SST anomalies are investigated using the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model. The atmosphere in direct contact with anomalous diabatic forcing exhibits a linear and symmetric response with respect to the sign, pattern, and magnitude of SST anomalies, producing increased (decreased) wind speed and precipitation response over warm (cold) SSTs. This local response is due to modulation of both the vertical stability of the marine atmospheric boundary layer and the adjustment of sea level pressure, although the latter provides a better explanation of the quadrature relationship between SST and wind speed. The linearity in the local response suggests the importance of fine-scale EJS SSTs to predictability of the regional weather and climate variability. The remote circulation response, in contrast, is strongly nonlinear. An intraseasonal equivalent barotropic ridge emerges in the Gulf of Alaska as a common remote response independent of EJS SST anomalies. This downstream blocking response is reinforced by the enhanced storm track variability east of Japan via transient eddy vorticity flux convergence. Strong nonlinearity in remote response implies that detailed EJS SST patterns may not be critical to this downstream ridge response. Overall, results demonstrate a remarkably far-reaching impact of the EJS SSTs on the atmospheric circulation.H.S. gratefully acknowledges the support from the Penzance Endowed Fund in support of Assistant Scientists at WHOI. Y.-O.K. acknowledges NSF Climate and Large-Scale Dynamics program (AGS-1035423). H.S. and Y.-O.K. also thank NASA grant (NNX13AM59G)