The use of molecular and cytogenetic methods as a valuable tool in the detection of chromosomal abnormalities in horses: a case of sex chromosome chimerism in a spanish purebred colt

Chromosomal abnormalities associated to sex chromo-somes are reported as a problem more common than be-lieved to be in horses. Most of them remain undiagnosed due to the complexity of the horse karyotype and the lack of interest of breeders and veterinarians in this type of diagno-sis. Approximately 10 years ago, the Spanish Purebred Breed-ers Association implemented a DNA paternity test to evalu-ate the pedigree of every newborn foal. All candidates who showed abnormal or uncertain results are routinely submit-ted to cytogenetical analysis to evaluate the presence of chromosomal abnormalities. We studied the case of a foal showing 3 and even 4 different alleles in several loci in the short tandem repeat (STR) -based DNA parentage test. To confirm these results, a filiation test was repeated using fol-licular hair DNA showing normal results. A complete set of conventional and molecular cytogenetic analysis was per-formed to determine their chromosomal complements. C-banding and FISH had shown that the foal presents a sex chimerism 64,XX/64,XY with a cellular percentage of approximately 70/30, diagnosed in blood samples. The use of a di-agnostic approach combining routine parentage QF-PCR-based STR screening tested with classical or molecular cyto-genetic analysis could be a powerful tool that allows early detection of foals that will have a poor or even no reproductive performance due to chromosomal abnormalities, saving time, efforts and breeders' resources

Sex reversal syndrome in the horse: Four new cases of feminization in individuals carrying a 64,XY SRY negative chromosomal complement

Horses are characterized as having a greater rate of chromosomal abnormalities than other species, which are mainly related to the sex chromosome pair and produce a series of different anomalies known as disorders in sexual development (DSD). In the present study, three Pura Raza Española (PRE) and one Menorquín (MEN) horses were studied and an incompatibility in their genetic and phenotypic sex were detected. Animals were karyotyped by conventional and molecular cytogenetic analyses and characterized using genomic techniques. Although all individuals, were totally unrelated, these animals had the same abnormality (64,XY SRY negative DSD) despite having an anatomically normal external mare phenotype. Therefore, this syndrome could remain undiagnosed in a large percentage of cases because the physiological and morphological symptoms are rare. In the present study, a slight gonadal dysgenesis was observed only in older individuals. Interestingly this chromosomal abnormality has been previously reported less than twenty times, and never in the PRE or MEN horses. With the present research, it is demonstrated that the use of genetic and cytogenetic diagnostic tools in veterinary practice could be an important complementary test to determine the origin of unexplained reproductive failures among horse

The use of a novel combination of diagnostic molecular and cytogenetical approaches in horses with sexual karyotype abnormalities: A rare case with an abnormal cellular chimerism

Sexual chromosomal aberrations are known to cause congenital abnormalities and unexplained infertility in horses. Most of these anomalies remain undiagnosed because of the complexity of the horse karyotype and the lack of specialized laboratories that can perform such diagnoses. On the other hand, the utilization of microsatellite markers is a technique widely spread in horse breeding, mostly due to their usage in parentage tests. We studied the usage of a novel combination of diagnostic approaches 25 in the evaluation of a very uncommon case of chromosomal abnormalities in a Spanish Purebred colt, primarily detected using a commercial panel of short tandem repeat (STR) makers. Based on these results we performed a full cytogenetical analysis using conventional and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques with individual ECAX (Equus caballus chromosome X) and ECAY (Equus caballus chromosome Y) painting probes. We also tested the presence of two genes associated with the sexual development in horses and an extra novel panel of 8 microsatellite markers specifically located in the sex chromosome pair. This is the first case reported of a leukocyte chimerism between a chromosomally normal (64,XY) and abnormal (63,X0) cell lines in horses. Our results indicate that the use of the STR markers as a screening technique and as a confirmation utilizing cytogenetic techniques can be used as a very interesting easy and non-expensive diagnostic approach to detect chromosomal abnormalities in the domestic horse

Ambiguity in a Real Option Game

In this paper we study a two-player investment game with a first mover advantage in continuous time with stochastic payoffs, driven by a geometric Brownian motion. One of the players is assumed to be ambiguous with maxmin preferences over a strongly rectangular set of priors. We develop a strategy and equilibrium concept allowing for ambiguity and show that equilibira can be preemptive (a player invests at a point where investment is Pareto dominated by waiting) or sequential (one player invests as if she were the exogenously appointed leader). Following the standard literature, the worst case prior for the ambiguous player if she is the second mover is obtained by setting the lowest possible trend in the set of priors. However, if the ambiguous player is the first mover, then the worst case prior can be given by either the lowest or the highest trend in the set of priors. This novel result shows that "worst case prior" in a setting with geometric Brownian motion and kappa-ambiguity does not equate to "lowest trend"

The effects of financialisation and financial development on investment: Evidence from firm-level data in Europe

In this paper we estimate the effects of financialization on physical investment in selected western European countries using panel data based on the balance-sheets of publicly listed non-financial companies (NFCs) supplied by Worldscope for the period 1995-2015. We find robust evidence of an adverse effect of both financial payments (interests and dividends) and financial incomes on investment in fixed assets by the NFCs. This finding is robust for both the pool of all Western European firms and single country estimations. The negative impacts of financial incomes are non-linear with respect to the companies’ size: financial incomes crowd-out investment in large companies, and have a positive effect on the investment of only small, relatively more credit-constrained companies. Moreover, we find that a higher degree of financial development is associated with a stronger negative effect of financial incomes on companies’ investment. This finding challenges the common wisdom on ‘finance-growth nexus’. Our findings support the ‘financialization thesis’ that the increasing orientation of the non-financial sector towards financial activities is ultimately leading to lower physical investment, hence to stagnant or fragile growth, as well as long term stagnation in productivity

Rivalry and uncertainty in complementary investments with dynamic market sharing

We study the effects of revenue and investment cost uncertainty, as well non- preemption duopoly competition, on the timing of investments in two complementary inputs, where either spillover-knowledge is allowed or proprietary-knowledge holds. We find that the ex-ante and ex-post revenue market shares play a very important role in firms’ behavior. When competition is considered, the leader’s behavior departs from that of the monopolist firm of Smith (Ind Corp Change 14:639–650, 2005). The leader is justified in following the conventional wisdom (i.e., synchronous investments are more likely), whereas, the follower’s behavior departs from that of the conventional wisdom (i.e., asynchronous investments are more likely)

The Impact of Profit Taxation on Capitalized Investment with Options to Delay and Divest

In entrepreneurial decisions making uncertain future profits often are a main characteristics of real investment opportunities. If investors can react to uncertainty the degree of irreversibility and timing flexibility inherent in the available project should be integrated into the decision calculus. In this paper we investigate the interdependencies of effects from profit taxation and real options. We model an investment decision including an option to invest and an option to abandon. We show that increasing the tax rate can lead to paradoxical tax effects, i.e. may foster an investor's willingness to invest into a capitalized investment. Instead, if we abstract from the possibility to abandon the investment object such paradoxical effect cannot be identified. Determining the after-tax value of the option to enter the investment project with and without an abandonment option we receive a critical cash flow cutoff level. We find that the value of the option to abandon depends on the tax rate and the amount of periodical cash flows. The option value can be increasing or decreasing in the tax rate. We find scenarios with paradoxical tax effects and show that the observed paradoxical effects are due to the presence of the real abandonment option itself. This finding contributes to the stream of literature that explains potential sources of paradoxical tax effects. The generated decision rules are helpful for investors facing risky investment opportunities and for discussing the economic impact of tax reforms. Furthermore, we highlight the overwhelming importance of integrating taxes in typically applied valuation approaches

Taxation of Risky Investment and Paradoxical Investor Behavior

Under uncertainty and irreversibility, real option-based models are widely accepted for assessing investment projects. So far the existing post-tax analyses do not provide a general analytical description of investor reactions towards profit tax rate changes. This paper sets out to fill part of the void. We implement a simple tax system and focus on risky capital market investment and an option to wait. Taxes affect risk-free and risky capital market investment asymmetrically and hence cause distortions. We analytically identify a set of neutral tax rates (tax regimes) that preserve the critical post-tax investment threshold in case of tax rate changes as well as general normal and paradoxical settings. Unlike for other tax paradoxa neither depreciation rules nor loss offset restrictions are responsible for the observed paradoxical reaction. Identifying normal and paradoxical tax regimes can be regarded as a first step to a generalized description of tax effects under uncertainty, both for individual project evaluation as well as for understanding tax effects on an aggregate level