Investor behavior around targeted liquidity announcements

This is the author accepted manuscript.We exploit announcements related to targeted longer-term financing operations (TLTROs) as exogenous shocks in investor perceptions to test recent theories on bank funding liquidity (Liu 2015, Ahnert et al. 2019). We find that banks with high derivative holdings and more exposed to sovereign credit risk respond better to the announcements, consistent with the view that lower funding costs benefit banks with higher asset encumbrance and located in more vulnerable Eurozone countries. The TLTRO announcements also elicit reductions in short positions on bank stocks relative to stocks of non-financial corporations without impairing their market liquidity. Robustness tests rule out that our results are driven by confounding events and anticipation effects. Placebo tests confirm that the TLTRO announcements are driving the estimated price reactions and changes in short positions

Simulation and performance assessment of load-following CSP plants

Paper presented to the 3rd Southern African Solar Energy Conference, South Africa, 11-13 May, 2015.The paper is focused on the modeling of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants based on a steam Rankine cycle combined with two different solar field configurations: Parabolic Trough Collectors (PTC) and Heliostats with Central Receiver (HCR). The system is designed to operate as a load following power plant: a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system allows to compensate fluctuations in solar energy and in power demand, and to operate also during nighttime hours. Commercial software and in-house developed computer codes are combined together to predict CSP plant performance under real operating conditions. The power block was modeled by Thermoflex® whereas Trnsys® was used to model the solar field operation all over the year. An optimization procedure interacting with Trnsys® model was used to size the two considered solutions for the solar fields. On the base of annual Trnsys® simulations, the optimization algorithm determined the minimum aperture area of the solar field assuring the required Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) flow rate from TES. Charging and discharging cycles of TES are ruled by the HTF flow rate required for each hour of the year so as to match the electrical demand. Results of annual plant operation on a one hour basis are presented and discussed for Upington (RSA). Then the global results are compared with similar plants based in Sevilla (ES).dc201

Credit spread in the European green bond market: A daily analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic impact.

Financial crises and economic downturns provide a unique opportunity to investigate the behaviour of investors and financial instruments and shed light on the market’s anticipation of future economic growth. In view of the current crisis, we examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the European green bond market. Using daily data from Thomson Reuter’s Refinitiv, we conducted event studies on corporate credit spread changes over the period from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. Our results reveal that green bonds’ credit spreads increased significantly after the start of the coronavirus outbreak. However, as the fear of the pandemic eased in response to positive news about the vaccines, green bonds’ credit spreads fell below conventional bonds. Overall, green bonds showed a higher risk exposure and lower resilience to distress while profiting during an upside. Our paper provides the first evidence about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the announcement of vaccines’ effectiveness on the European corporate green bond market. Our results suggest several key points that are relevant to both investors and issuers under the unprecedented conditions created by the pandemic

Framework for the quality assurance of 'omics technologies considering GLP requirements

‘Omics technologies are gaining importance to support regulatory toxicity studies. Prerequisites for performing ‘omics studies considering GLP principles were discussed at the European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC) Workshop Applying ‘omics technologies in Chemical Risk Assessment. A GLP environment comprises a standard operating procedure system, proper pre-planning and documentation, and inspections of independent quality assurance staff. To prevent uncontrolled data changes, the raw data obtained in the respective ‘omics data recording systems have to be specifically defined. Further requirements include transparent and reproducible data processing steps, and safe data storage and archiving procedures. The software for data recording and processing should be validated, and data changes should be traceable or disabled. GLP-compliant quality assurance of ‘omics technologies appears feasible for many GLP requirements. However, challenges include (i) defining, storing, and archiving the raw data; (ii) transparent descriptions of data processing steps; (iii) software validation; and (iv) ensuring complete reproducibility of final results with respect to raw data. Nevertheless, ‘omics studies can be supported by quality measures (e.g., GLP principles) to ensure quality control, reproducibility and traceability of experiments. This enables regulators to use ‘omics data in a fit-for-purpose context, which enhances their applicability for risk assessment

Helicobacter pylori infection might be responsible for the interconnection between type 1 diabetes and autoimmune thyroiditis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Higher serological prevalence rates of helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection have been reported in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and autoimmune thyroiditis (AT). Patients with T1DM are at increased risk for developing other autoimmune diseases, most commonly AT. It is unknown whether H. pylori infection could explain the high prevalence of thyroid autoantibodies and AT in T1DM. The aim of the current study was to evaluate anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) and anti-thyroglobulin (anti-Tg) autoantibodies in correlation with anti-H. pylori IgG and IgA in young patients with T1DM.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Anti-H. Pylori IgG, IgA, anti-TPO and anti-Tg antibodies titers were measured in 162 euthyroid patients with T1DM and 80 healthy controls matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Seroprevalence of H. pylori was significantly higher in patients with T1DM than in healthy controls; 79% vs. 51.2%, p < 0.001. Anti H. pylori IgG was positive in 61.1% of patients with T1DM and 30% of controls, p < 0.001, anti H. pylori IgA was positive in 74% of patients with T1DM and 32.5% of controls, p < 0.001. Thyroid autoimmunity was also significantly higher in patients with T1DM than in controls; 56.7% vs. 6.2%, p < 0.001. Anti-TPO was positive in 25.3% of patients with T1DM and 3.7% of controls, p < 0.001, anti-Tg was positive in 47.5% of patients with T1DM and 6.2% of controls, p < 0.001. With simple and multiple regression analysis anti-H. pylori IgG and IgA titers were positively and significantly correlated with Anti-TPO and anti-Tg titers in patients with T1DM.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>our results support the idea of a connection between H. pylori infection and the occurrence of anti-TPO, anti-Tg autoantibodies and AT in young patients with T1DM. So, H. pylori infection could be considered as an environmental trigger for development of AT in T1DM. Young patients with T1DM should be screened for H. pylori infection.</p

On the Occurrence of the Blunthead Puffer, Sphoeroides pachygaster

The record of Sphoeroides pachygaster reveals the presence of the species in the Strait of Messina (Central Mediterranean Sea). The adult species was captured on 15 march 2012. It measured 280 mm of total length and weighed 461.5 g. Morphometric measurements (mm) and meristic counts were reported in this paper

Wet and dry cooling systems optimization applied to a modern waste-to-energy cogeneration heat and power plant

In Brescia, Italy, heat is delivered to 70% of 200.000 city inhabitants by means of a district heating system, mainly supplied by a waste to energy plant, utilizing the non recyclable fraction of municipal and industrial solid waste (800,000 tons/year, otherwise landfilled), thus saving annually over 150,000 tons of oil equivalent and over 400,000 tons of CO2 emissions. This study shows how the performance of the waste-to-energy cogeneration plant can be improved by optimising the condensation system, with particular focus on the combination of wet and dry cooling systems. The analysis has been carried out using two subsequent steps: in the first one a schematic model of the steam cycle was accomplished in order to acquire a knowledge base about the variables that would be most influential on the performance. In the second step the electric power output for different operating conditions was predicted and optimized in a homemade program. In more details, a thermodynamic analysis of the steam cycle, according to the design operating condition, was performed by means of a commercial code (Thermoflex©) dedicated to power plant modelling. Then the off-design behaviour was investigated by varying not only the ambient conditions but also several parameters connected to the heat rejection rate, like the heat required from district heating and the auxiliaries load. Each of these parameters has been addressed and considered in determining the overall performance of the thermal cycle. After that, a complete prediction of the cycle behaviour was performed by simultaneously varying different operating conditions. Finally, a Matlab© computer code was developed in order to optimize the net electric power as a function of the way in which the condensation is operated. The result is an optimum set of variables allowing the wet and dry cooling system to be regulated in such a way that the maximum power is achieved. The best strategy consists in using the maximum amount of heat rejection in the wet cooling system to reduce the operational cost of the dry one.Wet and dry condenser Cooling tower Air condenser Off-design optimization

Performance assessment of an integrated gasification combined cycle under flexible operation

In this paper a simulation tool (Thermoflex®) has been setup to model an entire Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) on the basis of the report entitled "Cost and Performance of PC and IGCC Plants for a Range of Carbon dioxide Capture" by DOE/NETL [1]. The investigated layout has no water-gas-shift (WGS) reactor and does not allow for any CO2capture. Two gasification islands are included, each of which consists of Air Separation Unit (ASU), GEE radiant-only gasifier, quench and syngas scrubber as well as syngas cleanup. Two advanced GE's F-class gas turbines (2x232 MW), coupled with two heat recovery steam generators and one steam turbine (276 MW) constitute the power block. In the IGCC simulation, the base model of the GE 7F.05 gas turbine has been adapted to burn syngas. Mass and energy balances were carefully computed on design condition to validate the proposed modelling procedure against the IGCC performance data contained in the above mentioned report: The net power output of 622 MW was underestimated by about 5% whereas the net electric efficiency was slightly overpredicted. The off-design behavior of the syngas turbine was then simulated as dependent on ambient temperature and partial load, in preparation for modelling flexible operation of the whole power plant. The variation in IGCC net efficiency and power output was assessed in a load following operational strategy, thus reducing the load factor and varying the number and slope of ramps in a typical day. The IGCC net efficiency goes down from 42.5% to 32.8% when the load is reduced from 100% to 40% of the design rate