Have U.S. import prices become less responsive to changes in the dollar?

The failure of the dollar's depreciation to narrow the U.S. trade deficit has driven recent research showing that the transmission of exchange rate changes to import prices has declined sharply in industrial countries. Estimates presented in this study, however, suggest that "pass-through" to U.S. import prices has fallen only modestly, if at all, in the last decade. The authors argue that methodological changes in the collection of import data and the inclusion of commodity prices in pass-through models may have contributed to earlier findings of low pass-through rates.Foreign exchange rates ; Imports - Prices

Youth social exclusion in Australian communities: a new index

Using specialised data from the 2011 Census, this paper presents a new index intended to be representative of youth at risk of social exclusion. Abstract Social exclusion and inclusion has been given a great deal of attention in Australia and throughout the world. This broader concept of disadvantage has replaced much of the social discourse around poverty and inequality, with the realisation from researchers, practitioners and policy makers that disadvantage is often a multi-dimensional occurrence, spanning many dimensions of an individual’s life. Despite the attention social exclusion has been given, particular population groups are often overlooked – particularly young people. A growing interest in the power of geographic data and the prevalence of social exclusion, has lead the authors to develop the first nation-wide geographically disaggregated index of youth social exclusion for Australia. A number of domains and indicators deemed important to youth wellbeing were identified and constructed to develop a comprehensive index of youth social exclusion for young people aged 15-19 years. Using specialised data from the 2011 Census, supplemented with national school assessment data, we use a domains approach to construct an index that is representative of youth at risk of social exclusion, using a combination of principal components and equal weighting techniques. Particular attention is paid to ‘youth’ as an important stage of life in its own right and the implications of the delayed transition into adulthood that is now seen in many developed nations. Many more young people now remain as dependent children well into their twenties. A final index of youth social exclusion across Australian communities is presented and discussed

The relationship between shame and guilt: cultural comparisons between Ireland and the United Arab Emirates

© 2018, Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The current study examines whether proneness to shame and guilt is related to the cultural dimensions of collectivism and individualism. Two groups of participants from Ireland (n = 120) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (n = 115) completed measures assessing collectivism, individualism, and shame and guilt proneness. Results indicated that both samples displayed similar levels of individualism and collectivism. The UAE sample reported significantly higher levels of guilt proneness and shame proneness characterised by negative self-evaluation. In contrast, the Irish sample displayed significantly higher levels of shame characterised by withdrawal tendencies. Guilt was positively correlated with individualism, but shame was not correlated with either scores on collectivism or individualism. Young Arab women appear to experience higher levels of guilt and shame characterised by negative self-evaluation in comparison to their Irish counterparts who displayed higher levels of guilt proneness

Zygomycosis Associated with HIV Infection and Liver Transplantation

Zygomycosis is an increasing threat to patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Zygomycosis (formerly called mucormycosis) is the fungal infection with Mucor, Rhizopus, or other species that share a common morphology of large empty pauciseptate hyphae with rare random-angle branching and a collapsed “twisted ribbon” appearance. Morphology allows a specific diagnosis on frozen section or smear prior to growth and identification of the fungi in culture which makes it improtant because treatment is different than that for more common mycoses such as candidiasis and aspergillosis. We present an informative and illustrative case of zygomycosis in a patient with HIV infection and liver transplantation

The Optimisation of Pseudotyped Viruses for the Characterisation of Immune Responses to Equine Influenza Virus

Pseudotyped viruses (PVs) produced by co-transfecting cells with plasmids expressing lentiviral core proteins and viral envelope proteins are potentially powerful tools for studying various aspects of equine influenza virus (EIV) biology. The aim of this study was to optimise production of equine influenza PVs. Co-transfection of the HAT protease to activate the haemagglutinin (HA) yielded a higher titre PV than TMPRSS2 with the HA from A/equine/Richmond/1/2007 (H3N8), whereas for A/equine/Newmarket/79 (H3N8), both proteases resulted in equivalent titres. TMPRSS4 was ineffective with the HA of either strain. There was also an inverse relationship between the amount of protease-expression plasmids and the PV titre obtained. Interestingly, the PV titre obtained by co-transfection of a plasmid encoding the cognate N8 NA was not as high as that generated by the addition of exogenous neuraminidase (NA) from Clostridium perfringens to allow the release of nascent PV particles. Finally, initial characterisation of the reliability of PV neutralisation tests (PVNTs) demonstrated good intra-laboratory repeatability. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that equine influenza PV production can be readily optimised to provide a flexible tool for studying EIV

3D immersive collection and teaching environments: the Yellow House project at UOW

This paper discusses the Yellow House VR project at the University of Wollongong. Innovative virtual reality technologies such as Oculus Rift are being utilised to recreate the 1970s Sydney artist community space known as the Yellow House, as both an historic replication and openly accessible, immersive teaching and learning environment for use and adaptation by teachers, students, researchers and the general community. The paper considers the role of the library in the enhanced presentation of digitised collections through new and evolving technologies that provide opportunities for knowledge enhancement and support the development of student e-portfolios

Combined Superbase Ionic Liquid Approach to Separate CO2 from Flue Gas

[Image: see text] Superbase ionic liquids (ILs) with a trihexyltetradecylphosphonium cation and a benzimidazolide ([P(66614)][Benzim]) or tetrazolide ([P(66614)][Tetz]) anion were investigated in a dual-IL system allowing the selective capture and separation of CO(2) and SO(2), respectively, under realistic gas concentrations. The results show that [P(66614)][Tetz] is capable of efficiently capturing SO(2) in preference to CO(2) and thus, in a stepwise separation process, protects [P(66614)][Benzim] from the negative effects of the highly acidic contaminant. This results in [P(66614)][Benzim] maintaining >53% of its original CO(2) uptake capacity after 30 absorption/desorption cycles in comparison to the 89% decrease observed after 11 cycles when [P(66614)][Tetz] was not present. Characterization of the ILs post exposure revealed that small amounts of SO(2) were irreversibly absorbed to the [Benzim](−) anion responsible for the decrease in CO(2) capacity. While optimization of this dual-IL system is required, this feasibility study demonstrates that [P(66614)][Tetz] is a suitable sorbent for reversibly capturing SO(2) and significantly extending the lifetime of [P(66614)][Benzim] for CO(2) uptake

Evaluation of a Pseudotyped Virus Neutralisation Test for the Measurement of Equine Influenza Virus-Neutralising Antibody Responses Induced by Vaccination and Infection.

Equine influenza is a major respiratory disease of horses that is largely controlled by vaccination in some equine populations. Virus-neutralising antibodies, the mainstay of the protective immune response, are problematic in assaying for equine influenza virus, as most strains do not replicate efficiently in cell culture. Surrogate measures of protective antibody responses include the haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test and single radial haemolysis (SRH) assay. For this study, a pseudotyped virus, bearing an envelope containing the haemagglutinin (HA) from the Florida clade 2 equine influenza virus strain A/equine/Richmond/1/07 (H3N8), was generated to measure HA-specific neutralising antibodies in serum samples (n = 134) from vaccinated or experimentally-infected ponies using a pseudotyped virus neutralization test (PVNT). Overall, the results of PVNT were in good agreement with results from the SRH assay (100% sensitivity, 68.53% specificity) and HI test (99.2% sensitivity, 49.03% specificity). The PVNT was apparently more sensitive than either the SRH assay or the HI test, which could be advantageous for studying the antibody kinetics, particularly when antibody levels are low. Nevertheless, further studies are required to determine whether a protective antibody level can be defined for the SRH assay and to ascertain the inter-laboratory reproducibility. In conclusion, the PVNT efficiently measures neutralising antibodies after immunization and/or experimental infection in the natural host, and may complement existing antibody assays