Modeling interbank relations during the international financial crisis

This paper examines the effects of the current financial crisis on the correlations of four international banking stocks. We find that in the beginning of the crisis banks generally show a transition to a higher correlation followed by a dramatic decline towards the end of 2008. These findings are consistent with both traditional contagion theory and the more recent network theory of contagion.Financial Crises, Contagion, Interbank Markets

Wetting of prototypical one- and two-dimensional systems: Thermodynamics and density functional theory.

Consider a two-dimensional capped capillary pore formed by capping two parallel planar walls with a third wall orthogonal to the two planar walls. This system reduces to a slit pore sufficiently far from the capping wall and to a single planar wall when the side walls are far apart. Not surprisingly, wetting of capped capillaries is related to wetting of slit pores and planar walls. For example, the wetting temperature of the capped capillary provides the boundary between first-order and continuous transitions to condensation. We present a numerical investigation of adsorption in capped capillaries of mesoscopic widths based on density functional theory. The fluid-fluid and fluid-substrate interactions are given by the pairwise Lennard-Jones potential. We also perform a parametric study of wetting in capped capillaries by a liquid phase by varying the applied chemical potential, temperature, and pore width. This allows us to construct surface phase diagrams and investigate the complicated interplay of wetting mechanisms specific to each system, in particular, the dependence of capillary wetting temperature on the pore width

Architecturally diverse proteins converge on an analogous mechanism to inactivate Uracil-DNA glycosylase

Uracil-DNA glycosylase (UDG) compromises the replication strategies of diverse viruses from unrelated lineages. Virally encoded proteins therefore exist to limit, inhibit or target UDG activity for proteolysis. Viral proteins targeting UDG, such as the bacteriophage proteins ugi, and p56, and the HIV-1 protein Vpr, share no sequence similarity, and are not structurally homologous. Such diversity has hindered identification of known or expected UDG-inhibitory activities in other genomes. The structural basis for UDG inhibition by ugi is well characterized; yet, paradoxically, the structure of the unbound p56 protein is enigmatically unrevealing of its mechanism. To resolve this conundrum, we determined the structure of a p56 dimer bound to UDG. A helix from one of the subunits of p56 occupies the UDG DNA-binding cleft, whereas the dimer interface forms a hydrophobic box to trap a mechanistically important UDG residue. Surprisingly, these p56 inhibitory elements are unexpectedly analogous to features used by ugi despite profound architectural disparity. Contacts from B-DNA to UDG are mimicked by residues of the p56 helix, echoing the role of ugi’s inhibitory beta strand. Using mutagenesis, we propose that DNA mimicry by p56 is a targeting and specificity mechanism supporting tight inhibition via hydrophobic sequestration

Density functional study of condensation in capped capillaries.

We study liquid adsorption in narrow rectangular capped capillaries formed by capping two parallel planar walls (a slit pore) with a third wall orthogonal to the two planar walls. The most important transition in confined fluids is arguably condensation, where the pore becomes filled with the liquid phase which is metastable in the bulk. Depending on the temperature T, the condensation in capped capillaries can be first-order (at $T\leqslant {{T}_{\text{cw}}}$ ) or continuous (at $T\gt {{T}_{\text{cw}}}$ ), where ${{T}_{\text{cw}}}$ is the capillary wetting temperature. At $T \gt {{T}_{\text{cw}}}$ , the capping wall can adsorb mesoscopic amounts of metastable under-condensed liquid. The onset of condensation is then manifested by the continuous unbinding of the interface between the liquid adsorbed on the capping wall and the gas filling the rest of the capillary volume. In wide capped capillaries there may be a remnant of wedge filling transition, which is manifested by the adsorption of liquid drops in the corners. Our classical statistical mechanical treatment predicts a possibility of three-phase coexistence between gas, corner drops and liquid slabs adsorbed on the capping wall. In sufficiently wide capillaries we find that thick prewetting films of finite length may be nucleated at the capping wall below the boundary of the prewetting transition. Prewetting then proceeds in a continuous manner manifested by the unbinding interface between the thick and thin films adsorbed on the side walls. Our analysis is based on a detailed numerical investigation of the density functional theory for the fluid equilibria for a number of illustrative case studies

Transient neurological symptoms in the older population:report of a prospective cohort study--the Medical Research Council Cognitive Function and Ageing Study (CFAS)

Transient ischaemic attack (TIA) is a recognised risk factor for stroke in the older population requiring timely assessment and treatment by a specialist. The need for such TIA services is driven by the epidemiology of transient neurological symptoms, which may not be caused by TIA. We report prevalence and incidence of transient neurological symptoms in a large UK cohort study of older people