Applicable Law on Demobilized and Dematerialized Securities

This paper examines the priority in the business and financial worlds for companies to pursue reduced transaction costs, creating a trend towards demobilization or dematerialization of securities. The paper explains the nature of securities and the governing laws needed to resolve problems of conflict of law rules related to securities

Corporate Structure and Governance of Export Credit Agencies: A UKEF Overview

Export Credit Agencies have been playing an increasing role in promoting international trade and foreign investment. These agencies differ in their ownership structure and in their governance. Similarly, the importance of applying proper corporate governance has been increasing rapidly. Profit and non-profit institutions are being under pressure to protect shareholders’ interest and employees’ rights and to act in a responsible manner without being all about blind-folded profit maximization. For that, this paper thoroughly examines the ownership structure and governance of the UK Export Finance (UKEF) and how it adheres by corporate governance rules. The paper, through analyzing primary and secondary data, aims to emphasize that there is room for improvement in the current corporate governance model followed by the UKEF

The Online Age: The Shift From Traditional Banking to Online Banking in the UK and Its Effect on Applied Regulations

As businesses are actively incorporating technology as means of cost reduction and service provision, financial institutions have lately been one of the most active institutions in utilising information technology (IT) to their advantage. Although technology presented financial institutions with many opportunities and opened the door for a new hybrid sector to be formed, this came with its share of disadvantages one of which revolves around cyber security. Combined with the complex nature of products and services offered online through non-traditional financial institutions, this meant that adjusting the regulatory framework governing such products, services and institutions has now become a must. Since the current regulatory framework applicable on online banking does not differ much from that applied on bricks-and-mortar ones especially in terms of money laundering and deposit protection schemes, this paper recommends a hybrid, tech-centred, regulatory framework that is specifically designed to cater for financial institutions in order to offer users of these platforms higher levels of protection and suggests the creation of a joint regulatory and supervisory body that oversees and regulates activities of FinTechs. Such change should take into consideration the higher risk factor associated with online banking and the nature of service provision. The paper in its unique approach aims to inspire and influence change to further enhance customer protection and service provision of online banks

Categorizing Foreign Direct Investment Protection Mechanisms

The paper explores the various foreign direct investment protection mechanisms through categorising them in order of their application so that foreign investors can clearly understand the nature of these mechanisms and when and how they can be effectively used for their benefit

The Legal Allocation of Currency Exchange Risk in Foreign Direct Investment

Currency exchange risk is one of the major risks foreign investors may be exposed to while investing overseas. Such risk takes place when the host state’s currency appreciates or depreciates in value affecting negatively the investor’s investment. Since investors are concerned with losing the value of the host state’s currency once an investment is made using that currency, it might be helpful for them to clearly understand when such risk occurs due to demand on the currency or due to manipulation of the host state in the exchange rates. For that, the paper clearly defines the nature of currency exchange risk in foreign direct investment where such financial risk may easily be regarded as a political one. The paper aims to add value through introducing a new approach in understanding the components that makes currency exchange risk considered as purely political risk or as purely financial. It aims to introduce the cases where such threat may be regarded as a political financial risk in order to assist investors in understanding what kind of a risk they could experience. The paper proves that currency exchange threat may take one of three forms through examining nature of financial regulations in host states and through probing recent cases settled by ICSID

Unification of Gauge and Gravity Chern-Simons Theories in 3-D Space time

Chamseddine and Mukhanov showed that gravity and gauge theories could be unified in one geometric construction provided that a metricity condition is imposed on the vielbein. In this paper we are going to show that by enlarging the gauge group we are able to unify Chern-Simons gauge theory and Chern-Simons gravity in 3-D space-time. Such unification leads to the quantization of the coefficients for both Chern-Simons terms for compact groups but not for non-compact groups. Moreover, it leads to a topological invariant quantity of the 3 dimensional space-time manifold on which they are defined

A Case of Immune-Mediated Pneumonitis Associated With Dual Nivolumab and Ipilimumab Immunotherapy Treatment

Nivolumab and ipilimumab are immunotherapy agents used in combination to treat metastatic melanoma and have proven to be efficacious. However, they have been linked to the development of immune-mediated inflammatory processes in various organ systems and tissues, including immune-mediated pneumonitis (IMP). This case report describes a 50-year-old female patient with metastatic melanoma who was treated with nivolumab and ipilimumab therapy and developed IMP as a complication. Despite treatment with steroids and infliximab, the patient\u27s condition worsened, and she passed away due to respiratory compromise. This report emphasizes the potential for serious complications in patients receiving combination immunotherapy and highlights the importance of close monitoring and risk stratification, particularly in patients with underlying lung conditions

Creating a training set for artificial intelligence from initial segmentations of airways

Airways segmentation is important for research about pulmonary disease but require a large amount of time by trained specialists. We used an openly available software to improve airways segmentations obtained from an artificial intelligence (AI) tool and retrained the tool to get a better performance. Fifteen initial airway segmentations from low-dose chest computed tomography scans were obtained with a 3D-Unet AI tool previously trained on Danish Lung Cancer Screening Trial and Erasmus-MC Sophia datasets. Segmentations were manually corrected in 3D Slicer. The corrected airway segmentations were used to retrain the 3D-Unet. Airway measurements were automatically obtained and included count, airway length and luminal diameter per generation from the segmentations. Correcting segmentations required 2-4 h per scan. Manually corrected segmentations had more branches (p < 0.001), longer airways (p < 0.001) and smaller luminal diameters (p = 0.004) than initial segmentations. Segmentations from retrained 3D-Unets trended towards more branches and longer airways compared to the initial segmentations. The largest changes were seen in airways from 6th generation onwards. Manual correction results in significantly improved segmentations and is potentially a useful and time-efficient method to improve the AI tool performance on a specific hospital or research dataset

Phyllanthus Niruri Standardized Extract Alleviates the Progression of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Decreases Atherosclerotic Risk in Sprague–Dawley Rats

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the major global health issues, strongly correlated with insulin resistance, obesity and oxidative stress. The current study aimed to evaluate anti-NAFLD effects of three different extracts of Phyllanthus niruri (P. niruri). NAFLD was induced in male Sprague–Dawley rats using a special high-fat diet (HFD). A 50% methanolic extract (50% ME) exhibited the highest inhibitory effect against NAFLD progression. It significantly reduced hepatomegaly (16%) and visceral fat weight (22%), decreased NAFLD score, prevented fibrosis, and reduced serum total cholesterol (TC) (48%), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) (65%), free fatty acids (FFAs) (25%), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (45%), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (38%), insulin concentration (67%), homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (73%), serum atherogenic ratios TC/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (29%), LDL/HDL (66%) and (TC–HDL)/HDL (64%), hepatic content of cholesterol (43%), triglyceride (29%) and malondialdehyde (MDA) (40%) compared to a non-treated HFD group. In vitro, 50% ME of P. niruri inhibited �-glucosidase, pancreatic lipase enzymes and cholesterol micellization. It also had higher total phenolic and total flavonoid contents compared to other extracts. Ellagic acid and phyllanthin were identified as major compounds. These results suggest that P. niruri could be further developed as a novel natural hepatoprotective agent against NAFLD and atherosclerosis