Enterprise risk management in financial groups: analysis of risk concentration and default risk

In financial groups, enterprise risk management is becoming increasingly important in controlling and managing the different independent legal entities in the group. The aim of this paper is to assess and relate risk concentration and joint default probabilities of the group's legal entities in order to achieve a more comprehensive picture of a financial group's risk situation. We further examine the impact of the type of dependence structure on results by comparing linear and nonlinear dependencies using different copula concepts under certain distributional assumptions. Our results show that even if financial groups with different dependence structures do have the same risk concentration factor, joint default probabilities of different sets of subsidiaries can vary tremendousl

HIV versus the Terminator: Drug resistance of HIV reverse transcriptase with mutations at the connection subdomain

Abstract only availableAntiretroviral drug therapy can prolong the life of an HIV-infected individual, but this treatment also promotes drug-resistance mutations. The replicative enzyme of HIV, reverse transcriptase (RT), is a primary target for anti-HIV drug therapy because it is responsible for converting the single stranded RNA genome of HIV into double stranded DNA for integration into the host genome. Many current anti-HIV drugs belong to two classes of inhibitors that target RT: nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) incorporate into and chain-terminate nascent transcription products of RT, whereas non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) alter enzyme-nucleic acid interactions, thereby affecting the efficiency of DNA polymerization. Here, we focus on NRTI resistance mutations that are located at the connection subdomain of the enzyme in the presence and absence of thymidine analog associated mutations (TAMs). TAMs cause resistance to the commonly prescribed chain terminator 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT) through excision of the incorporated AZT-monophosphate. Mutations in the connection domain, such as N348I, confer resistance to NRTIs and NNRTIs and augment AZT resistance when present in combination with TAMs. Although the underlying mechanism of N348I resistance remains elusive, it has been suggested that the mutation compromises ribonuclease (RNase) H activity, which is responsible for cleaving the viral genomic RNA of the RNA/DNA heterodimeric intermediate. Changes in RNase H cleavage affect the availability of AZT-terminated primers to be excised, thereby increasing the unblocking of template/primer and NRTI resistance. Our investigation attempts to determine if AZT-resistance mutations affect resistance to other commonly prescribed NRTIs, as well as to competitive substrate inhibitors currently in development, through changes in template/primer processing. In addition, we are examining the effects of NRTI and NNRTI cocktails on the RNase H activity of RT possessing connection domain mutations. Our findings should provide insight for screening novel inhibitors for their efficacy against emergent strains of drug-resistant HIV.Life Sciences Undergraduate Research Opportunity Progra

Scientific case for avoiding dangerous climate change to protect young people and nature

28 pages, 6 figures; version submitted to Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesPeer reviewe

Heat stored in the Earth system 1960–2020: where does the energy go?

The Earth climate system is out of energy balance, and heat has accumulated continuously over the past decades, warming the ocean, the land, the cryosphere, and the atmosphere. According to the Sixth Assessment Report by Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this planetary warming over multiple decades is human-driven and results in unprecedented and committed changes to the Earth system, with adverse impacts for ecosystems and human systems. The Earth heat inventory provides a measure of the Earth energy imbalance (EEI) and allows for quantifying how much heat has accumulated in the Earth system, as well as where the heat is stored. Here we show that the Earth system has continued to accumulate heat, with 381±61 ZJ accumulated from 1971 to 2020. This is equivalent to a heating rate (i.e., the EEI) of 0.48±0.1 W m−2. The majority, about 89 %, of this heat is stored in the ocean, followed by about 6 % on land, 1 % in the atmosphere, and about 4 % available for melting the cryosphere. Over the most recent period (2006–2020), the EEI amounts to 0.76±0.2 W m−2. The Earth energy imbalance is the most fundamental global climate indicator that the scientific community and the public can use as the measure of how well the world is doing in the task of bringing anthropogenic climate change under control. Moreover, this indicator is highly complementary to other established ones like global mean surface temperature as it represents a robust measure of the rate of climate change and its future commitment. We call for an implementation of the Earth energy imbalance into the Paris Agreement's Global Stocktake based on best available science. The Earth heat inventory in this study, updated from von Schuckmann et al. (2020), is underpinned by worldwide multidisciplinary collaboration and demonstrates the critical importance of concerted international efforts for climate change monitoring and community-based recommendations and we also call for urgently needed actions for enabling continuity, archiving, rescuing, and calibrating efforts to assure improved and long-term monitoring capacity of the global climate observing system. The data for the Earth heat inventory are publicly available, and more details are provided in Table 4

K70Q Adds High-Level Tenofovir Resistance to “Q151M Complex” HIV Reverse Transcriptase through the Enhanced Discrimination Mechanism

HIV-1 carrying the “Q151M complex” reverse transcriptase (RT) mutations (A62V/V75I/F77L/F116Y/Q151M, or Q151Mc) is resistant to many FDA-approved nucleoside RT inhibitors (NRTIs), but has been considered susceptible to tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TFV-DF or TDF). We have isolated from a TFV-DF-treated HIV patient a Q151Mc-containing clinical isolate with high phenotypic resistance to TFV-DF. Analysis of the genotypic and phenotypic testing over the course of this patient's therapy lead us to hypothesize that TFV-DF resistance emerged upon appearance of the previously unreported K70Q mutation in the Q151Mc background. Virological analysis showed that HIV with only K70Q was not significantly resistant to TFV-DF. However, addition of K70Q to the Q151Mc background significantly enhanced resistance to several approved NRTIs, and also resulted in high-level (10-fold) resistance to TFV-DF. Biochemical experiments established that the increased resistance to tenofovir is not the result of enhanced excision, as K70Q/Q151Mc RT exhibited diminished, rather than enhanced ATP-based primer unblocking activity. Pre-steady state kinetic analysis of the recombinant enzymes demonstrated that addition of the K70Q mutation selectively decreases the binding of tenofovir-diphosphate (TFV-DP), resulting in reduced incorporation of TFV into the nascent DNA chain. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that changes in the hydrogen bonding pattern in the polymerase active site of K70Q/Q151Mc RT may contribute to the observed changes in binding and incorporation of TFV-DP. The novel pattern of TFV-resistance may help adjust therapeutic strategies for NRTI-experienced patients with multi-drug resistant (MDR) mutations

Copernicus Ocean State Report, issue 6

The 6th issue of the Copernicus OSR incorporates a large range of topics for the blue, white and green ocean for all European regional seas, and the global ocean over 1993–2020 with a special focus on 2020

Altimetry for the future: Building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the ‘‘Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

Altimetry for the future: building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the “Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

Amino Acid Mutation N348I in the Connection Subdomain of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Reverse Transcriptase Confers Multiclass Resistance to Nucleoside and Nonnucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors▿ †

We identified clinical isolates with phenotypic resistance to nevirapine (NVP) in the absence of known nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) mutations. This resistance is caused by N348I, a mutation at the connection subdomain of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase (RT). Virologic analysis showed that N348I conferred multiclass resistance to NNRTIs (NVP and delavirdine) and to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (zidovudine [AZT] and didanosine [ddI]). N348I impaired HIV-1 replication in a cell-type-dependent manner. Acquisition of N348I was frequently observed in AZT- and/or ddI-containing therapy (12.5%; n = 48; P < 0.0001) and was accompanied with thymidine analogue-associated mutations, e.g., T215Y (n = 5/6) and the lamivudine resistance mutation M184V (n = 1/6) in a Japanese cohort. Molecular modeling analysis shows that residue 348 is proximal to the NNRTI-binding pocket and to a flexible hinge region at the base of the p66 thumb that may be affected by the N348I mutation. Our results further highlight the role of connection subdomain residues in drug resistance