Comovements among European equity sectors: Selected evidence from the consumer discretionary, consumer staples, financial, industrial and materials sectors

This paper examines comovements between equity sectors across European markets during the post-euro adoption period 1999-2002. The markets comprise six selected Member States of the European Union (EU): namely, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland and Italy. The five sectors selected are classified according to the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS). They include the consumer discretionary, consumer staples, financial, industrials and materials sectors. Multivariate cointegration procedures, Granger-causality tests and generalised variance decomposition analyses based on error-correction and vector autoregressive models are conducted to examine long and short-run relationships among these markets. The results indicate that there are few stationary long-run relationships between sectors in different markets, but many significant short-run causal linkages between these sectors. Variance decomposition indicates that the consumer discretionary, financial and materials sectors in the EU are relatively more integrated than the consumer staples and industrials sectors. However, irrespective of the sector examined the large equity markets of France, Germany and Italy remain the most influential in terms of causality and the proportion of variance accounted for by innovations in these same markets.Financial integration, sectors and industries, portfolio diversification, market efficiency.

Visualization of pseudogenes in intracellular bacteria reveals the different tracks to gene destruction

Variably present genes and pseudogenes in Rickettsia species tend to have been acquired more recently and to be more divergent from the genes conserved across all specie

Impact of indoor air pollution in nursery and primary schools on childhood asthma

Poor indoor air quality in scholar environments have been frequently reported, but its impact on respiratory health in schoolchildren has not been sufficiently explored. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the associations between children's exposure to indoor air pollution (IAP) in nursery and primary schools and childhood asthma. Multivariate models (independent and multipollutant) quantified the associations of children's exposure with asthma-related health outcomes: reported active wheezing, reported and diagnosed asthma, and lung function (reduced FEV1/FVC and reduced FEV1). A microenvironmental modelling approach estimated individual inhaled exposure to major indoor air pollutants (CO2, CO, formaldehyde, NO2, O-3, TVOC, PM2.5 and PM10) in nursery and primary schools from both urban and rural sites in northern Portugal. Questionnaires and medical tests (spirometry pre- and post-bronchodilator) were used to obtain information on health outcomes and to diagnose asthma following the newest international clinical guidelines. After testing children for aeroallergen sensitisation, multinornial models estimated the effect of exposure to particulate matter on asthma in sensitised individuals. The study population were 1530 children attending nursery and primary schools, respectively 648 pre-schoolers (3-5 years old) and 882 primary school children (6-10 years old). This study found no evidence of a significant association between IAP in nursery and primary schools and the prevalence of childhood asthma. However, reported active wheezing was associated with higher NO2, and reduced FEV1 was associated with higher O-3 and PM2.5, despite NO2 and O-3 in schools were always below the 200 mu g m(-3) threshold from WHO and National legislation, respectively. Moreover, sensitised children to common aeroallergens were more likely to have asthma during childhood when exposed to particulate matter in schools. These findings support the urgent need for mitigation measures to reduce IAP in schools, reducing its burden to children's health

Direct measurements of CO2 flux in the Greenland Sea

During summer 2006 eddy correlation CO2 fluxes were measured in the Greenland Sea using a novel system set-up with two shrouded LICOR-7500 detectors. One detector was used exclusively to determine, and allow the removal of, the bias on CO2 fluxes due to sensor motion. A recently published correction method for the CO2-H2O cross-correlation was applied to the data set. We show that even with shrouded sensors the data require significant correction due to this cross-correlation. This correction adjusts the average CO2 flux by an order of magnitude from -6.7 x 10⁻² mol m⁻² day⁻¹ to -0.61 x 10⁻² mol m⁻² day⁻¹, making the corrected fluxes comparable to those calculated using established parameterizations for transfer velocity

Genome dynamics of Bartonella grahamii in micro-populations of woodland rodents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rodents represent a high-risk reservoir for the emergence of new human pathogens. The recent completion of the 2.3 Mb genome of <it>Bartonella grahamii</it>, one of the most prevalent blood-borne bacteria in wild rodents, revealed a higher abundance of genes for host-cell interaction systems than in the genomes of closely related human pathogens. The sequence variability within the global <it>B. grahamii </it>population was recently investigated by multi locus sequence typing, but no study on the variability of putative host-cell interaction systems has been performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To study the population dynamics of <it>B. grahamii</it>, we analyzed the genomic diversity on a whole-genome scale of 27 <it>B. grahamii </it>strains isolated from four different species of wild rodents in three geographic locations separated by less than 30 km. Even using highly variable spacer regions, only 3 sequence types were identified. This low sequence diversity contrasted with a high variability in genome content. Microarray comparative genome hybridizations identified genes for outer surface proteins, including a repeated region containing the <it>fha </it>gene for filamentous hemaggluttinin and a plasmid that encodes a type IV secretion system, as the most variable. The estimated generation times in liquid culture medium for a subset of strains ranged from 5 to 22 hours, but did not correlate with sequence type or presence/absence patterns of the <it>fha </it>gene or the plasmid.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study has revealed a geographic microstructure of <it>B. grahamii </it>in wild rodents. Despite near-identity in nucleotide sequence, major differences were observed in gene presence/absence patterns that did not segregate with host species. This suggests that genetically similar strains can infect a range of different hosts.</p

Supervisor trainees' and their supervisors' perceptions of attainment of knowledge and skills. An empirical evaluation of a psychotherapy supervisor training programme

Objectives. This study aimed to evaluate the success of a two-year, part-time training programme for psychotherapy supervisors. A second aim was to examine factors that might contribute to perceived knowledge and skills attainment during the training course. Design. This is a naturalistic, longitudinal study where several measures are used to examine group process and outcome. Methods. Supervisor trainees’ (n=21) and their facilitators’ (n=6) ratings of learning (knowledge and skills), relations to the supervisor and supervision group, usage of the group, and supervisor style were completed at three time points. Results. The findings suggested that both trainees and their supervisors perceived that the trainees attained a substantial amount of knowledge and skills during the course. In accordance with the literature and expectations, the regression analysis suggested a strong negative association between a strong focus on group processes in the initial and middle phases of the training and perceived knowledge and skills attainment in the final phase of the training. The expected, positive role of relations among trainees in the supervision group in the first half of the training and perceived knowledge and skills attainment in the final part of the training was obtained, whilst the hypothesized significance of the relationship between trainee and supervisor did not receive support. Conclusions The supervisory course seemed to provide a training that allowed trainees to attain knowledge and skills that are necessary for psychotherapy supervisors. The results of this pilot study also emphasize the need of more research on learning in the context of group supervision in psychotherapy

Review of low-cost sensors for indoor air quality: Features and applications

Humans spend the majority of their time indoors, where they are potentially exposed to hazardous pollutants. Within this context, over the past few years, there has been an upsurge of low-cost sensors (LCS) for the measurement of indoor air pollutants, motivated both by recent technological advances and by increased awareness of indoor air quality (IAQ) and its potential negative health impacts. Although not meeting the performance requirements for reference regulatory-equivalent monitoring indoors, LCS can provide informative measurements, offering an opportunity for high-resolution monitoring, emission source identification, exposure mitigation and managing IAQ and energy efficiency, among others. This article discusses the strengths and limitations that LCS offer for applications in the field of IAQ monitoring; it provides an overview of existing sensor technologies and gives recommendations for different indoor applications, considering their performance in the complex indoor environment and discussing future trends

Managing cultural diversity in collaborations: a focus on management tensions

This article explores the management of cultural diversity in public and not-for-profit collaborations spanning organizational, professional and national boundaries. Through the framing of a culture paradox, it identifies three interrelated tensions pertaining to the management of cultural diversity towards collaborative advantage. These tensions address: interactions between organizations within a collaboration; interactions between individual actors and their orientation towards the collaboration and their host organization; and the quantity and extent of cultural diversity within a collaboration. The culture paradox and its inherent management tensions provide theoretical and practical conceptualizations that are relevant to management and governance of collaboration