The influence of the financial crisis on the investment behaviour of German pension funds regarding the Swedish real-estate market as an investment location

The financial crisis of 2007-2008 shock the financial markets worldwide and caused major losses for financial institutions and institutional investors. German pension funds need to invest their assets also during times of financial and economic downturns, regardless the uncertainty about the future development of the market situation. Real-estate is considered a safe investment for capital in times of high volatility within financial markets. German pension funds are looking for safe investment environments besides the local German real-estate market which is conglomerated with national and international investors. According to German pension funds, the Swedish real-estate market gained in importance as an investment location since the advance of the financial crisis. The market attracts German pension funds by its stable economic development, political stability and liquidity of the real-estate market. Office and retail properties in the Core segments of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö are of their main interest. At the moment the German pension funds face the problem of a high Korna/Euro exchange rate which makes investments for German investors more expensive. Therefore yield levels decline for German investors and Swedish institutional investors, which follow conservative investment strategies, in most of the cases have a better position on closing property deals. The Swedish market provides an excellent investment environment for German pension funds and with a more favourable exchange ratio of Krona/Euro German investors are more likely to increase their investments in Swedish real-estate

Measures of Systemic Risk

Systemic risk refers to the risk that the financial system is susceptible to failures due to the characteristics of the system itself. The tremendous cost of systemic risk requires the design and implementation of tools for the efficient macroprudential regulation of financial institutions. The current paper proposes a novel approach to measuring systemic risk. Key to our construction is a rigorous derivation of systemic risk measures from the structure of the underlying system and the objectives of a financial regulator. The suggested systemic risk measures express systemic risk in terms of capital endowments of the financial firms. Their definition requires two ingredients: a cash flow or value model that assigns to the capital allocations of the entities in the system a relevant stochastic outcome; and an acceptability criterion, i.e. a set of random outcomes that are acceptable to a regulatory authority. Systemic risk is measured by the set of allocations of additional capital that lead to acceptable outcomes. We explain the conceptual framework and the definition of systemic risk measures, provide an algorithm for their computation, and illustrate their application in numerical case studies. Many systemic risk measures in the literature can be viewed as the minimal amount of capital that is needed to make the system acceptable after aggregating individual risks, hence quantify the costs of a bail-out. In contrast, our approach emphasizes operational systemic risk measures that include both ex post bailout costs as well as ex ante capital requirements and may be used to prevent systemic crises.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figure

Interleukin-22 predicts severity and death in advanced liver cirrhosis: a prospective cohort study

Background: Interleukin-22 (IL-22), recently identified as a crucial parameter of pathology in experimental liver damage, may determine survival in clinical end-stage liver disease. Systematic analysis of serum IL-22 in relation to morbidity and mortality of patients with advanced liver cirrhosis has not been performed so far. Methods: This is a prospective cohort study including 120 liver cirrhosis patients and 40 healthy donors to analyze systemic levels of IL-22 in relation to survival and hepatic complications. Results: A total of 71% of patients displayed liver cirrhosis-related complications at study inclusion. A total of 23% of the patients died during a mean follow-up of 196 +/- 165 days. Systemic IL-22 was detectable in 74% of patients but only in 10% of healthy donors (P 18 pg/ml, n = 57) showed significantly reduced survival compared to patients with regular ([less than or equal to]18 pg/ml) levels of IL-22 (321 days versus 526 days, P = 0.003). Other factors associated with overall survival were high CRP ([greater than or equal to]2.9 mg/dl, P = 0.005, hazard ratio (HR) 0.314, confidence interval (CI) (0.141 to 0.702)), elevated serum creatinine (P = 0.05, HR 0.453, CI (0.203 to 1.012)), presence of liver-related complications (P = 0.028, HR 0.258 CI (0.077 to 0.862)), model of end stage liver disease (MELD) score [greater than or equal to]20 (P = 0.017, HR 0.364, CI (0.159 to 0.835)) and age (P = 0.011, HR 1.047, CI (1.011 to 1.085)). Adjusted multivariate Cox proportional-hazards analysis identified elevated systemic IL-22 levels as independent predictors of reduced survival (P = 0.007, HR 0.218, CI (0.072 to 0.662)). Conclusions: In patients with liver cirrhosis, elevated systemic IL-22 levels are predictive for reduced survival independently from age, liver-related complications, CRP, creatinine and the MELD score. Thus, processes that lead to a rise in systemic interleukin-22 may be relevant for prognosis of advanced liver cirrhosis

Physiological and Molecular Responses to Altered Sodium Intake in Rat Pregnancy

In pregnancy, a high plasma volume maintains uteroplacental perfusion and prevents placental ischemia, a condition linked to elevated maternal blood pressure (BP). Reducing BP by increasing Na+ intake via plasma volume expansion appears contra‐ intuitive. We hypothesize that an appropriate Na+ intake in pregnancy reduces maternal BP and adapts the renin‐angiotensin system in a pregnancy‐specific manner.Methods and Results: BP was measured by implanted telemetry in Sprague‐ Dawley rats before and throughout pregnancy. Pregnant and nonpregnant animals received either a normal‐salt (0.4%; NS), high‐salt (8%; HS), or low‐salt (0.01%; LS) diet, or HS (days 1–14) followed by LS (days 14–20) diet (HS/LS). Before delivery (day 20), animals were euthanized and organs collected. Food, water, and Na+ intake were monitored in metabolic cages, and urinary creatinine and Na+ were analyzed. Na+ intake and retention increased in pregnancy (NS, LS), leading to a positive Na+ balance (NS, LS). BP was stable during LS, but reduced in HS conditions in pregnancy. The renin‐angiotensin system was adapted as expected. Activating cleavage of α‐ and γ‐subunits of the renal epithelial Na+ channel and expression of‐ full length medullary β‐subunits, accentuated further in all LS conditions, were upregulated in pregnancy.Conclusions: Pregnancy led to Na+ retention adapted to dietary changes. HS exposure paradoxically reduced BP. Na+ uptake while only modestly linked to the renin‐angiotensin system is enhanced in the presence of posttranslational renal epithelial Na+ channel modifications. This suggests (1) storage of Na+ in pregnancy upon HS exposure, bridging periods of LS availability; and (2) that potentially non–renin‐angiotensin–related mechanisms participate in ENaC activation and consecutive Na+ retention

From segment to somite: segmentation to epithelialization analyzed within quantitative frameworks

One of the most visually striking patterns in the early developing embryo is somite segmentation. Somites form as repeated, periodic structures in pairs along nearly the entire caudal vertebrate axis. The morphological process involves short- and long-range signals that drive cell rearrangements and cell shaping to create discrete, epithelialized segments. Key to developing novel strategies to prevent somite birth defects that involve axial bone and skeletal muscle development is understanding how the molecular choreography is coordinated across multiple spatial scales and in a repeating temporal manner. Mathematical models have emerged as useful tools to integrate spatiotemporal data and simulate model mechanisms to provide unique insights into somite pattern formation. In this short review, we present two quantitative frameworks that address the morphogenesis from segment to somite and discuss recent data of segmentation and epithelialization

Experten und Politik: Wissenschaftliche Politikberatung in geschichtlicher Perspektive, Schriftenreihe der Hochschule Speyer, Bd. 168

Abstract Das Thema "Politikberatung" findet in der deutschen Öffentlichkeit momentan Beachtung wie selten zuvor. Externes Beraterwissen in Anspruch zu nehmen, ist in der Politik freilich nichts grundsätzlich Neues und wurde schon von Machiavelli diskutiert. Die wachsende Komplexität, Interdependenz und Veränderungsgeschwindigkeit politischer Entscheidungsgrundlagen hat jedoch in einem in seinen Wurzeln weit zurückreichenden Transformationsprozess im 19. und vor allem im 20. Jahrhundert zu einer sich mehr und mehr verdichtenden Interaktion von (externen) Experten und politisch-administrativem System geführt. Der Sammelband, der aus einer Forschungstagung am Forschungsinstitut für öffentliche Verwaltung Speyer (FÖV) im Herbst 2001 entstanden ist, versucht einige der Wurzeln und Spielformen jener Beratungsarrangements freizulegen, die sich hieraus langfristig ergaben. Eine generelle Bewertung von Nutzen und Nachteil der Politikberatung stößt angesichts des Umstandes, dass deren Arenen und Formen ebenso vielschichtig sind wie ihre Funktionen und Wirkungsweisen, schnell an ihre Grenzen. In dem vorliegenden Band werden stattdessen historische Fallstudien aus unterschiedlicher Perspektive - Politikfelder, Akteure, Wissenstypen -vorgelegt, die eine genauere Antwort auf die Frage nach den Spielregeln, Wirkungsbedingungen und Einflusschancen von Politikberatung ermöglichen sollen

Social media and the impact on marketing communication

Since Internet usage has been increasing so much in the last 15 years, and particularly in the last 10 years, many companies have found new possibilities to promote their products. These new approaches are mainly used as a communication tool and are called social media. The purpose of this thesis has been to study how social media influence the marketing communication of companies. The methodology behind this research, in order to ensure a suitable and viable data collection, was personal interviews with two manufacturing companies, one social network platform and one marketing agency. The method was a qualitative research approach combining different case studies in the research strategy. The diverse interview partners were each given a specific interview guide synchronized to their field of business and afterwards these four cases were analyzed using the data collected from the personal interviews and the mentioned interview guides. The overall result of this thesis was that the communication via social media is still in the early stages of its development. Basically companies approve social media as an effective tool to exceed and support marketing communication. Furthermore social media monitoring is an important component, but is still in the early stages. Generally companies approve social media as an effective tool to exceed and support marketing communication. Social media still has huge growth potentials regarding the differentiation and specification of different platforms, because not all of them are suitable for every company.Validerat; 20101217 (root

Reduced β-catenin expression affects patterning of bone primordia, but not bone maturation.

Wnt/β-catenin signaling is involved in patterning of bone primordia, but also plays an important role in the differentiation of chondrocytes and osteoblasts. During these processes the level of β-catenin must be tightly regulated. Excess β-catenin leads to conditions with increased bone mass, whereas loss of β-catenin is associated with osteoporosis or, in extreme cases, the absence of limbs. In this study, we examined skeletogenesis in mice, which retain only 25% of β-catenin. These embryos showed severe morphological abnormalities of which the lack of hindlimbs and misshaped front paws were the most striking. Surprisingly however, calcification of bone primordia occurred normally. Moreover, the Wnt-dependent regulatory network of transcription factors driving the differentiation of cartilage and bone, as well as the expression of extracellular matrix components, were preserved. These findings show that 25% β-catenin is insufficient for the correct patterning of bone primordia, but sufficient for their mineralization. Our approach helps to identify bone morphogenetic processes that can proceed normally even at low β-catenin levels, in contrast to those that require high β-catenin dosages. This information could be exploited to improve the treatment of bone diseases by fine-tuning the individual β-catenin dosage requirements