Money Demand Stability under Currency Substitution: Some Recent Evidence

This study deals with the issue of independent monetary policy and the stability of the domestic money demand function in the presence of currency substitution and capital mobility in five Asian economies. It is argued that money demand will be less stable and more difficult to control in the presence of international variables. The money demand function is derived using the portfolio balance approach. The results from the cointegration analysis reveal that capital mobility and currency substitution are significant factors in the domestic money demand equations for Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. The results also show that the US dollar, Japanese yen, and British pound are used significantly by domestic residents together with the domestic currency in Indonesia, Korea, Singapore and Thailand. However, in the case of Malaysia, despite the existence of currency substitution for the US dollar and Japanese yen, there is no evidence of currency substitution between the domestic currency and British pound. Therefore, for these countries to have an effective monetary policy, the monetary authorities should take into account the two international factors

AYURVEDIC CONCEPT OF PREMENSTRUAL SYNDROME WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO PITTAVRITTA VYANA VAYU

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) refers to a complex of cyclical and recurrent physical, emotional and behavioral symptoms that occur specifically in luteal phase and remain for minimum three consecutive menstrual cycles. Up to 80% of women of child bearing age report with few mild symptoms of PMS prior to menstruation. But clinically significant PMS is seen only in 3 to 8% of women. Its more severe form, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) has listed one among the Depressive mental disorders by American Psychiatric Association. Premenstrual Syndrome, an often neglecting medical condition due to social taboo of not discussing the issue of menstruation, was not considered as a disease earlier due to unawareness of the grave symptoms of the disease. Till now, the disease is a medical mystery with unknown cause and without any specific proved diagnosis and medication in modern medicine. This article is merely an attempt to relate PMS with Pittavritta Vyana Vata, which is an Avaranajanya Vyadhi. In Rituvyateetakala which is compared mainly with the luteal phase, there is Pittakopavastha and Vatasanchayavastha. With excess intake of Pittakar Nidan in Rituvyateetakala, Sanchita Vata specifically Vyana Vayu gets Avritta with Kupita Pitta and manifested in the form of Sarvanga Daha, Santapa, Klama etc. So the disease PMS can be managed and treated on the line of Pittavritta Vyana Vayu so as to provide relief from its deleterious effects and improve her family and social life

Subarachnoid haemorrhage mimicking unstable angina: a case report

Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) is medical emergency caused by bleeding into the subarachnoid space. It is caused by rupture of an aneurysm or arteriovenous malformations (AVM). Symptoms of SAH are severe headache, nausea, vomiting, impaired consciousness and seizures. Neck stiffness and neck pain are relatively uncommon. Risk factors are high blood pressure, smoking, family history, alcoholism and even cocaine use. Diagnosis is mainly made by CT scan of head which should be done within six hours of the onset of symptoms and occasionally lumber puncture can also be done. An electrocardiogram (ECG) of all patients with subarachnoid should be done because patient with SAH can have myocardial ischemia due to increased level of circulating catecholamines or due to autonomic stimulation of the brain. ECG changes associated with SAH primarily reflect repolarisation abnormalities involving ST segment, T wave, U wave and QTc interval. Myocardial ischemia or infarction is often suspected in patients with SAH. Even troponin levels may be raised in these patients. However, suspicion of SAH is a contraindication for thrombolytic and anticoagulant therapy. This is a case of SAH which was initially treated for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) on the basis of symptoms and gradually changing ECG findings but on CT Head, patient was having SAH

Substitution between Money and Near Monies in Switzerland

This paper investigates the substitutability between money and near-money assets during the period 1976 to 1996 in Switzerland. Financial developments have made a variety of instruments available to store wealth and conduct economic transactions. These developments have generated a near money component in households\u27 and businesses\u27 portfolio balances. It is important to evaluate the effect of near-money on money demand and the effectiveness of monetary policy. Towards this goal, five monetary assets: currency and demand deposits at commercial banks, demand deposits with the postal system, deposits on transaction accounts with banks, savings deposits and time deposits are considered. We evaluate the degree of substitutability among these assets using the Morishima elasticity. Results show that various monetary assets substitute for one another. Consistent with a high degree of diversification, the Morishima elasticity is significantly larger when adjustment takes place in the price of a relatively broader monetary asset as compared with a narrower one. Targeting a broad monetary aggregate captures a variety of assets that contribute to liquidity and aggregate demand, enhancing the effectiveness of monetary policy. Nonetheless, high elasticity of substitution between monetary assets has made it increasingly difficult to target money demand via changes in the interest rate. As a result, in 1999 the Swiss National Bank abandoned monetary targeting in favor of an expected inflation target

Effect of Anions on the Iron Release Pathways of Human Serum Transferrin

Transferrin, the serum iron transport protein in humans, is used to transport 30-40 mg of iron per day through blood. The accessibility of transferrin makes it an attractive target for iron cheating therapeutic agents used in the treatment of iron overload. There is an ongoing search for ligands which can accelerate the rate of iron release, as the currently approved drug DFO has a very slow rate for iron removal. Previous studies have shown that anions can accelerate the rate of iron release. Studies on the effect of anions on the rates of iron release from C-terminal monoferric transferrin at pH 7.4 have been conducted using the ligands acetohydroxamic acid (AHA) and 1,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-pyridinone (L1), which follow saturation kinetics, and the ligands, nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA), which follow first order kinetics with respect to the ligand concentration. The effects of sulfonates, phosphonates and phosphonocarboxylates have been studied. The anions are divided into two types, simple (non-coordinating) and complex (capable of chelating iron). The simple anions accelerate the rate of iron release, presumably by binding to an allosteric anion binding site on the transferrin. This binding increase the value of kmax for the saturation pathway for AHA and L1 and introduces a kmax for NTA, which otherwise does not have a saturation component. This changes the kinetic behavior of NTA from a strictly first-order dependence on the ligand concentration to complex kinetics, a combination of saturation and first-order kinetics. The complex anions, which can also chelate iron, decrease the rate of iron release by the reference ligands. These anions can also generate a small first order component for iron removal by ligands that normally follow saturation kinetics. These studies emphasize that the appearance of the first order component is due to the replacement of synergistic anion by the incoming chelating ligand and is not an allosteric effect of the anionic ligand. Distinct effects of anions on the saturation and first-order components for iron release are reported. For NTA, the major impact of anions is a decrease in the value of k’

Efficiency and Productivity Analyses of Indonesian Manufacturing Industries

This study estimates the technical efficiencies and total factor productivity (TFP) growth in food, textile, chemical and metal products industries during 1993 to 2000 in Indonesia by using the stochastic frontier model. Furthermore, the determinants of inefficiency are also analyzed and the TFP growth is decomposed into technological progress, scale component, and efficiency growth. The results reveal that the food, textile, chemical and metal products sectors are on average 50.79%, 47.89%, 68.65% and 68.91% technically efficient respectively. It is noted that ownership contributed to technical inefficiency in the food sector; location and size contributed to technical inefficiency in the textile sector, whereas size, ownership and age contributed to inefficiencies in the chemical and metal products sectors. The estimates of TFP growth indicate that productivity in Indonesian manufacturing industries decreased at the rate of 2.73%, 0.26%, 1.65% and 0.5% in food, textile, and metal products respectively, whereas in the chemical sector, it increased at a rate of 0.5% during the period of the study. The decomposition of TFP growth indicates that the growths are driven positively by technical efficiency changes and negatively by technological progress in all four sectors

On Public Capital Investment and Economic Growth in Illinois

The present paper was written as an analysis of the proposed capital budget plan which is being considered by the State of Illinois and which has been a major item on the political agenda in the state for well approximately two years. In the spring of 2008, Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard asked Dr. Subhash C. Sharma of the Department of Economics at Southern Illinois University Carbondale to do an analysis of the proposed capital improvements plan which was being advocated by then Governor Rod Blagojevich and being considered by the Illinois General Assembly. The plan would make a major investment in infrastructure improvements in the state, and it would have been the first major capital plan to pass the General Assembly in almost a decade. It follows in the tradition of two other major capital improvements bills advocated by earlier Governors and passed by the Illinois General Assembly. In 1985 under the leadership of Governor James R. Thompson, the state passed the Build Illinois Plan, which claimed at the time to be the largest public works project in the state’s history. It was funded at $2.3 billion total. In 1999 at the beginning of his administration, Governor George Ryan initiated and the General Assembly passed a new capital budget called the Illinois FIRST plan for the infrastructure improvements and capital needs. Illinois FIRST was funded at$12 billion total. The current Illinois Works plan would follow in the footsteps of those two prior major investments made in infrastructure by the people of Illinois if it were to be approved. The plan is still being considered by the Illinois General Assembly, and this proposal or something like it will be one of the major items for consideration by the new Governor Pat Quinn and his administration

Technical Efficiency and Productivity Analysis in Indonesian Provincial Economies

By using the stochastic frontier methodology, this study investigates the technical efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) growth in Indonesian provincial economies during the period from 1993 to 2000. In addition to the estimation of provincial technical efficiency, factors that contribute to technical inefficiency are also examined and the TFP growth is decomposed into technological progress, the scale component and the change in technical efficiency. The results reveal that average technical efficiency is only around 50%. Our results reveal that the mean years of schooling and sectoral differences affected technical efficiency. The TFP grew, on average, in the range from 1.65% to 5.43% with an average growth of 3.59%. In twenty out of twenty six provinces the TFP growth was driven by efficiency changes while in four provinces the TFP growth was driven by technological progress. Further, we note that the Asian crisis affected the TFP growth and the western provinces suffered from the crisis more than the eastern provinces

Cost efficiency, Economies of Scale, Technological Progress and Productivity in Indonesian Banks

This study estimates cost efficiency, scale economies, technological progress and productivity growth for Indonesian banks over the period 1993-2000. Overall the cost efficiency of all banks during this period was 69.82%. However, on average the efficiency of banks prior to the Asian crisis and after the Asian crisis were 79.67% and 53.40% respectively. Moreover, the results also indicate that private-owned banks and joint venture/foreign banks were more efficient than public-owned banks. Furthermore, as expected large banks tend to be more efficient as compared to smaller banks. Total factor productivity growth for Indonesian banks over the period 1993-2000 was -3.14%. However, before the Asian crisis, Indonesian banks productivity decreased by 1.48%, while after the crisis it decreased by 6.45%