Country Creditor Rights, Information Sharing, and Commercial Banks’ Profitability

The authors analyze commercial banks’ profitability (return on equity, ROE) at different levels of creditor rights and an aggregate score of information sharing in terms of credit bureaus. After controlling for bank size and some macroeconomic variables, the results indicate that profitability is higher and more persistent when creditors are well protected. Furthermore, the presence of a (public or private) credit bureau increases the persistence of ROE, but higher levels of information sharing foster competition and erode future profitability.return on equity (ROE), commercial banks, creditor rights, information sharing, predictive ability of accounting

Policies to Reduce CO2 Emissions: Fallacies and Evidence from the United States and California

Since the 1990s, advocates of policy to prevent catastrophic climate change have been divided over the appropriate economic instruments to curb CO2 emissions-carbon taxes or schemes of emission trading. Barack Obama claimed that policies implemented during his presidency set in motion irreversible trends toward a clean-energy economy, with the years 2008-2015 given as evidence of decoupling between CO2 emissions and economic growth. This is despite California being the only state in the USA that has implemented a specific policy to curb emissions, a cap-and-trade scheme in place since 2013. To assess Obama's claims and the effectiveness of policies to reduce CO2 emissions, we analyze national and state-level data from the USA over the period 1990-2015. We find: (a) annual changes in emissions strongly correlated with the growth conditions of the economy; (b) no evidence for decoupling; and (c) a trajectory of CO2 emissions in California which does not at all support the claim that the cap-and-trade system implemented there has reduced CO2 emissions.Series: SRE - Discussion Paper

Long-run determinants of atmospheric CO2: Granger-causality and cointegration analysis

Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 grew annually 1.12 +- 0.48 parts per million (ppm) in 1958-1984, and 1.72 +- 0.54 ppm (mean +- standard deviation) in 1985-2009, so that the rate growth is growing itself. Natural phenomena that influence short-run changes in CO2 atmospheric levels (through their influence on CO2 emissions and sinks) are stationary processes that cannot explain the growth of CO2 levels at an increasing rate. Cointegration tests show at a high level of statistical significance that the annual increase of CO2 concentrations is roughly proportional to “human activities” as measured by the money value of the world economy and the size of the world population. We find that population and world GDP help to predict CO2 concentrations, but CO2 concentrations do not help to predict the othervariables; that is, there is Ganger causality from population and world economic output to CO2. Though the smallness of the time series involved and the theoretical and practical issues posed by cointegration allow only for a limited confidence in these results, they have obvious major implications. For business-as-usual conditions and a world economy growing annually 3.5%—the mean annual growth of the world economy since 1960—the required world population to maintain or reduce CO2 levels would be 1.3 billion or less. For a world population of 7 billion as the present one, CO2 atmospheric levels would decrease if the global economy contracted annually 24.5% or more.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88162/1/Long-run determinants of CO2 - A3- Dec 2011+refs.pd

Macroeconomic effects on mortality revealed by panel analysis with nonlinear trends

Many investigations have used panel methods to study the relationships between fluctuations in economic activity and mortality. A broad consensus has emerged on the overall procyclical nature of mortality: perhaps counter-intuitively, mortality typically rises above its trend during expansions. This consensus has been tarnished by inconsistent reports on the specific age groups and mortality causes involved. We show that these inconsistencies result, in part, from the trend specifications used in previous panel models. Standard econometric panel analysis involves fitting regression models using ordinary least squares, employing standard errors which are robust to temporal autocorrelation. The model specifications include a fixed effect, and possibly a linear trend, for each time series in the panel. We propose alternative methodology based on nonlinear detrending. Applying our methodology on data for the 50 US states from 1980 to 2006, we obtain more precise and consistent results than previous studies. We find procyclical mortality in all age groups. We find clear procyclical mortality due to respiratory disease and traffic injuries. Predominantly procyclical cardiovascular disease mortality and countercyclical suicide are subject to substantial state-to-state variation. Neither cancer nor homicide have significant macroeconomic association.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-AOAS624 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Adoptive transfer of dendritic cells modulates immunogenesis and tolerogenesis in a neonatal model of murine cutaneous leishmaniasis

We evaluated the adoptive transfer of DCs on Leishmania (L.) mexicana-infected neonatal BALB/c mice. DCs were isolated and purified from the spleens of the following donor groups: a) Adult BALB/c mice infected during adulthood with L. (L) mexicana; b) Adult BALB/c mice infected during neonatal life; c) Healthy neonatal BALB/c mice; d) Healthy adult BALB/c mice. A neonatal model of infection, generated after inoculation with 5 × 10(5 )promastigotes of L. (L) mexicana, was used as the infection control group. Sixteen hours after intraperitoneal transfer of DCs (1 × 10(3), 1 × 10(5), or 1 × 10(6 )cells/ml), neonatal recipient BALB/c mice were infected. The adoptive transfer of DCs diminished disease progression in neonatal mice. This reduction depends on the quantity and provenance of transferred DCs, since the effect was more evident with high numbers of DCs from adult mice infected during adulthood and healthy neonatal mice. Protection was significantly reduced in animals receiving DCs from healthy adult mice but it was absent in mice receiving DCs from adult mice infected during neonatal life. These results suggest that genetic susceptibility to Leishmania infection can be modified during neonatal life, and that the period of life when antigens are encountered is crucial in influencing the capacity of DCs to induce resistance or tolerance

The reversal of the relation between economic growth and health progress: Sweden in the 19th and 20th centuries

Health progress, as measured by the decline in mortality rates and the increase in life expectancy, is usually conceived as related to economic growth, especially in the long run. In this investigation it is shown that economic growth is positively associated with health progress in Sweden throughout the 19th century. However, the relation becomes weaker as time passes and is completely reversed in the second half of the 20th century, when economic growth negatively affects health progress. The effect of the economy on health occurs mostly at lag zero in the 19th century and is lagged up to two years in the 20th. No evidence is found for economic effects on mortality at greater lags. These findings are shown to be robustly consistent across a variety of statistical procedures, including linear regression, spectral analysis, cross-correlation, and lag regression models. Models using inflation and unemployment as economic indicators reveal similar results. Evidence for reverse effects of health progress on economic growth is weak, and unobservable in the second half of the 20th century.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56220/1/The reversal - Tapia-Ionides _accepted JHE Sept 2007.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56220/2/The reversal - Tapia-Ionides (Suppl Mat).pd

Mortality and macroeconomic fluctuations in contemporary Sweden

Recent research has provided strong evidence that, in the United States in particular and in high- or middle-income economies in general, mortality tends to evolve better in recessions than in expansions. It has been suggested that Sweden may be an exception to this pattern. The present investigation shows, however, that in the period 1968–2003 mortality oscillated procyclically in Sweden, deviating from its trend upward during expansions and downward during recessions. This pattern is evidenced by the oscillations of life expectancy, total mortality, and age- and sex-specific mortality rates at the national level, and also by regional mortality rates for the major demographic groups during recent decades. Results are robust for different economic indicators, methods of detrending, and models. In lag regression models macroeconomic effects on annual mortality tend to appear lagged one year. As in other countries, traffic mortality rises in expansions and declines in recessions, and the same is found for total cardiovascular mortality. However, macroeconomic effects on ischemic heart disease mortality appearing at lag two are hard to interpret. Reasons for the procyclical oscillations of mortality, for in-consistent results found in previous studies, as well as for the differences observed between Sweden and the United States are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78558/1/MORT_&_MACRO_FLUCT_IN_SWEDEN_Nov_2010_expanded.pdf-

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Review of Conventional and Advanced Therapeutic Strategies

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells are deficient in estrogen, progesterone and ERBB2 receptor expression, presenting a particularly challenging therapeutic target due to their highly invasive nature and relatively low response to therapeutics. There is an absence of specific treatment strategies for this tumor subgroup, and hence TNBC is managed with conventional therapeutics, often leading to systemic relapse. In terms of histology and transcription profile these cancers have similarities to BRCA-1-linked breast cancers, and it is hypothesized that BRCA1 pathway is non-functional in this type of breast cancer. In this review article, we discuss the different receptors expressed by TNBC as well as the diversity of different signaling pathways targeted by TNBC therapeutics, for example, Notch, Hedgehog, Wnt/b-Catenin as well as TGF-beta signaling pathways. Additionally, many epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors effectively inhibit the TNBCs, but they face challenges of either resistance to drugs or relapse. The resistance of TNBC to conventional therapeutic agents has helped in the advancement of advanced TNBC therapeutic approaches including hyperthermia, photodynamic therapy, as well as nanomedicine-based targeted therapeutics of drugs, miRNA, siRNA, and aptamers, which will also be discussed. Artificial intelligence is another tool that is presented to enhance the diagnosis of TNBC

The 2011 October Draconids outburst. I. Orbital elements, meteoroid fluxes and 21P/Giacobini-Zinner delivered mass to Earth

On October 8th, 2011 the Earth crossed the dust trails left by comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner during its XIX and XX century perihelion approaches with the comet being close to perihelion. The geometric circumstances of that encounter were thus favorable to produce a meteor storm, but the trails were much older than in the 1933 and 1946 historical encounters. As a consequence the 2011 October Draconid display exhibited several activity peaks with Zenithal Hourly Rates of about 400 meteors per hour. In fact, if the display had been not forecasted, it could have passed almost unnoticed as was strongly attenuated for visual observers due to the Moon. This suggests that most meteor storms of a similar nature could have passed historically unnoticed under unfavorable weather and Moon observing conditions. The possibility of obtaining information on the physical properties of cometary meteoroids penetrating the atmosphere under low-geocentric velocity encounter circumstances motivated us to set up a special observing campaign. Added to the Spanish Fireball Network wide-field all-sky and CCD video monitoring, other high-sensitivity 1/2" black and white CCD video cameras were attached to modified medium-field lenses for obtaining high resolution orbital information. The trajectory, radiant, and orbital data of 16 October Draconid meteors observed at multiple stations are presented. The results show that the meteors appeared from a geocentric radiant located at R.A.=263.0+-0.4 deg. and Dec.=+55.3+-0.3 deg. that is in close agreement with the radiant predicted for the 1873-1894 and the 1900 dust trails. The estimated mass of material from 21P/Giacobini-Zinner delivered to Earth during the six-hours outburst was around 950+-150 kg.Comment: Manuscript in press in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, submitted to MNRAS on November 16th, 2012 Accepted for publication in MNRAS on April 28th, 2013 Manuscript Pages: 21 Tables: 8 Figures: 4 Manuscript associated: "The 2011 October Draconids outburst. II. Meteoroid chemical abundances from fireball spectroscopy" by J.M. Madiedo is also in press in the same journa