Macroeconomic Shocks In The Cypriot Economy And The Emu-Area Countries

This study analyzes  macroeconomic shocks  in Cyprus and the EMU-area  from the beginning of 1990 to the end of 2004.  We examine the relative importance of aggregate demand and supply shocks along with money, in explaining short-run real output fluctuations.  The empirical results for the analysis are obtained by using the framework of structural vector autoregression model (SVAR).  The structural impulses in the VAR  model are defined as shocks in aggregate demand, aggregate supply and money growth.   Results indicate that shocks in AD, AS, the money growth are all sources of macro shocks  in Cyprus and the EMU-area.  

Comparing Monetary And Fiscal Policy Transmission Across The Americas And The Emu-Area

This paper estimates structural VAR models to compare the transmission mechanism of monetary and fiscal policy in the Americas and the EMU–area countries.  First, the NAFTA countries are considered and the estimation results are compared with those for the EMU-area countries. Attention is also paid to interaction of macroeconomic policies and the effects of shocks in financial markets.  Results show that the Americas except for the U.S. and Canada react rather differently to monetary and fiscal policy shocks than the EMU- area countries

Timing Long Horizon Predictability: Investment Implications

The analysis in this paper is twofold: a) we use the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) methodology to briefly study predictability of bond and stock returns, and b) we investigate the efficiency of  stock and bond markets  by exploring a buy and sell strategy made up of a hypothetical portfolio which consists of bonds and stocks.  Our strategy indicates that unexploited profit opportunities exist in the U.S. security markets.  The trading strategy used to identify profitability is based on return predictability.  More specifically, we estimate risk-adjusted cumulative twelve-month and quarterly compounded returns on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds using a state of the art forecasting model.  We construct our portfolio which consists of bonds and stocks based on the highest forecast given by the model as follows.  Buy stocks when the forecast shows returns are higher in the stock market.  Switch your portfolio into bonds every time the forecast model shows higher returns in the bond market

Exchange Rates And Equity Markets: Evidence From Some European Countries

This paper employs cointegration analysis, vector error correction and vector autoregressive modeling along with Granger causality tests to examine the effect of exchange rates on the stock market indexes for a group of  European Union countries using daily data from 1999-2009.  The results suggest that the transmitting mechanism for the influence of the exchange rate in the stock market is foreign investment.  Evidence also highlights that there is no clear causality from stock market to exchange rates, or vice versa, for the direction of the causation, suggesting that exchange rates and stock markets operate as an integrated system continuously influencing each other

Συγκρουσιακή Πολιτική και Τρομοκρατία. Μια πολιτισμική προσέγγιση των περιπτώσεων του I.R.A στην Ιρλανδία και της Ε.Τ.Α στη Χώρα των Βάσκων

Περίληψη Η παρούσα μελέτη διερευνά τους μηχανισμούς συγκρότησης της συλλογικής ταυτότητας των τρομοκρατικών οργανώσεων του I.R.A και της Ε.Τ.Α στη Βόρεια Ιρλανδία και τη Χώρα των Βάσκων. Εκκινώντας από τη διαπίστωση ότι κάθε κινηματική ομάδα αναπτύσσει μια διακριτή κοινωνική και πολιτισμική ταυτότητα αναλύεται ο τρόπος με τον οποίο η κουλτούρα μιας ένοπλης ομάδας κωδικοποιείται από τα μέλη της μέσα από μια πολύ-επίπεδη διαδικασία βιωματικών και συναισθηματικών σχέσεων μεταξύ των συμμετεχόντων στην ομάδα αλλά και με αλληλεπίδραση με το εξωτερικό τους περιβάλλον συνδέοντας τα μέλη της ομάδας με όρους κουλτούρας. Η συγκρότηση της συλλογικής ταυτότητας του Ι.R.A και της Ε.Τ.Α υπήρξε παρούσα σε κάθε διάσταση της σύγκρουσης του Καθολικού και του Προτεσταντικού πληθυσμού στην Βόρεια Ιρλανδία και του Βασκικού πληθυσμού με το Ισπανικό κράτος στη Χώρα των Βάσκων. Η ριζοσπαστικοποίηση του κοινωνικού και πολιτικού περιβάλλοντος παρείχε γόνιμο έδαφος στην εμφάνιση της πολιτικής βίας η οποία αποκρυσταλλώθηκε στην αντίληψη της ένοπλης δράσης για την επίτευξη πολιτικών σκοπών. Η τρομοκρατία όμως αφορά την ίδια την κοινωνία, την διαβρώνει και την υπονομεύει, την υποβάλλει σε μετασχηματισμούς και θέτει προκλήσεις στην κουλτούρα της.ABSTRACT The current dissertation investigates the mechanisms of the construction of collective identity considering the terrorist groups of I.R.A and E.T.A in Northern Ireland and in the Basque Country. Beginning with the proposition that every social movement develops a distinctive socio-cultural identity we analyze the way in which the culture of an armed group encoded by its members through a multi-level process of bio-emotional relations in interaction with the external environment , connecting the group members in terms of culture. The construction of the collective identity of I.R.A and E.T.A was present in every aspect of the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland and Basques and the Spanish State in the Basque Country. The radicalization of the social and political environment created a fertile ground for the emergence of political violence which crystallized in the notion of armed struggle for the achievement of political goals. But terrorism affects, corrodes and undermines society, causes transformations and establishes challenges in its culture

Developing BIOTEL: A Semi-Automated Spreadsheet for Estimating Telomere Length and Biological Age

Introduction: Telomere length (TL) is causally related to aging and several age-related diseases. Specifically, the abundance of short telomeres and the rate of telomere shortening are strong determinants of cell homeostasis. Thus, tools for analyzing and manipulating TL data can vastly improve research focused on aging. Aim: In this study, we developed a semi-automated worksheet, BIOTEL, to generate individual and group TL statistics and provide a crude estimation of biological age.Results: Data from the Telomere Length Database Project (TLDP) were implemented to the spreadsheet to produce TL statistics. 150 participants were included, and their age was from 21 to 82 years, and the sex distribution ratio was 52.3%: 47.7% (male: female). Initially, we analyzed the fluorescence intensities of telomeres that were measured on metaphase spread leukocytes using three-dimensional (3D) quantitative-fluorescent in situ hybridization (Q-FISH) procedures (3D DNA FISH) with a (C3TA2)3 peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probe. Raw data of fluorescence intensities, demographic data and medical records from the participants were imported into the worksheet. Basic statistical analyses of TL data were provided through BIOTEL, including TL percentiles, specialized charts for TL distribution including the percentage of critically short telomeres (< 3,000 kilobases), individual telomere profiles, and graphs of biological age vs. chronological age.Conclusion: BIOTEL ver. 2.4 is a functional semi-automated worksheet that calculates a wide range of TL statistics, thus a useful tool with applications in research of telomeres and biological age estimation

Removal of phosphate from aqueous solutions by adsorption onto Ca(OH)2 treated natural clinoptilolite

Phosphorus (P) recovery from wastewater is of great interest especially when the loaded adsorbent can be used in the agriculture as slow-release fertilizer. The application depends on environmental concerns related to the chemical modification of the adsorbent and the release of toxic compounds from the loaded material to the soil or the water during adsorption. The present work focused on the phosphate (PO4-P) removal from aqueous solutions under low P concentrations (0.5–10mg/L) by using Ca(OH)2-pretreated natural zeolite (CaT-Z). As activation agent, Ca(OH)2 presents benefits in terms of pretreatment costs and environmental impact of the applied adsorbent. The pretreatment of natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) with 0.25mol/L Ca(OH)2 led to an increase of P removal from 1.7 to 97.6% at initial P concentration of 10mg/L, pH 7 and 298K. Low residual concentrations of 81–238μg P/L were achieved at 298K rendering CaT-Z a promising sorbent for tertiary wastewater treatment. At 200mg P/L, the adsorption capacity was 7.57mg P/g CaT-Z. The P removal efficiency was pH-independent suggesting a beneficial use of CaT-Z under acidic and alkaline conditions. Adsorption was found to be an endothermic and slow process reaching equilibrium after 120h, whereas the half of the PO4-P was adsorbed in the first 8h. The applied kinetic models showed that both film and intraparticle diffusion contributed to phosphate removal. Phosphate sorption decreased in the presence of the anionic surfactant SDS, Fe2+, HCO3−, acetate and citrate anion. The predominant mechanisms of ligand exchange and Ca-P surface precipitation were confirmed by the IR-ATR and SEM-EDS analyses, respectively

Evaluation of quality of life outcomes following palliative radiotherapy in bone metastases : a literature review

Purpose: To assess the quality of life (QoL) following palliative radiotherapy (RT) in patients with painful bone metastases. Methods: A literature search limited to English-written publications was carried out, through the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (November 2018), OvidSP and PubMedCentral (1940-November 2018) databases. Subject headings and keywords included "quality of life"(QoL), "bone metastases", "palliative therapy", "pain" and "radiotherapy". Original articles, literature reviews, trials and meta-analyses revealing alterations in QoL post-RT using ratified measuring tools were examined. Studies referring to other types of metastases (e.g. brain metastases), or to other types of palliative therapy (e.g. the use of bisphosphonates alone), or focusing only on pain, or even reporting QoL only before or only after the use of RT were excluded. Results: Twenty four articles were selected from a total of 1360 articles. Seven trials proceeded to patients' randomization. The most commonly used tool to evaluate QoL was EORTC, followed by Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) questionnaires. All studies showed improvement in symptoms and functional interference scores after RT. The QoL between responders (Rs) and non-responders (NRs) has been juxtaposed in 10 studies. Rs had a significant benefit in QoL in comparison with the NRs. Discussion: Palliative radiotherapy in painful bone metastases improves Rs' QoL

A Novel Metal-Based Imaging Probe for Targeted Dual-Modality SPECT/MR Imaging of Angiogenesis

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with well-integrated multimodality imaging properties have generated increasing research interest in the past decade, especially when it comes to the targeted imaging of tumors. Bevacizumab (BCZM) on the other hand is a well-known and widely applied monoclonal antibody recognizing VEGF-A, which is overexpressed in angiogenesis. The aim of this proof-of-concept study was to develop a dual-modality nanoplatform for in vivo targeted single photon computed emission tomography (SPECT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of tumor vascularization. Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) have been coated with dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), for consequent functionalization with the monoclonal antibody BCZM radiolabeled with 99mTc, via well-developed surface engineering. The IONPs were characterized based on their size distribution, hydrodynamic diameter and magnetic properties. In vitro cytotoxicity studies showed that our nanoconstruct does not cause toxic effects in normal and cancer cells. Fe3O4-DMSA-SMCC-BCZM-99mTc were successfully prepared at high radiochemical purity (>92%) and their stability in human serum and in PBS were demonstrated. In vitro cell binding studies showed the ability of the Fe3O4-DMSA-SMCC-BCZM-99mTc to bind to the VEGF-165 isoform overexpressed on M-165 tumor cells. The ex vivo biodistribution studies in M165 tumor-bearing SCID mice showed high uptake in liver, spleen, kidney and lungs. The Fe3O4-DMSA-SMCC-BCZM-99mTc demonstrated quick tumor accumulation starting at 8.9 ± 1.88%ID/g at 2 h p.i., slightly increasing at 4 h p.i. (16.21 ± 2.56%ID/g) and then decreasing at 24 h p.i. (6.01 ± 1.69%ID/g). The tumor-to-blood ratio reached a maximum at 24 h p.i. (~7), which is also the case for the tumor-to-muscle ratio (~18). Initial pilot imaging studies on an experimental gamma-camera and a clinical MR camera prove our hypothesis and demonstrate the potential of Fe3O4-DMSA-SMCC-BCZM-99mTc for targeted dual-modality imaging. Our findings indicate that Fe3O4-DMSA-SMCC-BCZM-99mTc IONPs could serve as an important diagnostic tool for biomedical imaging as well as a promising candidate for future theranostic applications in cancer