A Market-based Approach to Sector Risk Determinants and Transmission in the Euro Area

In a panel data framework applied to Portfolio Distance-to-Default series of corporate sectors in the euro area, this paper evaluates systemic and idiosyncratic determinants of default risk and examines how distress is transferred in and between the financial and corporate sectors since the early days of the euro. This approach takes into account observed and unobserved common factors and the presence of different degrees of cross-section dependence in the form of economic proximity. This paper contributes to the financial stability literature with a contingent claims approach to a sector-based analysis with a less dominant macro focus while being compatible with existing stress-testing methodologies in the literature. A disaggregated analysis of the different corporate and financial sectors allows for a more detailed assessment of specificities in terms of risk pro le, i.e. heterogeneity of business models, risk exposures and interaction with the rest of the macro environment.

Applications of Molecularly Imprinted Films

Molecularly imprinted polymers are materials that have voids that are complementary in shape, size, and electronic environment to a specific molecule used for preparation, known as the template. These voids are specific recognition sites that bind the templates preferentially and are used specifically for biomimetic sensors and for solid-phase extraction. Because the specific surface is very important during this process, the use of films and membranes is preferred. This book contains four articles dedicated to sensor application (three research articles and one review) and one research article dedicated to solid-phase extraction

Morphological differentiation of Carollia brevicauda and C. perspicillata (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from Peru and Ecuador

En el género Carollia, Carollia brevicauda y C. perspicillata son las especies más abundantes y ampliamente distribuidas del género en América del Sur, además de tener distribuciones casi complemente sobrepuestas. Debido a que estas especies son morfológicamente similares en algunas localidades son frecuentemente mal identificadas. El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar las diferencias morfológicas y morfométricas de C. brevicauda y C. perspicillata. para esto, se empleó un análisis morfológico detallado y diversos métodos estadísticos y multivariados. Se evaluaron 26 variables cráneo-dentales con distribución normal de 375 especímenes adultos entre ambas especies procedentes de poblaciones peruanas y ecuatorianas. Además, para efectos de comparación se incluyeron a 54 especímenes entre Carollia benkeithi, C. manu y Carollia sp. Se encontró que C. brevicauda y C. perspicillata son diferentes en 28 caracteres discretos y significativamente diferenciables en 25 variables morfométricas. Además, los análisis multivariados sugirieron que C. brevicauda, C. perspicillata y C. manu forman un grupo morfológico distinto del grupo de C. benkeithi y Carollia sp. Estos resultados son concordantes con estudios previos y adicionan varios caracteres que diferencian a C. brevicauda de C. perspicillata, los cuales necesitan ser probados en otras regiones.In the bat genus Carollia, C. brevicauda and C. perspicillata are the most abundant and widely distributed in South America; also, their distributional ranges are almost completely overlapped. Because these species are morphologically very similar, they are frequently misidentified. The aims of this study were to determine the morphological and morphometric differences of C. brevicauda and C. perspicillata. For that reason, I employed a detail morphological assessment and several multivariate morphometric tools. I evaluated 26 normally craniodental variables in 375 adult specimens from Peruvian and Ecuadorian populations. In addition, 54 specimens of C. benkeithi, C. manu, and Carollia sp. were included for comparisons. I found that C. brevicauda and C. perspicillata are differentiated by 28 discrete characters, and are significantly different in 25 morphometric variables. Also, C. brevicauda, C. perspicillata, and C. manu are clustered in a different group from the group of C. benkeithi and Carollia sp. My results complement previous studies adding several characters that confidently differentiate C. brevicauda from C. perspicillata; which needs to be tested in other regions

WCO-Lite: online world catalogue of harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones): Version 1.0 — checklist of all valid nomina in Opiliones with authors and dates of publication up to 2018

This Version 1.0 of WCO-Lite contains a hierarchical arrangement of all 8707 valid nomina of taxa in the arachnid order Opiliones, with author and year of publication, including suborders, infraorders, superfamilies, families, subfamilies, genera, subgenera, species and subspecies. Literature survey is meant to be exhaustive up to December 2018, and after that, other works are included as available, but coverage is not necessarily complete. Therefore, some papers up to early 2020 found their way here, especially papers published in leading journals such as Zootaxa, or widely advertised on ResearchGate.Indisponível

Novel anticancer silver(I) phosphines proven to target the mitochondrial-mediated cell death pathway in malignant cells

Abstract: Cancer next to heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. It affects a large population of Africa and is regarded as a low public concern due to the prioritizing of other serious diseases (e.g. AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis) in the country. In 2008, over 680, 000 new cancer cases have been reported in Africa and over 500, 000 deaths of which these numbers could double by the year 2030. Apoptosis is an energy-dependant mechanism that is activated upon various stimuli that can either be external or internal of the cell. This form of cell death is the preferred route to induce malignant cell death because of the absence of an inflammatory response. Mutations in apoptotic genes, especially those from the p53 gene sub-family, are the main contributors of therapeutic resistance in most cancers. Although a wide range of anticancer regimens has been explored to kill of malignancies, in most cases, their approach has not been successful. Platinum-based treatments like, cisplatin and other derivatives, have been studied extensively as anticancer agents and is currently used (or in combination with other chemotherapeutic drugs) to treat certain malignancies. The use of these platinum agents is limited by their low selectivity and cancer resistance that occur over time. Phosphine transition metals, like gold(I), copper(I) and ruthenium(III) phosphines have been studied as potential anticancer agents. In addition, first-generation silver(I) phosphine complexes gardened interest due to their ease of structural manipulation that can improve anticancer activity. Some studies suggest that silver(I) phosphine complexes that are lipophilic in nature cause malignant cell death through mitochondrial targeting. Overall, the specific targeting mechanism of the silver(I) complex family is not known and should be elucidated to further understand their role in cancer cell death.Ph.D. (Biochemistry

New Ln(III) complexes as potential optical probes for biological applications

The unique properties of f-f transitions in trivalent lanthanide complexes are the understandable reason of increasing applications in biosensing field, where their long emission lifetimes, the sharp and easily recognizable emission bands in addition to the large shift between the absorbed and emitted radiation besides a short-lived background fluorescence permit the great advantage to isolate their emission signal from the undesired background fluorescence of the biological samples. Furthermore, luminescent complexes of Eu(III) and Tb(III) are the most employed candidates due to the low sensitivity of their excited state to vibrational quenching effects caused by OH, NH, or CH oscillators, frequently present in solution and imaging environments. For these reasons, Eu(III) and Tb(III) complexes have been extensively exploited as sensors of species in physiological conditions, by allowing the detection of relevant clinical biomarkers in biomedical diagnostics and imaging. For these purposes, a high luminescence emission quantum yield and overall luminosity (or brightness) are strongly required and the intensity of the luminescent response, that it is enhanced with heteroaromatic ligands via antenna effect, is usually correlated to the concentration of target analyte. In this PhD project, a library of new water soluble Eu(III) and Tb(III) complexes based on the chiral fragment 1,2-diaminecyclohexane (DACH) has been successfully synthetized, completely characterized (also in solution) and employed for analytical detection of important bio-analytes such as: bicarbonate, L-lactate, serum albumin, and citrate through mainly total luminescence (TL) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). These analytes are the main constituents of extracellular fluid, such as human serum

Avaliação das variações intra-anuais da cobertura da terra e suas relações com o relevo na região do Médio Araguaia

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Planaltina , Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Ambientais, 2019.A preocupação com as consequências das ações antrópicas sobre planícies de inundação é crescente no cenário internacional. A caracterização da sazonalidade da vegetação nessas regiões apresenta-se como eficiente ferramenta para a análise das modificações ecossistêmicas. O conhecimento sobre estes sistemas ainda é muito restrito, com um agravante das transformações das áreas alagáveis em áreas antropizadas, fazendo com que tais ambientes se percam antes mesmo de serem estudados. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar as variações espectrais de classes de uso e cobertura da terra da Ottobacia 6951, localizada no Médio curso do Rio Araguaia, no ano de 2017. Foram utilizadas imagens de reflectância da superfície terrestre do sensor Operational Land Imager (OLI) do satélite Landsat 8, referente aos períodos de transição chuva-seca (maio), seca (julho) e transição seca-chuva (outubro) de 2017. Para cada data foram geradas imagens-fração, através da técnica de mistura espectral, considerando três membros finais (natural, pastagem e água), evidenciando as mudanças da cobertura. Também foram gerados índices de vegetação para cada período, evidenciado os aspectos biofísicos da cobertura da terra. Para essa avaliação foram estabelecidos 50 pontos aleatórios para cada classe considerando a bacia inteira e cada unidade geomorfológica. A avaliação dos padrões temporais da cobertura da terra considerou, especialmente, as relações de significância entre os fatores “cobertura” e “período”, para a realização de Análise Multivariada de Permutação (PERMANOVA). A avaliação de agrupamentos foi realizada por meio da Análise de Componentes Principais (ACP), que proporciona a redução da dimensionalidade dos dados. Os resultados expressaram que a “Cobertura do solo” foi a variável de maior significância e influência para compreensão das mudanças intra-anuais que ocorrem na ottobacia de referência, a explicação para a área total da Ottobacia 6951 chegou a 41% e nas subdivisões das Unidades Geomorfológicas chegou a 28%. A classe pastagem apresentou a maior variação intra-anual, expressando um comportamento mais sensível à sazonalidade.Concern about the consequences of anthropic actions on flood plains is increasing in the international arena. The characterization of the seasonality of the vegetation in these regions presents itself as an efficient tool for the analysis of the ecosystemic modifications. The knowledge about these systems is still very restricted, with an aggravation of the transformations of floodplains in anthropic areas, causing such environments to be lost even before being studied. The objective of this work was to evaluate the spectral variations of land use and land cover classes of Ottobacia 6951, located in the middle course of the Araguaia River, in the year 2017. Land surface reflectance images of the Operational Land Imager (OLI) ) of the Landsat 8 satellite, referring to the rainy-dry (May), dry (July) and dry-rainy transition (October) periods of 2017. For each date fractional images were generated, using the spectral mixing technique, considering three final members (natural, pasture and water), evidencing changes in coverage. Vegetation indexes were also generated for each period, evidencing the biophysical aspects of the land cover. For this evaluation were established 50 random points for each class considering the entire basin and each geomorphological unit. The evaluation of temporal patterns of land cover considered, especially, the relations of significance between the factors "coverage" and "period", for the realization of Multivariate Analysis of Permutation (PERMANOVA). The clustering evaluation was performed through the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), which provides a reduction in the dimensionality of the data. The results showed that the "soil cover" was the variable of greater significance and influence to understand the intra-annual changes that occur in the reference ottobacia, the explanation for the total area of Ottobacia 6951 reached 41% and in the subdivisions of the Units Geomorphology reached 28%. The pasture class presented the highest intra-annual variation, expressing a behavior more sensitive to seasonality

Tracer and Timescale Methods for Passive and Reactive Transport in Fluid Flows

Geophysical, environmental, and urban fluid flows (i.e., flows developing in oceans, seas, estuaries, rivers, aquifers, reservoirs, etc.) exhibit a wide range of reactive and transport processes. Therefore, identifying key phenomena, understanding their relative importance, and establishing causal relationships between them is no trivial task. Analysis of primitive variables (e.g., velocity components, pressure, temperature, concentration) is not always conducive to the most fruitful interpretations. Examining auxiliary variables introduced for diagnostic purposes is an option worth considering. In this respect, tracer and timescale methods are proving to be very effective. Such methods can help address questions such as, "where does a fluid-born dissolved or particulate substance come from and where will it go?" or, "how fast are the transport and reaction phenomena controlling the appearance and disappearance such substances?" These issues have been dealt with since the 19th century, essentially by means of ad hoc approaches. However, over the past three decades, methods resting on solid theoretical foundations have been developed, which permit the evaluation of tracer concentrations and diagnostic timescales (age, residence/exposure time, etc.) across space and time and using numerical models and field data. This book comprises research and review articles, introducing state-of-the-art diagnostic theories and their applications to domains ranging from shallow human-made reservoirs to lakes, river networks, marine domains, and subsurface flow