THE STRENGTH OF CENTRAL BANK AND ITS IMPACT ON PRICE STABILITY IN SOUTH ASIA

Central bank plays a key role in an economy of a country in terms of conducting monetary policy. But the importance of maintaining an adequate level of financial strength for a central bank is subjected to controversy believing that being the monetary authority in the economy, central banks do not require financial strength. But recently, the importance of financial strength even for central banks came to the consideration in the event of financial failures of central banks in larger economies. Hence, the requisite of central bank financial strength in terms of achieving policy objectives particularly the price stability which is the key policy objective of majority of central banks around the world came to discussion. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of central bank financial strength on price stability in South Asian context. Prevailing limited studies on this field have been focused on the analysis of central bank financial strength and price stability mostly in the context of western countries or as a whole for the world. Investigation on South Asian context would give different insight to the prevailing debate on the topic since it is considered that there is a lower central bank independence within the South Asian region which motivated this study. The study has been conducted for the time period of 1980 to 2015 and an unbalanced panel regression was conducted using central bank financial strength as the main independent variable where the consumer inflation as a proxy to price stability was the dependent variable. Empirical result of this study provides a significant negative relationship between central bank financial strength and inflation suggesting a probable impact from central bank financial strength on price stability for the selected countries within the region.Keywords: Central Bank Financial Strength, Price Stability, South Asi

Do Women in Top Management Affect Firm Performances? Analysis of Public Quoted Companies in Sri Lanka

AbstractThere are many studies in the linkage between women’s participation in director board and its impact on firm’s financial performance in the setting of developed economies. Conversely, the shortfall of literature and the lack of knowledge regarding this issue in developing economies motivated to undertake the current study. Hence this study makes contribution to the literature by addressing the nature in a developing economy with reference to the Sri Lankan context. The main objective of the study is to examine the relation between women’s participation in director board and its impacts on the financial performance of firms in Sri Lanka.The quantitative research approach, using panel data regression analysis was employed for the study. The sample was thirty Sri Lankan firms which are listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange from 2011-2015. The quantitative data were taken from the annual reports of the sample firms and it was analyzed using E-views 07 under pooled OLS method and Fixed Effect model. The agency theory, stewardship theory and resource dependence theory were used to explain the relationship between gender diversity in the board room and firm’s financial performances. The return on assets was the proxy for firm’s financial performances and proportion of female directors in the director board and board size were explanatory variables. The control variables were firm size denoted by the total assets, market value denoted by the Tobin’s Q ratio and the market price per share.The results of the Pooled OLS reflected that there is a significant positive relationship between gender diversity of the director board and firm’s financial performances. The fixed effect model also revealed the positive association between gender diversity of the director board and firm’s financial performances, but it is not significant.Keywords: Gender Diversity, Firm’s Financial Performance, Panel Data Regression

Anal infections with concomitant Chlamydia trachomatis genotypes among men who have sex with men in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) proctitis is caused by <it>Chlamydia trachomatis </it>(Ct) genotype L and is endemic among men who have sex with men (MSM) in western society. Genotype L infections need to be distinguished from non-LGV (genotypes A-K) Ct infections since they require prolonged antibiotic treatment. For this purpose, an in-house developed <it>pmpH </it>based LGV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is used at the Amsterdam STI outpatient clinic. We investigated retrospectively the anal Ct genotype distribution, and the frequency of concomitant genotype infections in MSM infected with LGV and non-LGV Ct infections. To detect concomitant Ct genotype infections, the <it>pmpH </it>LGV PCR and genoTyping Reverse Hybridization Assay (Ct-DT RHA) were used.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 201 Ct positive rectal swabs from MSM were selected, which were previously diagnosed as either LGV (n = 99) or non-LGV Ct infection (n = 102) according to the algorithm of Ct detection by the commercially available Aptima Combo 2 assay followed by an in-house <it>pmpH </it>LGV PCR. The samples were retested with the commercially available Ct-DT RHA, which differentiates between 14 major genotypes and is able to detect concomitant Ct genotypes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Excellent genotyping agreement was observed between the Ct-DT RHA and the <it>pmpH </it>LGV PCR (Kappa = 0.900, 95%CI = 0.845-0.955, McNemar's p = 1.000). A concomitant non-LGV genotype was detected in 6/99 (6.1%) LGV samples. No additional LGV infections were observed with the Ct-DT RHA among the non-LGV Ct group. In the non-LGV group genotype G/Ga (34.3%) was seen most frequent, followed by genotype D/Da (22.5%) and genotype J (13.7%). All LGV infections were caused by genotype L2.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Concomitant non-LGV genotypes do not lead to missed LGV proctitis diagnosis. The <it>pmpH </it>LGV PCR displayed excellent agreement with the commercially available Ct-DT genotyping RHA test. The genotypes G/Ga, D/Da and J were the most frequent non-LGV Ct strains in MSM.</p

Einstein's "Zur Elektrodynamik..." (1905) Revisited, with Some Consequences

Einstein, in his "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Korper", gave a physical (operational) meaning to "time" of a remote event in describing "motion" by introducing the concept of "synchronous stationary clocks located at different places". But with regard to "place" in describing motion, he assumed without analysis the concept of a system of co-ordinates. In the present paper, we propose a way of giving physical (operational) meaning to the concepts of "place" and "co-ordinate system", and show how the observer can define both the place and time of a remote event. Following Einstein, we consider another system "in uniform motion of translation relatively to the former". Without assuming "the properties of homogeneity which we attribute to space and time", we show that the definitions of space and time in the two systems are linearly related. We deduce some novel consequences of our approach regarding faster-than-light observers and particles, "one-way" and "two-way" velocities of light, symmetry, the "group property" of inertial reference frames, length contraction and time dilatation, and the "twin paradox". Finally, we point out a flaw in Einstein's argument in the "Electrodynamical Part" of his paper and show that the Lorentz force formula and Einstein's formula for transformation of field quantities are mutually consistent. We show that for faster-than-light bodies, a simple modification of Planck's formula for mass suffices. (Except for the reference to Planck's formula, we restrict ourselves to Physics of 1905.)Comment: 55 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in "Foundations of Physics

Sequence analysis of the 5' untranslated region in isolates of at least four genotypes of hepatitis C virus in The Netherlands

The RNAs of hepatitis C virus (HCV) isolates from 62 patients with chronic HCV infection were analyzed by direct sequencing of the 5' untranslated region. Two important sequence motifs were recognized: one between positions -170 and -155 and the other between positions -132 and -117. These motifs are partly complementary. All three previously published genotypes were observed; 34 (55%) isolates were classified as type 1 (including prototype [from the United States] and HCV-BK [from Japan] sequences), 11 (18%) were classified as type 2 (including HC-J6 and HC-J8), and 12 (19%) were classified as type 3 (including EB1); one patient was infected with genotypes 1 and 2. Four (6%) isolates showed aberrant sequences and were therefore provisionally classified as genotype 4. These results indicate the significance of sequence variation among the 5' untranslated regions of different HCV genotypes and indicate that this region could possibly be used for consistent genotyping of HCV isolates

Evaluation of a Novel Multiplex Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Genotyping Assay for HPV Types in Skin Warts

Public Health and primary careMinor Ailment

Influence of volume of sample processed on detection of Chlamydia trachomatis in urogenital samples by PCR

In the present study, it was demonstrated that the sensitivity of the PCR for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis is influenced by the volume of the clinical sample which is processed in the PCR. An adequate sensitivity for PCR was established by processing at least 4%, i.e., 80 microliters, of the clinical sample volume per PCR. By using this preparation procedure, 1,110 clinical samples were evaluated by PCR and by cell culture, and results were compared. After discordant analysis, cell culture resulted in a sensitivity of 79.1% and PCR resulted in a sensitivity of 92.7%. Furthermore, it was shown that treatme

Evaluation of Clearview and Magic Lite tests, polymerase chain reaction, and cell culture for detection of Chlamydia trachomatis in urogenital specimens

The Clearview Chlamydia test (CV; Unipath Ltd., Bedford, United Kingdom), the Magic Lite Chlamydia test (ML; CIBA Corning, Medfield, Mass.), a polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and cell culture (CC) were evaluated for detection of Chlamydia trachomatis in urogenital specimens. Specimens were collected from 283 men and 724 women visiting the outpatient clinic for Sexually Transmitted Diseases at the University Hospital Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. ML, PCR, and CC were all performed on the same sample to prevent swab-to-swab variability. CV was performed on a separate sample. Analysis of discordant results was performed by application of the following confirmatory assays: first, PCR on th