Market and Funding Liquidity Stress Testing of the Luxembourg Banking Sector

This paper performs market and funding liquidity stress testing of the Luxembourg banking sector using stochastic haircuts and run-off rates. It takes into account not only the shocks to the banking sector and banks? responses to them, but second-round effects due to the effects of banks? reactions on asset prices and reputation. In general, banks? business lines and, therefore their buffers? composition, determine the net effect of the shocks on banks? stochastic liquidity buffers. So, results differ across banks. Second-round effects exemplify the relevance of contagion effects that reduce the systemic benefits of diversification. While systemic liquidity risk is low following a shock to the interbank market, for Luxembourg, with its high number of subsidiaries of large foreign financial institutions, the results indicate the importance of monitoring the liquidity of parent groups to which Luxembourg institutions belong. In particular, shocks to related-party deposits are important. Finally, the results, including those of a run-on-deposits shock, show the relevance of system-wide measures to minimize the systemic effects of liquidity crises.stress test, liquidity risk, banks, stochastic, contagion, macro-prudential

Jacob Receiving Joseph’s Coat (1842) of Pelegrí Clavé (1811-1880), A Key Piece of Catalan Nazarism

L’article dóna notícia de l’oli de Pelegrí Clavé (Barcelona, 1811 – Barcelona, 1880) Jacob rep la túnica ensangonada del seu fi ll Josep (1842), presentat al mes de gener de 2011 com la nova adquisició del Museu d’Art de Girona. Després d’una breu nota biogràfica de l’artista, s’hi analitza l’obra, especialment pel que fa al seu tema i la seva relació amb el cicle de frescos a la casa Bartholdy de Roma. A partir d’aquesta anàlsi, s’hi defensa la posició singular de l’obra en el context del natzarenisme català. També s’ofereix una breu història del quadre i un recull dels diferents esbossos i estudis preparatoris.This article deals with a work by Pelegrí Clavé (Barcelona 1811-Barcelona 1880), Jacob receiving Joseph’s Coat (1842), presented by the Museu d’Art of Girona as a new acquisition in January 2011. It opens with a short biographical note on the painter, followed by a comment on the painting, with special emphasis on its subject matter and relationship to the frescoes at the Casa Bartholdy in Rome. Based on this analysis, the article argues that the painting occupies a singular position in Catalan Nazarism. The article concludes by offering a brief history of the work and a complete record of its different preparatory sketches

Jacob rep la túnica ensangonada del seu fill Josep (1842), de Pelegrí Clavé (1811-1880), una peça clau del natzarenisme català

L'article dóna notícia de l'oli de Pelegrí Clavé (Barcelona, 1811 - Barcelona, 1880) Jacob rep la túnica ensangonada del seu fi ll Josep (1842), presentat al mes de gener de 2011 com la nova adquisició del Museu d'Art de Girona. Després d'una breu nota biogràfica de l'artista, s'hi analitza l'obra, especialment pel que fa al seu tema i la seva relació amb el cicle de frescos a la casa Bartholdy de Roma. A partir d'aquesta anàlsi, s'hi defensa la posició singular de l'obra en el context del natzarenisme català. També s'ofereix una breu història del quadre i un recull dels diferents esbossos i estudis preparatoris.This article deals with a work by Pelegrí Clavé (Barcelona 1811-Barcelona 1880), Jacob receiving Joseph's Coat (1842), presented by the Museu d'Art of Girona as a new acquisition in January 2011. It opens with a short biographical note on the painter, followed by a comment on the painting, with special emphasis on its subject matter and relationship to the frescoes at the Casa Bartholdy in Rome. Based on this analysis, the article argues that the painting occupies a singular position in Catalan Nazarism. The article concludes by offering a brief history of the work and a complete record of its different preparatory sketches

GPR clutter amplitude processing to detect shallow geological targets

The analysis of clutter in A-scans produced by energy randomly scattered in some specific geological structures, provides information about changes in the shallow sedimentary geology. The A-scans are composed by the coherent energy received from reflections on electromagnetic discontinuities and the incoherent waves from the scattering in small heterogeneities. The reflected waves are attenuated as consequence of absorption, geometrical spreading and losses due to reflections and scattering. Therefore, the amplitude of those waves diminishes and at certain two-way travel times becomes on the same magnitude as the background noise in the radargram, mainly produced by the scattering. The amplitude of the mean background noise is higher when the dispersion of the energy increases. Then, the mean amplitude measured in a properly selected time window is a measurement of the amount of the scattered energy and, therefore, a measurement of the increase of scatterers in the ground. This paper presents a simple processing that allows determining the Mean Amplitude of Incoherent Energy (MAEI) for each A-scan, which is represented in front of the position of the trace. This procedure is tested in a field study, in a city built on a sedimentary basin. The basin is crossed by a large number of hidden subterranean streams and paleochannels. The sedimentary structures due to alluvial deposits produce an amount of the random backscattering of the energy that is measured in a time window. The results are compared along the entire radar line, allowing the location of streams and paleochannels. Numerical models were also used in order to compare the synthetic traces with the field radargrams and to test the proposed processing methodology. The results underscore the amount of the MAEI over the streams and also the existence of a surrounding zone where the amplitude is increasing from the average value to the maximum obtained over the structure. Simulations show that this zone does not correspond to any particular geological change but is consequence of the path of the antenna that receives the scattered energy before arriving to the alluvial depositsPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Elongating under Stress

In response to extracellular stimuli, mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) modulate gene expression to maximize cell survival. Exposure of yeast to high osmolarity results in activation of the p38-related MAPK Hog1, which plays a key role in reprogramming the gene expression pattern required for cell survival upon osmostress. Hog1 not only regulates initiation but also modulates other steps of the transcription process. Recent work indicates that other yeast signalling MAPKs such as Mpk1 modulate transcriptional elongation in response to cell wall stress. Similarly, mammalian MAPKs have also been found associated to coding regions of stress-responsive genes. In this paper, significant progress in MAPK-regulated events that occur during the transcriptional elongation step is summarized, and future directions are discussed. We expect that the principles learned from these studies will provide a new understanding of the regulation of gene expression by signalling kinases

Three Cycles: Housing, Credit and Real Activity

We examine the characteristics and comovement of cycles in house prices, credit, real activity and interest rates in advanced economies during the past 25 years, using a dynamic generalised factor model. House price cycles generally lead credit and business cycles over the long term, while in the short to medium run the relationship varies across countries. Interest rates tend to lag other cycles at all time horizons. While global factors are important, the U.S. business cycle, house price cycle and interest rate cycle tend to lead the respective cycles in other countries over all time horizons. However, the U.S. credit cycle leads mostly over the long term.Macro-financial linkages, house prices, credit, business cycle

Cap a un e-SLT: incorporació de les TIC en un servei lingüístic universitari

L'article recull l'evolució que les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació han provocat en el Servei de Llengües i Terminologia de la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya durant els últims anys. Hi figuren els reptes i els productes que s'han desenvolupat i que han comportat canvis significatius en la manera de treballar

Shaping the Transcriptional Landscape through MAPK Signaling

A change in the transcriptional landscape is an equilibrium-breaking event important for many biological processes. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways are dedicated to sensing extracellular cues and are highly conserved across eukaryotes. Modulation of gene expression in response to the extracellular environment is one of the main mechanisms by which MAPK regulates proteome homeostasis to orchestrate adaptive responses that determine cell fate. A massive body of knowledge generated from population and single-cell analyses has led to an understanding of how MAPK pathways operate. MAPKs have thus emerged as fundamental transcriptome regulators that function through a multi-layered control of gene expression, a process often deregulated in disease, which therefore provides an attractive target for therapeutic strategies. Here, we summarize the current understanding of the mechanisms underlying MAPK-mediated gene expression in organisms ranging from yeast to mammals

La influencia de la actividad turística sobre la contaminación atmosférica: El caso de Mallorca

The increase in touristsʼ mobility in destinations is associated with a increase in traffic externalities. Road transport externalities have been present both in the literature and on the policy agenda for many countries. However, for a tourist economy, the role of such externalities has not been analyzed in depth. This study aims at relating air pollution with the road transport induced by tourism activity. Results show how different levels of pollution can be associated to the daily stock of people, whose main source of variability lies in the tourism level.El incremento de la movilidad de turistas en los destinos está asociado a un aumento de las externalidades del transporte rodado. Dichas externalidades han sido consideradas en la literatura y la agenda política de muchos países. Sin embargo, para una economía turística, el papel que éstas desempeñan no se ha analizado en profundidad. Este trabajo pretende vincular la contaminación del aire con el tráfico inducido por el turismo. Según los resultados, diferentes niveles de contaminación pueden asociarse al «stock» diario de población, cuya principal fuente de variación radica en el turismo