Post-EMS exchange risk trends: A comparative perspective between Euro, British Pound and Japanese Yen excess returns against US Dollar

This paper studies the exchange rate risk of Euro, Pound and Yen against US Dollar before and after the EMU. The key question is to analyse the impact of the Euro to exchange rate risks. The risk is measured by estimating risk price coefficient (RPC) from an excess return equation. A conditional heteroskedastic variance model with time-varying mean is estimated for this purpose. Recursive estimates are used to examine the evolution of the parameters and to find out time-varying risk premia. Results show that after a period of adaptation following the introduction of the Euro, the Euro/US Dollar RPC decreased.Exchange rate risk, GARCH-M, risk-price, times series, recursive estimation

Unveiling the Dynamical State of Massive Clusters through the ICL Fraction

We have selected a sample of 11 massive clusters of galaxies observed by the Hubble Space Telescope in order to study the impact of the dynamical state on the intracluster light (ICL) fraction, the ratio of total integrated ICL to the total galaxy member light. With the exception of the Bullet cluster, the sample is drawn from the Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey and the Frontier Fields program, containing five relaxed and six merging clusters. The ICL fraction is calculated in three optical filters using the CHEFs ICL estimator, a robust and accurate algorithm free of a priori assumptions. We find that the ICL fraction in the three bands is, on average, higher for the merging clusters, ranging between ~7% and 23%, compared with the ~2%–11% found for the relaxed systems. We observe a nearly constant value (within the error bars) in the ICL fraction of the regular clusters at the three wavelengths considered, which would indicate that the colors of the ICL and the cluster galaxies are, on average, coincident and, thus, so are their stellar populations. However, we find a higher ICL fraction in the F606W filter for the merging clusters, consistent with an excess of lower-metallicity/younger stars in the ICL, which could have migrated violently from the outskirts of the infalling galaxies during the merger event

Mediating Effects of Social Support in the Association Between Problems in Childhood and Adolescence and Well‑Being in Adult Domestic Adoptees

Research concerning adulthood and adoption has gained popularity in recent years, but there are very few studies involving positive variables of adjustment. Adopted people are believed to have more behavioral and emotional problems in childhood than the general population. Previous research suggests overall continuity of functioning in later life. However, certain variables might change that continuity. Through Structural Equation Modeling analyses, this paper assesses the mediating role of social support in the well-being of 70 adult adoptees. Findings showed a well-fitted model, where problems in adolescence had a direct effect on well-being in adulthood. Additionally, we found two mediating effects: (a) social support mediated the relationship between problems in adolescence and well-being later in life; and (b) problems in adolescence mediated the relationship between problems in childhood and well-being. The main implication of these results is that social support helps develop good levels of adjustment and well-being in adulthood. Taking all this into account, it is important for adoption professionals to encourage families to support their children and to provide additional support for those adoptees needing it

Formación Universitaria en Agroecología y Producción Ecológica en España: Perspectiva histórica, situación actual y retos

La presencia de la formación en Agroecología en la Universidad ha mejorado notablemente en los 30 años transcurridos desde el inicio, pero sigue siendo muy escasa. Su carácter transversal, el enfoque productivista de las ciencias agrarias y el desconocimiento de lo que la Agroecología aporta a los sistemas agroalimentarios han sido las principales causas. En la actualidad, hay mejores perspectivas

Clinical and microbiological diagnosis of oral candidiasis

Introduction: Candidiasis or oral candidiasis is the most frequent mucocutaneous mycosis of the oral cavity. It is produced by the genus Candida, which is found in the oral cavity of 53% of the general population as a common commensal organism. One hundred and fifty species have been isolated in the oral cavity, and 80% of the isolates correspond to Candida albicans, which can colonize the oral cavity alone or in combination with other species. Transformation from commensal organism to pathogen depends on the intervention of different predisposing factors that modify the microenvironment of the oral cavity and favor the appearance of opportunistic infection. The present study offers a literature review on the diagnosis of oral candidiasis, with the purpose of establishing when complementary microbiological techniques for the diagnosis of oral candidiasis should be used, and which techniques are most commonly employed in routine clinical practice in order to establish a definitive diagnosis. Materials and methods: A Medline-PubMed, Scopus and Cochrane search was made covering the last 10 years. Results: The diagnosis of oral candidiasis is fundamentally clinical. Microbiological techniques are used when the clinical diagnosis needs to be confirmed, for establishing a differential diagnosis with other diseases, and in cases characterized by resistance to antifungal drugs. Biopsies in turn are indicated in patients with hyperplastic candidiasis. Staining (10% KOH) and culture (Sabouraud dextrose agar) are the methods most commonly used for diagnosing primary candidiasis. Identification of the individual species of Candida is usually carried out with CHROMagar Candida®. For the diagnosis of invasive candidiasis, and in cases requiring differentiation between C. albicans and C. dubliniensis, use is made of immunological and genetic techniques such as ELISA and PCR

Language of Interview and the Subjectively-Rated Health of Hispanic Mothers and their Children

Hispanics tend to be as healthy as non-Hispanic whites across a number of indicators, yet they consistently rate their health as worse than non-Hispanic whites. This incongruous finding has been tied both to levels of acculturation and Spanish-language use, questioning the validity of self-reported health for Spanish speakers in the United States. Furthermore, in the same way that Hispanic adults interviewed in Spanish have worse self-rated health, when asked in Spanish mothers rate their children’s health as worse than those mothers who answer in English. The exact reasons for this relationship, though, are unclear. Frequently this language effect has been taken as an indicator of acculturation; as such, the assumption is that as time progresses Hispanics become more acculturated and answer questions regarding their health more similarly to non-Hispanic whites. However, up until this point there has been no longitudinal research examining the relationship between rated health and language of interview. Using three waves of data on Hispanic mothers and their children from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, this paper addresses the following questions: 1. Is Spanish language interview predictive of worse rated health for both mothers and children, and do these relationships change over time? 2. Does the effect of language on rated health persist after controlling for potential mediators? By employing two-level generalized linear models, we find that on average, those who were interviewed in Spanish are more likely to rate their and their children’s health as worse than those who answered in English. The effect of language of interview on reported health persists over time, even after controlling for measures of acculturation, physical and mental health, and access to health care. Contrary to what some have proposed, we see no discernable change over time in the way women rate their own health or that of their children.

Best practices for requirements identification, specification, and validation to guide software implementation and maintenance processes for applications in an electricity supply company

El objetivo de este proyecto fue identificar y adaptar las buenas prácticas para la identificación, especificación y validación de requisitos que guían el proceso de implementación y mantenimiento de software en los aplicativos de una empresa electrificadora, el cual se logró mediante el estudio y análisis del estado actual del tema en Colombia, en particular en empresas del sector eléctrico, y de los diferentes referentes teóricos de la ingeniería de requerimientos, que apalancaron el buen entendimiento de este tema, y los referentes metodológicos identificados como buenas prácticas, a nivel mundial, tales como: RUP; desarrollo Ágil (con énfasis en Scrum); casos de uso y casos de uso 2.0; CMMI; PMI, con énfasis en sus áreas de conocimiento de gestión de alcance y gestión de interesados; y BABOK. El resultado fue un proceso que agrupa modelos para mejorar los requerimientos para nuevos desarrollos, la atención de solicitudes de modificación y la atención de incidentes y emergencias, los cuales fueron valorados favorablemente, a partir de una experiencia piloto, por un panel de expertos.The objective of this project is to identify and adapt the best practices for the identification, specification, and validation of requirements that guide the software implementation and maintenance processes in applications of an electric company. We performed this identification through the study and analysis of the actual state of the topic in Colombia, particularly within electric companies and supported by the theoretical examples of requirements engineering. Both the examples and the methodological models identified as best practices —such as RUP, agile development (focused on Scrum), CMMI, use cases and use cases 2.0, PMI —focused on the management of the scope and stakeholders—, and BABOK support the understanding of this topic. The result is a process that collects models to improve the requirements for new developments and for the handling of change requests and incidents/emergencies, obtaining positive evaluations by expert judgement in a pilot experiment