THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MACROECONOMIC VARIABLES AND ROMANIAN CORPORATE DEFAULT RATES BETWEEN 2002-2008

During its 20 year history of market economy, Romania experienced the most severe downturn in 2009, which resulted in many cost, mainly because of the output loss. These conditions forced several firms to declare bankruptcy and to stop their activity. The aim of this research is to assess the relationship between the corporate default rates and the macroeconomic processes in the case of Romania for the period comprised between 2002Q1-2008Q4. For this, based on the relevant literature, we ranked the potential explanatory variables of the default rates into seven groups: cyclical indicators, household indicators, corporate indicators, external sector indicators, price stability indicators and interest rates, loans to private sector and finally the capital market indicators. Some studies base their results only on accounting data, others only on market data. Our study focuses on both, since this seems to be an adequate approach in capturing most of the processes. Similar to the banks' loan portfolio structure, we conducted analysis for five sectors: industry, construction, agriculture, services and the overall economy. For each sector the average default probability at time t is modeled as a logistic function of many general and sector-specific macroeconomic variables. The use of logistic regression was motivated by its ability to account for fractional data between 0 and 1. We found that at least one variable from each group has a significant explanatory power regarding the evolution of the default rates in all five sectors analyzed. In some cases the sign of the variables was the opposite of what the economic theory would have suggested, but it has to be taken into account that Romania posted the picture of an overheated economy during the analyzed period. Another important conclusion was that many variables were significant through their lagged value, which indicates an even better supervision of the evolution of the specific variables. From all the variables, the volatility of the BET-C index proves to be the most important in predicting the evolution of the default rates, as it didn't proved to be significant only for the construction sector. The evolution of FDI and the volatility of the BET-C index proved to be very important in determining the evolution of the corporate default rates, as well. The first was a very important factor in the financing of companies, especially during the analyzed period, and the risk meter is something that never should be disregarded when it comes of analyzing default rates.corporate default rate, macroeconomic processes, economic imbalances, logistic regression, lagged effects

Efficiency of different marker systems for genotype fingerprinting and for genetic diversity studies in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

AbstractGenetic relationships between 38 barley genotypes were determined with the aid of 36 RAPD, 54 STS and 26 SSR markers. The dendrogram groups showed high coincidence with growth habit and ear type. There were significant correlations between the Jaccard coefficients obtained using the matrices of each single marker type and their combined matrix. When the varieties were grouped using markers with above-average Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) values, the same groups were obtained as when using all markers, outlining their usefulness for estimating diversity between the varieties. Three RAPD or four SSR primers were sufficient to distinguish all the barley varieties from each other. The applicability of the various types of primers differed. The STS markers could best be used for estimating relationships between the varieties and the SSR markers for distinguishing genotypes from each other, while RAPD markers could be employed both for estimating the relationships between varieties and for variety identification

Expression analysis of vernalization and day-length response genes in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) indicates that VRNH2 is a repressor of PPDH2 (HvFT3) under long days

The response to vernalization and the expression of genes associated with responses to vernalization (VRNH1, VRNH2, and VRNH3) and photoperiod (PPDH1 and PPDH2) were analysed in four barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) lines: ‘Alexis’ (spring), ‘Plaisant’ (winter), SBCC058, and SBCC106 (Spanish inbred lines), grown under conditions of vernalization and short days (VSD) or no vernalization and long days (NVLD). The four genotypes differ in VRNH1. Their growth habits and responses to vernalization correlated with the level of expression of VRNH1 and the length of intron 1. ‘Alexis’ and ‘Plaisant’ behaved as expected. SBCC058 and SBCC106 showed an intermediate growth habit and flowered relatively late in the absence of vernalization. VRNH1 expression was induced by cold for all genotypes. Under VSD, VRNH1 expression was detected in the SBCC genotypes later than in ‘Alexis’ but earlier than in ‘Plaisant’. VRNH2 was repressed under short days while VRNH1 expression increased in parallel. VRNH3 was detected only in ‘Alexis’ under NVLD, whereas it was not expressed in plants with the active allele of VRNH2 (SBCC058 and ‘Plaisant’). Under VSD, PPDH2 was expressed in ‘Alexis’, SBCC058, and SBCC106, but it was only expressed weakly in ‘Alexis’ under NVLD. Further analysis of PPDH2 expression in two barley doubled haploid populations revealed that, under long days, HvFT3 and VRNH2 expression levels were related inversely. The timing of VRNH2 expression under a long photoperiod suggests that this gene might be involved in repression of PPDH2 and, indirectly, in the regulation of flowering time through an interaction with the day-length pathway

Perspectives on Low Temperature Tolerance and Vernalization Sensitivity in Barley: Prospects for Facultative Growth Habit

One option to achieving greater resiliency for barley production in the face of climate change is to explore the potential of winter and facultative growth habits: for both types, low temperature tolerance (LTT) and vernalization sensitivity are key traits. Sensitivity to short-day photoperiod is a desirable attribute for facultative types. In order to broaden our understanding of the genetics of these phenotypes, we mapped quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and identified candidate genes using a genome-wide association studies (GWAS) panel composed of 882 barley accessions that was genotyped with the Illumina 9K single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip. Fifteen loci including 5 known and 10 novel QTL/genes were identified for LTT—assessed as winter survival in 10 field tests and mapped using a GWAS meta-analysis. FR-H1, FR-H2, and FR-H3 were major drivers of LTT, and candidate genes were identified for FR-H3. The principal determinants of vernalization sensitivity were VRN-H1, VRN-H2, and PPD-H1. VRN-H2 deletions conferred insensitive or intermediate sensitivity to vernalization. A subset of accessions with maximum LTT were identified as a resource for allele mining and further characterization. Facultative types comprised a small portion of the GWAS panel but may be useful for developing germplasm with this growth habit

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MACROECONOMIC VARIABLES AND ROMANIAN CORPORATE DEFAULT RATES BETWEEN 2002-2008

During its 20 year history of market economy, Romania experienced the most severe downturn in 2009, which resulted in many cost, mainly because of the output loss. These conditions forced several firms to declare bankruptcy and to stop their activity. The aim of this research is to assess the relationship between the corporate default rates and the macroeconomic processes in the case of Romania for the period comprised between 2002Q1-2008Q4. For this, based on the relevant literature, we ranked the potential explanatory variables of the default rates into seven groups: cyclical indicators, household indicators, corporate indicators, external sector indicators, price stability indicators and interest rates, loans to private sector and finally the capital market indicators. Some studies base their results only on accounting data, others only on market data. Our study focuses on both, since this seems to be an adequate approach in capturing most of the processes. Similar to the banks loan portfolio structure, we conducted analysis for five sectors: industry, construction, agriculture, services and the overall economy. For each sector the average default probability at time t is modeled as a logistic function of many general and sector-specific macroeconomic variables. The use of logistic regression was motivated by its ability to account for fractional data between 0 and 1. We found that at least one variable from each group has a significant explanatory power regarding the evolution of the default rates in all five sectors analyzed. In some cases the sign of the variables was the opposite of what the economic theory would have suggested, but it has to be taken into account that Romania posted the picture of an overheated economy during the analyzed period. Another important conclusion was that many variables were significant through their lagged value, which indicates an even better supervision of the evolution of the specific variables. From all the variables, the volatility of the BET-C index proves to be the most important in predicting the evolution of the default rates, as it didn't proved to be significant only for the construction sector. The evolution of FDI and the volatility of the BET-C index proved to be very important in determining the evolution of the corporate default rates, as well. The first was a very important factor in the financing of companies, especially during the analyzed period, and the risk meter is something that never should be disregarded when it comes of analyzing default rates

VERNALIZATION1 controls developmental responses of winter wheat under high ambient temperatures

Supplementary information available online at http://dev.biologists.org/lookup/doi/10.1242/dev.172684.supplementalExome capture data for the Hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars Charger, Badger, Avalon, Rialto, Buster and Spark have been deposited in ENA under accession number PRJEB30905.Low temperatures are required to regulate the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth via a pathway called vernalization. In wheat, vernalization predominantly involves the cold upregulation of the floral activator VERNALIZATION1 (VRN1). Here, we have used an extreme vernalization response, identified through studying ambient temperature responses, to reveal the complexity of temperature inputs into VRN-A1, with allelic inter-copy variation at a gene expansion of VRN-A1 modulating these effects. We find that the repressors of the reproductive transition, VERNALIZATION2 (VRN2) and ODDSOC2, are re-activated when plants experience high temperatures during and after vernalization. In addition, this re-activation is regulated by photoperiod for VRN2 but was independent of photoperiod for ODDSOC2. We also find this warm temperature interruption affects flowering time and floret number and is stage specific. This research highlights the important balance between floral activators and repressors in coordinating the response of a plant to temperature, and that the absence of warmth is essential for the completion of vernalization. This knowledge can be used to develop agricultural germplasm with more predictable vernalization responses that will be more resilient to variable growth temperatures