Customer Trading in the Foreign Exchange Market: Empirical Evidence from an Internet Trading Platform

This paper analyzes the relationship between currency price changes and their expectations. Currency price change expectations are derived with the help of different order flow measures, from the trading behavior of investors on OANDA FXTrade, which is an internet trading platform in the foreign exchange market. We investigate whether forecasts of intra-day price changes on different sampling frequencies can be improved with the information contained in the flow of our investors’ orders. Moreover, we verify several hypotheses on the trading behavior and the preference structure of our investors by investigating how past price changes affect future order flow.Customer Dataset, Order Flow, Price Changes, Foreign Exchange Market

A model of the anchoring effect in dichotomous choice valuation with follow-up.

This paper focuses on modelling and estimating the starting point bias in closed-ended follow-up questions, where several bids are presented successively, depending on previous answers. Although the contingent valuation literature took off in the last decade, there is only one study modelling the starting point bias. We propose a new modelling of this anchoring effect based on the assumption the first proposed bid has a direct influence on the individual's willingness-to-pay, i.e respondents modify their willingness-to-pay when presented with the first bid just before they answer the first question. Monte Carlo results support the specification of our model. An application is provided based on data from a contingent valuation study conducted concerning air quality in Strasbourg.Contingent valuation, willingness-to-pay, binary-choice, anchoring effect.

Schätzung ökonometrischer Modelle auf der Grundlage anonymisierter Daten

Die Anonymisierung von sensiblen Individualdaten führt zu einem Konflikt zwischen dem Ziel der Minimierung des Reidentifikationsrisikos und der Qualität ökonometrischer Schätzungen. Der durch Anonymisierung bedingte Verlust an Effizienz und/oder der Konsistenz eines Schätzers wirft die grundsätzliche Frage auf, inwieweit anonymisierte Individualdaten überhaupt für die wissenschaftliche Nutzung geeignet sind. Deshalb gehen wir in dieser Arbeit der Frage nach, welchen Einfluss Anonymisierungsverfahren auf die Eigenschaften von ökonometrischen Schätzern haben. Zunächst untersuchen wir die Auswirkungen gängiger Anonymisierungsverfahren auf lineare ökonometrische Schätzer in endlichen Stichproben. Im zweiten Schritt untersuchen wir, inwieweit sich die Selektions-effekte durch Anonymisierung aufgrund von Data Blanking mit Hilfe von semiparametrischen Verfahren korrigieren lassen. Die quantitative Evidenz beruht auf Monte-Carlo Simulationen und einer illustrativen Anwendung für einen Querschnitt der Kostenstrukturerhebung.Mikroaggregation, stochastische Überlagerung, Data Blanking, IV-Schätzung, semiparametrisches Selektionsmodell

Protection of Hepatocytes from Cytotoxic T Cell Mediated Killing by Interferon-Alpha

<p>Background: Cellular immunity plays a key role in determining the outcome of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, although the majority of infections become persistent. The mechanisms behind persistence are still not clear; however, the primary site of infection, the liver, may be critical. We investigated the ability of CD8+ T-cells (CTL) to recognise and kill hepatocytes under cytokine stimulation.</p> <p>Methods/Principle Findings: Resting hepatocytes cell lines expressed low levels of MHC Class I, but remained susceptible to CTL cytotoxicity. IFN-α treatment, in vitro, markedly increased hepatocyte MHC Class I expression, however, reduced sensitivity to CTL cytotoxicity. IFN-α stimulated hepatocyte lines were still able to present antigen and induce IFN-γ expression in interacting CTL. Resistance to killing was not due to the inhibition of the FASL/FAS- pathway, as stimulated hepatocytes were still susceptible to FAS-mediated apoptosis. In vitro stimulation with IFN-α, or the introduction of a subgenomic HCV replicon into the HepG2 line, upregulated the expression of the granzyme-B inhibitor–proteinase inhibitor 9 (PI-9). PI-9 expression was also observed in liver tissue biopsies from patients with chronic HCV infection.</p> <p>Conclusion/Significance: IFN-α induces resistance in hepatocytes to perforin/granzyme mediate CTL killing pathways. One possible mechanism could be through the expression of the PI-9. Hindrance of CTL cytotoxicity could contribute to the chronicity of hepatic viral infections.</p&gt

Investment liberalisation, technology take-off and export markets entry:does foreign ownership structure matter?

Before and after its accession to the WTO in 2001, China has undergone a far-reaching investment liberalisation. As part of this, existing restrictions on foreign ownership structure and mandatory export and technology transfer requirements imposed on foreign firms have been lifted in a number of industries. Against this background we identify the causal effects of foreign acquisitions on export market entry and technology take-off and evaluate whether the level of foreign ownership plays a role in stimulating these changes. Using doubly robust propensity score reweighted bivariate probit regressions to control for the selection bias associated with firm level foreign acquisition incidences, we uncover strong but heterogeneous positive effects on export activity for all types of foreign ownership structure. We also find that minority foreign owned acquisition targets experience higher likelihood of R&D, providing evidence that joint ventures can contribute positively to China's "science and technology take-off"

Differential binding of autoantibodies to MOG isoforms in inflammatory demyelinating diseases

Objective: To analyze serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to major isoforms of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG-alpha 1-3 and beta 1-3) in patients with inflammatory demyelinating diseases. Methods: Retrospective case-control study using 378 serum samples from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), patients with non-MS demyelinating disease, and healthy controls with MOG alpha-1-IgG positive (n = 202) or negative serostatus (n = 176). Samples were analyzed for their reactivity to human, mouse, and rat MOG isoforms with and without mutations in the extracellular MOG Ig domain (MOG-ecIgD), soluble MOG-ecIgD, and myelin from multiple species using live cell-based, tissue immunofluorescence assays and ELISA. Results: The strongest IgG reactivities were directed against the longest MOG isoforms alpha-1 (the currently used standard test for MOG-IgG) and beta-1, whereas the other isoforms were less frequently recognized. Using principal component analysis, we identified 3 different binding patterns associated with non-MS disease: (1) isolated reactivity to MOG-alpha-1/beta-1 (n = 73), (2) binding to MOG-alpha-1/beta-1 and at least one other alpha, but no beta isoform (n = 64), and (3) reactivity to all 6 MOG isoforms (n = 65). The remaining samples were negative (n = 176) for MOG-IgG. These MOG isoform binding patterns were associated with a non-MS demyelinating disease, but there were no differences in clinical phenotypes or disease course. The 3 MOG isoform patterns had distinct immunologic characteristics such as differential binding to soluble MOG-ecIgD, sensitivity to MOG mutations, and binding to human MOG in ELISA. Conclusions: The novel finding of differential MOG isoform binding patterns could inform future studies on the refinement of MOG-IgG assays and the pathophysiologic role of MOG-IgG

Heterozygous ANKRD17 loss-of-function variants cause a syndrome with intellectual disability, speech delay, and dysmorphism

ANKRD17 is an ankyrin repeat-containing protein thought to play a role in cell cycle progression, whose ortholog in Drosophila functions in the Hippo pathway as a co-factor of Yorkie. Here, we delineate a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by de novo heterozygous ANKRD17 variants. The mutational spectrum of this cohort of 34 individuals from 32 families is highly suggestive of haploinsufficiency as the underlying mechanism of disease, with 21 truncating or essential splice site variants, 9 missense variants, 1 in-frame insertion-deletion, and 1 microdeletion (1.16 Mb). Consequently, our data indicate that loss of ANKRD17 is likely the main cause of phenotypes previously associated with large multi-gene chromosomal aberrations of the 4q13.3 region. Protein modeling suggests that most of the missense variants disrupt the stability of the ankyrin repeats through alteration of core structural residues. The major phenotypic characteristic of our cohort is a variable degree of developmental delay/intellectual disability, particularly affecting speech, while additional features include growth failure, feeding difficulties, non-specific MRI abnormalities, epilepsy and/or abnormal EEG, predisposition to recurrent infections (mostly bacterial), ophthalmological abnormalities, gait/balance disturbance, and joint hypermobility. Moreover, many individuals shared similar dysmorphic facial features. Analysis of single-cell RNA-seq data from the developing human telencephalon indicated ANKRD17 expression at multiple stages of neurogenesis, adding further evidence to the assertion that damaging ANKRD17 variants cause a neurodevelopmental disorder