Structured Finance Influence on Financial Market Stability – Evaluation of Current Regulatory Developments

In 2007 the world faced one of the biggest financial crises ever. It was the third important financial crisis in the last 12 years. Spillovers to the real economy and moral hazard behaviour of carpetbaggers resulted in enormous pressure on worldwide political institutions to approve a more rigorous regulation on financial institutions and to predict financial crises via early warning systems. We analyzed the performance of structured finance ratings and structured finance issuance/outstanding to detect the main shortcomings of the subprime crisis. Afterwards, we explain the behaviour of market participants with theoretical models and a survey of institutions involved in securitization. With the conclusions of this analysis we evaluate the EU regulation on credit rating agencies and current Basel II enhancements. Finally we can determine that most regulatory enhancements are in accordance with our analyzed shortcomings. Some approaches like the introduction of a leverage ratio are counterproductive and a danger for worldwide economic growth.Structured Finance; Ratings; Regulation; Subprime Crisis; Basel II; Leverage Ratio

Escape from Winchester Mansion – Toward a Set of Design Principles to Master Complexity in IT Architectures

Although the management of complexity is a central task of CIOs and IT architects, in-depth examinations and the development of design theory in this area is, to the best of our knowledge, underrepresented in existing IS literature. Especially theory-based guidelines and information systems for the management of IT architecture complexity are missing. In a joint team of practitioners and researchers, we applied the action design research (ADR) method in order to tackle this class of problems, i.e., IT architecture complexity management. We derived a set of seven design principles (that guide the design of an information system that supports IT architects to manage IT architecture complexity), which we evaluated and enriched during multiple ‘building, intervention and evaluation’ cycles, according to ADR. In addition, we simultaneously implemented and evaluated a material artifact (i.e., a piece of software) for IT architecture complexity management

Structured Finance Influence on Financial Market Stability – Evaluation of Current Regulatory Developments

In 2007 the world faced one of the biggest financial crises ever. It was the third important financial crisis in the last 12 years. Spillovers to the real economy and moral hazard behaviour of carpetbaggers resulted in enormous pressure on worldwide political institutions to approve a more rigorous regulation on financial institutions and to predict financial crises via early warning systems. We analyzed the performance of structured finance ratings and structured finance issuance/outstanding to detect the main shortcomings of the subprime crisis. Afterwards, we explain the behaviour of market participants with theoretical models and a survey of institutions involved in securitization. With the conclusions of this analysis we evaluate the EU regulation on credit rating agencies and current Basel II enhancements. Finally we can determine that most regulatory enhancements are in accordance with our analyzed shortcomings. Some approaches like the introduction of a leverage ratio are counterproductive and a danger for worldwide economic growth

Structured Finance Influence on Financial Market Stability – Evaluation of Current Regulatory Developments

In 2007 the world faced one of the biggest financial crises ever. It was the third important financial crisis in the last 12 years. Spillovers to the real economy and moral hazard behaviour of carpetbaggers resulted in enormous pressure on worldwide political institutions to approve a more rigorous regulation on financial institutions and to predict financial crises via early warning systems. We analyzed the performance of structured finance ratings and structured finance issuance/outstanding to detect the main shortcomings of the subprime crisis. Afterwards, we explain the behaviour of market participants with theoretical models and a survey of institutions involved in securitization. With the conclusions of this analysis we evaluate the EU regulation on credit rating agencies and current Basel II enhancements. Finally we can determine that most regulatory enhancements are in accordance with our analyzed shortcomings. Some approaches like the introduction of a leverage ratio are counterproductive and a danger for worldwide economic growth

Metabolomics for Prediction of Relapse in Graves' Disease: Observational Pilot Study

Background: There is a lack of biochemical markers for early prediction of relapse in patients with Graves' disease [GD], which may help to direct treatment decisions. We assessed the prognostic ability of a high-throughput proton NMR metabolomic profile to predict relapse in a well characterized cohort of GD patients.Methods: Observational study investigating patients presenting with GD at a Swiss hospital endocrine referral center and an associated endocrine outpatient clinic. We measured 227 metabolic markers in the blood of patients before treatment initiation. Main outcome was relapse of hyperthyroidism within 18 months of stopping anti-thyroid drugs. We used ROC analysis with AUC to assess discrimination.Results: Of 69 included patients 18 (26%) patients had a relapse of disease. The clinical GREAT score had an AUC of 0.68 (95% CI 0.63–0.70) to predict relapse. When looking at the metabolomic markers, univariate analysis revealed pyruvate and triglycerides in medium VLDL as predictors with AUCs of 0.73 (95% CI 0.58–0.84) and 0.67 (95% CI 0.53–0.80), respectively. All other metabolomic markers had lower AUCs.Conclusion: Overall, metabolomic markers in our pilot study had low to moderate prognostic potential for prediction of relapse of GD, with pyruvate and triglycerides being candidates with acceptable discriminatory abilities. Our data need validation in future larger trials

Exam preparatory course for the 2nd part of the German medical examination in obstetrics and gynecology – a potential tool for the recruitment of new residents during the occupational decision process before the practical year?

Background: The “Second Stage of the Physician Exam” at the end of the 5th year of medical school in Germany is the final step before the “Practical Year.” An exam preparatory class can cover the complete content of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN) in two days. We raise the question of whether such training might promote students’ interest in the given specialty during occupational decision making and whether it could even be used by hospitals as a recruitment tool. This investigation is even more important in the context of fierce competition among young professionals at clinics and in different specialties. Methods: We conducted a multimodal course evaluation for four exam preparatory courses (each of which lasted two days and involved 8.5 h of teaching), including pre- and post-course tests with 20 multiple-choice questions to quantify the level of skill gain. Additionally, a standardized evaluation of course satisfaction was performed, followed by a post-exam questionnaire that dealt with studying activities and individual professional objectives. Results: Overall, n = 197 students took part in four identical courses. Among them, n = 121 completed the pre−/post-course tests, n = 170 completed the evaluation, and n = 110 completed the post-exam questionnaire. An average improvement from 13.9 to 17.2 correct answers was observed (max. 20; pre−/post-difference 95%-CI: [2.77; 3.86], t-test: p < 0.0001). By trend, the students noted that course participation positively influenced their later choice of specialty training (m = 3.63; scale 1 = “strongly disagree,” 5 = “strongly agree”). Conclusions: In addition to self-studying, condensed classroom training is effective and reasonable and might also increase the attractivity of OB/GYN among students and have a positive effect on recruitment

Derivation and validation of a prediction model to establish nursing-sensitive quality benchmarks in medical inpatients : a secondary data analysis of a prospective cohort study

Background: Hospitals are using nursing-sensitive outcomes (NSOs) based on administrative data to measure and benchmark quality of nursing care in acute care wards. In order to facilitate comparisons between different hospitals and wards with heterogeneous patient populations, proper adjustment procedures are required. In this article, we first identify predictors for common NSOs in acute medical care of adult patients based on administrative data. We then develop and cross-validate an NSO-oriented prediction model. Methods: We used administrative data from seven hospitals in Switzerland to derive prediction models for each of the following NSO: hospital-acquired pressure ulcer (≥stage II), hospital-acquired urinary tract infection, non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia and in-hospital mortality. We used a split dataset approach by performing a random 80:20 split of the data into a training set and a test set. We assessed discrimination of the models by area under the receiver operating characteristic curves. Finally, we used the validated models to establish a benchmark between the participating hospitals. Results: We considered 36,149 hospitalisations, of which 51.9% were male patients with a median age of 73 years (with an interquartile range of 59–82). Age and length of hospital stay were independently associated with all four NSOs. The derivation and validation models showed a good discrimination in the training (AUC range: 0.75–0.84) and in the test dataset (AUC range:0.77–0.81), respectively. Variation among different hospitals was relevant considering the risk for hospital-acquired pressure ulcer (≥ stage II) (adjusted Odds ratio [aOR] range: 0.51 [95% CI: 0.38–0.69] – 1.65 [95% CI:1.33–2.04]), the risk for hospital-acquired urinary tract infection infection (aOR range: 0.46 [95% CI: 0.36–0.58] – 1.45 [95% CI: 1.31–1.62]), the risk for non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (aOR range: 0.28 [95% CI: 0.09–0.89] – 2.87 [95% CI: 2.27–3.64]), and the risk for in-hospital mortality (aOR range: 0.45 [95% CI: 0.36–0.56] – 1.39 [95% CI: 1.23–1.60]). Conclusion: The application of risk adjustment when comparing nursing care quality is crucial and enables a more objective assessment across hospitals or wards with heterogeneous patient populations. This approach has potential to establish a set of benchmarks that could allow comparison of outcomes and quality of nursing care between different hospitals and wards

End-to-end resource analysis for quantum interior point methods and portfolio optimization

We study quantum interior point methods (QIPMs) for second-order cone programming (SOCP), guided by the example use case of portfolio optimization (PO). We provide a complete quantum circuit-level description of the algorithm from problem input to problem output, making several improvements to the implementation of the QIPM. We report the number of logical qubits and the quantity/depth of non-Clifford T-gates needed to run the algorithm, including constant factors. The resource counts we find depend on instance-specific parameters, such as the condition number of certain linear systems within the problem. To determine the size of these parameters, we perform numerical simulations of small PO instances, which lead to concrete resource estimates for the PO use case. Our numerical results do not probe large enough instance sizes to make conclusive statements about the asymptotic scaling of the algorithm. However, already at small instance sizes, our analysis suggests that, due primarily to large constant pre-factors, poorly conditioned linear systems, and a fundamental reliance on costly quantum state tomography, fundamental improvements to the QIPM are required for it to lead to practical quantum advantage.Comment: 38 pages, 15 figure

MultiMetEval: comparative and multi-objective analysis of genome-scale metabolic models

Comparative metabolic modelling is emerging as a novel field, supported by the development of reliable and standardized approaches for constructing genome-scale metabolic models in high throughput. New software solutions are needed to allow efficient comparative analysis of multiple models in the context of multiple cellular objectives. Here, we present the user-friendly software framework Multi-Metabolic Evaluator (MultiMetEval), built upon SurreyFBA, which allows the user to compose collections of metabolic models that together can be subjected to flux balance analysis. Additionally, MultiMetEval implements functionalities for multi-objective analysis by calculating the Pareto front between two cellular objectives. Using a previously generated dataset of 38 actinobacterial genome-scale metabolic models, we show how these approaches can lead to exciting novel insights. Firstly, after incorporating several pathways for the biosynthesis of natural products into each of these models, comparative flux balance analysis predicted that species like Streptomyces that harbour the highest diversity of secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters in their genomes do not necessarily have the metabolic network topology most suitable for compound overproduction. Secondly, multi-objective analysis of biomass production and natural product biosynthesis in these actinobacteria shows that the well-studied occurrence of discrete metabolic switches during the change of cellular objectives is inherent to their metabolic network architecture. Comparative and multi-objective modelling can lead to insights that could not be obtained by normal flux balance analyses. MultiMetEval provides a powerful platform that makes these analyses straightforward for biologists. Sources and binaries of MultiMetEval are freely available from https://github.com/PiotrZakrzewski/MetEv​al/downloads