Essays on risk management and systematic risk

Abstract: Through the creation of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), G20 members have committed to regulate the financial sector across the globe in order to enhance the resilience of the system. Two important points in this agenda are the regulation of OTC derivatives, such as Credit Default Swaps (CDS) and the regulation of Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs). The first two chapters of this thesis relate to the first point. These papers study the effects of the use of CDS at banks on banks' behavior and stability. The last chapter of the thesis addresses the second point. This chapter discusses the proper assessment of systemic risk, and the characteristics and performance of systemically important banks based on this assessment.

Serine hydroxymethyl transferase is required for optic lobe neuroepithelia development in Drosophila

Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (H2020-ERC-2017-STG-GA 759853-StemCellHabitat); Wellcome Trust and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI-208581/Z/17/ZMetabolicRegSCfate); EMBO Installation grant (H2020-EMBO-3311/2017/G2017) and Fundaçaõ para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (IF/01265/2014/CP1252/CT0004 and SFRH/BD/135262/2017 Eunice Silva); ‘Inova4Health – UIDB/04462/2020 and UIDP/04462/2020, and the Associated Laboratory LS4FUTURE (LA/P/0087/2020), Fundaçaõ para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior’. E.A.B.S. was partially funded by a Fundaçaõ para a Ciência e a Tecnologia doctoral fellowship under the PGCD-Graduate Program Science for Development (SFRH/BD/135262/ 2017). This research was funded in part by the Wellcome Trust [208581/Z/17/Z]. Open Access funding provided by the European Research Council. Deposited in PMC for immediate release. Publisher Copyright: © 2023. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.Cell fate and growth require one-carbon units for the biosynthesis of nucleotides, methylation reactions and redox homeostasis, provided by one-carbon metabolism. Consistently, defects in one-carbon metabolism lead to severe developmental defects, such as neural tube defects. However, the role of this pathway during brain development and in neural stem cell regulation is poorly understood. To better understand the role of one carbon metabolism we focused on the enzyme Serine hydroxymethyl transferase (Shmt), a key factor in the one-carbon cycle, during Drosophila brain development. We show that, although loss of Shmt does not cause obvious defects in the central brain, it leads to severe phenotypes in the optic lobe. The shmt mutants have smaller optic lobe neuroepithelia, partly justified by increased apoptosis. In addition, shmt mutant neuroepithelia have morphological defects, failing to form a lamina furrow, which likely explains the observed absence of lamina neurons. These findings show that one-carbon metabolism is crucial for the normal development of neuroepithelia, and consequently for the generation of neural progenitor cells and neurons. These results propose a mechanistic role for one-carbon during brain development.publishersversionpublishe

Refractive index inhomogeneity within an aerogel block

Evaluating local inhomogeneities of the refractive index inside aerogel blocks to be used as Cherenkov radiator is important for a high energy physics experiment where angular resolution is crucial. Two approaches are described and compared. The first one is based on the bending of a laser beam induced by refractive index gradients along directions normal to the unperturbed optical path. The second method exploits the Cherenkov effect itself by shooting an ultra-relativistic collimated electron beam through different points of the aerogel surface. Local refractive index variations result in sizable differences in the Cherenkov photons distribution. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Qualidade de carcaça de novilhos terminados com dietas contendo levedura, monensina e associação de ambos aditivos

To evaluate the effects of the supplementation of feed additives on carcass quality in beef cattle, 72 Nellore steers (339.5kg, 20-month old) were feedlot finished and fed for 91 days one of the following diets: 1) control with no additives; or added of 2) live yeast culture; 3) monensin; or 4) the association of both additives. After slaughter, renal, pelvic, and inguinal fat and hot carcass weights were recorded and carcass was split into muscle, bone, and trimmable fat. Carcass Longissimus muscle area and subcutaneous fat thickness at the 12th rib were measured and steaks of Longisimus muscle were taken to determine meat color, shear force, drip, and cooking losses. Yeast increased carcass dressing percentage but there were no effects on hot carcass weight, Longissimus area, subcutaneous fat thickness, percentage and weight of retail cut yield and trimmings. Feed additives had no effect on carcass pH, meat color, fat content, shear force, and drip losses. Supplementation of yeast, monensin or the association of both additives had no important effects on carcass traits and on meat quality of feedlot finished steers.Avaliaram-se os efeitos da suplementação de aditivos alimentares sobre a qualidade de carcaça em bovinos de corte. Usaram-se 72 novilhos Nelore com média de peso de 339,5kg e 20 meses de idade, terminados em confinamento e alimentados por 91 dias com uma das quatro dietas: 1) dieta controle sem aditivos, ou com a adição de 2) leveduras vivas, 3) monensina ou 4) associação entre ambos aditivos. Após o abate, os pesos da gordura renal, pélvica e inguinal e da carcaça foram medidos e a carcaça dividida em músculos, ossos e aparas. Foram mensurados a área de olho de lombo e a espessura de gordura subcutânea sobre o músculo Longissimus na região da 12ª costela e foram obtidos bifes para a determinação da cor, força de cisalhamento e perdas por cocção e cozimento da carne. A levedura aumentou o rendimento de carcaça, mas não houve efeito dos tratamentos sobre o peso de carcaça, porção comestível e aparas. Os aditivos não influenciaram o pH da carcaça, a cor, a gordura intramuscular, a força de cisalhamento e as perdas por exsudação da carne. A suplementação, com levedura e com monensina em associação ou separadamente, não teve efeito importante sobre a qualidade da carcaça em novilhos terminados em confinamento.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP

Impact of a Virtual Reality-Based Simulation on Empathy and Attitudes Toward Schizophrenia

Virtual Reality (VR) has been identified as one of the most promising resources for developing empathy towards stigmatized groups as it allows individuals to experience a situation close to reality from another person’s perspective. This quasi-experimental study aimed to examine the impact on empathy, knowledge, and attitudes towards people with schizophrenia of a VR simulation that reproduces the experience of psychotic symptoms while performing a cognitive task compared with watching a 2D video and, thus, how these experiences could reduce stigma towards people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The sample comprised of 102 higher education health students, distributed by the experimental and control groups. The impact of the program was measured by completing multiple questionnaires on levels of empathy, attitudes, and mental health knowledge. Both methods (VR and 2D video) were, to a certain extent, effective. However, VR was more effective at eliciting attitudes and knowledge change compared to the control group. These findings suggest that not only VR but also 2D videos could be interesting strategies to enhance empathy and improve attitudes towards people with schizophrenia in higher education health students

Análise geoambiental do riacho Santa Bárbara Zona urbana – Parnarama-Maranhão

Análise geoambiental do riacho Santa BárbaraZona urbana – Parnarama-Maranhã

Brazil: tourism, staying afloat

The experience with tourism-based boat trips in Caixa d´Aço Bay in Paraty, Brazil, highlights the problems of livelihoods in restricted-use protected area

Preparaciones de base líquida vs. citología convencional: adecuación de las muestras y coincidencia de diagnóstico en lesiones orales

Objetivo: Comparar la efectividad de la muestra y la coincidencia de diagnostico entre preparaciones de base liquida y frotis convencionales en lesiones orales, y probar la viabilidad de la prueba inmuno-citoquimica en preparaciones de base liquida de lesiones de carcinoma oral. Material y Metodos: Se obtuvieron muestras de 44 pacientes. Primeramente se prepararon frotis convencionales, usando un dispositivo cytobrush. A continuacion se sumergio el cepillo que contenia el material residual en un liquido conservante. La muestra en el mismo fue procesada de acuerdo con las indicaciones del fabricante (AutoCyte, Inc. Elon College, North Carolina, USA). Se tineron preparaciones de ambas tecnicas de acuerdo con el metodo de Papanicolaou. Para la prueba inmuno-citoquimica se usaron conjuntamente AE1/AE3 (Dako, CA, USA) para las lesiones de carcinoma oral, de acuerdo con el metodo de la Estreptovidina-biotina-peroxidasa. Se uso la prueba exacta de Fisher; fijandose la probabilidad significativa en p . 0.05. Resultados: Ambas tecnicas coincidieron en el diagnostico citologico en todos los casos donde se uso una muestra adecuada; en 3 casos el frotis convencional mostro hipocelularidad y, por lo tanto, resulto inadecuado para el analisis. En el analisis de muestras, la citologia de base liquida mostro una mejora general estadisticamente significativa), de un 41% en espesura de frotis y de un 66% en la distribucion de celulas (p . 0.05), ademas de una reduccion en la superposicion de celulas y la presencia de sangre (p . 0.05). La morfologia celular se observó mejor en las preparaciones de base líquida. Las reacciones de la prueba inmuno-citoquímica fueron positivas en todos los casos de malignidad, siendo especialmente clara la observación de células inmuno-marcadas. Conclusión: Tanto las preparaciones de base líquida como los frotis convencionales son dignos de confianza desde el punto de vista del diagnóstico; el método de base líquida mostró una mejora general en la preservación de muestras, adecuación de ejemplares, observación de morfología celular y reproducibilidad.Objective: To compare specimen adequacy and diagnostic agreement between liquid-based preparations and conventional smears in oral lesions, and to test the viability of immunocytochemical assay in liquid-based preparations from oral carcinoma lesions. Material and Methods: Samples were collected from 44 patients. Conventional smears were prepared first, using a cytobrush device. Then the brush, containing the residual material, was immersed in a preservative fluid. The sample in the preservative fluid was processed according to the manufacturer directions (AutoCyte, Inc. Elon College, North Carolina, USA). Slides of both techniques were stained by Papanicolaou method. For immunocytochemical assay, a cytokeratin pool AE1/AE3 (Dako, CA, USA) was applied in liquid-based preparations from oral carcinoma lesions following the Streptavidin-biotinperoxidase method. Fisher's exact test was used; significance was set for p = 0.05. Results: Both techniques agreed on cytologic diagnosis in every case they yielded an adequate specimen; in 3 cases conventional smear resulted in hypocellularity and therefore inadequate for analysis. On specimen analysis, the liquid-based cytology demonstrated a statistically significant, 41% overall improvement in smear thickness and 66% in cell distribution (p = 0.05), and a reduction in cell overlapping and presence of blood (p = 0.05). The cell morphology was better visualized in the liquid-based preparations. The immunocytochemical assay reactions were positive in all malignant cases, the visualization of the immu-nostained cells being especially clear. Conclusion: Both, the liquid-based preparation and conventional smear, are diagnostically reliable; the liquid-based method showed an overall improvement on sample preservation, specimen adequacy, visualization of cell morphology and reproducibility

Periods Of Weed Interference In Maize Crops Cultivated In The First And Second Cycles

The interference of weeds in maize production may be reflected in grain yield losses that vary as a function of the density, stage and degree of aggressiveness of the species present. In the agricultural ecosystem, crops and weeds demand light, water, nutrients and space, which are frequently not available in sufficient quantities, leading to competition. The aim of this work was to determine the period of interference of weed plants, in particular of naked crabgrass (Digitaria nuda) on maize crop in the first and second harvest. The treatments were defined as increasing periods of coexistence and increasing control of weed community (7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, and 56 days), two more controls, a control including one with weed control until the end of the culture cycle and another with coexistence until the harvest. For each period, were evaluated the stand of maize plants, length of ear, number of grains per row, number of rows per ear, cob, 100-grain weight, and grain productivity. The data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance using the F test, with average treatments compared using Tukey's test at 5% probability. Crop productivity was evaluated by means of regressions, the critical periods of interference were estimated. The critical timing of weed removal was 25 days for both harvests. The critical weed free period was 54 and 27 days for the first and second harvest respectively. For the conditions of the first and second harvest, the critical period of weed control was of 29 and 2 days respectively.3752867287

An Illustrative Case Of Léri-weill Dyschondrosteosis

We report on a girl presenting Léri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (LWD) due to deletion of the SHOX gene. Her family included individuals with short stature alone or with both short stature and mesomelia or Madelung's deformity. The deletion was demonstrated through detection of hemizygosity for microsatellite markdrs SHOX-CA repeat, DXYS10092, DXYS10093 and DXYS10091 localized around the SHOX gene, with retention of paternal alleles in the proband and three of her sisters who had short stature as the only clinical feature. Hemizygosity for these loci was also observed in their mother, who had short stature too. The deletion in the proband was however larger, including locus DXY 10083. The proband's only sister with normal height did not carry the deletion. Family history suggests transmission of the deletion from the proband's maternal great-grandfather to her grandfather via the Y chromosome, and from the grandfather to the proband's mother via the X chromosome after crossing-over in the pseudoautosomal region proximal to the SHOX gene. Copyright © 2008, Sociedade Brasileira de Genética.314839842Belin, V., Cusin, V., Viot, G., Girlich, D., Toutain, A., Moncla, A., Vekemans, M., Cormier-Daire, V., SHOX mutations in dyschondrosteosis (Léri-Weill syndrome) (1998) Nat Genet, 19, pp. 67-69Benito-Sanz, S., del Blanco, D.G., Aza-Carmona, M., Magano, L.F., Lapunzina, P., Argente, J., Campos-Barros, A., Heath, K.E., PAR1 deletions downstream of SHOX are the most frequent defect in a Spanish cohort of Léri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (LWD) probands (2006) Hum Mutat, 27, p. 1062Benito-Sanz, S., del Blanco, D.G., Huber, C., Thomas, N.S., Aza-Carmona, M., Bunyan, B., Maloney, V., Campos-Barros, A., Characterization of SHOX deletions in Léri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (LWD) reveals genetic heterogeneity and no recombination hotspots (2006) Am J Hum Genet, 79, pp. 409-412Benito-Sanz, S., Thomas, N.S., Huber, C., Gorbenko del Blanco, D., Aza-Carmona, M., Crolla, J.A., Maloney, V., Campos-Barros, A., A novel class of pseudoautosomal region 1 deletions downstream of SHOX Is associated with Léri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (2005) Am J Hum Genet, 77, pp. 533-544Clement-Jones, M., Schiller, S., Rao, E., Blaschke, R.J., Zuniga, A., Zeller, R., Robson, S.C., Strachan, T., The short stature homeobox gene SHOX is involved in skeletal abnormalities in Turner syndrome (2000) Hum Mol Genet, 9, pp. 695-702Ellison, J.W., Wardak, Z., Young, M.F., Gehron Robey, P., Laig-Webster, M., Chiong, W., PHOG, a candidate gene for involvement in the short stature of Turner syndrome (1997) Hum Mol Genet, 6, pp. 1341-1347Filatov, D.A., Gerrard, D.T., High mutation rates in human and ape pseudoautosomal genes (2003) Gene, 317, pp. 67-77Fukami, M., Kato, F., Tajima, T., Yokoya, S., Ogata, T., Transactivation function of an approximately 800-bp evolutionarily conserved sequence at the SHOX 3′ region: Implication for the downstream enhancer (2006) Am J Hum Genet, 78, pp. 167-170Henry, A., Thorburn, M.J., Madelung's deformity. A clinical and cytogenetic study (1967) J Bone Joint Surg, 49 B, pp. 66-73Jorge, A.A., Souza, S.C., Nishi, M.Y., Billerbeck, A.E., Liborio, D.C., Kim, C.A., Arnhold, I.J., Mendonca, B.B., SHOX mutations in idiopathic short stature and Leri-Weill dyschondrosteosis: Frequency and phenotypic variability (2007) Clin Endocrinol, 66, pp. 130-135Lien, S., Szyda, J., Schechinger, B., Rappold, G., Arnheim, N., Evidence for heterogeneity in recombination in the human pseudoautosomal region: High resolution analysis by sperm typing and radiation-hybrid mapping (2000) Am J Hum Genet, 66, pp. 557-566Rao, E., Weiss, B., Fukami, M., Rump, A., Niesler, B., Mertz, A., Muroya, K., Winkelmann, M., Pseudoautosomal deletions encompassing a novel homeobox gene cause growth failure in idiopathic short stature and Turner syndrome (1997) Nat Genet, 16, pp. 54-63Rappold, G., Blum, W.F., Shavrikova, E.P., Crowe, B.J., Roeth, R., Quigley, C.A., Ross, J.L., Niesler, B., Genotypes and phenotypes in children with short stature: Clinical indicators of SHOX haploinsufficiency (2007) J Med Genet, 44, pp. 306-313Rappold, G.A., Fukami, M., Niesler, B., Schiller, S., Zumkeller, W., Bettendorf, M., Heinrich, U., Onigata, K., Deletions of the homeobox gene SHOX(short stature homeobox) are an important cause of growth failure in children with short stature (2002) J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 87, pp. 1402-1406Schneider, K.U., Sabherwal, N., Jantz, K., Röth, R., Muncke, N., Blum, W.F., Cutler Jr, G.B., Rappold, G., Identification of major raombinant hotspot in patients with short stature and SHOX deficiency (2005) Am J Hum Genet, 77, pp. 89-96Shears, D.J., Vassal, H.J., Goodman, F.R., Palmer, R.W., Reardon, W., Superti-Furga, A., Scambler, P.J., Winter, R.M., Mutation and deletion of the pseudoautosomal gene SHOX cause Léri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (1998) Nat Genet, 19, pp. 70-72Zebala, L.P., Manske, P.R., Goldfarb, C.A., (200't) Madelung's deformity: A spectrum of presentation.. The J Hand Surg, 32 A, pp. 1393-1401Zinn, A.R., Ramos, P., Ross, J., (1006) A second recombination hotspot associated with SHOX deletions Am J Hum Genet, 78, pp. 523-52