Funding Liquidity Shocks in a Quasi-Experiment: Evidence from the CDS Big Bang

A major change in trading conventions in April 2009, the so-called “CDS Big Bang,” induces upfront fees for trading North American CDSs. Exploiting this quasi-experiment, we provide evidence that upfront fees have a differential effect on CDS bid-ask spreads across CDS premiums. Furthermore, the funding effect is stronger for CDS contracts on smaller and riskier firms, contracts with longer maturities, and non-centrally-cleared contracts. The effect also becomes stronger after Deutsche Bank exits the CDS market. Finally, we find similar results using European CDSs. Our experimental setting offers new economic insights on the quantification and mechanism of the funding liquidity effect

Teaching embedded systems for energy harvesting applications: a comparison of teaching methods adopted in UESTC and KTH

Further to China’s plan that was introduced in 2017 for attracting more students into engineering, many Chinese universities have started to explore new teaching methods that can be adopted into their programs. This shift was geared towards developing student-centred teaching materials rather than traditional teacher centred instruction. In this manuscript, we compare two different methods of instruction for a course on energy harvesting using embedded systems. We describe the learning materials and showcase the impact that project-based learning has had on a cohort of Chinese students that were enrolled in a joint master’s program between the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). KTH has made remarkable progress in the teaching of embedded systems technology for energy harvesting applications, with great emphasis on active as well as collaborative learning. We demonstrate two examples of projects that Chinese students have completed in KTH and present evaluative data regarding their experiences. Our results show that KTH’s approach in teaching this module has had a positive impact on student learning, with an average of 80% of students think that teaching in KTH is conducive to students’ independent exploration

Assessing Nutrient Management Strategies to Control Harmful Algal Blooms in Lake Erie

Harmful algal blooms (HAB) have impaired Lake Erie’s western basin water quality since the 1960s. Drivers of HABs are still the subject of debate and are likely the result of interactions among several biotic and abiotic factors. The problem is twofold: (1) uncertainty in the specific causes of HABs leads to inapt management solutions; and (2) managing a cross-boundary watershed requires collaboration and agreement on apt solutions from multiple stakeholders as well as many U.S. states and Canadian provinces. In this study, we use Bayesian hierarchical modeling (BHM) to investigate the relationships between nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and phytoplankton biomass, cyanobacterial biomass, and microcystin concentration. We used both a within-lake and an across-lake approach and examined whether the inferences from western Lake Erie differ from the ones using multiple lakes across the country. We found that while P is still the primary driver of HABs in Western Lake Erie (WLE), the great variability between stations and months suggests that even within-lake, there may not be a single relationship characterizing phosphorus effects on HABs. We also interviewed 29 stakeholders actively involved in western Lake Erie’s watershed. We analyzed the stakeholders’ values, attitudes, and policy preferences to understand their differences or similarities and their effects on management decisions. We found that although stakeholders agree on the urgency of the problem, the different opinions and preferences of each interviewee may complicate the decision-making process in a highly collaborative watershed.Master of ScienceSchool for Environment and SustainabilityUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167292/1/2020 CIGLR Master's Project Final Report.pd

The Influences of Drought and Land-Cover Conversion on Inter-Annual Variation of NPP in the Three-North Shelterbelt Program Zone of China Based on MODIS Data

Terrestrial ecosystems greatly contribute to carbon (C) emission reduction targets through photosynthetic C uptake.Net primary production (NPP) represents the amount of atmospheric C fixed by plants and accumulated as biomass. The Three-North Shelterbelt Program (TNSP) zone accounts for more than 40% of China’s landmass. This zone has been the scene of several large-scale ecological restoration efforts since the late 1990s, and has witnessed significant changes in climate and human activities.Assessing the relative roles of different causal factors on NPP variability in TNSP zone is very important for establishing reasonable local policies to realize the emission reduction targets for central government. In this study, we examined the relative roles of drought and land cover conversion(LCC) on inter-annual changes of TNSP zone for 2001–2010. We applied integrated correlation and decomposition analyses to a Standardized Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and MODIS land cover dataset. Our results show that the 10-year average NPP within this region was about 420 Tg C. We found that about 60% of total annual NPP over the study area was significantly correlated with SPEI (p<0.05). The LCC-NPP relationship, which is especially evident for forests in the south-central area, indicates that ecological programs have a positive impact on C sequestration in the TNSP zone. Decomposition analysis generally indicated that the contributions of LCC, drought, and other Natural or Anthropogenic activities (ONA) to changes in NPP generally had a consistent distribution pattern for consecutive years. Drought and ONA contributed about 74% and 23% to the total changes in NPP, respectively, and the remaining 3% was attributed to LCC. Our results highlight the importance of rainfall supply on NPP variability in the TNSP zone

Análisis de la economía colaborativa en el caso de Couchsurfing

Després de la crisi financera de 2008, el desenvolupament de l'economia col·laborativa està cada vegada desenvolupada i filtrada en diverses indústries, sobretot, en els sector com hospitalitat, automòbil i transports, venda minorista i material d'entreteniment, els qual són totalment relacionats amb el sector del turisme. Amb l'economia col·laborativa, sorgeixen la tendència de nous tipus de mercats i negocis per ajudar a les persones a accedir a les coses i crear més beneficis. En aquesta investigació s'ha analitzat la història, el desenvolupament i els sectors actuals amb economia col·laborativa, també s'ha realitzat un qüestionari per verificar els conceptes sobre economia col·laborativa i la plataforma Couchsurfing de la gent, a més d'ha generat un anàlisi de RQDA sobre els comentaris de la plataforma Couchsurfing. Enfoquem a identificar la deficiència de la plataforma i fem els suggeriments per mitjà d'un pla de màrqueting perquè aquesta plataforma sigui la més competitiva d'aquesta tendència.Después de la crisis financiera de 2008, la economía colaborativa está cada vez desarrollada y filtrada en varias industrias, sobre todo, en los sectores como hospitalidad, automóvil y transportes, venta minorista, y material de entretenimiento, los que son totalmente relacionada con el sector turismo. Con la economía colaborativa, surgen la tendencia de nuevos tipos de mercados, negocios para ayudar a las personas a acceder a las cosas y crear más beneficios. En esta investigación se ha analizado la historia, el desarrollo y los sectores actuales con economía colaborativo, también se ha realizado un cuestionario para verificar los conceptos sobre economía colaborativa y la plataforma Couchsurfing de la gente, además se ha generado una análisis de RQDA sobres los comentarios de la plataforma Couchsurfing. Enfocamos a identificar las deficiencia de la plataforma y hacemos las sugerencias por medio de un plan de marketing para que esta plataforma sea más competitiva de esta tendencia.After the financial crisis of 2008, the development of the collaborative economy is increasingly developed and filtered in various industries, especially in sectors such as hospitality, automobile and transportation, retail, and entertainment material, which are totally related to the tourism sector. With the collaborative economy, the trend arises for new types of markets, businesses to help people access things and create more benefits. In this research, the history, development and current sectors with collaborative economy have been analyzed, with a questionnaire which has been carried out to verify the concepts of collaborative economy and the Couchsurfing platform of the people. In addition, we generated an analysis of RQDA on the comments from apple store and google play about the Couchsurfing platform. We focus on identifying the deficiencies of the platform and make suggestions through a marketing plan to make this platform more competitive in this trend

Experimental Study on Failure Model of Tailing Dam Overtopping under Heavy Rainfall

AbstractUnusual rainfall is the primary cause of the failure of the tailing dams, and overtopping is the most representative model of the tailing dam failure. The upstream tailing dam was selected as the research object to study the whole process of breach extension and the overtopping dam-failure mechanism under the full-scale rainfall condition. The results showed that the significant size grading phenomenon in the front, middle, and end of the tailing pond was obvious due to the flow separation effect, and its average particle diameter was D50. At different moments of rainfall, the height of the infiltration line at different positions of the dam body was different; at the rainfall of 3600 s, the height of the infiltration line lagged behind the height of the tailing pond, and this phenomenon from the tail of pond to the outside of the dam slope became more obvious. After the rainfall of 3600 s, the height of the infiltration line lagging behind the water level in the pond basically disappeared, and the rate of infiltration line rise kept pace with the rate of water level. The process of overtopping dam-failure experienced dam overtopping (gully erosion), formation of a multistepped small “scarp,” breach rapid expansion, formation of large “scarp,” and burst (fan-shaped formation). The width and depth of the breach showed a positive correlation, and the widening rate of the breach was 3 to 8 times of the deepening rate, especially in the middle of the dam break, widening behavior occupied the dominant factor. The shape of the dam body after failure was parabolic, and the dam body had obvious elevation changes. These results provide the theoretical guidance and engineering application value for improving the theory and early warning model of the upstream tailing dam

Identification and characterization of a 25-lncRNA prognostic signature for early recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background Early recurrence is the major cause of poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are deeply involved in HCC prognosis. In this study, we aimed to establish a prognostic lncRNA signature for HCC early recurrence. Methods The lncRNA expression profile and corresponding clinical data were retrieved from total 299 HCC patients in TCGA database. LncRNA candidates correlated to early recurrence were selected by differentially expressed gene (DEG), univariate Cox regression and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analyses. A 25-lncRNA prognostic signature was constructed according to receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to evaluate the performance of this signature. ROC and nomogram were used to evaluate the integrated models based on this signature with other independent clinical risk factors. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to reveal enriched gene sets in the high-risk group. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) levels were analyzed with single sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA). Immune therapy response prediction was performed with TIDE and SubMap. Chemotherapeutic response prediction was conducted by using Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer (GDSC) pharmacogenomics database. Results Compared to low-risk group, patients in high-risk group showed reduced disease-free survival (DFS) in the training (p < 0.0001) and validation cohort (p = 0.0132). The 25-lncRNA signature, AFP, TNM and vascular invasion could serve as independent risk factors for HCC early recurrence. Among them, the 25-lncRNA signature had the best predictive performance, and combination of those four risk factors further improves the prognostic potential. Moreover, GSEA showed significant enrichment of “E2F TARGETS”, “G2M CHECKPOINT”, “MYC TARGETS V1” and “DNA REPAIR” pathways in the high-risk group. In addition, increased TILs were observed in the low-risk group compared to the high-risk group. The 25-lncRNA signature negatively associates with the levels of some types of antitumor immune cells. Immunotherapies and chemotherapies prediction revealed differential responses to PD-1 inhibitor and several chemotherapeutic drugs in the low- and high-risk group. Conclusions Our study proposed a 25-lncRNA prognostic signature for predicting HCC early recurrence, which may guide postoperative treatment and recurrence surveillance in HCC patients

Single-cell analysis reveals the COL11A1+ fibroblasts are cancer-specific fibroblasts that promote tumor progression

Background: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) promote tumor progression through extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling and extensive communication with other cells in tumor microenvironment. However, most CAF-targeting strategies failed in clinical trials due to the heterogeneity of CAFs. Hence, we aimed to identify the cluster of tumor-promoting CAFs, elucidate their function and determine their specific membrane markers to ensure precise targeting.Methods: We integrated multiple single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets across different tumors and adjacent normal tissues to identify the tumor-promoting CAF cluster. We analyzed the origin of these CAFs by pseudotime analysis, and tried to elucidate the function of these CAFs by gene regulatory network analysis and cell-cell communication analysis. We also performed cell-type deconvolution analysis to examine the association between the proportion of these CAFs and patients’ prognosis in TCGA cancer cohorts, and validated that through IHC staining in clinical tumor tissues. In addition, we analyzed the membrane molecules in different fibroblast clusters, trying to identify the membrane molecules that were specifically expressed on these CAFs.Results: We found that COL11A1+ fibroblasts specifically exist in tumor tissues but not in normal tissues and named them cancer-specific fibroblasts (CSFs). We revealed that these CSFs were transformed from normal fibroblasts. CSFs represented a more activated CAF cluster and may promote tumor progression through the regulation on ECM remodeling and antitumor immune responses. High CSF proportion was associated with poor prognosis in bladder cancer (BCa) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), and IHC staining of COL11A1 confirmed their specific expression in tumor stroma in clinical BCa samples. We also identified that CSFs specifically express the membrane molecules LRRC15, ITGA11, SPHK1 and FAP, which could distinguish CSFs from other fibroblasts.Conclusion: We identified that CSFs is a tumor specific cluster of fibroblasts, which are in active state, may promote tumor progression through the regulation on ECM remodeling and antitumor immune responses. Membrane molecules LRRC15, ITGA11, SPHK1 and FAP could be used as therapeutic targets for CSF-targeting cancer treatment