The Dynamic Effects of Disinflation Policies.

This paper investigates the effects of disinflation policies on key macroeconomic variables. Using postwar US data and episode techniques, we identify disinflation shocks as shocks that drive the inflation rate to a lower level in the long-run. We find that in the immediate aftermath of a disinflation policy, the economy enters in a persistent recession. The inflation rate increases above its long-run level and exhibits a positive hump-shaped response. A similar pattern is found for the nominal interest rate, which responds even more strongly in the short-run. We then show that the standard new Keynesian model fails to account for macroeconomic dynamics in disinflationary times. On the contrary a deep habit version of the model successfully accounts for the effects of disinflation policies.Disinflation policies ; Deep Habits ; New Keynesian Models.

Comparison of Reprocessed ASAR WM Ocean Wave Spectra with

A major upgrade of the processing of Envisat ASAR Wave Mode (WM) products has been done followed by an extensive geophysical validation. The calibration/validation of the products are conducted using collocated WAM model as provided by ECMWF as well as available buoy data. Validation shows a significant improvement in the geophysical quality of the both the Level 1 WVS and the Level 2 WVW product. Less RMS deviation and bias between WVW and WAM or buoy wave spectra parameters are observed. We observe that the RMS error of H and 12 T p of the WVW is similar to values of WAM, both compared to the buoys. For the bias, the WVW values are slightly higher than the WAM values, both compared to buoy. For H these are RMS=0.57m (0.52m) an

Birds and people in Europe

At a regional scale, species richness and human population size are frequently positively correlated across space. Such patterns may arise because both species richness and human density increase with energy availability. If the species-energy relationship is generated through the 'more individuals' hypothesis, then the prediction is that areas with high human densities will also support greater numbers of individuals from other taxa. We use the unique data available for the breeding birds in Europe to test this prediction. Overall regional densities of bird species are higher in areas with more people; species of conservation concern exhibit the same pattern. Avian density also increases faster with human density than does avian biomass, indicating that areas with a higher human density have a higher proportion of small-bodied individuals. The analyses also underline the low numbers of breeding birds in Europe relative to humans, with a median of just three individual birds per person, and 4 g of bird for every kilogram of human

A note on the exact solution of asset pricing models with habit persistence

This paper provides a closed-form solution to a standard asset pricing model with habit formation when the growth rate of endowment follows a first-order Gaussian autoregressive process. We determine conditions that guarantee the existence of a stationary bounded equilibrium. The findings are useful because they allow to evaluate the accuracy of various approximation methods to nonlinear rational expectation models. Furthermore, they can be used to perform simulation experiments to study the finite sample properties of various estimation methods.Fabrice Collard, Patrick Fève and Imen Ghattass

REVISÃO CIENTÍFICO-LITERÁRIA DA RESOLUÇÃO DE PIÓMETRA POR OVARIOHISTERECTOMIA LAPAROSCÓPICA NUMA CADELA

Uma fêmea da raça caniche de 15 anos com hiperadrenocorticismo, apresentou-se com descarga vulvar. Uma ecografia abdominal confirmou a existência de piómetra aberta. Foi executada uma ovariohisterectomia laparoscópica de forma a diminuir o local de incisão e limitar o risco de deiscência de sutura, frequentemente associada ao hiperadrenocorticismo. O tempo cirúrgico foi de 85 minutos e a cadela permaneceu no recobro por 3 horas sem complicações. A ovariectomia e ovariohisterectomia são frequentemente realizadas em fêmeas saudáveis, mas este procedimento também pode ser realizado em piómetras abertas sem aumentar a taxa de complicações pós-cirúrgicas. Neste caso, ao optar por esta abordagem cirúrgica, sendo uma fêmea geriátrica, com excesso de peso e com paredes abdominais de baixa resistência, foram limitadas potenciais complicações. O objectivo desta revisão literário-científica é dar a conhecer a evolução da cirurgia minimamente invasiva ao nível da ovariohisterectomia e ovariectomia, dando a conhecer as inovações e novas abordagens da laparoscopia neste tema

Raman spectroscopy study of curvature-mediated lipid packing and sorting in single lipid vesicles

Cellular plasma membrane deformability and stability is important in a range of biological processes. Changes in local curvature of the membrane affects the lateral movement of lipids, affecting the biophysical properties of the membrane. An integrated holographic optical tweezers (HOT) and Raman microscope was used to investigate the effect of curvature gradients induced by optically stretching individual giant unilamelar vesicles (GUV) on lipid packing and lateral segregation of cholesterol in the bilayer. The spatially-resolved Raman analysis enabled detection of induced phase separation and changes in lipid ordering in individual GUVs. Using deuterated cholesterol, the changes in lipid ordering and phase separation were linked to lateral sorting of cholesterol in the stretched GUVs. Stretching the GUVs in the range of elongation factors 1-1.3 led to an overall decrease in cholesterol concentration at the edges compared to the centre of stretched GUVs. The Raman spectroscopy results were consistent with a model of the bilayer accounting for cholesterol sorting in both bilayer leaflets, with a compositional asymmetry of 0.63±0.04 in favour of the outer leaflet. The results demonstrate the potential of the integrated HOT-Raman technique to induce deformations to individual lipid vesicles and to simultaneously provide quantitative and spatially-resolved molecular information. Future studies can extend to include more realistic models of cell membranes and potentially live cells

Glutamate Decarboxylases in Nonneural Cells of Rat Testis and Oviduct: Differential Expression of GAD 65 and GAD 67

Γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) and its synthetic enzyme, glutamate decarboxylase (GAD), are not limited to the nervous system but are also found in nonneural tissues. The mammalian brain contains at least two forms of GAD (GAD 67 and GAD 65 ), which differ from each other in size, sequence, immunoreactivity, and their interaction with the cofactor pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP). We used cDNAs and antibodies specific to GAD 65 and GAD 67 to study the molecular identity of GADs in peripheral tissues. We detected GAD and GAD mRNAs in rat oviduct and testis. In oviduct, the size of GAD, its response to PLP, its immunoreactivity, and its hybridization to specific RNA and DNA probes all indicate the specific expression of the GAD 65 gene. In contrast, rat testis expresses the GAD 67 gene. The GAD in these two reproductive tissues is not in neurons but in nonneural cells. The localization of brain GAD and GAD mRNAs in the mucosal epithelial cells of the oviduct and in spermatocytes and spermatids of the testis shows that GAD is not limited to neurons and that GABA may have functions other than neurotransmission.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66211/1/j.1471-4159.1992.tb09763.x.pd

Behavioral Modernity and the Cultural Transmission of Structured Information: The Semantic Axelrod Model

Cultural transmission models are coming to the fore in explaining increases in the Paleolithic toolkit richness and diversity. During the later Paleolithic, technologies increase not only in terms of diversity but also in their complexity and interdependence. As Mesoudi and O'Brien (2008) have shown, selection broadly favors social learning of information that is hierarchical and structured, and multiple studies have demonstrated that teaching within a social learning environment can increase fitness. We believe that teaching also provides the scaffolding for transmission of more complex cultural traits. Here, we introduce an extension of the Axelrod (1997} model of cultural differentiation in which traits have prerequisite relationships, and where social learning is dependent upon the ordering of those prerequisites. We examine the resulting structure of cultural repertoires as learning environments range from largely unstructured imitation, to structured teaching of necessary prerequisites, and we find that in combination with individual learning and innovation, high probabilities of teaching prerequisites leads to richer cultural repertoires. Our results point to ways in which we can build more comprehensive explanations of the archaeological record of the Paleolithic as well as other cases of technological change.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to "Learning Strategies and Cultural Evolution during the Paleolithic", edited by Kenichi Aoki and Alex Mesoudi, and presented at the 79th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Austin TX. Revised 5/14/1

From evidence to practice:development of web-based Dutch lipid reference values

Introduction: In the Netherlands, the total number of yearly measured lipid profiles exceeds 500,000. While lipid values are strongly affected by age and sex, until recently, no up-to-date age- and sex-specific lipid reference values were available. We describe the translation of big-cohort lipid data into accessible reference values, which can be easily incorporated in daily clinical practice. Methods: Lipid values (total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides) from all healthy adults and children in the LifeLines cohort were used to generate age- and sex-specific percentiles. A combination of RStudio, Cascading Style Sheets and HyperText Markup Language was used to interactively display the percentiles in a responsive web layout. Results: After exclusion of subjects reporting cardiovascular disease or lipid-lowering therapy at baseline, 141,611 subjects were included. On the website, input fields were created for age, sex and all main plasma lipids. Upon input of these values, corresponding percentiles are calculated, and output is displayed in a table and an interactive graph for each lipid. The website has been made available in both Dutch and English and can be accessed at www.lipidtools.com. Conclusion: We constructed the first searchable, national lipid reference value tool with graphical display in the Netherlands to use in screening for dyslipidaemias and to reduce the underuse of lipid-lowering therapy in Dutch primary prevention. This study illustrates that data collected in big-cohort studies can be made easily accessible with modern digital techniques and preludes the digital health revolution yet to come