Forward-looking solvency contagion

Solvency contagion risk is a key channel through which systemic risk can come about. We introduce a model that accounts not only for losses transmitted after banks default, but also for losses due to the fact that creditors revalue their exposures when probabilities of default of their counterparties change. We apply the model to run a series of simplified stress tests of the UK banking system from 2008 to 2016, based on two datasets of real interbank exposures between the seven major UK banks. We show that risks due to solvency contagion decrease markedly from the peak of the crisis, to the point of becoming negligible. We also characterise the distributions of both vulnerabilities and systemic importances of individual banks, thereby tracking the evolution of risk concentration

Dioxin Revisited: Developments Since the 1997 IARC Classification of Dioxin as a Human Carcinogen

In 1997 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified 2,3,7,8-tetra-chlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD; the most potent dioxin congener) as a group 1 carcinogen based on limited evidence in humans, sufficient evidence in experimental animals, and extensive mechanistic information indicating that TCDD acts through a mechanism involving the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), which is present in both humans and animals. The judgment of limited evidence in humans was based primarily on an elevation of all cancers combined in four industrial cohorts. The group 1 classification has been somewhat controversial and has been challenged in the literature in recent years. In this article we review the epidemiologic and mechanistic evidence that has emerged since 1997. New epidemiologic evidence consists primarily of positive exposure–response analyses in several of the industrial cohorts, as well as evidence of excesses of several specific cancers in the Seveso accident cohort. There are also new data regarding how the AhR functions in mediating the carcinogenic response to TCDD. The new evidence generally supports the 1997 IARC classification

Rate pressure product

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73724/1/j.1365-2044.1980.tb05005.x.pd

The Science and Practice of Carcinogen Identification and Evaluation

Several national and international health agencies have established programs with the aim of identifying agents and exposures that cause cancer in humans. Carcinogen identification is an activity grounded in the scientific evaluation of the results of human epidemiologic studies, long-term bioassays in experimental animals, and other data relevant to an evaluation of carcinogenicity and its mechanisms. In this commentary, after a brief discussion of the science basis common to the evaluation of carcinogens across different programs, we discuss in more detail the principles and procedures currently used by the IARC Monographs program

Reconstructing ‘the Alcoholic’: Recovering from Alcohol Addiction and the Stigma this Entails

Public perception of alcohol addiction is frequently negative, whilst an important part of recovery is the construction of a positive sense of self. In order to explore how this might be achieved, we investigated how those who self-identify as in recovery from alcohol problems view themselves and their difficulties with alcohol and how they make sense of others’ responses to their addiction. Semi-structured interviews with six individuals who had been in recovery between 5 and 35 years and in contact with Alcoholics Anonymous were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The participants were acutely aware of stigmatising images of ‘alcoholics’ and described having struggled with a considerable dilemma in accepting this identity themselves. However, to some extent they were able to resist stigma by conceiving of an ‘aware alcoholic self’ which was divorced from their previously unaware self and formed the basis for a new more knowing and valued identity

Evaluating treatments in health care: The instability of a one-legged stool

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Both scientists and the public routinely refer to randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as being the 'gold standard' of scientific evidence. Although there is no question that placebo-controlled RCTs play a significant role in the evaluation of new pharmaceutical treatments, especially when it is important to rule out placebo effects, they have many inherent limitations which constrain their ability to inform medical decision making. The purpose of this paper is to raise questions about <it>over-reliance </it>on RCTs and to point out an additional perspective for evaluating healthcare evidence, as embodied in the Hill criteria. The arguments presented here are generally relevant to all areas of health care, though mental health applications provide the primary context for this essay.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This article first traces the history of RCTs, and then evaluates five of their major limitations: they often lack external validity, they have the potential for increasing health risk in the general population, they are no less likely to overestimate treatment effects than many other methods, they make a relatively weak contribution to clinical practice, and they are excessively expensive (leading to several additional vulnerabilities in the quality of evidence produced). Next, the nine Hill criteria are presented and discussed as a richer approach to the evaluation of health care treatments. Reliance on these multi-faceted criteria requires more analytical thinking than simply examining RCT data, but will also enhance confidence in the evaluation of novel treatments.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>Excessive reliance on RCTs tends to stifle funding of other types of research, and publication of other forms of evidence. We call upon our research and clinical colleagues to consider additional methods of evaluating data, such as the Hill criteria. Over-reliance on RCTs is similar to resting all of health care evidence on a one-legged stool.</p

Investigating acoustic startle habituation and prepulse inhibition with silent functional MRI and electromyography in young, healthy adults

Data availability statement: The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found at: https://osf.io/j5vhp. The MRI data that support the findings of this study are available from LN upon reasonable request.Supplementary material: The Supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2024.1436156/full#supplementary-material .Introduction: Startle habituation and prepulse inhibition (PPI) are distinct measures of different sensory information processes, yet both result in the attenuation of the startle reflex. Identifying startle habituation and PPI neural mechanisms in humans has mostly evolved from acoustic-focused rodent models. Human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have used tactile startle paradigms to avoid the confounding effects of gradient-related acoustic noise on auditory paradigms and blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) measures. This study aimed to examine the neurofunctional basis of acoustic startle habituation and PPI in humans with silent fMRI. Methods: Using silent fMRI and simultaneous electromyography (EMG) to measure startle, the neural correlates of acoustic short-term startle habituation and PPI [stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) of 60 ms and 120 ms] were investigated in 42 healthy adults (28 females). To derive stronger inferences about brain-behaviour correlations at the group-level, models included EMG-assessed measures of startle habituation (regression slope) or PPI (percentage) as a covariate. A linear temporal modulator was modelled at the individual-level to characterise functional changes in neural activity during startle habituation. Results: Over time, participants showed a decrease in startle response (habituation), accompanied by decreasing thalamic, striatal, insula, and brainstem activity. Startle habituation was associated with the linear temporal modulation of BOLD response amplitude in several regions, with thalamus, insula, and parietal lobe activity decreasing over time, and frontal lobe, dorsal striatum, and posterior cingulate activity increasing over time. The paradigm yielded a small amount of PPI (9–13%). No significant neural activity for PPI was detected. Discussion: Startle habituation was associated with the thalamus, putamen, insula, and brainstem, and with linear BOLD response modulation in thalamic, striatal, insula, parietal, frontal, and posterior cingulate regions. These findings provide insight into the mediation and functional basis of the acoustic primary startle circuit. Instead, whilst reduced compared to conventional MRI, scanner noise may have disrupted prepulse detection and processing, resulting in low PPI and impacting our ability to map its neural signatures. Our findings encourage optimisation of the MRI environment for acoustic PPI-based investigations in humans. Combining EMG and functional neuroimaging methods shows promise for mapping short-term startle habituation in healthy and clinical populations.The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. LN is funded by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council London Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program (BBSRC LIDo DTP)