Executive compensation and business policy choices at U.S. commercial banks

This study examines whether and how the terms of CEO compensation contracts at large commercial banks between 1994 and 2006 influenced, or were influenced by, the risky business policy decisions made by these firms. We find strong evidence that bank CEOs responded to contractual risk-taking incentives by taking more risk; bank boards altered CEO compensation to encourage executives to exploit new growth opportunities; and bank boards set CEO incentives in a manner designed to moderate excessive risk-taking. These relationships are strongest during the second half of our sample, after deregulation and technological change had expanded banks' capacities for risk-taking.

Executive Compensation and Business Policy Choices at U.S. Commercial Banks

This study examines whether and how the terms of CEO compensation contracts at large commercial banks between 1994 and 2006 influenced, or were influenced by, the risky business policy decisions made by these firms. We find strong evidence that bank CEOs responded to contractual risk-taking incentives by taking more risk; bank boards altered CEO compensation to encourage executives to exploit new growth opportunities; and bank boards set CEO incentives in a manner designed to moderate excessive risk-taking. These relationships are strongest during the second half of our sample, after deregulation and technological change had expanded banks’ capacities for risk-taking

The Aqueous Soluble Polyphenolic Fraction of Psidium guajava Leaves Exhibits Potent Anti-Angiogenesis and Anti-Migration Actions on DU145 Cells

The aqueous extract of Psidium guajava budding leaves (PE) bears an extremely high content of polyphenolic and isoflavonoids. Whether it could be used as an anti-tumor chemopreventive in view of anti-angiogenesis and anti-migration, we performed the assay methods including the MTT assay to examine the cell viability; the ELISA assay to test the expressions of VEGF, IL-6 and IL-8; the western blot analysis to detect TIMP-2; the gelatinolytic zymography to follow the expression of MMPs; the wound scratch assay to examine the migration capability; and the chicken chorioallantoic membrane assay to detect the suppressive angiogenesis. Results indicated that the IC50 of PE for DU145 cells was ∼0.57 mg ml−1. In addition, PE effectively inhibited the expressions of VEGF, IL-6 and IL-8 cytokines, and MMP-2 and MMP-9, and simultaneously activated TIMP-2 and suppressed the cell migration and the angiogenesis. Conclusively, PE potentially possesses a strong anti-DU145 effect. Thus, clinically it owns the potential to be used as an effective adjuvant anti-cancer chemopreventive

Distorted HI Gas in the Widely Separated LIRG Arp 256

We present new interferometric HI and CO (1-0) observations of the luminous infrared source, Arp 256. Arp 256 consists of two spiral galaxies in an early stage of merging, with a projected nuclear separation of 29 kpc (54") and an infrared luminosity of 2.0E11 L_sun. Despite the large separation of the galaxies' nuclei and mildly disrupted stellar components, the HI disks are found to be strongly disrupted, and the southern galaxy in Arp 256 shows an elevated star formation efficiency, which is consistent with a nuclear starburst. Both of these results run contrary to expectations, posing interesting questions on the physical mechanisms involved in stimulating star formation during an interaction.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in AJ. Author added. Full resolution figures available at http://astro.uchicago.edu/home/web/jchen/arp25

Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 Imaging of SN 1979C and Its Environment

The locations of supernovae in the local stellar and gaseous environment in galaxies contain important clues to their progenitor stars. As part of a program to study the environments of supernovae using Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging data, we have examined the environment of the Type II-L SN 1979C in NGC 4321 (M100). We place more rigorous constraints on the mass of the SN progenitor, which may have had a mass M \approx 17--18 M_sun. Moreover, we have recovered and measured the brightness of SN 1979C, m=23.37 in F439W (~B; m_B(max) = 11.6), 17 years after explosion. .Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, submitted to PAS

Remote Imaging Applied to Schistosomiasis Control: The Anning River Project

The use of satellite imaging to remotely detect areas of high risk for transmission of infectious disease is an appealing prospect for large-scale monitoring of these diseases. The detection of large-scale environmental determinants of disease risk, often called landscape epidemiology, has been motivated by several authors (Pavlovsky 1966; Meade et al. 1988). The basic notion is that large-scale factors such as population density, air temperature, hydrological conditions, soil type, and vegetation can determine in a coarse fashion the local conditions contributing to disease vector abundance and human contact with disease agents. These large-scale factors can often be remotely detected by sensors or cameras mounted on satellite or aircraft platforms and can thus be used in a predictive model to mark high risk areas of transmission and to target control or monitoring efforts. A review of satellite technologies for this purpose was recently presented by Washino and Wood (1994) and Hay (1997) and Hay et al. (1997)

Sixteen years post radiotherapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma elicited multi-dysfunction along PTX and chronic kidney disease with microcytic anemia

BACKGROUND: The hypothalamic–pituitary (h-p) unit is a particularly radiosensitive region in the central nervous system. As a consequence, radiation-induced irreversible, progressively chronic onset hypopituitarism (RIH) commonly develops after radiation treatments and can result in variably impaired pituitary function, which is frequently associated with increased morbidity and mortality. CASE PRESENTATION: A 38-year-old male subject, previously having received radiotherapy for treatment of nasopharygeal carcinoma (NPCA) 16 years ago, appeared at OPD complaining about his failure in penile erection, loss of pubic hair, atrophy of external genitalia: testicles reduced to 2×1.5 cm; penile size shrunk to only 4 cm long. Characteristically, he showed extremely lowered human growth hormone, (HGH, 0.115 ng/mL), testosterone (<0.1 ng/mL), total thyroxine (tT4: 4.740 g/mL), free T4 (fT4, 0.410 ng/mL), cortisol (2.34 g/dL); lowered LH (1.37 mIU/mL) and estradiol (22 pg/mL); highly elevated TSH (7.12 IU/mL). As contrast, he had low end normal ACTH, FSH, total T3, free T3, and estriol; high end normal prolactin (11.71 ng/mL), distinctly implicating hypopituitarism-induced hypothyroidism and hypogonadism. serologically, he showed severely lowered Hb (10.6 g/dL), HCT (32.7%), MCV (77.6 fL), MCH (25.3 pg), MCHC (32.6 g/dL), and platelet count (139×103/L) with extraordinarily elevated RDW (18.2%), together with severely lowered ferritin (23.6 ng/mL) and serum iron levels; highly elevated total iron binding capacity (TIBC, 509 g/dL) and transferrin (363.4 mg/dL), suggesting microcytic anemia. Severely reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (e-GFR) (89 mL/mim/1.73 m2) pointed to CKD2. Hypocortisolemia with hyponatremia indicated secondary adrenal insufficiency. Replacement therapy using androgen, cortisol, and Ringer’s solution has shown beneficial in improving life quality. CONCLUSIONS: To our believe, we are the first group who report such complicate PTX dysfunction with adrenal cortisol insufficiency concomitantly occurring in a single patient

Curcumin-Protected PC12 Cells Against Glutamate-Induced Oxidative Toxicity

Glutamat je glavni ekscitacijski neurotransmiter u središnjem živčanom sustavu. Izmjena je glutamata i cistina (sustav xc-) glavni poveznik mehanizma obrane od oksidacijskog stresa s prijenosom živčanih podražaja i promjenom ponašanja. Prekomjerna aktivacija ionotropnih receptora glutamata dovodi do odumiranja neurona; taj se proces zove ekscitotoksičnost. Oksidacijski je stres uzrokovan glutamatom glavni uzročnik neurodegenerativnih bolesti, poput moždane ishemije, Alzheimerove i Huntingtonove bolesti. Kurkuma ima širok spektar bioloških aktivnosti, poput zaštite živčanog sustava i neurokognitivnih sposobnosti. Kurkumin smanjuje oksidacijski stres i time ublažava posljedice ishemijsko-reperfuzijske ozljede leđne moždine, epileptične napadaje i gubitak neurona u hipokampusu. Stanice PC12 feokromocitoma štakora imaju mnoge korisne osobine koje omogućuju proučavanje neurozaštitnih i neurokognitivnih aktivnosti. Ovo je istraživanje provedeno radi utvrđivanja mogućnosti praćenja aktivnost kurkumina u zaštiti živčanih stanica pomoću modela stanica PC12 oštećenih glutamatom. Rezultati pokazuju da glutamat (u koncentraciji od 20 mM) pojačava izražaj glutation peroksidaze 1, glutation disulfida, utoka iona kalcija, proizvodnju dušikovog oksida, oslobađanje citokroma c, omjer proteina Bax/Bxl-2, aktivnost kaspaze-3, oslobađanje laktat dehidrogenaze, reaktivnih kisikovih spojeva, vodikovog peroksida i malondialdehida, te smanjuje izražaj glutationa, glutation reduktaze, superoksid dismutaze i katalaze, čime se pojačava stanična apoptoza. Kurkumin ublažava sve te negativne učinke, pa se može zaključiti da učinkovito štiti stanice PC12 od oksidacijskog stresa uzrokovanog glutamatom. Njegova se aktivnost zasniva na uklanjanju reaktivnih kisikovih i dušikovih spojeva pomoću glutationa te u matriksu mitohondrija.Glutamate is a major excitatory neurotransmitter present in the central nervous system. The glutamate/cystine antiporter system xc– connects the antioxidant defense with neurotransmission and behaviour. Overactivation of ionotropic glutamate receptors induces neuronal death, a pathway called excitotoxicity. Glutamate-induced oxidative stress is a major contributor to neurodegenerative diseases including cerebral ischemia, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease. Curcuma has a wide spectrum of biological activities regarding neuroprotection and neurocognition. By reducing the oxidative damage, curcumin attenuates a spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion injury, seizures and hippocampal neuronal loss. The rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cell line exhibits many characteristics useful for the study of the neuroprotection and neurocognition. This investigation was carried out to determine whether the neuroprotective effects of curcumin can be observed via the glutamate-PC12 cell model. Results indicate that glutamate (20 mM) upregulated glutathione peroxidase 1, glutathione disulphide, Ca2+ influx, nitric oxide production, cytochrome c release, Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, caspase-3 activity, lactate dehydrogenase release, reactive oxygen species, H2O2, and malondialdehyde; and downregulated glutathione, glutathione reductase, superoxide dismutase and catalase, resulting in enhanced cell apoptosis. Curcumin alleviates all these adverse effects. Conclusively, curcumin can effectively protect PC12 cells against the glutamate-induced oxidative toxicity. Its mode of action involves two pathways: the glutathione-dependent nitric oxide-reactive oxygen species pathway and the mitochondria-dependent nitric oxide-reactive oxygen species pathway

Structural Characteristics and Antioxidative Capability of the Soluble Polysaccharides Present in Dictyophora indusiata

Dictyophora indusiata (Vent. ex Pers.) Fish Phallaceae (Chinese name Zhu-Sūn, the bamboo fungi) has been used as a medicinal mushroom to treat many inflammatory, gastric and neural diseases since 618 AD in China. We hypothesize that the soluble polysaccharides (SP) present in D. indusiata and their monosaccharide profiles can act as an important role affecting the antioxidative capability, which in turn would influence the biological activity involving anti-inflammatory, immune enhancing and anticancer. We obtained six SP fractions and designated them as D1, a galactoglucan; D2, a galactan; D3, the isoelectrically precipitated riboglucan from 2% NaOH; D4, a myoinositol; D5 and D6, the mannogalactans. The total SP accounted for 37.44% w/w, their molecular weight (MW) ranged within 801–4656 kDa. D3, having the smallest MW 801 kDa, exhibited the most potent scavenging effect against the α,α-diphenyl-β-picrylhydrazyl, •OH−, and •O2− radicals, yielding IC50 values 0.11, 1.02 and 0.64 mg mL−1, respectively. Thus we have confirmed our hypothesis that the bioactivity of D. indusiata is related in majority, if not entirely, to its soluble polysaccharide type regarding the MW and monosaccharide profiles

Probing interface defects in top-gated MoS2 transistors with impedance spectroscopy

The electronic properties of the HfO2/MoS2 interface were investigated using multifrequency capacitance–voltage (C–V) and current–voltage characterization of top-gated MoS2 metal–oxide–semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). The analysis was performed on few layer (5–10) MoS2 MOSFETs fabricated using photolithographic patterning with 13 and 8 nm HfO2 gate oxide layers formed by atomic layer deposition after in-situ UV-O3 surface functionalization. The impedance response of the HfO2/MoS2 gate stack indicates the existence of specific defects at the interface, which exhibited either a frequency-dependent distortion similar to conventional Si MOSFETs with unpassivated silicon dangling bonds or a frequency dispersion over the entire voltage range corresponding to depletion of the HfO2/MoS2 surface, consistent with interface traps distributed over a range of energy levels. The interface defects density (Dit) was extracted from the C–V responses by the high–low frequency and the multiple-frequency extraction methods, where a Dit peak value of 1.2 × 1013 cm–2 eV–1 was extracted for a device (7-layer MoS2 and 13 nm HfO2) exhibiting a behavior approximating to a single trap response. The MoS2 MOSFET with 4-layer MoS2 and 8 nm HfO2 gave Dit values ranging from 2 × 1011 to 2 × 1013 cm–2 eV–1 across the energy range corresponding to depletion near the HfO2/MoS2 interface. The gate current was below 10–7 A/cm2 across the full bias sweep for both samples indicating continuous HfO2 films resulting from the combined UV ozone and HfO2 deposition process. The results demonstrated that impedance spectroscopy applied to relatively simple top-gated transistor test structures provides an approach to investigate electrically active defects at the HfO2/MoS2 interface and should be applicable to alternative TMD materials, surface treatments, and gate oxides as an interface defect metrology tool in the development of TMD-based MOSFETs