Future financing needs of the highly indebted countries

Under base scenario assumptions, the authors estimate that the Baker 17 countries will require about $18 to$ 20 billion of net new disbursements annually to reverse recent investment trends and bring about modest growth in per capita incomes. The most significant shortfall is in commercial bank lending. Without an adequate burden sharing arrangement, it is unlikely that official creditors would be prepared to assume a disproportionately large exposure risk in these countries. Husain and Mitra conclude that with sound adjustment policies in the debtor countries, a combination of concerted new lending, debt reduction, reflows of flight capital, and intermittant accumulation of interest arrears will be the principal means of financing.Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Strategic Debt Management

Look Who\u27s Talking Now: Choose Life License Plates and Deceptive Government Speech

In March 2006, the Sixth Circuit upheld a Tennessee statute allowing drivers to purchase specialty license plates bearing a Choose Life slogan but not making available plates with an alternative pro-choice message. Two years earlier, the Fourth Circuit struck down a nearly identical South Carolina statute, claiming it violated the First Amendment by discriminating based on viewpoint. Despite uncertain constitutionality, legislation allowing Choose Life plates has passed in thirteen states. None of these states offer pro-choice tags

A Bridge Between Users and Library Professionals Amid and Post COVID-19 Pandemic: Use of Virtual Reference Services in the Top Five University Libraries of World

The paper discusses the importance of ICT in rendering Virtual Reference Services (VRS) in libraries during and post Covid-19. The application of ICT is not a new phenomenon in libraries. Still, the disclosure of physical buildings is a nudge for adapting technology to make the libraries relevant during and after the pandemic. The study highlights the various ways to render virtual reference services delivery that libraries can provide to their users by harnessing Information and Communication technology. The paper discusses the use of virtual reference services such as email, webform, VoIP, instant messaging, videoconferencing and online chat in libraries to serve their users swiftly in the tough time of Covid-19. The paper investigated the various modes of providing virtual reference services in the top five universities as per the QS World University Rankings 2021, which are Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, Harvard University, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Oxford. The content analysis of websites was used to collect data. These libraries were selected deliberately as there are rendering different modes of Virtual reference services. VRS act as a bridge to facilitate users during a pandemic and reshape and enhance the library services after the pandemic. The article is an effort to create awareness among libraries to utilise the virtual reference service and support their users virtually

Cultivating Cultural Humility in Social Work Teaching: What Can Be Done Differently?

As an Indian social work instructor in the United States, I came across cultural differences between my students and me. This reflection paper aims to share culturally humble teaching practices that I utilized while teaching and how they aided me in overcoming and understanding those cultural differences in the classroom. I believe the shared experience will help international instructors who experience similar cultural differences in their academic careers

Complex Traffic Network Modeling & Area-wide Hierarchical Control

This thesis presents a novel methodology to divide a traffic region into subregions such that in each subregion a Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) can be used to determine the state of that subregion. The region division is based on the theory of complex networks. We exploit the inherent network characteristics through PageRank centrality algorithm to identify the most significant nodes in the traffic network. We use these significant nodes as the seeds for a Voronoi diagram based partitioning mechanism of the network. A network wide hierarchical control framework is then presented which controls these sub regions individually and the network as a whole. At the subregion level a feedback controller is designed based on MFD concept. At the network level we develop a dynamic toll pricing algorithm to control the inflows into the network. This dynamic toll pricing is coupled with the subregion controller and thus forming a network wide hierarchical control. We use optimal control theory to design the dynamic toll pricing. A cost function is designed and then Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation is used to derive an optimal control law that uses real-time information. The objective of the dynamic toll algorithm is to strike a balance between the toll price and optimal traffic conditions in each of the subregions. A case study is performed for the Manhattan area in New York city and results are provided through simulations

Consumer Choice on Savings Accounts: Bounded rationality

Given the falling returns in share markets and the comparative safety of savings accounts protected by the deposit insurance provided by the Australian Government, there was a significant surge in deposits made in savings ac counts. According to an article published in The Australian , Australian households deposited an estimated $38 billion into savings accounts over a period of six months ending on the 31 st of March, 2009. Among the various deposit-taking institutions, Westpac received the largest part of this growth. (Jimenez, 2009). Interestingly, there have been no major changes in the interest rates offered on savings accounts by the major banks recently. If the savings account market is examined , the first thing that one notices is the large number of options available to a prospective customer. There are more than fifty savings accounts on offer by various banks, building societies and credit unions. These include regular savings accounts, high interest savings accounts with more stringent conditions on deposits, withdrawals and usage and exclusively online savings accounts. Any given savings account product can have different combinations of attributes apart from the interest rate offered such as the minimum balance requirements, the minimum lock-in period, etc. For an average consumer who wants to open a savings account, there is a plethora of choices available. This paper considers how a typical consumer might make a choice among so many options and whether this choice is “right”

Alterations of the Gut Mycobiome in Patients with MS - a Bioinformatic Approach

The mycobiome is the fungal component of the gut microbiome and is implicated in several autoimmune diseases. However, its role in multiple sclerosis (MS) has not been studied. We performed descriptive and formal statistical tests using the R language to characterize the gut mycobiome in people with MS (pwMS) and healthy controls. We found that the microbiome composition of multiple sclerosis patients is different from healthy people. The mycobiome had significantly higher alpha diversity and inter-subject variation in pwMS than controls. Additionally, Saccharomyces and Aspergillus were over-represented in pwMS. Different mycobiome profiles, defined as mycotypes, were associated with different bacterial abundances. Computer-based analysis of vast sequencing data will continue improving our understanding of the complicated microbiome community and their interactions with the host

Novel inhibitors of lipid phosphatase SHIP2 and their effects on the phosphorylation of Akt kinase

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has been shown to be associated with hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia and impaired insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells leading to micro- and macro-vascular complications including multiorgan failures. At the cellular level, the mechanism of insulin resistance is associated with complex PI3K-Akt mediated insulin signaling pathway. Moreover, lipid phosphatase SHIP2 (Src homology 2 domain containing inositol 5-phosphatase 2) plays a vital role as a negative regulator of the insulin signaling pathway downstream of PI3K by hydrolyzing phosphatidylinositol- 3,4,5-trisphosphate (PIP3) into phosphatidylinositol- 3,4- biphosphate (PIP2). Scientific reports have shown that inhibition of SHIP2 activity might improve Akt phosphorylation and thus PI3K-Akt mediated insulin signaling pathway. Considering this, I am interested in the SHIP2 inhibitors with drug like properties such as improved solubility, pharmacokinetic and bioavailability properties with little to no contraindications. In the present thesis, I have attempted to detect indirectly the capacity of 8 novel small molecule SHIP2 inhibitors, #160, #161, #162, #163, #167B, #170A, #171, #172 for their ability to phosphorylate Akt kinase in L6 myotubes using immunoblotting as a tool and compared data using graphical representation to pick up the best candidate. Two inhibitors, #163 and #170A were further chosen for alamarBlue® cytotoxicity assay. Treatment with #163 did not display direct cytotoxic effects on the myotubes. The viability of myotubes was not affected at low concentrations of #170A, but it started to reduce at concentrations >200 µM. In my study, I came up with #163 and #170A as the best lead candidates for further analysis. In future, more trials need to be performed with these inhibitors. Moreover, there are several other novel small molecule SHIP2 inhibitors identified from chemical library that need to be tested. Briefly, in this thesis, I have first time reported 8 novel small molecule SHIP2 inhibitors which could be a significant step in the discovery of new T2DM drugs for more efficient, cost effective and safe treatment of the disease with least contraindications

The kinetics, mechanisms, and consequences of HTLV-1 plus-strand expression in naturally-infected T-cell clones

HTLV-1 replication requires the expression of plus-strand-encoded transcriptional transactivator protein Tax. However, Tax protein, a surrogate for HTLV-1 plus-strand expression is seldom detected in freshly isolated infected blood. The kinetics and consequences of plus-strand expression remain poorly understood. I used two fluorescent protein-based Tax reporter systems to study the dynamics and consequences of plus-strand expression and the changes to the host gene expression during plus-strand expression in naturally HTLV-1-infected, non-malignant T-cell clones. Time-lapse live-cell imaging followed by single-cell analysis of two T-cell clones stably transduced with a short-lived enhanced green fluorescent protein Tax reporter system identified five patterns of Tax expression in both clones and the distribution of these patterns was different between the two clones. Mathematical modelling of the experimental data revealed that the mean duration of Tax expression differed between the two clones – 94 and 417 hours, respectively. Host cell transcriptome analysis during successive stages of plus-strand strand expression using a fluorescent timer protein-based Tax reporter system in naturally-infected T-cell clones identified dysregulation in the expression of genes related to multiple cellular processes, including cell cycle, DNA damage response, and apoptosis at the initiation of the plus-strand transcriptional burst. The plus-strand expression showed immediate but transient adverse effects, including reduced proliferation, increased apoptosis, upregulation of a DNA damage marker, and impaired cell cycle progression. In the longer term, the immediate negative consequences of Tax expression were offset by reduced apoptosis and increased proliferation as cells terminated plus-strand expression. Plus-strand expression was also associated with cell-to-cell adhesion and reduced motility. These findings show within and between clone variability in the patterns and duration of HTLV-1 plus-strand expression, changes to the host gene expression during successive stages of the plus-strand expression, and the balance between the beneficial and adverse effects on the host cell associated with the plus-strand expression.Open Acces