151 research outputs found
Beyond the crisis: prospects for emerging Europe. Bruegel Working Paper 2010/06, December 2010
No full textThis Policy Contribution by Zsolt Darvas assesses the impact of the 2008-09 global financial and economic crisis on the medium-term growth prospects of CEES countries, the Caucasus and Central Asia, which starting their economic transition about twenty years ago. Evidence shows that the crisis has had a major impact on the within-sample fit of the models used and that the positive impact of EU enlargement on growth is smaller than previous research has shown. The crisis has also altered the future growth prospects of the countries studied, even in the optimistic but unrealistic case of a return to pre-crisis capital inflows and credit booms
Tax morale and tax evasion: Social preferences and bounded rationality
No full textWe study a family of models of tax evasion, where a flat-rate tax finances only the provision of public goods, neglecting
audits and wage differences. We focus on the comparison of two modeling approaches. The first is based on optimizing
agents, who are endowed with social preferences, their utility being the sum of private consumption and moral utility. The second approach involves agents acting according to simple heuristics. We find that while we encounter the
traditionally shaped Laffer-curve in the optimizing model, the heuristics models exhibit (linearly) increasing Laffercurves. This difference is related to a peculiar type of behavior emerging within the heuristics based approach: a
number of agents lurk in a moral state of limbo, alternating between altruism and selfishness
Uncovering Yield Parity: A New Insight into the UIP Puzzle through the Stationarity of Long Maturity Forward Rates
No full textResults and models of this paper are based on a strikingly new empirical observation: long maturity forward rates between bilateral currency pairs of the US, Germany, UK, and Switzerland are stationary. Based on this result, we suggest a new explanation for the UIP-puzzle maintaining rational expectations and risk neutrality. The model builds on the interaction of foreign exchange and fixed income markets. Ex ante short run and long run UIP and the EHTS is assumed. We show that ex post shocks to the term structure could explain the behavior of the nominal exchange rate including its volatility and the failure of ex post short UIP regressions. We present evidence on ex post validity of long run UIP and strikingly new evidence on the stationarity of the long forward exchange rates of major currencies. We set up, calibrate and simulate a stylized model that well captures the observed properties of spot exchange rates and UIP regressions of major currencies. We define the notion of yield parity and test its empirical performance for monthly series of major currencies with favorable resultsEHTS, forward discount bias, stationarity of long maturity forward rates, UIP, yield parity
14 Years after Discovery: Clinical Follow-up on 15 Patients with Inducible Co-Stimulator Deficiency
No full text\ua9 2017 Schepp, Chou, Skrabl-Baumgartner, Arkwright, Engelhardt, Hambleton, Morio, R\uf6ther, Warnatz, Geha and Grimbacher. Background: Inducible co-stimulator (ICOS) deficiency was the first monogenic defect reported to cause common variable immunodeficiency (CVID)-like disease in 2003. Since then, 16 patients have been reported worldwide with an increasing range of clinical phenotypes. Objective: We sought to compare the clinical and immunological phenotype and provide clinical follow-up and therapeutic approaches for treating ICOS-deficient patients. Methods: We describe the clinical and laboratory data of 15 patients with available clinical data. Previous publications and clinical assessment were used as data sources. results: The observed ICOS gene mutations were all deletions leading to undetectable protein expression. The clinical phenotype of ICOS deficiency is much broader than initially anticipated and includes not only CVID-like disease but an increased susceptibility to viral and opportunistic infections, as well as cancer. Impaired B-cell development led to decreased memory B-cells in all patients, and hypogammaglobulinemia in all but one patient. Circulating CXCR5+ CD4+ follicular T-helper-cell numbers were also reduced in all patients. Treatment included immunoglobulin replacement, regular antibiotic prophylaxis, corticosteroids, and steroid-sparing agents. Three patients underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; one of them died due to capillary leak syndrome on day 5 posttransplantation. conclusion: The disease spectrum of ICOS deficiency is expanding from solely B-cell to combined B- and T-cell immunodeficiency, suggesting genetic and environmental modifiers. Genetic diagnosis is the only tool to distinguish ICOS deficiency from other immunological defects. Patients with antibody deficiency, autoimmunity, and combined immunodeficiency should be screened for ICOS mutations
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FACTORS INFLUENCING THE COPING EFFORT OF PARENTS OF HOSPITALIZED CHILDREN
No full textThe purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of three factors, the expectation of events, situational control and situational anxiety, on the coping effort of parents of acutely ill hospitalized children. A secondary purpose was to determine the influence of the parents' locus of control orientation on the parents' coping effort. Coping effort was defined as the amount of behavior, both action oriented and intrapsychic, employed by parents to master, tolerate, reduce or minimize stressful events encountered during their child's hospitalization. The study utilized a mathematical correlational design with a causal modeling approach to assess a four-stage theory. The convenience sample selected for the study was 45 Anglo mothers of acutely ill hospitalized children between the ages of one and 24 months. A four-scale instrument based on magnitude estimation measurement strategy was constructed to index the theoretical concepts. Reliability, validity and cross modality matching were conducted to estimate the psychometric properties of the instrument. The theory was estimated using correlational and multiple regression statistical techniques. Residual analysis was conducted to estimate violations of the causal model and statistical assumptions. Expectation of events showed a direct effect on situational anxiety (R² = .35) and thus, an indirect impact on parental coping effort. Situational anxiety had a strong, direct, positive influence on coping effort (R² = .97). Situational control did not significantly influence the parents' coping effort directly nor indirectly and was not influenced by the expectation of events. The impact of the parents' locus of control orientation on their coping effort could not be determined since the locus of control index was found to be psychometrically inadequate for this sample. Parents who knew what events to expect experienced less anxiety and, as a result, expended less effort to cope with the stresses of their child's hospital experience. By knowing what factors influence the parents' coping effort, the pediatric nurse is able to manipulate the parents' hospital experience to provide as therapeutic an environment for the child and the parents as possible.This item was digitized from a paper original and/or a microfilm copy. If you need
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Erich Weniger - political education in the triangle of society, state, and the people
No full textIn den Verfassungen der modernen parlamentarischen Demokratien wird jedem einzelnen eine dreifache Rolle zugewiesen. Die politische Bildung steht damit vor der Aufgabe, das Verhältnis von Mensch-Sein (Freiheit), Bürger-Sein (Gleichheit) und Mitglied-Sein (Einheit) in rationaler Klarheit und zugleich illusionslos so darzustellen, daß sich eine einsichtige Grundlage für ihre Theorie und Praxis ergibt. Erich Weniger gehört zu den ersten Autoren in der neueren Geschichte der politischen Bildung, dem diese komplexe Problematik in Ansätzen bewußt wird. Er stößt dabei auf Schwierigkeiten, die auch noch weitgehend die unsrigen sind. In diesem Aufsatz wird versucht, Wenigers Theorie der politischen Bildung sowohl in ihrer Besonderheit als auch in ihrer allgemeinen demokratietheoretischen Bedeutung zu analysieren und im Blick auf politische Grundprobleme der gegenwärtigen geisteswissenschaftlichen Pädagogik zu bedenken. (DIPF/Orig.)The constitutions of modern parliamentary democracies assign a threefold role to every individual: He is supposed to develop his personality as a "human being" within the liberal sphere of „society"; as a "citizen" he is expected to integrate himself into the normative system of the state; as a "member" of "the people", representing the state authority, he has to contribute to the feeling of solidarity. It is therefore the task of political education to represent the relation between these three entities - human being (liberty), citizenship (equality), and membership (unity) – with rational clarity and without any illusions, so that a transparent basis for both theory and practice emerges. Erich Weniger was one of the first authors in the recent history of political education to be aware of the complexity of these issues. The author gives an analysis of Weniger\u27s theory of political education with respect to both its peculiarities and its significance for a general theory of democracy. Furthermore, Weniger\u27s concept is related to fundamental problems of current humanities-oriented pedagogics. (DIPF/Orig.
A kötvény- és devizapiacok kölcsönhatásának szerepe a rugalmas devizaárfolyamok alakulásának értelmezésében = The role of the interaction between foreign exchange and fixed income markets in understanding exchange rate behavior
No full textKutatásaink három főbb vonalon hoztak eredményeket: 1) A devizapiac és a hozamgörbe várakozási hipotéziseinek együttes feltevéséből kiinduló elméleti megközelítésünkben rámutattunk, hogy a kötvény- és devizapiacok sokkjai között szimultán összefüggés valósul meg. Szimulációs vizsgálataink szerint a hozamgörbe hosszú végének sokkjai a gyakorlatban megfigyelt jelenségekkel összhangban transzformálódhatnak a devizaárfolyamok mozgásaiba. 2) Elméleti megközelítésünkkel összefüggésben felfedeztünk egy eddig nem vizsgált empirikus tényt: a vezető devizák határidős devizaárfolyamainak perzisztenciája a lejárat növelésével csökken. Hosszú (5-10 éves) lejáratoknál a stacionaritás lehetőségét sem vetik el a formális tesztek. 3) A hosszú lejáratú határidős devizaárfolyamok stacionaritását vélelmező hibakorrekciós modellek lehetővé teszik az azonnali árfolyamok mintán kívüli előrejelzését: a) 20 éves mintán kívüli előrejelzési időszakot vizsgáltunk havi frekvencián; b) Az amerikai dollár 9 legfontosabb árfolyamát vizsgáltuk (a devizapiac 75%-a!); c) A mintán kívüli előrejelzések szignifikanciáját bootstrap-teszttel ellenőriztük; d) Valamennyi esetben szignifkánsan jobb mintán kívüli előrejelzést adtunk, mint a benchmark martingál hipotézis (véletlen bolyongás), ill. az alternatív modellek. e) Bár eredményeink a világgazdasági válság 2008 őszi kirobbanását követően minimálisan romlottak, alapvető következtetéseink továbbra sem módosultak. | Our research has reached delivered new findings in the following three main topics: 1) Our model combining the expectation hypotheses of the FOREX market and the term structure of interest rates has revealed the interconnection of shocks to FOREX and fixed income markets. We showed that shocks to the term structure could explain the behaviour of the nominal exchange rate including its volatility and the failure of regressions to provide evidence in favour of the hypothesis of short horizon uncovered interest rate parity. 2) In connection to our theoretical model, we have discovered a strikingly new empirical observation: long maturity (e.g. 5/10 years) forward rates between major currencies are less persistent than spot exchanges rate and even many of them are found to be stationary by a large number of unit root and stationarity tests. 3) Our error correction models assuming that long-maturity forward rates are stationary provide extraordinary forecasting results. These models outperform the random walk (and many alternative models) in out-of-sample forecasting at forecasting horizons mostly above one year, for US dollar exchange rates against nine industrial countries? currencies, using a 20-year long period (1990-2009) for evaluating out-of-sample forecasts. The improvement in forecast accuracy of our models is economically significant for most of the exchange rate series and statistically significant according to a bootstrap test
Effects of prostaglandins on gastrin release from canine antral mucosal cells in primary culture
No full textEvidence in vivo indicates that endogenous and exogenous prostaglandins can alter gastrin secretion. We have used primary cultures containing canine antral G-cells to study the cellular actions of prostaglandins on gastrin secretion, comparing the effects of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and its synthetic analogue enprostil. Enprostil (10(-10)-10(-6) M) inhibited gastrin secretion in response to bombesin, carbachol, and forskolin, the latter a receptor-independent activator of adenylate cyclase. This inhibition by enprostil was reversed by treatment with pertussis toxin (200 ng/ml, 8 h). However, enprostil did not inhibit the postreceptor stimuli 8-bromoadenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (10(-3) M), calcium ionophore A-23187 (10(-7) M), or 4 beta-phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (10(-8) M). In contrast, whereas PGE2 inhibited forskolin-stimulated gastrin release, PGE2 did not inhibit the response to carbachol or bombesin in control cultures. However, in pertussis toxin-treated cultures, PGE2 inhibition was reversed and, in contrast, the responses to bombesin, carbachol, and possibly forskolin were augmented. Indomethacin at a dose of 10(-5) M did not alter basal or bombesin-stimulated gastrin secretion. However, the somatostatin antibody CURE-S6 enhanced the response to forskolin and enhanced inhibition by PGE2, suggesting that endogenous somatostatin produced an inhibitory tone in these cultures and excluding the possibility that PGE2 acted via release of endogenous somatostatin. Our data suggest that in cultured antral cells gastrin release is regulated by inhibitory and stimulatory prostaglandin mechanisms.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)LR: 20061115; PUBM: Print; JID: 0370511; 0 (Adenylate Cyclase Toxin); 0 (Gastrins); 0 (Prostaglandins); 0 (Virulence Factors, Bordetella); 363-24-6 (Dinoprostone); 73121-56-9 (Enprostil); EC 2.4.2.31 (Pertussis Toxin); ppublishSource type: Electronic(1
Exchange Rate Policy and Economic Growth after the Financial Crisis in Central and Eastern Europe
No full textIn a paper on the effects of the global financial crisis in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the
author reacts to a paper of Åslund (2011) published in the same issue of Eurasian Geography and
Economics on the influence of exchange rate policies on the region’s recovery. The author argues
that post-crisis corrections in current account deficits in CEE countries do not in themselves signal a
return to steady economic growth. Disagreeing with Åslund over the role of loose monetary policy in
fostering the region’s economic problems, he outlines a number of competitiveness problems that
remain to be addressed in the 10 new EU member states of CEE, along with improvements in framework conditions supporting future macroeconomic growth
Rhodium and Iridium Pincer Complexes Supported by Bis(phosphino)silyl Ligation: Applications in Bond Cleavage Chemistry
No full textGroup 9 transition metal pincer complexes have shown tremendous utility in a variety of E-H (E = main group element) bond activation reactions. In an effort to access new types of highly reactive pincer-like transition metal complexes this research focuses on the development of new late metal complexes supported by tridentate bis(phosphino)silyl ligands of the type [?3-(2-R2PC6H4)2SiMe]- ([R-PSiP]; R = Cy, iPr). The incorporation of a strongly electron donating and highly trans-labilizing silyl group at the central anionic position may promote the formation of new coordinatively unsaturated compounds capable of enhanced reactivity. In this regard, the synthesis of coordinatively unsaturated Rh and Ir complexes supported by R-PSiP ligation and their ability to activate E-H bonds will be detailed.
The synthesis of Cy-PSiP ligated Rh and Ir species and the ability to access the products of N–H bond oxidative addition with these species was investigated. Both [Cy-PSiP]Rh and [Cy-PSiP]Ir complexes were shown to form isolable complexes of the type [Cy-PSiP]M(H)(NHR) (M = Rh, R = aryl; M = Ir, R = H, aryl). However, attempts to generate such amido hydride complexes by N-H activation of the corresponding amine led to divergent reactivity, where adducts of the type [Cy-PSiP]Rh(NH2R) were obtained for Rh, while N-H bond oxidative addition was observed for Ir to form the targeted amido hydride complexes, including a rare example of ammonia N-H bond oxidative addition to form a monomeric, terminal parent amido complex that was crystallographically characterized. Due to the scarcity of transition metal complexes that are capable of N-H bond oxidative addition, a thorough investigation of the N-H bond activation mediated by [Cy-PSiP]Rh and Ir with various N-H containing substrates, including alkyl amines, hydrazine derivatives, and benzamides was initiated. Extension of this reactivity to the related diisopropylphosphino derivative [iPr-PSiP]IrI was also probed, as the resulting complexes were envisioned to be less susceptible to potential cyclometalation processes.
Indeed, oxidative addition of primary alkyl amines, hydrazines, and benzamides was observed for [R-PSiP]Ir. These results comprise an unprecedented example of a metal complex that is capable of facile N-H bond activation in such a wide range of substrates, including challenging substrates such as ammonia and alkyl amines. A rare example of Rh-mediated N-H oxidative addition was also observed for the reaction of [Cy-PSiP]RhI with benzophenone hydrazone.
The potential for these [R-PSiP]Ir(H)(NHR) complexes to insert unsaturated substrates was investigated, as the development of new pathways for the formation of C-N bonds via transition metal catalyzed N-H bond oxidative addition to a metal center followed by insertion of an alkene or alkyne into the M-N or M-H bond may provide a new pathway for accessing intermolecular amination reactions. Insertion chemistry attempts with various alkenes, alkynes, allenes, C=O and C?N containing compounds is described.
Lastly, the synthesis of IrIII complexes of the type {[R-PSiP]IrR'}+X? (R = Cy, iPr; R’ = H, Me; X = OTf, BF4, B(C6F5)4) and their interactions with the C-H bonds of arenes and aldehydes, as well as, the Si-H bonds of hydrosilanes is detailed. The Si-H bond activation chemistry observed was typically influenced by the counter anion X. Thus, the more coordinating anions OTF and BF4 were shown to coordinate to and stabilize the highly electrophilic Si in transiently generated Ir silylene species
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