Financial crisis and quantitative easing: can broad money tell us anything?

When Bank of England (and the Federal Reserve Board) introduced their quantitative easing (QE) operations they emphasised the effects on money and credit, but much of their empirical research on the effects of QE focuses on long-term interest rates. We use a flow of funds matrix with an independent central bank to show the implications of QE and other monetary developments, and argue that the financial crisis, the fiscal expansion and QE are likely to have constituted major exogenous shocks to money and credit in the UK which could not be digested immediately by the usual adjustment mechanisms. We present regressions of a reduced form model which considers the growth of nominal spending as determined by the growth of nominal money and other variables. These results suggest that money was not important during the Great Moderation but has had a much larger role in the period of the crisis and QE. We then use these estimates to illustrate the effects of the financial crisis and QE. We conclude that it would be useful to incorporate money and/or credit in wider macroeconometric models of the UK economy.

On the transition of genetic differentiation from isolation to panmixia: What we can learn from GST and D.

Population genetic differentiation characterizes the repartition of alleles among populations. It is commonly thought that genetic differentiation measures, such as GST and D, should be near zero when allele frequencies are close to their expected value in panmictic populations, and close to one when they are close to their expected value in isolated populations. To analyse those properties, we first derive analytically a reference function f of known parameters that describes how important features of genetic differentiation (e.g. gene diversity, proportion of private alleles, frequency of the most common allele) are close to their expected panmictic and isolation value. We find that the behaviour of function f differs according to three distinct mutation regimes defined by the scaled mutation rate and the number of populations. Then, we compare GST and D to f, and demonstrate that their signal of differentiation strongly depends on the mutation regime. In particular, we show that D captures well the variations of genetic diversity when mutation is weak, otherwise it overestimates it when panmixia is not met. GST detects population differentiation when mutation is intermediate but has a low sensitivity to the variations of genetic diversity when mutation is weak. When mutation is strong the domain of sensitivity of both measures are altered. Finally, we also point out the importance of the number of populations on genetic differentiation measures, and provide recommendations for the use of GST and D.

A balance of questions: what can we ask of climate change economics?

The standard approach to the economics of climate change, which has its best known implementation in Nordhaus's DICE and RICE models (well described in Nordhaus's 2008 book, A Question of Balance) is not well equipped to deal with the possibility of catastrophe, since we are unable to evaluate a risk averse representative agent's expected utility when there is any signi cant probability of zero consumption. Whilst other authors attempt to develop new tools with which to address these problems, the simple solution proposed in this paper is to ask a question that the currently available tools of climate change economics are capable of answering. Rather than having agents optimally choosing a path (that differs from the recommendations of climate scientists) within models which cannot capture the essential features of the problem, I argue that economic models should be used to determine the savings and investment paths which implement climate targets that have been suggested in the physical science literature.

Obesity and smoking: can we catch two birds with one tax?

The debate on tobacco and fat taxes often treats smoking and eating as independent behaviors. However, the available evidence shows that they are interdependent, which implies that policies against smoking or obesity may have larger scope than expected. To address this issue, we propose a dynamic rational model where eating and smoking are simultaneous choices that jointly affect body weight and addiction to smoking. Focusing on direct and cross-price effects, we compare tobacco taxes and food taxes and we show that a single policy tool can reduce both smoking and body weight. In particular, food taxes can be more effective than tobacco taxes at simultaneously fighting obesity and smoking.

Can Early Intervention Policies Improve Well-being? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial

Many authors have proposed incorporating measures of well-being into evaluations of public policy. Yet few evaluations use experimental design or examine multiple aspects of well-being, thus the causal impact of public policies on well-being is largely unknown. In this paper we examine the effect of an intensive early intervention program on maternal well-being in a targeted disadvantaged community. Using a randomized controlled trial design we estimate and compare treatment effects on global well-being using measures of life satisfaction, experienced well-being using both the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) and a measure of mood yesterday, and also a standardized measure of parenting stress. The intervention has no significant impact on negative measures of well-being, such as experienced negative affect as measured by the DRM and global measures of well-being such as life satisfaction or a global measure of parenting stress. Significant treatment effects are observed on experienced measures of positive affect using the DRM, and a measure of mood yesterday. The DRM treatment effects are primarily concentrated during times spent without the target child which may reflect the increased effort and burden associated with additional parental investment. Our findings suggest that a maternal-focused intervention may produce meaningful improvements in experienced well-being. Incorporating measures of experienced affect may thus alter cost-benefit calculations for public policies.

Aproximació a l’estudi de la percepció i la interacció amb l’entorn vegetal en societats caçadores recol•lectores i agricultores ramaderes (10,000-4,000 cal ANE). Resultats de l’estudi arqueobotànic del jaciment arqueològic de la Cova de Can Sadurní (Begues, Baix Llobregat)

Revisió historiogràfica de l’estudi del paisatge, el territori i l’entorn. Aprofundiment teòric en tres conceptes: entorn, interacció i percepció. Proposta metodològica destinada a l’estudi de la percepció de l’entorn i la interacció amb aquest per part de societats prehistòriques. Aplicació de la metodologia al jaciment de Can Sadurní (Begues, Baix Llobregat) a partir de l’estudi de les restes carpològiques dels nivells mesolítics i del neolític antic (des de la capa 21 fins a la 10) interpretades en el context arqueològic disponible.

Desenvolupament d'un servidor d'informació geogràfica

L'explosió d'aplicacions a Internet basades en oferir serveis de localització, com són portals web de mobilitat o aplicacions de seguiment de vehicles en línia han motivat aquest projecte. Google Maps ens permet afegir mapes fàcilment en un lloc web amb la seva API, però OpenLayers, una llibreria JavaScript lliure ens dóna l'opció de carregar cobertures de mapa i marcadors des de qualsevol font. OpenStreetMap proporciona dades geogràfiques de manera lliure, com per exemple mapes de carrers i carreteres. Un estudi acurat de l'estructura i agrupació de les dades en el format OSM i el desenvolupament d'un servidor basat en el model de tessel·les, són els principals elements de partida per crear la nostra pròpia font de dades cartogràfiques. En aquest projecte s'analitza i processa DXF Drawing eXchange Format passant al format OSM. Un fitxer OSM conté la informació geogràfica necessària per a la base de dades espaial a partir de la qual, entre d'altres aplicacions, es podran visualitzar els mapes propis en una aplicació de seguiment de vehicles o en un portal web.

A doubling measure on R(d) can charge a rectifiable curve

"Vegeu el resum a l'inici del document del fitxer adjunt"

Comment évaluer le risque oncologique d'un patient souffrant de dermatomyosite [Can we predict the risk of malignancy associated with dermatomyositis?]

Dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) are idiopathic inflammatory muscle diseases which remain a therapeutic challenge. The association between DM and malignancy is relatively well established while this relationship is weaker with PM. The clinical management and research for an occult malignancy as well as the follow-up of patients with DM or PM is a matter of debate. Herein we report a case of DM who, despite an extensive clinical, radiological and biological work-up developed an occult ovarian cancer 12 months after the initial diagnosis. This case report was used as support to review the actual expert recommendations for the search of an occult malignancy in presence of DM or PM.

Alpha beta lineage-committed thymocytes can be rescued by the gamma delta T cell receptor (TCR) in the absence of TCR beta chain.

Commitment of the alpha beta and gamma delta T cell lineages within the thymus has been studied in T cell receptor (TCR)-transgenic and TCR mutant murine strains. TCR gamma delta-transgenic or TCR beta knockout mice, both of which are unable to generate TCR alpha beta-positive T cells, develop phenotypically alpha beta-like thymocytes in significant proportions. We provide evidence that in the absence of functional TCR beta protein, the gamma delta TCR can promote the development of alpha beta-like thymocytes, which, however, do not expand significantly and do not mature into gamma delta T cells. These results show that commitment to the alpha beta lineage can be determined independently of the isotype of the TCR, and suggest that alpha beta versus gamma delta T cell lineage commitment is principally regulated by mechanisms distinct from TCR-mediated selection. To accommodate our data and those reported previously on the effect of TCR gamma and delta gene rearrangements on alpha beta T cell development, we propose a model in which lineage commitment occurs independently of TCR gene rearrangement.

Energetics of RecA-mediated recombination reactions. Without ATP hydrolysis RecA can mediate polar strand exchange but is unable to recycle.

We demonstrate that the step of DNA strand exchange during RecA-mediated recombination reaction can occur equally efficiently in the presence or absence of ATP hydrolysis. The polarity of strand exchange is the same when instead of ATP its non-hydrolyzable analog adenosine-5'-O-(3-thiotriphosphate) is used. We show that the ATP dependence of recombination reaction is limited to the post-exchange stages of the reactions. The low DNA affinity state of RecA protomers, induced after ATP hydrolysis, is necessary for the dissociation of RecA-DNA complexes at the end of the reaction. This dissociation of RecA from DNA is necessary for the release of recombinant DNA molecules from the complexes formed with RecA and for the recycling of RecA protomers for another round of the recombination reaction.

Effects of anxiety on visuospatial pattern discrimination and decision-making processes: what can we learn from brain dynamics ?

Detection and discrimination of visuospatial input involve at least extracting, selecting and encoding relevant information and decision-making processes allowing selecting a response. These two operations are altered, respectively, by attentional mechanisms that change discrimination capacities, and by beliefs concerning the likelihood of uncertain events. Information processing is tuned by the attentional level that acts like a filter on perception, while decision-making processes are weighed by subjective probability of risk. In addition, it has been shown that anxiety could affect the detection of unexpected events through the modification of the level of arousal. Consequently, purpose of this study concerns whether and how decision-making and brain dynamics are affected by anxiety. To investigate these questions, the performance of women with either a high (12) or a low (12) STAI-T (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Spielberger, 1983) was examined in a decision-making visuospatial task where subjects have to recognize a target visual pattern from non-target patterns. The target pattern was a schematic image of furniture arranged in such a way as to give the impression of a living room. Non-target patterns were created by either the compression or the dilatation of the distances between objects. Target and non-target patterns were always presented in the same configuration. Preliminary behavioral results show no group difference in reaction time. In addition, visuo-spatial abilities were analyzed trough the signal detection theory for quantifying perceptual decisions in the presence of uncertainty (Green and Swets, 1966). This theory treats detection of a stimulus as a decision-making process determined by the nature of the stimulus and cognitive factors. Astonishingly, no difference in d' (corresponding to the distance between means of the distributions) and c (corresponds to the likelihood ratio) indexes was observed. Comparison of Event-related potentials (ERP) reveals that brain dynamics differ according to anxiety. It shows differences in component latencies, particularly a delay in anxious subjects over posterior electrode sites. However, these differences are compensated during later components by shorter latencies in anxious subjects compared to non-anxious one. These inverted effects seem indicate that the absence of difference in reaction time rely on a compensation of attentional level that tunes cortical activation in anxious subjects, but they have to hammer away to maintain performance.