Negative Bubbles and Unpredictability of Financial Markets: The Asian Currency Crisis in 1997

We obtain the three following conclusions. First, business cycles depend on prices of stocks and primary commodities such as crude oil. Second, stock prices and oil prices generate psychological cycles with different periods. Third, there exist cases of "negative bubble" under certain conditions. Integrating the above results, we can find a role of a government in financial market in developing countries.

Career Crisis? Impacts of Financial Shock on the Entry-Level Labor Market: Evidence from Thailand

We utilize Thailand's the financial crisis in 1997 as a natural experiment which exogenously shifts labor demand. Convincing evidence from the Thailand Labor Force Survey support the hypothesis that both employment opportunities and wages shrunk for new entrants after the crisis. We find that workers who entered before the crisis experienced job losses and wage losses. But these losses were smaller than those of new entrants after the crisis. We also find that new entrants after the crisis experienced a 10% reduction in the overtime wages compared to new entrants before the crisis.

Performance of financial institutions in Bhutan

The Kingdom of Bhutan is a small landlocked country in South Asia, located in the eastern Himalayas, and bordered by India and China. Bhutan is a small and fragile economy with a population of about 687,000. Nevertheless, its banking system plays an essential role in the growth and development of the country. This paper analyzes the financial performance, the development and growth of bank and non-bank financial institutions of Bhutan for the period 1999-2008 using both traditional and data envelopment analysis (DEA). The DEA analysis shows that financial institutions in are efficient and Bhutan National Bank has been the most efficient one. Overall, the paper finds that the ROE of the financial institutions in Bhutan are comparable to the international banks.

Chemical speciation and mobilization of copper and zinc in naturally contaminated mine soils with citric and tartaric acids

A one-step extraction procedure and a leaching column experiment were performed to assess the effects of citric and tartaric acids on Cu and Zn mobilization in naturally contaminated mine soils to facilitate assisted phytoextraction. A speciation modeling of the soil solution and the metal fractionation of soils were performed to elucidate the chemical processes that affected metal desorption by organic acids. Different extracting solutions were prepared, all of which contained 0.01 M KNO3 and different concentrations of organic acids: control without organic acids, 0.5 mM citric, 0.5 mM tartaric, 10 mM citric, 10 mM tartaric, and 5 mM citric +5 mM tartaric. The results of the extraction procedure showed that higher concentrations of organic acids increased metal desorption, and citric acid was more effective at facilitating metal desorption than tartaric acid. Metal desorption was mainly influenced by the decreasing pH and the dissolution of Fe and Mn oxides, not by the formation of soluble metal–organic complexes as was predicted by the speciation modeling. The results of the column study reported that low concentrations of organic acids did not significantly increase metal mobilization and that higher doses were also not able to mobilize Zn. However, 5–10 mM citric acid significantly promoted Cu mobilization (from 1 mg kg−1 in the control to 42 mg kg−1 with 10 mM citric acid) and reduced the exchangeable (from 21 to 3 mg kg−1) and the Fe and Mn oxides (from 443 to 277 mg kg−1) fractions. Citric acid could efficiently facilitate assisted phytoextraction techniques.

An Assessment of Lithium Resources

Se hace un estudio de los recursos de una sustancia estratégica para la UE, a fin de orientar las investigaciones para un incremento de reservas que garanticen el abastecimiento de esta materia prima de gran demanda

Transit Use by Young People in Times of Financial Austerity: A Cause of Equity Concern?

This study investigates the effect of price and travel time fairness and spatial equity in transit provision on the perceived transit service quality, willingness to pay, and habitual frequency of use. Based on the theory of planned behavior, we developed a web-based questionnaire for revealed preferences data collection. The survey was administered among young people in Copenhagen and Lisbon to explore the transit perceptions and use under different economic and transit provision conditions. The survey yielded 499 questionnaires, analyzed by means of structural equation models. Results show that higher perceived fairness relates positively to higher perceived quality of transit service and higher perceived ease of paying for transit use. Higher perceived spatial equity in service provision is associated with higher perceived service quality. Higher perceived service quality relates to higher perceived ease of payment, which links to higher frequency of transit use.

Linked Data for sharing, discovery and re-use of Language Resources at a Web scale

Conferencia por invitación, impartida el 31 d mayo de 2014 en el Workshop on Language Technology Service Platforms: Synergies, Standards, Sharing at LREC2014

Mobilization of the A-kinase N-myristate through an isoform-specific intermolecular switch

Although the catalytic (C) subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase is N-myristylated, it is a soluble protein, and no physiological role has been identified for its myristyl moiety. To determine whether the interaction of the two regulatory (R) subunit isoforms (RI and RII) with the N-myristylated C subunit affects its ability to target membranes, the effect of N-myristylation and the RI and RII subunit isoforms on C subunit binding to phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylserine liposomes was examined. Only the combination of N-myristylation and RII subunit interaction produced a dramatic increase in the rate of liposomal binding. To assess whether the RII subunit also increased the conformational flexibility of the C subunit N terminus, the effect of N-myristylation and the RI and RII subunits on the rotational freedom of the C subunit N terminus was measured. Specifically, fluorescein maleimide was conjugated to Cys-16 in the N-terminal domain of a K16C mutant of the C subunit, and the time-resolved emission anisotropy was determined. The interaction of the RII subunit, but not the RI subunit, significantly increased the backbone flexibility around the site of mutation and labeling, strongly suggesting that RII subunit binding to the myristylated C subunit induced a unique conformation of the C subunit that is associated with an increase in both the N-terminal flexibility and the exposure of the N-myristate. RII subunit thus appears to serve as an intermolecular switch that disrupts of the link between the N-terminal and core catalytic domains of the C subunit to expose the N-myristate and poise the holoenzyme for interaction with membranes.

Mobilization of MHC class I molecules from late endosomes to the cell surface following activation of CD34-derived human Langerhans cells

Langerhans cells are a subset of dendritic cells (DCs) found in the human epidermis with unique morphological and molecular properties that enable their function as “sentinels” of the immune system. DCs are pivotal in the initiation and regulation of primary MHC class I restricted T lymphocyte immune responses and are able to present both endogenous and exogenous antigen onto class I molecules. Here, we study the MHC class I presentation pathway following activation of immature, CD34-derived human Langerhans cells by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). LPS induces an increase in all components of the MHC class I pathway including the transporter for antigen presentation (TAP), tapasin and ERp57, and the immunoproteasome subunits LMP2 and LMP7. Moreover, in CD34-derived Langerhans cells, the rapid increase in expression of MHC class I molecules seen at the cell surface following LPS activation is because of mobilization of MHC class I molecules from HLA-DM positive endosomal compartments, a pathway not seen in monocyte-derived DCs. Mobilization of class I from this compartment is primaquine sensitive and brefeldin A insensitive. These data demonstrate the regulation of the class I pathway in concert with the maturation of the CD34-derived Langerhans cells and suggest potential sites for antigen loading of class I proteins.

Health sciences libraries in Kuwait: a study of their resources, facilities, and services

The purpose of this study was to examine the current status of health sciences libraries in Kuwait in terms of their staff, collections, facilities, use of information technology, information services, and cooperation. Seventeen libraries participated in the study. Results show that the majority of health sciences libraries were established during the 1980s. Their collections are relatively small. The majority of their staff is nonprofessional. The majority of libraries provide only basic information services. Cooperation among libraries is limited. Survey results also indicate that a significant number of health sciences libraries are not automated. Some recommendations for the improvement of existing resources, facilities, and services are made.

Pericellular mobilization of the tissue-destructive cysteine proteinases, cathepsins B, L, and S, by human monocyte-derived macrophages.

Human macrophages are believed to damage host tissues in chronic inflammatory disease states, but these cells have been reported to express only modest degradative activity in vitro. However, while examining the ability of human monocytes to degrade the extracellular matrix component elastin, we identified culture conditions under which the cells matured into a macrophage population that displayed a degradative phenotype hundreds of times more destructive than that previously ascribed to any other cell population. The monocyte-derived macrophages synthesized elastinolytic matrix metalloproteinases (i.e., gelatinase B and matrilysin) as well as cysteine proteinases (i.e., cathepsins B, L, and S), but only the cathepsins were detected in the extracellular milieu as fully processed, mature enzymes by either vital fluorescence or active-site labeling. Consistent with these observations, macrophage-mediated elastinolytic activity was not affected by matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors but could be almost completely abrogated by inhibiting cathepsins L and S. These data demonstrate that human macrophages mobilize cysteine proteinases to arm themselves with a powerful effector mechanism that can participate in the pathophysiologic remodeling of the extracellular matrix.

The impact of financial development and market conditions on investment-cash flow sensitivity: global evidence

In this study, we analyze the impact of financial development and market conditions on investment-cash flow sensitivity during the 2006-2014 for 76 countries. First, the results show a relationship between investment-cash flow sensitivity and an index of financial development and its components. Second, 68 countries are affected by the 2008-2009 financial crisis, but only 16 countries exhibit a higher investment-cash flow sensitivity during the crisis. Third, investment-cash flow sensitivity is lower in countries with a larger primary debt market, while the size of the primary equity market has no impact. Finally, analyzing investment-cash flow sensitivity over time, we find lower sensitivity during years associated with higher primary debt market activity.

Identifying the role of natural resources in knowledge-based strategies of development

Knowledge has adopted a preferential role in the explanation of development while the evidence about the effect of natural resources in countries’ performance is more controversial in the economic literature. This paper tries to demonstrate that natural resources may positively affect growth in countries with a strong natural resources specialization pattern although the magnitude of these effects depend on the type of resources and on other aspects related to the production and innovation systems. The positive trajectory described by a set of national economies mainly specialized in natural resources and low-tech industries invites us to analyze what is the combination of factors that serves as engine for a sustainable development process. With panel data for the period 1996-2008 we estimate an applied growth model where both traditional factors and other more related to innovation and absorptive capabilities are taken into account. Our empirical findings show that according to the postulates of a knowledge-based approach, a framework that combines physical and intangible factors is more suitable for the definition of development strategies in those prosperous economies dominated by natural resources and connected activities, while the internationalization process of activities and technologies become also a very relevant aspect.