Does the euro dominate Central and Eastern European money markets?

The so-called German Dominance Hypothesis (GDH) claimed that Bundesbank policies were transmitted into other European Monetary System (EMS) interest rates during the pre-euro era. We reformulate this hypothesis for the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that are on the verge of accessing the eurozone. We test this \Euro Dominance Hypothesis (EDH)" in a novel way using a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) approach that combines country-speci c error correction models in a global system. We nd that euro area monetary policies are transmitted into CEE interest rates which provides evidence for monetary integration between the eurozone and CEE countries. Our framework also allows for introducing global monetary shocks to provide empirical evidence regarding the e ects of the recent nancial crisis on monetary integration in Europe.

Flebotomíneos (Diptera: Psychodidae) no estado de Roraima, Brasil: I. espécies coletadas nas regiões sul e central

Durante 1987, nas regiões sul e central do Estado de Roraima, foram realizadas coletas de flebotomineos nas bases de árvores e em armadilhas CDC colocadas a 1,5 e 10m de altura do solo. Foram obtidos 2812 espécimes, de 45 espécies: 35 na região sul e 27 na região cental; 18 espécies foram comuns as duas áreas e 21 estão sendo aqui assinaladas pela primeira vez no Estado. A presente publicação eleva a 54 o número de espécies conhecidad no Estado.

Evolució del poblament i organització del territori a la Catalunya interior durant l'Antiguitat Tardana i l'Alta Edat Mitjana: els casos de la Catalunya Central (Bages, Berguedà i Solsonès) i la Garrotxa (segles V-X)

Projecte de recerca elaborat a partir d’una estada a la Université de Toulouse 2 – Le Mirail entre gener i juny del 2007. En concret, l’estada efectuada ha suposat la integració de qui signa aquesta memòria dins l’equip al-Andalus/Hispaniae, dirigit pel professor Philippe Sénac, una de les diverses branques que conformen el grup FRAMESPA d’aquella universitat, unitat de recerca adscrita al CNRS (UMR 5136). El títol proposat per al contingut de la recerca en la sol•licitud presentada, Evolució del poblament i organització del territori a la Catalunya interior a l’Alta Edat Mitjana, encapçalava un pla de treball que tenia per objectiu la recopilació i l’anàlisi de dades arqueològiques i textuals que oferissin un escenari a partir del qual establir una seqüència evolutiva en relació a les diferents tendències pel que fa al poblament tardoantic i altmedieval en dues zones diferenciades com són les conques mitjanes dels rius Llobregat i Cardener, a la Catalunya Central, i la capçalera del riu Fluvià, a la Garrotxa. Així, s’han pogut detectar, a partir de la contrastació de les diferents dades, fenòmens diversos que reflecteixen la incidència dels successius canvis històrics a nivell territorial i de poblament.

GLUTX1, a novel mammalian glucose transporter expressed in the central nervous system and insulin-sensitive tissues.

Based on homology with GLUT1-5, we have isolated a cDNA for a novel glucose transporter, GLUTX1. This cDNA encodes a protein of 478 amino acids that shows between 29 and 32% identity with rat GLUT1-5 and 32-36% identity with plant and bacterial hexose transporters. Unlike GLUT1-5, GLUTX1 has a short extracellular loop between transmembrane domain (TM) 1 and TM2 and a long extracellular loop between TM9 and TM10 that contains the only N-glycosylation site. When expressed in Xenopus oocytes, GLUTX1 showed strong transport activity only after suppression of a dileucine internalization motif present in the amino-terminal region. Transport activity was inhibited by cytochalasin B and partly competed by D-fructose and D-galactose. The Michaelis-Menten constant for glucose was approximately 2 mM. When translated in reticulocytes lysates, GLUTX1 migrates as a 35-kDa protein that becomes glycosylated in the presence of microsomal membranes. Western blot analysis of GLUTX1 transiently expressed in HEK293T cells revealed a diffuse band with a molecular mass of 37-50 kDa that could be converted to a approximately 35-kDa polypeptide following enzymatic deglycosylation. Immunofluorescence microscopy detection of GLUTX1 transfected into HEK293T cells showed an intracellular staining. Mutation of the dileucine internalization motif induced expression of GLUTX1 at the cell surface. GLUTX1 mRNA was detected in testis, hypothalamus, cerebellum, brainstem, hippocampus, and adrenal gland. We hypothesize that, in a similar fashion to GLUT4, in vivo cell surface expression of GLUTX1 may be inducible by a hormonal or other stimulus.

Synanthropic trends in urban andextraurban taxocenoses of Sarcophaginae (Diptera) in three central european cities

An attempt has been made to characterize the synanthropic trends in Sarcophaginae of three Central European cities, viz. Brno, Bratislava and Budapest. The polar ordination of both sarcophagine taxa and of their taxocenoses revealed clear-cut trends towards culturophily and synanthropy in the male preconnubial aggregations of Sarchophaginae evidencing that this group of high Diptera represent an excellent model for the study of this phenomenon.

The endodermis--development and differentiation of the plant's inner skin.

Controlling external compound entrance is essential for plant survival. To set up an efficient and selective sorting of nutrients, free diffusion via the apoplast in vascular plants is blocked at the level of the endodermis. Although we have learned a lot about endodermal specification in the last years, information regarding its differentiation is still very limited. A differentiated endodermal cell can be defined by the presence of the "Casparian strip" (CS), a cell wall modification described first by Robert Caspary in 1865. While the anatomical description of CS in many vascular plants has been very detailed, we still lack molecular information about the establishment of the Casparian strips and their actual function in roots. The recent isolation of a novel protein family, the CASPs, that localizes precisely to a domain of the plasma membrane underneath the CS represents an excellent point of entry to explore CS function and formation. In addition, it has been shown that the endodermis contains transporters that are localized to either the central (stele-facing) or peripheral (soil-facing) plasma membranes. These features suggest that the endodermis functions as a polar plant epithelium.

The Economics of CO2-EOR Cluster Developments in the UK Central North Sea/ Outer Moray Firth

NORTH SEA STUDY OCCASIONAL PAPER No. 123

The Signalling Channel of Central Bank Interventions: Modelling the Yen/US Dollar Exchange Rate

This paper presents a theoretical framework analysing the signalling channel of exchange rate interventions as an informational trigger. We develop an implicit target zone framework with learning in order to model the signalling channel. The theoretical premise of the model is that interventions convey signals that communicate information about the exchange rate objectives of central bank. The model is used to analyse the impact of Japanese FX interventions during the period 1999 -2011 on the yen/US dollar dynamics.

The Signalling Channel of Central Bank Interventions: Modelling the Yen/US Dollar Exchange Rate

This paper presents a theoretical framework analysing the signalling channel of exchange rate interventions as an informational trigger. We develop an implicit target zone framework with learning in order to model the signalling channel. The theoretical premise of the model is that interventions convey signals that communicate information about the exchange rate objectives of central bank. The model is used to analyse the impact of Japanese FX interventions during the period 1999 -2011 on the yen/US dollar dynamics.

The past, present and future of central banking

The financial crisis, on the one hand, and the recourse to ‘unconventional’ monetary policy, on the other, have given a sharp jolt to perceptions of the role and status of central banks. In this paper we start with a brief ‘contrarian’ history of central banks since the second world war, which presents the Great Moderation and the restricted focus on inflation targeting as a temporary aberration from the norm. We then discuss how recent developments in fiscal and monetary policy have affected the role and status of central banks, notably their relationships with governments, before considering the environment central banks will face in the near and middle future and how they will have to change to address it.

Central banks and house prices in the run-up to the crisis

The financial crisis and the role played within it by fluctuations in house prices has reopened the debate about whether monetary policy should respond to asset prices. This paper investigates how the central banks of the euro area, the UK and the US considered, understood and responded to the trends in house prices in the six or seven years preceding the crisis, and how they have analysed those developments since the crisis. It suggests that these central banks, particularly the Anglo-Saxon ones, might have been able to take some useful action if they had devoted more intellectual resources to analysing the possible misalignments of house prices and been willing to act on them.

Persistent bundles over a two dimensional compact set

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

Treatment of central retinal vein occlusion-related macular edema with intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin): preliminary results.

PURPOSE: To assess the safety and efficacy of treatment of macular edema secondary to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) with intravitreal bevacizumab. PATIENTS AND METHOD: The ongoing prospective study included 8 consecutive patients (8 eyes) with macular edema secondary to CRVO (6 non ischemic and 2 ischemic), treated with intravitreal injection of 1.25 mg (0.05 mL) of bevacizumab. Main outcome was best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central foveal thickness (CFT) measured by optical coherence tomography monthly during one year. Retreatment criteria include decrease of BCVA, persistence of macular edema on angiograms and increase of CFT. RESULTS: Mean age of the eight patients was 68 years (range: 50-82 years). Mean duration of symptoms before injection was 98 days (range: 3-289). Mean follow-up was 3.25 months. At baseline, mean BCVA was 0.84 logMar and mean baseline CFT was 771 microm. Mean BCVA was 0.36 and mean CFT thickness was 275 microm (n = 8) at month 1, 0.41 and 411 microm at month 2 (n = 7), 0.3 and 344 microm at month 3 (n = 6), 0.3 and 397 microm at month 4 (n = 5), respectively. In 75 % of patients, a single injection was not sufficient, and retreatment needed. No serious adverse events were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of macular edema secondary to CRVO with intravitreal bevacizumab injection of 1.25 mg was well tolerated and associated with marked macular thickness reduction and BCVA improvement in all patients. A trend towards reduction of foveal thickness and improvement of visual acuity was observed in both acute and chronic CRVO.

Continuity of set-valued maps revisited in the light of tame geometry

Continuity of set-valued maps is hereby revisited: after recalling some basic concepts of variational analysis and a short description of the State-of-the-Art, we obtain as by-product two Sard type results concerning local minima of scalar and vector valued functions. Our main result though, is inscribed in the framework of tame geometry, stating that a closed-valued semialgebraic set-valued map is almost everywhere continuous (in both topological and measure-theoretic sense). The result –depending on stratification techniques– holds true in a more general setting of o-minimal (or tame) set-valued maps. Some applications are briefly discussed at the end.

The Optimal Degree of Monetary-Discretion in a New Keynesian Model with Private Information

This paper considers the optimal degree of discretion in monetary policy when the central bank conducts policy based on its private information about the state of the economy and is unable to commit. Society seeks to maximize social welfare by imposing restrictions on the central bank's actions over time, and the central bank takes these restrictions and the New Keynesian Phillips curve as constraints. By solving a dynamic mechanism design problem we find that it is optimal to grant "constrained discretion" to the central bank by imposing both upper and lower bounds on permissible inflation, and that these bounds must be set in a history-dependent way. The optimal degree of discretion varies over time with the severity of the time-inconsistency problem, and, although no discretion is optimal when the time-inconsistency problem is very severe, our numerical experiment suggests that no-discretion is a transient phenomenon, and that some discretion is granted eventually.