Analisi del rischio sistemico a livello globale

Uno studio del rischio sistemico a livello globale è reso necessario dagli effetti della crescente globalizzazione che rendono le grandi banche internazionali parte di un network bancario globale. Di conseguenza, la fragilità finanziaria all’interno di questo network globale non influenza i mercati a livello di singolo paese ma interessa i mercati di più paesi diversi. In questo capitolo si analizzano in particolare i risultati di un interessante studio di Bostandzic, Pelster e Weiss (2014) condotto sulle determinanti del rischio sistemico utilizzando un campione internazionale di grandi banche che permette loro di analizzare il rischio sistemico a livello globale, anziché limitarsi ad uno studio del rischio sistemico a livello di area geografica e/o paese. Gli autori, potendo analizzare il rischio sistemico attraverso sistemi regolamentari e di supervisione eterogenei nel mondo, tentano di identificare i fattori sotto il diretto controllo delle autorità regolamentari che guidano la fragilità finanziaria globale. Il quesito dal quale parte il dibattito recente (nel quale si colloca questo contributo) è in che misura la regolamentazione e la vigilanza bancaria internazionale possano contenere l’alimentazione del rischio di instabilità del sistema finanziario? L’evidenza empirica disponibile mostra come una regolamentazione e una vigilanza più stringenti possano ridurre il grado di accettazione del rischio delle banche (vedi Barth et al., 2004; Buch e DeLong, 2008; Laeven e Levine, 2008) e, di conseguenza, rafforzare la solidità del sistema finanziario. D’altro canto, le richieste anche da parte dell’opinione pubblica di regole e controlli più severi sulle banche hanno sollevato le proteste dei grandi manager bancari. Questi ultimi lamentano che i recenti obblighi (Basilea 3) così onerosi in termini di qualità e quantità di capitale regolamentare minimo bancario abbiano un’influenza negativa sulla performance delle banche deteriorando la redditività bancaria e quindi, in seconda battuta, anche la stabilità del sistema finanziario. Dagli anni ‘90 la letteratura finanziaria evidenzia come livelli più alti di capitale bancario possano funzionare come cuscinetti contro le perdite, rendendo i fallimenti bancari meno probabili e allineando maggiormente gli interessi di azionisti, creditori e depositanti della banca (vedi Keeley e Furlong, 1990; Dewatripont e Tirole, 1994; Berger et al., 1995; Acharya et al., 2011; Herring e Calomiris, 2011). Tuttavia, la teoria economica ha anche sottolineato come elevati requisiti di capitale possano, diversamente, incentivare la banca ad accettare livelli di rischio più elevati minando la stabilità finanziaria globale (vedi Koehn e Santomero, 1980; Kim e Santomero, 1988; Besanko e Kanatas, 1996; Calem e Rob, 1999). Il maggior risultato al quale perviene questo studio sui driver di rischio sistemico sotto il diretto controllo delle autorità regolamentari bancarie è l’esistenza di una relazione negativa tra livello di capitale (Tier 1) bancario e rischio sistemico e di una relazione positiva tra ampiezza o dimensione della banca e alimentazione del rischio sistemico. Le implicazioni politiche di questi risultati empirici sono duplici. La prima è che la scelta politica intrapresa dalle autorità a livello mondiale di innalzare l’ammontare di capitale di tipo Tier1 va nella giusta direzione di ridurre il contributo delle banche al rischio sistemico, come misurato coerentemente dalle diverse misure di fragilità finanziaria analizzate. La seconda è che anche la decisione di monitorare in maniera particolarmente stringente le caratteristiche della dimensione e del grado di interconnessione delle grandi banche, fino all’eventualità di dividerle se too-big-to-fail, è pienamente giustificata dalla necessità di contrastare la fragilità del sistema finanziario nella sua globalità. Questi risultati scientifici sembrano quindi concordano con la scelta attualmente intrapresa dalle autorità regolamentari di imporre alle grandi banche dei requisiti di capitalizzazione aggiuntivi che tengono conto di alcune caratteristiche bancarie, prime tra tutte, l’ampiezza e l’interconnessione, oltre che di indicatori contabili strettamente legati al modello di business e di finanziamento adottato dalle banche

An exploratory study of the hard X-ray variability properties of PG quasars with RXTE

We have monitored with the RXTE PCA the variability pattern of the 2-20 keV flux in four PG quasars (QSOs) from the Laor et al. (1994) sample. Six observations of each target at regular intervals of 1 day were performed. The sample comprises objects with extreme values of Balmer line width (and hence soft X-ray steepness) and spans about one order of magnitude in luminosity. The most robust result is that the variability amplitude decreases as energy increases. Several options for a possible ultimate driver of the soft and hard X-ray variability, such as the influx rate of Comptonizing relativistic particles, instabilities in the accretion flow or the number of X-ray active sites, are consistent with our results.Comment: Contributed talk presented at the Joint MPE,AIP,ESO workshop on NLS1s, Bad Honnef, Dec. 1999, to appear in New Astronomy Reviews; also available at http://wave.xray.mpe.mpg.de/conferences/nls1-worksho

The effect of exposure to low frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) as an integral part of the housing system on anxiety-related behaviour, cognition and welfare in two strains of laboratory mouse.

Electromagnetic field (EMF) technology has the potential to improve scientific data capture and welfare assessment by allowing automated data collection from individual cages. How- ever, it is important to determine any impact that a new technology itself may have on animal welfare, and previous studies have found contrasting results of EMF on laboratory rodent anxiety-like behaviour and cognition. We therefore investigated whether there was an effect of low frequency EMF experienced continuously over a six-week period, as an integral part of the animal housing system, on measures of mouse anxiety-related behaviour, cognition and welfare. We housed mice (N = 80) of two strains (BALB/cAnNCrl and C57BL/6NCrl) separately in Individually Ventilated Cages (IVCs) in groups of four, either with the EMF plate turned ‘on’ or ‘off’ (n = 5). Some measures, e.g. food and water utilisation, were col- lected at regular intervals, whereas measures of anxiety-like behaviour (e.g. open field test) and cognitive performance (novel-object recognition test) were collected only at the end of the study. We found expected strong strain differences in most measures, e.g. latency to leave the starting square in an open field test, with C57BL/6NCrl mice moving away sooner, and interactions between strain and time for those measures recorded at more than one time point, e.g. significant weight gain over time for both strains, but with BALB/cAnNCrl mice weighing more. However, we found no significant effects of treatment (EMF ‘on’/‘off’) for any of the measures collected. These results indicate that, for the measures recorded here, there was no measurable impact on the behaviour and welfare of low frequency EMF exposure experienced continuously over a six-week period. Housing systems that include EMF monitoring technology may therefore be suitable for use without influencing either ani- mal welfare or scientific outcomes

Massive Neutrinos and the Higgs Mass Window

If neutrino masses are produced by a see-saw mechanism the Standard Model prediction for the Higgs mass window (defined by upper (perturbativity) and lower (stability) bounds) can be substantially affected. Actually the Higgs mass window can close completely, which settles an upper bound on the Majorana mass for the right-handed neutrinos, $M$, ranging from $10^{13}$ GeV for three generations of quasi-degenerate massive neutrinos with $m_\nu\simeq 2$ eV, to $5\times 10^{14}$ GeV for just one relevant generation with $m_\nu\simeq 0.1$ eV. A slightly weaker upper bound on $M$, coming from the requirement that the neutrino Yukawa couplings do not develop a Landau pole, is also discussed.If neutrino masses are produced by a see-saw mechanism the Standard Model prediction for the Higgs mass window (defined by upper (perturbativity) and lower (stability) bounds) can be substantially affected. Actually the Higgs mass window can close completely, which settles an upper bound on the Majorana mass for the right-handed neutrinos, $M$, ranging from $10^{13}$ GeV for three generations of quasi-degenerate massive neutrinos with $m_\nu\simeq 2$ eV, to $5\times 10^{14}$ GeV for just one relevant generation with $m_\nu\simeq 0.1$ eV. A slightly weaker upper bound on $M$, coming from the requirement that the neutrino Yukawa couplings do not develop a Landau pole, is also discussed

Ultraviolet Fixed Points in Gauge and SUSY Field Theories in Extra Dimensions

We consider gauge field theories in $D>4$ following the Wilson RG approach and show that they possess the ultraviolet fixed points where the gauge coupling is dimensionless in any space-time dimension. At the fixed point the anomalous dimensions of the field and vertex operators are known exactly. These fixed points are nonperturbative and correspond to conformal invariant theories. The same phenomenon also happens in supersymmetric theories with the Yukawa type interactions.Comment: LaTeX, 10pp. v2: Comments and references adde

Stillbirth and loss: family practices and display

This paper explores how parents respond to their memories of their stillborn child over the years following their loss. When people die after living for several years or more, their family and friends have the residual traces of a life lived as a basis for an identity that may be remembered over a sustained period of time. For the parent of a stillborn child there is no such basis and the claim for a continuing social identity for their son or daughter is precarious. Drawing on interviews with the parents of 22 stillborn children, this paper explores the identity work performed by parents concerned to create a lasting and meaningful identity for their child and to include him or her in their families after death. The paper draws on Finch's (2007) concept of family display and Walter's (1999) thesis that links continue to exist between the living and the dead over a continued period. The paper argues that evidence from the experience of stillbirth suggests that there is scope for development for both theoretical frameworks

Gliadin, zonulin and gut permeability: effects on celiac and non-celiac intestinal mucosa and intestinal cell lines.

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about the interaction of gliadin with intestinal epithelial cells and the mechanism(s) through which gliadin crosses the intestinal epithelial barrier. We investigated whether gliadin has any immediate effect on zonulin release and signaling. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Both ex vivo human small intestines and intestinal cell monolayers were exposed to gliadin, and zonulin release and changes in paracellular permeability were monitored in the presence and absence of zonulin antagonism. Zonulin binding, cytoskeletal rearrangement, and zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) redistribution were evaluated by immunofluorescence microscopy. Tight junction occludin and ZO-1 gene expression was evaluated by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULTS: When exposed to gliadin, zonulin receptor-positive IEC6 and Caco2 cells released zonulin in the cell medium with subsequent zonulin binding to the cell surface, rearrangement of the cell cytoskeleton, loss of occludin-ZO1 protein-protein interaction, and increased monolayer permeability. Pretreatment with the zonulin antagonist FZI/0 blocked these changes without affecting zonulin release. When exposed to luminal gliadin, intestinal biopsies from celiac patients in remission expressed a sustained luminal zonulin release and increase in intestinal permeability that was blocked by FZI/0 pretreatment. Conversely, biopsies from non-celiac patients demonstrated a limited, transient zonulin release which was paralleled by an increase in intestinal permeability that never reached the level of permeability seen in celiac disease (CD) tissues. Chronic gliadin exposure caused down-regulation of both ZO-1 and occludin gene expression. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, we concluded that gliadin activates zonulin signaling irrespective of the genetic expression of autoimmunity, leading to increased intestinal permeability to macromolecules

SEISMIC MONITORING OF BUILDINGS WITH BASE ISOLATION

The seismic monitoring of buildings is important for two fundamental reasons: - evaluate the possible dynamic behavior of these structures during earthquakes; - gain experience on the general seismic behavior of the structures so that the experience and the database can be used in the future for design and analysis. The results of previous efforts in seismic monitoring of the structures have facilitated the devel-opment of a database, which in turn was used in the creation of new formulas and reference values for the estimation of the fundamental periods of the structures and the percentage of crit-ical damping from use during dynamic analyzes. The database is very well supplied with data on traditional buildings, but there is still not enough data for buildings isolated at the base. Some different structures with seismic base isolation have been monitored during recent strong earthquakes in Italy, namely Amatrice earthquake (2016/08/24, Mw=6.0) and Norcia earth-quake (2016/10/30, Mw=6.5). For the structure under examination, amplification phenomena have been noticed, up to about twice the accelerations on the superstructure, for very low energy value inputs. In these cases, however, it is noted that the amplified accelerations are extremely small, and very far from be-ing able to damage the structure. Records from the ENEA permanent accelerometric network, installed on the structure under examination, and the tests carried out on the same isolators used for the qualification tests of the devices mounted below the analyzed structure, permit to describe the behavior of the isolators in terms of force and displacement defining two non-linear laws, derived from experimental data

Multicharacterization approach for studying InAl(Ga)N/Al(Ga)N/GaN heterostructures for high electron mobility transistors

We report on our multi–pronged approach to understand the structural and electrical properties of an InAl(Ga)N(33nm barrier)/Al(Ga)N(1nm interlayer)/GaN(3μm)/AlN(100nm)/Al2O3 high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) heterostructure grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). In particular we reveal and discuss the role of unintentional Ga incorporation in the barrier and also in the interlayer. The observation of unintentional Ga incorporation by using energy dispersive X–ray spectroscopy analysis in a scanning transmission electron microscope is supported with results obtained for samples with a range of AlN interlayer thicknesses grown under both the showerhead as well as the horizontal type MOVPE reactors. Poisson–Schrödinger simulations show that for high Ga incorporation in the Al(Ga)N interlayer, an additional triangular well with very small depth may be exhibited in parallel to the main 2–DEG channel. The presence of this additional channel may cause parasitic conduction and severe issues in device characteristics and processing. Producing a HEMT structure with InAlGaN as the barrier and AlGaN as the interlayer with appropriate alloy composition may be a possible route to optimization, as it might be difficult to avoid Ga incorporation while continuously depositing the layers using the MOVPE growth method. Our present work shows the necessity of a multicharacterization approach to correlate structural and electrical properties to understand device structures and their performance