Sudden Flight and True Sudden Stops

We extend the sudden stops literature by allowing crisis episodes to be caused by either the retreat of global investors, as is assumed but not shown in the extant literature, or the sudden flight of local investors. We find that almost half of the previously defined sudden stops are actually episodes of sudden flight. Compared to sudden flight, true sudden stops are bunched and are associated with greater slowdowns in economic activity and sharper currency depreciations. We show that the empirical regularities of sudden flight and true sudden stops are consistent with theoretical models that incorporate gross capital flows and information asymmetries.international capital flows, capital flight, emerging market crises

Large-scale educational telecommunications systems for the US: An analysis of educational needs and technological opportunities

The needs to be served, the subsectors in which the system might be used, the technology employed, and the prospects for future utilization of an educational telecommunications delivery system are described and analyzed. Educational subsectors are analyzed with emphasis on the current status and trends within each subsector. Issues which affect future development, and prospects for future use of media, technology, and large-scale electronic delivery within each subsector are included. Information on technology utilization is presented. Educational telecommunications services are identified and grouped into categories: public television and radio, instructional television, computer aided instruction, computer resource sharing, and information resource sharing. Technology based services, their current utilization, and factors which affect future development are stressed. The role of communications satellites in providing these services is discussed. Efforts to analyze and estimate future utilization of large-scale educational telecommunications are summarized. Factors which affect future utilization are identified. Conclusions are presented

Lyt-2 glycoprotein is synthesized as a single molecular species

We investigated the possibility that the Lyt-2 molecules made by uncloned mouse T lymphocytes would show variable primary structures like those of immunoglobulins. Newly synthesized Lyt-2/3 complexes were found to include only two major components, both discrete glycoproteins with apparent molecular weights of 31,000 (31 K) and 35,000 (35 K). When products of Lyt-2.1 and Lyt-2.2 thymocytes were compared by two-dimensional nonequilibrium pH gradient electrophoresis and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the isoelectric points of the 35 K molecules were different; thus, the 35 K component was likely to be encoded by the Lyt-2 locus itself. However, the 35 K molecules made by any one genotype were homogeneous in charge as well as in size. The homogeneity was obscured rapidly by post-translational modification. Most strikingly, within 30 min of initial synthesis, these processing events generated the conspicuous array of microheterogeneous products that form the "38 K" component of cell-surface Lyt-2/3

Production of a Discrete, Infectious, Double-stranded DNA by Reverse Transcription in Virions of Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus

One of the most unique viral replication schemes is that of the retroviruses (a class that includes the RNA tumor viruses). These viruses synthesize a double-stranded (DS) DNA copy of their single-stranded (SS) RNA genome as the initial event following infection of susceptible cells (see Weinberg 1977). The details of this process—called reverse transcription—are still obscure, but the general outlines have become clear during the last few years

Buprenorphine added on brief cognitive behavioral therapy for treatment of methamphetamine use disorder

Background: Methamphetamine (MA) use remains a major public health concern around the world. Recent findings suggest that buprenorphine may be helpful for cocaine use reduction. Moreover, animal studies described reduced dopamine peak effect following MA use, due to the administration of low dose buprenorphine. Objectives: This study examined the effectiveness of buprenorphine with brief cognitive behavioral therapy on MA use disorder. Methods: The study was conducted in an outpatient substance abuse treatment center in Qazvin, Iran. Nineteen MA users received buprenorphine for 24 weeks combined with brief cognitive behavioral therapy in an outpatient substance abuse treatment program, three times per week, as a before and after non - randomization study. Clinical outcomes included treatment retention, MA use, degree of MA dependency and craving, quality of life, cognitive abilities questionnaire, addiction severity and also adverse events. Data was analyzed by performing repeated measures analysis and the Friedman test for nonparametric variables. Results: Fifteen participants completed the study during six months and frequency of MA use was significantly decreased at 24 weeks (P < 0.001). There were also significant reductions in craving (P < 0.001), degree of MA dependence (P < 0.001), and improvements in quality of life, cognitive ability, and some subscales of addiction severity. Conclusions: The results of this preliminary clinical study demonstrated that buprenorphine could potentially attenuate MA craving and alternate rewarding effects of MA and had promising effects on cognitive impairment. Furthermore, buprenorphine can be considered as a harm reduction intervention in some communities, in which the people, as a result of cultural beliefs, do not accept a therapy, which only consists of counseling and no medications

Rhetoric in the language of real estate marketing

“Des. Res.”, “rarely available”, “viewing essential” – these are all part of the peculiar parlance of housing advertisements which contain a heady mix of euphemism, hyperbole and superlative. Of interest is whether the selling agent’s penchant for rhetoric is spatially uniform or whether there are variations across the urban system. We are also interested in how the use of superlatives varies over the market cycle and over the selling season. For example, are estate agents more inclined to use hyperbole when the market is buoyant or when it is flat, and does it matter whether a house is marketed in the summer or winter? This paper attempts to answer these questions by applying textual analysis to a unique dataset of 49,926 records of real estate transactions in the Strathclyde conurbation over the period 1999 to 2006. The analysis opens up a new avenue of research into the use of real estate rhetoric and its interaction with agency behaviour and market dynamics

Notch/Delta signaling constrains reengineering of pro-T cells by PU.1

PU.1 is essential for early stages of mouse T cell development but antagonizes it if expressed constitutively. Two separable mechanisms are involved: attenuation and diversion. Dysregulated PU.1 expression inhibits pro-T cell survival, proliferation, and passage through β-selection by blocking essential T cell transcription factors, signaling molecules, and Rag gene expression, which expression of a rearranged T cell antigen receptor transgene cannot rescue. However, Bcl2 transgenic cells are protected from this attenuation and may even undergo β-selection, as shown by PU.1 transduction of defined subsets of Bcl2 transgenic fetal thymocytes with differentiation in OP9-DL1 and OP9 control cultures. The outcome of PU.1 expression in these cells depends on Notch/Delta signaling. PU.1 can efficiently divert thymocytes toward a myeloid-like state with multigene regulatory changes, but Notch/Delta signaling vetoes diversion. Gene expression analysis distinguishes sets of critical T lineage regulatory genes with different combinatorial responses to PU.1 and Notch/Delta signals, suggesting particular importance for inhibition of E proteins, Myb, and/or Gfi1 (growth factor independence 1) in diversion. However, Notch signaling only protects against diversion of cells that have undergone T lineage specification after Thy-1 and CD25 up-regulation. The results imply that in T cell precursors, Notch/Delta signaling normally acts to modulate and channel PU.1 transcriptional activities during the stages from T lineage specification until commitment

The onsite manufacture of propellant oxygen from lunar resources

The Aerojet carbothermal process for the manufacture of oxygen from lunar materials has three essential steps: the reduction of silicate with methane to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen; the reduction of carbon monoxide with hydrogen to form methane and water; and the electrolysis of water to form hydrogen and oxygen. The reactions and the overall process are shown. It is shown with laboratory experimentation that the carbothermal process is feasible. Natural silicates can be reduced with carbon or methane. The important products are carbon monoxide, metal, and slag. The carbon monoxide can be completely reduced to form methane and water. The water can be electrolyzed to produce hydrogen and oxygen. A preliminary engineering study shows that the operation of plants using this process for the manufacture of propellant oxygen has a large economic advantage when the cost of the plant and its operation is compared to the cost of delivering oxygen from Earth