Wealth and asset price effects on economic activity

Do asset prices affect real activity? This question has taken on a new importance in recent years, as asset values first surged at the end of 1990s and, thereafter, dramatically retreated. This report reviews the available theoretical and empirical evidence regarding asset price and wealth effects in Europe and some other major economies. The main focus of this report is on consumption effects via the wealth channel, reflecting the bulk of literature on the effects of asset prices. However, asset price effects on investment via the Tobin’s-Q channel, balance sheet and confidence channels are also reviewed. The available evidence supports the view that the wealth channel is the most important of various channels. There is little empirical evidence indicating that the Tobin’s-Q, balance-sheet and confidence channels play any major independent role in the transmission of asset price effects to economic activity.household wealth, wealth channel, asset price, marginal propensity to consume, cost of capital.

Exploring the change across a generation: First-year Physics students’ conceptions and study approaches between 2002-2018

It is often not contested that students’ performance in STEM disciplines is declining. As well as the more recent results from standardized testing of younger students, it is not uncommon to hear university STEM professors anecdotally report of the failure of more recent cohorts to live up to the standard of their predecessors. However, it is rare to find studies which address the purported declining standards amongst students entering university STEM studies using the same instruments over an extended time period.  This repeated cross-sectional study examines how students upon entry into university physics studies respond to an established conceptual survey on mechanics as well as two surveys probing epistemological beliefs. A total of 2448 first-year undergraduate students were surveyed at an Australian research-intensive university from 2002 to 2018. Our findings show that students' conceptions of the structure of physics knowledge and their study approaches, remain remarkably stable. In the measures of physics conceptual understanding, students in the later cohorts return significantly higher scores over the study period. We discuss the backdrop in which this study has occurred and argue that these findings offer a unique insight into similarities and differences of a narrow band of student cohorts over more than a decade

Reperfusion therapy for ST elevation acute myocardial infarction 2010/2011: current status in 37 ESC countries

Aims Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) is the preferred reperfusion therapy in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). We conducted this study to evaluate the contemporary status on the use and type of reperfusion therapy in patients admitted with STEMI in the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) member countries. Methods and results A cross-sectional descriptive study based on aggregated country-level data on the use of reperfusion therapy in patients admitted with STEMI during 2010 or 2011. Thirty-seven ESC countries were able to provide data from existing national or regional registries. In countries where no such registries exist, data were based on best expert estimates. Data were collected on the use of STEMI reperfusion treatment and mortality, the numbers of cardiologists, and the availability of PPCI facilities in each country. Our survey provides a brief data summary of the degree of variation in reperfusion therapy across Europe. The number of PPCI procedures varied between countries, ranging from 23 to 884 per million inhabitants. Primary percutaneous coronary intervention and thrombolysis were the dominant reperfusion strategy in 33 and 4 countries, respectively. The mean population served by a single PPCI centre with a 24-h service 7 days a week ranged from 31 300 inhabitants per centre to 6 533 000 inhabitants per centre. Twenty-seven of the total 37 countries participated in a former survey from 2007, and major increases in PPCI utilization were observed in 13 of these countries. Conclusion Large variations in reperfusion treatment are still present across Europe. Countries in Eastern and Southern Europe reported that a substantial number of STEMI patients are not receiving any reperfusion therapy. Implementation of the best reperfusion therapy as recommended in the guidelines should be encourage

Saliva stress biomarkers in ERCP trainees before and after familiarisation with ERCP on a virtual simulator

BackgroundStress during the early ERCP learning curve may interfere with acquisition of skills during training. The purpose of this study was to compare stress biomarkers in the saliva of trainees before and after familiarisation with ERCP exercises on a virtual simulator.MethodsAltogether 26 endoscopists under training, 14 women and 12 men, completed the three phases of this study: Phase 1. Three different ERCP procedures were performed on the simulator. Saliva for α-amylase (sAA), Chromogranin A (sCgA), and Cortisol (sC) were collected before (baseline), halfway through the exercise (ex.), and 10 min after completion of the exercise (comp.); Phase 2. A three-week familiarisation period where at least 30 different cases were performed on the virtual ERCP simulator; and Phase 3. Identical to Phase 1 where saliva samples were once again collected at baseline, during, and after the exercise. Percentage differences in biomarker levels between baseline and exercise (Diffex) and between baseline and completion (Diffcomp) during Phase 1 and Phase 3 were calculated for each stress marker.ResultsMean % changes, Diffex and Diffcomp, were significantly positive (p < 0.05) for all markers in both Phase 1 and Phase 3. Diffex in Phase 1 was significantly greater than Diffex in Phase 3 (p < 0.05) for sAA and sCgA. Diffcomp for sAA in Phase 1 was significantly greater than Diffcomp in Phase 3 (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found in sC concentration between Phases 1 and 3.ConclusionThis study shows that familiarisation with the ERCP simulator greatly reduced stress as measured by the three saliva stress biomarkers used with sAA being the best. It also suggests that familiarisation with an ERCP simulator might reduce stress in the clinical setting

Validity of a virtual reality endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography simulator: can it distinguish experts from novices?

BackgroundThere is a lack of evidence regarding the effectiveness of virtual simulators as a means to acquire hands-on exposure to endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). The present study aimed to assess the outcome and construct validity of virtual ERCP when training on the GI II Mentor simulator.MethodsA group of seven experienced endoscopists were compared with 31 novices. After a short introduction, they were requested to carry out three virtual ERCP procedures: diagnosing and removing a common bile duct (CBD) stone; diagnosing and taking brush cytology from a hilar stenosis; and, finally, diagnosing and treating a cystic leakage with a BD stent. For each task, the total time required to complete the task, time required to correctly view the papilla, total time of irradiation, time to deep cannulation, time to define diagnosis, time to complete sphincterotomy, and time to complete the respective intervention were measured. Cannulation of the BD, correct diagnosis, sphincterotomy, and time to complete intervention were assessed by an assessor blinded to the status of the endoscopist who performed the virtual ERCP.ResultsThe time required to visualize the papilla and to cannulate deeply when removing the BD stone was significantly shorter for the experts (both p < 0.05). The time to visualize the papilla, cannulate deeply, reach a diagnosis, complete sphincterotomy, and complete the intervention was significantly shorter for the experts when managing cystic leakage (all p < 0.05). In diagnosing and taking brush cytology from a hilar stenosis, there was only a trend toward the experts needing less time for the deep cannulation of the BD (p = 0.077).ConclusionThe performance differed between experts and novices, especially in the management of cystic leakage. This corroborates the construct validity of the GI II Mentor simulator

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Identifying and filling critical knowledge gaps can optimize financial viability of blue carbon projects in tidal wetlands

One of the world’s largest “blue carbon” ecosystems, Louisiana’s tidal wetlands on the US Gulf of Mexico coast, is rapidly being lost. Louisiana’s strong legal, regulatory, and monitoring framework, developed for one of the world’s largest tidal wetland systems, provides an opportunity for a programmatic approach to blue carbon accreditation to support restoration of these ecologically and economically important tidal wetlands. Louisiana’s coastal wetlands span ∼1.4 million ha and accumulate 5.5–7.3 Tg yr−1 of blue carbon (organic carbon), ∼6%–8% of tidal marsh blue carbon accumulation globally. Louisiana has a favorable governance framework to advance blue carbon accreditation, due to centralized restoration planning, long term coastal monitoring, and strong legal and regulatory frameworks around carbon. Additional restoration efforts, planned through Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan, over 50 years are projected to create, or avoid loss of, up to 81,000 ha of wetland. Current restoration funding, primarily from Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlements, will be fully committed by the early 2030s and additional funding sources are required. Existing accreditation methodologies have not been successfully applied to coastal Louisiana’s ecosystem restoration approaches or herbaceous tidal wetland types. Achieving financial viability for accreditation of these restoration and wetland types will require expanded application of existing blue carbon crediting methodologies. It will also require expanded approaches for predicting the future landscape without restoration, such as numerical modeling, to be validated. Additional methodologies (and/or standards) would have many common elements with those currently available but may be beneficial, depending on the goals and needs of both the state of Louisiana and potential purchasers of Louisiana tidal wetland carbon credits. This study identified twenty targeted needs that will address data and knowledge gaps to maximize financial viability of blue carbon accreditation for Louisiana’s tidal wetlands. Knowledge needs were identified in five categories: legislative and policy, accreditation methodologies and standards, soil carbon flux, methane flux, and lateral carbon flux. Due to the large spatial scale and diversity of tidal wetlands, it is expected that progress in coastal Louisiana has high potential to be generalized to similar wetland ecosystems across the northern Gulf of Mexico and globally

I-BAR protein antagonism of endocytosis mediates directional sensing during guided cell migration

The I-BAR domain–containing protein, missing-in-metastasis, directs cell motility by opposing the endocytic activity of the endophilin–CD2AP–cortactin complex

Age and frailty are independently associated with increased COVID-19 mortality and increased care needs in survivors: results of an international multi-centre study

INTRODUCTION: Increased mortality has been demonstrated in older adults with COVID-19, but the effect of frailty has been unclear.METHODS: This multi-centre cohort study involved patients aged 18years and older hospitalised with COVID-19, using routinely collected data. We used Cox regression analysis to assess the impact of age, frailty, and delirium on the risk of inpatient mortality, adjusting for sex, illness severity, inflammation, and co-morbidities. We used ordinal logistic regression analysis to assess the impact of age, Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), and delirium on risk of increased care requirements on discharge, adjusting for the same variables.RESULTS: Data from 5,711 patients from 55 hospitals in 12 countries were included (median age 74, IQR 54-83; 55.2% male). The risk of death increased independently with increasing age (>80 vs 18-49: HR 3.57, CI 2.54-5.02), frailty (CFS 8 vs 1-3: HR 3.03, CI 2.29-4.00) inflammation, renal disease, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, but not delirium. Age, frailty (CFS 7 vs 1-3: OR 7.00, CI 5.27-9.32), delirium, dementia, and mental health diagnoses were all associated with increased risk of higher care needs on discharge. The likelihood of adverse outcomes increased across all grades of CFS from 4 to 9.CONCLUSIONS: Age and frailty are independently associated with adverse outcomes in COVID-19. Risk of increased care needs was also increased in survivors of COVID-19 with frailty or older age