An assessment of financial sector rescue programmes

We analyse the wide array of rescue programmes adopted in several countries, following Lehman Brothers’ default in September 2008, in order to support banks and other financial institutions. We first provide an overview of the programmes, comparing their characteristics, magnitudes and participation rates across countries. We then consider the effects of the programmes on banks’ risk and valuation, looking at the behaviour of CDS premia and stock prices. We then proceed to analyse the issuance of government guaranteed bonds by banks, examining their impact on banks’ funding and highlighting undesired effects and distortions. Finally, we briefly review the recent evolution of bank lending to the private sector. We draw policy implications, in particular as regards the way of mitigating the distortions implied by such programmes and the need for an exit strategy.bank asset guarantees, capital injection, banks, financial sector, financial crisis, bank consolidation, bank mergers and acquisitions, event studies, government guaranteed bonds, credit crunch, exit strategy

High‐density lipoprotein‐associated paraoxonase 1: a possible prognostic biomarker for heart failure?

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137330/1/ejhf817_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137330/2/ejhf817.pd

Extracellular matrix contributes to macrophage foam cell formation and atherosclerosis

During early atherogenesis, low density lipoprotein (LDL) induces the accumulation of cholesterol and oxysterols in arterial macrophages, and in the subendothelial accumulation of atherogenic lipoproteins in extracellular matrix (ECM), takes place. Retention of LDL and oxidized LDL (Ox-LDL) to ECM is mediated by the ECM proteoglycans (PGs), which in the presence of Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL, acting as a bridging element), bind the lipoproteins. The structures of the ECM proteoglycans, as well as the lipoproteins binding sites for PGs determine the extent of the interaction between ECM PGs and lipoproteins. Following its retention to the ECM, Ox-LDL is taken up by activated macrophages at enhanced rate, leading to cellular accumulation of cholesterol and oxysterols in arterial wall macrophages. Moreover, LDL oxidation in the arterial wall can also take place after lipoprotein retention to ECM PGs. In this case, retained Ox-LDL can be taken up by macrophage after its release from ECM PGs; but also as a complex of Ox-LDL with ECM PGs. The amount and composition of ECM, produced by all major cells of the arterial wall (monocyte-derived macrophages, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells), determine the extent of lipoproteins cellular uptake. We have demonstrated that under oxidative stress, ECM PGs secretion from macrophages, binding of Ox-LDL to the ECM and uptake of the retained lipoproteins by macrophages are all significantly increased. Altogether, these processes contribute to macrophage foam cell formation and accelerated atherosclerosis.During early atherogenesis, low density lipoprotein (LDL) induces the accumulation of cholesterol and oxysterols in arterial macrophages, and in the subendothelial accumulation of atherogenic lipoproteins in extracellular matrix (ECM), takes place. Retention of LDL and oxidized LDL (Ox-LDL) to ECM is mediated by the ECM proteoglycans (PGs), which in the presence of Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL, acting as a bridging element), bind the lipoproteins. The structures of the ECM proteoglycans, as well as the lipoproteins binding sites for PGs determine the extent of the interaction between ECM PGs and lipoproteins. Following its retention to the ECM, Ox-LDL is taken up by activated macrophages at enhanced rate, leading to cellular accumulation of cholesterol and oxysterols in arterial wall macrophages. Moreover, LDL oxidation in the arterial wall can also take place after lipoprotein retention to ECM PGs. In this case, retained Ox-LDL can be taken up by macrophage after its release from ECM PGs; but also as a complex of Ox-LDL with ECM PGs. The amount and composition of ECM, produced by all major cells of the arterial wall (monocyte-derived macrophages, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells), determine the extent of lipoproteins cellular uptake. We have demonstrated that under oxidative stress, ECM PGs secretion from macrophages, binding of Ox-LDL to the ECM and uptake of the retained lipoproteins by macrophages are all significantly increased. Altogether, these processes contribute to macrophage foam cell formation and accelerated atherosclerosis

Redundancy-Aware Topic Modeling for Patient Record Notes

The clinical notes in a given patient record contain much redundancy, in large part due to clinicians’ documentation habit of copying from previous notes in the record and pasting into a new note. Previous work has shown that this redundancy has a negative impact on the quality of text mining and topic modeling in particular. In this paper we describe a novel variant of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling, Red-LDA, which takes into account the inherent redundancy of patient records when modeling content of clinical notes. To assess the value of Red-LDA, we experiment with three baselines and our novel redundancy-aware topic modeling method: given a large collection of patient records, (i) apply vanilla LDA to all documents in all input records; (ii) identify and remove all redundancy by choosing a single representative document for each record as input to LDA; (iii) identify and remove all redundant paragraphs in each record, leaving partial, nonredundant documents as input to LDA; and (iv) apply Red-LDA to all documents in all input records. Both quantitative evaluation carried out through log-likelihood on held-out data and topic coherence of produced topics and qualitative assessment of topics carried out by physicians show that Red-LDA produces superior models to all three baseline strategies. This research contributes to the emerging field of understanding the characteristics of the electronic health record and how to account for them in the framework of data mining. The code for the two redundancy-elimination baselines and Red-LDA is made publicly available to the community

Quantum transport through STM-lifted single PTCDA molecules

Using a scanning tunneling microscope we have measured the quantum conductance through a PTCDA molecule for different configurations of the tip-molecule-surface junction. A peculiar conductance resonance arises at the Fermi level for certain tip to surface distances. We have relaxed the molecular junction coordinates and calculated transport by means of the Landauer/Keldysh approach. The zero bias transmission calculated for fixed tip positions in lateral dimensions but different tip substrate distances show a clear shift and sharpening of the molecular chemisorption level on increasing the STM-surface distance, in agreement with experiment.Comment: accepted for publication in Applied Physics

Pomegranate Protection against Cardiovascular Diseases

The current paper summarizes the antioxidative and antiatherogenic effects of pomegranate polyphenols on serum lipoproteins and on arterial macrophages (two major components of the atherosclerotic lesion), using both in vitro and in vivo humans and mice models. Pomegranate juice and its by-products substantially reduced macrophage cholesterol and oxidized lipids accumulation, and foam cell formation (the hallmark of early atherogenesis), leading to attenuation of atherosclerosis development, and its consequent cardiovascular events

Increased Levels of Human Carotid Lesion Linoleic Acid Hydroperoxide in Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Patients Is Inversely Correlated with Serum HDL and Paraoxonase 1 Activity

Human carotid plaque components interact directly with circulating blood elements and thus they might affect each other. We determined plaque paraoxonase1 (PON1) hydrolytic-catalytic activity and compared plaque and blood levels of lipids, HDL, PON1, and HbA1c, as well as plaque-oxidized lipids in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Human carotid plaques were obtained from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients undergoing routine endarterectomy, and the lesions were ground and extracted for PON activity and lipid content determinations. Plaque PONs preserved paraoxonase, arylesterase, and lactonase activities. The PON1-specific inhibitor 2-hydroxyquinoline almost completely inhibited paraoxonase and lactonase activities, while only moderately inhibiting arylesterase activity. Oxysterol and triglyceride levels in plaques from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients did not differ significantly, but plaques from symptomatic patients had significantly higher (135%) linoleic acid hydroperoxide (LA-13OOH) levels. Their serum PON1 activity, cholesterol and triglyceride levels did not differ significantly, but symptomatic patients had significantly lower (28%) serum HDL levels and higher (18%) HbA1c levels. Thus LA-13OOH, a major atherogenic plaque element, showed significant negative correlations with serum PON1 activity and HDL levels, and a positive correlation with the prodiabetic atherogenic HbA1c. Plaque PON1 retains its activity and may decrease plaque atherogenicity by reducing specific oxidized lipids (e.g., LA-13OOH). The inverse correlation between plaque LA-13OOH level and serum HDL level and PON1 activity suggests a role for serum HDL and PON1 in LA-13OOH accumulation

A pilot study for a non-invasive system for detection of malignancy in canine subcutaneous and cutaneous masses using machine learning

IntroductionEarly diagnosis of cancer enhances treatment planning and improves prognosis. Many masses presenting to veterinary clinics are difficult to diagnose without using invasive, time-consuming, and costly tests. Our objective was to perform a preliminary proof-of-concept for the HT Vista device, a novel artificial intelligence-based thermal imaging system, developed and designed to differentiate benign from malignant, cutaneous and subcutaneous masses in dogs.MethodsForty-five dogs with a total of 69 masses were recruited. Each mass was clipped and heated by the HT Vista device. The heat emitted by the mass and its adjacent healthy tissue was automatically recorded using a built-in thermal camera. The thermal data from both areas were subsequently analyzed using an Artificial Intelligence algorithm. Cytology and/or biopsy results were later compared to the results obtained from the HT Vista system and used to train the algorithm. Validation was done using a “Leave One Out” cross-validation to determine the algorithm's performance.ResultsThe accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the system were 90%, 93%, 88%, 83%, and 95%, respectively for all masses.ConclusionWe propose that this novel system, with further development, could be used to provide a decision-support tool enabling clinicians to differentiate between benign lesions and those requiring additional diagnostics. Our study also provides a proof-of-concept for ongoing prospective trials for cancer diagnosis using advanced thermodynamics and machine learning procedures in companion dogs