Developing financial markets

Central banks have an interest in well-functioning money markets, foreign exchange markets, and secondary markets for government securities. Efficient financial markets support both the monetary stability and financial stability goals of the central bank; and more broadly should benefit economic development. Well-functioning money markets support the transmission of an interest-rate based monetary policy and can provide information to the central bank. Liquid foreign exchange markets can help to stabilise the exchange rate and reduce transaction costs in cross-border trade and transfers. The development of these markets will support the later introduction of related financial markets such as repo and derivatives, which should in turn lead to improved risk management and financial stability, thereby enhancing economic welfare. Liquidity and price stability in short-term interest rate markets can support market-making, and thus liquidity in the securities markets. This in turn should reduce the cost of issuance for the government and other fixed-interest issuers. Indeed the secondary market for government securities may act as a catalyst for wider fixed income securities markets development: its yield curve is the benchmark for the pricing of the private sector credit. The advancement of these markets should be accompanied by the development of the appropriate market infrastructure such as robust payment and settlement systems and supportive legal framework. Many developing economies are characterised by illiquidity in these core markets, and in most cases a surplus of central bank money, in the form of excess commercial bank balances with the central bank. This handbook will look at what the central bank, and the Ministry of Finance as issuer of government securities, could do (and in some cases should not do) in support of the development of these markets.Developing financial markets

An Influenza Virus M2 Protein Specific Chimeric Antigen Receptor Modulates Influenza A/WSN/33 H1N1 Infection In Vivo

A potential target for the development of universal vaccine strategies against Influenza A is the M2 protein – a membrane protein with a highly conserved extracellular domain. In this study we developed engineered T-cell receptors, by fusing M2-specific antibody sequences with T-cell receptor transmembrane and signaling domains to target influenza infected cells. When expressed on T-cells, these novel T-cell receptors (chimeric antigen receptors - CARs) are able to recognize specific antigens on the surface of target cells via an MHC-independent mechanism. Using an existing monoclonal antibody (14C2) specific for the M2 ectodomain (M2e), we generated an M2-specific CAR. We tested the specificity of this M2 CAR in vitro by measuring the activation of T-cells in response to M2-specific peptides or M2-expressing cell lines. Both Jurkat T-cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells expressing the M2-specific CAR responded to specific antigen stimulation by upregulating NFAT and producing γ-interferon. To test whether the M2-specific CAR are effective at recognizing influenza infected cells in vivo we used an established BALB/c murine infection model. At day 4 post-infection, when M2 CAR expressing splenocytes could be detected in the lung, the Influenza A/WSN/33 virus titre was around 50% of that in control mice. Although the lung virus titre later increased in the treated group, virus was cleared in both groups of mice by day 8. The results provide support for the development of M2e as a target for cell mediated immunotherapy

e-Fungi: a data resource for comparative analysis of fungal genomes.

BACKGROUND: The number of sequenced fungal genomes is ever increasing, with about 200 genomes already fully sequenced or in progress. Only a small percentage of those genomes have been comprehensively studied, for example using techniques from functional genomics. Comparative analysis has proven to be a useful strategy for enhancing our understanding of evolutionary biology and of the less well understood genomes. However, the data required for these analyses tends to be distributed in various heterogeneous data sources, making systematic comparative studies a cumbersome task. Furthermore, comparative analyses benefit from close integration of derived data sets that cluster genes or organisms in a way that eases the expression of requests that clarify points of similarity or difference between species. DESCRIPTION: To support systematic comparative analyses of fungal genomes we have developed the e-Fungi database, which integrates a variety of data for more than 30 fungal genomes. Publicly available genome data, functional annotations, and pathway information has been integrated into a single data repository and complemented with results of comparative analyses, such as MCL and OrthoMCL cluster analysis, and predictions of signaling proteins and the sub-cellular localisation of proteins. To access the data, a library of analysis tasks is available through a web interface. The analysis tasks are motivated by recent comparative genomics studies, and aim to support the study of evolutionary biology as well as community efforts for improving the annotation of genomes. Web services for each query are also available, enabling the tasks to be incorporated into workflows. CONCLUSION: The e-Fungi database provides fungal biologists with a resource for comparative studies of a large range of fungal genomes. Its analysis library supports the comparative study of genome data, functional annotation, and results of large scale analyses over all the genomes stored in the database. The database is accessible at http://www.e-fungi.org.uk, as is the WSDL for the web services.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

The role of religion in the longer-range future, April 6, 7, and 8, 2006

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Conference Series, a publication series that began publishing in 2006 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. This conference that took place during April 6, 7, and 8, 2006. Co-organized by David Fromkin, Director, Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and Ray L. Hart, Dean ad interim Boston University School of TheologyThe conference brought together some 40 experts from various disciplines to ponder upon the “great dilemma” of how science, religion, and the human future interact. In particular, different panels looked at trends in what is happening to religion around the world, questions about how religion is impacting the current political and economic order, and how the social dynamics unleashed by science and by religion can be reconciled.Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affair

Scaling relations of metallicity, stellar mass, and star formation rate in metal-poor starbursts: II. Theoretical models

Scaling relations of metallicity (O/H), star formation rate (SFR), and stellar mass give important insight on galaxy evolution. They are obeyed by most galaxies in the Local Universe and also at high redshift. In a companion paper, we compiled a sample of ~1100 galaxies from redshift 0 to ~3, spanning almost two orders of magnitude in metal abundance, a factor of $\sim10^6$ in SFR, and of ~10^5 in stellar mass. We have characterized empirically the star-formation "main sequence" (SFMS) and the mass-metallicity relation (MZR) for this sample, and also identified a class of low-metallicity starbursts, rare locally but more common in the distant universe. These galaxies deviate significantly from the main scaling relations, with high SFR and low metal content for a given M*. In this paper, we model the scaling relations and explain these deviations from them with a set of multi-phase chemical evolution models based on the idea that, independently of redshift, initial physical conditions in a galaxy's evolutionary history can dictate its location in the scaling relations. Our models are able to successfully reproduce the O/H, M*, and SFR scaling relations up to z~3, and also successfully predict the molecular cloud fraction as a function of stellar mass. These results suggest that the scaling relations are defined by different modes of star formation: an "active" starburst mode, more common at high redshift, and a quiescent "passive" mode that is predominant locally and governs the main trends.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication by MNRA

Monetary Operations

Monetary operations refer to the implementation of monetary policy – ensuring that a central bank’s policy decision has the intended impact on financial markets, and on the economy more generally. For operational purposes the day-to-day tactical target is usually to achieve a particular level of interest rates or the exchange rate; and the most efficient instruments are those which best complement the workings of a market system. This Handbook examines the various different instruments: open market operations; standing facilities; and both required reserves (which have some of the characteristics of direct controls), and voluntary or contractual reserves. Open market operations are undertaken at the initiative of the central bank, whereas standing facilities are used at the initiative of the commercial banks. Participation in both is voluntary at the level of individual banks, whereas in most countries reserve requirements are an administrative imposition on all banks - albeit one which, through averaging, allows them a degree of day-to-day flexibility. Monetary instruments are not only used to implement monetary policy; they are also used for liquidity management. This is an essential part of the central bank’s operations, in order to prevent the short-term uncertainty and price volatility which day-to-day swings in market liquidity would otherwise cause. The Handbook therefore also considers liquidity forecasting and management issues.Monetary Operations

Reduced glycosylation of human cell lines increases susceptibility to CD4-independent infection by human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (LAV-2/B)

The human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) strain LAV-2/B is able to infect a variety of human cell lines via a CD4-independent pathway. We have used the glycosylation inhibitors tunicamycin, swainsonine, and deoxymannojirimycin to further characterize this putative alternative receptor for HIV-2 (LAV-2/B). These antibiotics resulted in an increase (5- to 30-fold) in the susceptibility of a variety of CD4- human cell lines to infection by LAV-2/B (RD, HeLa, HT29, Rsb, Heb7a, Hos, and Daudi). Several nonprimate cell lines (mink Mv-1-lu, rabbit SIRC, hamster a23, mouse NIH 3T3, cat CCC, and rat HSN) remained resistant to infection by LAV-2/B after treatment with glycosylation inhibitors, suggesting that they do not express the HIV-2 CD4-independent receptor. Two of these nonprimate cell lines are readily infected by HIV-2 when they express CD4 (Mv-1-lu and CCC). Treatment of human cells with neuraminidase had no effect on subsequent infection by LAV-2/B, suggesting that the increase in susceptibility to infection of deglycosylated cells is not due to a change in the electrostatic charge of the cell surface. Treatment of RD CD4- cells and HeLa CD4+ cells with a variety of proteases resulted in a 75 to 90% decrease in infection by LAV-2/B when compared with untreated cells. Taken together, all these data suggest that HIV-2 can utilize a membrane glycoprotein other than CD4 to attach and fuse with a variety of human cells

Morphological characteristics of motor neurons do not determine their relative susceptibility to degeneration in a mouse model of severe spinal muscular atrophy

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a leading genetic cause of infant mortality, resulting primarily from the degeneration and loss of lower motor neurons. Studies using mouse models of SMA have revealed widespread heterogeneity in the susceptibility of individual motor neurons to neurodegeneration, but the underlying reasons remain unclear. Data from related motor neuron diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), suggest that morphological properties of motor neurons may regulate susceptibility: in ALS larger motor units innervating fast-twitch muscles degenerate first. We therefore set out to determine whether intrinsic morphological characteristics of motor neurons influenced their relative vulnerability to SMA. Motor neuron vulnerability was mapped across 10 muscle groups in SMA mice. Neither the position of the muscle in the body, nor the fibre type of the muscle innervated, influenced susceptibility. Morphological properties of vulnerable and disease-resistant motor neurons were then determined from single motor units reconstructed in Thy.1-YFP-H mice. None of the parameters we investigated in healthy young adult mice - including motor unit size, motor unit arbor length, branching patterns, motor endplate size, developmental pruning and numbers of terminal Schwann cells at neuromuscular junctions - correlated with vulnerability. We conclude that morphological characteristics of motor neurons are not a major determinant of disease-susceptibility in SMA, in stark contrast to related forms of motor neuron disease such as ALS. This suggests that subtle molecular differences between motor neurons, or extrinsic factors arising from other cell types, are more likely to determine relative susceptibility in SMA