Intraspinal stem cell transplantation for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Ready for efficacy clinical trials?
Intraspinal stem cell (SC) transplantation represents a new therapeutic approach for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) clinical trials. There are considerable difficulties in designing future efficacy trials, some related to the field of ALS and some that are specific to SCs or the mode of delivery. In October 2015, the most controversial points on SC transplantation were addressed during an international workshop intended to bring together international SC and ALS researchers in a public discussion on a topic for which expertise is limited. During the meeting, a discussion was started on the basic structure of the ideal clinical trial testing the efficacy and safety of SC transplantation…
Financial Fragility and Interacting Units: an Exercise
This paper assumes that financial fluctuations are the result of the dynamic interaction between liquidity and solvency conditions of individual financial units. The framework is designed as a heterogeneous agent model which proceeds through discrete time steps within a finite time horizon. The interaction at the microlevel between financial units and the market maker, who is in charge of clearing the market, produces interesting complex dynamics. The model is analyzed by means of numerical simulations and agent-based computational economics (ACE) approach. The behaviour and evolution of financial units are studied for different parameter regimes in order to show the importance of the param…
Structural contagion and vulnerability to unexpected liquidity shortfalls
This paper assumes that financial fluctuations are the result of the dynamic interaction between liquidity and solvency conditions of individual economic units. The framework is an extention of Sordi and Vercelli (2012) designed as an heterogeneous agent model which proceeds through discrete time steps within a finite time horizon. The interaction at the micro-level between economic units monitors the spread of contagion and systemic risk, producing interesting complex dynamics. The model is analysed by means of numerical simulations and systemic risk modelling, where local interaction of units is captured and analysed by the bilateral provision of liquidity among units. The behaviour and e…