Search results for "Causality"
showing 10 items of 258 documents
Carbon accumulation rate in a raised bog in Latvia, NE Europe, in relation to climate warming
2018
The carbon accumulation rate (CAR) over the last 180 years was estimated by measuring carbon concentrations in 1-cm layers in a fine-resolution dated and analysed peat sequence in Teiči Bog, Latvia, NE Europe. We used the Granger causality test to examine the temporal (lagged) relationships between the CAR and the historical climate variables. Our results showed that the average CAR was 192 g C m–2 yr–1 during the last 180 years and 169 g C m–2 yr–1 when excluding the acrotelm where decomposition and the stock of carbon are still not in the balance. The Granger causality test showed significant positive temporal associations between the temperature and the CAR, indicating that the temperatu…
Cultural evolution and environmental change in Central Europe between 40 and 15 ka
2020
The role of environmental change in the evolution of cultural traits is a topic of long-standing scientific debate with strongly contrasting views. Major obstacles for assessing environmental impacts on the evolution of material culture are the fragmentary nature of archaeological and – to a somewhat lesser extent – geoscientific archives and the insufficient chronological resolution of these archives and related proxy data. Together these aspects are causing difficulties in data synchronization. By no means does this paper attempt to solve these issues, but rather aims at shifting the focus from demonstrating strict chains of causes and events to describing roughly contemporaneous developm…
Testing hypotheses in evolutionary ecology with imperfect detection: capture-recapture structural equation modeling.
2012
8 pages; International audience; Studying evolutionary mechanisms in natural populations often requires testing multifactorial scenarios of causality involving direct and indirect relationships among individual and environmental variables. It is also essential to account for the imperfect detection of individuals to provide unbiased demographic parameter estimates. To cope with these issues, we developed a new approach combining structural equation models with capture-recapture models (CR-SEM) that allows the investigation of competing hypotheses about individual and environmental variability observed in demographic parameters. We employ Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling in a Bayesian frame…
The Strategic Reference Gene: an organismal theory of inclusive fitness
2019
How to define and use the concept of inclusive fitness is a contentious topic in evolutionary theory. Inclusive fitness can be used to calculate selection on a focal gene, but it is also applied to whole organisms. Individuals are then predicted to appear designed as if to maximise their inclusive fitness, provided that certain conditions are met (formally when interactions between individuals are 'additive'). Here we argue that applying the concept of inclusive fitness to organisms is justified under far broader conditions than previously shown, but only if it is appropriately defined. Specifically, we propose that organisms should maximise the sum of their offspring (including any accrued…
Renewable energy growth and the financial performance of electric utilities: A panel data study
2017
Electric utilities are under pressure to increase clean energy production. Although the adoption of renewable energy can improve the utilities' environmental performance, a fundamental question is if it also pays in economic terms. Building on the natural-resource-based view of the firm, we answer this question using two data analysis methods. First, we carry out a regression analysis of panel data from 66 large electric utilities covering the period 2005–2014, applying both a fixed and random effects estimator. Subsequently, we use the Granger causality test to explore possible causality links. Our results show a negative correlation at the firm level between renewable energy increase and …
The Microbiota and Malnutrition: Impact of Nutritional Status During Early Life
2019
According to the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis, our health is determined by events experienced in utero and during early infancy. Indeed, both our prenatal and postnatal nutrition conditions have an impact on the initial architecture and activity of our microbiota. Recent evidence has underlined the importance of the composition of the early gut microbiota in relation to malnutrition, whether it be undernutrition or overnutrition, that is, in terms of both stunted and overweight development. It remains unclear how early microbial contact is linked to the risk of disease, as well as whether alterations in the microbiome underlie the pathogenesis of malnutrition or a…
DNA methylation links prenatal smoking exposure to later life health outcomes in offspring
2019
Background Maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with adverse offspring health outcomes across their life course. We hypothesize that DNA methylation is a potential mediator of this relationship. Methods We examined the association of prenatal maternal smoking with offspring blood DNA methylation in 2821 individuals (age 16 to 48 years) from five prospective birth cohort studies and perform Mendelian randomization and mediation analyses to assess whether methylation markers have causal effects on disease outcomes in the offspring. Results We identify 69 differentially methylated CpGs in 36 genomic regions (P value < 1 × 10−7) associated with exposure to maternal smoking in adolesc…
Evaluating the Interrelationship between Actions of Latvian Commercial Banks and Latvian Economic Growth
2017
Abstract This paper aims to evaluate the existence of the interrelationship between Latvian commercial banks’ operations on the economy, based on economic theory and the analysis of banks’ retained earnings, credit growth and economic growth trends. The existence of this interrelationship was tested using Granger causality and Johansen co integration tests. The analysis was based on quarterly data from 2001 to 2015. The study reviewed several indicators for banking developments to establish their relevance for GDP growth: credit to non-banks, non-bank deposits and bank retained earnings. This paper finds that the empirical link between bank retained earnings and GDP growth is more robust th…
A Dynamic Analysis of S&P 500, FTSE 100 and EURO STOXX 50 Indices Under Different Exchange Rates
2017
The persistence analysis of short- and long-term interaction and causality in the international financial markets is a key issue for policy makers and portfolio investors. This paper assesses the dynamic evolution of short-term correlation, long-term cointegration and Error Correction Model (hereafter referred to as ECM)-based long-term Granger causality between each pair of US, UK, and Eurozone stock markets over the period of 1980--2015 using the rolling-window technique. A comparative analysis of pairwise dynamic integration and causality of stock markets, measured in common and domestic currency terms, is conducted to evaluate comprehensively how exchange rate fluctuations affect the ti…
Responsabilità medica e COVID-19: prime impressioni
2020
Lo scritto si sofferma sull?operato dei medici nell?affrontare la situazione legata al coronavirus, dalla fase di diagnosi a quella di cura, sottolineando come tale operato debba essere valutato alla luce delle concrete circostanze in cui si sono verificati gli eventi. In tale ottica, le regole legislative e giurisprudenziali del sottosistema della responsabilità sanitaria già presenti nell?ordinamento italiano risultano idonee a tutelare i medici che abbiano agito senza colpa, dovendosi così escludere ogni ricorso alla solidarietà costituzionale.