Search results for "Rating"
showing 10 items of 2021 documents
Do microfinance rating assessments make sense? An analysis of the drivers of the MFI ratings
2011
Rating assessments of microfinance institutions are claimed to measure a combination of creditworthiness, trustworthiness and excellence in microfinance. Using a global dataset covering reports from 324 microfinance institutions, this study suggests that these ratings are mainly driven by size, profitability, and risk. The ratings do not seem to capture the double bottom-line objective of microfinance institutions, as our analyses are unable to prove any statistical relationship between microfinance ratings and the social objectives of these institutions. Moreover, the association between operational efficiency and microfinance ratings appears weak. Although there are some minor differences…
The Market Price of Credit Risk and Economic States
2015
This paper proposes a market-wide credit risk factor for the US stock market and investigates its properties that are dependent on economic conditions. The market price of credit risk is found to be statistically significantly negative, supporting earlier studies. However, a sample-split analysis reveals that this negative pay-off is non-existent in a later subsample, indicating that the credit risk puzzle is based on temporary mispricing related to the earlier subsample. Further investigation shows that mispricing in the earlier period was mainly driven by positive pay-offs of low credit risk firms, while high credit risk firms did not generate significant returns in any of the sub-periods.
Gray codes and efficient exhaustive generation for several classes of restricted words
2015
We consider Gray codes and efficient exhaustive generating algorithms for the sets belonging to three major classes of restricted words, that are: (1) restricted growth sequences, (2) factor avoiding q-ary words, and (3) pattern avoiding permutations. For the first two classes, our Gray codes (and thus, our generating algorithms) are based on order relations obtained by specializing known order relations; namely Reflected Gray Code (RGC) order and its variations, and we call them Reflected Gray Code based orders. The Gray code and the generating algorithm for the third class are based on Steinhaus-Johnson-Trotter order, that is, order relation induced by Steinhaus-Johnson-Trotter Gray code …
Prosocial development from childhood to adolescence: a multi-informant perspective with Canadian and Italian longitudinal studies.
2009
Objectives: To longitudinally describe prosocial behaviour development from childhood to adolescence, using multiple informants within Canadian and Italian samples. Method: Participants in Study 1 were 1037 boys from low socioeconomic status (SES) areas in Montreal, Canada, for whom yearly teacher and mother reports were obtained between the ages of 10 and 15. Participants in Study 2 were 472 children (209 girls) from Genzano, Italy, for whom yearly self and teacher reports were obtained between the ages of 10 and 14. Developmental trajectories were estimated from ratings by each informant to identify subgroups of children following distinct courses of prosocial development. Results: In …
Patient and Family Caregivers Neuroticism and Conscientiousness Personality in Relation to Quality of Life of Patient With Parkinsons Disease: A Cros…
2018
Background: Personality impacts life expectancy and comprehensive treatment efficacy for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, current research fails to involve the family caregiver's personality despite significant external support provided by family caregivers. This study explored neuroticism and conscientiousness personality factors of the patient and family caregiver associated with quality of life (QoL) of PD patients. Methods: 134 couples of patients presenting with PD and their family caregivers that met inclusion criteria, were recruited for this cross-sectional study at Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital from October 2015 to 2017. The Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-39 I…
Thermal-,Pressure-, and Light-Induced Spin Transition in Novel Cyanide-Bridged FeII-AgI Bimetallic Compounds with Three-Dimensional Interpenetrating …
2002
[EN] Low-spin, high-spin and spin-transition behaviours have been observed for the doubly interpenetrating three-dimensional bimetallic compounds {Fe-II(pz)[Ag(CN)(2)](2)}.pz (pz= pyrazine), {Fe-II(4,4'-bipy)(2)[Ag(CN)(2)](2)} (4,4'-bipy-4,4'-bipyridine), and {Fe-II-(bpe)(2)[Ag(CN)(2)](2)} (bpe = bispyridylethylene), respectively. The single crystals of the bpe derivative undergo a spin transition with a large hysteresis loop at about 95 K. After several warming and cooling cycles, the single crystals become a microcrystalline powder with 50% spin transition. Influence of pressure- as well as light-induced excited spin-state trapping (LIESST) on the thermal 50% spin transition of the microc…
The structural plasticity of the C terminus of p21Cip1 is a determinant for target protein recognition.
2003
The cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitory protein p21(Cip1) might play multiple roles in cell-cycle regulation through interaction of its C-terminal domain with a defined set of cellular proteins such as proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), calmodulin (CaM), and the oncoprotein SET. p21(Cip1) could be described as an intrinsically unstructured protein in solution although the C-terminal domain adopts a well-defined extended conformation when bound to PCNA. However, the molecular mechanism of the interaction with CaM and the oncoprotein SET is not well understood, partly because of the lack of structural information. In this work, a peptide derived from the C-terminal domain of p21(Cip1) …
Inhalable nano into micro dry powders for ivacaftor delivery: The role of mannitol and cysteamine as mucus-active agents.
2020
In this paper the innovative approach of Nano into micro (NiM9 was developed to produce Nanoparticles loaded Ivacaftor to incorporate into mannitol or mannitol/cysteamine micromatrices for drug pulmonary administration in CF. Nanoparticles composed by a mixture of two polyhydrohydroxyethtylaspartamide copolymers containing a loading of Ivacaftor of 15.5 % w/w were produced. These Nanoparticles were incorporated into microparticles to obtain NiM that were characterized in terms of size and size distribution, interaction with CF-AM by rheological and turbidimetric studies as well as by aerodynamic diameter measurements. Finally the activity of Ivacaftor into these NiM was evaluated by in vitr…
Lymphokine activated killer cells.
1989
Various subpopulations of human leukocytes may be induced by lymphokines to exert cytotoxic activity. In man major histocompatibility complex non-restricted tumor cell lysis by interleukin-2 (IL-2) induced peripheral blood lymphocytes is attributed mainly to natural killer cells. These T cell receptor negative large granular lymphocytes are called lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells. In order to explore the potential of LAK cells in tumor therapy, several clinical studies have been conducted, using IL-2 alone or in combination with ex vivo IL-2-activated peripheral blood lymphocytes. Objective responses have reproducibly been achieved only in renal cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma …
Cytotoxicity of tumor antigen specific human T cells is unimpaired by arginine depletion.
2013
Tumor-growth is often associated with the expansion of myeloid derived suppressor cells that lead to local or systemic arginine depletion via the enzyme arginase. It is generally assumed that this arginine deficiency induces a global shut-down of T cell activation with ensuing tumor immune escape. While the impact of arginine depletion on polyclonal T cell proliferation and cytokine secretion is well documented, its influence on chemotaxis, cytotoxicity and antigen specific activation of human T cells has not been demonstrated so far. We show here that chemotaxis and early calcium signaling of human T cells are unimpaired in the absence of arginine. We then analyzed CD8(+) T cell activation…