Good Foundation (good + foundation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Persistence of volatility in futures markets

THE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 6 2006
Zhiyao Chen
This article examines the characteristics of key measures of volatility for different types of futures contracts to provide a better foundation for modeling volatility behavior and derivative values. Particular attention is focused on analyzing how different measures of volatility affect volatility persistence relationships. Intraday realized measures of volatility are found to be more persistent than daily measures, the type of GARCH procedure used for conditional volatility analysis is critical, and realized volatility persistence is not coherent with conditional volatility persistence. Specifically, although there is a good fit between the realized and conditional volatilities, no coherence exists between their degrees of persistence, a counterintuitive finding that shows realized and conditional volatility measures are not a substitute for one another. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 26:571,594, 2006 [source]


Cover Picture: Electrophoresis 9/2008

ELECTROPHORESIS, Issue 9 2008
Article first published online: 28 APR 200
Regular issues provide a wide range of research and review articles covering all aspects of electrophoresis. Here you will find cutting-edge articles on methods and theory, instrumentation, nucleic acids, CE and CEC, miniaturization and microfluidics, proteomics and two-dimensional electrophoresis. The 20 papers gathered here span areas across miniaturization theory, basic technologies and applications. While not comprehensive, this special issue represents a selection of the state-of-the-art science of miniaturization and its application in various areas of life sciences. We feel to a large degree that this special issue sets a good foundation, and we are looking forward to another thought-provoking update in the near future. Issue 9 also offers one Fast Track article describing particularly important investigations in electrophoresis: "AC Electrokinetic separation and detection of DNA nanoparticles in high conductance solutions." [source]


Combining solution wide-angle X-ray scattering and crystallography: determination of molecular envelope and heavy-atom sites

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2009
Xinguo Hong
Solving the phase problem remains central to crystallographic structure determination. A six-dimensional search method of molecular replacement (FSEARCH) can be used to locate a low-resolution molecular envelope determined from small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) within the crystallographic unit cell. This method has now been applied using the higher-resolution envelope provided by combining SAXS and WAXS (wide-angle X-ray scattering) data. The method was tested on horse hemoglobin, using the most probable model selected from a set of a dozen bead models constructed from SAXS/WAXS data using the program GASBOR at 5,Å resolution (qmax = 1.25,Å,1) to phase a set of single-crystal diffraction data. It was found that inclusion of WAXS data is essential for correctly locating the molecular envelope in the crystal unit cell, as well as for locating heavy-atom sites. An anomalous difference map was calculated using phases out to 8,Å resolution from the correctly positioned envelope; four distinct peaks at the 3.2, level were identified, which agree well with the four iron sites of the known structure (Protein Data Bank code 1ns9). In contrast, no peaks could be found close to the iron sites if the molecular envelope was constructed using the data from SAXS alone (qmax = 0.25,Å,1). The initial phases can be used as a starting point for a variety of phase-extension techniques, successful application of which will result in complete phasing of a crystallographic data set and determination of the internal structure of a macromolecule to atomic resolution. It is anticipated that the combination of FSEARCH and WAXS techniques will facilitate the initial structure determination of proteins and provide a good foundation for further structure refinement. [source]


Characterization of Ca2+ signaling pathways in mouse adrenal medullary chromaffin cells

JOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, Issue 5 2010
Pei-Chun Wu
J. Neurochem. (2010) 112, 1210,1222. Abstract In the present study, we characterized the Ca2+ responses and secretions induced by various secretagogues in mouse chromaffin cells. Activation of the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) by carbachol induced a transient intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) increase followed by two phases of [Ca2+]i decay and a burst of exocytic events. The contribution of the subtypes of AChRs to carbachol-induced responses was examined. Based on the results obtained by stimulating the cells with the nicotinic receptor (nAChR) agonist, 1,1-dimethyl-4-phenylpiperazinium iodide, high K+ and the effects of thapsigargin, it appears that activation of nAChRs induces an extracellular Ca2+ influx, which in turn activate Ca2+ -induced Ca2+ release via the ryanodine receptors. Muscarine, a muscarinic receptor (mAChRs) agonist, was found to induce [Ca2+]i oscillation and sustained catecholamine release, possibly by activation of both the receptor- and store-operated Ca2+ entry pathways. The RT-PCR results showed that mouse chromaffin cells are equipped with messages for multiple subtypes of AChRs, ryanodine receptors and all known components of the receptor- and store-operated Ca2+ entry. Furthermore, results obtained by directly monitoring endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondrial Ca2+ concentration and by disabling mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake suggest that the ER acts as a Ca2+ source, while the mitochondria acts as a Ca2+ sink. Our results show that both nAChRs and mAChRs contribute to the initial carbachol-induced [Ca2+]i increase which is further enhanced by the Ca2+ released from the ER mediated by Ca2+ -induced Ca2+ release and mAChR activation. This information on the Ca2+ signaling pathways should lay a good foundation for future studies using mouse chromaffin cells as a model system. [source]


CHALLENGES POSED TO OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT BY THE "NEW ECONOMY"

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2002
ROBERT H. HAYES
A growing number of sophisticated observers are coming to believe that the forces driving the so-called New Economy are fundamentally reshaping world industry. Moreover, the combination of fast growth and the excitement associated with leading edge technologies has made New Economy companies magnets for management talent,and particularly for the ambitious young people who attend our management programs. Are we providing these potential managers with a good foundation for managing operations in such companies? Are the principles that we traditionally have taught in operations management (om) courses sufficiently robust that they can still be applied to New Economy operations? In this paper we argue that, although some of our familiar concepts and techniques continue to be applicable to information-intensive operations, many are not. We sketch out a way to think conceptually about the important differences between the Old and the New Economies, and their implications for operations management teaching and research. [source]