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The article discusses the issues on contagion in credit risk modelling. According to studies, if a firm is experiencing economic stress or defaults, this will have implications for any firm which is economically influenced by this given firm. It found that the direct correlations between firms attributed to credit contagion lead to further complications in the overall modelling. They also determined that the loss distributions due to contagion are broadly in line with those of previous studies.

In 2003 a variety of crafts and bone specimens were found during excavations of a Neolithic settlement near Freising, the southernmost site of the Linear Pottery Culture in Bavaria. Six cattle bones were used to extract ancient DNA (aDNA). Applying nested and touchdown PCR, two fragments of the mitochondrial (mt) DNA control region could be amplified from specimen 533/III which yielded a total of 230 base pairs (bp). The sequence was compared with the homologous part of 40 extant breeds ofBos taurusandB. indicusand related species, such as Banteng (B. javanicus), Gaur (B. gaurus), the European bison (Bison bonasus) and the aurochs (B. primigenius). A neighbour joining tree was constructed based on the appropriate model of sequence evolution. The control region sequence of the 533/III cattle bone, whose age was determined by radiocarbon dating, clusters close to the extant European breeds, but distinctly apart from the basal aurochs and far distant from theB. indicusgroup. The archaeological and genetic analyses ofBosZiegelberg demonstrate that domesticated cattle reached southern Bavaria at least 7000 years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incorporation of 2·5 g/kg of the anorexigen, simmondsin, in the diet resulted in food intake reduction in both lean and obese Zucker rats; however, the obese rats were much more sensitive to the food intake-reducing activity of simmondsin. In both obese and lean simmondsin-treated Zucker rats, growth was slower than in control rats, but was the same as that in pair-fed animals. The 24 h heat production pattern showed a smaller diurnal variation and a lower mean in obese rats than in lean rats. Food intake reduction, as a result of either simmondsin treatment or pair feeding, caused a decrease in mean heat production. Simmondsin treatment, but not pair feeding, caused a decrease in the diurnal variation of heat production. Plasma total cholesterol levels were increased in both simmondsin-treated and pair-fed obese and lean Zucker rats compared with control animals; this increase was mainly due to an increase in HDL-cholesterol levels. Blood leptin levels in both obese and lean rats decreased with decreased food intake and decreased fat deposition, but in obese rats, simmondsin treatment resulted in an additional decrease in leptin levels. It is concluded that the food intake-reducing effect of simmondsin is more pronounced in obese Zucker rats than in their lean littermates, and except for the simmondsin-specific effects on leptin and total cholesterol values in obese littermates, the effects of simmondsin are related to food intake restriction in obese and lean Zucker rats. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Paraoxonase is an HDL-associated enzyme implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis by protecting lipoproteins against peroxidation. Its biallelic gene polymorphism at codon 192 (glutamine/arginine) has been associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). To further evaluate the role of this paraoxonase gene polymorphism for CAD in type 2 diabetes, we determined the paraoxonase genotype in 288 type 2 diabetic patients (170 with and 118 without angiographically documented CAD). The paraoxonase 192 Gln/Arg genotype was assessed using polymerase chain reaction followed by AlwI digestion. The frequency of the Gln allele was 0.656 in the CAD patients and 0.746 in the controls (chi2 = 5.36, P = 0.02). Compared with the Gln/Gln genotypes, the age-adjusted odds ratio for CAD was 1.78 (95% CI 1.08-2.96, P = 0.02) in subjects carrying at least one Arg allele. In the multivariate analysis, this association was even stronger after correction for the possible confounders age, sex, smoking history, and hypertension. Among current and former smokers, the odds ratio (OR) for having CAD among patients with at least one Arg allele was 3.58 (1.45-9.53, P < 0.01). The paraoxonase Arg allele was not associated with the history of myocardial infarction (OR 1.20 [0.73-1.99, NS]), but was with the extent of CAD (OR for three-vessel disease 1.92 [1.15-3.27, P = 0.01]). Our data indicate that the 192 Arg allele of the human paraoxonase gene is a risk factor for CAD but not myocardial infarction in type 2 diabetic patients, a risk factor further modified by cigarette smoking. This risk could possibly be explained by a reduced ability of the paraoxonase Arg isoform to protect lipoproteins against peroxidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of diverticular disease of the female urethra varies between 1.8% and 5%. Although the disease was described 300 years ago, there is still debate on its pathogenesis. Sterile urinalysis, preferably localization in the distal urethra at the site where the embryonic layers meet, and the mostly smooth walls with a rounded shape in most of our patients, point toward an inborn defect rather than an inflammatory etiology secondary to infection and obstetrical complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]