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This paper studies the insurer’s solvency ratio model in a class of mixed fractional Brownian motion (MFBM) market, where the prices of assets follow a Wick-Ito stochastic differential equation driven by the MFBM, by the method of the stochastic calculus of the MFBM and the pricing formula of European call option for the MFBM, the explicit formula for the expected present value of shareholders’ terminal payoff is given. The model extends the existing results.

In this paper the insurer’s solvency ratio model with or without jump diffusion process in the presence of financial distress cost is constructed, where an insurer’s solvency ratio is characterized by a Markov-modulated dynamics. By Girsanov’s theorem and the option pricing formula, the expected present value of shareholders’ terminal payoff is provided.

This paper discusses an insider’s optimal portfolio with dividend, in the case that the performance is measured in terms of the logarithm of the terminal wealth minus a term measuring the roughness and the growth of the portfolio. The stochastic calculus of the forward integral is employed. The explicit solution in a special case is obtained.

Phospholamban (PLN) is a critical regulator of cardiac calcium homeostasis and muscle contractility. Recent studies have demonstrated that ablation or inhibition of PLN function can improve cardiac contractile properties in animal models of congestive heart failure (CHF), suggesting that PLN is an attractive target for treatment of CHF. Because of its use of a large, relatively flat interaction surface when docking with its regulation target (Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Ca2+ ATPase 2 isoform A (SERCA2a)), the development of small-molecule inhibitors of PLN function is expected to be extremely challenging. Therefore, approaches that aim to block the expression of PLN may provide a superior means of achieving the desired therapeutic effect.

Zinc finger protein transcription factors (ZFP TFs) can be designed to regulate the expression of any endogenous gene, and thus provide a powerful platform for drug target validation and human therapeutics development. To deliver ZFP TFs into target cells that are difficult to transfect and for long-term expression of therapeutic ZFP TFs in mammalian tissues, we produced adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors that express ZFP TFs using the triple plasmid transfection method. Crude AAV lysates were used to infect a range of cell types including a human osteosarcoma cell line (U2OS), human primary uterine smooth muscle cells (UtSMC) and rat primary cardiomyoctes. We show here that AAV vectors are capable of efficiently delivering ZFP TFs that cause the down-regulation of the checkpoint kinase 2 (CHK2) or phospholamban gene in these cells. Our results indicate that AAV vectors are effective vehicles for delivering therapeutic ZFP TFs and provide a convenient tool for functional screening of ZFP TFs in hard-to-transfect cells. The AAV vector that expresses a phospholamban-repressing ZFP TF validated here is currently being tested in pre-clinical animal models of congestive heart failure.