Do professional forecasters believe in the Phillips curve? evidence from the G7 countries

This paper uses monthly survey data for the G7 countries for the time period 1989–2007 to explore the link between expectations on nominal wages, prices and unemployment rates as suggested by the wage and price Phillips curves. Four major findings stand out. First, we find that survey participants trust in both types of Phillips curve relationships. Second, we find evidence in favor of nonlinearities in the price Phillips curve. Third, we take into account a kink in the price Phillips curve to indicate that the slope of the Phillips curve differs during the business cycle. We find strong evidence of this feature in the data which confirms recent theoretical discussions. Fourth, we employ our data to the expectations‐augmented Phillips curve model. The results suggest that professional forecasters adopt this model when forecasting macroeconomic variables. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gold nanoparticles induce nuclear damage in breast cancer cells,which is further amplified by hyperthermia

Gold nanoparticles have emerged as promising tools for cancer research and therapy, where they can promote thermal killing. The molecular mechanisms underlying these events are not fully understood. The geometry and size of gold nanoparticles can determine the severity of cellular damage. Therefore, small and big gold nanospheres as well as gold nanoflowers were evaluated side-by-side. To obtain quantitative data at the subcellular and molecular level, we assessed how gold nanoparticles, either alone or in combination with mild hyperthermia, altered the physiology of cultured human breast cancer cells. Our analyses focused on the nucleus, because this organelle is essential for cell survival. We showed that all the examined gold nanoparticles associated with nuclei. However, their biological effects were quantitatively different. Thus, depending on the shape and size, gold nanoparticles changed multiple nuclear parameters. They redistributed stress-sensitive regulators of nuclear biology, altered the nuclear morphology, reorganized nuclear laminae and envelopes, and inhibited nucleolar functions. In particular, gold nanoparticles reduced the de novo biosynthesis of RNA in nucleoli, the subnuclear compartments that produce ribosomes. While small gold nanospheres and nanoflowers, but not big gold nanospheres, damaged the nucleus at normal growth temperature, several of these defects were further exacerbated by mild hyperthermia. Taken together, the toxicity of gold nanoparticles correlated with changes in nuclear organization and function. These results emphasize that the cell nucleus is a prominent target for gold nanoparticles of different morphologies. Moreover, we demonstrated that RNA synthesis in nucleoli provides quantitative information on nuclear damage and cancer cell survival.     

A ground-based transmission spectrum of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b

In contrast to planets with masses similar to that of Jupiter and higher, the bulk compositions of planets in the so-called super-Earth regime (masses 2-10 times that of the Earth) cannot be uniquely determined from a measurement of mass and radius alone. For these planets, there is a degeneracy between the mass and composition of both the interior and a possible atmosphere in theoretical models. The recently discovered transiting super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b is one example of this problem. Three distinct models for the planet that are consistent with its mass and radius have been suggested. Breaking the degeneracy between these models requires obtaining constraints on the planet's atmospheric composition. Here we report a ground-based measurement of the transmission spectrum of GJ 1214b between wavelengths of 780 and 1,000?nm. The lack of features in this spectrum rules out (at 4.9σ confidence) cloud-free atmospheres composed primarily of hydrogen. If the planet's atmosphere is hydrogen-dominated, then it must contain clouds or hazes that are optically thick at the observed wavelengths at pressures less than 200?mbar. Alternatively, the featureless transmission spectrum is also consistent with the presence of a dense, water vapour atmosphere.