We examine the effects from the Trading At Settlement (TAS) introduction on VIX futures market quality. We find that the VIX futures market exhibits higher trading activity and better liquidity after the TAS introduction. VIX futures traders use the TAS limit order book to execute large transactions, and TAS helps limit order traders from being picked off by informed traders when the VIX futures p

We have employed time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy to study the impact of HfO2 surface capping by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on the optical properties of InP nanowires (NWs). The deposition of high-kappa dielectrics acting as a gate oxide is of particular interest in view of possible applications of semiconductor NWs in future wrap-gated field effect transistors (FETs). A high n

Pili have only been discovered in the major Gram-positive pathogens in the past decade and they have been found to play an important role in colonisation and virulence. Pili have been shown to have many important functions including attachment to host tissues, mediating bacterial aggregation, biofilm formation and binding to proteins in the extracellular matrix. In this study, sortase-dependent pi

Large changes in solar ultraviolet radiation can indirectly affect climate(1) by inducing atmospheric changes. Specifically, it has been suggested that centennial-scale climate variability during the Holocene epoch was controlled by the Sun(2,3). However, the amplitude of solar forcing is small when compared with the climatic effects and, without reliable data sets, it is unclear which feedback me

The Si(001)-2 x 1 surface saturated by water is characterized by the passivation of nearly all of the dimerized atoms by H/OH terminations, except isolated dangling bonds, whose areal density is in the range of 1.5 +/- 0.2 x 10(-2) defects per Si atom. Therefore the water-saturated Si(001)-2 x 1 surface presents similarities with the defective H-terminated Si(001)2 x I. surface (presence of monohy

Recovery from infection is not always complete, and mild chronic infection may persist. Although the direct costs of such infections are apparently small, the potential for any long-term effects on Darwinian fitness is poorly understood. In a wild population of great reed warblers, we found that low-level chronic malaria infection reduced life span as well as the lifetime number and quality of off

Obtaining sufficient numbers of immunologically matched hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) poses a major clinical hurdle in bone marrow transplantation therapies. In a recent study in Cell, Riddell et al. (2014) generate induced HSCs from differentiated blood cells, which may serve as a potential solution to this clinical challenge.

sing Latent Semantic Analysis, we quantified the semantic representations of Facebook status updates of 304 individuals in order to predict self-reported personality. We focused on, besides Neuroticism and Extraversion, the Dark Triad of personality: Psychopathy, Narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The semantic content of Facebook updates predicted Psychopathy and Narcissism. These updates had a mor

Several investigations have revealed surprisingly high activities during the winter in vegetation and soil in temperate and subarctic areas. Plants have been found to photosynthesize even under snow cover and at temperatures below freezing, and decomposer microorganisms can function, at low rates, all year around. In temperate grasslands, the vegetation includes winter annual herbs as well as bryo

Migraine is the most prevalent of the neurological disorders and can affect the patient throughout the lifetime. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a neuropeptide that is expressed in the central and peripheral nervous systems. It is now 2 decades since it was proposed to be involved in migraine pathophysiology. The cranial sensory system contains C-fibers storing CGRP and trigeminal nerve

We present a study in which the intrawall porosity and primary mesoporosity. of SBA-15 are independently controlled by modifying the strength of the molecular interaction that governs the formation of the material. The interactions are targeted at specific times during the process of formation, which results in selective tuning of the porosity, while other characteristics of the SBA-15 material ar

Recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) was initially developed to treat bleeding episodes in patients with congenital haemophilia and inhibitors. The story of its development began in the 1970s, when FVIIa was identified as one of the activated coagulation factors that has minimal potential for inducing thromboembolic side-effects. Extensive research over the last 30 years has greatly increased

To achieve a relatively consistent probability of failure for structural elements, most design codes apply reliability based code calibration process. Such approaches commonly focus on the strength of the structural members, which is related to the ultimate limit state (ULS). However in the design of beams the performance of the structural elements is often limited by the serviceability requiremen

Metal functionalized nanoparticles potentially have improved properties e. g. in catalytic applications, but their precise structures are often very challenging to determine. Here we report a structural benchmark study based on tetragonal anatase TiO2 nanoparticles containing 0-2 wt% copper. The particles were synthesized by continuous flow synthesis under supercritical water-isopropanol condition

Possibilities to undergo predictive genetic testing for cancer have expanded, which implies that an increasing number of healthy individuals will learn about cancer predisposition. Knowledge about how an increased risk of disease influences life in a long-term perspective is largely unknown, which led us to explore lived experiences in healthy mutation carriers with Lynch syndrome. Individual inte

Severe atrial structural remodeling may reflect irreversible damage of the atrial tissue in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and is associated with changes of P-wave duration and morphology. Our aim was to study whether variability of P-wave morphology (PMV) is associated with outcome in patients with AF after circumferential PV isolation (CPVI).