Financial Markets & Risks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Financial Markets & Risks - Essay Example Then we’ll make an assessment of the impact on the banking system if short-term interest rates were to rise. And at last let’s provide an explanation of the actions the ECB might take if the rumours of liquidity problems in other institutions prove to be correct. Over the last few years, the euro area has witnessed a gradual recovery in economic activity. The recovery started in the second half of 2003 and has now led to ongoing trend growth rates that seem to be close to our present estimates of the potential growth rate of the euro area economy. Several factors are behind the relatively gradual pace of this recovery, including oil price increases, the restructuring and reshaping of the productive sector triggered by global competition, and a possible decline in potential output growth. First, taking a longer-term perspective, there is some evidence that, underlying the moderate growth rates over the last few years, there may have been a decline in trend potential output growth in the euro area, particularly when comparisons are drawn with most of the 1980s and 1990s. The trend potential output growth rate seems to have moved closer to the lower bound of the previously estimated range of 2.0-2.5%. The sustained decline in euro area labour productivity growth has been identified as the main factor explaining lower potential output growth. Euro area labour productivity growth (measured per hour worked) was 2.4% in the euro area from 1981 to 1990. However, during the period 1996-2004, productivity fell to 1.3%. Decomposing trend labour productivity growth, in turn, shows that this decline reflects both lower growths in total factor productivity and less capital deepening. There is a wide consensus that the still significant structural rigidities in the euro area factor and product markets are likely to explain the lacklustre

Role Of ALAD In Lead Toxicology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Role Of ALAD In Lead Toxicology - Essay Example The mechanism of lead toxicity involves oxidative damage by producing reactive oxygen species which inhibit the production of sulfhydryl antioxidants, inhibit enzyme reactions impairing Heine production, cause inflammation in vascular endothelial cells, damage nucleic acids and inhibit DNA repair, and initiate lipid peroxidation in cellular membranes (Lyn Patrick, 2006). The toxicity of lead is due to its property to mimic other biologically essential metals, like calcium, iron, and zinc (Onalaja & Claudio, 2000). It has been observed that lead binds to enzymes that have functional sulfhydryl groups, rendering them nonfunctional and further contributing to impairment in oxidative balance. Levels of two specific sulfhydryl-containing enzymes that are inhibited by lead are delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydrogenase (ALAD) and glutathione reductase (GR) which has been demonstrated to be depressed in both animal and human lead-exposure studies (Lyn Patrick, 2006). Polymorphisms of the ALAD gene have been associated with the accumulation and distribution of lead in the blood, bone, and internal organs in humans and animals. Lead binds with and interacts with the same proteins and molecules, and interferes with the normal activity of molecules, such as in producing enzymes necessary for certain biological processes. Like it interferes with an essential enzyme Delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase or ALAD. ALAD is a zinc-binding protein which is important in the biosynthesis of heme, the cofactor found in hemoglobin.