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Speech by Mr Agustín Carstens, General Manager of the BIS, at the Eurofi Financial Forum, Helsinki, 12 September 2019.

Lecture by Claudio Borio, Head of the Monetary and Economic Department, at the University of Zürich, Zürich, 19 November 2019.

Neurons and circuits each with a distinct balance of intrinsic and synaptic conductances can generate similar behavior but sometimes respond very differently to perturbation. Examining a large family of circuit models with non-identical neurons and synapses underlying rhythmic behavior, we analyzed the circuits' response to modifications in single and multiple intrinsic conductances in the individual neurons. To summarize these changes over the entire range of perturbed parameters, we quantified circuit output by defining a global stability measure. Using this measure, we identified specific subsets of conductances that when perturbed generate similar behavior in diverse individuals of the population. Our unbiased clustering analysis enabled us to quantify circuit stability when simultaneously perturbing multiple conductances as a nonlinear combination of single conductance perturbations. This revealed surprising conductance combinations that can predict the response to specific perturbations, even when the remaining intrinsic and synaptic conductances are unknown. Therefore, our approach can expose hidden variability in the balance of intrinsic and synaptic conductances of the same neurons across different versions of the same circuit solely from the circuit response to perturbations. Developed for a specific family of model circuits, our quantitative approach to characterizing high-dimensional degenerate systems provides a conceptual and analytic framework to guide future theoretical and experimental studies on degeneracy and robustness.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Neural circuits can generate nearly identical behavior despite neuronal and synaptic parameters varying several-fold between individual instantiations. Yet, when these parameters are perturbed through channel deletions and mutations or environmental disturbances, seemingly identical circuits can respond very differently. What distinguishes inconsequential perturbations that barely alter circuit behavior from disruptive perturbations that drastically disturb circuit output remains unclear. Focusing on a family of rhythmic circuits, we propose a computational approach to reveal hidden variability in the intrinsic and synaptic conductances in seemingly identical circuits based solely on circuit output to different perturbations. We uncover specific conductance combinations that work similarly to maintain stability and predict the effect of changing multiple conductances simultaneously, which often results from neuromodulation or injury.

In the past 20 years, malnutrition in mothers and children has decreased by almost half. But despite this progress, child undernutrition is still the greatest nutrition-related health burden in the world. One of the biggest problems with child undernutrition is that it continues the cycle of stunting: stunted girls grow up to be stunted mothers, and stunted mothers are much [...]

Radio culture is gaining more and more ground as millions of listeners take to audio podcasts as a convenient and accessible way to learn new information.  Which is why FAO is stepping up into the medium to bring you insights into some of the issues concerning food and agriculture worldwide. Here are the first seven audio offerings of FAO’s new podcast [...]

"This could be the oldest and longest-lived team ball game in the world," says one archaeologist

Some 50 artists around the Prenzlauer Berg district displayed works of art for passersby to enjoy

Major League Baseball players and team employees to participate in 10,000-person COVID-19 study

The prickly perch is an exciting sign of success for the birds, which came off the endangered species list in 2007

Two years before the Carthaginian general crossed the Alps, he won a decisive victory at the Battle of the Tagus

Coyotes, bears and more are enjoying areas usually reserved for crowds of human visitors

Funeral parlors' enterprising staff offered burial packages to suit every social strata and budget

During his 20-year professional career, his boisterous style endeared him to fans but rankled traditionalists

The Northwoods League announced Thursday that its 2020 season will not begin on May 26, as originally scheduled, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Independent MHA Eddie Joyce is suing four people, including the premier, for defamation over the handling of a harassment complaint that saw him turfed from the Liberal cabinet and caucus in 2018.

The COVID-19 briefings started out as an urgent response to a public health crisis. As John Gushue writes, Premier Dwight Ball has grown comfortable in the role of hosting a program focused on government programs.

The following is a guest post by Hanna Soltys, Reference Librarian, Prints & Photographs Division. The post was written with the help of Sara W. Duke, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Art.   While professional baseball’s Opening Day will take place at a later date, the spirit and excitement of the day still live […]

FSI Briefs No 3, April 2020. In response to the 2007-09 Great Financial Crisis (GFC), accounting standard setters introduced a new methodology to value loans based on expected credit losses (ECL). The previous approach, based on incurred losses, was viewed as procyclical and inconsistent with prudential objectives. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, several prudential authorities and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), introduced a series of measures to clarify how banks should consider various public and private debt relief programmes in their ECL estimates and in their calculation of regulatory capital. These measures are intended to incentivise banks to continue supporting the real economy, while reducing pressure on banks' ECL provisions, earnings and regulatory capital. Supervisory initiatives that provide capital relief should be augmented by severe constraints on the payment of dividends, bonuses and share buybacks. These joint actions will simultaneously expand banks' lending capacity and enhance their ability to absorb losses. Prudential authorities face difficult trade-offs as they confront the most severe economic crisis in modern times. Encouraging the use of flexibility in applicable accounting standards, while preserving market trust and transparency in the reported financial statements of banks, will be key in fostering both economic and financial stability.

Recent literature has highlighted that international trade is mostly priced in a few key vehicle currencies, and is increasingly dominated by intermediate goods and global value chains (GVCs). Taking these features into account, this paper reexamines the business cycle dynamics of international trade and its relationship with monetary policy and exchange rates.

Markets Committee calls for wider adoption of global code of conduct for foreign exchange markets (Press release, 30 January 2020)

No global real estate market despite higher price synchronisation and growing role of international investors, central banks find (Press release, 18 February 2020)

Press release "Saudi G20 Presidency and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub invite global innovators to solve RegTech and SupTech challenges", 27 April 2020

Live professional baseball games could be televised in the United States as early next week, with South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reporting Monday that ESPN and the Korea Baseball Organization are nearing an agreement.

Derek Jeter, Larry Walker and the rest of this year's Baseball Hall of Fame class will have to wait another year for their big moment at Cooperstown.

The Korean baseball league opens its delayed season Tuesday in empty stadiums across South Korea and Canada's Jamie Romak, along with the rest of the league's players, are getting used to a new baseball normal that includes rules against high fives and spitting, daily temperature checks and the absence of fans.

The new baseball season began in South Korea on Tuesday with the crack of the bat and the sound of the ball smacking into the catcher's mitt echoing around empty stadiums.

Everyone is rooting for Korean baseball to succeed right now because, if it fails, we're left with a pretty dark thought: If they can't pull this off, what hope do we have?

US dollar credit to non-bank borrowers outside the United States grew by 4% year on year at end-June 2019, to reach $11.9 trillion. Foreign currency credit denominated in euros and Japanese yen continued to expand at a faster pace than that in US dollars, growing at annual rates of 9% and 8%, respectively. US dollar credit to emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) grew at an annual rate of 2% (to reach $3.7 trillion), though growth varied substantially across regions.

US dollar credit to non-bank borrowers outside the United States grew by 5% year on year at end-September 2019, to reach $12.1 trillion. Euro-denominated credit outside the euro area continued to expand at a fast pace (9%). In contrast, the growth rate of yen-denominated credit outside Japan fell to 1%. Strong debt securities issuance drove expansions in US dollar and euro credit to emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). US dollar credit to EMDEs grew at an annual rate of 3% (to reach $3.8 trillion); euro credit to EMDEs expanded by 9% (to reach €0.7 trillion).

US dollar credit to non-bank borrowers outside the United States grew by 6% in 2019, to reach $12.2 trillion at end-2019. The annual growth rate of euro-denominated credit outside the euro area slowed to 6%, while that of yen-denominated credit outside Japan turned negative (-1%). In 2019, euro-denominated credit overtook US dollar-denominated credit as the largest stock of foreign currency credit to emerging Europe. The debt securities share in US dollar credit outside the United States has risen considerably over the past decade across a number of major borrowing regions.

The term global liquidity is used by the BIS to mean the ease of financing in global financial markets. Credit is among the key indicators of global liquidity, and is the focus of the quarterly indicators estimated by the BIS.

Remarks by Benoît Cœuré, Head of the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, at the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee - Chamber of Digital Commerce webinar on "The world economy transformed", 17 April 2020.

Remarks by Mr Olli Rehn, Governor of the Bank of Finland, at the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee Panel Discussion on "The world economy transformed: Reflections on policy responses and the future post pandemic monetary architecture", in the context of the virtual IMF Spring Meetings, Washington DC, 17 April 2020.

Robbyn Plumb tried to balance a career in the public service with looking after two kids, one with special needs. When the pandemic hit she finally hit a wall and decided to stop working. She writes about how hard it is for parents trying to do it all during COVID-19.

Notre Dame women's basketball coach Muffet McGraw is retiring after winning two national championships in 33 years with the Irish.

It’s been 20 years since his last NBA game, but Dennis Rodman is a hot topic again. The featured character in a new episode of The Last Dance was many things to many people — and a genuine trailblazer.

Canadian basketball players Dylan Ennis and Kevin Pangos, who both play in Liga ACB, opted to stay and weather the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.

A fine and delicate balance in contemporary jazz  Telegraph India

After the Canadian Football League confirmed its request for financial assistance from Ottawa on Wednesday, the Canadian Premier League and Canadian Elite Basketball League have followed suit.

It's not often people want to hang onto winter, but a Summerside, P.E.I. woman has kept a piece of it in her freezer for over a decade: a snowball in a ziplock bag.

As a child, Fay Richardson wanted to dance, with the grace and movement of ballet captivating her. Now, at 79-years-old, she's doing just that.

A team of Canadian balloon twisters earned five awards at the World Balloon Convention in California this month for their Mickey and Minnie Mouse as Romeo and Juliet design.

The string of pratfalls that was the comedic highlight of this year's New Waterford Coal Bowl Classic in Nova Scotia will be seen by millions of TV viewers.

A sports writer covering the strange return of South Korea's baseball season says fans should brace for similarly odd experience in Toronto, if and when the 2020 season begins.

Madagascar is putting its self-proclaimed, plant-based "cure" for COVID-19 on sale and several countries in Africa have already put in orders for purchase, despite warnings from the World Health Organization that its efficacy is unproven.

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