http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/25609/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/25611/ 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z This paper estimates the effects of short and long haul volatility (or risk) in monthly Japanese tourist arrivals to Taiwan and New Zealand, respectively. In order to model appropriately the volatilities of international tourist arrivals, we use symmetric and asymmetric conditional volatility models that are commonly used in financial econometrics, namely the GARCH (1,1), GJR (1,1) and EGARCH (1,1) models. The data series are for the period January 1997 to December 2007. The volatility estimates for the monthly growth in Japanese tourists to New Zealand and Taiwan are different, and indicate that the former has an asymmetric effect on risk from positive and negative shocks of equal magnitude, while the latter has no asymmetric effect. Moreover, there is a leverage effect in the monthly growth rate of Japanese tourists to New Zealand, whereby negative shocks increase volatility but positive shocks of similar magnitude decrease volatility. These empirical results seem to be similar to a wide range of financial stock market prices, so that the models used in financial economics, and hence the issues related to risk and leverage effects, are also applicable to international tourism flows. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/21000/ 2010-08-18T00:00:00Z We studied here the independent roles of angiotensin II and aldosterone in regulating the sodium chloride cotransporter (NCC) of the distal convoluted tubule. We adrenalectomized three experimental and one control group of rats. Following surgery, the experimental groups were treated with either a high physiological dose of aldosterone, a non-pressor, or a pressor dose of angiotensin II for 8 days. Aldosterone and both doses of angiotensin II lowered sodium excretion and significantly increased the abundance of NCC in the plasma membrane compared with the control. Only the pressor dose of angiotensin II caused hypertension. Thiazides inhibited the sodium retention induced by the angiotensin II non-pressor dose. Both aldosterone and the non-pressor dose of angiotensin II significantly increased phosphorylation of NCC at threonine-53 and also increased the intracellular abundance of STE20/SPS1-related, proline alanine-rich kinase (SPAK). No differences were found in other modulators of NCC activity such as oxidative stress responsive protein type 1 or with-no-lysine kinase 4. Thus, our in vivo study shows that aldosterone and angiotensin II independently increase the abundance and phosphorylation of NCC in the setting of adrenalectomy; effects are likely mediated by SPAK. These results may explain, in part, the hormonal control of renal sodium excretion and the pathophysiology of several forms of hypertension.Kidney International advance online publication, 18 August 2010; doi:10.1038/ki.2010.290.