Price-switching spillovers between gold, oil, and stock markets: Evidence from the USA and China during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper examines price-switching spillovers between the US and Chinese stock, crude oil, and gold futures markets before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a Markov-switching vector autoregressive model, we show that stock markets were mainly influenced by their own shocks, with effects that were sensitive to regime shifts. Connectedness network analysis reveals that gold and stock markets were net contributors (receivers) of spillovers in the low-volatility regime (high-volatility regime), while oil was a major receiver (contributor) of spillovers in the low-volatility regime (high volatility regime). Regimes were mainly low-volatility from January 2019 to February 2020 and high-volatility from March 2020 to May 2020. We conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic intensified spillovers from commodity markets to the US and Chinese stock markets.

Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles Stabilized with 3-Mercapto-1-Propansulfonate and 1-Thioglucose Mixed Thiols for Antibacterial Applications.

The synthesis, characterization and assessment of the antibacterial properties of hydrophilic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were investigated with the aim to probe their suitability for innovative applications in the field of nanobiotechnology. First, silver nanoparticles were synthetized and functionalized with two capping agents, namely 3-mercapto-1-propansulfonate (3MPS) and 1-ß-thio-d-glucose (TG). The investigation of the structural and electronic properties of the nano-systems was carried out by means of X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS). XPS data provided information about the system stability and the interactions between the metallic surface and the organic ligands. In addition, XPS data allowed us to achieve a deep understanding of the influence of the thiols stoichiometric ratio on the electronic properties and stability of AgNPs. In order to shed light on the structural and electronic local properties at Ag atoms sites, XAS at Ag K-Edge was successfully applied; furthermore, the combination of Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and XAS results allowed determining AgNPs sizes, ranging between 3 and 13 nm. Finally, preliminary studies on the antibacterial properties of AgNPs showed promising results on four of six multidrug-resistant bacteria belonging to the ESKAPE group (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter sp.).