Does a thin foreign exchange market lead to destabilizing capital-market speculation in the Asian Crisis countries?

The authors investigate how the thinness of foreign-exchange markets causes destabilization speculation, especially when exchange-rate flexibility is increased, as it has been in the countries involved in the Asian crisis. They analyze the impact of this market thinness on the dynamic capital mobility and capital market risk of four countries involved in the Asian crisis: Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. Using the vector-autoregression model, impulse response functions, and variance decomposition, they show that in response to one-standard-deviation shock to interest and exchange rates, the dynamic capital mobility of all four countries decreases in the short run. These shocks also cause the capital market risk of these countries to rise. Since the onset of the Asian crisis, the countries involved responded by raising their interest rates and devaluing their currencies. These measures were intended to stem capital flight from the borrowing countries and to encourage capital inflows. But in an environment of protracted financial sector reform and thin foreign exchange markets, these standard policies did not stabilize capital inflows into these countries. The authors'research supports the view that because standard policies were unable to change institutional investors'(self-fulfilling) expectations and herding behavior, the countries'policies have, in the short run, not been successful. This failure is in large part attributable to the very thin foreign exchange markets in these Asian countries.Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Banks&Banking Reform,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Capital Markets and Capital Flows,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Macroeconomic Management,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Insurance&Risk Mitigation

Beef Production: A Manual for 4-H Club Members

The first and most important step in the baby beef phase is to select the type of calf that will make the most economical gains and finally dress out a highly desirable carcass. The success and profit of the enterprise will depend on the conformation, feeding ability and quality of the calf selected. Suitable feeder calves for profitable baby beef production are generally the offspring from sires and dams of good beef type and breeding. As a rule it does not pay the cattle feeder to feed out the calves of common or nondescript breeding for baby beef, as the fattened animal does not have quality sufficient to compete with the better bred, better finished baby beeves. Especially is this true in 4-H baby beef club work. Therefore, the stockman who desires to produce his own feeder calves should make careful selection of cows for his beef herd; they may or may not be purebred, but by all means use a good type purebred beef sire. If a good cow, bred to a good purebred beef, will produce a good calf; a better cow bred to a better bull will produce a better calf. (See more in text.

Modelling the alumina abundance of oxygen-rich evolved stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud

In order to determine the composition of the dust in the circumstellar envelopes of oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars we have computed a grid of modust radiative-transfer models for a range of dust compositions, mass-loss rates, dust shell inner radii and stellar parameters. We compare the resulting colours with the observed oxygen-rich AGB stars from the SAGE-Spec Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) sample, finding good overall agreement for stars with a mid-infrared excess. We use these models to fit a sample of 37 O-rich AGB stars in the LMC with optically thin circumstellar envelopes, for which 5$-$35-$\mu$m Spitzer infrared spectrograph (IRS) spectra and broadband photometry from the optical to the mid-infrared are available. From the modelling, we find mass-loss rates in the range $\sim 8\times10^{-8}$ to $5\times10^{-6}$ M$_{\odot}\ \mathrm{yr}^{-1}$, and we show that a grain mixture consisting primarily of amorphous silicates, with contributions from amorphous alumina and metallic iron provides a good fit to the observed spectra. Furthermore, we show from dust models that the AKARI [11]$-$[15] versus [3.2]$-$[7] colour-colour diagram, is able to determine the fractional abundance of alumina in O-rich AGB stars.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, accepted MNRA

The Influence of Formulation, Buffering, pH and Divalent Cations on the Activity of Endothall on Hydrilla.

Endothall has been used as an aquatic herbicide for more than 40 years and provides very effective weed control of many weeds. Early research regarding the mechanism-of-action of endothall contradicts the symptomology normally associated with the product. Recent studies suggest endothall is a respiratory toxin but the mechanism-of-action remains unknown. To further elucidate the activity of endothall, several endothall formulations were evaluated for their effects on ion leakage, oxygen consumption and photosynthetic oxygen evolution from hydrilla shoot tips. The influence of pH, buffering and divalent cations was also evaluated. (PDF contains 6 pages.

High-precision spectroscopy of ultracold molecules in an optical lattice

The study of ultracold molecules tightly trapped in an optical lattice can expand the frontier of precision measurement and spectroscopy, and provide a deeper insight into molecular and fundamental physics. Here we create, probe, and image microkelvin $^{88}$Sr$_2$ molecules in a lattice, and demonstrate precise measurements of molecular parameters as well as coherent control of molecular quantum states using optical fields. We discuss the sensitivity of the system to dimensional effects, a new bound-to-continuum spectroscopy technique for highly accurate binding energy measurements, and prospects for new physics with this rich experimental system.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Ubiquitous energy storage

This paper presents a vision of a future power system with "ubiquitous energy storage", where storage would be utilized at all levels of the electricity system. The growing requirement for storage is reviewed, driven by the expansion of distributed generation. The capabilities and existing applications of various storage technologies are presented, providing a useful review of the state of the art. Energy storage will have to be integrated with the power system and there are various ways in which this may be achieved. Some of these options are discussed, as are commercial and regulatory issues. In two case studies, the costs and benefits of some storage options are assessed. It is concluded that electrical storage is not cost effective but that thermal storage offers attractive opportunities