Is CalPERS a Sovereign Wealth Fund?

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are the subject of intense debate. While these funds are hard to define in precise terms, all agree they are government-sponsored pools of financial assets. With roughly $3 trillion under management today and forecasts that suggest this number could approach$10 trillion in under a decade, many wonder what role these public investment funds will play in private markets. Due to SWFsí government sponsorship, some fear that they will be used illegitimately to advance political, instead of commercial, agendas. This geopolitical concern is compounded by a general lack of transparency and a perception among Western analysts of weak accountability and poor governance practices...

Sovereign Wealth Funds: Form and Function in the 21st Century

As representatives of nation-states in global financial markets, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) share a common form and many functions. Arguably their form and functions owe as much to a shared (global) moment of institutional formation as they owe their form and functions to the hegemony of Anglo-American finance over the late 20th and early 21st centuries. We distinguish between the immediate future for SWFs in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, and two possible long-term scenarios; one of which sees SWFs becoming financial goliaths dominating global markets, while the other sees SWFs morphing into nation-state development institutions that intermediate between financial markets and the long-term commitments of the nation-state sponsors. If the former scenario dominates, global financial integration will accelerate with attendant costs and benefits. If the latter scenario dominates, SWFs are likely to differentiate and evolve, returning, perhaps, to their national traditions and their respective places in a world of contested power and influence. Here, we clarify the assumptions underpinning the conception and formation of sovereign wealth funds over the past twenty years or so in the face of the ‘new’ realities of global finance.Sovereign Wealth Funds, Crisis, Market Performance, Long-term Investment

Synthetic LISA: Simulating Time Delay Interferometry in a Model LISA

We report on three numerical experiments on the implementation of Time-Delay Interferometry (TDI) for LISA, performed with Synthetic LISA, a C++/Python package that we developed to simulate the LISA science process at the level of scientific and technical requirements. Specifically, we study the laser-noise residuals left by first-generation TDI when the LISA armlengths have a realistic time dependence; we characterize the armlength-measurements accuracies that are needed to have effective laser-noise cancellation in both first- and second-generation TDI; and we estimate the quantization and telemetry bitdepth needed for the phase measurements. Synthetic LISA generates synthetic time series of the LISA fundamental noises, as filtered through all the TDI observables; it also provides a streamlined module to compute the TDI responses to gravitational waves according to a full model of TDI, including the motion of the LISA array and the temporal and directional dependence of the armlengths. We discuss the theoretical model that underlies the simulation, its implementation, and its use in future investigations on system characterization and data-analysis prototyping for LISA.Comment: 18 pages, 14 EPS figures, REVTeX 4. Accepted PRD version. See http://www.vallis.org/syntheticlisa for information on the Synthetic LISA software packag

Demonstration That Circulating 1α,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D is Loosely Regulated in Normal Children

The effects of vitamin D, 2.5 mg (100,000 U)/d for 4 d, on serum calcium, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) and serum 1a,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1a,25(OH)2D) were compared in 24 normal adults and 12 normal children. The daily dose of vitamin D was 1,500 U/kg body wt in children weighing \u3c45 kg. Vitamin D increased mean serum calcium from 9.5±0.1 to 9.8±0.1 mg/dl (P \u3c 0.05), increased mean serum phosphorus from 4.6±0.1 to 5.0±0.1 mg/dl (P \u3c 0.01), increased mean serum 25-OHD from 25±3 to 34±4 ng/ml (P \u3c 0.001), and increased mean serum 1a,25(OH)2D from 34±3 to 42±4 pg/ml (P \u3c 0.02) in children. In contrast, vitamin D increased mean serum 25-OHD from 18±2 to 39±6 ng/ml (P \u3c 0.001) and did not change mean serum calcium (9.4±0.1 vs. 9.5±0.1 mg/dl), mean serum phosphorus (4.0±0.1 vs. 4.1±0.1 mg/dl), or mean serum 1a,25(OH)2D (31±2 vs. 29±3 pg/ml) in adults. Mean serum 1a,25(OH)2D was significantly higher after vitamin D in children than in adults (P \u3c 0.02). These results provide evidence that circulating 1a,25(OH)2D is not as tightly regulated in children as it is in adults. This difference in regulation could account in part for the higher values for serum 1a,25(OH)2D observed in children

Behavior and Weight Loss of Feeder Calves in a Railcar Modified for Feeding and Watering in Transit

The behavior of 164kg Angus and Hereford calves was studied in a double deck 26m x 2.6m jumbo railcar equipped with feed and water. A 4,180 liter water tank positioned in the center of each deck divided the car into four compartments. Fifty head were loaded into the lower and upper forward compartment (252kg/m2floor space], each containing 675kg of hay in racks. The two rear compartments served as quarters for equipment and researchers. Two video cameras were mounted in the upper forward compartment containing calves. Behavior of the calves was monitored, with portions video taped during rail transport from Memphis, Tennessee to Amarillo, Texas (57 hr) in June, 1979. The calves commenced eating and drinking immediately after being loaded in the railcar. Up to 75% of the cattle could lie down while the car was not in motion (14.4 hr of trip]. Calves stood at high speeds (80km/h] on unimproved track but continued to eat, drink and move about. Self and mutual grooming commonly occurred while traveling up to 40km/hr. Railcar temperature and relative humidity ranged from 17.8 to 41.1°C and 54 to 99%, respectively, and was identical to outside. Weight loss for 50 similar calves shipped by truck was 10.6% while rail calves lost 4.5% during truck transport to the railcar (11.3 hr) and 2.1% during rail transport for a total of 6.6%. Average daily gain (ADG) from initial weight to 7 days postshipment was .45kg for rail and -.02kg for truck, but ADG became similar at 30 days indicating full recovery. One truck calf was dead on arrival and 8% of the truck and 5% of the rail calves were treated for shipping fever. Excluding feedcosts, rail transport at 252kg/m 2 floor space costs 30% less per calf than transport in fully loaded trucks

Behavior and Weight Loss of Feeder Calves in a Railcar Modified for Feeding and Watering in Transit

The behavior of Angus and Hereford calves was studied in a double deck 26m x 2.6m jumbo railcar equipped with feed and water. A 4,180-liter water tank positioned in the center of each deck divided the car into four compartments. Fifty heads were loaded into the lower and upper forward compartments (252kg/m2 floor space], each containing 675kg of hay in racks. The two rear compartments served as quarters for equipment and researchers. Two video cameras were mounted in the upper forward compartment containing calves. The behavior of the calves was monitored, with portions video-taped during rail transport from Memphis, Tennessee, to Amarillo, Texas (57 hours) in June 1979. The calves commenced eating and drinking immediately after being loaded in the railcar. Up to 75% of the calves could lie down while the car was not in motion (14.4 hours of the trip]. Calves stood at high speeds (80km/h] on an unimproved track but continued to eat, drink and move about. Self and mutual grooming commonly occur while traveling up to 40km/hr. Railcar temperature and relative humidity ranged from 17.8 to 41.1oC and 54 to 99%, respectively, and were identical to the outside. Weight loss for 50 similar calves shipped by truck was 10.6%, while rail calves lost 4.5% during truck transport to the railcar (11.3 hours] and 2.1% during rail transport for a total of 6.6%. Average daily gain (ADG) from initial weight to 7 days post shipment was .45kg for rail and -.02 kilograms for truck, but ADG became similar at 30 days indicating full recovery. One truck calf was dead on arrival, and 8% of the truck and 5% of the rail calves were treated for shipping fever. Excluding feed costs, rail transport at 252kglm 2-floor space costs 30% less per calf than transport in fully loaded trucks

Formal analogies between gravitation and electrodynamics

We develop a theoretical framework that allows us to compare electromagnetism and gravitation in a fully covariant way. This new scenario does not rely on any kind of approximation nor associate objects with different operational meaning as it's sometime done in the literature. We construct the electromagnetic analogue to the Riemann and Weyl tensors and develop the equations of motion for these objects. In particular, we are able to identify precisely how and in what conditions gravity can be mapped to electrodynamics. As a consequence, many of the gemometrical tools of General Relativity can be applied to Electromagnetism and vice-versa. We hope our results would shed new light in the nature of electromagnetic and gravitational theories.Comment: 9pages, submitted to General Relativity and Gravitatio

The relationship between blood lead, blood pressure, stroke, and heart attacks in middle-aged British men.

The relationship between blood lead concentration and blood pressure is examined in a survey of 7371 men aged 40 to 59 from 24 British towns. After allowance for relevant confounding variables, including town of residence and alcohol consumption, there exists a very weak but statistically significant positive association between blood lead and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. These cross-sectional data indicate that an estimated mean increase of 1.45 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure occurs for every doubling of blood lead concentration with a 95% confidence interval of 0.47 to 2.43 mm Hg. After 6 years of follow-up, 316 of these men had major ischemic heart disease, and 66 had a stroke. After allowance for the confounding effects of cigarette smoking and town of residence there is no evidence that blood lead is a risk factor for these cardiovascular events. However, as the blood lead-blood pressure association is so weak, it is unlikely that any consequent association between lead and cardiovascular disease could be demonstrated from prospective epidemiological studies. An overview of data from this and other large epidemiological surveys provides reasonably consistent evidence on lead and blood pressure. While NHANES II data on 2254 U.S. men indicate a slightly stronger association between blood lead and systolic blood pressure, data from two Welsh studies on over 2000 men did not show a statistically significant association. However, the overlapping confidence limits for all these studies suggest that there may be a weak positive statistical association whereby systolic blood pressure is increased by about 1 mm Hg for every doubling of blood lead concentration.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS

Listening to limericks: a pupillometry investigation of perceivers’ expectancy

What features of a poem make it captivating, and which cognitive mechanisms are sensitive to these features? We addressed these questions experimentally by measuring pupillary responses of 40 participants who listened to a series of Limericks. The Limericks ended with either a semantic, syntactic, rhyme or metric violation. Compared to a control condition without violations, only the rhyme violation condition induced a reliable pupillary response. An anomaly-rating study on the same stimuli showed that all violations were reliably detectable relative to the control condition, but the anomaly induced by rhyme violations was perceived as most severe. Together, our data suggest that rhyme violations in Limericks may induce an emotional response beyond mere anomaly detection

Accurate light-time correction due to a gravitating mass

This work arose as an aftermath of Cassini's 2002 experiment \cite{bblipt03}, in which the PPN parameter $\gamma$ was measured with an accuracy $\sigma_\gamma = 2.3\times 10^{-5}$ and found consistent with the prediction $\gamma =1$ of general relativity. The Orbit Determination Program (ODP) of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which was used in the data analysis, is based on an expression for the gravitational delay which differs from the standard formula; this difference is of second order in powers of $m$ -- the sun's gravitational radius -- but in Cassini's case it was much larger than the expected order of magnitude $m^2/b$, where $b$ is the ray's closest approach distance. Since the ODP does not account for any other second-order terms, it is necessary, also in view of future more accurate experiments, to systematically evaluate higher order corrections and to determine which terms are significant. Light propagation in a static spacetime is equivalent to a problem in ordinary geometrical optics; Fermat's action functional at its minimum is just the light-time between the two end points A and B. A new and powerful formulation is thus obtained. Asymptotic power series are necessary to provide a safe and automatic way of selecting which terms to keep at each order. Higher order approximations to the delay and the deflection are obtained. We also show that in a close superior conjunction, when $b$ is much smaller than the distances of A and B from the Sun, of order $R$, say, the second-order correction has an \emph{enhanced} part of order $m^2R/b^2$, which corresponds just to the second-order terms introduced in the ODP. Gravitational deflection of the image of a far away source, observed from a finite distance from the mass, is obtained to $O(m^2)$.Comment: 4 figure