Opera Workshop ll

Program listing performers and works performe

Determinants of Sovereign Bond Yield Spreads in the EMU. An Optimal Currency Area Perspective

In the light of the recent financial crisis, we take a panel cointegration approach that allows for structural breaks to the analysis of the determinants of sovereign bond yield spreads in nine economies of the European Monetary Union. While we find evidence for a level break in the cointegrating relationship, we do not find empirical support for a regime shift and hence for a change in the pricing of the determinants of sovereign spreads. Moreover, results show that (i) fiscal imbalances (namely expected government debt-to-GDP differentials) are the main long-run drivers of sovereign spreads; (ii) liquidity risks and cumulated inflation differentials have non-negligible weights; but (iii) all conclusions are ultimately connected to whether or not the sample of countries is composed of members of an Optimal Currency Area (OCA). In particular, we establish (i) that results are overall driven by those countries not passing the OCA test; and (ii) that investors closely monitor and severely punish the deterioration of expected debt positions of those economies exhibiting significant gaps in competitiveness

The corporate conundrum: how to blend people and process to improve firm performance

Purpose – One of the challenges in the business world is maximising effectiveness and firm performance. This study proposes that the right blend of people (with openness to change and self-transcendence values) and process (effectuation) would result in innovative behaviour and firm performance. Theoretical framework – The effectuation process has been found to be useful in promoting innovativeness, especially among small firms whose resources are scarce. This relationship is also true in large firms, although these have more resources and operate in a relatively stable environment. Design/methodology/approach – Using a snowball sampling approach, a total of 206 completed questionnaires were collected online from employees involved in decision making and innovative work processes in multinational companies in Selangor, Malaysia. PLS-SEM was used to analyse the data. Findings – The right people (who are open to change or self-transcendent) blended with the right process (effectuation) were found to positively predict innovative behaviour and firm performance. Effectuation and innovative behaviour also mediated the relationships between individual values and firm performance, suggesting that people and process should coexist to enhance firm performance. Research Practical & Social implications – Effectuation is scarcely practised in large firms. Therefore, we suggest that large firms encourage the use of effectuation through training. As the practice is better received among individuals who are open to change and self-transcendent, these values could also be used as hiring criteria. Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature by analysing the roles of people and process in optimising firm performance, and identifying effectuation and innovative behaviour as mechanisms that link individual values to firm performance

Money demand instability and real exchange rate persistence in the monetary model of USD-JPY exchange rate

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.This paper proposes a hybrid monetary model of the dollar-yen exchange rate that takes into account factors affecting the conventional monetary model's building blocks. In particular, the hybrid monetary model is based on the incorporation of real stock prices to enhance money demand stability and also, productivity differential, relative government spending, and real oil price to explain real exchange rate persistence. By using quarterly data over a period of high international capital mobility and volatility (1980:01-2009:04), the results show that the proposed hybrid model provides a coherent long-run relation to explain the dollar-yen exchange rate as opposed to the conventional monetary model. © 2014

Senior Recital

List of performers and performances

Semi-localized instability of the Kaluza-Klein linear dilaton vacuum

The Kaluza-Klein linear dilaton background of the bosonic string and the Scherk-Schwarz linear dilaton background of the superstring are shown to be unstable to the decay of half of spacetime. The decay proceeds via a condensation of a semi-localized tachyon when the circle is smaller than a critical size, and via a semiclassical instanton process when the circle is larger than the critical size. At criticality the two pictures are related by a duality of the corresponding two-dimensional conformal field theories. This provides a concrete realization of the connection between tachyonic and semiclassical instabilities in closed string theory, and lends strong support to the idea that non-localized closed string tachyon condensation leads to the annihilation of spacetime.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures; v2: References adde

Detailed Process Simulation of Pre-combustion IGCC Plants Using Coal-slurry and Dry Coal Gasifiers

AbstractThe selection of the gasifier in an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant affects both downstream process configurations and net plant efficiency considerably. It is well known that a Shell gasifier using dry coal has lower operating pressure, higher carbon conversion, lower CO2 production and lower H2/CO ratio compared to a General Electric Energy (GEE) gasifier using coal slurry. These differences also affect how to configure downstream processes when an IGCC is retrofitted for carbon capture. The net plant efficiency decreases by different extents depending on the gasifier type as shown in the DOE NETL report The aim of this study is to elucidate how the differences between the two gasifiers correspond to the difference in plant performance without and with carbon capture. To achieve this, detailed process simulations of the two IGCC plants and an integrated Selexol carbon capture unit have been carried out based on literature configurations using the commercial software Honeywell UniSim Design R400®. From the analysis of the results an explanation is presented as to why the wet slurry gasifier configuration has a lower net efficiency loss when the carbon capture unit is integrated

Minimal Schemes for Large Neutrino Mixings with Inverted Hierarchy

Existing oscillation data point to nonzero neutrino masses with large mixings. We analyze the generic features of the neutrino Majorana mass matrix with inverted hierarchy and construct realistic {\it minimal schemes} for the neutrino mass matrix that can explain the large (but not maximal) \nu_e - \nu_mu mixing of MSW-LAM as well as the nearly maximal \nu_mu - \nu_tau mixing and the small (or negligible) \nu_e --> \nu_tau transition. These minimal schemes are quite unique and turn out to be extremely predictive. Implications for neutrinoless double beta decay, tritium beta decay and cosmology are analyzed.Comment: Refs adde

Accidental stability of dark matter

We propose that dark matter is stable as a consequence of an accidental Z2 that results from a flavour-symmetry group which is the double-cover group of the symmetry group of one of the regular geometric solids. Although model-dependent, the phenomenology resembles that of a generic Higgs portal dark matter scheme.Comment: 12 pages, final version, published in JHE

Robust analysis of 5′-transcript ends (5′-RATE): a novel technique for transcriptome analysis and genome annotation

Complicated cloning procedures and the high cost of sequencing have inhibited the wide application of serial analysis of gene expression and massively parallel signature sequencing for genome-wide transcriptome profiling of complex genomes. Here we describe a new method called robust analysis of 5′-transcript ends (5′-RATE) for rapid and cost-effective isolation of long 5′ transcript ends (∼80 bp). It consists of three major steps including 5′-oligocapping of mRNA, NlaIII tag and ditag generation, and pyrosequencing of NlaIII tags. Complicated steps, such as purification and cloning of concatemers, colony picking and plasmid DNA purification, are eliminated and the conventional Sanger sequencing method is replaced with the newly developed pyrosequencing method. Sequence analysis of a maize 5′-RATE library revealed complex alternative transcription start sites and a 5′ poly(A) tail in maize transcripts. Our results demonstrate that 5′-RATE is a simple, fast and cost-effective method for transcriptome analysis and genome annotation of complex genomes