Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy Coordination in ASEAN 1

This paper develops the basis for monetary and exchange rate coordination in Asia as part of a package of monetary integration that could support growth and poverty reduction. This could be achieved directly through coordinated exchange rate stabilization, and indirectly through the implications of this for reserve pooling and investment in an Asian development fund (ADF) and through development of the Asian bond market (ABM). Macro policy coordination could be viewed as a necessary condition for further development of both reserve pooling via the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) and of the ABM. The paper analyzes the trade structure of ASEAN and China in terms of both geographic sources of imports and markets for exports, and of the commodity structure of trade. The similarities of the geographic and commodity trade structures across the region are consistent with adoption of a common currency basket for stabilization, and with an argument for monetary integration across the region along the lines of Mundell (1961) on optimum currency areas. The paper constructs currency baskets and real effective exchange rates (REERs) for the countries in the region. Since their trade patterns are quite similar and their policies are already implicitly coordinated, their REERs tend to move together. This means that ASEAN and China are already moving toward integration in practical effect. Explicit movement toward coordination could support surveillance and reserve-sharing under the CMI, and release reserves to be invested in an ADF.

Ureteroscopic treatment of larger renal calculi (\u3e2 cm).

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the current status of ureteroscopic lithotripsy (UL) for treating renal calculi of \u3e2 cm, as advances in flexible ureteroscope design, accessory instrumentation and lithotrites have revolutionised the treatment of urinary calculi. While previously reserved for ureteric and small renal calculi, UL has gained an increasing role in the selective management of larger renal stone burdens. METHODS: We searched the available databases, including PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus, for relevant reports in English, and the article bibliographies to identify additional relevant articles. Keywords included ureteroscopy, lithotripsy, renal calculi, and calculi \u3e2 cm. Retrieved articles were reviewed to consider the number of patients, mean stone size, success rates, indications and complications. RESULTS: In all, nine studies (417 patients) were eligible for inclusion. After one, two or three procedures the mean (range) success rates were 68.2 (23-84)%, 87.1 (79-91)% and 94.4 (90.1-96.7)%, respectively. Overall, the success rate was \u3e90% with a mean of 1.2-2.3 procedures per patient. The overall complication rate was 10.3%, including six (1.4%) intraoperative and 37 (8.9%) postoperative complications, most of which were minor. The most common indications for UL were a failed previous treatment (46%), comorbidities (18.2%), and technical and anatomical factors (12.3%). CONCLUSIONS: UL is safe and effective for treating large renal calculi. While several procedures might be required for total stone clearance, UL should be considered a standard approach in the urologist\u27s options treating renal calculi of \u3e2 cm

Influence of structural position on fracture networks in the Torridon Group, Achnashellach fold and thrust belt, NW Scotland

Acknowledgements This research is funded by a NERC CASE studentship (NERC code NE/I018166/1) in partnership with Midland Valley. The authors thank Midland Valley for use of FieldMove Clino software for fracture data collection, and Move software for cross section construction, and strain modelling. 3D Field software is acknowledged for contour map creation. We also thank Toru Takeshita for overseeing the editorial process, and Catherine Hanks and Ole Petter Wennberg for constructive reviews.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Permeability evolution across carbonate hosted normal fault zones

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Total E&P and BG Group for project funding and support, and the Industry Technology Facilitator for facilitating the collaborative development (grant number 3322PSD). The authors would also like to express their gratitude to the Aberdeen Formation Evaluation Society and the College of Physical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen for partial financial support. Raymi Castilla (Total E&P), Fabrizio Agosta and Cathy Hollis are also thanked for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve the standard of this manuscript as are John Still and Colin Taylor (University of Aberdeen) for technical assistance in the laboratory. Piero Gianolla is thanked for his editorial handling of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

Geophysical studies of basin structure along the eastern front of the Sierra Nevada, California

A seismic and gravity survey along the eastern front of the Sierra Nevada, California, between southern Owens Valley and the Garlock fault, outlines a series of basins with maximum depths ranging from 5,000 to 9,000 ft. These basins follow the front of the Sierra Nevada in a continuous chain with one interruption of about 10 miles near Little Lake. The gravity anomalies indicate that the basins are bounded by a series of high-angle faults rather than a single large fault. The seismic velocities in the basin deposits appear to correlate with the stratigraphy of the section exposed in the El Paso Mountains. A comparison of Bouguer anomalies with seismic depths indicates a density contrast of 0.35 g/cc in basins less than 3,000 ft deep, and an average but widely varying density contrast of 0.25 g/cc in basins 4,000 to 8,000 ft deep. A digital-computer program for automatic computation of basin depths from gravity anomalies was evaluated and found to be useful in this type of analysis. Changes in the depth to the Mohorovicic discontinuity cannot produce regional gradients as large as the regional gradients observed in the area of the survey. Either structure on an intermediate crustal boundary or lateral changes in crustal densities, or a combination of these, is required to explain the gravity data

Directed polymers in random media under confining force

The scaling behavior of a directed polymer in a two-dimensional (2D) random potential under confining force is investigated. The energy of a polymer with configuration $\{y(x)\}$ is given by H\big(\{y(x)\}\big) = \sum_{x=1}^N \exyx + \epsilon \Wa^\alpha, where $\eta(x,y)$ is an uncorrelated random potential and \Wa is the width of the polymer. Using an energy argument, it is conjectured that the radius of gyration $R_g(N)$ and the energy fluctuation $\Delta E(N)$ of the polymer of length $N$ in the ground state increase as $R_g(N)\sim N^{\nu}$ and $\Delta E(N)\sim N^\omega$ respectively with $\nu = 1/(1+\alpha)$ and $\omega = (1+2\alpha)/(4+4\alpha)$ for $\alpha\ge 1/2$. A novel algorithm of finding the exact ground state, with the effective time complexity of \cO(N^3), is introduced and used to confirm the conjecture numerically.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Further model study of the radiation of elastic waves from a dipole source

Earthquake-generated compressional and shear waves have been used extensively in recent years for studying the mechanism at the focus? In general the procedure is to compare the radiation pattern of these waves with the theoretical pattern derived from simple sources such as singlets, dipoles, quadrupoles, etc. The importance of these investigations to our understanding of tectonic processes makes it desirable to examine the methods with a view toward placing them on a firm theoretical and experimental foundation. One approach is to use the methods of ultrasonic-model seismology to determine whether or not the radiation pattern postulated for certain sources is actually observed. The effects of various perturbations such as finite fault length and elastic heterogeneity near the focus can be conveniently examined

Two-dimensional seismic models with continuously variable velocity depth and density functions

A method for fabricating 2-dimensional ultrasonic seismic models with variable velocity and density is described. The method is justified theoretically. It is tested by comparing the experimental and theoretical dispersion of Rayleigh waves in a model of a 2-layered earth crust