Influence of surface tension on the conical miniscus of a magnetic fluid in the field of a current-carrying wire

We study the influence of surface tension on the shape of the conical miniscus built up by a magnetic fluid surrounding a current-carrying wire. Minimization of the total energy of the system leads to a singular second order boundary value problem for the function $\zeta(r)$ describing the axially symmetric shape of the free surface. An appropriate transformation regularizes the problem and allows a straightforward numerical solution. We also study the effects a superimposed second liquid, a nonlinear magnetization law of the magnetic fluid, and the influence of the diameter of the wire on the free surface profile

A preliminary study on the affinities of Philippine, Bornean and New Guinean hepatics

The generic and specific affinities of the Philippine, Bornean and New Guinean hepatic floras were analyzed by calculating the Kroeber's percentage of similarity on the basis of recently published checklists. It is observed that the overall affinities parallel that exhibited by local moss floras except for one important difference. For the three areas, the number and distribution of species of large, actively evolving hepatic genera are noted to be disparate and with few shared taxa. Contrastingly, the large and actively evolving moss genera produce consistently large number of species in all three areas with an equally large number of shared taxa. The strong dependence of many hepatic taxa on asexual reproduction and the poor spore dispersability are accepted as the best explanation to this phenomenon

A new species of Mermiglossa from Kenya, with comments on the arrangement of Old World Panurginae (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae)

A new species of the panurgine bee genus Mermiglossa Friese (Panurginae) is described and figured from females captured near Voi in the southern part of the former Coast Province, Kenya, a historical type locality for several bee species.  Mermiglossa voicola Ascher & Engel, new species, is distinguished from the only other species of the genus, M. rufa Friese from central Namibia.  The new species is readily identified due to its black rather than red metasoma and compound eyes slightly convergent above rather than parallel-sided.  The new species raises the total number of described bee species for Kenya to 343, extends the known distribution of its genus and subtribe from the Namib Desert of southwestern Africa to the western edge of the Nviri Desert of East Africa, and provides further evidence of extensive biogeographic connections between these disjunct xeric areas.  Recent changes in the family-group classification of Old World Panurginae are discussed in relation to recognition of Mermiglossina as a valid subtribe within an expanded tribe Panurgini also including the New World perditines

The U.S. current account deficit and the expected share of world output

We investigate the possibility that the large current account deficits of the U.S. are the outcome of optimizing behavior. We develop a simple long-run world equilibrium model in which the current account is determined by the expected discounted present value of its future share of world GDP relative to its current share of world GDP. The model suggests that under some reasonable assumptions about future U.S. GDP growth relative to the rest of the advanced countries--more modest than the growth over the past 20 years--the current account deficit is near optimal levels. We then explore the implications for the real exchange rate. Under some plausible assumptions, the model implies little change in the real exchange rate over the adjustment path, though the conclusion is sensitive to assumptions about tastes and technology. Then we turn to empirical evidence. A test of current account sustainability suggests that the U.S. is not keeping on a long-run sustainable path. A direct test of our model finds that the dynamics of the U.S. current account--the increasing deficits over the past decade--are difficult to explain under a particular statistical model (Markov-switching) of expectations of future U.S. growth. But, if we use survey data on forecasted GDP growth in the G7, our very simple model appears to explain the evolution of the U.S. current account remarkably well. We conclude that expectations of robust performance of the U.S. economy relative to the rest of the advanced countries is a contender--though not the only legitimate contender--for explaining the U.S. current account deficit.Budget deficits ; Balance of trade

Violating the Law of One Price: Should We Make a Federal Case Out of It?

We use new disaggregated data on consumer prices to determine why there is variability in prices of similar goods across U.S. cities. We address questions similar to those that have arisen in the international context: is this variability purely a result of market segmentation or do sticky nominal prices play a role? We also examine how the degree of tradability of a good influences price variability. Surprisingly, we find that variability is larger for traded-goods. We attribute this finding to greater price stickiness for non-traded goods. Distance between cities accounts for a significant amount of the variation in prices between pairs of cities. But we also find that nominal price stickiness plays an even more significant role.

Relative Returns on Equities in Pacific Basin Countries

We examine the factors that determine the differences in ex ante returns on equities in eleven Pacific Basin countries. Our concern is whether real return differentials are primarily caused by nominal return differentials or expected changes in real exchange rates. We find that nominal return differentials account for most of the difference, which suggests that either there is not free mobility of capital between the countries of our study or that there are significant differences in the riskiness of returns across countries. We do not find a significant relationship between the size of the return differentials and the flexibility of the nominal exchange rate.