Where do Australians invest?

The rapid increase in international capital flows is one of the most significant developments in the global economy in recent decades. International portfolio diversification brings potential benefits to investors by offering investors the opportunity to insulate their portfolios from domestic risks associated with a down turn in local asset prices. The Australian investment environment has been progressively liberalised beginning with the removal of foreign exchange controls in 1987, and the movement to a floating exchange rate regime, other milestones included opening up the banking sector to foreign competition. Until recently, data on the level and geographical pattern of international portfolio investment has been inadequate. In recognition of this fact the International Monetary Fund (IMF) commenced in the mid nineties a pioneering comprehensive survey of the geographic structure of the foreign portfolios (equity and long-term bonds). The first publication covered the 1997 position of foreign portfolios held by the residents of twenty-nine countries, including Australia (IMF 2000), data from a follow up survey relating to 2001 international portfolio holdings was made available in 2003. In this paper we analyse the Australian data reported in the surveys by providing an analysis of the geography of international portfolio investment (equity and long-term securities). We find that countries most open to trade and hence most vulnerable to external shocks tend to diversify more by holding a higher percentage of their portfolios in foreign assets, compared to other countries. Australia appears to be quite outward looking in its investment behaviour, suggesting that Australian investors recognise the advantages of international diversification. However, a cross country analysis of the pattern of international portfolio investment indicates that the Australian portfolio investment position is not proportional to the overall economic or financial market size of the destination countries global standing, but instead matches Australian trade patterns surprisingly closely, here the US is over represented in the case of Australia's international portfolio investment position. Does this reflect a preference for investing in countries made familiar by trade and other relations? If so, this portfolio may imply sub-optimal strategies by Australian investors

Challenges and Opportunities for Trade and Financial Integration in Asia and the Pacific

This chapter analyzes the geography of Australia's international portfolio investment using the International Monetary Fund's coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey dataset. It provides some answers to the following questions: (a) why does the pattern of Australia's capital flows not match that of its trade flows; (b) which bilateral factors are responsible for explaining Australia's portfolio equity investment holdings; and (c) are cultural, informational factors important in explaining Australia's portfolio allocations; and (d) how regulatory and legal variables affect equity portfolio holdings? In general, the paper attempts to identify and quantify those determinants that drive Australia's overseas financial investments. In the aftermath of the recent global financial crisis it would appear that information related to those factors that influence investment decisions is now more urgent than at any time in the history of global funds management. More research into the determinants of a country's international investment position would therefore appear desirable, given that the number of relevant drivers appear to be highly volatile and of a country-specific nature.Australia, capital, portfolio, global financial crisis, IMF

A new paradigm for BCI research

A new control paradigm for Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) is proposed. BCIs provide a means of communication direct from the brain to a computer that allows individuals with motor disabilities an additional channel of communication and control of their external environment. Traditional BCI control paradigms use motor imagery, frequency rhythm modification or the Event Related Potential (ERP) as a means of extracting a control signal. A new control paradigm for BCIs based on speech imagery is initially proposed. Further to this a unique system for identifying correlations between components of the EEG and target events is proposed and introduced

The sustainability of Malaysia's defined contribution pension system : implementation of deterministic linear programming

This article investigates, under deterministic linear programming model, asset allocation decision and optimal investment strategy for Malaysia’s defined contribution pension (DC) scheme -Employees Provident Fund (EPF). The model requires generation of scenarios and probabilities to represent future assets and liabilities streams. We employed Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model to generate future returns of five asset classes i.e. equity, money market instrument, Malaysia government bond with 1 and 10 years of maturity date and property. Future liabilities factors were derived from two sub-models; population and salary. In population model, the future status of the EPF members was determined using a Markov Chain model. Then, the random factors of assets and liabilities were used in the asset liability model (ALM) based on linear programming (LP) and fixed mix (FM) strategy. The results of the research are grouped in two levels. First, we briefly discuss the finding of the random factor model and then we analyse the optimal investment strategy for the EPF. In terms of finding an optimal investment strategy, the FM strategy generated higher expected terminal wealth than the LP strategy. This finding suggests that FM strategy is superior to the LP strategy. In addition, we find that the higher dividend distributed to the members may result in decreasing of the expected terminal wealth of the fund for both strategies. This portrays that dividend distribution policy may affect the financial soundness of the EPF in the long run

Susceptibility of Larvae of Galleria mellonella to Infection by Asperillus fumigatus is Dependent upon Stage of Conidial Germination

The ability of conidia of the human pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus to kill larvae of the insect Galleria mellonella was investigated. Conidia at different stages of the germination process displayed variations in their virulence as measured using the Galleria infection model. Non-germinating (ârestingâ) conidia were avirulent except when an inoculation density of 1 à 107 conidia per insect was used. Conidia that had been induced to commence the germination process by pre-culturing in growth medium for 3 h were capable of killing larvae at densities of 1 à 106 and 1 à 107 per insect. An inoculation density of 1 à 105 conidia per insect remained avirulent. Conidia in the outgrowth phase of germination (characterised as the formation of a germ tube) were the most virulent and were capable of killing 100% of larvae after 5 or 24 h when 1 à 107 or 1 à 106 conidia, that had been allowed to germinate for 24 h, were used. Examination of the response of insect haemocytes to conidia at different stages of the germination process established that haemocytes could engulf non-germinating conidia and those in the early stages of the germination process but that conidia, which had reached the outgrowth stages of germination were not phagocytosed. The results presented here indicate that haemocytes of G. mellonella are capable of phagocytosing A. fumigatus conidia less than 3.0 μm in diameter but that conidia greater than this are too large to be engulfed. The virulence of A. fumigatus in G. mellonella larvae can be ascertained within 60â90 h if infection densities of 1 à 106 or 1 à 107 activated conidia (pre-incubated for 2â3 h) per insect are employed

Modelling systemically important banks vis-à-vis the Basel Prudential Guidelines

Our paper investigates Indonesia’s systemically important banks (SIBs) using theoretical approaches—CoVaR, marginal expected shortfall (MES), and SRISK—to compare with the Basel guidelines as benchmark. We use Indonesian banks’ market and supervisory data over the 2008–2019 period. The research aims to seek intertheoretical model interaction and SIB ranking in concordance with the Basel guidelines as applied by a bank supervisor. The findings show that SRISK produced a more consistent ranking compared with CoVaR and MES. CoVaR and MES had higher intermodel correlation converted to 59% similarity in rankings. Further, all theoretical models are in line with the Basel guidelines, where the closest approximation is at 47%. The results indicate that policy makers could use scholarly models as validation tools and help improve supervision decision to identify systemically important institutions

Susceptibility of Larvae of Galleria mellonella to Infection by Asperillus fumigatus is Dependent upon Stage of Conidial Germination

The ability of conidia of the human pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus to kill larvae of the insect Galleria mellonella was investigated. Conidia at different stages of the germination process displayed variations in their virulence as measured using the Galleria infection model. Non-germinating (ârestingâ) conidia were avirulent except when an inoculation density of 1 à 107 conidia per insect was used. Conidia that had been induced to commence the germination process by pre-culturing in growth medium for 3 h were capable of killing larvae at densities of 1 à 106 and 1 à 107 per insect. An inoculation density of 1 à 105 conidia per insect remained avirulent. Conidia in the outgrowth phase of germination (characterised as the formation of a germ tube) were the most virulent and were capable of killing 100% of larvae after 5 or 24 h when 1 à 107 or 1 à 106 conidia, that had been allowed to germinate for 24 h, were used. Examination of the response of insect haemocytes to conidia at different stages of the germination process established that haemocytes could engulf non-germinating conidia and those in the early stages of the germination process but that conidia, which had reached the outgrowth stages of germination were not phagocytosed. The results presented here indicate that haemocytes of G. mellonella are capable of phagocytosing A. fumigatus conidia less than 3.0 μm in diameter but that conidia greater than this are too large to be engulfed. The virulence of A. fumigatus in G. mellonella larvae can be ascertained within 60â90 h if infection densities of 1 à 106 or 1 à 107 activated conidia (pre-incubated for 2â3 h) per insect are employed

Amphotericin B enhances the synthesis and release of the immunosuppressive agent gliotoxin from the pulmonary pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus

Exposure of the pulmonary pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus to amphotericin B alters membrane permeability as indicated by the escape of amino acids and protein from the mycelium. Amphotericin B exposure for periods of 2-4 h also leads to increased release of the immunosuppressive agent gliotoxin into the surrounding culture medium. Examination of the intracellular gliotoxin concentration following exposure to amphotericin B indicated elevated levels within the hyphae as well as in the culture medium - an effect which was also evident upon exposure of A. fumigatus to DMSO. These results indicate that in parallel with the ability of amphotericinBto act as a fungistatic agent it can also induce the synthesis of gliotoxin and facilitate its release by increasing the permeability of the fungal cell membrane. Increased synthesis of gliotoxin may result from the commencement of secondary metabolism in the presence of amphotericin B. The ability of amphotericin B to enhance the synthesis and release of gliotoxin may exacerbate the effects of the toxin and facilitate fungal invasion of pulmonary tissue

Antennal lobe representations are optimized when olfactory stimuli are periodically structured to simulate natural wing beat effects

Animals use behaviors to actively sample the environment across a broad spectrum of sensory domains. These behaviors discretize the sensory experience into unique spatiotemporal moments, minimize sensory adaptation, and enhance perception. In olfaction, behaviors such as sniffing, antennal flicking, and wing beating all act to periodically expose olfactory epithelium. In mammals, it is thought that sniffing enhances neural representations; however, the effects of insect wing beating on representations remain unknown. To determine how well the antennal lobe (AL) produces odor dependent representations when wing beating effects are simulated, we used extracellular methods to record neural units and local field potentials (LFPs) from moth AL. We recorded responses to odors presented as prolonged continuous stimuli or periodically as 20 and 25 Hz pulse trains designed to simulate the oscillating effects of wing beating around the antennae during odor guided flight. Using spectral analyses, we show that ~25% of all recorded units were able to entrain to “pulsed stimuli”; this includes pulsed blanks, which elicited the strongest overall entrainment. The strength of entrainment to pulse train stimuli was dependent on molecular features of the odorants, odor concentration, and pulse train duration. Moreover, units showing pulse tracking responses were highly phase locked to LFPs during odor stimulation, indicating that unit-LFP phase relationships are stimulus-driven. Finally, a Euclidean distance-based population vector analysis established that AL odor representations are more robust, peak more quickly, and do not show adaptation when odors were presented at the natural wing beat frequency as opposed to prolonged continuous stimulation. These results suggest a general strategy for optimizing olfactory representations, which exploits the natural rhythmicity of wing beating by integrating mechanosensory and olfactory cues at the level of the AL