The National Pensions Reserve Fund: Pitfalls and Opportunities

This paper analyses some key issues concerning the new National Pensions Reserve Fund. We briefly review the basic demographic and economic trends that motivate the establishment of the Fund. We consider the pitfalls facing the operation of the Fund and argue that a complete ban on domestic investment would minimise the politicisation problem. At least initially, the Fund should adopt an aggressive investment strategy, with a large equity allocation. We further argue that asset allocation should take into account the co-variation of returns with domestic macroeconomic and fiscal variables. Finally, we discuss the organisational structure of the Fund and its implications for optimal performance.

Analysis of perturbation solutions of varied thrust trajectories Final report

Perturbation solution analysis of vehicle transfer from one planetary circular orbit to circular orbit around another planet using low thrust acceleratio

Multinationals, Social Agency and Institutional Change; Variation by Sector

This is the accepted manuscript version of the following article: Mike Geppert and Graham Hollinshead, ‘Editorial: Multinationals, Social Agency and Institutional Change; Variation by Sector’, Competition and Change, Vol 18(3): 195-199, June 2014. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published is available online via doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1024529414Z.00000000056 Published by SAGE Publishing. All rights reserved. © W. S. Maney & Son Ltd 2014Multinational corporations (MNCs) operate at a crossroads of countervailing influences, While headquarters are typically embedded in the institutional settings of their home country, subsidiaries tend to internalize regulative and cognitive frames in their own national and regional contexts. MNCs now frequently assume highly diffuse global structures, operating across regionally dispersed horizontal and vertical networks, thereby exposing them to a global mosaic of societal, institutional and socio- economic influences. Moreover, MNCs are subjected to regulative effects emanating from transnational regulationPeer reviewe

Stability, reliability and cross-mode correlations of tests in a recommended 8-minute performance assessment battery

A need exists for an automated performance test system to study drugs, agents, treatments, and stresses of interest to the aviation, space, and environmental medical community. The purpose of this present study is to evaluate tests for inclusion in the NASA-sponsored Automated Performance Test System (APTS). Twenty-one subjects were tested over 10 replications with tests previously identified as good candidates for repeated-measure research. The tests were concurrently administered in paper-and-pencil and microcomputer modes. Performance scores for the two modes were compared. Data from trials 1 to 10 were examined for indications of test stability and reliability. Nine of the ten APT system tests achieved stability. Reliabilities were generally high. Cross-correlation of microbased tests with traditional paper-and-pencil versions revealed similarity of content within tests in the different modes, and implied at least three cognition and two motor factors. This protable, inexpensive, rugged, computerized battery of tests is recommended for use in repeated-measures studies of environmental and drug effects on performance. Identification of other tests compatible with microcomputer testing and potentially capable of tapping previously unidentified factors is recommended. Documentation of APTS sensitivity to environmental agents is available for more than a dozen facilities and is reported briefly. Continuation of such validation remains critical in establishing the efficacy of APTS tests

Entropic Origin of Pseudogap Physics and a Mott-Slater Transition in Cuprates

We propose a new approach to understand the origin of the pseudogap in the cuprates, in terms of bosonic entropy. The near-simultaneous softening of a large number of different $q$-bosons yields an extended range of short-range order, wherein the growth of magnetic correlations with decreasing temperature $T$ is anomalously slow. These entropic effects cause the spectral weight associated with the Van Hove singularity (VHS) to shift rapidly and nearly linearly toward half filling at higher $T$, consistent with a picture of the VHS driving the pseudogap transition at a temperature $\sim T^*$. As a byproduct, we develop an order-parameter classification scheme that predicts supertransitions between families of order parameters. As one example, we find that by tuning the hopping parameters, it is possible to drive the cuprates across a {\it transition between Mott and Slater physics}, where a spin-frustrated state emerges at the crossover.Comment: 24 pgs, 15 figs + Supp. Material [6pgs, 3 figs]. Major revision of arXiv:1505.0477

AAOmega spectroscopy of 29 351 stars in fields centered on ten Galactic globular clusters

Galactic globular clusters have been pivotal in our understanding of many astrophysical phenomena. Here we publish the extracted stellar parameters from a recent large spectroscopic survey of ten globular clusters. A brief review of the project is also presented. Stellar parameters have been extracted from individual stellar spectra using both a modified version of the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) pipeline and a pipeline based on the parameter estimation method of RAVE. We publish here all parameters extracted from both pipelines. We calibrate the metallicity and convert this to [Fe/H] for each star and, furthermore, we compare the velocities and velocity dispersions of the Galactic stars in each field to the Besan\c{c}on Galaxy model. We find that the model does not correspond well with the data, indicating that the model is probably of little use for comparisons with pencil beam survey data such as this.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A. Data described in tables will be available on CDS (at http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/530/A31) once publishe

Orders and dimensions for sl(2) or sl(3) module categories and Boundary Conformal Field Theories on a torus

After giving a short description, in terms of action of categories, of some of the structures associated with sl(2) and sl(3) boundary conformal field theories on a torus, we provide tables of dimensions describing the semisimple and co-semisimple blocks of the corresponding weak bialgebras (quantum groupoids), tables of quantum dimensions and orders, and tables describing induction - restriction. For reasons of size, the sl(3) tables of induction are only given for theories with self-fusion (existence of a monoidal structure).Comment: 25 pages, 5 tables, 9 figures. Version 2: updated references. Typos corrected. Several proofs added. Examples of ADE and generalized ADE trigonometric identities have been removed to shorten the pape

Interferometric Observations of V838 Monocerotis

We have used long-baseline near-IR interferometry to resolve the peculiar eruptive variable V838 Mon and to provide the first direct measurement of its angular size. Assuming a uniform disk model for the emission we derive an apparent angular diameter at the time of observations (November-December 2004) of $1.83 \pm 0.06$ milli-arcseconds. For a nominal distance of $8\pm2$ kpc, this implies a linear radius of $1570 \pm 400 R_{\odot}$. However, the data are somewhat better fit by elliptical disk or binary component models, and we suggest that the emission may be strongly affected by ejecta from the outburst.Comment: 12 pages, 1 two-part encapsulated postscript figure. Accepted by ApJL. Added a table of observation

Mathematical Foundations of Complex Tonality

Equal temperament, in which semitones are tuned in the irrational ratio of $2^{1/12} : 1$, is best seen as a serviceable compromise, sacrificing purity for flexibility. Just intonation, in which intervals given by products of powers of $2$, $3$, and $5$, is more natural, but of limited flexibility. We propose a new scheme in which ratios of Gaussian integers form the basis of an abstract tonal system. The tritone, so problematic in just temperament, given ambiguously by the ratios $\tfrac{45}{32}$, $\tfrac{64}{45}$, $\tfrac{36}{25}$, $\tfrac{25}{18}$, none satisfactory, is in our scheme represented by the complex ratio $1 + \rm{i} : 1$. The major and minor whole tones, given by intervals of $\tfrac{9}{8}$ and $\tfrac{10}{9}$, can each be factorized into products of complex semitones, giving us a major complex semitone $\tfrac{3}{4}(1 + \rm{i})$ and a minor complex semitone $\tfrac{1}{3}(3 + \rm{i})$. The perfect third, given by the interval $\tfrac{5}{4}$, factorizes into the product of a complex whole tone $\tfrac{1}{2}(1 + 2\rm{i})$ and its complex conjugate. Augmented with these supplementary tones, the resulting scheme of complex intervals based on products of powers of Gaussian primes leads very naturally to the construction of a complete system of major and minor scales in all keys.Comment: 35 pages, revise