Federal agency debt: another side of federal borrowing

Debts, Public

A comparison of yields on future contracts and implied forward rates

Interest rates

Debt-management policy and the own price elasticity of demand for U.S. government notes and bonds

Treasury bonds ; Treasury notes

Monte Carlo evaluation of path integrals for the nuclear shell model

We present in detail a formulation of the shell model as a path integral and Monte Carlo techniques for its evaluation. The formulation, which linearizes the two-body interaction by an auxiliary field, is quite general, both in the form of the effective `one-body' Hamiltonian and in the choice of ensemble. In particular, we derive formulas for the use of general (beyond monopole) pairing operators, as well as a novel extraction of the canonical (fixed-particle number) ensemble via an activity expansion. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the various formulations and ensembles and give several illustrative examples. We also discuss and illustrate calculation of the imaginary-time response function and the extraction, by maximum entropy methods, of the corresponding strength function. Finally, we discuss the "sign-problem" generic to fermion Monte Carlo calculations, and prove that a wide class of interactions are free of this limitation.Comment: 38 pages, RevTeX v3.0, figures available upon request; Caltech Preprint #MAP-15

China's building stock estimation and energy intensity analysis

Reliable and objective data regarding building stock is essential for predicting and analyzing energy demand and carbon emission. However, China's building stock data is lacking. This study proposes a set of China building floor space estimation method (CBFSM) based on the improved building stock turnover model. Then it measures China's building stocks by vintage and type from 2000 to 2015, as well as building energy intensity (national level and provincial level) and energy-efficient buildings. Results showed that total building stocks increased significantly, rising from 35.2 billion m2 in 2000 to 63.6 billion m2 in 2015, with the average growth rate 4.0%. The deviations were well below 10% by comparing with China Population Census, which validated the reliability of CBFSM and the results. As for energy intensity, urban dwellings and rural dwellings showed relatively stable and increasing trend respectively. The commercial building energy intensity saw a downward trend during “12th Five Year Plan” period. This indicated the effectiveness of building energy efficiency work for commercial buildings since 2005.38.6 billion m2 residential dwellings and 5.7 billion m2 commercial buildings still need to be retrofitted in future. CBFSM can overcome shortages in previous studies. It can also provide Chinese government with technical support and data evidence to promote the building energy efficiency work

The Treasury bill futures market and market expectations of interest rates

Interest rates ; Treasury bills

Praziquantel in clonorchiasis and opisthorchiasis

A single stool examination revealed pathogenic intestinal parasites in 462 (58%) of 796 vietnamese and cambodian refugees. 56 (7.0%) were infected with Clonorchis sinensis and/or Opisthorchis viverrini. These patients received Praziquantel in a dosage of 20 mg/kg bwt. p.day on 3 consecutive days. Parasitological controls were completed after 12 months. No further excretion of eggs could be detected in 88% of the patients. Concurrent infections with other trematodes and cestodes were also cured. Nematode infections remained uninfluenced. No change of haematological and biochemical parameters could be observed during therapy. Diarrhea and epigastric pain were common side effects, which are probably not effects of the drug itself. They rather seem to be due to the release of parasitic antigens. This is also indicated by a further increase of circulating Ig E after therapy

Distribution of fermionic and topological observables on the lattice

We analyze the topological and fermionic vacuum structure of four-dimensional QCD on the lattice by means of correlators of fermionic observables and topological densities. We show the existence of strong local correlations between the topological charge and monopole density on the one side and the quark condensate, charge and chiral density on the other side. Visualization of individual gauge configurations demonstrates that instantons (antiinstantons) carry positive (negative) chirality, whereas the quark charge density fluctuates in sign within instantons.Comment: 10 pages, 5 eps figures, to appear in Phys. Lett.