Considerations for the Design of a Central Counterparty for the Mexican Money Market

The financial crisis has brought the problems of regulatory failure and unbridled counterparty risk to the forefront in financial discussions. In the last decade, central counterparties have been created in order to face those insidious problems. In Mexico, both the stock and the derivatives markets have central counterparties, but the money market has not. This paper addresses the issue of creating a central counterparty for the Mexican money market. Recommendations that must be followed in the design and the management of risk of a central counterparty, given by international regulatory institutions, are presented in this study. Also, two different conceptual designs for a central counterparty, appropriate for the Mexican market, are proposed. Final conclusions support the creation of a new central counterparty for the Mexican money market.Central counterparty; money market; international regulatory institutions.

IMPACT OF THE CAP REFORM ON THE SPANISH AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

This paper analyses the impact of the 2003 CAP reform on Spanish agricultural sector in the context of the recent CAP Health Check and high food prices, using PROMAPA, a positive mathematical programming model for representative farms. The analysis compares the model results for base year 2002 to the findings for a scenario with the CAP reform measures in place, taking into account recent modifications. The effect of adopting a full decoupling scheme instead of the present partial decoupling is also studied. Brief descriptions are given of the PROMAPA model, the representative farm considered and the assumptions about both price variations and the policy measures simulated. The findings showed that the farming area for cereals grew substantially after abolition of the compulsory set-aside and that the impact of transition to full decoupling was scant, except in the sheep and rearing cattle sub-sectors, where it considerably steepened the already sizeable decline in livestock numbers induced by the partial decoupling scheme.CAP reform, CAP Health Check, Decoupling, Spanish agricultural sector., Agricultural and Food Policy, Q10, Q12, Q18,

The modular method: Milkfish pond culture

The modular method of milkfish culture (Chanos chanos) described in the manual is an improvement over the traditional extensive method. The manual is intended for the use of fish farmers and aquaculturists, extensionists, and students of aquaculture not only in the Philippines, but also in other milkfish-producing countries in Southeast Asia and the world. It covers the following: Interesting facts about milkfish -- biological characteristics, artificial breeding of milkfish; Design and operation of modular pond system -- pond preparation, stocking in the nursery or transition ponds, stocking in the rearing ponds, care of stock, pond utilization and production schedule, harvest and post-harvest; and, Economics and costing

Mudcrab, Scylla spp, production in brackishwater ponds

This manual covers the specifics of grow-out operation — site selection, pond specification, pond preparation, source of juveniles, transport and stocking, care of pond and stock, feeds and feeding, harvest, postharvest. Also includes costs-and-benefits analysis and a list of useful references.Mudcrab (Scylla spp) production in brackishwater ponds is now gaining popularity, especially in communities that need to supplement their income. The manual covers the following: Distribution; Grow-out operation in ponds - site selection, pond specification, pond preparation, source of juveniles, transport and stocking of juveniles, care of pond and stock, feeds and feeding, harvest, post-harvest; Production and profits; Cost and analysis. It is hoped that the manual will be of use to fishfarmers and aquaculturists, extensionists, and students of aquaculture not only in the Philippines but also in other mudcrab producing countries in Southeast Asia

Studying the capacity of cellular encoding to generate feedforward neural network topologies

Proceeding of: IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, IJCNN 2004, Budapest, 25-29 July 2004Many methods to codify artificial neural networks have been developed to avoid the disadvantages of direct encoding schema, improving the search into the solution's space. A method to analyse how the search space is covered and how are the movements along search process applying genetic operators is needed in order to evaluate the different encoding strategies for multilayer perceptrons (MLP). In this paper, the generative capacity, this is how the search space is covered for a indirect scheme based on cellular systems, is studied. The capacity of the methods to cover the search space (topologies of MLP space) is compared with the direct encoding scheme.Publicad

Irreversible flow of vortex matter: polycrystal and amorphous phases

We investigate the microscopic mechanisms giving rise to plastic depinning and irreversible flow in vortex matter. The topology of the vortex array crucially determines the flow response of this system. To illustrate this claim, two limiting cases are considered: weak and strong pinning interactions. In the first case disorder is strong enough to introduce plastic effects in the vortex lattice. Diffraction patterns unveil polycrystalline lattice topology with dislocations and grain boundaries determining the electromagnetic response of the system. Filamentary flow is found to arise as a consequence of dislocation dynamics. We analize the stability of vortex lattices against the formation of grain boundaries, as well as the steady state dynamics for currents approaching the depinning critical current from above, when vortex motion is mainly localized at the grain boundaries. On the contrary, a dislocation description proves no longer adequate in the second limiting case examined. For strong pinning interactions, the vortex array appears completely amorphous and no remnant of the Abrikosov lattice order is left. Here we obtain the critical current as a function of impurity density, its scaling properties, and characterize the steady state dynamics above depinning. The plastic depinning observed in the amorphous phase is tightly connected with the emergence of channel-like flow. Our results suggest the possibility of establishing a clear distinction between two topologically disordered vortex phases: the vortex polycrystal and the amorphous vortex matter.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figure

Colóquio internacional. A Igreja e o clero português no contexto europeu. [Reseña]

Reseña de: AA.VV., Colóquio internacional. A Igreja e o clero português no contexto europeu, Centro de Estudos de História Religiosa-Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisboa 2005, 325 pp