International liquidity swaps: is the Chiang Mai Initiative pooling reserves efficiently?

We analyze the network of bilateral liquidity swaps (BSAs) among the ASEAN+3 countries. We find that the network has taken the correlation of capital flows in the region into account, in the sense that countries with lower correlation of reserve growth have engaged in larger BSAs. All else equal, a decimal point increase in the correlation of international reserve growth decreases the size of a bilateral swap agreement between 18 and 27%. Moreover, we find that the approximatedly $ 60bn of BSAs have had a limited impact, if any, on government bond spreads so far. Finally, we identify potential gains from inter-regional BSAs

International Liquidity Swaps : Is the Chiang Mai Initiative Pooling Reserves Efficiently ?

We analyze the network of bilateral liquidity swaps (BSAs) among the ASEAN+3 countries. We find that the network has taken the correlation of capital flows in the region into account, in the sense that countries with lower correlation of reserve growth have engaged in larger BSAs. All else equal, a decimal point increase in the correlation of international reserve growth decreases the size of a bilateral swap agreement between 18 and 27%. Moreover, we find that the approximatedly $ 60bn of BSAs have had a limited impact, if any, on government bond spreads so far. Finally, we identify potential gains from inter-regional BSAs.insurance ; international reserves ; liquidity ; sovereign risk ; swaps

The transcriptome of the invasive eel swimbladder nematode parasite Anguillicola crassus

BACKGROUND: Anguillicola crassus is an economically and ecologically important parasitic nematode of eels. The native range of A. crassus is in East Asia, where it infects Anguilla japonica, the Japanese eel. A. crassus was introduced into European eels, Anguilla anguilla, 30 years ago. The parasite is more pathogenic in its new host than in its native one, and is thought to threaten the endangered An. anguilla across its range. The molecular bases for the increased pathogenicity of the nematodes in their new hosts is not known. RESULTS: A reference transcriptome was assembled for A. crassus from Roche 454 pyrosequencing data. Raw reads (756,363 total) from nematodes from An. japonica and An. anguilla hosts were filtered for likely host contaminants and ribosomal RNAs. The remaining 353,055 reads were assembled into 11,372 contigs of a high confidence assembly (spanning 6.6 Mb) and an additional 21,153 singletons and contigs of a lower confidence assembly (spanning an additional 6.2 Mb). Roughly 55% of the high confidence assembly contigs were annotated with domain- or protein sequence similarity derived functional information. Sequences conserved only in nematodes, or unique to A. crassus were more likely to have secretory signal peptides. Thousands of high quality single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified, and coding polymorphism was correlated with differential expression between individual nematodes. Transcripts identified as being under positive selection were enriched in peptidases. Enzymes involved in energy metabolism were enriched in the set of genes differentially expressed between European and Asian A. crassus. CONCLUSIONS: The reference transcriptome of A. crassus is of high quality, and will serve as a basis for future work on the invasion biology of this important parasite. The polymorphisms identified will provide a key tool set for analysis of population structure and identification of genes likely to be involved in increased pathogenicity in European eel hosts. The identification of peptidases under positive selection is a first step in this programme

Dear Colleague Letter from Reps. Emanuel Cleaver and Mark Souder

Dear Colleague letter written by members of Congress, Emanuel Cleaver and Mark Souder for the event: Workplace Flexibility and Religion held June 6, 2008

Summary of Rocketdyne Engine A5 Rocket Based Combined Cycle Testing

Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power (RPP) has completed a highly successful experimental test program of an advanced rocket based combined cycle (RBCC) propulsion system. The test program was conducted as part of the Advanced Reusable Technology program directed by NASA-MSFC to demonstrate technologies for low-cost access to space. Testing was conducted in the new GASL Flight Acceleration Simulation Test (FAST) facility at sea level (Mach 0), Mach 3.0 - 4.0, and vacuum flight conditions. Significant achievements obtained during the test program include 1) demonstration of engine operation in air-augmented rocket mode (AAR), ramjet mode and rocket mode and 2) smooth transition from AAR to ramjet mode operation. Testing in the fourth mode (scramjet) is scheduled for November 1998

Spectral properties of the three-dimensional Hubbard model

We present momentum resolved single-particle spectra for the three-dimensional Hubbard model for the paramagnetic and antiferromagnetically ordered phase obtained within the dynamical cluster approximation. The effective cluster problem is solved by continuous-time Quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The absence of a time discretization error and the ability to perform Monte Carlo measurements directly in Matsubara frequencies enable us to analytically continue the self-energies by maximum entropy, which is essential to obtain momentum resolved spectral functions for the N'eel state. We investigate the dependence on temperature and interaction strength and the effect of magnetic frustration introduced by a next-nearest neighbor hopping. One particular question we address here is the influence of the frustrating interaction on the metal insulator transition of the three-dimensional Hubbard model.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figure

Why do Large Animals Never Actuate Their Jumps with Latch-Mediated Springs? Because They can Jump Higher Without Them.

As animals get smaller, their ability to generate usable work from muscle contraction is decreased by the muscle's force-velocity properties, thereby reducing their effective jump height. Very small animals use a spring-actuated system, which prevents velocity effects from reducing available energy. Since force-velocity properties reduce the usable work in even larger animals, why don't larger animals use spring-actuated jumping systems as well? We will show that muscle length-tension properties limit spring-actuated systems to generating a maximum one-third of the possible work that a muscle could produce-greatly restricting the jumping height of spring-actuated jumpers. Thus a spring-actuated jumping animal has a jumping height that is one-third of the maximum possible jump height achievable were 100% of the possible muscle work available. Larger animals, which could theoretically use all of the available muscle energy, have a maximum jumping height that asymptotically approaches a value that is about three times higher than that of spring-actuated jumpers. Furthermore, a size related "crossover point" is evident for these two jumping mechanisms: animals smaller than this point can jump higher with a spring-actuated mechanism, while animals larger than this point can jump higher with a muscle-actuated mechanism. We demonstrate how this limit on energy storage is a consequence of the interaction between length-tension properties of muscles and spring stiffness. We indicate where this crossover point occurs based on modeling and then use jumping data from the literature to validate that larger jumping animals generate greater jump heights with muscle-actuated systems than spring-actuated systems