Currency preferences and the Australian dollar

We investigate the theory and empirics of currency substitution and currency complementarity. Analytical tractability is facilitated by focussing on a small currency. Data spanning 1985 to the turn of the century contain evidence of the Australian dollar’s substitution for the mark and complementarity with the yen, consistent with our theory that international variables will in general affect the demand for domestic money. Our theory also predicts third-currency effects, and the data reveal several of these. For example, rises in the US Federal Funds rate were associated with depreciations of the Australian dollar against the yen, controlling for the spread between interest rates in Australia and Japan.Atemporally non-separable preferences; Money demand; Cash in advance; Third-currency effects; Uncovered Interest Parity

Measurement of the energy spectra of primary cosmic ray protons and alpha particles

Imperial Users onl

The geometry of kernelized spectral clustering

Clustering of data sets is a standard problem in many areas of science and engineering. The method of spectral clustering is based on embedding the data set using a kernel function, and using the top eigenvectors of the normalized Laplacian to recover the connected components. We study the performance of spectral clustering in recovering the latent labels of i.i.d. samples from a finite mixture of nonparametric distributions. The difficulty of this label recovery problem depends on the overlap between mixture components and how easily a mixture component is divided into two nonoverlapping components. When the overlap is small compared to the indivisibility of the mixture components, the principal eigenspace of the population-level normalized Laplacian operator is approximately spanned by the square-root kernelized component densities. In the finite sample setting, and under the same assumption, embedded samples from different components are approximately orthogonal with high probability when the sample size is large. As a corollary we control the fraction of samples mislabeled by spectral clustering under finite mixtures with nonparametric components.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AOS1283 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Stable isotope fractionation during ultraviolet photolysis of N_2O

The biogeochemical cycling of nitrous oxide plays an important role in greenhouse forcing and ozone regulation. Laboratory studies of N_2O:N_2 mixtures irradiated between 193–207 nm reveal a significant enrichment of the residual heavy nitrous oxide isotopomers. The isotopic signatures resulting from photolysis are well modeled by an irreversible Rayleigh distillation process, with large enrichment factors of ε_(15,18)(193 nm) = −18.4,‐14.5 per mil and ε_(15,18)(207 nm) = −48.7,‐46.0 per mil. These results, when combined with diffusive mixing processes, have the potential to explain the stratospheric enrichments previously observed

Clinical Studies into the Causes of Idiopathic Macular Telangiectasia Type 2: Sleep Apnoea and Macular Telangiectasia: The SAMTel Project

Purpose: To assess the prevalence of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) in a population with Macular Telangiectasia Type 2 (MacTel) and how OSA impacts on MacTel progression. Methods: In this case-control study participants completed a questionnaire which incorporated the Berlin Questionnaire (BQ) and questions regarding anthropometric data and medical history. A subset was sequentially selected to undertake overnight sleep analysis using the ResMed ApneaLink™. Using data acquired from the Busselton Population and Medical Research Foundation participants were case-matched based on age, sex and body mass index (BMI) along with, where possible, the presence of hypertension and diabetes. Results: There were 57 (30 ApneaLink) MacTel and 183 controls, respectively. There was no difference in self-reported sleep disordered breathing outcomes between the cohorts using the BQ (p=0.95). Analysis of key indices from ApneaLink recordings found that those with an Apnoea – Hypopnoea Index (AHI) and Oxygen Desaturation Index (ODI) > 5 episodes per hour had a more advanced stage of MacTel (AHI p = 0.05, ODI p = 0.03). 2 year MacTel disease progression rates were unremarkable. Conclusion: Patients with MacTel have a high prevalence of OSA which appears to result in a more advanced form of the disease

Education, empowerment and the dying patient

Nurse education has focused, in recent years, on the need for students to translate theory into improvements m practice. This thesis has used this idea to examine the concept of empowerment and the dying patient. Nurses involved in post-registration education have been asked to examine their practice and produce written reflections on critical incidents related to empowerment. These have then formed a basis for the examination of the strategies and barriers which effect the care of dying patients and their right to self-determination. A new paradigm approach to the research has been adopted in an effort to involve the subjects of the study (the nurses) in defining and controlling the outcomes. The data has been analysed, in the main, by employing 'thick description’ advocated by Geertz to attempt to discover intentions and meaning which organise actions. The thesis has examined five areas of concern:1. The need to change the culture of care surrounding the dying patient.2. The role that ritual action takes in limiting the options open to patients.3. Strategies and barriers, linked to the communication process, which effect patient empowerment and come to fight by an examination of the data.4. The value of the nurse as patients' advocate and its effect on the process of empowerment.5. Examination of the concept of reflection in practice and within the educational process as a way forward. The conclusion highlights the difficulties that nurses have with ideas of change and attempts to emphasis positive aspects around nurse/patient communications, which may point the way forward for greater autonomy for patients. The need for further research is highlighted, which would examine the effect on practice of reflection on critical incidents and enquire into ways of ensuring that change results which moves towards the reduction of disempowerment for vulnerable dying patients

Anti-Judaic Religious Polemic and Apocalyptic Thought in the \u3cem\u3eDisputation of Majorca\u3c/em\u3e and its Later Manuscript Tradition

In this study, I first examine the Disputation of Majorca (1286) and analyze how its Christian disputant, Inghetto Contardo, blended apocalyptic thought and anti-Judaic discourse. Although other studies, most notably Ora Limor’s critical edition, have touched upon the nature of Inghetto’s arguments, none have discussed his clear implementation of intertwined anti-Judaic religious polemic and apocalyptic thought in a satisfactory manner. I place Inghetto in an apocalyptic milieu of the later thirteenth century that especially emphasizes the imminence of the Last Days. In effect, Inghetto’s employment of St. Jerome’s Daniel exegesis is perfectly suited to 1286, when Jews are most likely to believe a Christian telling them that Daniel prophesies on Christ’s Second Coming in 1290. The latter half of my thesis continues to emphasize the close ties between religious polemic and apocalyptic thought that are present in the Disputation. Here, I argue that Heinrich of Oberburg, the scribe of Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana MS Lat. 4074, a fifteenth-century manuscript including the Disputation, copied this codex specifically for a religious audience interested in the twelfth-century abbot Joachim of Fiore’s viri spirituales, a mix of canons, friars, and Jews who would receive heavenly rewards in return for the reforms they would carry out during the End Times. BAV MS Lat. 4074 contains a previously unstudied excerpt from Joachim’s Liber de concordia that describes hermeneutical connections between the Old and New Testaments and collectively intensifies the Daniel prophecies already present in the Disputation. Moreover, I continually argue that Heinrich envisioned his audience employing anti-Judaic polemic in the midst of all their apocalyptic expectation, with the understanding that engaging in disputation was part of the viri spirituales’ role and would help them earn God’s promised rewards

The Extraordinary Employment Tenure of New Brunswick Municipal Officers: A Case of the Entrenched Civil Servant?

Peter McCormick has examined the evolution of the concept of judicial independence, and has noted that it is increasingly being granted to individuals who act under administrative law. This article examines the “extraordinary employment tenure” granted to municipal officers, partly through this lens. This protection for senior managers exists in its purest form in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec, though I will concentrate on the first case. I will discuss the rationales for its initial adoption, its implications for council-staff relations, and the extent to which this grants clerks, treasurers, and chief administrative officers an unusually independent role within municipal government.Peter McCormick a examiné l’évolution du concept de l’indépendance judiciaire et a noté qu’elle est de plus en plus accordée à des personnes qui exercent des fonctions en droit administratif. Le présent article porte sur la « stabilité d’emploi exceptionnelle » accordée aux agents municipaux, en partie dans cette optique. Un tel protectionnisme des cadres supérieurs dans sa forme la plus pure existe au Nouveau-Brunswick, à l’Îledu-Prince-Édouard et au Québec, bien que je me concentrerai sur le premier cas. J’aborderai les raisons de son adoption initiale, de ses répercussions sur les relations conseil-employés, et la mesure dans laquelle cela donne aux secrétaires, aux trésoriers et aux directeurs municipaux un rôle exceptionnellement indépendant au sein de l’administration municipale