Choice Of Exchange Rate Regimes For Developing Countries: Better Be Fixed Or Floating?

The following paper is a summary article about the choice of exchange rate regime for a developing country considering the importance of “currency mismatches”, “debt intolerance”, “and fear of floating”, “financial globalization”, “institutions and sudden stops”. In this paper, I first summarize recent researches and papers on this specific issue. In a recent work of theirs, Calvo and Mishkin(2003) argue that much of the debate on choosing an exchange rate regime misses the boat and concludes that choice of exchange rate regime is likely to be of second order importance to the development of good fiscal, financial, and monetary institutions in producing macroeconomic success in emerging market countries and that a focus on institutional reforms rather than on the exchange rate regime may encourage emerging market countries to be healthier and less prone to the crises that we have seen in recent years. Another major study in this subject belong to Obtsfeld(2004) which claim that the measurable gains from financial integration appear to be lower for emerging markets than for higher-income countries, and appear to have been limited by recent crises. Obtsfeld identifies one factor limiting the gains from financial integration as the difficulty emerging economies face in resolving the open-economy trilemma which claim that many emerging economies cannot live comfortably either with fixed or with freely floating exchange rates. And finally, Stanley Fisher (2001) discusses the bipolar or two-corner solution view of intermediate policy regimes between hard pegs and floating are not sustainable and that use of pegged rates for countries open to international capital flows. Finally, I sum up with some concluding remarks. 

Impact of global climate change on agricultural production: Balkan countries in 2050

The occurrence of extreme weather events due to today’s climate change is having a significant impact on agriculture. The purpose of this study is to estimate the possible effects of global climate change on agriculture at a regional level. To this end, the Global trade analyses project (GTAP) model has been used to examine the possible effects of climate change on agricultural production in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and other Balkan countries for 2050. GTAP analysis data is compiled from the GTAP database, which includes 6 regions and 33 sectors. It has been calculated that climate change will have negative effects on the gross domestic product (GDP) of Balkan countries. The negative impact of global climate change on crop yields is predicted to reduce the competitiveness of Balkan countries in the foreign trade of agricultural products. © 2020, Scibulcom Ltd.. All rights reserved

Phase Coexistence Near a Morphotropic Phase Boundary in Sm-doped BiFeO3 Films

We have investigated heteroepitaxial films of Sm-doped BiFeO3 with a Sm-concentration near a morphotropic phase boundary. Our high-resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction, carried out in a temperature range of 25C to 700C, reveals substantial phase coexistence as one changes temperature to crossover from a low-temperature PbZrO3-like phase to a high-temperature orthorhombic phase. We also examine changes due to strain for films greater or less than the critical thickness for misfit dislocation formation. Particularly, we note that thicker films exhibit a substantial volume collapse associated with the structural transition that is suppressed in strained thin films

Atomic step motion during the dewetting of ultra-thin films

We report on three key processes involving atomic step motion during the dewetting of thin solid films: (i) the growth of an isolated island nucleated far from a hole, (ii) the spreading of a monolayer rim, and (iii) the zipping of a monolayer island along a straight dewetting front. Kinetic Monte Carlo results are in good agreement with simple analytical models assuming diffusion-limited dynamics.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Element Replacement Approach by Reaction with Lewis Acidic Molten Salts to Synthesize Nanolaminated MAX Phases and MXenes

Nanolaminated materials are important because of their exceptional properties and wide range of applications. Here, we demonstrate a general approach to synthesize a series of Zn-based MAX phases and Cl-terminated MXenes originating from the replacement reaction between the MAX phase and the late transition metal halides. The approach is a top-down route that enables the late transitional element atom (Zn in the present case) to occupy the A site in the pre-existing MAX phase structure. Using this replacement reaction between Zn element from molten ZnCl2 and Al element in MAX phase precursors (Ti3AlC2, Ti2AlC, Ti2AlN, and V2AlC), novel MAX phases Ti3ZnC2, Ti2ZnC, Ti2ZnN, and V2ZnC were synthesized. When employing excess ZnCl2, Cl terminated MXenes (such as Ti3C2Cl2 and Ti2CCl2) were derived by a subsequent exfoliation of Ti3ZnC2 and Ti2ZnC due to the strong Lewis acidity of molten ZnCl2. These results indicate that A-site element replacement in traditional MAX phases by late transition metal halides opens the door to explore MAX phases that are not thermodynamically stable at high temperature and would be difficult to synthesize through the commonly employed powder metallurgy approach. In addition, this is the first time that exclusively Cl-terminated MXenes were obtained, and the etching effect of Lewis acid in molten salts provides a green and viable route to prepare MXenes through an HF-free chemical approach.Comment: Title changed; experimental section and discussion revise

Effective area for the northern polar cap magnetic activity index

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94783/1/grl12045.pd

Racial Mislabeling in Multiracial Individuals: Implications for Professional Counseling and Education

With the extreme growth of people who identify as Biracial or Multiracial, it is evident that their unique racial experiences need to be better understood, especially within the field of professional counseling to underscore competent practice (Charmaraman, Woo, Quach, & Erkut, 2014; Jackson, Yoo, Guevarra & Harrington, 2012; Tran, Miyake, Martinez-Morales, & Csizmadia, 2016). As a result, the researchers in this study investigated the lived experiences of racial mislabeling for Multiracial individuals. The participants of this study were fourteen (n=14) individuals who identified as Multiracial and endorsed experiencing the specific form of racial invalidation entitled racial mislabeling. Data were collected through individual, semi-structured interviews. The data was analyzed using phenomenological methods within Moustakas’ (1994) transcendental approach, which led to themes that described the essence of the participants’ experience. These themes are discussed in detail and recommendations for researchers and counselor educators to improve training and education are provided

Coexistence of antiferromagnetic order and unconventional superconductivity in heavy fermion compounds CeRh_{1-x}Ir_xIn_5: nuclear quadrupole resonance studies

We present a systematic ^{115}In NQR study on the heavy fermion compounds CeRh_{1-x}Ir_xIn_5 (x=0.25, 0.35, 0.45, 0.5, 0.55 and 0.75). The results provide strong evidence for the microscopic coexistence of antiferromagnetic (AF) order and superconductivity (SC) in the range of 0.35 \leq x \leq 0.55. Specifically, for x=0.5, T_N is observed at 3 K with a subsequent onset of superconductivity at T_c=0.9 K. T_c reaches a maximum (0.94 K) at x=0.45 where T_N is found to be the highest (4.0 K). Detailed analysis of the measured spectra indicate that the same electrons participate in both SC and AF order. The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T_1 shows a broad peak at T_N and follows a T^3 variation below T_c, the latter property indicating unconventional SC as in CeIrIn_5 (T_c=0.4 K). We further find that, in the coexistence region, the T^3 dependence of 1/T_1 is replaced by a T-linear variation below T\sim 0.4 K, with the value \frac{(T_1)_{T_c}}{(T_1)_{low-T}} increasing with decreasing x, likely due to low-lying magnetic excitations associated with the coexisting magnetism.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figure

Ramond-Ramond Cohomology and O(D,D) T-duality

In the name of supersymmetric double field theory, superstring effective actions can be reformulated into simple forms. They feature a pair of vielbeins corresponding to the same spacetime metric, and hence enjoy double local Lorentz symmetries. In a manifestly covariant manner --with regard to O(D,D) T-duality, diffeomorphism, B-field gauge symmetry and the pair of local Lorentz symmetries-- we incorporate R-R potentials into double field theory. We take them as a single object which is in a bi-fundamental spinorial representation of the double Lorentz groups. We identify cohomological structure relevant to the field strength. A priori, the R-R sector as well as all the fermions are O(D,D) singlet. Yet, gauge fixing the two vielbeins equal to each other modifies the O(D,D) transformation rule to call for a compensating local Lorentz rotation, such that the R-R potential may turn into an O(D,D) spinor and T-duality can flip the chirality exchanging type IIA and IIB supergravities.Comment: 1+37 pages, no figure; Structure reorganized, References added, To appear in JHEP. cf. Gong Show of Strings 2012 (http://wwwth.mpp.mpg.de/members/strings/strings2012/strings_files/program/Talks/Thursday/Gongshow/Lee.pdf