Sudden changes in volatility: The case of five central European stock markets

This paper investigates sudden changes in volatility in the stock markets of new European Union (EU) members by utilizing the iterated cumulative sums of squares (ICSS) algorithm. Using weekly data over the sample period 1994-2006, the time period of sudden change in variance of returns and the length of this variance shift are detected. A sudden change in volatility seems to arise from the evolution of emerging stock markets, exchange rate policy changes and financial crises. Evidence also reveals that when sudden shifts are taken into account in the GARCH models, the persistence of volatility is reduced significantly in every series. It suggests that many previous studies may have overestimated the degree of volatility persistence existing in financial time series

Can the persistence of a currency crisis be explained by fundamentals? Markov switching models for exchange market pressure

This paper investigates the contribution of fundamentals to the persistence of currency crises by identifying the determinants of high volatility in the exchange market pressure index (empi) for some new EU member states. The Markov switching model is utilised to identify the high volatility of empi, and a linear regression analysis is conducted to find the sources of the transition probability of the high volatility regime. The evidence does not seem to provide strong support for macroeconomic fundamentals, whereas it highlights the adverse movement of interest rates as the major determinant of the persistence of the currency crisis

The determinants of vulnerability to crisis: Country-specific factors versus regional factors

We investigate the determinants of exchange market pressures (EMP) for some new EU member states in two dimensions of national and regional levels, where macroeconomic and financial variables are considered as potential sources. The regional common factors are extracted from national levels of these variables by using the dynamic factor analysis. In a dynamic linear model, we find the statistically significant impact of the regional factor only in stock prices on the EMP for most of these economies. Overall, it highlights the importance of country-specific factors to defend against vulnerability in their external sector

Completion of evaluation of manufacturing processes for B/Al composites containing 0.2mm diameter boron fibers

Four fabricators produced a total of 54 B/1100 Al, B/6061 Al, and B/2024 Al panels for evaluation. The 8 ply unidirectional, 45 to 50 volume percent, panels were made using 0.20 mm diameter boron fibers which were obtained from a single supplier. Hot press consolidation was carried out in vacuum except for one set of dry woven tape panels which were hot pressed in air. A single testing contractor conducted nondestructive inspection, metallography, fractography and mechanical property tests. The mechanical property tests included 21 and 260 C tensile tests and 21 C shear tests. Panel quality, as measured by nondestructive evaluation, was generally good as were the 21 C tensile properties. The panels hot pressed in air delaminated in the shear tests. Shear strength values were lower in these panels. But tensile strengths were not affected by the delaminations because of the relation between the tensile loading direction and the delaminations. Composite tensile strength was found to be proportional to the volume percent boron and the aluminum matrix rather than to the tape used or fabrication technique. Suitability of these composites for 260 C service was confirmed by tensile tests

Small perturbation dynamics of the neuromuscular system in tracking tasks

Small perturbation dynamics of neuromuscular system in tracking task

The Near-Infrared Extinction Law in Regions of High Av

We present a spectroscopic study of the shape of the dust-extinction law between 1.0 and 2.2um towards a set of nine ultracompact HII regions with Av > 15 mag. We find some evidence that the reddening curve may tend to flatten at higher extinctions, but just over half of the sample has extinction consistent with or close to the average for the interstellar medium. There is no evidence of extinction curves significantly steeper than the standard law, even where water ice is present. Comparing the results to the predictions of a simple extinction model, we suggest that a standard extinction law implies a robust upper limit to the grain-size distribution at around 0.1 - 0.3um. Flatter curves are most likely due to changes in this upper limit, although the effects of flattening due to unresolved clumpy extinction cannot be ruled out.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Phosphorus Immobilization in Poultry Litter and Litter-amended soils with Aluminum, Calcium and Iron amendments

Arkansas produces approximately one billion broilers each year. Phosphorous (P) runoff from fields receiving poultry litter is believed to be one of the primary factors affecting water quality in Northwest Arkansas. Poultry litter contains approximately 20 g P kg-1, of which about 2 g P kg-1 is water soluble. Soils that have received repeated heavy applications of litter may have water soluble P contents of as high as 10 mg P Kg-1 soil. The objective of this study was to determine if soluble P levels could be reduced in poultry litter and litter-amended soils with Al,Ca, and/or Fe amendments. Poultry litter was amended with alum, sodium aluminate, quick lime, slaked lime, calcitic limestone, dolomitic limestone, gypsum, ferrous chloride, ferric chloride, ferrous sulfate and ferric sulfate, and incubated in the dark at 25°C for one week. Three soils which had been excessively fertilized with poultry litter were amended with alum, ferrous sulfate, calcitic limestone, gypsum and slaked lime and incubated for 4 weeks at 25 °C. In the litter studies, the Ca treatments were tested with and without CaF2 additions in an attempt to precipitate fluorapatite. At the end of the incubation period, the litter and soils were extracted with deionized water and soluble reactive P (SRP) was determined. SRP levels in the poultry litter were reduced from over 2,000 mg P kg-1 litter to less than 1 mg P kg-1 litter with the addition of alum, quick lime, slaked lime, ferrous chloride, ferric chloride, ferrous sulfate and ferric sulfate under favorable pH conditions. S.RP levels in the soils were reduced from approximately 5 mg P Kg-1 soil to less than 0.05 mg P Kg-1 soil with the addition of alum and ferrous sulfate under favorable pH conditions. Gypsum and sodium aluminate reduced SRP levels in litter by 50 to 60 percent while calcitic and dolomitic limestone were even less effective. In soils, the Ca amendments were less effective than the Al and Fe amendments, although slaked lime was effective at high pH. The results of these studies suggest that treating litter and excessively fertilized soils with some of these compounds, particularly alum, could significantly reduce the amount of SRP in runoff from littered pastures. Therefore, chemical additions to reduce SRP in litter and soil may be a best management practice in situations where eutrophication of adjacent water bodies due to P runoff has been identified. Preliminary calculations indicate that this .p ractice may be economically feasible. However, more research is needed to determine any beneficial and/or detrimental aspects of this practice

The Renal Lymphatics - an Important Fluid Transport System

Study of renal lymph fluid transport syste