The Observational Equivalence of Taylor Rule and Taylor-type Rules

In a variety of recent papers, researchers have found that interest rate behaviour approximately follows a Taylor rule. From this they have concluded that the central bank is following a Taylor rule as its monetary policy reaction function. We show that such interest rate behaviour results when the central bank may be following quite different monetary policy rules from the one proposed by Taylor. In other words an interest rate relation with output and inflation does not identify a central bank reaction function.

Are the facts of UK inflation persistence to be explained by nominal rigidity or changes in monetary regime?

It has been widely argued that inflation persistence since WWII has been widespread and durable and that it can only be accounted for by models with a high degree of nominal rigidity. We examine UK post-war data and find that the varying persistence it reveals is largely due to changing monetary regimes and that models with moderate or even no nominal rigidity are best equipped to explain it.

Read Mapping on Genome Variation Graphs

Genome variation graphs are natural candidates to represent a pangenome collection. In such graphs, common subsequences are encoded as vertices and the genomic variations are captured by introducing additional labeled vertices and directed edges. Unlike a linear reference, a reference graph allows a rich representation of the genomic diversities and avoids reference bias. We address the fundamental problem of mapping reads to genome variation graphs. We give a novel mapping algorithm V-MAP for efficient identification of small subgraph of the genome graph for optimal gapped alignment of the read. V-MAP creates space efficient index using locality sensitive minimizer signatures computed using a novel graph winnowing and graph embedding onto metric space for fast and accurate mapping. Experiments involving graph constructed from the 1000 Genomes data and using both real and simulated reads show that V-MAP is fast, memory efficient and can map short reads, as well as PacBio/Nanopore long reads with high accuracy. V-MAP performance was significantly better than the state-of-the-art, especially for long reads

Mathematical Modelling of Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System Receiver

At present the armoured fighting vehicles are equipped with either global positioning system (GPS) receivers or integrated inertial navigation system (INS)/GPS navigation systems. During hostile situations, the denial/degradation of the GPS satellite signals may happen. This results in the requirement of an indigenous satellite based navigation system. Indian Space Research Organisation has developed an indigenous Indian regional navigation satellite system (IRNSS), with a seven satellite constellation to provide independent position, navigation and timing services over India and its neighbouring regions. In this paper, the development of IRNSS receiver using MATLAB as per IRNSS signal in space interface control document for standard positioning service is discussed. A method for faster IRNSS signal acquisition in frequency domain and delay locked loop code tracking for the acquired satellite signals are used. Models for navigation message decoding and pseudo range/user position calculations are developed using the algorithms provided in IRNSS ICD

Determinacy in New Keynesian models: a role for money after all?

The New-Keynesian Taylor-Rule model of inflation determination with no role for money is incomplete. As Cochrane (2007a, b) argues, it has no credible mechanism for ruling out bubbles (or deal with the non-uniqueness problem that arises when the Taylor principle is violated) and as a result fails to provide a reason for private agents to pick a unique stable path. We propose a way forward. Our proposal is in effect that the New-Keynesian model should be formulated with a money demand and money supply function. It should also embody a terminal condition for money supply behaviour. If indeterminacy of stable (or unstable paths) occurred the central bank would switch to a money supply rule explicitly designed to stop it via the terminal condition. This would be therefore a 'threat/trigger strategy�' complementing the Taylor Rule � only to be invoked if inflation misbehaved. Thus we answer the criticisms levelled at the Taylor Rule that it has no credible mechanism for dealing with these issues. However it does imply that money cannot be avoided in the new Keynesian set-up, contrary to Woodford (2008)

Can the learnability criterion ensure determinacy in New Keynesian models?

Forward-looking RE models such as the popular New Keynesian (NK) model do not provide a unique prediction about how the model economy behaves. We need some mechanism that ensures determinacy. McCallum (2011) says it is not needed because models are learnable only with the determinate solution and so the NK model, once learnt in this way, will be determinate. We agree: the only learnable solution that has agents converge on the true NK model is the bubble-free one. But once they have converged they must then understand the model and its full solution therefore including the bubble. Hence the learnability criterion still fails to pick a unique RE solution in NK models

Are central bank preferences asymmetric? A comment

A recent paper by Ruge-Murcia [European Economic Review 48 (2004), 91-107] on asymmetric central bank objectives provides a new perspective on the policy roots of inflation in developed economies. More precisely, the paper demonstrates that if the distribution of the supply shocks is normal, then the reduced form solution for inflation implies a positive (or negative) relation between average inflation and the variance of shocks. We argue that the evidence offered in support of this hypothesis suffers from lack of identification because Phillips curve nonlinearity combined with quadratic central bank preferences yield the same reduced form solution for inflation. If so, estimating reduced form for inflation will not be able to discriminate between these models. Yet they have quite different implications for policy. Other, structural, evidence is needed

Opportunistic monetary policy: an alternative rationalization

This paper offers an alternative rationalization for opportunistic behaviour i.e., a gradual disinflation strategy where policymakers react asymmetrically to supply shocks, opting to disinflate only in recessionary period. Specifically, we show that adaptive expectations combined with asymmetry in the Phillips curve of a specific sort together provide an optimizing justification for opportunism. However, the empirical basis for these conditions to be satisfied in the current low-inflation context of most OECD countries remains however to be established

TPX: Biomedical literature search made easy

TPX is a web-based PubMed search enhancement tool that enables faster article searching using an alysis and exploration features . These features include identification of relevant biomedical concepts from search results with linkouts to source databases, concept based article categorization, concept assisted search and filtering, query refinement. A distinguishing feature here is the ability to add user-defined concept names and/or concept types for named entity recognition. The tool allows contextual exploration of knowledge sources by providing concept association maps derived from the MEDLINE repository. It also has a full-text search mode that can be configured on request to access local text repositories, incorporating entity co-occurrence search at sentence/paragraph levels. Local text files can also be analyzed on-the-fly