Fixed Exchange Rate Credibility with Heterogeneous Expectations

After disinflation has been achieved, agents who form more sophisticated forecasts have lower confidence in the sustainability of a peg compared to less sophisticated agents. Furthermore, sustained financial stability leads to a declining proportion of sophisticated agents. Thus, the credibility of a fixed exchange rate regime grows over time partly because fewer people pay attention to the workings of the monetary regime. These results are derived in a rules-versus-discretion model of a fixed exchange rate regime with heterogeneous agents. We provide unique supporting evidence using data on expectations and information about the monetary regime from Bulgaria's currency board. Working Paper 06-2

Noncanonical Amino Acids in the Interrogation of Cellular Protein Synthesis

Proteins in living cells can be made receptive to bioorthogonal chemistries through metabolic labeling with appropriately designed noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs). In the simplest approach to metabolic labeling, an amino acid analog replaces one of the natural amino acids specified by the protein’s gene (or genes) of interest. Through manipulation of experimental conditions, the extent of the replacement can be adjusted. This approach, often termed residue-specific incorporation, allows the ncAA to be incorporated in controlled proportions into positions normally occupied by the natural amino acid residue. For a protein to be labeled in this way with an ncAA, it must fulfill just two requirements: (i) the corresponding natural amino acid must be encoded within the sequence of the protein at the genetic level, and (ii) the protein must be expressed while the ncAA is in the cell. Because this approach permits labeling of proteins throughout the cell, it has enabled us to develop strategies to track cellular protein synthesis by tagging proteins with reactive ncAAs. In procedures similar to isotopic labeling, translationally active ncAAs are incorporated into proteins during a “pulse” in which newly synthesized proteins are tagged. The set of tagged proteins can be distinguished from those made before the pulse by bioorthogonally ligating the ncAA side chain to probes that permit detection, isolation, and visualization of the labeled proteins. Noncanonical amino acids with side chains containing azide, alkyne, or alkene groups have been especially useful in experiments of this kind. They have been incorporated into proteins in the form of methionine analogs that are substrates for the natural translational machinery. The selectivity of the method can be enhanced through the use of mutant aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) that permit incorporation of ncAAs not used by the endogenous biomachinery. Through expression of mutant aaRSs, proteins can be tagged with other useful ncAAs, including analogs that contain ketones or aryl halides. High-throughput screening strategies can identify aaRS variants that activate a wide range of ncAAs. Controlled expression of mutant synthetases has been combined with ncAA tagging to permit cell-selective metabolic labeling of proteins. Expression of a mutant synthetase in a portion of cells within a complex cellular mixture restricts labeling to that subset of cells. Proteins synthesized in cells not expressing the synthetase are neither labeled nor detected. In multicellular environments, this approach permits the identification of the cellular origins of labeled proteins. In this Account, we summarize the tools and strategies that have been developed for interrogating cellular protein synthesis through residue-specific tagging with ncAAs. We describe the chemical and genetic components of ncAA-tagging strategies and discuss how these methods are being used in chemical biology

Tenuous Financial Stability

Many countries fix their exchange rate in order to bring financial stability. Usually, inflation declines and output expands but contractual agreements retain their short time frame, investment is sluggish, and economic growth slows down a few years later. This outcome is often attributed to persistent doubts on the part of agents in the commitment and ability of the government to maintain the peg. Yet direct evidence for credibility is difficult to obtain. Unique survey data from Bulgaria reveal that expectations of devaluation were indeed very much present three, four, and five years after that country achieved financial stability under a currency board regime.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39925/3/wp540.pd

Dynamic resource allocation scheme for distributed heterogeneous computer systems

This invention relates to a resource allocation in computer systems, and more particularly, to a method and associated apparatus for shortening response time and improving efficiency of a heterogeneous distributed networked computer system by reallocating the jobs queued up for busy nodes to idle, or less-busy nodes. In accordance with the algorithm (SIDA for short), the load-sharing is initiated by the server device in a manner such that extra overhead in not imposed on the system during heavily-loaded conditions. The algorithm employed in the present invention uses a dual-mode, server-initiated approach. Jobs are transferred from heavily burdened nodes (i.e., over a high threshold limit) to low burdened nodes at the initiation of the receiving node when: (1) a job finishes at a node which is burdened below a pre-established threshold level, or (2) a node is idle for a period of time as established by a wakeup timer at the node. The invention uses a combination of the local queue length and the local service rate ratio at each node as the workload indicator

A Brief Interpretation of Summer Flounder, Paralichthys dentatus, Movements and Stock Structure with New Tagging Data on Juveniles

Summer flounder, Paralichthys dentatus, are managed as a single stock along the Atlantic coast from the U.S.– Canada border to the southern border of North Carolina. Justification of the single-stock approach is based on lack of genetic evidence for multiple stocks and the difficulty presented by managing the species from Cape Hatteras to the U.S.–Canada border. In this review, we present an interpretation of various morphometric, meristic, biochemical, and tagging studies, published and unpublished, that indicate the presence of two, or possibly three, distinct stocks in the management area. In addition, we have included new data from a tagging study that was conducted on juveniles from Virginia that aids in defining the stock(s) north of Cape Hatteras. Summer flounder, overfished for the past two decades, is recovering, and reconsideration of proposed stock structure could have direct implications for management policy decisions

Preliminary Study on Treatment of Contaminated Groundwater from the Taylorville Gasifier Site

Groundwater and soil at the site of an abandoned coal gasification plant in Taylorville, Illinois have been contaminated with compounds associated with coal conversion process waters. A preliminary study to assess the feasibility of using ethanol as a means of increasing the solubility of compounds adsorbed within the soil matrix followed by treatment of the ethanol/groundwater extract in an expanded-bed anaerobic granular activated carbon (GAC) reactor was conducted. Results of the study indicate that compounds in the groundwater are highly adsorb able on GAC, and do not interfere with the anaerobic degradation of ethanol in the reactor. Soil extractions with varying ethanol/water ratios were able to remove many additional low water solubility compounds from the soil.ENR Contract Number HWR87035published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Linear degree growth in lattice equations

We conjecture recurrence relations satisfied by the degrees of some linearizable lattice equations. This helps to prove linear growth of these equations. We then use these recurrences to search for lattice equations that have linear growth and hence are linearizable