Policy Coordination in an International Payment System

Given the increasing interdependence of both financial systems and attendant payment and settlement systems a vital question is what form should optimal policy take when there are two connected payment systems with separate regulators. In this paper I show that two central banks operating in a non-cooperative way will not have an incentive to achieve the optimal allocation of goods. I further show that this non-cooperative outcome will be supported by a zero intraday interest rate and constant fixed exchange rate. This is in contrast to recent research; which has shown that domestically a zero intraday interest rate will achieve a social optimum and that the central bank has an incentive to achieve it.Payment, clearing, and settlement systems; Exchange rate regimes

Aerodynamic design using numerical optimization

The procedure of using numerical optimization methods coupled with computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes for the development of an aerodynamic design is examined. Several approaches that replace wind tunnel tests, develop pressure distributions and derive designs, or fulfill preset design criteria are presented. The method of Aerodynamic Design by Numerical Optimization (ADNO) is described and illustrated with examples

Rediscounting Under Aggregate Risk with Moral Hazard

Freeman (1999) proposes a model in which discount window lending and open market operations have different effects. This is important because in most of the literature, these policies are indistinguishable. However, Freeman's argument that the central bank should absorb losses associated with default to provide risk-sharing stands in stark contrast to the concern that central banks should limit their exposure to credit risk. We extend Freeman's model by introducing moral hazard. With moral hazard, the central bank should avoid absorbing losses and Freeman's argument breaks down. However, we show that policies resembling discount window lending and open market operations can still be distinguished in this new framework. The optimal policy is for the central bank to make a restricted number of creditors compete for funds. By restricting the number of agents, the central bank can limit the moral hazard problem. By making them compete with each other, the central bank can exploit market information that reveals the state of the economy.Payment, clearing, and settlement systems; Financial markets; Central bank research

Free flight determination of boundary layer transition on small scale cones in the presence of surface ablation

To assess the possibility of achieving extensive laminar flow on conical vehicles during hyperbolic entry, the Ames Research Center has had an ongoing program to study boundary-layer transition on ablating cones. Boundary layer transition results are presented from ballistic range experiments with models that ablated at dimensionless mass transfer rates comparable to those expected for full scale flight at speeds up to 17 km/sec. It was found possible to measure the surface recession and hence more accurately identify regions of laminar, transitional, and turbulent flow along generators of the recovered cones. Some preliminary results using this technique are presented

Age-dependent female responses to a male ejaculate signal alter demographic opportunities for selection

A central tenet of evolutionary explanations for ageing is that the strength of selection wanes with age. However, data on age-specific expression and benefits of sexually selected traits are lacking—particularly for traits subject to sexual conflict. We addressed this by using as a model the responses of Drosophila melanogaster females of different ages to receipt of sex peptide (SP), a seminal fluid protein transferred with sperm during mating. SP can mediate sexual conflict, benefitting males while causing fitness costs in females. Virgin and mated females of all ages showed significantly reduced receptivity in response to SP. However, only young virgin females also showed increased egg laying; hence, there was a narrow demographic window of maximal responses to SP. Males gained significant ‘per mating’ fitness benefits only when mating with young females. The pattern completely reversed in matings with older females, where SP transfer was costly. The overall benefits of SP transfer (hence opportunity for selection) therefore reversed with female age. The data reveal a new example of demographic variation in the strength of selection, with convergence and conflicts of interest between males and ageing females occurring over different facets of responses to a sexually antagonistic trait

Which Bank is the "Central" Bank? An Application of Markov Theory to the Canadian Large Value Transfer System

We use a method similar to Google's PageRank procedure to rank banks in the Canadian Large Value Transfer System (LVTS). Along the way we obtain estimates of the payment processing speeds for the individual banks. These differences in processing speeds are essential for explaining why observed daily distributions of liquidity differ from the initial distributions, which are determined by the credit limits selected by banks.Payment, clearing, and settlement systems

Observations of cosmic ray induced phosphenes

Phosphene observations by astronauts on flights near and far from earth atmosphere are discussed. It was concluded that phosphenes could be observed by the naked eye. Further investigation is proposed to determine realistic human tolerance levels for extended missions and to evaluate the need to provide special spacecraft shielding

Realistic Expanding Source Model for Invariant One-Particle Multiplicity Distributions and Two-Particle Correlations in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

We present a realistic expanding source model with nine parameters that are necessary and sufficient to describe the main physics occuring during hydrodynamical freezeout of the excited hadronic matter produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. As a first test of the model, we compare it to data from central Si + Au collisions at p_lab/A = 14.6 GeV/c measured in experiment E-802 at the AGS. An overall chi-square per degree of freedom of 1.055 is achieved for a fit to 1416 data points involving invariant pi^+, pi^-, K^+, and K^- one-particle multiplicity distributions and pi^+ and K^+ two-particle correlations. The 99-percent-confidence region of parameter space is identified, leading to one-dimensional error estimates on the nine fitted parameters and other calculated physical quantities. Three of the most important results are the freezeout temperature, longitudinal proper time, and baryon density along the symmetry axis. For these we find values of 92.9 +/- 4.4 MeV, 8.2 +/- 2.2 fm/c, and 0.0222 + 0.0096 / - 0.0069 fm^-3, respectively.Comment: 37 pages and 12 figures. RevTeX 3.0. Submitted to Physical Review C. Complete preprint, including device-independent (dvi), PostScript, and LaTeX versions of the text, plus PostScript files of all figures, are available at http://t2.lanl.gov/publications/publications.html or at ftp://t2.lanl.gov/publications/res

The construction and evaluation of a word pronunciation test for grades four, five, and six

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit