An evaluation of some measures of core inflation for the euro area

We examine two measures of core inflation which have been proposed in recent years: the limited-influence estimators of core inflation pioneered by Bryan and Cecchetti (1994); and the Edgeworth or variance-weighted price index discussed by Diewert (1995). We compare these measures with traditional 'Ex. Food & Energy'-type measures and evaluate them on the basis of two criteria: their ability to track movements in trend inflation; and their ability to predict future headline inflation. We do find evidence that traditional 'Ex. Food & Energy'-type measure of core inflation may be dominated by alternative measures and conclude that trimmed-mean measures of core inflation may be a useful input to the monetary policy process. These conclusions, nonetheless, are necessarily tentative and subject to strong caveats due to the short span of data on which inference can be drawn JEL Classification: E31core inflation, euro area, HICP

A first assessment of some measures of core inflation for the euro area

Core inflation plays an important role in the deliberations of monetary policymakers. In this paper we evaluate a number of measures of core inflation constructed using euro area data. In addition to the traditional exclusion-type core measures, we examine two newer ones, documenting their properties and evaluating their performance in terms of their ability to track underlying or trend inflation in real time. We focus on core measures derived from the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) as the European Central Bank has chosen to define its mandate for price stability in terms of this index, and because this is the only index of consumer prices that is compiled in an comparable manner across all members of the European Union. We document significant excess kurtosis in the cross-section distribution of price changes in the euro area, and show that several categories of prices are more volatile than those typically excluded from traditional measures of core inflation. Contrary to what one might expect, traditional measures of core inflation are not significantly less volatile than headline measures. We document the superior performance of alternative measures of core inflation in tracking trend inflation on average, but show that none of the various measures of core gave significant advance warning of the pickup in trend inflation at the beginning of 1999.Euro

Difusión de tecnología: aplicación al sector eléctrico español

En este trabajo se proponen evaluar las hipótesis schumpeterianas sobre el tamaño de las compañías, la estructura de propiedad y las características de la innovación seleccionada, sobre las decisiones de adopción de nueva tecnología utilizando datos del sector eléctrico español. Para el análisis econométrico, se utiliza un modelo Mcg, Probit y Logit, así como un modelo de tipo proporcional según una distribución de Weibull y un modelo log-logístico Hazard, añadiendo un modelo lineal equivalente a partir de distribuciones de valor extremo (tipo I). La estimación no paramétrica se realiza a través de funciones Kaplan-Meier y funciones log-log respecto de las funciones de supervivencia. Los resultados sugieren que son las empresas privadas y grandes las que adoptan tecnología más rapidamente, si bien, el hecho podría relacionarse con la rentabilidad y solvencia de las compañías según su estructura de propiedad, puesto que fueron las compañías públicas las que obtuvieron mayores niveles de rentabilidad que las privadas en el último trienio, o con la mayor aportación de las empresas más grandes a sus departamentos de investigación y desarrollo

Experimental Evaluation of On-Board Contact-Graph Routing Solutions for Future Nano-Satellite Constellations

Hardware processing performance and storage capability for nanosatellites have increased notably in recent years. Unfortunately, this progress is not observed at the same pace in transmission data rate, mostly limited by available power in reduced and constrained platforms. Thus, space-to-ground data transfer becomes the operations bottleneck of most modern space applications. As channel rates are approaching the Shannon limit, alternative solutions to manage the data transmission are on the spot. Among these, networked nano-satellite constellations can cooperatively offload data to neighboring nodes via frequent inter-satellite links (ISL) opportunities in order to augment the overall volume and reduce the end-to-end data delivery delay. Nevertheless, the computation of efficient multi-hop routes needs to consider not only present satellite and ground segments as nodes, but a non-trivial time dynamic evolution of the system dictated by orbital dynamics. Moreover, the process should properly model and rely on considerable amount of available information from node’s configuration and network status obtained from recent telemetry. Also, in most practical cases, the forwarding decision shall happen in orbit, where satellites can timely react to local or in-transit traffic demands. In this context, it is appealing to investigate on the applicability of adequate algorithmic routing approaches running on state-of-the-art nanosatellite on-board computers. In this work, we present the first implementation of Contact Graph Routing (CGR) algorithm developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, NASA) for a nanosatellite on-board computer. We describe CGR, including a Dijkstra adaptation operating at its core as well as protocol aspects depicted in CCSDS Schedule-Aware Bundle Routing (SABR) recommended standard. Based on JPL’s Interplanetary Overlay Network (ION) software stack, we build a strong baseline to develop the first CGR implementation for a nano-satellites. We make our code available to the public and adapt it to the GomSpace toolchain in order to compile it for the NanoMind A712C on-board flight hardware based on a 32-bit ARM7 RISC CPU processor. Next, we evaluate its performance in terms of CPU execution time (Tick counts) and memory resources for increasingly complex satellite networks. Obtained metrics serve as compelling evidence of the polynomial scalability of the approach, matching the predicted theoretical behavior. Furthermore, we are able to determine that the evaluated hardware and implementation can cope with satellite networks of more than 120 nodes and 1200 contact opportunities

La Transformacion de una Economia: Observaciones de un Viaje a Mexico

This paper describes macroeconomic management and commercial policy reforms in Mexico during the 1980s and 1990s and reports the observations of a group of Costa Rican authorities and prominent businessmen who traveled to Mexico in June, 1991 in order to observe the implementation of these policy reforms. Interviews with government officials, private sector representatives and labor leaders are described. The government has been able to formulate a very effective and coherent strategy, based on rapid integration to the world economy and a change in the role of the state in the economy

Solving the Location Area Problem by Using Differential Evolution

In mobile networks, one of the hard tasks is to determine the best partitioning in the Location Area problem, but it is also an important strategy to try to reduce all the involved management costs. In this paper we present a new approach to solve the location management problem based on the Location Area partitioning, as a cost optimization problem. We use a Differential Evolution based algorithm to find the best configuration to the Location Areas in a mobile network. We try to find the best values for the Differential Evolution parameters as well as define the scheme that enables us to obtain better results, when compared to classical strategies and to other authors’ results. To obtain the best solution we develop four distinct experiments, each one applied to one Differential Evolution parameter. This is a new approach to this problem that has given us good results

Multicolour-metallicity Relations from Globular Clusters in NGC 4486 (M87)

We present Gemini griz photometry for 521 globular cluster (GC) candidates in a 5.5 x 5.5 arcmin field centered 3.8 arcmin to the south and 0.9 arcmin to the west of the center of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4486. All these objects have previously published (C-T1) photometry. We also present new (C-T1) photometry for 338 globulars, within 1.7 arcmin in galactocentric radius, which have (g-z) colors in the photometric system adopted by the Virgo Cluster Survey of the Advanced Camera for Surveys of the Hubble Space Telescope. These photometric data are used to define a self-consistent multicolor grid (avoiding polynomial fits) and preliminary calibrated in terms of two chemical abundance scales. The resulting multicolor color-chemical abundance relations are used to test GC chemical abundance distributions. This is accomplished by modelling the ten GC color histograms that can be defined in terms of the Cgriz bands. Our results suggest that the best fit to the GC observed color histograms is consistent with a genuinely bimodal chemical abundance distribution NGC(Z). On the other side, each (blue and red) GC subpopulation follows a distinct color-color relation.Comment: 12 pages, 21 figures, 8 tables. Accepted to be published in MNRA

Transient-Receptor Potential (TRP) and Acid-Sensing Ion Channels (ASICs) in the Sensory Organs of Adult Zebrafish

Sensory information from the aquatic environment is required for life and survival of zebrafish. Changes in the environment are detected by specialized sensory cells that convert different types of stimuli into electric energy, thus originating an organ-specific transduction. Ion channels are at the basis of each sensory modality and are responsible or are required for detecting thermal, chemical, or mechanical stimuli but also for more complex sensory processes as hearing, olfaction, taste, or vision. The capacity of the sensory cells to preferentially detect a specific stimulus is the result of a characteristic combination of different ion channels. This chapter summarizes the current knowledge about the occurrence and localization of ion channels in sensory organs of zebrafish belonging to the superfamilies of transient-receptor potential and acid-sensing ion channels that are involved in different qualities of sensibility superfamilies in the sensory organs of zebrafish. This animal model is currently used to study some human pathologies in which ion channels are involved. Furthermore, zebrafish is regarded as an ideal model to study in vivo the transient-receptor potential ion channels

Construction and applications of engineered minichromosomes in plants

The use of genetically modified crops is constantly finding new areas of application, including the production of compounds with therapeutic value. Current technology for producing transgenic crops relies on random integrations that can have variable expression and could potentially disrupt the endogenous genes. Also combining multiple transgenes requires a lengthy crossing scheme and can bring along linked genes from one variety into another. The current invention developed by researchers at the University of Missouri is a technology that will allow continued addition of transgenes as the need arises in the future using engineered plant minichromosomes. Artificial chromosome platforms in maize were produced by telomere-mediated truncation while simultaneously adding sequences that will permit amendments to the chromosome indefinitely. Such engineered minichromosomes have the potential to be used as a vector for efficient stacking of multiple genes for insect, bacterial and fungal resistances together with herbicide tolerance and crop quality traits unlinked to endogenous genes in a circumstance that would foster faithful expression. The collection of transgenes on minichromosomes might be combined with haploid breeding techniques to facilitate their transfer among diverse lines of a crop. A toolkit of lines that will permit additions and subtractions of genes from engineered minichromosomes is being assembled. Because of the near universality of the telomere sequence in the plant kingdom, engineered minichromosomes should be able to be produced easily in most plant species by this technique. Potential Areas of Applications: * Stack multiple transgenes on an independent chromosome with potentially no limit to number. * Facilitate transfer of transgenes into different varieties of a crop species by combining them with haploid breeding procedures