The Automated Astronomic Positioning System (AAPS)

Two prototype systems of The Automated Astronomic Positioning System (AAPS) have been delivered to Defense Mapping Agency (DMA). The AAPS was developed to automate and expedite the determination of astronomic positions (latitude and longitude). This equipment is capable of defining astronomic positions to an accuracy sigma = 0.3 in each component within a two hour span of stellar observations which are acquired automatically. The basic concept acquires observations by timing stellar images as they cross a series of slits, comparing these observations to a stored star catalogue, and automatically deducing position and accuracy by least squares using pre-set convergence criteria. An exhaustive DMA operational test program has been initiated to evaluate the capabilities of the AAPS in a variety of environments (both climatic and positional). Status of the operational test is discussed

What risks and challenges do credit default swaps pose to the stability of financial markets?

Credit default swaps (CDSs) pose a number of risks to institutions and markets, many of which are not unique. These risks include counterparty credit, operational, concentration, and jump-to-default risks. CDSs also pose other risks and challenges. For example, CDS markets generally lacked transparency, which may have compounded market uncertainty about participants’ overall risk exposures, the concentration of exposures, and the market value of contracts during the recent crisis. Further, regulators note that the potential existed for market participants to manipulate certain CDS prices to profi t in other markets that CDS prices might infl uence, such as the equity market, and that the lack of transparency could contribute to this risk. Others also raised concerns about the use of CDSs for speculative purposes, including concerns about uncovered or “naked” CDS positions – the use of CDSs for speculative purposes when a party to a CDS contract does not own the underlying reference entity or obligation. While regulators and market participants note that over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, to varying degrees, pose some similar risks, particularly equity derivatives, the US regulatory structure for CDSs does not provide any one regulator with authority over all participants in the CDS market, thereby making monitoring and managing potential systemic risk diffi cult.

On the use of Satellite Television in High Energy Physics

This paper assesses the feasibility of exploiting commercial satellite television technologies to broadcast video signals and data from major High Energy Physics facilities to collaborating institutes throughout the world.Comment: Invited talk at CHEP'98, Chicago, USA, August 31 - September 4, 199

Measuring Confidentiality Risks in Census Data

Two trends have been on a collision course over the recent past. The first is the increasing demand by researchers for greater detail and flexibility in outputs from the decennial Census of Population. The second is the need felt by the Census Offices to demonstrate more clearly that Census data have been explicitly protected from the risk of disclosure of information about individuals. To reconcile these competing trends the authors propose a statistical measure of risks of disclosure implicit in the release of aggregate census data. The ideas of risk measurement are first developed for microdata where there is prior experience and then modified to measure risk in tables of counts. To make sure that the theoretical ideas are fully expounded, the authors develop small worked example. The risk measure purposed here is currently being tested out with synthetic and a real Census microdata. It is hoped that this approach will both refocus the census confidentiality debate and contribute to the safe use of user defined flexible census output geographies

Interaction Data Sets In The UK: An Audit

Interaction or flow data involves counts of flows between origin and destination areas and can be extracted from a range of sources. The Centre for Interaction Data Estimation and Research (CIDER) maintains a web-based system (WICID) that allows academic researchers to access and extract migration and commuting flow data (the so-called Origin-Destination Statistics) from the last three censuses. However, there are many other sources of interaction data other than the decadal census, including national administrative or registration procedures and large scale social surveys. This paper contains an audit of interaction data sets in the UK, providing detailed description and exemplification in each case and outlining the advantages and shortcomings of the different types of data where appropriate. The Census Origin-Destination Statistics have been described elsewhere in detail and only a short synopsis is provided here together with review of the interaction data that can be derived from other census products. The primary aims of the audit are to identify those interaction data sets that exist that might complement the census origin-destination statistics currently contained in WICID and to assess their suitability and availability as potential data sets to be held in an expanded version of WICID. Tables or flow data sets are included for exemplification. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations as to which of these data sets should be incorporated into a new information system for interaction flows that complement the census data and also provide opportunities for new research projects