Now-casting Irish GDP

In this paper we present "now-casts" of Irish GDP using timely data from a panel data set of 41 different variables. The approach seeks to resolve two issues which commonly confront forecastors of GDP - how to parsimoniously avail of the many different series, which can potentially influence GDP and how to reconcile the within-quarterly release of many of these series with the quarterly estimates of GDP? The now-casts in this paper are generated by firstly, using dynamic factor analysis to extract a common factor from the panel data set and, secondly, through use of bridging equations to relate the monthly data to the quarterly GDP estimates. We conduct an out-of-sample forecasting simulation exercise, where the results of the now-casting exercise are compared with those of a standard benchmark model.

The Outlook for Credit in the Irish Economy

This note presents estimates of the likely credit requirements of different sectors of the economy over a short-term horizon to 2013. The measure of credit “demand” used in the analysis is the stock of outstanding loans to the Irish private sector from the resident banking sector. The results indicate a substantial fall in the amount of loans outstanding by 2013, the bulk of which is contained within Property (construction and real estate) and Personal Mortgage lending. Despite the projected fall in the amount of outstanding credit allocated to Mortgage lending, as a sector it is expected to continue to account for the majority of outstanding loans to the Irish private sector.

KSIM: simulating KIDSpec, a Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector spectrograph for the optical/NIR

KIDSpec, the Kinetic Inductance Detector Spectrometer, is a proposed optical to near-IR Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID) spectrograph. MKIDs are superconducting photon counting detectors which are able to resolve the energy of incoming photons and their time of arrival. KIDSpec will use these detectors to separate incoming spectral orders from a grating, thereby not requiring a cross-disperser. In this paper, we present a simulation tool for KIDSpec’s potential performance upon construction to optimize a given design. This simulation tool is the KIDSpec Simulator (KSIM), a Python package designed to simulate a variety of KIDSpec and observation parameters. A range of astrophysical objects are simulated: stellar objects, an SDSS observed galaxy, a Seyfert galaxy, and a mock galaxy spectrum from the JAGUAR catalogue. Multiple medium spectral resolution designs for KIDSpec are simulated. The possible impact of MKID energy resolution variance and dead pixels was simulated, with impacts on KIDSpec performance observed using the Reduced Chi-Squared (RCS) value. Using dead pixel percentages from current instruments, the RCS result was found to only increase to 1.21 at worst for one of the designs simulated. SNR comparisons of object simulations between KSIM and X-Shooter’s ETC were also simulated. KIDSpec offers a particular improvement over X-Shooter for short and faint observations. For a Seyfert galaxy (mR = 21) simulation with a 180 s exposure, KIDSpec had an average SNR of 4.8, in contrast to 1.5 for X-Shooter. Using KSIM the design of KIDSpec can be optimized to improve the instrument further

Supply-side determinants of Energy Consumption and Efficiency (ECE) innovations

This paper empirically analyses the supply-side determinants of eco-innovations related to Energy Consumption or Efficiency (ECE) for electricity and other energy sources. Using preliminary firm-level data from a 2010 survey of innovation activity in Tasmania (a regional economy and state of Australia), a multinomial discrete choice model is employed to test the research hypotheses. The analysis shows the positive association between technological and organisational capabilities and ECE outcomes in electricity and other energy sources, with a specific effect from investment in external R&D. We also find differences in sectoral technological opportunities for ECE innovation and a positive effect for firm structure and size. Our contribution is to show the importance of supply-side factors on ECE innovation outcomes and draw attention to their potential policy relevance.<br

ARCONS: a highly multiplexed superconducting UV to near-IR camera

ARCONS, the Array Camera for Optical to Near-infrared Spectrophotometry, was recently commissioned at the Coude focus of the 200-inch Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory. At the heart of this unique instrument is a 1024-pixel Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID), exploiting the Kinetic Inductance effect to measure the energy of the incoming photon to better than several percent. The ground-breaking instrument is lens-coupled with a pixel scale of 0.23"/pixel, with each pixel recording the arrival time (<2 microsec) and energy of a photon (~10%) in the optical to near-IR (0.4-1.1 microns) range. The scientific objectives of the instrument include the rapid follow-up and classification of the transient phenomena.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of IAU symposium number 285; New Horizons in Time Domain Astronomy, eds. R.E.M Griffin, R. J. Hanisch & R. Seama

SM1.3 Seismic Centers Data Acquisition: an introduction to Antelope, EarthWorm, SeisComP and their usage around the world

Many medium to big size seismic data centers around the world are facing the same question: which software to use to acquire seismic data in real-time? A home-made or a commercial one? Both choices have pros and cons. The in-house development of software usually requires an increased investment in human resources rather than a financial investment. However, the advantage of fully accomplishing your own needs could be put in danger when the software engineer quits the job! Commercial software offers the advantage of being maintained, but it may require both a considerable financial investment and training. The main seismic software data acquisition suites available nowadays are the public domain SeisComP and EarthWorm packages and the commercial package Antelope. Nanometrics, Guralp and RefTek also provide seismic data acquisition software, but they are mainly intended for single station/network acquisition. Antelope is a software package for real-time acquisition and processing of seismic network data, with its roots in the academic seismological community. The software is developed by Boulder Real Time Technology (BRTT) and commercialized by Kinemetrics. It is used by IRIS affiliates for off-line data processing and it is the main acquisition tool for the USArray program and data centers in Europe like the ORFEUS Data Center, OGS (Italy), ZAMG (Austria), ARSO (Slovenia) and GFU (Czech Republic). SeisComP was originally developed for the GEOFON global network to provide a system for data acquisition, data exchange (SeedLink protocol) and automatic processing. It has evolved into to a widely distributed, networked seismographic system for data acquisition and real-time data exchange over Internet and is supported by ORFEUS as the standard seismic data acquisition tool in Europe. SeisComP3 is the next generation of the software and was developed for the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS). SeisComP is licensed by GFZ (free of charge) and maintained by a private company (GEMPA). EarthWorm was originally developed by United States Geological Survey (USGS) to exchange data with the Canadian seismologists. Its is now used by several institution around the world. It is maintained and developed by a commercial software house, ISTI

Towards high-resolution astronomical imaging

This paper is a report from a recent meeting on "the Future of high-resolution imaging in the visible and infrared", reviewing the astronomical drivers for development and the technological advances that might boost performance. Each of the authors listed contributed a section themselves.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, 11 contributors, Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Geophysics of the RAS, June 2019 issu