A review of innovative bond instruments for sustainable development in Asia

Purpose Advancing the economies in Asia toward meeting sustainable development goals (SDGs) needs an unprecedented investment in people, processes and the planet. The participation of the private sector is necessary to bridge the financing gap to attain this objective. Engaging the private sector can contribute significantly to attaining the 2030 agenda for SD. However, the financial markets in Asian economies are yet to realize this potential. In this context, this paper aims to discuss the state of finance for SD in Asia and identifies innovative financial instruments for attracting private investments for SDs in these economies. Design/methodology/approach This study relies on published articles, reports and policy documents on financing mechanisms for SD. The literature review covered journal data sources, reports from global institutions such as the UN, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and think-tanks operating in the field of climate change policies. Though the topic was specific to financial market instruments, a broader search was conducted to understand the different sources of sustainable finance available, particularly in Asia. Findings The investments that are required for meeting the SDGs remain underfunded. Though interest in sustainability is growing in the Asian economies, the financial markets are yet to transition to tap the growing interest in sustainable investing among global investors. This paper concludes that to raise capital from private investors the Asian economies should ensure information availability, reduce distortions and unblock regulatory obstacles. It would also need designing policies and introducing blended financing instruments combining private and public funds. Research limitations/implications Though the study has grouped Asian economies, the financing strategy for SDGs should be developed at the country-level considering the domestic financial markets, local developmental stage, fiscal capacity and nationally determined contributions. Further research can focus on developing country-specific strategies for using innovative financial instruments. Originality/value Mobilizing funds for implementing the 2030 Agenda for SD is a major challenge for Asian economies. The paper is addressed to national policymakers in Asian economies for developing strategies to raise capital for SD through private participation. It provides opportunities for revisiting national approaches to sustainable finance in these economies

Bichromatically driven double well: parametric perspective of the strong-field control landscape reveals the influence of chaotic states

The aim of this work is to understand the influence of chaotic states in control problems involving strong fields. Towards this end, we numerically construct and study the strong field control landscape of a bichromatically driven double well. A novel measure based on correlating the overlap intensities between Floquet states and an initial phase space coherent state with the parametric motion of the quasienergies is used to construct and interpret the landscape features. "Walls" of no control, robust under variations of the relative phase between the fields, are seen on the control landscape and associated with multilevel interactions involving chaotic Floquet states.Comment: 9 pages and 6 figures. Rewritten and expanded version of arXiv:0707.4547 [nlin.CD]. Accepted for publication in J. Chem. Phys. (2008

Investigating the foreign trade-emission nexus in RCEP

Foreign trade is usually considered a culprit for rising emissions. In this article, the authors attempt to understand whether the creation of the regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) will lead to more emissions from the region. To meet this objective, the study analyses the relationship between foreign trade and carbon emissions of the 15 RCEP constituents, using macroeconomic data for the period 1991-2016. The long-term causal relationship between foreign trade and emissions was tested using the ARDL bounds test. The results indicate a long-run causal relationship between the two variables. A fully modified OLS regression model confirms that the three variables considered – foreign trade, economic growth, and energy consumption – have a significant, positive impact on emissions on RCEP member countries. The analysis of individual countries also confirms the cointegration between foreign trade and carbon emissions. ECMs further show the correction happens from foreign trade to carbon emissions

A space-time channel estimator and single-user receiver for code-reuse DS-CDMA systems

Published versio

Can We Detect the Anisotropic Shapes of Quasar HII Regions During Reionization Through The Small-Scale Redshifted 21cm Power Spectrum?

Light travel time delays distort the apparent shapes of HII regions surrounding bright quasars during early stages of cosmic reionization. Individual HII regions may remain undetectable in forthcoming redshifted 21 cm experiments. However, the systematic deformation along the line of sight may be detectable statistically, either by stacking tomographic 21cm images of quasars identified, for example, by JWST, or as small-scale anisotropy in the three-dimensional 21cm power spectrum. Here we consider the detectability of this effect. The anisotropy is largest when HII regions are large and expand rapidly, and we find that if bright quasars contributed to the early stages of reionization, then they can produce significant anisotropy, on scales comparable to the typical sizes of HII regions of the bright quasars (approx. 30 Mpc and below). The effect therefore cannot be ignored when analyzing future 21cm power spectra on small scales. If 10 percent of the volume of the IGM at redshift z=10 is ionized by quasars with typical ionizing luminosity of S= 5 x 10^{56} photons/second, the distortions can enhance by more than 10 percent the 21cm power spectrum in the radial (redshift) direction, relative to the transverse directions. The level of this anisotropy exceeds that due to redshift-space distortion, and has the opposite sign. We show that on-going experiments such as MWA should be able to detect this effect. A detection would reveal the presence of bright quasars, and shed light on the ionizing yield and age of the ionizing sources, and the distribution and small-scale clumping of neutral intergalactic gas in their vicinity.Comment: Version accepted by ApJ, with new fiducial model and improved discussio

Emerging Evidence for MicroRNAs as Regulators of Cancer Stem Cells

Cancer stem cells are defined as a subpopulation of cells within a tumor that are capable of self-renewal and differentiation into the heterogeneous cell lineages that comprise the tumor. Many studies indicate that cancer stem cells may be responsible for treatment failure and relapse in cancer patients. The factors that regulate cancer stem cells are not well defined. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate translational repression and transcript degradation. miRNAs play a critical role in embryonic and inducible pluripotent stem cell regulation and emerging evidence supports their role in cancer stem cell evolution. To date, miRNAs have been shown to act either as tumor suppressor genes or oncogenes in driving critical gene expression pathways in cancer stem cells in a wide range of human malignancies, including hematopoietic and epithelial tumors and sarcomas. miRNAs involved in cancer stem cell regulation provide attractive, novel therapeutic targets for cancer treatment. This review attempts to summarize progress to date in defining the role of miRNAs in cancer stem cells