Sensitivity of a proposed space-based Cerenkov astrophysical-neutrino telescope (CHANT)

Neutrinos with energies in the PeV to EeV range produce upgoing extensive air showers when they interact underground close enough to the surface of the Earth. We study the possibility for detection of such showers with a system of very wide field-of-view imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, named CHANT for CHerenkov from Astrophysical Neutrinos Telescope, pointing down to a strip below the Earth's horizon from space. We find that CHANT provides sufficient sensitivity for the study of the astrophysical neutrino flux in a wide energy range, from 10 PeV to 10 EeV. A space-based CHANT system can discover and study in detail the cosmogenic neutrino flux originating from interactions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays in the intergalactic medium.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted to Phys. Rev.

The Bank of Canada: Moving Towards Transparency

During the 1990s the Bank of Canada made several changes that transformed its conduct of monetary policy. In the 1960s and 1970s, policy decisions were made in an environment characterized by instrument opaqueness and goal opaqueness, which tended to shield the Bank's operations from scrutiny and accountability. Since the 1970s the Bank has moved towards transparency and openness by rejecting multiple policy instruments and adopting a single, well-defined goal of inflation control. A recent survey has shown that the Bank of Canada is in the middle range of central banks with regard to its transparency and has lost points for not publishing the forecasts that shape its policy or the minutes and voting records of its governing body. Chant suggests that the public has benefited significantly from the changes the Bank has made, but that it should continue to support research on the benefits of low and stable inflation and continually inform other policy-makers and the public of the results.

The links between gender and poverty are over-simplified and under-problematised: a time of economic crisis is an opportune moment to re-think the ‘feminisation of poverty’ and address the ‘feminisation of responsibility’

Women’s poverty levels are at the centre of political discussions around the world as governments put into place deficit reduction plans. These discussions often fail to take account of the complex relationship between gender and poverty, argues Sylvia Chant, and a renewed focus on the time and labour that women invest in bearing the burden of dealing with poverty is now needed

An Interview About a Secret Healing chant

The respondent shares an experience of a terrible headache being cured by her mother chanting a secret chant.The fifty one audio and nine video files in this collection include: villages’ life stories, circle-dancing songs and performance, local history, folk tales, and interviews from Siyuewu Village, Puxi Township, Rangtang County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China.World Oral Literature Projec

Strengthening Bank Regulation: OSFI's Contingent Capital Plan

Bank failures around the world during the recent financial crisis put taxpayers on the hook for trillions of dollars in government backstopping. In future, requiring banks to issue contingent capital, which would convert from debt to equity when banks run into trouble, is one way to help avoid that happening again, and limit taxpayer costs if it does, according to this paper. The author makes the case for contingent capital, critiques the current federal proposal, and makes recommendations for design that would help stave off disaster for banks, not hasten their demise.Financial Services, bank failures, contingent capital, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFT)

The links between gender and poverty are over-simplified and under-problematised: a time of economic crisis is an opportune moment to re-think the ‘feminisation of poverty’ and address the ‘feminisation of responsibility’.

Women’s poverty levels are at the centre of political discussions around the world as governments put into place deficit reduction plans. These discussions often fail to take account of the complex relationship between gender and poverty, argues Sylvia Chant, and a renewed focus on the time and labour that women invest in bearing the burden of dealing with poverty is now needed.

Galvanising girls for development? Critiquing the shift from ‘smart’ to ‘smarter economics’

This article traces the mounting interest in, and visibility of, girls and young women in development (WID) policy, especially since the turn of the twenty-first century when a ‘Smart Economics’ rationale for promoting gender equality and female empowerment has become ever more prominent and explicit. ‘Smart Economics’, which is strongly associated with an increased influence of corporate stakeholders, frequently through public–private partnerships (PPPs), stresses a ‘business case’ for investing in women for developmental (read economic) efficiency, with investment in younger generations of women being touted as more efficient still. The latter is encapsulated in the term ‘Smarter Economics’ with the Nike Foundation’s ‘Girl Effect’ being a showcase example. In this, and similar, initiatives linked with neoliberal development, ‘investing in girls’ appears to be driven not only by imperatives of ‘female empowerment’, but also to realize more general dividends for future economic growth and poverty alleviation. Yet, while it may well be that girls and young women have benefited from their rapid relocation from the sidelines towards the centre of development discourse and planning, major questions remain as to whose voices are prioritized, and whose agendas are primarily served by the current shift from ‘Smart’ to ‘Smarter Economics’