A new model for market-based regulation of subnational borrowing - the Mexican approach

Faced with weak sub-national finances that pose a risk to macroeconomic stability, Mexico's federal government in April 2000 established an innovative incentive framework to bring fiscal discipline to state and municipal governments. That framework is based on two pillars: an explicit renunciation of federal bail-outs, and a Basel-consistent link between the capital-risk weighting of bank loans to sub-national governments, and the borrower's credit rating. In theory, this new regulatory arrangement should reduce moral hazard among banks and their state, and municipal clients; differentiate interest rates on the basis of the borrower's creditworthiness; and, elicit a strong demand for institutional development at the sub-national level. But its access will depend on three factors critical to implementation: 1) Whether markets find thefederal commitment not to bail out defaulting sub-national governments credible. 2) Whether sub-national governments have access to financing other than bank loans. 3) How well bank capital rules are enforced.Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Intermediation,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Intermediation,Insurance&Risk Mitigation

Detection of a Substantial Molecular Gas Reservoir in a brightest cluster galaxy at z = 1.7

We report the detection of CO(2-1) emission coincident with the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) of the high-redshift galaxy cluster SpARCS1049+56, with the Redshift Search Receiver (RSR) on the Large Millimetre Telescope (LMT). We confirm a spectroscopic redshift for the gas of z = 1.7091+/-0.0004, which is consistent with the systemic redshift of the cluster galaxies of z = 1.709. The line is well-fit by a single component Gaussian with a RSR resolution-corrected FWHM of 569+/-63 km/s. We see no evidence for multiple velocity components in the gas, as might be expected from the multiple image components seen in near-infrared imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope. We measure the integrated flux of the line to be 3.6+/-0.3 Jy km/s and, using alpha_CO = 0.8 Msun (K km s^-1 pc^2)^-1 we estimate a total molecular gas mass of 1.1+/-0.1x10^11 Msun and a M_H2/M_star ~ 0.4. This is the largest gas reservoir detected in a BCG above z > 1 to date. Given the infrared-estimated star formation rate of 860+/-130 Msun/yr, this corresponds to a gas depletion timescale of ~0.1Gyr. We discuss several possible mechanisms for depositing such a large gas reservoir to the cluster center -- e.g., a cooling flow, a major galaxy-galaxy merger or the stripping of gas from several galaxies -- but conclude that these LMT data are not sufficient to differentiate between them.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Experimental strategies for the investigation of low temperature properties in granitic and pegmatitic melts

The physical behavior of silicate melts during the final stages of intrusion in the earth's crust are poorly understood. In particular, the low temperature limit of igneous petrogenesis is poorly constrained. The extreme differentiates of granitic magmatism that lead to pegmatite genesis span a very large range of composition not normally considered to be within the domain of igneous melt compositions. This combination of very low petrogenetic temperatures and extreme chemistries requires a concentrated effort for the determination of melt properties under conditions of pressure, temperature and composition appropriate to these systems. An experimental strategy for the determination of melt properties under appropriate conditions is presented. The determination of individual melt properties at very low temperatures is described with the aid of three examples, heat capacity, volume and viscosity. In this way the physical behavior of an important component of the earth's crust will become accessible

On Thinking Theologically about Animals: A Response

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Clough, D. (2014). On Thinking Theologically About Animals: A Response. Zygon, 49(3), 764-71. DOI: 10.1111/zygo.12119, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zygo.12119/abstract. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-ArchivingIn response to evaluations of On Animals: Volume 1, Systematic Theology by Margaret Adams, Christopher Carter, David Fergusson, and Stephen Webb, this article argues that the theological reappraisals of key doctrines argued for in the book are important for an adequate theological discussion of animals. The article addresses critical points raised by these authors in relation to the creation of human beings in the image of God, the doctrine of the incarnation, the theological ordering of creatures, anthropocentrism, and the doctrine of God. It concludes that, given previous neglect, much more discussion by theologians is required in order to think better concerning the place of animals in Christian theology, but acting better toward fellow animal creatures is an important next step toward this goal

Novel Methods in Computational Imaging with Applications in Remote Sensing

This dissertation is devoted to novel computational imaging methods with applications in remote sensing. Computational imaging methods are applied to three distinct applications including imaging and detection of buried explosive hazards utilizing array radar, high resolution imaging of satellites in geosynchronous orbit utilizing optical hypertelescope arrays, and characterization of atmospheric turbulence through multi-frame blind deconvolution utilizing conventional optical digital sensors. The first application considered utilizes a radar array employed as a forward looking ground penetrating radar system with applications in explosive hazard detection. A penalized least squares technique with sparsity-inducing regularization is applied to produce imagery, which is consistent with the expectation that objects are sparsely populated but extended with respect to the pixel grid. Additionally, a series of pre-processing steps is demonstrated which result in a greatly reduced data size and computational cost. Demonstrations of the approach are provided using experimental data and results are given in terms of signal to background ratio, image resolution, and relative computation time. The second application involves a sparse-aperture telescope array configured as a hypertelescope with applications in long range imaging. The penalized least squares technique with sparsity-inducing regularization is adapted and applied to this very different imaging modality. A comprehensive study of the algorithm tuning parameters is performed and performance is characterized using the Structure Similarity Metric (SSIM) to maximize image quality. Simulated measurements are used to show that imaging performance achieved using the pro- posed algorithm compares favorably in comparison to conventional Richardson-Lucy deconvolution. The third application involves a multi-frame collection from a conventional digital sensor with the primary objective of characterizing the atmospheric turbulence in the medium of propagation. In this application a joint estimate of the image is obtained along with the Zernike coefficients associated with the atmospheric PSF at each frame, and the Fried parameter r0 of the atmosphere. A pair of constraints are applied to a penalized least squares objective function to enforce the theoretical statistics of the set of PSF estimates as a function of r0. Results of the approach are shown with both simulated and experimental data and demonstrate excellent agreement between the estimated r0 values and the known or measured r0 values respectively

Coastal cliff ground motions and response to extreme storm waves

Coastal cliff erosion from storm waves is observed worldwide, but the processes are notoriously difficult to measure during extreme storm wave conditions when most erosion normally occurs, limiting our understanding of cliff processes. Over January–February 2014, during the largest Atlantic storms in at least 60 years with deepwater significant wave heights of 6–8 m, cliff-top ground motions showed vertical ground displacements in excess of 50–100 µm; an order of magnitude larger than observations made previously. Repeat terrestrial laser scanner surveys over a 2 week period encompassing the extreme storms gave a cliff face volume loss of 2 orders of magnitude larger than the long-term erosion rate. The results imply that erosion of coastal cliffs exposed to extreme storm waves is highly episodic and that long-term rates of cliff erosion will depend on the frequency and severity of extreme storm wave impacts