The genus Gertrudiella broth. (Pottiaceae, Bryophyta) in Paraguay

As part of a study of the bryophytes of South America, some samples collected in Paraguay were identified as Gertrudiella uncinicoma, a species of Pottiaceae characterized by the presence of a well-developed central strand and a thick-walled hyalodermis on the stem, lanceolate leaves, laminal cells ventrally mammillose, and several rows of guides cells at the transverse section of the costae. This work represents the first record of the genus from Paraguay. A complete description, ecological comments, illustrations in optical and scanning electron microscopy, and a distribution map are presented.Fil: Jimenez, Maria Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Suarez, Guillermo Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; Argentin

The determinants of pricing in pharmaceuticals : are U.S. prices really higher than those of Canada?

This paper studies price determination in pharmaceutical markets using data for 25 countries, six years and a comprehensive list of products from the MIDAS IMS database. We show that market power and the quality of the product has a significantly positive impact of prices. The nationality of the producer appears to have a small and often insignificant impact on prices, which suggests that countries which regulates prices have relatively little power to do it in a way that advances narrow national interest. We produce a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon based on the fact that low negotiated prices in a country would have a knock-on effect in other markets, and is thus strongly resisted by producers. Another key finding is that the U.S. has prices that are not significantly higher than those of countries with similar income levels. This, together with the former observation on the effect of the nationality of producers casts doubt on the ability of countries to pursue “free-riding" regulation.

Rejuvenation and Memory in model Spin Glasses in 3 and 4 dimensions

We numerically study aging for the Edwards-Anderson Model in 3 and 4 dimensions using different temperature-change protocols. In D=3, time scales a thousand times larger than in previous work are reached with the SUE machine. Deviations from cumulative aging are observed in the non monotonic time behavior of the coherence length. Memory and rejuvenation effects are found in a temperature-cycle protocol, revealed by vanishing effective waiting times. Similar effects are reported for the D=3$site-diluted ferromagnetic Ising model (without chaos). However, rejuvenation is reduced if off-equilibrium corrections to the fluctuation-dissipation theorem are considered. Memory and rejuvenation are quantitatively describable in terms of the growth regime of the spin-glass coherence length.Comment: Extended protocols. Accepted in Phys. Rev. B. 10 postscript figure

Incentive Effects of Retirement Income Transfers

The paper explores the incentive effects of retirement income transfers – essentially, non-contributory cash transfers aimed at reducing poverty among the elderly. A literature review reveals how little academic analysis of the impact of these transfers has been completed. We begin with a taxonomy of retirement income transfers, differentiating between ex-ante and ex-post interventions and universal and targeted arrangements. This distinction allows important differences across designs to be highlighted. We then provide a simple framework for thinking about what the incentive impacts of the transfers might be, distinguishing between effects related to the transfer itself and those related to the financing mechanism. Thus, from theory and available empirical evidence we derive a few policy relevant findings. First, incentive effects will depend on the level of the transfer relative to average earnings and the degree of integration between the formal and informal sectors in the economy. In general, for modest transfers, negative impacts on savings and labor supply would be contained. Second, we highlight the tradeoff between maintaining low effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs) to reduce distortions and keeping the program costs at affordable levels. This tradeoff suggests that universal programs are suboptimal. Third, in terms of design features, we emphasize the importance of implementing a gradual withdrawal of the benefit to avoid crowding-out contributory pensions among low income individuals and of indexing the eligibility age with life expectancy to contain costs. Finally we find that matching contributions can be a promising instrument to promote savings among individuals with limited savings capacity.Social pensions, Pension coverage, Retirement Insurance, matching contributions

State-Uncertainty preferences and the Risk Premium in the Exchange rate market

This paper introduces state-uncertainty preferences into the Lucas (1982) economy, showing that this type of preferences helps to explain the exchange rate risk premium. Under these preferences we can distinguish between two factors driving the exchange rate risk premium: “macroeconomic risk” and “the risk associated with variation in the private agents’ perception on the level of uncertainty”. State-uncertainty preferences amount to assuming that a given level of consumption will yield a higher level of utility the lower is the level of uncertainty perceived by consumers. Furthermore, empirical evidence from three main European economies in the transition period to the euro provides empirical support for the modelForecasting, subspace methods, combining forecasts.

A new intermediate mass protostar in the Cepheus A HW2 region

We present the discovery of the first molecular hot core associated with an intermediate mass protostar in the CepA HW2 region. The hot condensation was detected from single dish and interferometric observations of several high excitation rotational lines (from 100 to 880K above the ground state) of SO2 in the ground vibrational state and of HC3N in the vibrationally excited states v7=1 and v7=2. The kinetic temperature derived from both molecules is 160K. The high-angular resolution observations (1.25'' x 0.99'') of the SO2 J=28(7,21)-29(6,24) line (488K above the ground state) show that the hot gas is concentrated in a compact condensation with a size of 0.6''(430AU), located 0.4'' (300AU) east from the radio-jet HW2. The total SO2 column density in the hot condensation is 10E18cm-2, with a H2 column density ranging from 10E23 to 6 x 10E24cm-2. The H2 density and the SO2 fractional abundance must be larger than 10E7cm-3 and 2 x 10E-7 respectively. The most likely alternatives for the nature of the hot and very dense condensation are discussed. From the large column densities of hot gas, the detection of the HC3N vibrationally excited lines and the large SO2 abundance, we favor the interpretation of a hot core heated by an intermediate mass protostar of 10E3 Lo. This indicates that the CepA HW2 region contains a cluster of very young stars

Philonotis pomangium (Bartramiaceae, Bryophyta): una adición a la flora briológica de Perú

Philonotis pomangium (Bartramiaceae, Bryophyta): una adición a la flora briológica de Perú. Philonotis pomangium es una especie neotropical registrada para Argentina, Bolivia y Brasil. Se caracteriza por las hojas ovado-lanceoladas, células de la lámina cuadradas hacia la base, papilosas en el ángulo distal, y propágulos presentes (tipo "brood branches"). Durante la revisión del género Philonotis en el sur de Sudamérica, algunos especímenes coleccionados en Perú coinciden con P. pomangium, una especie registrada por primera vez para el país. Adicionalmente, se estudió el ejemplar tipo de Philonotis boliviensis, y se la propone aquí como un nuevo sinónimo de P. pomangium. Se presenta una descripción detallada, fotomicrografías en MO y MEB, comentarios sobre la especie y una tabla comparativa de las especies emparentadas de Philonotis del Perú. La distribución Neotropical de P. pomangium se ilustra en un mapa.Philonotis pomangium is a neotropical species recorded from Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil. It is characterized by the ovate-lanceolate leaves, laminal cell quadrate at the base, papillose at the distal angles, and propagules present (brood branches). During the revision of the genus Philonotis in southern South America some samples collected in Peru agreed with P. pomangium, a species not recorded for the country. In addition, the study of the type specimens of Philonotis boliviensis was performed, and it is proposed as a new synonym of P. pomangium. A description, photomicrographs on OM and SEM, comments on the species, and a comparative table for related Philonotis species of Peru are here presented. The Neotropical distribution of P. pomangium is depicted in a map.Fil: Jimenez, Maria Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste; ArgentinaFil: Suarez, Guillermo Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; Argentin

Optimal Risk Management Before, During and After the 2008-09 Financial Crisis

In this paper we advance the idea that optimal risk management under the Basel II Accord will typically require the use of a combination of different models of risk. This idea is illustrated by analyzing the best empirical models of risk for five stock indexes before, during,and after the 2008-09 financial crisis. The data used are the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Financial Times Stock Exchange 100, Nikkei, Hang Seng and Standard and Poor’s 500 Composite Index. The primary goal of the exercise is to identify the best models for risk management in each period according to the minimization of average daily capital requirements under the Basel II Accord. It is found that the best risk models can and do vary before, during and after the 2008-09 financial crisis. Moreover, it is found that an aggressive risk management strategy, namely the supremum strategy that combines different models of risk, can result in significant gains in average daily capital requirements, relative to the strategy of using single models, while staying within the limits of the Basel II Accord.Financial portfolios, daily capital charges, frequency of violations, magnitude of violations, optimizing strategy, risk forecasts, value-at-risk, green zone, red zone.