1,398 research outputs found
Modernization of meat inspection
No full textCurrent pig meat inspection still has significant value in detecting and controlling hazards related to animal welfare, animal health and meat quality, but public health-relevant hazards detected largely include those that are transmitted to humans primarily via routes other than eating pork or lack evidence of causing human disease via pork consumption. On the other hand, the main pork safety hazards presently causing the majority of human foodborne illness (e.g. enteric pathogens Salmonella, Campylobacter, Yersinia), or causing serious concerns (e.g. protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii) do not cause any lesions observable by the current meat inspection.</p
Econometric issues in the estimation of the natural rate of interest
No full textThe natural rate of interest is a key benchmark steady-state rate of return that is used by central banks to measure the stance of monetary policy. Asset managers rely on estimates of the natural rate to make long-term investment decisions for their clients. This paper outlines a number of important econometric issues in the estimation of the natural rate of interest from a widely used structural model. Using a simulation experiment as well as empirical data for the U.S., I show that one of the key parameters of the structural model is overestimated and leads to a spuriously amplified downward trend in the natural rate. The paper shows how the overestimation can be remedied and provides alternative estimates of the natural rate. Various other issues are discussed that policy makers should be aware of when utilizing this model’s natural rate estimates for policy decision.</p
Equilibrium credit: the reference point for macroprudential supervisors
No full textEquilibrium credit is an important
concept because it helps identify excessive credit
provision. This paper proposes a two-stage approach to
determine equilibrium credit. It uses two stages to study
changes in the demand for credit due to varying levels of
economic, financial and institutional development of a
country. Using a panel of high and middle-income countries
over the period 1980-2010, this paper provides empirical
evidence that the credit-to-GDP ratio is inappropriate to
measure equilibrium credit. The reason for this is that such
an approach ignores heterogeneity in the parameters that
determine equilibrium credit across countries due to
different stages of economic development. The main drivers
of this heterogeneity are financial depth, access to
financial services, use of capital markets, efficiency and
funding of domestic banks, central bank independence, the
degree of supervisory integration, and experience of a
financial crisis. Countries in Europe and Central Asia show
a slower adjustment of credit to its long-run equilibrium
compared with other regions of the world
The AliEn system, status and perspectives
No full textIn preparation of the experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the ALICE collaboration has developed AliEn, a production environment that implements several components of the Grid paradigm needed to simulate, reconstruct and analyse data in a distributed way. Thanks to AliEn, the computing resources of a Virtual Organization can be seen and used as a single entity – any available node can execute jobs and access distributed datasets in a fully transparent way, wherever in the world a file or node might be. The system is built aroun d Open Source components, uses the Web Services model and standard network protocols to implement the computing platform that is currently being used to produce and analyse Monte Carlo data at over 30 sites on four continents. Several other HEP experiments as well as medical projects (EU MammoGRID, INFN GP-CALMA) have expressed their interest in AliEn or some components of it. As progress is made in the definition of Grid standards and interoperability, our aim is to interface AliEn to emerging products from both Europe and the US. In particular, it is our intention to make AliEn services compatible with the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA). The aim of this paper is to present the current AliEn architecture and outline its future developments in the light of emerging standards
AliEnFS - a Linux File System for the AliEn Grid Services
No full textAmong the services offered by the AliEn (ALICE Environment http://alien.cern.ch) Grid framework there is a virtual file catalogue to allow transparent access to distributed data-sets using various file transfer protocols. (AliEn File System) integrates the AliEn file catalogue as a new file system type into the Linux kernel using LUFS, a hybrid user space file system framework (Open Source http://lufs.sourceforge.net). LUFS uses a special kernel interface level called VFS (Virtual File System Switch) to communicate via a generalised file system interface to the AliEn file system daemon. The AliEn framework is used for authentication, catalogue browsing, file registration and read/write transfer operations. A C++ API implements the generic file system operations. The goal of AliEnFS is to allow users easy interactive access to a worldwide distributed virtual file system using familiar shell commands (f.e. cp,ls,rm ...) The paper discusses general aspects of Grid File Systems, the AliEn implementation and present and future developments for the AliEn Grid File System.Among the services offered by the AliEn (ALICE Environment http://alien.cern.ch) Grid framework there is a virtual file catalogue to allow transparent access to distributed data-sets using various file transfer protocols. (AliEn File System) integrates the AliEn file catalogue as a new file system type into the Linux kernel using LUFS, a hybrid user space file system framework (Open Source http://lufs.sourceforge.net). LUFS uses a special kernel interface level called VFS (Virtual File System Switch) to communicate via a generalised file system interface to the AliEn file system daemon. The AliEn framework is used for authentication, catalogue browsing, file registration and read/write transfer operations. A C++ API implements the generic file system operations. The goal of AliEnFS is to allow users easy interactive access to a worldwide distributed virtual file system using familiar shell commands (f.e. cp,ls,rm ...) The paper discusses general aspects of Grid File Systems, the AliEn implementation and present and future developments for the AliEn Grid File System
a virtual file catalogue to allow transparent access to distributed data-sets using various file transfer protocols. alienfs (AliEn File System) integrates the AliEn file catalogue as a new file system type into the Linux kernel using LUFS, a hybrid user space file system framework (Open Sourc
Forecast ranked tailored equity portfolios
No full textWe use a dynamic model averaging (DMA) approach to construct forecasts of individual equity returns for a large cross-section of stocks contained in the SP500, FTSE100, DAX30, CAC40 and SPX30 headline indices, taking value, momentum, and quality factors as predictor variables. Fixing the set of 'forgetting factors' in the DMA prediction framework, we show that highly significant return forecasts relative to the historic average benchmark are obtained for 173 (281) individual equities at the 1% (5%) level, from a total of 895 stocks. These statistical forecast improvements also translate into considerable economic gains, producing out-of-sample R-2 values above 5% (10%) for 283 (166) of the 895 individual stocks. Equally weighted long only portfolios constructed from a ranking of the best 25% forecasts in each headline index can generate sizable returns in excess of a passive investment strategy in that index itself, even when transaction costs and risk taking are accounted for.</p
Technical Design Report for the Upgrade of the Online-Offline Computing System
No full textThis document is the Technical Design Report for the Upgrade of the ALICE Online and Offline Computing to a new common system called (O^2) . The ALICE computing model, the functions of the new software framework and the new computing facility proposed to be built at the ALICE experimental area are set out in this document, together with the schedule of the project and the resources needed
Open access for ALICE analysis based on virtualization technology
No full textOpen access is one of the important leverages for long-term data preservation for a HEP experiment. To guarantee the usability of data analysis tools beyond the experiment lifetime it is crucial that third party users from the scientific community have access to the data and associated software. The ALICE Collaboration has developed a layer of lightweight components built on top of virtualization technology to hide the complexity and details of the experiment-specific software. Users can perform basic analysis tasks within CernVM, a lightweight generic virtual machine, paired with an ALICE specific contextualization. Once the virtual machine is launched, a graphical user interface is automatically started without any additional configuration. This interface allows downloading the base ALICE analysis software and running a set of ALICE analysis modules. Currently the available tools include fully documented tutorials for ALICE analysis, such as the measurement of strange particle production or the nuclear modification factor in Pb-Pb collisions. The interface can be easily extended to include an arbitrary number of additional analysis modules. We present the current status of the tools used by ALICE through the CERN open access portal, and the plans for future extensions of this system
The Australian Phillips curve and more
No full textA quantitative model is presented linking the rate of inflation and unemployment to the change in the level of labor force. The link between the involved variables is a linear one with all coefficients of individual and generalized models obtained empirically. To achieve the best fit between measured and predicted time series cumulative curves are used as a simplified version of the 1-D boundary elements method. All models for Australia are similar to those obtained for the US, France, Japan and other developed countries and thus validate the concept and related quantitative model.inflation, unemployment, labor force, modeling, Australia
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