Understanding the World Wool Market: Trade, Productivity and Grower Incomes. Part 2: The Toolbox

This is Chapter 2 of my PhD thesis Understanding the World Wool Market: Trade, Productivity and Grower Incomes, UWA, 2006. In this chapter we present the tools used to construct the theoretical structure of the model presented in Chapter 3. The theory of the model is highly nonlinear but is specified in linearised form. In deriving the linearised form of the nonlinear functions, we make explicit the optimising behaviour that underlies the tools and their properties. We use the notational convention of expressing the levels form of a variable in capital letters and the percentage-change equivalent in lower case letters. We also discuss how the tools can be combined by assuming separability between functions.In this chapter we present the tools used to construct the theoretical structure of the model presented in Chapter 3. The theory of the model is highly nonlinear but is specified in linearised form. In deriving the linearised form of the nonlinear functions, we make explicit the optimising behaviour that underlies the tools and their properties. We use the notational convention of expressing the levels form of a variable in capital letters and the percentage-change equivalent in lower case letters. We also discuss how the tools can be combined by assuming separability between functions.

A Note on Cyclic Codes from APN Functions

Cyclic codes, as linear block error-correcting codes in coding theory, play a vital role and have wide applications. Ding in \cite{D} constructed a number of classes of cyclic codes from almost perfect nonlinear (APN) functions and planar functions over finite fields and presented ten open problems on cyclic codes from highly nonlinear functions. In this paper, we consider two open problems involving the inverse APN functions $f(x)=x^{q^m-2}$ and the Dobbertin APN function $f(x)=x^{2^{4i}+2^{3i}+2^{2i}+2^{i}-1}$. From the calculation of linear spans and the minimal polynomials of two sequences generated by these two classes of APN functions, the dimensions of the corresponding cyclic codes are determined and lower bounds on the minimum weight of these cyclic codes are presented. Actually, we present a framework for the minimal polynomial and linear span of the sequence $s^{\infty}$ defined by $s_t=Tr((1+\alpha^t)^e)$, where $\alpha$ is a primitive element in $GF(q)$. These techniques can also be applied into other open problems in \cite{D}

The ultrarelativistic Reissner-Nordstrom field in the Colombeau algebra

The electromagnetic field of the ultrarelativistic Reissner-Nordstrom solution shows the physically highly unsatisfactory property of a vanishing field tensor but a nonzero, i.e., delta-like, energy density. The aim of this work is to analyze this situation from a mathematical point of view, using the framework of Colombeau's theory of nonlinear generalized functions. It is shown that the physically unsatisfactory situation is mathematically perfectly defined and that one cannot aviod such situations when dealing with distributional valued field tensors.Comment: final version, minor grammatical change

Testing for Smooth Transition Nonlinearity in Adjustments of Cointegrating Systems

This paper studies testing for the presence of smooth transition nonlinearity in adjustment parameters of the vector error correction model. We specify the generalized model with multiple cointegrating vectors and different transition functions across equations. Given that the nonlinear model is highly complex, this paper proposes an optimal LM test based only on estimation of the linear model. The null asymptotic distribution is derived using empirical process theory and since the transition parameters of the model cannot be identified under the null hypothesis bootstrap procedures are used to approximate the limit. Monte Carlo simulations indicate a good performance of the test.Nonlinearity ; Cointegration ; Empirical process theory ; Bootstrap

Using the Zeldovich dynamics to test expansion schemes

We apply various expansion schemes that may be used to study gravitational clustering to the simple case of the Zeldovich dynamics. Using the well-known exact solution of the Zeldovich dynamics we can compare the predictions of these various perturbative methods with the exact nonlinear result and study their convergence properties. We find that most systematic expansions fail to recover the decay of the response function in the highly nonlinear regime. ``Linear methods'' lead to increasingly fast growth in the nonlinear regime for higher orders, except for Pade approximants that give a bounded response at any order. ``Nonlinear methods'' manage to obtain some damping at one-loop order but they fail at higher orders. Although it recovers the exact Gaussian damping, a resummation in the high-k limit is not justified very well as the generation of nonlinear power does not originate from a finite range of wavenumbers (hence there is no simple separation of scales). No method is able to recover the relaxation of the matter power spectrum on highly nonlinear scales. It is possible to impose a Gaussian cutoff in a somewhat ad-hoc fashion to reproduce the behavior of the exact two-point functions for two different times. However, this cutoff is not directly related to the clustering of matter and disappears in exact equal-time statistics such as the matter power spectrum. On a quantitative level, the usual perturbation theory, and the nonlinear scheme to which one adds an ansatz for the response function with such a Gaussian cutoff, are the two most efficient methods. These results should hold for the gravitational dynamics as well (this has been checked at one-loop order), since the structure of the equations of motion is identical for both dynamics.Comment: 29 pages, published in A&

Linear Codes from Some 2-Designs

A classical method of constructing a linear code over \gf(q) with a $t$-design is to use the incidence matrix of the $t$-design as a generator matrix over \gf(q) of the code. This approach has been extensively investigated in the literature. In this paper, a different method of constructing linear codes using specific classes of $2$-designs is studied, and linear codes with a few weights are obtained from almost difference sets, difference sets, and a type of $2$-designs associated to semibent functions. Two families of the codes obtained in this paper are optimal. The linear codes presented in this paper have applications in secret sharing and authentication schemes, in addition to their applications in consumer electronics, communication and data storage systems. A coding-theory approach to the characterisation of highly nonlinear Boolean functions is presented

Two-Dimensional Fluctuating Vesicles in Linear Shear Flow

The stochastic motion of a two-dimensional vesicle in linear shear flow is studied at finite temperature. In the limit of small deformations from a circle, Langevin-type equations of motion are derived, which are highly nonlinear due to the constraint of constant perimeter length. These equations are solved in the low temperature limit and using a mean field approach, in which the length constraint is satisfied only on average. The constraint imposes non-trivial correlations between the lowest deformation modes at low temperature. We also simulate a vesicle in a hydrodynamic solvent by using the multi-particle collision dynamics technique, both in the quasi-circular regime and for larger deformations, and compare the stationary deformation correlation functions and the time autocorrelation functions with theoretical predictions. Good agreement between theory and simulations is obtained.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure