Coherency Conditions In Simultaneous Linear Equation Models With Endogenous Switching Regimes

In modeling disequilibrium macroeconomic systems which one would want to subject to econometric estimation one typically faces the problem of whether the structural model can determine a unique equilibrium. The problem inherits a special form because the regimes in which the equilibria can lie are each linear. By placing restrictions on the parameters that insure the uniqueness of such a solution for each value of the exogenous and random variables, we can improve the estimation procedure. This paper provides necessary and sufficient conditions for uniqueness -- or "coherency." These conditions are applied to a variety of models that have been prominent in the literature on econometrics with 'switching regimes' such as those of self-selectivity (Maddala), simultaneous equation tobit and probit (Amemiya, Schmidt) and multi-market macroeconomic disequilibrium (Gourieroux, Laffont and Nonfort).

Influence of secondary phases during annealing on re-crystallization of CuInSe2 electrodeposited films

Electrodeposited CuInSe2 thin films are of potential importance, as light absorber material, in the next generation of photovoltaic cells as long as we can optimize their annealing process to obtain dense and highly crystalline films. The intent of this study was to gain a basic understanding of the key experimental parameters governing the structural–textural-composition evolution of thin films as function of the annealing temperature via X-ray diffraction, scanning/transmission electron microscopy and thermal analysis measurements. The crystallization of the electrodeposited CuInSe2 films, with the presence of Se and orthorhombic Cu2−xSe (o-Cu2−xSe) phases, occurs over two distinct temperature ranges, between 220 °C and 250 °C and beyond 520 °C. Such domains of temperature are consistent with the melting of elemental Se and the binary CuSe phase, respectively. The CuSe phase forming during annealing results from the reaction between the two secondary species o-Cu2−xSe and Se (o-Cu2−xSe+Se→2 CuSe) but can be decomposed into the cubic β-Cu2−xSe phase by slowing down the heating rate. Formation of liquid CuSe beyond 520°C seems to govern both the grain size of the films and the porosity of the substrate–CuInSe2 film interface. A simple model explaining the competitive interplay between the film crystallinity and the interface porosity is proposed, aiming at an improved protocol based on temperature range, which will enable to enhance the film crystalline nature while limiting the interface porosity

Inner Space Preserving Generative Pose Machine

Image-based generative methods, such as generative adversarial networks (GANs) have already been able to generate realistic images with much context control, specially when they are conditioned. However, most successful frameworks share a common procedure which performs an image-to-image translation with pose of figures in the image untouched. When the objective is reposing a figure in an image while preserving the rest of the image, the state-of-the-art mainly assumes a single rigid body with simple background and limited pose shift, which can hardly be extended to the images under normal settings. In this paper, we introduce an image "inner space" preserving model that assigns an interpretable low-dimensional pose descriptor (LDPD) to an articulated figure in the image. Figure reposing is then generated by passing the LDPD and the original image through multi-stage augmented hourglass networks in a conditional GAN structure, called inner space preserving generative pose machine (ISP-GPM). We evaluated ISP-GPM on reposing human figures, which are highly articulated with versatile variations. Test of a state-of-the-art pose estimator on our reposed dataset gave an accuracy over 80% on PCK0.5 metric. The results also elucidated that our ISP-GPM is able to preserve the background with high accuracy while reasonably recovering the area blocked by the figure to be reposed.Comment: http://www.northeastern.edu/ostadabbas/2018/07/23/inner-space-preserving-generative-pose-machine

Bisphenol A in Thermal Paper Receipts: Taylor et al. Respond

We agree with Schwartz and Landrigan that there is a need for change in the regulatory system for chemicals used in products in the United States. Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of thousands of chemicals of concern, but it provides a striking example of what happens when there is no requirement for premarket testing

Microstructural Characterization of Graphite Spheroids in Ductile Iron

The present work brings new insights by transmission electron microscopy allowing disregarding or supporting some of the models proposed for spheroidal growth of graphite in cast irons. Nodules consist of sectors made of graphite plates elongated along a hai direction and stack on each other with their c axis aligned with the radial direction. These plates are the elementary units for spheroidal growth and a calculation supports the idea that new units continuously nucleate at the ledge between sectors

Market Power and Collusion on Interconnection Phone Market in Tunisia : What Lessons from International Experiences

We try in this paper to characterize the state of mobile phone market in Tunisia. Our study is based on a survey of foreign experience (Europe) in detecting collusive behavior and a comparison of the critical threshold of collusion between operators in developing countries like Tunisia. The market power is estimated based on the work of Parker Roller (1997) and the assumption of "Balanced Calling Pattern". We use then the model of Friedman (1971) to compare the critical threshold of collusion. We show that the "conduct parameter" measuring the intensity of competition is not null during the period 1993-2011. Results show also that collusion is easier on the Tunisian market that on the Algerian, Jordanian, or Moroccan one

Size-dependent spinodal and miscibility gaps for intercalation in nano-particles

Using a recently-proposed mathematical model for intercalation dynamics in phase-separating materials [Singh, Ceder, Bazant, Electrochimica Acta 53, 7599 (2008)], we show that the spinodal and miscibility gaps generally shrink as the host particle size decreases to the nano-scale. Our work is motivated by recent experiments on the high-rate Li-ion battery material LiFePO4; this serves as the basis for our examples, but our analysis and conclusions apply to any intercalation material. We describe two general mechanisms for the suppression of phase separation in nano-particles: (i) a classical bulk effect, predicted by the Cahn-Hilliard equation, in which the diffuse phase boundary becomes confined by the particle geometry; and (ii) a novel surface effect, predicted by chemical-potential-dependent reaction kinetics, in which insertion/extraction reactions stabilize composition gradients near surfaces in equilibrium with the local environment. Composition-dependent surface energy and (especially) elastic strain can contribute to these effects but are not required to predict decreased spinodal and miscibility gaps at the nano-scale

Viable tax constitutions

Taxation is only sustainable if the general public complies with it. This observation is uncontroversial with tax practitioners but has been ignored by the public finance tradition, which has interpreted tax constitutions as binding contracts by which the power to tax is irretrievably conferred by individuals to government, which can then levy any tax it chooses. However, in the absence of an outside party enforcing contracts between members of a group, no arrangement within groups can be considered to be a binding contract, and therefore the power of tax must be sanctioned by individuals on an ongoing basis. In this paper we offer, for the first time, a theoretical analysis of this fundamental compliance problem associated with taxation, obtaining predictions that in some cases point to a re-interptretation of the theoretical constructions of the public finance tradition while in others call them into question

On the Investigation of a Novel Dual-Control-Gate Floating Gate Transistor for VCO Applications

A new MOS device called Dual-Control Gate Floating Gate Transistor (DCG-FGT) is used as a building block in analog design. This device offers new approaches in circuit design and allows developing new functionalities through two operating modes: Threshold Voltage Adjustable Mode, where the DCG-FGT behaves like a MOS transistor with an electrically adjustable threshold voltage. Mixer Signal Mode where the DCG-FGT can mix two independent signals on its floating gate. This device is developed to be fully compliant with CMOS Non Volatile Memory (NVM) process. An electrical model of the DCG-FGT has been implemented in an electrical simulator to be available for analog design. A DCG-FGT based ring oscillator is studied in this paper