Global Monte Carlo for fermions using ordered statistics

In this talk I discuss a new possibility for stochastic representation of the fe rmion determinant. The method can be used for global Monte Carlo fermion algorit hms and is tested in the case of the Schwinger model.Comment: 3 pages, Lattice2003 (Machines I

Limiting Government Predation Through Anonymous Banking: A Theory with Evidence from China

China's economic performance of the past two decades presents a puzzle for the economics of transition and development: Enormous private business incentives were unleashed that have fueled rapid economic growth despite the fact that China has had very weak "conventional institutions" (such as the rule of law and separation of powers) to constrain the government from arbitrary intrusion into economic activities. We argue that one mechanism that has limited the government's ability for predation and harassment is commitment through information decentralization, where the key institutiton is "anonymous banking," that is, a combination of the use of cash for transactions and the use of anonymous savings deposits. The government's incentive for such a mechanism comes form the increased quasi-fiscal revenues collected from the state banking system through "financial repression," a combination of controls on international capital flows with restrictions on domestic interest rates. The major features of China's economy concerning its fiscal decline, financial deepening, and the sectoral dual-track can be better understood using this analytical framework.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39659/3/wp275.pd

A Multi-Task Theory of the State Enterprise Reform

During transition, maintaining employment and providing a social safety net to the unemployed are important to social stability, which in turn is crucial for the productivity of the whole economy. Because independent institutions for social safety are lacking and firms with strong profit incentives have little incentives to promote social stability due to its public good nature, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are needed to continue their role in providing social welfare. Charged with the multi-tasks of efficient production as well as social welfare provision, SOEs continue to be given low profit incentives and consequently, their financial performance continues to be poor.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39751/3/wp367.pd

Multi-Methodological Approaches in Design Science: A Review, Proposal and Application

Multi-methodological research approaches have been strongly recommended for adoption to guide information systems (IS) research and deal with the complexities involved in the research. These research approaches require appropriate mapping and integration of multiple research methodologies. However, this is not an easy task to accomplish due to a series of philosophical, cultural and psychological issues involved. By reviewing and analyzing existing representative multi-methodological design science approaches, we identify that each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses. There is a clear gap between the need of multi-methodological approaches and the support from the existing research frameworks. To address these problems and issues, we propose an integrated multi-methodological research framework, which integrates strengths of the representative multi-methodological approaches and remedies their deficiencies. We demonstrate the application of the proposed framework by applying it to guide a research project in the field of information visualization, and discuss how the framework is deployed to address research problems/issues/ requirements and fulfill research objectives

Towards a Flexible User-Centred Visual Presentation Approach

Leveraging the power of flexible visual presentations has become an effective way to aid information interpretation, decision making and problem solving. It is indispensable to address the high complexities with visualization problems and relieve the impact from the intrinsic limitations of human cognitive capacity. Addressing these problems raises demanding requirements for information presentation flexibility. However, many existing visualization systems tend to provide weak support for such flexibility due to the issue of closely coupled information representation and presentation in system designs. This issue limits their support for rich presentation options, flexible presentation integration and reusability, and vivid storytelling of data. To help with addressing these problems, issues and requirements, this paper generalizes typical presentation models to provide paradigm level support for achieving presentation flexibility, and identifies key requirements for presentation development to accomplish the flexibility at a system level. With articulating the requirements at both paradigm and system levels, the paper proposes a user-centred process to realize presentation flexibility by meeting both functional and cognitive requirements for information presentation. The proposed theory is validated against a real-world business case and applied to guide the development of a prototypical system, which is demonstrated through a sequence of scenario-driven illustrations

Limiting Government Predation Through Anonymous Banking: A Theory with Evidence from China

China's economic performance of the past two decades presents a puzzle for the economics of transition and development: Enormous private business incentives were unleashed that have fueled rapid economic growth despite the fact that China has had very weak "conventional institutions" (such as the rule of law and separation of powers) to constrain the government from arbitrary intrusion into economic activities. We argue that one mechanism that has limited the government's ability for predation and harassment is commitment through information decentralization, where the key institutiton is "anonymous banking," that is, a combination of the use of cash for transactions and the use of anonymous savings deposits. The government's incentive for such a mechanism comes form the increased quasi-fiscal revenues collected from the state banking system through "financial repression," a combination of controls on international capital flows with restrictions on domestic interest rates. The major features of China's economy concerning its fiscal decline, financial deepening, and the sectoral dual-track can be better understood using this analytical framework.

On the maximum likelihood estimation for progressively censored lifetimes from constant-stress and step-stress accelerated tests

In order to gather the information about the lifetime distribution of a product, a standard life testing method at normal operating conditions is not practical when the product has an extremely long lifespan. Accelerated life testing solves this difficult issue by subjecting the test units at higher stress levels than normal for quicker and more failure data. The lifetime at the design stress is then estimated through extrapolation using an appropriate regression model. Estimation of the regression parameters based on exponentially distributed lifetimes from accelerated life tests has been considered by a number of authors using numerical methods but without systematic or analytical validation. In this article, we propose an alternative approach based on a simple and easy-to-apply graphical method, which also establishes the existence and uniqueness of the maximum likelihood estimates for constant-stress and step-stress accelerated life tests under progressive censorings

Error Propagation Mitigation in Sliding Window Decoding of Braided Convolutional Codes

We investigate error propagation in sliding window decoding of braided convolutional codes (BCCs). Previous studies of BCCs have focused on iterative decoding thresholds, minimum distance properties, and their bit error rate (BER) performance at small to moderate frame length. Here, we consider a sliding window decoder in the context of large frame length or one that continuously outputs blocks in a streaming fashion. In this case, decoder error propagation, due to the feedback inherent in BCCs, can be a serious problem.In order to mitigate the effects of error propagation, we propose several schemes: a \emph{window extension algorithm} where the decoder window size can be extended adaptively, a resynchronization mechanism where we reset the encoder to the initial state, and a retransmission strategy where erroneously decoded blocks are retransmitted. In addition, we introduce a soft BER stopping rule to reduce computational complexity, and the tradeoff between performance and complexity is examined. Simulation results show that, using the proposed window extension algorithm, resynchronization mechanism, and retransmission strategy, the BER performance of BCCs can be improved by up to four orders of magnitude in the signal-to-noise ratio operating range of interest, and in addition the soft BER stopping rule can be employed to reduce computational complexity.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1801.0323