Decomposition of the efficiency of the Chinese state-owned commercial banks at the provincial level

This study adopts a bank production function approach to the measurement of banking efficiency at the provincial level in the Chinese state-owned commercial banking sector from 1998 to 2003. Applying Data Envelopment Analysis and efficiency decomposition analysis, this paper has revealed a significant level of pure technical input inefficiency and, to a lesser extent, scale inefficiency across the provincial branches of all the banking groups. The study has also uncovered the extent of inefficiency in individual banking inputs and provincial branches. Finally, the provincial-level efficiency is further decomposed into within-banking-group and between-banking-group effects

Bounding the entanglement of N qubits with only four measurements

We introduce a new measure for the genuinely N-partite (all-party) entanglement of N-qubit states using the trace distance metric, and find an algebraic formula for the GHZ-diagonal states. We then use this formula to show how the all-party entanglement of experimentally produced GHZ states of an arbitrary number of qubits may be bounded with only four measurements

Genuinely Multipartite Concurrence of N-qubit X-matrices

We find an algebraic formula for the N-partite concurrence of N qubits in an X-matrix. X- matricies are density matrices whose only non-zero elements are diagonal or anti-diagonal when written in an orthonormal basis. We use our formula to study the dynamics of the N-partite entanglement of N remote qubits in generalized N-party Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states. We study the case when each qubit interacts with a partner harmonic oscillator. It is shown that only one type of GHZ state is prone to entanglement sudden death; for the rest, N-partite entanglement dies out momentarily. Algebraic formulas for the entanglement dynamics are given in both cases

Exact bond percolation thresholds in two dimensions

Recent work in percolation has led to exact solutions for the site and bond critical thresholds of many new lattices. Here we show how these results can be extended to other classes of graphs, significantly increasing the number and variety of solved problems. Any graph that can be decomposed into a certain arrangement of triangles, which we call self-dual, gives a class of lattices whose percolation thresholds can be found exactly by a recently introduced triangle-triangle transformation. We use this method to generalize Wierman's solution of the bow-tie lattice to yield several new solutions. We also give another example of a self-dual arrangement of triangles that leads to a further class of solvable problems. There are certainly many more such classes.Comment: Accepted for publication in J. Phys

Rotational 3D Printing of Sensor Devices using Reactive Ink Chemistries

This paper charts progress in three key areas of a project supported by both UK government and UK industry to manufacture novel sensor devices using rotary 3D printing technology and innovative ink chemistries; (1) the development of an STL file slicing algorithm that returns constant Z height 2D contour data at a resolution that matches the given print head setup, allowing digital images to be generated of the correct size without the need for scaling; (2) the development of image transformation algorithms which allow images to be printed at higher resolutions using tilted print heads and; (3) the formulation of multi part reaction inks which combine and react on the substrate to form solid material layers with a finite thickness. A Direct Light Projection (DLP) technique demonstrated the robustness of the slice data by constructing fine detailed three dimensional test pieces which were comparable to identical parts built in an identical way from slice data obtained using commercial software. Material systems currently under investigation include plaster, stiff polyamides and epoxy polymers and conductive metallic’s. Early experimental results show conductivities of silver approaching 1.42x105 Siemens/m.Mechanical Engineerin

The Air-temperature Response to Green/blue-infrastructure Evaluation Tool (TARGET v1.0) : an efficient and user-friendly model of city cooling

The adverse impacts of urban heat and global climate change are leading policymakers to consider green and blue infrastructure (GBI) for heat mitigation benefits. Though many models exist to evaluate the cooling impacts of GBI, their complexity and computational demand leaves most of them largely inaccessible to those without specialist expertise and computing facilities. Here a new model called The Air-temperature Response to Green/blue-infrastructure Evaluation Tool (TARGET) is presented. TARGET is designed to be efficient and easy to use, with fewer user-defined parameters and less model input data required than other urban climate models. TARGET can be used to model average street-level air temperature at canyon-to-block scales (e.g. 100 m resolution), meaning it can be used to assess temperature impacts of suburb-to-city-scale GBI proposals. The model aims to balance realistic representation of physical processes and computation efficiency. An evaluation against two different datasets shows that TARGET can reproduce the magnitude and patterns of both air temperature and surface temperature within suburban environments. To demonstrate the utility of the model for planners and policymakers, the results from two precinct-scale heat mitigation scenarios are presented. TARGET is available to the public, and ongoing development, including a graphical user interface, is planned for future work

Defining the complementarities between antibodies and haptens to refine our understanding and aid the prediction of a successful binding interaction

Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) for their support.Peer reviewedPublisher PD