Anonymous Market and Group Ties in International Trade

When trade involves differentiated products, preferential ties to a group settled abroad facilitate an exporter's entry into the foreign market by providing information and access to distribution channels. This contrasts with the difficulties experienced by an unattached producer unfamiliar with the foreign environment. Inspired by the role of coethnic ties and business groups in East Asia, we build a simple general equilibrium model of trade that formalizes this observation. Output is generated through bilateral matching o agents spanning a spectrum of types. Domestic matching is perfect--every trader knows the type of all others and can approach whomever he chooses, but international matching is random--every trader lacks the information to choose his partner's type. However, group ties allow perfect matching abroad to a minority of individuals who have access to them and can decide whether or not to exploit them. We show that in the absence of ties the existence of informational barriers reduces the volume of trade. By increasing trade, group ties are beneficial to the economy as a whole, but have significant distributional effects. On average, group members benefit, but some may lose; non-members lose almost without exception, with the largest losses concentrated among those with the poorest domestic market niches.

Radio-loudness in black hole transients: evidence for an inclination effect

Accreting stellar-mass black holes appear to populate two branches in a radio:X-ray luminosity plane. We have investigated the X-ray variability properties of a large number of black hole low-mass X-ray binaries, with the aim of unveiling the physical reasons underlying the radio-loud/radio-quiet nature of these sources, in the context of the known accretion-ejection connection. A reconsideration of the available radio and X-ray data from a sample of black hole X-ray binaries confirms that being radio-quiet is the more normal mode of behaviour for black hole binaries. In the light of this we chose to test, once more, the hypothesis that radio loudness could be a consequence of the inclination of the X-ray binary. We compared the slope of the `hard-line' (an approximately linear correlation between X-ray count rate and rms variability, visible in the hard states of active black holes), the orbital inclination, and the radio-nature of the sources of our sample. We found that high-inclination objects show steeper hard-lines than low-inclination objects, and tend to display a radio-quiet nature (with the only exception of V404 Cyg), as opposed to low-inclination objects, which appear to be radio-loud(er). While in need of further confirmation, our results suggest that - contrary to what has been believed for years - the radio-loud/quiet nature of black-hole low mass X-ray binaries might be an inclination effect, rather than an intrinsic source property. This would solve an important issue in the context of the inflow-outflow connection, thus providing significant constraints to the models for the launch of hard-state compact jets.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, accepted for pubblication on MNRA

The Effect of Historical Narratives and Flag Type

This research will examine the effect of mainstream or marginalized historical narratives and the Confederate or American flag on temporal distancing, patriotism, perception of injustice, and assimilationist national identity. We expect that participants exposed to marginalized narratives will indicate higher perceived distance, especially when exposed to the Confederate flag. We expect that participants exposed to mainstream narratives will be highest on blind patriotism, especially when exposed to the American flag. We expect that participants in the American flag marginalized narrative condition would perceive the most racism and would reject more assimilationist conceptions of national identity. For the dependent measures of patriotism, perception of injustice, and national identity, we expect to find differences within the Confederate flag condition according to the meaning participants associate with the Confederate flag. These results will help us understand how people may respond to threatening narratives, how flag exposure may impact that response, and how historical narratives or flags can be presented to increase social justice awareness

Gamut extension algorithm development and evaluation for the mapping of standard image content to wide-gamut displays

Wide-gamut display technology has provided an excellent opportunity to produce visually pleasing images, more so than in the past. However, through several studies, including Laird and Heynderick, 2008, it was shown that linearly mapping the standard sRGB content to the gamut boundary of a given wide-gamut display may not result in optimal results. Therefore, several algorithms were developed and evaluated for observer preference, including both linear and sigmoidal expansion algorithms, in an effort to define a single, versatile gamut expansion algorithm (GEA) that can be applied to current display technology and produce the most preferable images for observers. The outcome provided preference results from two displays, both of which resulted in large scene dependencies. However, the sigmoidal GEAs (SGEA) were competitive with the linear GEAs (LGEA), and in many cases, resulted in more pleasing reproductions. The SGEAs provide an excellent baseline, in which, with minor improvements, could be key to producing more impressive images on a wide-gamut display

Ghosts of Sorrow, Sin and Crime: Dark Tourism and Convict Heritage in Van Diemen’s Land, Australia.

Established as a British imperial penal colony, Van Diemen’s Land received approximately 75,000 convicts before cessation of convict transportation in 1853. A vast network of penal stations and institutions were created to accommodate, employ, administer, and discipline these exiled felons. Popular interpretations of Australia’s convict past highlight dynamics of shame, avoidance and active obliteration that characterized Australia’s relationship to its recent convict past. Yet, closer examination of these colonial institutions suggests a far more ambivalent relationship with this ‘dark heritage’, evidenced by continuous tourism and visitation to these places of pain and shame from the mid-19th century to the present day

The ABC of low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations in Black-Hole Candidates: analogies with Z-sources

Three main types of low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (LFQPOs) have been observed in Black Hole Candidates. We re-analyzed RXTE data of the bright systems XTE J1859+226, XTE J1550-564 and GX 339-4, which show all three of them. We review the main properties of these LFQPOs and show that they follow a well-defined correlation in a fractional rms vs. softness diagram. We show that the frequency behavior through this correlation presents clear analogies with that of Horizontal-, Normal- and Flaring-Branch Oscillations in Z sources, with the inverse of the fractional rms being the equivalent of the curvilinear coordinate Sz through the Z track.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted by ApJ, uses emulateap

The complex time behaviour of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 in the \rho-class observed with BeppoSAX. III: The hard X-ray delay and limit cycle mapping

The microquasar GRS1915+105 was observed by BeppoSAX in October 2000 for about ten days while the source was in \rho-mode, which is characterized by a quasi-regular type I bursting activity. This paper presents a systematic analysis of the delay of the hard and soft X-ray emission at the burst peaks. The lag, also apparent from the comparison of the [1.7-3.4] keV light curves with those in the [6.8-10.2] keV range, is evaluated and studied as a function of time, spectral parameters, and flux. We apply the limit cycle mapping technique, using as independent variables the count rate and the mean photon rate. The results using this technique were also cross-checked using a more standard approach with the cross-correlation methods. Data are organized in runs, each relative to a continuous observation interval. The detected hard-soft delay changes in the course of the pointing from about 3 s to about 10 s and presents a clear correlation with the baseline count rate.Comment: accepted for publication in A&

A simple scheme to improve the efficiency of referenda

This paper proposes a simple scheme designed to elicit and reward intensity of preferences in referenda: voters faced with a number of binary proposals are given one regular vote for each proposal plus an additional number of bonus votes to cast as desired. Decisions are taken according to the majority of votes cast. In our base case, where there is no systematic difference between proposals' supporters and opponents, there is always a positive number of bonus votes such that ex ante utility is increased by the scheme, relative to simple majority voting. When the distributions of valuations of supporters and opponents differ, the improvement in efficiency is guaranteed if the distributions can be ranked according to first order stochastic dominance. If they are, however, the existence of welfare gains is independent of the exact number of bonus votes