Inflation and the User Cost of Capital: Does Inflation Still Matter?

In the late 1970s, many economists argued that the deleterious effects of inflation on the user cost of capital for U.S. firms were large. Since that time, the tax code has changed, the level of inflation has dropped significantly, and the of investment has evolved considerably. In this paper, we demonstrate that the net effect of these changes has--under reasonable assumptions--not relegated inflation to the sidelines. Indeed, we conclude that: (1) inflation, even at its relatively low current rates, continues to increase the user cost of capital significantly; (2) the marginal gain in investment in response to a percentage-point reduction in inflation is larger for lower levels of inflation; (3) the beneficial effects for steady-state consumption of lowering inflation even further than has been achieved to date would likely be significant; and (4) inflation has only a small impact on intratemporal distortion in the allocation of capital within the domestic business sector. We also show that the magnitude of the inflation effect on the user cost of capital is likely much smaller in open economies.

Land, Language, and Liberation: The Politics of Ainu Self-Representations

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College

Converting Static Image Datasets to Spiking Neuromorphic Datasets Using Saccades

Creating datasets for Neuromorphic Vision is a challenging task. A lack of available recordings from Neuromorphic Vision sensors means that data must typically be recorded specifically for dataset creation rather than collecting and labelling existing data. The task is further complicated by a desire to simultaneously provide traditional frame-based recordings to allow for direct comparison with traditional Computer Vision algorithms. Here we propose a method for converting existing Computer Vision static image datasets into Neuromorphic Vision datasets using an actuated pan-tilt camera platform. Moving the sensor rather than the scene or image is a more biologically realistic approach to sensing and eliminates timing artifacts introduced by monitor updates when simulating motion on a computer monitor. We present conversion of two popular image datasets (MNIST and Caltech101) which have played important roles in the development of Computer Vision, and we provide performance metrics on these datasets using spike-based recognition algorithms. This work contributes datasets for future use in the field, as well as results from spike-based algorithms against which future works can compare. Furthermore, by converting datasets already popular in Computer Vision, we enable more direct comparison with frame-based approaches.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures in Frontiers in Neuromorphic Engineering, special topic on Benchmarks and Challenges for Neuromorphic Engineering, 2015 (under review

Keeping the Faith: A Study of Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion in ASEAN

It is with great pleasure that I present to you the Human Rights Resource Centre’s fourth ASEAN-wide study, “Keeping the Faith: A Study of Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion in ASEAN”. Taking as its inspiration Article 22 of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, through which ASEAN governments have committed to eliminat“all forms of intolerance, discrimination and incitement of hatred based on religion and beliefs”, the study seeks to capture the legal landscape pertaining to freedom of thought,conscience and religion in ASEAN. It also hopes to assist ASEAN Member States in working toward an agreed policy response in their implementation of this provision. By providing an overview of state practice on the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion across the region, and considering serious issues of religious persecution and conflict that pose a challenge to regional peace and stability, the Centre aims to contribute to an ongoing dialogue amongst civil society organizations, academia and government about how best to diffuse tensions amongst different religious groups as well as to foster greater understanding and acceptance of different religions and belief systems amongst ASEAN peoples. Religions and beliefs are both important identity markers within ASEAN, and ones which continue to provide a wealth of ideas and ways of seeing the world to flourish within the ASEAN community. It is our hope that through this study the Centre can further contribute toward that flourishing. This study would not have been possible without the guidance and support from our team of expert advisors and editors, Professor David Cohen of the WSD HANDA Center for Human Rights andInternational Justice, Professor Kevin Tan from the National University of Singapore, Professor Tore Lindholm, Professor Emeritus of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, and Professors Cole Durham and Brett Scharffs from the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) at Brigham Young University. Our highest appreciation also goes to Dr. Jaclyn Neo, Lead Researcher on the study, and the outstanding country rapporteurs and research assistants. Once again, the study gathered both established and up and coming scholars from our research network. Last but not least, we would like to express our gratitude to the Norwegian Embassy in Jakarta for their support in this endeavour

Examining the terminology of race issues in assessments for international exchange students

This study examined assignments by students from a university in Scotland and a university in the USA, and explored the terminology used by student when referring to race issues in assignments linked to practice. The findings suggest the terminology of race issues in assessments may be inappropriate for students because they allow racism to be marginalized from practice or presented in a way that conveys little analysis

For a Life beyond Governing Persons: Alternative Reflections on Political Life History in Britain (and Beyond)

R.A.W. Rhodes is to be applauded for restating the case for life history methods within the field of political studies, and many of his arguments will be found unexceptionable by those actively working with such methods. Ironically, in his recent contribution to Political Studies Review Rhodes nevertheless eschews biographical and other forms of complexity in favour of essentialising comparison. A ‘British tradition of political biography’ is constructed according to inert criteria lacking explicit periodisation and excluding much current work. An overstated contrast is drawn between this tradition and an Australian one defined according to quite different disciplinary and chronological parameters. This article offers alternative reflections drawing on work on labour movement biographies developed through practices of transnational scholarly exchange and the rejection of methodological nationalism. Addressing the examples provided by Rhodes, and the use of life histories in his other recent work, we propose a life history method that goes beyond Governing Men

Interface Development for Static Multimedia Documents

We propose to create a set of software technologies and encoding practices that will allow for the encoding, displaying, and searching of static documents that mix print, manuscript, and visual images--documents such as printed texts or images bearing handwritten annotations. The technologies we plan to build include standards for encoding coordinates in XML transcriptions so that search engines can visually display results of user searches for manuscript words and phrases; software for linking XML editing programs to an image display to allow encoders to relate bitmap images to XML text; and model stylesheets capable of displaying transcriptions of annotated documents together with digital images of those documents. The goal will be to create a software suite that is simple enough to be used by transcribers with little familiarity with information encoding and portable enough to work in multiple computing environments for widely different kinds of archival projects

High order explicit exponential Runge-Kutta methods for the weak approximation of solutions of stochastic differential equations

We are concerned with numerical methods which give weak approximations for stiff Ito stochastic differential equations (SDEs). It is well known that the numerical solution of stiff SDEs leads to a stepsize reduction when explicit methods are used. However, there are some classes of explicit methods that are well suited to solving some types of stiff SDEs. One such class is the class of stochastic orthogonal Runge-Kutta Chebyshev (SROCK) methods. SROCK methods reduce to Runge-Kutta Chebyshev methods when applied to ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Another promising class of methods is the class of explicit methods that reduce to explicit exponential Runge-Kutta (RK) methods when applied to semilinear ODEs. In this paper, we will propose new exponential RK methods which achieve weak order one or two for multi-dimensional, non-commutative SDEs with a semilinear drift term, whereas they are of order one, two or three for semilinear ODEs. We will analytically investigate their stability properties in mean square, and will check their performance in numerical examples