Promoting energy partnership in Beijing and Washington

Although China and the United States do not rely on one another for energy supplies, the prospects for energy to become a cause for more serious clashes are high. Both countries should move beyond dialogue toward a true partnership that can confront the common challenges they face as importers. © 2007 by The Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.published_or_final_versio

Normalization in econometrics

The issue of normalization arises whenever two different values for a vector of unknown parameters imply the identical economic model. A normalization does not just imply a rule for selecting which point, among equivalent ones, to call the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). It also governs the topography of the set of points that go into a small-sample confidence interval associated with that MLE. A poor normalization can lead to multimodal distributions, disjoint confidence intervals, and very misleading characterizations of the true statistical uncertainty. This paper introduces the identification principle as a framework upon which a normalization should be imposed, according to which the boundaries of the allowable parameter space should correspond to loci along which the model is locally unidentified. The authors illustrate these issues with examples taken from mixture models, structural VARs, and cointegration.

The effect of tax structure in economic growth

The main goal of this paper is to analyse the effect of the tax structure in the economic growth of Kosovo in the period 2007-2015. The study intends to evaluate the impact of specific types of taxes on economic growth. The methodology is based on comparative analysis of data using primary and secondary sources. Through the econometric model and linear regression analysis, the research hypotheses have been tested with STATA application/software to calculate the impact of tax structure in economic growth. The econometric model includes several independent variables (types of taxes), and the dependent variable GDP. Based on data obtained through the log-log model, the results show the impact of special taxes such as Pt, It, VAT, Wt, Ibt, Tdr.., Ct on GDP. The results show that most of the taxes have a positive impact on GDP growth; it is also shown that not all taxes have the same impact on economic growth. In the econometric analysis the coefficient of R2=0,999 reflects the high degree of determination with 99.9% forecasting accuracy.peer-reviewe

A genuine maximally seven-qubit entangled state

Contrary to A.Borras et al.'s [1] conjecture, a genuine maximally seven-qubit entangled state is presented. We find a seven-qubit state whose marginal density matrices for subsystems of 1,2- qubits are all completely mixed and for subsystems of 3-qubits is almost completely mixed

Zero Field precession and hysteretic threshold currents in spin torque oscillators with tilted polarizer

Using non-linear system theory and numerical simulations we map out the static and dynamic phase diagram in zero applied field of a spin torque oscillator with a tilted polarizer (TP-STO).We find that for sufficiently large currents, even very small tilt angles (beta>1 degree) will lead to steady free layer precession in zero field. Within a rather large range of tilt angles, 1 degree< beta <19 degree, we find coexisting static states and hysteretic switching between these using only current. In a more narrow window (1 degree<beta<5 degree) one of the static states turns into a limit cycle (precession). The coexistence of static and dynamic states in zero magnetic field is unique to the tilted polarizer and leads to large hysteresis in the upper and lower threshold currents for TP-STO operation.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Transverse optical plasmons in layered superconductors

We discuss the possible existance of transverse optical plasma modes in superlattices consisting of Josephson coupled superconducting layers. These modes appear as resonances in the current-current correlation function, as opposed to the usual plasmons which are poles in the density-density channel. We consider both bilayer superlattices, and single layer lattices with a spread of interlayer Josephson couplings. We show that our model is in quantitative agreement with the recent experimental observation by a number of groups of a peak at the Josephson plasma frequency in the optical conductivity of La$_{1.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$CuO$_4$Comment: Proceedings of LT21, in press, 4 pages, Latex with LTpaper.sty and epsfig.sty, 2 postscript figure

Model of C-Axis Resistivity of High-\Tc Cuprates

We propose a simple model which accounts for the major features and systematics of experiments on the $c$-axis resistivity, $\rho_c$, for \lsco, \ybco and \bsco . We argue that the $c$-axis resistivity can be separated into contributions from in-plane dephasing and the $c$-axis ``barrier'' scattering processes, with the low temperature semiconductor-like behavior of $\rho_c$ arising from the suppression of the in-plane density of states measured by in-plane magnetic Knight shift experiments. We report on predictions for $\rho_c$ in impurity-doped \ybco materials.Comment: 10 pages + figures, also see March Meeting J13.1

Nighttime chemistry at a high altitude site above Hong Kong

Nighttime reactions of nitrogen oxides influence ozone, volatile organic compounds, and aerosol and are thus important to the understanding of regional air quality. Despite large emissions and rapid recent growth of nitrogen oxide concentrations, there are few studies of nighttime chemistry in China. Here we present measurements of nighttime nitrogen oxides, NO3 and N2O5, from a coastal mountaintop site in Hong Kong adjacent to the megacities of the Pearl River Delta region. This is the first study of nighttime chemistry from a site within the residual layer in China. Key findings include the following. First, highly concentrated urban NOx outflow from the Pearl River Delta region was sampled infrequently at night, with N2O5 mixing ratios up to 8 ppbv (1 min average) or 12 ppbv (1 s average) in nighttime aged air masses. Second, the average N2O5 uptake coefficient was determined from a best fit to the available steady state lifetime data as γ(N2O5) = 0.014 ± 0.007. Although this determination is uncertain due to the difficulty of separating N2O5 losses from those of NO3, this value is in the range of previous residual layer determinations of N2O5 uptake coefficients in polluted air in North America. Third, there was a significant contribution of biogenic hydrocarbons to NO3 loss inferred from canister samples taken during daytime. Finally, daytime N2O5 mixing ratios were in accord with their predicted photochemical steady state. Heterogeneous uptake of N2O5 in fog is determined to be an important production mechanism for soluble nitrate, even during daytime. Key Points Large (up to 12 ppbv N2O5) but infrequent nocturnal NOx outflow from the Pearl River Delta Average N2O5 uptake coefficients 0.014 ± 0.007, in line with residual layer measurements in the U.S. Daytime N2O5 follows predicted steady state but rapidly produces soluble nitrate in fog.Department of Civil and Environmental Engineerin