Non-performing loans and productivity in Chinese Banks: 1997 - 2006

This study examines the productivity growth of the nationwide banks of China over the ten years to 2006. Using a bootstrap method for the Malmquist index estimates of productivity growth are constructed with appropriate confidence intervals. The paper adjusts for the quality of the output by accounting for the non-performing loans on the balance sheets and test for the robustness of the results by examining alternative sets of outputs. The productivity growth of the state-owned banks is compared with the Joint-stock banks and it determinants evaluated. The paper finds that average productivity of the Chinese banks improved modestly over this period. Adjusting for the quality of loans, by treating NPLs as an undesirable output, the average productivity growth of the state-owned banks was zero or negative while productivity of the Joint-Stock banks was markedly higher

Rational inefficiency and non-performing loans in Chinese banking: A non-parametric bootstrapping approach

The existing Chinese banking system was born out of a state-planning framework focussed on the funding of state-owned enterprises. Despite the development of a modern banking system, numerous studies of Chinese banking point to its high level of average inefficiency. Much of this inefficiency relates to the high level of non-performing loans held on the banks books. This study argues that a significant component of inefficiency relates to a defunct bureaucratic incentive structure. Using bootstrap non-parametric techniques the paper decomposes cost-inefficiency into X-inefficiency and rational inefficiency caused by bureaucratic rent seeking. In contrast to other studies of the Chinese banking sector, the paper argues that a change in the incentive structure and the competitive threat of the opening up of the banking market in 2007 has produced reduced inefficiency and improved performance

Non-performing loans and productivity in Chinese banks: 1997 - 2006

This study examines the productivity growth of the nationwide banks of China over the ten years to 2006. Using a bootstrap method for the Malmquist index estimates of productivity growth are constructed with appropriate confidence intervals. The paper adjusts for the quality of the output by accounting for the non-performing loans on the balance sheets and test for the robustness of the results by examining alternative sets of outputs. The productivity growth of the state-owned banks is compared with the Joint-stock banks and it determinants evaluated. The paper finds that average productivity of the Chinese banks improved modestly over this period. Adjusting for the quality of loans, by treating NPLs as an undesirable output, the average productivity growth of the state-owned banks was zero or negative while productivity of the Joint-Stock banks was markedly higher

Scalable information-sharing network management

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2011.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 56).This thesis analyzes scalable information-sharing network management. It looks into one of the large problems in network management today: finding information across different network domains. Information-sharing network management is a method to solving the problem, though it is important to make it scalable. The solution proposed uses the Publish-Subscribe Internet Routing Paradigm (PSIRP) inter-domain design as the base structure. The design borrows from Border Gateway Protocol ideas and uses the Chord protocol as one of the key methods of finding information. The conclusion after analyzing the scalability of PSIRP is that its use of Chord gives it an advantage that allows a tradeoff between performance and distribution.by Nina X. GuoM.Eng

Non-performing loans and productivity in Chinese banks: 1997-2006

This study examines the productivity growth of the nationwide banks of China over the ten years to 2006. Using a bootstrap method for the Malmquist index estimates of productivity growth are constructed with appropriate confidence intervals. The paper adjusts for the quality of the output by accounting for the non-performing loans on the balance sheets and test for the robustness of the results by examining alternative sets of outputs. The productivity growth of the state-owned banks is compared with the Joint-stock banks and it determinants evaluated. The paper finds that average productivity of the Chinese banks improved modestly over this period. Adjusting for the quality of loans, by treating NPLs as an undesirable output, the average productivity growth of the state-owned banks was zero or negative while productivity of the Joint-Stock banks was markedly higher

Scalable Information-Sharing Network Management

MEng thesisThis thesis analyzes scalable information-sharing network management. It looks into one of the large problems in network management today: finding information across different network domains. Information-sharing network management is a method to solving the problem, though it is important to make it scalable. The solution proposed uses the Publish-Subscribe Internet Routing Paradigm (PSIRP) inter-domain design as the base structure. The design borrows from Border Gateway Protocol ideas and uses the Chord protocol as one of the key methods of finding information. The conclusion after analyzing the scalability of PSIRP is that its use of Chord gives it an advantage that allows a O(log^2 N) tradeoff between performance and distribution

Lateral gene transfer of streptococcal ICE element RD2 (region of difference 2) encoding secreted proteins

Background: The genome of serotype M28 group A Streptococcus (GAS) strain MGAS6180 contains a novel genetic element named Region of Difference 2 (RD2) that encodes seven putative secreted extracellular proteins. RD2 is present in all serotype M28 strains and strains of several other GAS serotypes associated with female urogenital infections. We show here that the GAS RD2 element is present in strain MGAS6180 both as an integrative chromosomal form and a circular extrachromosomal element. RD2-like regions were identified in publicly available genome sequences of strains representing three of the five major group B streptococcal serotypes causing human disease. Ten RD2-encoded proteins have significant similarity to proteins involved in conjugative transfer of Streptococcus thermophilus integrative chromosomal elements (ICEs). Results: We transferred RD2 from GAS strain MGAS6180 (serotype M28) to serotype M1 and M4 GAS strains by filter mating. The copy number of the RD2 element was rapidly and significantly increased following treatment of strain MGAS6180 with mitomycin C, a DNA damaging agent. Using a PCR-based method, we also identified RD2-like regions in multiple group C and G strains of Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp.equisimilis cultured from invasive human infections. Conclusions: Taken together, the data indicate that the RD2 element has disseminated by lateral gene transfer to genetically diverse strains of human-pathogenic streptococci

Pandemic Culture Wars: Partisan Asymmetries in the Moral Language of COVID-19 Discussions

Effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic required coordinated adoption of mitigation measures, like masking and quarantines, to curb virus's spread. However, political divisions that emerged early in the pandemic hindered consensus on the appropriate response. To better understand these divisions, our study examines a vast collection of COVID-19-related tweets. We focus on five contentious issues: coronavirus origins, lockdowns, masking, education, and vaccines. We describe a weakly supervised method to identify issue-relevant tweets and employ state-of-the-art computational methods to analyze moral language and infer political ideology. We explore how ideological divisions and moral language shape conversations about these issues. Our findings reveal ideological differences in issue salience and the dynamics of moral language. We find that conservatives use more negatively-valenced moral language than liberals, but moral language use by conservatives is less persistent and appears to be driven by dynamics of the news cycle. Furthermore, we find that political elites use moral rhetoric to a greater extent than non-elites across most issues. Examining the evolution and moralization on divisive issues can provide valuable insights into the dynamics of COVID-19 discussions and assist policymakers in better understanding the emergence of ideological divisions

Analyzing drop coalescence in microfluidic devices with a deep learning generative model

Predicting drop coalescence based on process parameters is crucial for experimental design in chemical engineering. However, predictive models can suffer from the lack of training data and more importantly, the label imbalance problem. In this study, we propose the use of deep learning generative models to tackle this bottleneck by training the predictive models using generated synthetic data. A novel generative model, named double space conditional variational autoencoder (DSCVAE) is developed for labelled tabular data. By introducing label constraints in both the latent and the original space, DSCVAE is capable of generating consistent and realistic samples compared to the standard conditional variational autoencoder (CVAE). Two predictive models, namely random forest and gradient boosting classifiers, are enhanced on synthetic data and their performances are evaluated based on real experimental data. Numerical results show that a considerable improvement in prediction accuracy can be achieved by using synthetic data and the proposed DSCVAE clearly outperforms the standard CVAE. This research clearly provides more insights into handling imbalanced data for classification problems, especially in chemical engineering