English language teaching in Taiwan : a study of the effects of teaching culture on motivation and identity.

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Capacity Analysis of Linear Operator Channels over Finite Fields

Motivated by communication through a network employing linear network coding, capacities of linear operator channels (LOCs) with arbitrarily distributed transfer matrices over finite fields are studied. Both the Shannon capacity $C$ and the subspace coding capacity $C_{\text{SS}}$ are analyzed. By establishing and comparing lower bounds on $C$ and upper bounds on $C_{\text{SS}}$, various necessary conditions and sufficient conditions such that $C=C_{\text{SS}}$ are obtained. A new class of LOCs such that $C=C_{\text{SS}}$ is identified, which includes LOCs with uniform-given-rank transfer matrices as special cases. It is also demonstrated that $C_{\text{SS}}$ is strictly less than $C$ for a broad class of LOCs. In general, an optimal subspace coding scheme is difficult to find because it requires to solve the maximization of a non-concave function. However, for a LOC with a unique subspace degradation, $C_{\text{SS}}$ can be obtained by solving a convex optimization problem over rank distribution. Classes of LOCs with a unique subspace degradation are characterized. Since LOCs with uniform-given-rank transfer matrices have unique subspace degradations, some existing results on LOCs with uniform-given-rank transfer matrices are explained from a more general way.Comment: To appear in IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Currency Board Versus Central Bank in a Currency Crisis

From June 1997 till presently had been a period of economic turmoil for many parts of the Asian region. There has been experiences of economic overheating, inflation, deficit balance of payments, rising interest rate s coupled with the downward spiral of the stock market s and currency devaluations. This has brought about numerous debates on the causes and remedies of this crisis. Among them are the usefulness of the currency board regime in regulating the exchange rate s of the countries involved. This is an alternative system to the present regime of central bank s in managing the countries' money supply. The currency board basically is a monetary regime whereby the exchange rate of the country as fixed with a chosen anchor currency whereby all its money supply must be 100% backed by its foreign reserves. The central bank system employs the floating exchange rate which has been unsuccessful in warding off speculations on the currency. Further many other disadvantages will be discussed in this thesis. This thesis discuss the comparative characteristics between the currency board and the central bank monetary regime in all its advantages and disadvantages. An attempt i s made to define the currency board and the central bank and the many versions associated with them. (Le., classical, modern and AEL-Argentina, Lithuania, Estonia -model) A closely related concept to the currency board, namely dollarization is also discussed

On Linear Operator Channels over Finite Fields

Motivated by linear network coding, communication channels perform linear operation over finite fields, namely linear operator channels (LOCs), are studied in this paper. For such a channel, its output vector is a linear transform of its input vector, and the transformation matrix is randomly and independently generated. The transformation matrix is assumed to remain constant for every T input vectors and to be unknown to both the transmitter and the receiver. There are NO constraints on the distribution of the transformation matrix and the field size. Specifically, the optimality of subspace coding over LOCs is investigated. A lower bound on the maximum achievable rate of subspace coding is obtained and it is shown to be tight for some cases. The maximum achievable rate of constant-dimensional subspace coding is characterized and the loss of rate incurred by using constant-dimensional subspace coding is insignificant. The maximum achievable rate of channel training is close to the lower bound on the maximum achievable rate of subspace coding. Two coding approaches based on channel training are proposed and their performances are evaluated. Our first approach makes use of rank-metric codes and its optimality depends on the existence of maximum rank distance codes. Our second approach applies linear coding and it can achieve the maximum achievable rate of channel training. Our code designs require only the knowledge of the expectation of the rank of the transformation matrix. The second scheme can also be realized ratelessly without a priori knowledge of the channel statistics.Comment: 53 pages, 3 figures, submitted to IEEE Transaction on Information Theor

Potential for well-being in peer-to-peer sharing economy: a systematic review and modeling

Humans pursue well-being in their lives. Well-being encompasses positive emotions, life satisfaction, healthy functioning, meaning of life, and self-growth. In ancient times, sharing was an intimate behavior that consolidated communities and led to an ideal life, which refers to well-being in the present. Sharing economy sheds light on a novel business model in which people can develop their well-being while sharing resources/goods and services among strangers. However, prior research shows that users participate in the sharing economy because of self-interest rather than social interaction or sustainability. Sustainable well-being is important not only for us but also for our communities and our planet. This study investigates how the components of well-being can be built into a sharing economy and foster users to pursue it in the long-term. It reviews and synthesizes prior studies to (1) elucidate the components of well-being in the peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing economy, (2) model the sharing ecosystem with components of well-being from a global perspective, and (3) discuss the design solutions for a P2P sharing platform to facilitate well-being. Furthermore, it provides examples of practices to illustrate the proposed model. We believe this study not only motivates platformers to consider users’ well-being but also promotes sustainable functioning of the sharing ecosystem