Modelling the term structure of Japanese bond yields with the Nelson-Siegel model

The Nelson-Siegel (1987) (NS) model has been credited for its high efficacy in the in-sample fitting and out-of-sample forecasting of the term structures of interest rates. The term structure of interest rates, popularly known as the yield curve, is a static function that relates the time-to-maturity to the yield-to maturity for a sample of bonds at a given point in time. The conventional way of measuring the term structure is by means of the spot rate curve, or yield curve, on zero-coupon bonds. Yet in reality, the entire term structure is not directly observable, which gives rise to the need to estimate it using several approximation techniques. Over the last three decades, various methods to estimate term structures from bond prices have been proposed. In recent years most of the existing studies (as well as major central banks around the globe) have been employing the class of NS models to estimate and construct zero-coupon yield curves. This paper aims to study the term structure of the Japanese bond yields by employing the NS model vs other non-NS models using five different sets of zero-coupon bond yield rates data obtained from the Bank of Japan covering the period spanning from January 2000 to November 2007. This period has been chosen because it clearly exhibits the liquidity trap problem, which forces all bond yields to remain close to zero for an extended period. We propose 18 different NS models, each with different decay components and time series appendages, against 14 other non-NS models ranging from the simple random-walk model to complicated specifications like the VAR and VECM models. A h-period(s)-ahead out-of-sample expanding window forecast is conducted for each of these 32 different models, using daily, weekly and monthly bond yields of 15 different maturities. This study has demonstrated that due to the presence of liquidity trap in Japan, out-of-sample expanding window forecasts in general perform inferiorly vis-à-vis other non-NS models, and this is coupled with the other problem of obtaining negative yield forecasts for bonds with shorter maturities. Moreover, the results show that the NS class of models can be useful in forecasting shorter horizons like weeks and days, works better with a decay rate other than the conventional way of treating it as the value that maximizes the loading on the medium-term factor at exactly 30 months, and can work well with time series models such as GARCH and EGARCH in terms of volatility forecasting. It is also found that, when the NS models are used for yield forecasts, the NS-VAR model should be considered since it is up to par against the competitor models, even with liquidity trap at work

Sorption of Eu(III) on Attapulgite Studied by Batch, XPS and EXAFS Techniques.

The effects of pH, ionic strength and temperature on sorption of Eu(III) on attapulgite were investigated in the presence and absence of fulvic acid (FA) and humic acid (HA). The results indicated that the sorption of Eu(III) on attapulgite was strongly dependent on pH and ionic strength, and independent of temperature. In the presence of FA/HA, Eu(III) sorption was enhanced at pH 7. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis suggested that the sorption of Eu(III) might be expressed as ≡X3Eu0 ≡SwOHEu3+ and ≡SOEu-OOC-/HA in the ternary Eu/HA/attapulgite system. The extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis of Eu-HA complexes indicated that the distances of d(Eu-O) decreased from 2.451 to 2.360 Å with increasing pH from 1.76 to 9.50, whereas the coordination number (N) decreased from ~9.94 to ~8.56. Different complexation species were also found for the different addition sequences of HA and Eu(III) to attapulgite suspension. The results are important to understand the influence of humic substances on Eu(III) behavior in the natural environment

Impactos del riego con aguas cloacales en las propiedades del suelo de una granja en China: Una revisión

El agua limpia es un recurso valioso y juega un rol importante en mantener los desarrollos económico y social. La limitación de recursos hídricos ciertamente no permitirá un desarrollo sostenible de las industrias básicas en China en un futuro cercano, considerando su gran población y potencial de consumo. La aplicación de aguas cloacales, hasta cierto punto, se observó como un camino alternativo para resolver el problema de la escasez de agua en agricultura en algunas áreas (tales como en el Norte de China). Sin embargo, acompañado con una implementación extensiva de riego con aguas cloacales, algunos problemas se hicieron obvios, especialmente aquellos relacionados con la contaminación y destrucción de granjas. En este manuscrito se revisaron los efectos del riego con aguas cloacales en granjas en China sobre algunas características físicas (densidad aparente del suelo, resistencia del suelo a la penetración y capacidad de campo), químicas (pH, materia orgánica del suelo, nitrógeno, fósforo, potasio, metales pesados y contaminantes orgánicos) y biológicas de suelo (microorganismos del suelo, y actividad enzimática). Esto se basó en el grado actual de utilización del riego con aguas cloacales de las granjas de China. Se propusieron algunas sugerencias posibles con respecto a las perspectivas de desarrollo en el futuro. Esta revisión será benéfica para promover un desarrollo saludable del riego con aguas cloacales y proveer un apoyo teórico para el reclamo y un gran uso eficiente de los efluentes en China.Fresh water is a valuable nonrenewable resource and plays an important role in maintaining economic and social development. Considering its large population and consumption potential, water resource deficits will certainly not allow a sustainable development of basic industries in China in the near future. Application of sewage irrigation, to some extent, was regarded as an alternative way to solve the problem of agricultural water shortage in some areas (such as North China). However, accompanied with an extensive implementation of sewage irrigation, some problems with sewage irrigation became gradually obvious in agriculture, especially those related with pollution and destruction of farmlands. In this paper, the effects of sewage irrigation on soil physical (soil bulk density, soil resistance to penetration and field capacity), chemical (pH, soil organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, heavy metal and organic pollutants) and biological characteristics (soil microorganisms and enzyme activities) were systematically reviewed on farmlands in China, based on the current utilization status of China’s farmland sewage irrigation. Some feasible suggestions were put forward to the development prospects in the future. This review will be beneficial for promoting a healthy development of sewage irrigation and providing a theoretical support for reclamation and a high efficiency use of effluents in China.Fil: Li, Q.K.. Yellow River Conservancy Commission. Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research; ChinaFil: Tang, J.. Henan Institute of Science and Technology. School of Resource and Environment ; ChinaFil: Wang, T.. Henan Bureau of Geo-Exploration & Mineral Development. Third Institute of Geo-exploration Institute; ChinaFil: Wu, D.. Henan Institute of Science and Technology. School of Resource and Environment ; ChinaFil: Busso, Carlos Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Agronomía; ArgentinaFil: Jiao, R.F.. Henan Institute of Science and Technology. School of Resource and Environment ; ChinaFil: Ren, J.X.. Henan Institute of Science and Technology. School of Resource and Environment ; Chin

Thermodynamic properties of the d-density wave order in cuprates

We solve a popular effective Hamiltonian of competing $d$-density wave and d-wave superconductivity orders self-consistently at the mean-field level for a wide range of doping and temperature. The theory predicts a temperature dependence of the $d$-density wave order parameter seemingly inconsistent with the neutron scattering and $\mu$SR experiments of the cuprates. We further calculate thermodynamic quantities, such as chemical potential, entropy and specific heat. Their distinct features can be used to test the existence of the $d$-density wave order in cuprates.Comment: changed to 4 pages and 4 figures. More reference added. Accepted by Phys. Rev.

Hot air drying characteristics and nutrients of apricot armeniaca vulgaris lam pretreated with Radio Frequency(RF)

[EN] Apricot pretreated with RF and then dried with convective hot air at 65℃, 3.0m/s in this research. RF pretreatment time of 20, 30, 40 and 50min were chosen. Results showed that, there is only falling rate period during apricot hot air drying, and the drying rate of apricot is improved significantly; Herdenson and Pabis model is suitable for apricot hot air drying; retentions of flavonoids, polyphenols and Vc in dried apricot were higher than those of fresh apricot; when RF treating time was chosen 30mins, nutrients retentions of Vc, flavonoid and polyphenols were 0.9543mg/100g, 5.4089mg/100g and 7.3382mg/100g, separately.The work was financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (NO. GK201503072 and GK201601007).Peng, M.; Liu, J.; Lei, Y.; Yang, X.; Wu, Z.; Huang, X. (2018). Hot air drying characteristics and nutrients of apricot armeniaca vulgaris lam pretreated with Radio Frequency(RF). En IDS 2018. 21st International Drying Symposium Proceedings. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1583-1590. https://doi.org/10.4995/IDS2018.2018.7524OCS1583159

Alterations in the processing of non-drug-related affective stimuli in abstinent heroin addicts.

Long-term exposure to drug may alter the neural system associated with affective processing, as evidenced by both clinical observations and behavioral data documenting dysfunctions in emotional experiences and processing in drug addicts. Although many imaging studies examined neural responses to drug or drug-related cues in addicts, there have been few studies explicitly designed to reveal their neural abnormalities in processing non-drug-related natural affective materials. The present study asked abstinent heroin addicts and normal controls to passively view standardized affective pictures of positive, negative, or neutral valence and compared their brain activities with functional MRI. Compared to normal controls, addicts showed reduced activation in right amygdala in response to the affective pictures, consistent with previous reports of blunted subjective experience for affective stimuli in addicts. Furthermore, in two visual cortical areas BA 19 and 37, while the controls showed greater responses to positive pictures than to negative ones replicating literature findings, the addicts showed the opposite pattern. The results reveal a complex pattern of altered processing of non-drug-related affective materials in addicts showing both heightened and blunted neural responses in different brain regions and for different stimulus valence. The present study highlights the importance of brain imaging research on drug addicts' processing of affective stimuli in understanding disruptions in their emotion circuitry

Spreading Dynamics of Polymer Nanodroplets

The spreading of polymer droplets is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. To study the dynamics of both the precursor foot and the bulk droplet, large drops of ~200,000 monomers are simulated using a bead-spring model for polymers of chain length 10, 20, and 40 monomers per chain. We compare spreading on flat and atomistic surfaces, chain length effects, and different applications of the Langevin and dissipative particle dynamics thermostats. We find diffusive behavior for the precursor foot and good agreement with the molecular kinetic model of droplet spreading using both flat and atomistic surfaces. Despite the large system size and long simulation time relative to previous simulations, we find no evidence of hydrodynamic behavior in the spreading droplet.Comment: Physical Review E 11 pages 10 figure

Top-illuminated dye-sensitized solar cells with a room-temperature- processed ZnO photoanode on metal substrates and a Pt-coated Ga-doped ZnO counter electrode

We report on top-illuminated, fluorine tin oxide/indium tin oxide-free (FTO/ITO-free), dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) using room-temperature- processed ZnO layers on metal substrates as the working electrodes and Pt-coated Ga-doped ZnO layers (GZO) as the counter electrodes. These top-illuminated DSCs with GZO render comparable efficiency to those employing commercial FTO counter electrodes. Despite a lower current density, the top-illuminated DSCs result in a higher fill factor than conventional DSCs due to a low ohmic loss at the electrode/semiconductor interface. The effect of metal substrate on the performance of the resulting top-illuminated DSCs is also studied by employing various metals with different work functions. Ti is shown to be a suitable metal to be used as the working electrode in the top-illuminated device architecture owing to its low ohmic loss at the electrode/semiconductor interface, minimum catalytic activity on redox reactions and high resistance to corrosion by liquid electrolytes. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd

Spin-Polarized Transport Across an La0.7_{0.7}Sr0.3_{0.3}MnO3_{3}/YBa2_{2}Cu3_{3}O7_{7} Interface: Role of Andreev Bound States

Transport across an La$_{0.7}$Sr$_{0.3}MnO$_{3}/YBa$_{2}Cu$_{3}$O$_{7}$(LSMO/YBCO), interface is studied as a function of temperature and surface morphology. For comparison, control measurements are performed in non-magnetic heterostructures of LaNiO$_{3}$/YBCO and Ag/YBCO. In all cases, YBCO is used as bottom layer to eliminate the channel resistance and to minimize thermal effects. The observed differential conductance re ects the role of Andreev bound states in a-b planes, and brings out for the first time the suppression of such states by the spin-polarized transport across the interface. The theoretical analysis of the measured data reveals decay of the spin polarization near the LSMO surface with temperature, consistent with the reported photoemission data.Comment: 5 pages LaTeX, 3 eps figures included, accepted by Physical Review

Calculated phase diagrams, iron tolerance limits, and corrosion of Mg-Al alloys

The factors determining corrosion are reviewed in this paper, with an emphasis on iron tolerance limit and the production of high-purity castings. To understand the iron impurity tolerance limit, magnesium phase diagrams were calculated using the Pandat software package. Calculated phase diagrams can explain the iron tolerance limit and the production of high-purity castings by means of control of melt conditions; this is significant for the production of quality castings from recycled magnesium. Based on the new insight, the influence of the microstructure on corrosion of magnesium alloys is reviewed