Exchange rate sensitivity of China’s bilateral trade flows

Traditional assessments of the impact of exchange rate depreciation or appreciation on trade have involved estimating the elasticity of trade volume to relative prices. Such studies relied heavily on aggregated trade data. More recent studies employ bilateral trade data and methodologies such as ECM and gravity models. This study uses a generalized gravity model with data panel analysis in assessing the impact of currency depreciation or appreciation on bilateral trade flows between China and its top trading partners. The empirical evidence suggests exchange rates (both real and nominal) do not exert a significant influence on the overall exports from China. Thus, a devaluation or revaluation of the yuan should be expected to have only limited impact on China’s trade balance. Moreover, previous studies provide limited evidence of a negative relation between exchange rate volatility and trade flows. Given the current revaluation expectations, we find China’s anticipated shift toward a more flexible exchange rate regime fails to address China’s trade surplus issues, and thus will merely lead to a revaluation of the nominal exchange rate and increased exchange rate volatility. It appears a major overhaul of the country’s heavily subsidized export regime must first occur for the exchange rate to assume a larger role in China’s international trade.exchange rate; trade; China; competition; gravity model; panel

Essays on Roles of Directors in Corporate Governance

The three chapters in the thesis provide some innovative explanations and perspectives regarding the role of directors, particularly, independent directors in a transaction market – China and in a developed market- UK. In “Auditor Change and Corporate Governance: Audit Committee Reputation”, I provide a new empirical evidence that reputation is a strong incentive to independent directors to work diligently. I select audit committee in the UK as the study object because their roles on board are well-defined and the reputation cost for audit committee member is larger than that for other directors. Firstly, this chapter shows that the probability of auditor change increases with the proportion of reputable members. Second, reputable members tend to switch an auditor which offers a high audit quality, measured by better brand-name, bigger size, and higher independence. This chapter further shows that the reduce discretionary accruals, a proxy for earnings management, only follows an audit change driven/approved by the audit committee, rather than involuntary auditor change (market shock). In “CEO Dismissal, Compensation and Topics of Board Meetings: The Case of China”, I provide a better understanding of how board activity affects board effectiveness in linking CEO compensation/dismissal to firm performance. There are six major topics discussed in board meetings. Our results show that turnover-performance sensitivity is weaker when there is a higher frequency of board meetings discussing the nomination of directors and top management. Moreover, the link between CEO compensation and firm performance is enhanced only when directors meet more often to discuss growth strategies for the use of IPO proceeds, investment and acquisitions. These sensitivities are not influenced by meeting frequency of other topics. It also sheds lights on how board monitoring of different decisions at board meetings modifies the connection between CEO interests and firm performance, then affect the quality of corporate governance. In “The Hidden Information Content: Evidence from the Tone of Independent Director Reports”, I utilise a Naïve Bayesian machine learning algorithm combining with the Chinese word segmentation to inspect the information content (the tone) of independent director report, a unique disclosure of independent director. This chapter firstly examines the determinants of a report tone, firms with younger independent directors, more directors with accounting expertise, more board committees, more board meetings, less leverage, and controlled by private shareholders tend to have more positive IDRs. The chapter further tests whether the tone in the report has predicted power to the future performance given that the tone of reports is based on director’s overall satisfactions of the firm. The average tone of the IDRs is positively associated with future firm performance after controlling other factors that influence firm performance. Moreover, the negative tone of IDRs is negatively correlated with firm performance for firms with greater monitoring necessities

How Does the Low-Rank Matrix Decomposition Help Internal and External Learnings for Super-Resolution

Wisely utilizing the internal and external learning methods is a new challenge in super-resolution problem. To address this issue, we analyze the attributes of two methodologies and find two observations of their recovered details: 1) they are complementary in both feature space and image plane, 2) they distribute sparsely in the spatial space. These inspire us to propose a low-rank solution which effectively integrates two learning methods and then achieves a superior result. To fit this solution, the internal learning method and the external learning method are tailored to produce multiple preliminary results. Our theoretical analysis and experiment prove that the proposed low-rank solution does not require massive inputs to guarantee the performance, and thereby simplifying the design of two learning methods for the solution. Intensive experiments show the proposed solution improves the single learning method in both qualitative and quantitative assessments. Surprisingly, it shows more superior capability on noisy images and outperforms state-of-the-art methods

Emotional Design: An Overview

Emotional design has been well recognized in the domain of human factors and ergonomics. In this chapter, we reviewed related models and methods of emotional design. We are motivated to encourage emotional designers to take multiple perspectives when examining these models and methods. Then we proposed a systematic process for emotional design, including affective-cognitive needs elicitation, affective-cognitive needs analysis, and affective-cognitive needs fulfillment to support emotional design. Within each step, we provided an updated review of the representative methods to support and offer further guidance on emotional design. We hope researchers and industrial practitioners can take a systematic approach to consider each step in the framework with care. Finally, the speculations on the challenges and future directions can potentially help researchers across different fields to further advance emotional design.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163319/1/Emotional_Design_Manuscript_Final.pdfSEL

A Stackelberg Solution to Joint Optimization Problems: A Case Study of Green Design

AbstractDesign of complex engineered systems often involves optimization of multiple competing problems that are supposed to compromise to arrive at equilibrium optima, entailing a joint optimization problem. This paper reveals the leader-follower decision structure inherent in joint optimization problems. A Stackelberg game solution is formulated to model a leader-follower joint optimization problem as a two-level optimization problem between two decision makers, implicating a mathematical program that contains sub-optimization problems as its constraints. A case study of coffee grinder green design demonstrates the potential of Stackelberg solution to joint optimization of modularity subject with conflicting goals

STUDY OF XIAO JUNFENG'S FRONT HANDSPRING TO SOMERSAULT FORWARD STRETCHED WITH 900 DEGREE TWIST BY BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS

It is well known that new and difficult performances occur constantly and stimulate the development of gymnastics. The focuses in performance are the connection and all kinds of somersault and twist technique. Lately, no matter whether in domestic or international competition, the front handspring to somersault with certain difficulty has been used frequently. It is worth mention that from 1993 to 1996 the international rules of gymnastics were changed, increasing the difficulty value of the front somersault. That means that the front somersault gets more points than the back somersault, even for a performance turn of the same degree. The front handspring connecting somersault forward stretched and twist performance is being concentrated on by coaches and athletics. Even some experts considered the front handspring to somersault forward stretched with twist performance as part of the future of free gymnastics. Xiao Junfeng was one of the athletes of the Chinese gymnastic team. He was the first athlete to perform the front handspring to somersault forward with a 900 degree twist. He won the title champion of the world gymnastics championships in 1997. The purpose of this study is to analyze the technique of his performance by biomechanical methods. The subject was Xiao Junfeng ( age: 17 years old, Height: 1.60 m, Weight: 50 kg). HUAHANG KS 16-mm camera and TP-301 film analysis systems and a KISTLER 3-dimensional testing force platform were use to collect the data of the front handspring to somersault forward stretched with a 900 degree twist performance

Design and clinical application of colonoscopy convenient pant

结肠镜检查是诊治肠道疾病的首选方法。随着肠道疾病发病率的增长，越来越多的人群需要接受结肠镜检查。为了方便检查、保护病人隐私及防止受凉等，笔者设计制作了结肠镜检查方便裤，并已经很好地将其应用于临床。Colonoscopy is the first choice for diagnosis and treatment of intestinal diseases. With the growth of the incidence of intestinal disease, more and more people need colonoscopy. In order to inspecting conveniently, protecting patients’ privacy and preventing them from catching a cold, we designed the colonoscopy convenient pant and have applied it into clinic well

Application of Silver Dressing with Activated Carbon Fiber in the Rehabilitation of Aged Diabetic Foot Ulcers

本本文报道了12例顽固性老年糖尿病足溃疡患者的康复过程，通过全身评估、足部评估及多学科联合诊治的方法，制定优化的治疗护理方案。在伤口处理方面，首次将活性碳纤维含银敷料应用其中，通过6～12周的创面护理，溃疡愈合。该新型敷料，因活性碳纤维的吸附作用、远红处线的热能功效及银离子抗感染的作用，促进了创面的愈合，体现了物理疗法在顽固性老年足溃疡中的作用，值得在更大范围内验证和推广。12 cases of intractable diabetic foot ulcer in elderly patients was reported, systemic, topical evaluation, multi-disciplinary treatment, and optimized care program could accelerate healing process. Active carbon fiber containing silver dressing was fist used in diabetic foot care, and all ulcers healed in 6～12 weeks. This new dressing promote healing through absorption of activated carbon fibers, the effect of far red lines and the effect of silver ion on anti infection, which manifesting physical therapy assist ulcer recovery