Calibrating nonconvex penalized regression in ultra-high dimension

We investigate high-dimensional nonconvex penalized regression, where the number of covariates may grow at an exponential rate. Although recent asymptotic theory established that there exists a local minimum possessing the oracle property under general conditions, it is still largely an open problem how to identify the oracle estimator among potentially multiple local minima. There are two main obstacles: (1) due to the presence of multiple minima, the solution path is nonunique and is not guaranteed to contain the oracle estimator; (2) even if a solution path is known to contain the oracle estimator, the optimal tuning parameter depends on many unknown factors and is hard to estimate. To address these two challenging issues, we first prove that an easy-to-calculate calibrated CCCP algorithm produces a consistent solution path which contains the oracle estimator with probability approaching one. Furthermore, we propose a high-dimensional BIC criterion and show that it can be applied to the solution path to select the optimal tuning parameter which asymptotically identifies the oracle estimator. The theory for a general class of nonconvex penalties in the ultra-high dimensional setup is established when the random errors follow the sub-Gaussian distribution. Monte Carlo studies confirm that the calibrated CCCP algorithm combined with the proposed high-dimensional BIC has desirable performance in identifying the underlying sparsity pattern for high-dimensional data analysis.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/13-AOS1159 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

An Asymmetric Theory of Korean Ditransitives: Evidence from Idioms

This paper argues that the [Dat-Acc] and the [Acc-Acc] orders in Korean are the representations of the postpositional dative construction and the double object construction and that their syntactic structures are asymmetric. I apply the same syntactic diagnostics (nominalization and idioms) developed for English by Bruening (2010) to the data in Korean, and discuss in a greater detail that the asymmetric properties of nominalization and idioms call for Bruening’s (2010) asymmetric analysis

Projective Meanings of Thai Passive-type Constructions, and Implications for East Asian (Chinese bei) Passive Constructions

Following the idea advanced and developed by a growing number of researchers in which a sentence may involve two tiers of meaning (e.g., Karttunen 1973, Karttunen and Peters 1979, Potts 2005, Roberts et al. 2009, Bosse et al. 2012, Bruening and Tran Ms., Kim, to appear), this paper suggests that (i) in Thai thuuk and doon are syntactic heads which are associated with two dimensions of meaning in multidimensional semantics, an at-issue meaning (i.e., the main assertion of a sentence) and a not-at-issue meaning, and that (ii) the adversative meaning that is implicated in thuuk and doon constructions is projected as a not-at-issue meaning, similar to the case in the Vietnamese bị constructions (Bruening and Tran, Ms.). Further, I shall show that only the short form is a passive construction and the long form is not (Bhatt and Pancheva 2006, Bruening and Tran, Ms.). Despite this distinction, I will show that the two forms involve a null operator A’-movement. Therefore, the long form and the short form receive the same semantic analysis; thuuk and doon contribute the adversative meaning, yet, they can be distinguished by the complement that thuuk and doon select

Observation and characterization of mode splitting in microsphere resonators in aquatic environment

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) optical resonators utilizing resonance shift (RS) and mode splitting (MS) techniques have emerged as highly sensitive platforms for label-free detection of nano-scale objects. RS method has been demonstrated in various resonators in air and liquid. MS in microsphere resonators has not been achieved in aqueous environment up to date, despite its demonstration in microtoroid resonators. Here, we demonstrate scatterer-induced MS of WGMs in microsphere resonators in water. We determine the size range of particles that induces MS in a microsphere in water as a function of resonator mode volume and quality factor. The results are confirmed by the experimental observations.Comment: 4 Pages, 5 Figures, 13 Reference

Effects of Capital Flight on Economic Growth in Selected ASEAN Economies

Prior to the Asian financial crises, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand had experienced strong and impressive real economic growth rate from the 1970s to until beginning of 1997. Conventional wisdom hold that with the region’s impressive economic growth associated with higher interest returns and lower risk would expect capital to stay in the countries but not flee. However, it was quite surprising that even during periods of high economic growth rate; there was capital flight in these selected ASEAN economies. The lost of capital through capital flight will intensify capital scarcity problem as it restricts the capacity and the ability to finance domestic investment where resources are most needed to generate economic growth and development particularly after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Although there are no universally accepted and indisputable definitions of capital flight, however, it is generally agreed that capital flight is the outflow of capital that is conflict with national interests, goals and objective. For the empirical work, the ARDL ‘Bounds test’ approach to cointegration was conducted with annual time series data from 1972 to 2005 to determine factors affecting capital flight from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand using World Bank measure, Morgan Guaranty Trust measure and Dooley Derived measure. By using the three alternative measures of capital flight, yields broadly similar results. On one hand, the results indicate that higher capital flight is associated with higher external debt, higher budget deficit as well as higher political instability that proxy by Political rights. On the other hand, the elasticities indicate that higher capital flight is associated with lower Interest rates differential (United States Treasury Bill rate minus domestic deposit rate), and lower accumulation of international reserve. However, the estimated results reveal that only higher capital flight is associated with higher Interest rates differential in Thailand case. Although there are large and growing researches for the determinants of economic growth, there has scarcely been any study concerning the impact of capital flight on economic growth. The empirical results support the contention that capital flight played a crucial role in influencing the four selected ASEAN economic growths. Furthermore, there has been no systematic investigation of the impact of political instability on capital flight and economic growth, particularly the ASEAN countries. The empirical results clearly show that political stability plays an important role in affecting capital flows and in determining economic growth in these four Southeast Asia economies. For a flight relief or even reversal of capital flight to occur as well as to stimulate economic growth, steps includes economic policies, political stability and institutional developments should be taken to prevent the causes of capital flight to ensure sufficient capital resources required for recovery from the current recession in the short-run and accomplish a more sustainable impressive economic growth in the long run. Indeed, the more preferred and effective strategy would be to implement balanced policy measures but not just bias on one or just certain aspects of macroeconomic fundamentals, perhaps, the adaptation of appropriate policy to suit varying circumstances of the economy is more important. Any policy announcements by the government should be in line with the long-term objectives of the country

Essays on Impact Evaluations of the Land Consolidation Program in Vietnam

政策研究大学院大学 / National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies博士（開発経済学） / Ph.D. in Development Economics論文審査委員: 木島 陽子（主査）, 髙橋 和志, 松本 朋哉（小樽商科大学教授）, 加治佐 敬（青山学院大学教授）, 諸星 穂積application/PDF政策分析プログラム / Policy Analysis Programdoctoral thesi

Vietnamese Double Negative

Affirmation and negation are the most basic forms of language in each language. Many things can be expressed either in affirmative or in negative way. In the Vietnamese language system, using negative expressions is more abundant than using affirmative ones. Because of this, the use of negatives in spoken Vietnamese is relatively high. Double negative is a common language phenomenon in Vietnamese spoken language, but there is not much research about double negative. The following is a preliminary understanding of the grammar and semantics, as well as a study of double negative forms in Vietnamese

Quantum super-cavity with atomic mirrors

We study single-photon transport in an array of coupled microcavities where two two-level atomic systems are embedded in two separate cavities of the array. We find that a single-photon can be totally reflected by a single two-level system. However, two separate two-level systems can also create, between them, single-photon quasi-bound states. Therefore, a single two-level system in the cavity array can act as a mirror while a different type of cavity can be formed by using two two-level systems, acting as tunable "mirrors", inside two separate cavities in the array. In analogy with superlattices in solid state, we call this new "cavity inside a coupled-cavity array" a super-cavity. This supercavity is the quantum analog of Fabry-Perot interferometers. Moreover, we show that the physical properties of this quantum super-cavity can be adjusted by changing the frequencies of these two-level systems.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure