THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXPORTS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN EAST ASIAN COUNTRIES: A MULTIVARIATE THRESHOLD AUTOREGRESSIVE APPROACH

During the process of economic development, different economic policies are adopted in accordance with particular circumstances. Therefore, conventional methods of time-series analysis may give misleading results if the problems associated with regime switches are not considered. The relationship between export growth and output growth is explored using a multivariate threshold model with regimes defined by the export-import ratio. In the cases of five countries that are recognized as being outward-oriented, we find that, except for Hong Kong, the relationship whereby exports lead output prevails in at least one regime for each of four of the countries being studied. The regime-based threshold autoregressive model thus appears to possess certain advantages over the more conventional linear autoregressive model.Multivariate Threshold Autoregressive Model, Export Growth, Output Growth, Export-import Ratio

Blast Load Input Estimation of the Medium Girder Bridgeusing Inverse Method

Innovative adaptive weighted input estimation inverse methodology for estimating theunknown time-varying blast loads on the truss structure system is presented. This method isbased on the Kalman filter and the recursive least square estimator (RLSE). The filter models thesystem dynamics in a linear set of state equations. The state equations of the truss structureare constructed using the finite element method. The input blast loads of the truss structuresystem are inverse estimated from the system responses measured at two distinct nodes. Thiswork presents an efficient weighting factor  applied in the RLSE, which is capable of providinga reasonable estimation results. The results obtained from the simulations show that the methodis effective in estimating input blast loads, so has great stability and precision.Defence Science Journal, 2008, 58(1), pp.46-56, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.58.162

Determination of Moving Tank and Missile ImpactForces on a Bridge Structure

A method to determine the moving tank and missile impact forces on a bridge is developed. The presentmethod is an online adaptive recursive inverse algorithm, which is composed of the Kalman filter  and therecursive least square estimator (RLSE), to estimate the force inputs on the bridge structure. The state equationsof the bridge structure were constructed by using the model superposition and orthogonal technique. Byadopting this inverse method, the moving tank and missile impact force inputs acting on the bridge structuresystem can be estimated from the measured dynamic responses. Besides, this work presents an efficientweighting factor applied in the RLSE, which is capable of providing a reasonable estimation results. The resultsobtained from the simulations show that the method is effective in determining the moving tank and missileimpact forces, so that the acceptable results can be obtained.Defence Science Journal, 2008, 58(6), pp.752-761, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.58.170

Correlation between Pineal Activation and Religious Meditation Observed by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The human brain possesses plenty of functions but little is known about its scientific relationship with mind and spirit. Conferences^1,2^ focused on the connection between science and religion were held very recently in which neuroscientists, Buddhist scholars and Dalai Lama discussed attention, mental imagery, emotion, mind, brain functions and meditation, suggesting religious meditation offers an effective means to investigate the mystery of mind and spirit. In the past decade, scientists struggled to obtain brain mappings for various meditation styles using different brain imaging techniques and stimulating results have been observed^3-17^. In this letter we report that, together with other brain regions, pineal body exhibit significant activation during meditation process, supporting the long lasting speculation that pineal plays an important role in the intrinsic awareness which might concern spirit or soul. Pineal is known as an endocrine organ which produces substrates including melatonin and has been ascribed numerous even mysterious functions but its activation during meditation has never been observed by brain imaging technique. In seventeenth century, based on anatomic observation, Descartes ventured to suggest that pineal serves as the principal seat of the soul^18-20^. Inspired by its geometric center in the brain, physiologists, psychologists, philosophers and religionists have been speculating for centuries about pineal's function relevant to spirit and soul. In this study, we chose Chinese Original Quiet Sitting, one style of meditation, to explore this long lasting speculation by functional magnetic resonance imaging technique. Our results demonstrate a correlation between pineal activation and religious meditation which might have profound implications in physiological understanding of the intrinsic awareness

Multi-targeting aurones with monoamine oxidase and amyloid-beta inhibitory activities: structure-activity relationship and translating multi-potency to neuroprotection

Previously, a series of aurones bearing amine and carbamate functionalities was synthesized and evaluated for their cholinesterase inhibitory activity and drug-like attributes. In the present study, these aurones were evaluated for their multi-targeting properties in two Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-related activities namely, monoamine oxidase (MAO) and amyloid-beta (Aβ) inhibition. Evaluation of the aurones for MAO inhibitory activity disclosed several potent selective inhibitors of MAO-B, particularly those with 6-methoxyl group attached at ring A. Of the different amine moieties attached as side chains, pyrrolidine-bearing aurones were prominent as represented by 2-2, the most potent inhibitor. Evaluation on the Aβ aggregation inhibition identified 4-3 as the best inhibitor with a percentage inhibition comparable to that of a known Aβ inhibitor curcumin. Examination on the neuroprotective ability of the more drug-like aurone 4-3 in two Caenorhabditis elegans neurodegeneration models showed 4-3 to protect the nematodes against both Aβ- and 6-hydroxydopamine-induced toxicities. These new activities further support 4-3 as a promising lead to develop the aurones as potential multipotent agents for neurodegenerative diseases

When Social Influence Meets Item Inference

Research issues and data mining techniques for product recommendation and viral marketing have been widely studied. Existing works on seed selection in social networks do not take into account the effect of product recommendations in e-commerce stores. In this paper, we investigate the seed selection problem for viral marketing that considers both effects of social influence and item inference (for product recommendation). We develop a new model, Social Item Graph (SIG), that captures both effects in form of hyperedges. Accordingly, we formulate a seed selection problem, called Social Item Maximization Problem (SIMP), and prove the hardness of SIMP. We design an efficient algorithm with performance guarantee, called Hyperedge-Aware Greedy (HAG), for SIMP and develop a new index structure, called SIG-index, to accelerate the computation of diffusion process in HAG. Moreover, to construct realistic SIG models for SIMP, we develop a statistical inference based framework to learn the weights of hyperedges from data. Finally, we perform a comprehensive evaluation on our proposals with various baselines. Experimental result validates our ideas and demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed model and algorithms over baselines.Comment: 12 page

ワークショップ イゲンゴ カンキョウ ニ オイテ ニホン キンダイ ショウセツ ヲ ヨム ダザイ オサム オウゴン フウケイ ヲ レイ ニ チュウゴクゴ ハンタイジ

異言語環境において日本近代小説を読む　太宰治『黄金風景』を例

Did the S.A.R.S. epidemic weaken the integration of Asian stock markets? Evidence from smooth time-varying cointegration analysis

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (S.A.R.S.) epidemic on the long-run relationship between China and four Asian stock markets. To this end, we first employ the advanced smooth time-varying cointegration model to investigate the existence of a time-varying cointegration relation among these markets and then employ the difference-indifferences approach to analyse whether or not the S.A.R.S. epidemic impacted the long-run relation between China and these four markets during the period 1998–2008, covering 5 years before and after the S.A.R.S. outbreak. Our results support the existence of a time-varying cointegration relation in the aggregate stock price indices, and that the S.A.R.S. epidemic did weaken the long-run relationship between China and the four markets. Therefore, stockholders and policy makers should be concerned about the influence of catastrophic epidemic diseases on the financial integration of stock market in Asia