Climbing back : an analysis of the summary instalment order : the New Zealand consumer-debtor repayment program : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masterate of Applied Economics at Massey University

The Summary Instalment Order (SIO) court-administered repayment plan was introduced as an experimental response to the problem of overcommitment. Three decades after its institution, this research forms a profile of its applicants, suggests reasons for their financial difficulty, and conducts the first evaluation of this experimental program. Comparing the profile of the SIO sample with the general population, SIO applicants are younger, have larger families, are more likely to be separated or divorced, and are more likely to reside in rented accommodation. SIO applicants are also mostly beneficiaries or in unskilled employment. Correspondingly, they have lower income and assets compared to the general population. In addition, they are more committed in terms of indebtedness, though less committed in regard to outgoing. Overcommitment is the reason for SIO application, and inadequate income, current consumption preference, and the occurrence of an unanticipated event provides explanation for overcommitment. In SIO applications, evidence of inadequate income, current consumption preference, and the occurrence of an unanticipated event suggests these have contributed to the overcommitment of SIO applicants. The SIO was intended to interrupt an indebted individual's passage to bankruptcy and to provide applicants with rehabilitation and a fresh start. Tracing applicants against the National Insolvency Database, 10.8% of applicants continued to bankruptcy in the 4-6 years following their SIO application. Analysis of the demographic and financial profile of applicants continuing to bankruptcy reveals the SIO may not have failed in any particular way. When analyzing reasons for bankruptcy application, however, SIO failure is more apparent. In addition, the high dropout rate, refile, and evidence of applicants unable to repay their debt within the three year term reinforces SIO failure. Denial of the SIO, inadequate income, current consumption preference, and the occurrence of an unanticipated event are reasons for SIO failure. Recommendations of: acceptance based upon ability to service debt, improved screening, investigation into compulsory budgeting assistance, and informing applicants regarding repayment progress and costs associated with bankruptcy application, are among suggestions outlined to combat causes of SIO failure. In addition, increased accessibility to the SIO and continued monitoring of the program's effectiveness is recommended

Bell's inequality tests: from photons to B-mesons

We analyse the recent claim that a violation of a Bell's inequality has been observed in the $B$--meson system [A. Go, {\em Journal of Modern Optics} {\bf 51} (2004) 991]. The results of this experiment are a convincing proof of quantum entanglement in $B$--meson pairs similar to that shown by polarization entangled photon pairs. However, we conclude that the tested inequality is not a genuine Bell's inequality and thus cannot discriminate between quantum mechanics and local realistic approaches.Comment: 5 page

The Conflict between Bell-Zukowski Inequality and Bell-Mermin Inequality

We consider a two-particle/two-setting Bell experiment to visualize the conflict between Bell-\.Zukowski inequality and Bell-Mermin inequality. The experiment is reproducible by local realistic theories which are not rotationally invariant. We found that the average value of the Bell-\.Zukowski operator can be evaluated only by the two-particle/two-setting Bell experiment in question. The Bell-\.Zukowski inequality reveals that the constructed local realistic models for the experiment are not rotationally invariant. That is, the two-particle Bell experiment in question reveals the conflict between Bell-\.Zukowski inequality and Bell-Mermin inequality. Our analysis has found the threshold visibility for the two-particle interference to reveal the conflict noted above. It is found that the threshold visibility agrees with the value to obtain a violation of the Bell-\.Zukowski inequality.Comment: To appear in Modern Physics Letters

Multipartite positive-partial-transpose inequalities exponentially stronger than local reality inequalities

We show that positivity of {\it every} partial transpose of $N$-partite quantum states implies new inequalities on Bell correlations which are stronger than standard Bell inequalities by a factor of $2^{(N-1)/2}$. A violation of the inequality implies the system is in a bipartite distillable entangled state. It turns out that a family of $N$-qubit bound entangled states proposed by D\"ur {[Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 87}, 230402 (2001)]} violates the inequality for $N\geq 4$.Comment: 4 pages, To appear in Phys. Rev.

Social hierarchies and social networks in humans

Across species, social hierarchies are often governed by dominance relations. In humans, where there are multiple culturally valued axes of distinction, social hierarchies can take a variety of forms and need not rest on dominance relations. Consequently, humans navigate multiple domains of status, i.e. relative standing. Importantly, while these hierarchies may be constructed from dyadic interactions, they are often more fundamentally guided by subjective peer evaluations and group perceptions. Researchers have typically focused on the distinct elements that shape individuals' relative standing, with some emphasizing individual-level attributes and others outlining emergent macro-level structural outcomes. Here, we synthesize work across the social sciences to suggest that the dynamic interplay between individual-level and meso-level properties of the social networks in which individuals are embedded are crucial for understanding the diverse processes of status differentiation across groups. More specifically, we observe that humans not only navigate multiple social hierarchies at any given time but also simultaneously operate within multiple, overlapping social networks. There are important dynamic feedbacks between social hierarchies and the characteristics of social networks, as the types of social relationships, their structural properties, and the relative position of individuals within them both influence and are influenced by status differentiation. This article is part of the theme issue 'The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies'

Comment on ``All quantum observables in a hidden-variable model must commute simultaneously"

Malley discussed {[Phys. Rev. A {\bf 69}, 022118 (2004)]} that all quantum observables in a hidden-variable model for quantum events must commute simultaneously. In this comment, we discuss that Malley's theorem is indeed valid for the hidden-variable theoretical assumptions, which were introduced by Kochen and Specker. However, we give an example that the local hidden-variable (LHV) model for quantum events preserves noncommutativity of quantum observables. It turns out that Malley's theorem is not related with the LHV model for quantum events, in general.Comment: 3 page

Performing temporal processes

This article explores the way that the performance of temporal processes in recent contemporary music reveals something about the nature of musical time. Process music deals with time as a part of its material, offering the opportunity to experience time as time: the expression and experience of units of time that are defined by, and enclose, processes, in works whose forms are defined by their durations. The nature of time in four examples, by Alistair Zaldua, Mathias Spahlinger, Steve Gisby, and Sophie Stone, is discussed with reference to theories of time by Jonathan D. Kramer and Henri Bergson

Classification of local realistic theories

Recently, it has shown that an explicit local realistic model for the values of a correlation function, given in a two-setting Bell experiment (two-setting model), works only for the specific set of settings in the given experiment, but cannot construct a local realistic model for the values of a correlation function, given in a {\it continuous-infinite} settings Bell experiment (infinite-setting model), even though there exist two-setting models for all directions in space. Hence, two-setting model does not have the property which infinite-setting model has. Here, we show that an explicit two-setting model cannot construct a local realistic model for the values of a correlation function, given in a {\it only discrete-three} settings Bell experiment (three-setting model), even though there exist two-setting models for the three measurement directions chosen in the given three-setting experiment. Hence, two-setting model does not have the property which three-setting model has.Comment: To appear in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretica