Estimates of the long-run growth rate of Singapore with a CES production function

This paper estimates with the Bayesian methods a CES production function for Singapore for 1960-2009. It is found that the elasticity of substitution is 0.6, technical progress is labour augmenting and the steady state growth rate of Singapore is about 1.8%.Bayesian methods, CES production function and Technical progress

A High-Order Radial Basis Function (RBF) Leray Projection Method for the Solution of the Incompressible Unsteady Stokes Equations

A new projection method based on radial basis functions (RBFs) is presented for discretizing the incompressible unsteady Stokes equations in irregular geometries. The novelty of the method comes from the application of a new technique for computing the Leray-Helmholtz projection of a vector field using generalized interpolation with divergence-free and curl-free RBFs. Unlike traditional projection methods, this new method enables matching both tangential and normal components of divergence-free vector fields on the domain boundary. This allows incompressibility of the velocity field to be enforced without any time-splitting or pressure boundary conditions. Spatial derivatives are approximated using collocation with global RBFs so that the method only requires samples of the field at (possibly scattered) nodes over the domain. Numerical results are presented demonstrating high-order convergence in both space (between 5th and 6th order) and time (up to 4th order) for some model problems in two dimensional irregular geometries.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figure

Electromechanical and Dynamic Characterization of In-House-Fabricated Amplified Piezo Actuator

A diamond-shaped amplified piezo actuator (APA) fabricated using six multilayered piezo stacks with maximum displacement of 173 μm at 175V and the amplification factor of 4.3. The dynamic characterization of the actuator was carried out at different frequencies (100 Hz–1 kHz) and at different AC voltages (20V–40V). The actuator response over this frequency range was found neat, without attenuation of the signal. Numerical modeling of multilayered stack actuator was carried out using empirical equations, and the electromechanical analysis was carried out using ABAQUS software. The block force of the APA was 81 N, calculated by electromechanical analysis. This is similar to that calculated by dynamic characterization method

Thermodynamics and kinetics of reactions in protective coating systems

A study of the aluminization of Ni from packs containing various percentages of unalloyed Al confirmed that the surface aluminum content of specimens aluminized tends to decrease with time and consequently a simple parabolic law for the weight-gain vs. time relationship is not obeyed. The diffusivity-composition relationship in NiAl was examined, and a set of curves is presented. A numerical method for the calculation of coating dissolution rates was developed and applied to NiAl-Ni3Al type of coatings

STOCHASTIC TECHNOLOGY, RISK PREFERENCES, AND THE USE OF POLLUTING INPUTS

We investigate the comparative static effects of environmental and agricultural policies on pesticide and fertilizer use. Since such effects depend on technology and risk preference parameters, we estimate these from a panel data set of Illinois farms. Generalized method of moments is used on a set of nonlinear first order conditions.Environmental Economics and Policy,