An empirical analysis of the factors affecting bank crises in Japan : learning points for Bangladesh

This paper analyzes the factors that affect bank crises in Japan. There are numerous factors, qualitative and quantitative, identified from the analysis. For the quantitative analysis, the study employs the factor analysis, which detects three major components of factors that affect banking or financial crises in Japan. These are (i) common macro factors; (ii) bank sensitive micro factors; and (iii) household spending related factors. There are other factors, for example, policy dilemma, delayed or faulty deregulation measures and weak banking activities, which are not extracted from the factor analysis but adversely affect bank crises in Japan and hence discussed in details. The paper indicates some policy implications for the banking/financial sector of Bangladesh

Algorithms to Compute the Lyndon Array

We first describe three algorithms for computing the Lyndon array that have been suggested in the literature, but for which no structured exposition has been given. Two of these algorithms execute in quadratic time in the worst case, the third achieves linear time, but at the expense of prior computation of both the suffix array and the inverse suffix array of x. We then go on to describe two variants of a new algorithm that avoids prior computation of global data structures and executes in worst-case n log n time. Experimental evidence suggests that all but one of these five algorithms require only linear execution time in practice, with the two new algorithms faster by a small factor. We conjecture that there exists a fast and worst-case linear-time algorithm to compute the Lyndon array that is also elementary (making no use of global data structures such as the suffix array)

The Swap Matching Problem Revisited

In this paper, we revisit the much studied problem of Pattern Matching with Swaps (Swap Matching problem, for short). We first present a graph-theoretic model, which opens a new and so far unexplored avenue to solve the problem. Then, using the model, we devise two efficient algorithms to solve the swap matching problem. The resulting algorithms are adaptations of the classic shift-and algorithm. For patterns having length similar to the word-size of the target machine, both the algorithms run in linear time considering a fixed alphabet.Comment: 23 pages, 3 Figures and 17 Table

Dynamic Bezier curves for variable rate-distortion

Bezier curves (BC) are important tools in a wide range of diverse and challenging applications, from computer-aided design to generic object shape descriptors. A major constraint of the classical BC is that only global information concerning control points (CP) is considered, consequently there may be a sizeable gap between the BC and its control polygon (CtrlPoly), leading to a large distortion in shape representation. While BC variants like degree elevation, composite BC and refinement and subdivision narrow this gap, they increase the number of CP and thereby both the required bit-rate and computational complexity. In addition, while quasi-Bezier curves (QBC) close the gap without increasing the number of CP, they reduce the underlying distortion by only a fixed amount. This paper presents a novel contribution to BC theory, with the introduction of a dynamic Bezier curve (DBC) model, which embeds variable localised CP information into the inherently global Bezier framework, by strategically moving BC points towards the CtrlPoly. A shifting parameter (SP) is defined that enables curves lying within the region between the BC and CtrlPoly to be generated, with no commensurate increase in CP. DBC provides a flexible rate-distortion (RD) criterion for shape coding applications, with a theoretical model for determining the optimal SP value for any admissible distortion being formulated. Crucially DBC retains core properties of the classical BC, including the convex hull and affine invariance, and can be seamlessly integrated into both the vertex-based shape coding and shape descriptor frameworks to improve their RD performance. DBC has been empirically tested upon a number of natural and synthetically shaped objects, with qualitative and quantitative results confirming its consistently superior shape approximation performance, compared with the classical BC, QBC and other established BC-based shape descriptor techniques

A study on small business enterprises in Bangladesh : searching for growth factors and obstacles

Small businesses are the heart of the market-based economy with their business operations in rural and urban areas of developed and developing countries. In Bangladesh, small business enterprises are playing a significant role by contributing to the production and services, employmnet and thereby to GDP. But these are found to face servere competition and different types of constraints. As a result, these have not achieved substantial growth. In view of this, the present study is primarily aimed at identifying factors and obstacles that influence the growth of SBEs. Finally, the paper suggests some policy measures which are expected to excel the growth of SBEs

A Modified Distortion Measurement Algorithm for Shape Coding

Efficient encoding of object boundaries has become increasingly prominent in areas such as content-based storage and retrieval, studio and television post-production facilities, mobile communications and other real-time multimedia applications. The way distortion between the actual and approximated shapes is measured however, has a major impact upon the quality of the shape coding algorithms. In existing shape coding methods, the distortion measure do not generate an actual distortion value, so this paper proposes a new distortion measure, called a modified distortion measure for shape coding (DMSC) which incorporates an actual perceptual distance. The performance of the Operational Rate Distortion optimal algorithm [1] incorporating DMSC has been empirically evaluated upon a number of different natural and synthetic arbitrary shapes. Both qualitative and quantitative results confirm the superior results in comparison with the ORD lgorithm for all test shapes, without any increase in computational complexity

Quasi-Bezier curves integrating localised information

Bezier curves (BC) have become fundamental tools in many challenging and varied applications, ranging from computer-aided geometric design to generic object shape descriptors. A major limitation of the classical Bezier curve, however, is that only global information about its control points (CP) is considered, so there can often be a large gap between the curve and its control polygon, leading to large distortion in shape representation. While strategies such as degree elevation, composite BC, refinement and subdivision reduce this gap, they also increase the number of CP and hence bit-rate, and computational complexity. This paper presents novel contributions to BC theory, with the introduction of quasi-Bezier curves (QBC), which seamlessly integrate localised CP information into the inherent global Bezier framework, with no increase in either the number of CP or order of computational complexity. QBC crucially retains the core properties of the classical BC, such as geometric continuity and affine invariance, and can be embedded into the vertex-based shape coding and shape descriptor framework to enhance rate-distortion performance. The performance of QBC has been empirically tested upon a number of natural and synthetically shaped objects, with both qualitative and quantitative results confirming its consistently superior approximation performance in comparison with both the classical BC and other established BC-based shape descriptor methods

Geometric distortion measurement for shape coding: a contemporary review

Geometric distortion measurement and the associated metrics involved are integral to the rate-distortion (RD) shape coding framework, with importantly the efficacy of the metrics being strongly influenced by the underlying measurement strategy. This has been the catalyst for many different techniques with this paper presenting a comprehensive review of geometric distortion measurement, the diverse metrics applied and their impact on shape coding. The respective performance of these measuring strategies is analysed from both a RD and complexity perspective, with a recent distortion measurement technique based on arc-length-parameterisation being comparatively evaluated. Some contemporary research challenges are also investigated, including schemes to effectively quantify shape deformation