Yield Enhancement of Digital Microfluidics-Based Biochips Using Space Redundancy and Local Reconfiguration

As microfluidics-based biochips become more complex, manufacturing yield will have significant influence on production volume and product cost. We propose an interstitial redundancy approach to enhance the yield of biochips that are based on droplet-based microfluidics. In this design method, spare cells are placed in the interstitial sites within the microfluidic array, and they replace neighboring faulty cells via local reconfiguration. The proposed design method is evaluated using a set of concurrent real-life bioassays.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDAA (http://www.edaa.com/

A Predictive Model for Financial Crises: An Exploratory Public Policy Tool

This paper aims to establish an early warning system for Malaysia to project future financial crises. We investigate the macroeconomic and financial factors in predicting financial crises using the logit econometric model and monthly data with the sample period from January 1980 to December 2003. Four indicators namely regional crisis dummy, current account balance, M2 growth and real exchange rate show significance and therefore, are incorporated in crisis prediction. The early warning system’s predictive power is then examined against various crises periods including the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The empirical results show that the early warning system exhibits forecasting ability. Both in-sample and out-ofsample performance evaluations affirm the system’s ability to predict the 1997 Asian financial crisis with at least one early warning signal issued within the 12-month period prior to the actual crisis. The early warning system should be treated as a supplement to policymakers existing forecasting tools in estimating the probability of crisis and assessing a country’s vulnerability rather than as an exclusive tool for crisis prediction.- financial crisis, economic modelling, policy modelling, monetary policy

An Application of the Input Hypothesis to the Teaching Design of English Reading Class in Senior High School

Reading as a form of input can provide students with a good foreign language environment, allowing them to improve their vocabulary, master fixed expressions, use grammar rules flexibly and appreciate the beauty of cultural differences without having to leave home.To maximize the benefits of the English reading, this study is expected to explore the distinguished teaching design based on the author’ s own experience in the competition because there is still a long way to go given the fact that nothing is consummate. Krashen’s “input hypothesis” are chosen to be the theoretical basis of the study for its sweeping impact on the area of second language acquisition and foreign language teaching. By clarifying the internal relationship between Krashen’s “input hypothesis” and English reading teaching design, reflecting and summarizing the actual situation of English reading teaching in senior high school, the study tries to put forward the ideal pattern of English reading teaching design in senior high school and gives some inspirations to teachers-college students majoring in English

Dynamic structure of stock communities: A comparative study between stock returns and turnover rates

The detection of community structure in stock market is of theoretical and practical significance for the study of financial dynamics and portfolio risk estimation. We here study the community structures in Chinese stock markets from the aspects of both price returns and turnover rates, by using a combination of the PMFG and infomap methods based on a distance matrix. We find that a few of the largest communities are composed of certain specific industry or conceptional sectors and the correlation inside a sector is generally larger than the correlation between different sectors. In comparison with returns, the community structure for turnover rates is more complex and the sector effect is relatively weaker. The financial dynamics is further studied by analyzing the community structures over five sub-periods. Sectors like banks, real estate, health care and New Shanghai take turns to compose a few of the largest communities for both returns and turnover rates in different sub-periods. Several specific sectors appear in the communities with different rank orders for the two time series even in the same sub-period. A comparison between the evolution of prices and turnover rates of stocks from these sectors is conducted to better understand their differences. We find that stock prices only had large changes around some important events while turnover rates surged after each of these events relevant to specific sectors, which may offer a possible explanation for the complexity of stock communities for turnover rates