China's Regional Convergence in Panels with Multiple Structural Breaks

This study investigates the existence of regional convergence of per capita outputs in China from 1952–2004, particularly focusing on considering the presence of multiple structural breaks in the provincial-level panel data. First, the panel-based unit root test that allows for occurrence of multiple breaks at various break dates across provinces is developed; this test is based on the p-value combination approach suggested by Fisher (1932). Next, the test is applied to China’s provincial real per capita outputs to examine the regional convergence in China. To obtain the p-values of unit root tests for each province, which are combined to construct the panel unit root test, this study assumes three data generating processes: a driftless random walk process, an ARMA process, and an AR process with cross-sectionally dependent errors in Monte Carlo simulation. The results obtained from this study reveal that the convergence of the provincial per capita outputs exists in each of the three geographically classified regions—the Eastern, Central, and Western regions—of China

Long-run growth patterns within Asian NIEs: Empirical analysis based on the panel unit root test, allowing the heterogeneity of time trend and endogenous multiple structural breaks

This study examines whether or not the convergence of per capita output—which is categorized as catching-up and long-run convergence, defined by Oxley and Greasley (1995)—exists within Asian newly industrializing economies (Asian NIEs), namely, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. The newly developed panel unit root test, which can allow for multiple structural breaks at various unknown break dates for each time series, is applied to the panels for 1960–2004, which includes the period of the Asian financial crisis. Moreover, in order to confirm the coexistence of the different growth patterns within the Asian NIEs, the heterogeneity—in terms of the inclusion or exclusion of a linear time trend and the types of breaks (in level or slope)—is allowed for each series in the test. The empirical results show that Hong Kong and Singapore have long-run convergence, whereas Korea and Taiwan are yet to converge with Hong Kong

Long-run growth patterns within Asian NIEs: Empirical analysis based on the panel unit root test, allowing the heterogeneity of time trend and endogenous multiple structural breaks

This study examines whether or not the convergence of per capita output—which is categorized as catching-up and long-run convergence, defined by Oxley and Greasley (1995)—exists within Asian newly industrializing economies (Asian NIEs), namely, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. The newly developed panel unit root test, which can allow for multiple structural breaks at various unknown break dates for each time series, is applied to the panels for 1960–2004, which includes the period of the Asian financial crisis. Moreover, in order to confirm the coexistence of the different growth patterns within the Asian NIEs, the heterogeneity—in terms of the inclusion or exclusion of a linear time trend and the types of breaks (in level or slope)—is allowed for each series in the test. The empirical results show that Hong Kong and Singapore have long-run convergence, whereas Korea and Taiwan are yet to converge with Hong Kong

House price convergence in the very long run: new evidence from Fourier quantile unit root test

We examine the house prices convergence across twelve OECD countries over the period 1905-2016. Using novel quantile unit root tests which allow for smooth breaks via a Fourier expansion series, we find that nine countries show the presence of relative house price convergence at all the quantiles. Focusing on several specific quantiles, eleven countries have significant convergence tendencies. Moreover, there are four definite patterns related to shocks on the relative house prices across quantiles

Impact of myocardial perfusion abnormality on prognosis in patients with non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy

SummaryBackgroundMyocardial perfusion imaging shows various patterns in patients with non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). However, influences of regional abnormalities of myocardial perfusion or ventricular wall motion on prognosis in DCM patients remains to be clarified. Accordingly, we investigated a relation between myocardial perfusion patterns and long-term prognosis in DCM patients.Methods and resultsSixty-two patients were divided into 2 groups according to patterns of 99mTc-Tetrofosmin scintigraphy, i.e. large focal defects (focal) and minimally impaired perfusion or multiple small defects (non-focal). There were no differences between the 2 groups in left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic dimensions (63.4±9.1 and 63.8.4±7.5mm, respectively) and LV ejection fraction (30.3±9.2 and 27.9±7.8%, respectively), indicating LV systolic dysfunction was comparable between the groups. The focal group had a higher prevalence of brain natriuretic peptide ≧200ng/dl and plasma norepinephrine ≧500pg/ml than the non-focal group (p<0.05), and had longer QRS durations (p<0.05). The focal group had non-sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) (p<0.05) on 24-h electrocardiogram recording and a history of VT/ventricular fibrillation more frequently (p<0.05), and had higher New York Heart Association functional class than the non-focal group (p<0.05). The mortality was significantly higher in the focal group (56.0%) than in the non-focal group (28.6%) and the survival curves revealed worse prognosis in the focal group during a follow-up period of 5.3±2.8 years.ConclusionsNon-ischemic DCM patients with focal defects are accompanied by more advanced heart failure and poor prognosis compared to those with minimally impaired perfusion or multiple small defects, despite comparable LV systolic dysfunction

Learning Reservoir Dynamics with Temporal Self-Modulation

Reservoir computing (RC) can efficiently process time-series data by transferring the input signal to randomly connected recurrent neural networks (RNNs), which are referred to as a reservoir. The high-dimensional representation of time-series data in the reservoir significantly simplifies subsequent learning tasks. Although this simple architecture allows fast learning and facile physical implementation, the learning performance is inferior to that of other state-of-the-art RNN models. In this paper, to improve the learning ability of RC, we propose self-modulated RC (SM-RC), which extends RC by adding a self-modulation mechanism. The self-modulation mechanism is realized with two gating variables: an input gate and a reservoir gate. The input gate modulates the input signal, and the reservoir gate modulates the dynamical properties of the reservoir. We demonstrated that SM-RC can perform attention tasks where input information is retained or discarded depending on the input signal. We also found that a chaotic state emerged as a result of learning in SM-RC. This indicates that self-modulation mechanisms provide RC with qualitatively different information-processing capabilities. Furthermore, SM-RC outperformed RC in NARMA and Lorentz model tasks. In particular, SM-RC achieved a higher prediction accuracy than RC with a reservoir 10 times larger in the Lorentz model tasks. Because the SM-RC architecture only requires two additional gates, it is physically implementable as RC, providing a new direction for realizing edge AI

Inactivation of foodborne pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms using ultraviolet : A light in combination with ferulic Acid

The low energy of UV-A (315–400 nm) is insufficient for disinfection. To improve UV-A disinfection technology, the effect of ferulic acid (FA) addition on inactivation by UV-A light-emitting diode (LED) light (350–385 nm) was evaluated in the eliminating of suspensions of various food spoilers and pathogens (seven bacteria and four fungi). Photoantimicrobial assays were performed at FA concentrations below the MIC. The MIC of the isomerized FA, consisting of 93% cis-form and 7% trans-form, was very similar to that of the commercially available FA (trans-form). Irradiation with UV-A (1.0 J cm-236 ) in the presence of 100 mg l-1 37 FA resulted in enhanced reducing of all of the tested bacterial strains. A combination of UV-A (10 J cm-2) and 1000 mg l-1 38 FA resulted in enhanced reducing of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and one of the tested filamentous fungi. These results demonstrated that the combination of a short-term application of UV-A and FA at a low concentration yielded synergistic enhancement of antimicrobial activity, especially against bacteria

The global financial crisis: An analysis of the spillover effects on African stock markets

This paper examines the relative importance of the global and regional markets for financial markets in developing countries, particularly during the US financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis. We examine the way in which the degree of regional (seven African markets combined), global (China, France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US), commodity (gold and petroleum), and nominal effective exchange rate (Euro and US dollar) spillovers to individual African countries evolve during the two crises through the econometric method introduced by Diebold and Yilmaz (2012). We find that African markets are most severely affected by spillovers from global markets and modestly from commodity and currency markets. Conversely, the regional spillovers within Africa are smaller than the global ones and are insulated from the global crises. We also find that the aggregated spillover effects of European countries to the African markets exceeded that of the US even at the wake of the US financial crisis

Exact Scale Invariance of Composite-Field Coupling Constants

We show that the coupling constant of a quantum-induced composite field is scale invariant due to its compositeness condition. It is first demonstrated in next-to-leading order in 1/N in typical models, and then we argue that it holds exactly.Comment: 4 page