"Macroeconomic Implications of Term Structures of Interest Rates under Stochastic Differential Utility with Non-Unitary EIS"

This paper proposes a continuous-time term-structure model under stochastic differential utility with non-unitary elasticity of intertemporal substitution (EIS, henceforth) in a representative-agent endowment economy with mean-reverting expectations on real output growth and inflation. Using this model, we make clear structural relationships among a term structure of real and nominal interest rates, utility form and underlying economic factors (in particular, inflation expectation). Notably, we show that, if (1) the EIS is less than one, (2) the agent is comparatively more risk-averse relative to timeseparable utility, (3) short-term interest rates are pro-cyclical, and (4) the rate of expected inflation is negatively correlated with the rate of real output growth and its expected rate, then a nominal yield curve can have a low instantaneous riskless rate and an upward slope.

Macroeconomic Implications of Term Structures of Interest Rates under Stochastic Differential Utility with Non-Unitary EIS ( Forthcoming in "Asia-Pacific Financial Markets" , vol.16-3231-263, 2009; Revised in July 2009 )

This paper proposes a continuous-time term-structure model under stochastic differential utility with non-unitary elasticity of intertemporal substitution (EIS, henceforth) in a representative-agent endowment economy with mean-reverting expectations on real output growth and inflation. Using this model, we make clear structural relationships among a term structure of real and nominal interest rates, utility form and underlying economic factors (in particular, inflation expectation). Notably, we show that, if (1) the EIS is less than one, (2) the agent is comparatively more risk-averse relative to timeseparable utility, (3) short-term interest rates are pro-cyclical, and (4) the rate of expected inflation is negatively correlated with the rate of real output growth and its expected rate, then a nominal yield curve can have a low instantaneous riskless rate and an upward slope. Keywords: Stochastic differential utility; Non-unitary EIS; Term structure of interest rates; Inflation expectation.

A solution for secure use of Kibana and Elasticsearch in multi-user environment

Monitoring is indispensable to check status, activities, or resource usage of IT services. A combination of Kibana and Elasticsearch is used for monitoring in many places such as KEK, CC-IN2P3, CERN, and also non-HEP communities. Kibana provides a web interface for rich visualization, and Elasticsearch is a scalable distributed search engine. However, these tools do not support authentication and authorization features by default. In the case of single Kibana and Elasticsearch services shared among many users, any user who can access Kibana can retrieve other's information from Elasticsearch. In multi-user environment, in order to protect own data from others or share part of data among a group, fine-grained access control is necessary. The CERN cloud service group had provided cloud utilization dashboard to each user by Elasticsearch and Kibana. They had deployed a homemade Elasticsearch plugin to restrict data access based on a user authenticated by the CERN Single Sign On system. It enabled each user to have a separated Kibana dashboard for cloud usage, and the user could not access to other's one. Based on the solution, we propose an alternative one which enables user/group based Elasticsearch access control and Kibana objects separation. It is more flexible and can be applied to not only the cloud service but also the other various situations. We confirmed our solution works fine in CC-IN2P3. Moreover, a pre-production platform for CC-IN2P3 has been under construction. We will describe our solution for the secure use of Kibana and Elasticsearch including integration of Kerberos authentication, development of a Kibana plugin which allows Kibana objects to be separated based on user/group, and contribution to Search Guard which is an Elasticsearch plugin enabling user/group based access control. We will also describe the effect on performance from using Search Guard.Comment: International Symposium on Grids and Clouds 2017 (ISGC 2017

Correlated space formation for human whole-body motion primitives and descriptive word labels

AbstractThe motion capture technology has been improved, and widely used for motion analysis and synthesis in various fields, such as robotics, animation, rehabilitation, and sports engineering. A massive amount of captured human data has already been collected. These prerecorded motion data should be reused in order to make the motion analysis and synthesis more efficient. The retrieval of a specified motion data is a fundamental technique for the reuse. Imitation learning frameworks have been developed in robotics, where motion primitive data is encoded into parameters in stochastic models or dynamical systems. We have also been making research on encoding motion primitive data into Hidden Markov Models, which are referred to as “motion symbol”, and aiming at integrating the motion symbols with language. The relations between motions and words in natural language will be versatile and powerful to provide a useful interface for reusing motion data. In this paper, we construct a space of motion symbols for human whole body movements and a space of word labels assigned to those movements. Through canonical correlation analysis, these spaces are reconstructed such that a strong correlation is formed between movements and word labels. These spaces lead to a method for searching for movement data from a query of word labels. We tested our proposed approach on captured human whole body motion data, and its validity was demonstrated. Our approach serves as a fundamental technique for extracting the necessary movements from a database and reusing them

Developing an Intercultural Eye for Art: The University of Chicago’s Laboratory Schools and Hiroshima University’s Affiliated High School 2019 collaborative action research

This paper serves as the report on the 2019 collaborative action research conducted by the University of Chicago’s Laboratory Schools and Hiroshima University’s Affiliated High School aimed at cultivating middle and high school students’ intercultural eye for art. An intercultural eye for art means perceiving and sympathizing with a worldview expressed in artwork from other cultures, and to foster the growth of this competency, an intercultural eye for art curriculum was designed and implemented through collaboration between the two schools. The educational effects of the designed curriculum were surveyed by administering pre- and post-questionnaires, and selected case studies demonstrated how individual students were able to establish intercultural communication through the language of art in the classroom. The research findings demonstrate that the designed curriculum was effective in broadening and deepening the students’ intercultural eye for art and their interests in further study. Furthermore, competency in an intercultural eye for art is likely to evolve in coordination with affective and cognitive responses to artwork

BACKGROUND MUSCLE ACTIVITY INFLUENCES MECHANICAL RESPONSE DURING REPEATED MAXIMUM MUSCLE CONTRACTIONS

This study was designed to examine whether background muscle activity and prediction of maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) timing influence the mechanical response elicited by the MVC during passive repetition of shortening, lengthening, and isometric contractions. Background muscle activity and prediction of the timing of MVC influenced the mechanical response elicited by the MVC during passive repetition of shortening, lengthening, and isometric contractions

Trace element concentrations in iron type cosmic spherules determined by the SR-XRF method

The X-ray fluorescence method using synchrotron radiation (SR-XRF) was applied to determine trace element abundances in iron type (I-type) cosmic spherules collected at deep-sea sediments. Cr, Co, and Ni were detected from almost all spherules and average concentrations are 1336,2991ppm, and 4.0%, respectively. Ga, Ge, and Mn were detected from 20,30,and 20% of spherules and average concentrations are 4,4 and 486ppm, respectively. Spherules containing metallic cores were enriched in Ni and Co and depleted in volatile elements such as Ga and Ge relative to those without cores. The Ni and Co enrichments resulted from high concentrations of the elements in the metallic cores, while the Ga and Ge depletion might indicate that core-bearing spherules have experienced more severe heating during atmospheric entry than the core-lacking ones. On the basis of Mn concentration we divided spherules into two groups : high and low Mn groups. Trace element abundances of the low Mn group are systematically fractionated relative to those of iron meteorites : volatile elements are depleted and refractory ones are enriched in the spherules. This appears to be consistent with the hypothesis that I-type spherules are ablation products of iron meteorites that have lost volatile elements during melting. Production of the low Mn spherules by ablation of chondritic meteorites is also possible, but chondrite melting should have occurred under a limited range of oxygen fugacity in order to enrich Cr and remove Mn in the spherules. Spherules belonging to high Mn group show a complex trace element pattern when normalized to chondrites. A large Mn excess relative to Cr in this type of spherules can not be explained by any formation process, thus it is difficult to infer the precursor material of the Mn-rich spherules