The Pacific Basin in World Trade: Part III, An Analysis of Changing Trade Patterns, 1955-1975

This is the third of a sequence of papers on international flows of trade among fifteen Pacific Basin (PB) countries and between them and eleven regions in the Rest of the World (ROW). In Part I of the sequence (Hickman, Kuroda and Lau, 1977a) we presented and documented annual data on bilateral flows of total exports valued f.o.b. in current dollars among the twenty-six countries and regions for the years 1948 through1975. The primary data source is the Direction of Trade computer tape of the International Monetary Fund, but these data were supplemented from other sources, especially as regards the international trade of the socialist countries. The second report (1977b) extended the data base to include unit value export price indexes and the corresponding constant dollar trade flow matrices for the period 1955-1975. In this third report we analyze the changing pattern of PB trade over the same period, using as tools export growth decomposition indexes, trend analysis, and regression analysis of the price elasticity of import market shares. The present paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we describe the trends in the export performance of the PB countries and ROW regions, as measured by the cumulative percentage change in each country's share of world exports between 1955 and 1975 and for selected sub periods. In Section 3 and Appendices B and C these export share changes are decomposed into three sources: changes in the degree of penetration of the various import markets, changes in the size of the import markets themselves, and an interaction effect. The decomposition indexes are shown in Section 4 to be dominated by the market penetration or competitiveness effect, so that a country gains or loses in world trade according to whether or not it can increase its shares of the markets in which it sells rather than as a passive result of changes in the size of the markets themselves. This leads to a descriptive analysis in Section 5 of the secular growth rates of the market shares of each country or region in the import markets of the twenty-five remaining countries and regions. Finally, we conclude the paper in Section 6 with art exploratory regression analysis of the responsiveness of the market shares to changes in the relative prices of the various exporting countries competing in each import market, leading to the general conclusion that relative prices do matter and presenting estimates of share or substitution elasticities in the various import markets.

The Pacific Basin in World Trade: Part II, Constant-Price Trade Matrices, 1955-1975

This is the second of a sequence of papers on international flows of merchandise trade among fifteen Pacific Basin countries and between them and eleven regions in the Rest of the World. In the first paper in this sequence (Hickman, Kuroda and Lau (1977)) we presented annual data on bilateral flows of exports in current prices among the twenty-six countries and regions for the years 1948 through 1975. The basic purpose of this second report is to present and document data on annual export price indexes of the twenty-six countries and regions and annual bilateral flows of exports in constant U.S. dollar prices among the twenty-six countries and regions in matrix form from 1955 through 1975. A third report will analyze the changing pattern of Pacific Basin trade over the same period. The present report is organized as follows: In Section 2 we present the data sources for the export price indexes. Using these export price indexes, the current price trade matrices derived in the first report(Hickman, Kuroda and Lau (1977)) are deflated to obtain the constant price trade matrices. In Section 3 we examine whether the concept of a Pacific Basin regional economy may still be justified when viewed in a constant price context and describe the postwar trends in its share of world trade and in its internal trading relationships on a constant price basis. In Section 4 we present terms of trade indexes for each country and region from 1955 through 1975 and discuss some of their implications.

The Pacific Basin in World Trade: Part I, Current Price Trade Matrices, 1948-1975

This is the first of a sequence of papers on international flows of merchandise trade among fifteen Pacific Basin countries and between them and eleven regions in the Rest of the World. The basic purpose of this report is to present and document annual data on bilateral flows of exports in current prices among the 26 countries and regions in matrix form for the years 1948 through 1975. A second report will provide export price deflators and trade matrices in constant prices for 1955-1975, and a third will analyze the changing pattern of Pacific Basin trade over the same period. The present report is organized as follows. In Section 2 we justify the concept of a Pacific Basin regional economy and describe the postwar trends in its share of world trade and in its internal trading relationships. Section 3 contains a detailed description of the construction of the annual trade matrices. The matrices themselves are presented in Appendix D. Appendix A lists the countries in each regional grouping, and Appendices B and C document adjustments to the basic International Monetary Fund Directions of Trade (DOT) data for the trade of socialist countries and that of Malaysia and Singapore.

Wigner and Racah coefficients for SU3

A general yet simple and hence practical algorithm for calculating SU3⊃SU2×U1SU3⊃SU2×U1 Wigner coefficients is formulated. The resolution of the outer multiplicity follows the prescription given by Biedenharn and Louck. It is shown that SU3 Racah coefficients can be obtained as a solution to a set of simultaneous equations with unknown coefficients given as a by‐product of the initial steps in the SU3⊃SU2×U1SU3⊃SU2×U1 Wigner coefficient construction algorithm. A general expression for evaluating SU3⊃R3SU3⊃R3 Wigner coefficients as a sum over a simple subset of the corresponding SU3⊃SU2×U1SU3⊃SU2×U1 Wigner coefficients is also presented. State conjugation properties are discussed and symmetry relations for both the SU3⊃SU2×U1SU3⊃SU2×U1 and SU3⊃R3SU3⊃R3 Wigner coefficients are given. Machine codes based on the results are available.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70151/2/JMAPAQ-14-12-1904-1.pd

Mapping Husserlian phenomenology onto active inference

Phenomenology is the rigorous descriptive study of conscious experience. Recent attempts to formalize Husserlian phenomenology provide us with a mathematical model of perception as a function of prior knowledge and expectation. In this paper, we re-examine elements of Husserlian phenomenology through the lens of active inference. In doing so, we aim to advance the project of computational phenomenology, as recently outlined by proponents of active inference. We propose that key aspects of Husserl's descriptions of consciousness can be mapped onto aspects of the generative models associated with the active inference approach. We first briefly review active inference. We then discuss Husserl's phenomenology, with a focus on time consciousness. Finally, we present our mapping from Husserlian phenomenology to active inference.Comment: 10 page

Relation between composition, microstructure and oxidation in iron aluminides

The relation between chemical composition, microstructure and oxidation properties has been investigated on various FeAl based alloys, the aim being to induce changes in the microstructure of the compound by selective oxidation of aluminium. Oxidation kinetics that was evaluated on bulk specimens showed that, due to fast diffusion in the alloys, no composition gradient is formed during the aluminium selective oxidation. Accordingly, significant aluminium depletion in the compound could be observed in the thinnest part of oxidised wedge-shape specimens. Another way to obtain samples of variable aluminium content was to prepare diffusion couples with one aluminide and pure iron as end members. These latter specimens have been characterised using electron microscopy and first results of oxidation experiments are presented

Evolutionary divergence of intrinsic and trans-regulated nucleosome positioning sequences reveals plastic rules for chromatin organization

The packaging of eukaryotic genomes into nuclesomes plays critical roles in chromatin organization and gene regulation. Studies in Saccharomyces cerevisiae indicate that nucleosome occupancy is partially encoded by intrinsic antinucleosomal DNA sequences, such as poly(A) sequences, as well as by binding sites for trans-acting factors that can evict nucleosomes, such as Reb1 and the Rsc3/30 complex. Here, we use genome-wide nucleosome occupancy maps in 13 Ascomycota fungi to discover large-scale evolutionary reprogramming of both intrinsic and trans determinants of chromatin structure. We find that poly(G)s act as intrinsic antinucleosomal sequences, comparable to the known function of poly(A)s, but that the abundance of poly(G)s has diverged greatly between species, obscuring their antinucleosomal effect in low-poly(G) species such as S. cerevisiae. We also develop a computational method that uses nucleosome occupancy maps for discovering trans-acting general regulatory factor (GRF) binding sites. Our approach reveals that the specific sequences bound by GRFs have diverged substantially across evolution, corresponding to a number of major evolutionary transitions in the repertoire of GRFs. We experimentally validate a proposed evolutionary transition from Cbf1 as a major GRF in pre-whole-genome duplication (WGD) yeasts to Reb1 in post-WGD yeasts. We further show that the mating type switch-activating protein Sap1 is a GRF in S. pombe, demonstrating the general applicability of our approach. Our results reveal that the underlying mechanisms that determine in vivo chromatin organization have diverged and that comparative genomics can help discover new determinants of chromatin organization.Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Fellowship

The asymptotic limits of zero modes of massless Dirac operators

Asymptotic behaviors of zero modes of the massless Dirac operator $H=\alpha\cdot D + Q(x)$ are discussed, where $\alpha= (\alpha_1, \alpha_2, \alpha_3)$ is the triple of $4 \times 4$ Dirac matrices, $D=\frac{1}{i} \nabla_x$, and $Q(x)=\big(q_{jk} (x) \big)$ is a $4\times 4$ Hermitian matrix-valued function with $| q_{jk}(x) | \le C ^{-\rho}$, $\rho >1$. We shall show that for every zero mode $f$, the asymptotic limit of $|x|^2f(x)$ as $|x| \to +\infty$ exists. The limit is expressed in terms of an integral of $Q(x)f(x)$.Comment: 9 page