Markov chains in the domain of attraction of Brownian motion in cones

We consider a multidimensional Markov Chain $X$ converging to a multidimensional Brownian Motion. We construct a positive harmonic function for $X$ killed on exiting the cone. We show that its asymptotic behavior is similar to that of to the harmonic function of Brownian motion. We use the harmonic function to study the asymptotic behaviour of the tail distribution of the exit time $\tau$ of $X$ from a cone.Comment: 27 page

Ideals and Reality: Sun Yat-sen\u27s Dream for Asia

When planning China\u27s future revolution, Sun Yat-sen at one time used the model of the West. Since China is after all a part of Asia, however, and as his understanding of the corrupt and critical state of the Western system of capitalismgrew, he eventually looked once again to Asia. He advocated collaborating with Japan, and approved of allying with various oppressed peoples inAsia. He planned to join forces with other Asian nations in order to stop Western encroachment in Asia. He divided the world into two major categories: the oppressors and the oppressed. He sought independence, equality, prosperity, and power for the oppressed, and proposed a new world order of peace and justice. He considered nationalism to be the basis of cosmopolitanism.Only by restoring national equality to the oppressed nations would those nations be able to move toward cosmopolitanism. For Sun, societiesshould deal appropriately with the relationship between cosmopolitanism and nationalism, both of which necessarily were to endure profound, universal judgment from people around the world. Humankind was to reawaken and rally together to help their own respective cultures. China\u27s traditional morality was to spread to merge with the morally good elements of every country in the world, creating the foundation for building a new world citizen morality

Dividends Distribution and Earnings Persistence: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

Dividends distribution of Chinese listed companies is irregular, and the level of dividends can’t match that of earnings persistence. This paper empirically investigates the relationship between dividends distribution, including payout policy and level of cash dividends, and earnings persistence. Different from current literature, this paper is the first to investigate the relationship between dividends and earnings persistence from the perspective of different earnings components. New findings of this paper are as follows. First, the company which distributed dividends, has a stronger earnings persistence than those not. Second, core earnings persistence of listed companies that distributed dividends is significantly stronger than non-core earnings persistence. In addition, the company which distributed cash dividends, has a stronger earnings persistence than those just paid stock dividends, and the higher the level of cash dividends is, the stronger earnings persistence shows. These findings have implications for Chinese listed companies to improve earnings persistence by increasing operating income, and for the guidance of properly developing the company cash dividends distribution policy according to its core earnings persistence

Attention, Please! Adversarial Defense via Attention Rectification and Preservation

This study provides a new understanding of the adversarial attack problem by examining the correlation between adversarial attack and visual attention change. In particular, we observed that: (1) images with incomplete attention regions are more vulnerable to adversarial attacks; and (2) successful adversarial attacks lead to deviated and scattered attention map. Accordingly, an attention-based adversarial defense framework is designed to simultaneously rectify the attention map for prediction and preserve the attention area between adversarial and original images. The problem of adding iteratively attacked samples is also discussed in the context of visual attention change. We hope the attention-related data analysis and defense solution in this study will shed some light on the mechanism behind the adversarial attack and also facilitate future adversarial defense/attack model design

Strengthening mechanisms of highly textured Cu/Co and Ag/Al nanolayers with high density twins and stacking faults

Metallic nanolayers have attracted increasing attention as they provide unique opportunity to investigate the influence of layer interfaces on mechanical properties of metallic nanocomposites. High strength is often achieved at small (several nm) individual layer thickness (h). Recently, we discovered high-density stacking faults in FCC Co in highly (100) textured Cu/Co multilayers. In contrast in (111) textured Cu/Co nanolayers, Co remained its stable HCP structure at large h. The two Cu/Co systems have very different size dependent strengthening behavior. HCP Cu/Co has much greater peak strength than FCC Cu/Co. The large discrepancy in their strengthening mechanisms is discussed and compared to those of highly textured Cu/Ni multilayer systems. In another highly textured nanolayers system, Ag/Al, epitaxial interfaces were observed across various h (1‑200 nm). High-density nanotwins and stacking faults appear in both Ag and Al layers, and stacking fault density in Al increases sharply with decreasing h. At smaller h, hardness of Ag/Al nanolayers increases monotonically and no softening was observed. These studies allow us to investigate the influence of layer interfaces, stacking faults and nanotwins on strengthening mechanisms of metallic nanolayers. This research is funded by DOE–OBES

Inequality trends of health workforce in different stages of medical system reform (1985-2011) in China

Introduction The aim of this study was to identify whether policies in different stages of medical system reform had been effective in decreasing inequalities and increasing the density of health workers in rural areas in China between 1985 and 2011. Methods With data from China Health Statistics Yearbooks from 2004 to 2012, we measured the Gini coefficient and the Theil L index across the urban and rural areas from 1985 to 2011 to investigate changes in inequalities in the distributions of health workers, doctors, and nurses by states, regions, and urban-rural stratum and account for the sources of inequalities. Results We found that the overall inequalities in the distribution of health workers decreased to the lowest in 2000, then increased gently until 2011. Nurses were the most unequally distributed between urban-rural districts among health workers. Most of the overall inequalities in the distribution of health workers across regions were due to inequalities within the rural-urban stratum. Discussions and conclusions Different policies and interventions in different stages would result in important changes in inequality in the distribution of the health workforce. It was also influenced by other system reforms, like the urbanization, education, and employment reforms in China. The results are useful for the Chinese government to decide how to narrow the gap of the health workforce and meet its citizens’ health needs to the maximum extent