Using DDC to create a visual knowledge map as an aid to online information retrieval

Selection of search terms in an online search environment can be facilitated by the visual display of a knowledge map showing the various concepts and their links. This paper reports on a preliminary research aimed at designing a prototype knowledge map using DDC and its visual display. The prototype knowledge map created using the Protæ#169;gæ#169; and TGViz freeware has been demonstrated, and further areas of research in this field are discussed

Private Savings in Transition Economies: Are There Terms of Trade Shocks?

Economic agents in the transition economies are subject to tight credit constraints, which are more pronounced during bad state of nature. Thus, adverse shocks to commodity prices in the world market can force them to reduce savings by a larger amount than they would otherwise have. Empirical analysis using a dynamic panel model and data from 21 transition economies confirm that most of the determinants of savings identified in the literature also apply to the transition economies. The transitory component in the terms of trade have a larger positive impact than the permanent component. This reflects the lack of access to foreign borrowing. Although the impact of terms of trade shocks is found to be asymmetric, the magnitude of the impact appears to be small. The results are robust for alternative estimators, determinants and country groupings

(WP 2013-07) Terms of Trade Shocks and Private Savings in the Developing Countries

Economic agents in the developing countries are subject to tight credit constraints, which are more pronounced during bad state of nature. Thus, adverse shocks to commodity prices in the world market can force them to reduce savings by a larger amount than they would otherwise have. Empirical analysis using a dynamic GMM model and data from 45 developing countries confirm that most of the determinants of savings identified in the literature also apply to the developing countries. The transitory component in the terms of trade have a larger positive impact than the permanent component. This reflects the lack of access to foreign borrowing. Although the impact of terms of trade shocks is found to be asymmetric, the magnitude of the impact appears to be relatively small. The results are robust for alternative estimators, determinants and country groupings

Molecular motors: design, mechanism and control

Biological functions in each animal cell depend on coordinated operations of a wide variety of molecular motors. Some of the these motors transport cargo to their respective destinations whereas some others are mobile workshops which synthesize macromolecules while moving on their tracks. Some other motors are designed to function as packers and movers. All these motors require input energy for performing their mechanical works and operate under conditions far from thermodynamic equilibrium. The typical size of these motors and the forces they generate are of the order of nano-meters and pico-Newtons, respectively. They are subjected to random bombardments by the molecules of the surrounding aqueous medium and, therefore, follow noisy trajectories. Because of their small inertia, their movements in the viscous intracellular space exhibits features that are characteristics of hydrodynamics at low Reynold's number. In this article we discuss how theoretical modeling and computer simulations of these machines by physicists are providing insight into their mechanisms which engineers can exploit to design and control artificial nano-motors.Comment: 11 pages, including 8 embedded EPS figures; Invited article, accepted for Publication in "Computing in Science and Engineering" (AIP & IEEE

Does Exchange Rate Variability Depress Trade Flows ? Evidence From Error Correction Models

This paper examines the impact of exchange rate volatility on the trade flows of the G-7 countries in the context of a multivariate error-correction model. The error-correction models do not show any sign of parameter instability. The results indicate that the exchange rate volatility has a significant negative impact on the volume of exports in each of the G-7 countries. Assuming market participants are risk averse, these results imply that exchange rate uncertainty causes them to reduce their activities, change prices, or shift sources of demand and supply in order to minimize their exposure to the effects of exchange rate volatility. This, in turn, can change the distribution of output across many sectors in these countries. It is quite possible that the surprisingly weak relationship between trade flows and exchange rate volatility reported in several previous studies are due to insufficient attention to the stochastic properties of the relevant time series