On the stimulus duty cycle in steady state visual evoked potential

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are useful devices that allow direct control of external devices using thoughts, i.e. brain's electrical activity. There are several BCI paradigms, of which steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) is the most commonly used due to its quick response and accuracy. SSVEP stimuli are typically generated by varying the luminance of a target for a set number of frames or display events. Conventionally, SSVEP based BCI paradigms use magnitude (amplitude) information from frequency domain but recently, SSVEP based BCI paradigms have begun to utilize phase information to discriminate between similar frequency targets. This paper will demonstrate that using a single frame to modulate a stimulus may lead to a bi-modal distribution of SSVEP as a consequence of a user attending both transition edges. This incoherence, while of less importance in traditional magnitude domain SSVEP BCIs becomes critical when phase is taken into account. An alternative modulation technique incorporating a 50% duty cycle is also a popular method for generating SSVEP stimuli but has a unimodal distribution due to user's forced attention to a single transition edge. This paper demonstrates that utilizing the second method results in significantly enhanced performance in information transfer rate in a phase discrimination SSVEP based BCI

Predictability of Equity REIT Returns: Implications for Property Tactical Asset Allocation

This study presents further evidence of the predictability of excess equity REIT (real estate investment trust) returns. Recent evidence on forecasting excess returns using fundamental variables has resulted in diminishing returns from the 1990’s onward. Trading strategies based on these forecasts have not significantly outperformed the buy/hold strategy of the 1990’s. We have developed an alternative strategy that is based on the time variation of the risk premium of investors. Our results indicate that it is possible to outperform the buy/hold strategy by modeling the time variation of the risk premium. By modeling the dynamic behavior of the risk premium, we are able to implicitly capture economic risk premiums that are not captured by conventional multi beta asset pricing models.Equity REIT; Predictability; Risk premium

Long-Term Dependencies and Long Run non-Periodic Co-Cycles: Real Estate and Stock Markets

The literature is not clear on whether there are co-dependencies domestically across real estate and stock markets, nor whether there are international co-dependencies for these asset classes, despite the importance of this question for portfolio diversification strategies. In this article, we use a non-linear technique to search for co-dependence over the long term. We find no evidence to suggest long co-memories between stock and property markets in the United States and the United Kingdom, but some evidence of this in Australia. In an international context, if we take whole of sample period data, we find no evidence of long co-memory effects, however if we sample on either side of the 1987 market correction we find evidence of long co-memory.

Implementing a WTO agreement on trade facilitation : what makes sense ?

Contrary to the prevailing view that the Doha negotiations have achieved little, the authors find that on trade facilitation much progress has been made. This is particularly true in regard to action by development banks and bilateral development agencies to meet client demand for assistance in reform. Active private sector participation has been an important factor driving change. Many agencies have been involved in this work. The authors find that their roles have been consistent with their comparative advantages. As to how the international community can best support continued progress, the authors conclude in favor of a cautious approach to the imposition of new WTO obligations in the area of trade facilitation. On the whole, this is the approach the WTO has taken, for example, by limiting its negotiations on trade facilitation to several specific provisions of the GATT. The WTO can continue to function as a catalyst for reform. It is perhaps uniquely placed to relate the trade facilitation agenda to the overall trade agenda. On design and construction of the relevant infrastructures and capacities to spur development, the development institutions, including bilateral agencies, should continue to lead. The authors find little evidence to support the need for a comprehensive new"platform"or mechanism to channel trade-related aid as part of implementation of any new agreement at the WTO on trade facilitation. They recommend, however, that an innovative approach to using the well established, but under utilized Trade Policy Review Mechanism be considered to increase transparency on where new aid is going over time and to expand understanding of where and how country-based progress has been achieved.Economic Theory&Research,Trade Law,Trade Policy,Common Carriers Industry,Transport and Trade Logistics

Cretaceous stratigraphy of Central Andes of Peru

Cretaceous facias in Peru commonly fall into a lower, mainly clastic, group of formations and an upper group consisting of limestones, dolomites and shales. The clastic formations are largely non-marine. Over much of the country they range in age from Valanginian to Late Aptian or Albian, though in eastern Peru they extend into the Upper Cretaceous. The basal part of the limestone and shale group of formations is commonly Albian in age, though it is younger in the east. Tuffs and flows form an important part of the Cretaceous sequence of coastal Peru, but are not common elsewhere in the country. These Cretaceous units are overlain by redbed formations, some of which may be as old as the Campanian. The relationships between the redbeds and the underlying units range from conformity to slight angular unconformity. The Cretaceous formations range in thickness from about 3,000 meters on the western flank of the Andes and 2,000 m. in eastern Peru to 1,000 m. or less in the intervening region. On this basis the Andean belt is believed to have consisted of two troughs (the West Peruvian trough and East Peruvian trough of this report) separated by a relatively positive area called the Maranon geanticline. The clastic sequence in the West Peruvian trough was probably derived from the geanticline and from tectonic lands on the southwest. The elastics in the East Peruvian trough were contributed by the Brazilian shield, and probably by the geanticline. Although there were temporar3' marine advances into the troughs during the Neocomian and Aptian the main transgression did not begin until the Albian. The West Peruvian trough and the Maranon geanticUne were submerged by the Medial Albian, and marine conditions began to spread into the northern part of the East Peruvian trough. The latter was not completely submerged, however, until the sea reached its greatest extent during the Coniacian. Although there was Late Albian tectonism in parts of the Andean belt, widespread emergence did not begin until the Santonian or Campanian, when the West Peruvian trough was uplifted. Subsequently the whole of the belt was folded and uplifted by orogenic phases which took place possibly in the Miocene and Pliocene. The Andean belt in central Peru may be divided into structural provinces, which are from southwest to northeast: Paleozoic massifs; gently folded and block-faulted Mesozoic sediments and volcanics; batholith; strongly folded Cretaceous formations; folded and metamorphosed Paleozoic formations overlain by gently folded Mesozoic and Cenozoic formations; and moderately folded Mesozoic and Cenozoic formations

A Connection of Central Significance: Sufficient Occupancy and Aboriginal Title

This paper is an extended commentary on a recent British Columbia Court of Appeal Decision, William v British Columbia, 2012 BCCA 285. It rehearses and critiques the central debate between the appellant and respondent regarding the quality or character of physical occupation necessary to successfully ground an Aboriginal title claim under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. Ultimately, it argues that the Court of Appeal erred in its endorsement of a site-specific understanding of sufficient occupancy, and further, that the central debate itself is orthogonal to the true concern underlying the occupancy requirement. It concludes with an alternative test for sufficient occupancy which is more consistent with the previous jurisprudence and the goals of Aboriginal title and Canadian Aboriginal rights writ large

The Rights We Share: From Rights to Reasons, and Back Again

In this paper, I argue that the contemporary human rights literature would benefit from a shift in focus. Recent accounts of the source and status of human rights have been preoccupied with locating -- or failing to locate -- those fundamental features of persons which would provide a universal grounding for what we call \u27human rights.\u27 These accounts have found limited success. Here, I suggest that we ought to move our attention away from the features of rational agents, acting individually or collectively, to the tools with which they are actually acting. That is, we need to fully understand the nature of reasons before we can properly grasp the rights owed to all reasoners. The paper appeals to recent work in value theory about the connection between reasons and value to moderate a debate between Brian Slattery and Alan Gewirth. Ultimately, it argues that a particular understanding of agent-neutral reasons -- reasons as intersubjectively created and shared between agents of equal value -- must undergird any plausible human rights account. The paper concludes by suggesting that it is our capacity as reasoners and, therefore, as the source of value, which provides the best foundation for an account of human rights