Estimating Monetary Reaction Functions at Near Zero Interest Rates: An Example Using Japanese Data

The importance of truncated distributions for bias in estimation of regression coefficients has been well understood by econometricians, but the relevance of truncation when estimating policy reaction functions has not been fully appreciated. Due to the emergence of low interest rates and the proximity of a zero lower bound (ZLB) on interest rates, coefficient estimates can be biased upwards. This paper illustrates the importance of measuring and correcting estimates for this bias using Japan’s unique experience of prolonged low inflation/deflation. While we would expect the monetary policy reaction function in Japan to differ from other countries in the G4, we show the bias from truncation of the interest rate distribution is significant and needs to be taken into account.Monetary policy, Reaction functions, Zero lower bounds, Japan, Tobit.

Teaching the Psychology of Food and Culture

Increasingly, psychologists practicing as clinicians, researchers, and educators are concerned about nutrition, obesity, dieting, and body image. This article describes the development and teaching of an interdisciplinary undergraduate class on the Psychology of Food and Culture. I describe the course philosophy and curriculum as well as make recommendations to educators interested in developing a similar course. I also include recommendations for those who want to integrate components of this course into other psychology classes

The Myth of the Green Fairy: Distilling the Scientific Truth About Absinthe

In spite of its history and illegality, the use of absinthe, the aperitif made famous in fin de siècle Parisian cafés, is on the rise again in the United States and abroad. Writers and artists like Baudelaire, Verlaine, Wilde, van Gogh, Hemingway, Degas, Picasso and Gauguin all prominently featured absinthe in their writing and art, often attributing their creativity, as well as emotional instability, to the effects of la fée verte, or the green fairy. Consequently, absinthe has earned a reputation as a mysterious and dangerous substance capable of inducing all manner of psychosis, violence and passion. Yet contemporary science shows that the absinthe myth cannot be accounted for by the pharmacological reality. This article describes the history of absinthe and recent scientific developments, and uses a psychoanalytic framework to explain why the absinthe myth endures

Linked Psychology and Writing Courses Across the Curriculum

To enhance student performance, prevent attrition, and build a learning community, two courses were linked together by requiring concurrent enrollment. Students in an unlinked class were used as a comparison group. Grades, evaluations, and attrition rate suggest that linking courses can improve writing and exam scores and reduce attrition

Self-Sustainable Key Generation: Strategies and Performance Bounds under DoS Attacks

Denial-of-Service (DoS) threats pose a major challenge to the idea of physical-layer key generation as the underlying wireless channels for key extraction are usually public. Identifying this vulnerability, we study the effect of DoS threats on relay-assisted key generation, and show that a reactive jamming attack on the distribution phase of relay-assisted key generation can forbid the nodes from extracting secret keys. To circumvent this problem, we propose a self-sustainable key generation model, wherein a frequency-hopping based distribution phase is employed to evade the jamming attack even though the participating nodes do not share prior credentials. A salient feature of the idea is to carve out a few bits from the key generation phase and subsequently use them to pick a frequency band at random for the broadcast phase. Interesting resource-allocation problems are formulated on how to extract maximum number of secret bits while also being able to evade the jamming attack with high probability. Tractable low-complexity solutions are also provided to the resource-allocation problems, along with insights on the feasibility of their implementation in practice.Comment: 7 page

Agriculture in Nigeria’s Economic Diversification Process: A Study of a Poultry Outgrower Scheme

Nigeria’s current economic plan targets diversification through leveraging the power of the private sector in order to enable and fast‐track business investments and job creation. This paper reports a study of a model of a poultry outgrower scheme ‐ Akwa Prime, used in catalysing private investments in the poultry sector of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The scheme shares the potential of combined strength of the state and that of the private sector in stimulating increased production and integrating of small livestock farmers to the national economy. The study’s specific objectives were to examine the extent of smallholder farmer involvement in contract negotiations including price setting; the role of the key participants, particularly the regulatory function of the state in an out‐growerscheme construct; and the impact of the scheme on socioeconomic improvement of smallholder farmers. Thisresearch was conducted with 42 smallholder independent broiler poultry farmers who are registered members of the Akwa Prime outgrower scheme and receiving a range of input support and good production practices aimed at optimization. Findings show a positive impact of the scheme on small independent poultry farmers’ productivity, profitability and survival. Contract negotiations and key participants role were fully documented. Participating farmers were found to have high income and stocking density while the cost of day old chicks and other production inputs provided by the scheme accounted for 99.1% (R2=.991) of the variation in farmers income. This positivechange on the bottom line of small independent poultry farmers indicate the prospects for greater deployment of out‐grower model to stimulate agriculture productivity and growth. However, despite some benefits there were major bottlenecks including compromised role of the state, imposed buyback price on farmers and late offtaking of the finished stock. The implication of this finding is that small poultry farmers left alone with their independent business choices may not stimulate much diversification driven by agriculture

Evaluation of thermal comfort conditions in a classroom equipped with radiant cooling systems and subjected to uniform convective environment

The aim of this work is to evaluate numerically the human thermal response that 24 students and 1 teacher feel in a classroom equipped with radiant cooling systems and subjected to uniform convective environments, in lightly warm conditions. The evolution of thermal comfort conditions, using the PMV index, is made by the multi-nodal human thermal comfort model. In this numerical model, that works in transient or steady-state conditions and simulates simultaneously a group of persons, the three-dimensional body is divided in 24 cylindrical and 1 spherical elements. Each element is divided in four parts (core, muscle, fat and skin), sub-divided in several layers, and protected by several clothing layers. This numerical model is divided in six parts: human body thermal system, clothing thermal system, integral equations resolution system, thermoregulatory system, heat exchange between the body and the environment and thermal comfort evaluation. Seven different radiant systems are combined to three convective environments. In the radiant systems (1) no radiant system without warmed curtain, (2) no radiant system with warmed curtain, (3) radiant floors cooling system with warmed curtain, (4) radiant panels cooling system with warmed curtain, (5) radiant ceiling cooling system with warmed curtain, (6) radiant floor and panels cooling system with warmed curtain and (7) radiant ceiling and panels cooling system with warmed curtain are analysed, while in the convective environments (1) without air velocity field and with uniform air velocity field of (2) 0.2 m/s and (3) 0.6 m/s are also analysed. The internal air temperature and internal surfaces temperature are 28 degrees C, the radiant cooling surfaces temperature are 19 degrees C and the warmed internal curtains surfaces temperatures, subjected to direct solar radiation, are 40 degrees C. The numerical model calculates the Mean Radiant Temperature field, the human bodies' temperatures field and the thermal comfort level, for the 25 occupants, for the 21 analysed situations. Without uniform air velocity field, when only one individual radiant cooling system is used, the Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied people is lowest when the radiant floor cooling system is applied and is highest when the radiant panel cooling system is applied. When are combined the radiant ceiling or the floor cooling systems with the radiant panel cooling system the Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied people decreases. When the uniform air velocity increases the thermal comfort level, that the occupants are subjected, increases. When the radiant floor cooling system or the combination of radiant floor and panel cooling systems without uniform air velocity field is applied, the Category C is verified for some occupants. However, with a convective uniform air velocity field of 0.2 m/s the Category B is verified and with a convective uniform air velocity field of 0.6 m/s the Category A is verify for some occupants. In the last situation the Category C is verified, in general, for all occupants. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Temporomandibulaarliigese haigusseisundid: ülevaade ning füsioterapeutiline käsitlus

http://www.ester.ee/record=b448467