A Study on Philippine Exchange Rate Policies

Since the late 1960s, there has been strong resistance from several quarters against any form of devaluation. While many empirical studies corroborate their sentiments, this paper attempts to show that if exchange rates were fixed, then it would be misleading to use them in macro-supply equations to represent the shadow exchange rate or as a measure of the scarcity of foreign exchange. The macro model presented here shows that that devaluation being contractionary is not necessarily true because it increases the domestic costs of imports. Hence, it is important that devaluation is not accompanied by contractionary policies.exchange rate policy

Structural expression and application in contemporary architecture

The development of structural technology has allowed the architect greater freedom in resolving problems related to the planning, aesthetics and construction of forms and spaces. As technology advances the range of structural solutions is increased to further enable the implementation of architectural ideas which develop independently from technology.Two fundamentally opposite philosophies embrace the structural integration of architecture:1. that although technology "frees" architecture, it does not determine architecture. Thus ideas on which architectural forms are based may be sourced outside architecture and structure; for e.g. movements in art and analogies drawn from nature have influenced the ideology of several modern architectural movements.2. that architectural form itself may be generated out of structural considerations and that the structural problem itself may serve as a rich source of architectural ideas from which forms and spaces may be generated.Both approaches operate in the contemporary context and are a reflection of the need to merge the design philosophies of architecture and structural technology.The thesis comprises three sections and is based on the assumption that structure is used to improve certain core aspects of architecture. This is related to allowing flexibility in architectural expression and planning, and the simplification of fabrication and construction processes.SECTION I of the thesis proceeds by investigating the background to the different design philosophies of the architect and the engineer in order to provide an understanding of the differences in their design priorities. Significant Modern Movement examples are studied in relation to the abstract ideologies which influence architectural form and structural integration in order to hypothesise on the core aspects previously mentioned.In SECTION II, these investigations are extended to case examples in the contemporary context and buildings are studied in relation to 4 main considerations: a) architectural b) structural c) utilitarian d) constructionInterviews with project architects and engineers were conducted to substantiate the information from publications in refereed Journals and reference texts and project design reports.In addition to relying on papers written on the architectural and structural design development of the selected buildings, interviews with the relevant project consultants were arranged to obtain further background information relevant to the thesis.SECTION III then further discusses the factors affecting the development and application of structure in the architectural context in order to arrive at conclusions based on the recurrent themes and approaches identified in Section II case studies. These conclusions are interpreted in relation to Section I ideologies on structural integration and architectural expression and establish the common design aims of both architect and engineer in order to attempt bridging the gaps in their professional understanding of building design.The conclusions may be summarised as follows:1) that there are three recurrent approaches to arranging structure in relation to architectural layout. Structure may occupy the a) periphery of the architectural plan b) the centre of the plan c) plan in intermittent fashion (as in the case of 2 -way modules) There are also examples where a combination of the three approaches is possible.2) that the recurrent approaches to using structure in articulating the external form may be summarised as follows: i) the form implied by an ideal structural model may be adapted as an architectural form (for eg. a portal frame shed) ii) that structural form is modified to suit functional and aesthetic requirements. Nervi's Small Sports Palace in Rome is an example where a structural dome is modified at its peripheral edges and supports for utilitarian and aesthetic reasons). iii) that non -load bearing elements may be articulated within a regular structural frame, (as exemplified by Corbusier's Dom -ino principle) iv) that structure may be detailed as architectural ornament whilst maintaining essential structural action, (as in the case of Horta's Art Nouveau creation). v) that an appropriate functional structural may be developed to maintain a 'sculptural form" initially conceived, without consideration of support, (as in the case of Utzon's Sydney Opera House). vi) that structural form is developed intuitively and simultaneously as an expression of architectural form, (as in the case of the Pantheon).These recurrent approaches (1) and (2) are perhaps related to the development and application of structural configurations which do not excessively constraint the design of architectural spaces and the expression of architectural forms.Structural application in building is moving towards systems which use increasingly less material to achieve the required strength and rigidity required to transfer loads in ways influenced by the shape of architectural forms and spaces. This is directed towards reducing structural dead weight which in long -span and high -rise structure is critical to both performance and cost efficiency. This may be achieved by avoiding the development of excessive bending moments in the structure and this may be part of the reason for the increasing number of applications of structural systems which transmit primarily axial loads, particular tension in steel construction. However, pure tension or compression structures do not exist and the necessity to accommodate useable space and the shapes of architectural forms could imply the development of some bending in a system which first set out to avoid its presence. Bending necessitates the use of deeper structural sections which makes the structure visually bulky and more expensive in terms of material quantity. In this respect, the experimentation of flexible structures which acquire a satisfactory degree of rigidity with stressed cables and rods is aimed at providing more aesthetic and economical solutions than with conventionally rigid systems.The engineering aims of developing increasingly slender structures could therefore be aimed at economy and elegance whilst the architectural implications could be:i) A structural system which assists the aesthetic considerations of formal and spatial composition, or one which does not necessarily restrict modes of aesthetic treatment in order to provide support.ii) A structural system which allows flexibility in the layout and use of floor space and in the interpretation of spatial character.iii) A structural system with the means to optimise fully, the commercial potential of prime sites with complex building constraints.iv) A structural system which effectively integrates mechanical service and electronic networks without compromising aesthetic themes.v) A structural system which provides the option of satisfactory levels of natural lighting and ventilation as well as enabling an energy efficient building.These ideals are related to the structural improvement to architectural form and space and could perhaps serve as the common design aims of both architect and engineer

Transfer learning by borrowing examples for multiclass object detection

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 31-33).Despite the recent trend of increasingly large datasets for object detection, there still exist many classes with few training examples. To overcome this lack of training data for certain classes, we propose a novel way of augmenting the training data for each class by borrowing and transforming examples from other classes. Our model learns which training instances from other classes to borrow and how to transform the borrowed examples so that they become more similar to instances from the target class. Our experimental results demonstrate that our new object detector, with borrowed and transformed examples, improves upon the current state-of-the-art detector on the challenging SUN09 object detection dataset.by Joseph J. Lim.S.M

Multi-Modal Imitation Learning from Unstructured Demonstrations using Generative Adversarial Nets

Imitation learning has traditionally been applied to learn a single task from demonstrations thereof. The requirement of structured and isolated demonstrations limits the scalability of imitation learning approaches as they are difficult to apply to real-world scenarios, where robots have to be able to execute a multitude of tasks. In this paper, we propose a multi-modal imitation learning framework that is able to segment and imitate skills from unlabelled and unstructured demonstrations by learning skill segmentation and imitation learning jointly. The extensive simulation results indicate that our method can efficiently separate the demonstrations into individual skills and learn to imitate them using a single multi-modal policy. The video of our experiments is available at http://sites.google.com/view/nips17intentionganComment: Paper accepted to NIPS 201

A study on Philippine exchange rate policies

Since the late 1960s, there has been strong resistance from many quarters against any form of devaluation, in sharp contrast with the near-unanimous call of economists for a realistic depreciation of the currency in order to encourage exports, foster economic competitiveness and efficiency, and avoid perennial balance-of-payment crises. The diammetrically opposed positions are further polarized today as many in the private sector - - from big business to militant labor and even small farmers -- consistently oppose devaluation. Their resistance has silenced policymakers who espoused realistic exchange-rate adjustments. The private sector sees devaluation as stagflationary: increases in the domestic cost of imports contract output and aggravate price inflation (e.g. Krugman and Taylor 1978). Empirical studies incorporating the exchange rate in a supply-side macro model corroborate the above intuition (see Bautista et al. 1992). This study, however, will try to show that if exchange rates are fixed, then it would be misleading to use them in macro-supply equations to represent the shadow exchange rate, or as the measure of the scarcity of foreign exchange. For in a fixed exchange-rate regime, foreign exchange may be scarce and exchange rates low, so that the exchange rate will not reflect the true economic cost of foreign-exchange scarcity. It is appropriate in this case to include the international reserves as a determinant in output supply, particularly when foreign-exchange controls are implemented (as they usually are) simultaneously with a de facto fixed exchange rate regime

Unintended targeting of Dmp1-Cre reveals a critical role for Bmpr1a signaling in the gastrointestinal mesenchyme of adult mice

Cre/loxP technology has been widely used to study cell type-specific functions of genes. Proper interpretation of such data critically depends on a clear understanding of the tissue specificity of Cre expression. The Dmp1-Cre mouse, expressing Cre from a 14-kb DNA fragment of the mouse Dmp1 gene, has become a common tool for studying gene function in osteocytes, but the presumed cell specificity is yet to be fully established. By using the Ai9 reporter line that expresses a red fluorescent protein upon Cre recombination, we find that in 2-month-old mice, Dmp1-Cre targets not only osteocytes within the bone matrix but also osteoblasts on the bone surface and preosteoblasts at the metaphyseal chondro-osseous junction. In the bone marrow, Cre activity is evident in certain stromal cells adjacent to the blood vessels, but not in adipocytes. Outside the skeleton, Dmp1-Cre marks not only the skeletal muscle fibers, certain cells in the cerebellum and the hindbrain but also gastric and intestinal mesenchymal cells that express Pdgfra. Confirming the utility of Dmp1-Cre in the gastrointestinal mesenchyme, deletion of Bmpr1a with Dmp1-Cre causes numerous large polyps along the gastrointestinal tract, consistent with prior work involving inhibition of BMP signaling. Thus, caution needs to be exercised when using Dmp1-Cre because it targets not only the osteoblast lineage at an earlier stage than previously appreciated, but also a number of non-skeletal cell types

On the numerical solution of the dynamically loaded hydrodynamic lubrication of the point contact problem

The transient analysis of hydrodynamic lubrication of a point-contact is presented. A body-fitted coordinate system is introduced to transform the physical domain to a rectangular computational domain, enabling the use of the Newton-Raphson method for determining pressures and locating the cavitation boundary, where the Reynolds boundary condition is specified. In order to obtain the transient solution, an explicit Euler method is used to effect a time march. The transient dynamic load is a sinusoidal function of time with frequency, fractional loading, and mean load as parameters. Results include the variation of the minimum film thickness and phase-lag with time as functions of excitation frequency. The results are compared with the analytic solution to the transient step bearing problem with the same dynamic loading function. The similarities of the results suggest an approximate model of the point contact minimum film thickness solution

Colitis Following Initiation of Sofosbuvir and Simeprevir for Genotype 1 Hepatitis C.

Sofosbuvir and simeprevir are used for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (HCV) genotype 1. Both drugs have been well-tolerated, with diarrhea noted in 6% cases with sofosbuvir, 16% with sofosbuvir plus simeprevir, and 0% with simeprevir. No prior reports exist of colitis secondary to either drug or their combination. We report a patient with no prior history of inflammatory bowel disease who developed significant bloody diarrhea within 2 weeks of sofosbuvir/simeprevir initiation. Colonoscopy and biopsy confirmed pancolitis, which responded to mesalamine and completion of sofosbuvir/simeprevir