Economic Fundamentals and Managed Floating Exchange Rate Regime in Singapore

¡°Pegging the Singapore dollar to a basket of currencies instead of a fixed rate to the US dollar and having a transparent system were claimed by the government of Singapore to have enabled the country to weather the Asian financial crisis better. This empirical paper reviews the claim by testing the consistency of observed Singapore dollar real exchange rate against the country¡¯s key real economic fundamentals. Employing the concept of Natural Real Equilibrium Exchange Rate (NATREX), our study finds that the real effective exchange rate has floated around the NATREX rate in 1990¡¯s. Hence, our test results support the official statement.

Observation of metal–insulator transition in Al–Pd–Re quasicrystals by x-ray absorption and photoemission spectroscopy

[[abstract]]Using x-ray absorption and valence-band photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) we investigated the electronic structures of icosahedral (i)-Al70Pd22.5Re7.5 quasicrystals (QCs) with a 4.2 K/300 K resistivity ratio, r, ranging from 8.3 to 107 obtained under various annealing conditions. Our Al K- and Pd L3-edge x-ray absorption results show that the density of states, N(E), near the Fermi level, EF, jumps to a larger value when r decreases down to below about 20.6. The valence-band PES results show that N(E) near EF is greatly reduced in i-Al70Pd22.5Re7.5 QCs relative to that of the pure metal, which confirms the existence of the pseudogap. The PES spectrum has a sharp cutoff at EF for r=8.3 QC, while it decreases smoothly down to zero at EF for larger r’s. The combined results suggest the occurrence of metal–insulator transition at an r between 13 and 20.6.[[notice]]補正完畢[[booktype]]紙

Modeling near-field tsunami observations to improve finite-fault slip models for the 11 March 2011 Tohoku earthquake

The massive tsunami generated by the 11 March 2011 Tohoku earthquake (M_w 9.0) was widely recorded by GPS buoys, wave gauges, and ocean bottom pressure sensors around the source. Numerous inversions for finite-fault slip time histories have been performed using seismic and/or geodetic observations, yielding generally consistent patterns of large co-seismic slip offshore near the hypocenter and/or up-dip near the trench, where estimated peak slip is ~60 m. Modeling the tsunami generation and near-field wave processes using two detailed rupture models obtained from either teleseismic P waves or high-rate GPS recordings in Japan allows evaluation of how well the finite-fault models account for the regional tsunami data. By determining sensitivity of the tsunami calculations to rupture model features, we determine model modifications that improve the fit to the diverse tsunami data while retaining the fit to the seismic and geodetic observations

The predictive effects of motivation toward learning science on TIMSS grade 8 students' science achievement: A comparative study between Malaysia and Singapore.

TIMSS routinely presents very powerful evidence showing that students with more positive motivation toward learning science have substantially higher achievement. The results from TIMSS 2011 are consistent with previous assessments. This study explored the predictive effects of motivation toward learning science on science achievement among Malaysian and Singaporean eighth graders who participated in the TIMSS 2011. In this study, students’ interest in and liking of learning science, students’ understanding about the importance and the usefulness of the science subject, and students’ self-confidence or self-concept in their ability to learn science were measured. Secondary data of the study were obtained from 5,733 Malaysian students and 5,927 Singaporean students who participated in the TIMSS 2011. The results of the present study indicated that eighth-graders’ liking and valuing of learning science were positively associated with Malaysian and Singaporean Grade 8 students’ science achievement

Comparison of long‐period surface wave amplitude and phase anomalies for two models of global lateral heterogeneity

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95459/1/grl2883.pd

The 25 October 2010 Mentawai tsunami earthquake (M_w 7.8) and the tsunami hazard presented by shallow megathrust ruptures

The 25 October 2010 Mentawai, Indonesia earthquake (M_w 7.8) ruptured the shallow portion of the subduction zone seaward of the Mentawai islands, off-shore of Sumatra, generating 3 to 9 m tsunami run-up along southwestern coasts of the Pagai Islands that took at least 431 lives. Analyses of teleseismic P, SH and Rayleigh waves for finite-fault source rupture characteristics indicate ∼90 s rupture duration with a low rupture velocity of ∼1.5 km/s on the 10° dipping megathrust, with total slip of 2–4 m over an ∼100 km long source region. The seismic moment-scaled energy release is 1.4 × 10^(−6), lower than 2.4 × 10^(−6) found for the 17 July 2006 Java tsunami earthquake (M_w 7.8). The Mentawai event ruptured up-dip of the slip region of the 12 September 2007 Kepulauan earthquake (M_w 7.9), and together with the 4 January 1907 (M 7.6) tsunami earthquake located seaward of Simeulue Island to the northwest along the arc, demonstrates the significant tsunami generation potential for shallow megathrust ruptures in regions up-dip of great underthrusting events in Indonesia and elsewhere

A novel approach to fault detection for fuzzy stochastic systems with nonhomogeneous processes

In this paper, we consider a class of fuzzy stochastic systems with nonhomogeneous jump processes. Our focus is on the design of a fuzzy fault detection filter that is sensitive to faults but robust against unknown inputs. Furthermore, the error filtering system is stochastically stable. With reference to an H1 performance index and a new performance index, sufficient conditions to ensure the existence of a fuzzy robust fault detection filter are derived. Simulation studies are carried out, showing that the proposed fuzzy robust FD filter can rapidly detect the faults correctly

Optimal design of nonuniform FIR transmultiplexer using semi-infinite programming

This paper considers an optimum nonuniform FIR transmultiplexer design problem subject to specifications in the frequency domain. Our objective is to minimize the sum of the ripple energy for all the individual filters, subject to the specifications on amplitude and aliasing distortions, and to the passband and stopband specifications for the individual filters. This optimum nonuniform transmultiplexer design problem can be formulated as a quadratic semi-infinite programming problem. The dual parametrization algorithm is extended to this nonuniform transmultiplexer design problem. If the lengths of the filters are sufficiently long and the set of decimation integers is compatible, then a solution exists. Since the problem is formulated as a convex problem, if a solution exists, then the solution obtained is unique and the local solution is a global minimum

Disturbance Attraction Domain Estimation for Saturated Markov Jump Systems with Truncated Gaussian Process

This paper investigates the disturbance attraction domain estimation of saturated Markov jump systems with truncated Gaussian process. The aim is to estimate the disturbance domain of attraction so that the state is maintained in a neighbour around the origin by a state feedback controller regardless of bounded disturbance. The problem is formulated as parameter-dependent linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The optimal disturbance attraction domain is obtained through searching for most appropriate auxiliary parameters in the defined domain. A numerical example is presented to show the potential application of the results