30,863 research outputs found
Comparative Primate Molecular Cytogenetics: Revealing Ancestral Genomes, Marker Order and Evolutionary New Centromeres
No full textH∞ filtering for nonlinear discrete-time stochastic systems with randomly varying sensor delays
No full textThis is the post print version of the article. The official published version can be obained from the link - Copyright 2009 Elsevier LtdThis paper is concerned with the H∞ filtering problem for a general class of nonlinear discrete-time stochastic systems with randomly varying sensor delays, where the delayed sensor measurement is governed by a stochastic variable satisfying the Bernoulli random binary distribution law. In terms of the Hamilton–Jacobi–Isaacs inequalities, preliminary results are first obtained that ensure the addressed system to possess an l2-gain less than a given positive scalar γ. Next, a sufficient condition is established under which the filtering process is asymptotically stable in the mean square and the filtering error satisfies the H∞ performance constraint for all nonzero exogenous disturbances under the zero-initial condition. Such a sufficient condition is then decoupled into four inequalities for the purpose of easy implementation. Furthermore, it is shown that our main results can be readily specialized to the case of linear stochastic systems. Finally, a numerical simulation example is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the results derived.This paper was not presented at any IFAC meeting. This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor James Lam under the direction of Editor Ian R. Petersen. This work was supported by the Shanghai Natural Science Foundation under Grant 07ZR14002, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK under Grant GR/S27658/01, the Royal Society of the UK and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany
Distributive concerns when replacing a pay-as-you-go system with a fully funded system
No full textThe author uses a simulation model to quantify the impact on income distribution of having a neutral social security program that is fully funded replace a progressive social security program that redistributes income toward the poor but is financed by a pay-as-you-go method. He finds that if the original pay-as-you-go system is large enough to yield an income replacement rate of at least 40 percent for the middle class and 200 percent for the poor, then the proposed change helps the poor in the long run, so long as public debt does not increase by more than 40 percent of GDP during the transition. Such a reform allows an increase in the capital stock per worker, so in the long run the poor benefit more through higher real wages than they lose because progressive redistribution has ended. In the short run, however, a compensatory program is needed because the poor lose their subsidy before receiving the long-term benefit. In most cases, the 40 percent of GDP available from the increase in public debt is enough to finance a transfer program that compensates the poor in the"short"run (the first 50 years). The author concludes that concern about the welfare of the poor is unwarranted, in both the short and long runs, if the compensatory program is implemented.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Safety Nets and Transfers,Services&Transfers to Poor,Rural Poverty Reduction
Personal Papers (MS 80-0002)
No full textLetter from I. H. Kempner to H. Y. Cartwright, Jr. clarifying that the thanks for the case of preserved figs should go to Mr. Lee Kempner, as the writer cannot claim credit for sending the
Willingness to Pay for the Preservation of Lo Go - Xa Mat National Park in Vietnam
No full textLo Go - Xa Mat National Park has great value in terms of biodiversity but preserving the park is a great challenge for the Vietnamese government. This study estimated the willingness to pay of households to preserve Lo Go - Xa Mat National Park, using the contingent valuation method. We employed the single-bounded dichotomous choice question format to estimate how much households in Ho Chi Minh City were willing to contribute towards a preservation plan for the park. This plan comprised twelve preservation activities and compensating the local communities for their foregone income. The study found that households in Ho Chi Minh City were willing to pay at least VND 6,209 per month for three years for the preservation of Lo Go - Xa Mat National Park. With protest votes included, factors strongly affecting households' willingness to pay were bid amount and the amount of their monthly electricity bill. The education level of the respondents and the number of working people in the household had significant but lesser impact on their willingness to pay. Without protest votes, the bid amount, monthly electricity bill amount and education level of respondents significantly affected willingness to pay. We found that the annualized benefit value of the project was larger than its annualized cost. This indicated that the preservation plan was economically viable. This study does not provide the total value of Lo Go - Xa Mat National Park, but it shows the great value of the park in terms of local households' willingness to pay for its preservation and this is important information for policy-makers in deciding how to protect the park efficiently.willingness to pay, Vietnam
Construction and energy aspects of affordable housing developments for formal settlements
No full textNearly one-quarter of the world's urban population lives in informal settlements or encampments, most in developing countries but increasingly also in the most affluent countries. Many residents live in overcrowded, insecure dwellings, without water and sanitation, fearful of eviction and subject to preventable life-threatening illnesses. UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: 'Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable' is committed to ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and upgrade slums by 2030. There is therefore an urgent need for more affordable and permanent housing to be developed. This paper presents a review of the construction and energy aspects of affordable housing developments for informal settlement dwellers. The conditions of existing informal settlements in Global South countries have been researched and various case studies of informal settlement upgrading programmes are presented. The potentials of solar energy technologies in development of green affordable houses in case study countries Uganda and Indonesia are assessed.</p
On the decision to go public: Evidence from privately-held firms
No full textWe test recent theories of when companies go public which predict that 1) more companies will go public when outside valuations are high or have increased, 2) companies prefer going public when uncertainty about their future profitability is high, and 3) firms whose controlling shareholders enjoy large private benefits of control are less likely to go public. Our analysis tracks a set of 330 privately-held German firms which between 1984 and 1995 announced their intention to go public to see whether, when, and how they subsequently sold equity to outside investors. Controlling for private benefits, we find that the likelihood of firms completing an initial public offering increases in the firm's investment opportunities and valuations. We also show that these effects are distinct from factors that increase firms' demand for outside capital more generally. --Going public decision,IPO timing,Private benefits,Family firms
Microarray data mining using Bioconductor packages
No full textBackground - This paper describes the results of a Gene Ontology (GO) term enrichment analysis of chicken microarray data using the Bioconductor packages. By checking the enriched GO terms in three contrasts, MM8-PM8, MM8-MA8, and MM8-MM24, of the provided microarray data during this workshop, this analysis aimed to investigate the host reactions in chickens occurring shortly after a secondary challenge with either a homologous or heterologous species of Eimeria. The results of GO enrichment analysis using GO terms annotated to chicken genes and GO terms annotated to chicken-human orthologous genes were also compared. Furthermore, a locally adaptive statistical procedure (LAP) was performed to test differentially expressed chromosomal regions, rather than individual genes, in the chicken genome after Eimeria challenge. Results - GO enrichment analysis identified significant (raw p-value <0.05) GO terms for all three contrasts included in the analysis. Some of the GO terms linked to, generally, primary immune responses or secondary immune responses indicating the GO enrichment analysis is a useful approach to analyze microarray data. The comparisons of GO enrichment results using chicken gene information and chicken-human orthologous gene information showed more refined GO terms related to immune responses when using chicken-human orthologous gene information, this suggests that using chicken-human orthologous gene information has higher power to detect significant GO terms with more refined functionality. Furthermore, three chromosome regions were identified to be significantly up-regulated in contrast MM8-PM8 (q-value <0.01). Conclusion - Overall, this paper describes a practical approach to analyze microarray data in farm animals where the genome information is still incomplete. For farm animals, such as chicken, with currently limited gene annotation, borrowing gene annotation information from orthologous genes in well-annotated species, such as human, will help improve the pathway analysis results substantially. Furthermore, LAP analysis approach is a relatively new and very useful way to be applied in microarray analysi
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