The fiscal framework and urban infrastructure finance in China

China has experienced more than 25 years of extraordinary economic growth. Underlying this growth has been a decentralized fiscal system, in which provinces and large cities are given the freedom to make infrastructure investmentsto stimulate local development, and are allowed to retain a large part of the fiscal revenues that are generated from economic activity. Although successful as a growth strategy, this policy created two problems for national fiscal management. First, it significantly reduced the central government's share of fiscal revenues, which fell from 34.8 percent in 1980 to 22 percent in 1992. Second, it widened economic and fiscal disparities between the rapidly growing urban coastal region and the rest of the country. Rapid growth in subnational debt (which rose 23-fold in a decade) and subnational nonperforming loans (estimated by the authors to range between US$100 billion and US$150 billion) has placed pressure on China's financial system. Traditionally, China has favored bank lending as a source of finance because the banking system has provided a vehicle for central political control over local debt. But as China's financial system matures, creditworthiness standards must become more important. The authors recommend greater use of the revenue streams from infrastructure assets as a financing source, and gradual relaxation of central political control over subnational debt. One step in this direction would permit leading cities to issue municipal bonds based on objective financial standards.Banks&Banking Reform,Urban Economics,Public&Municipal Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations and Local Finance Management

Impact Analysis of Baseband Quantizer on Coding Efficiency for HDR Video

Digitally acquired high dynamic range (HDR) video baseband signal can take 10 to 12 bits per color channel. It is economically important to be able to reuse the legacy 8 or 10-bit video codecs to efficiently compress the HDR video. Linear or nonlinear mapping on the intensity can be applied to the baseband signal to reduce the dynamic range before the signal is sent to the codec, and we refer to this range reduction step as a baseband quantization. We show analytically and verify using test sequences that the use of the baseband quantizer lowers the coding efficiency. Experiments show that as the baseband quantizer is strengthened by 1.6 bits, the drop of PSNR at a high bitrate is up to 1.60dB. Our result suggests that in order to achieve high coding efficiency, information reduction of videos in terms of quantization error should be introduced in the video codec instead of on the baseband signal.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Signal Processing Letter

Quarkonium formation time in quark-gluon plasma

The quarkonium formation time in a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is determined from the space-time correlator of heavy quark vector currents using the quarkonium in-medium mass and wave function obtained from heavy quark potentials extracted from the lattice QCD. It is found that the formation time of a quarkonium increases with the temperature of the QGP and diverges near its dissociation temperature. Also, the quarkonium formation time is longer if the heavy quark potential is taken to be the free energy from lattice calculations for a heavy quark pair, compared to that based on the more negative internal energy.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Quarkonium formation time in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We calculate the quarkonium formation time in relativistic heavy-ion collisions from the space-time correlator of heavy quark vector currents in a hydrodynamics background with the initial nonequilibrium stage expanding only in the longitudinal direction. Using in-medium quarkonia properties determined with the heavy quark potential taken to be the free energy from lattice calculations and the fact that quarkonia can only be formed below their dissociation temperatures due to color screening, we find that $\Upsilon$(1S), $\Upsilon$(2S), $\Upsilon$(3S), $J/\psi$ and $\psi^\prime$ are formed, respectively, at 1.2, 6.6, 8.8, 5.8, and 11.0 fm/c after the quark pair are produced in central Au+Au collisions at the top energy of Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), and these times become shorter in semi-central collisions. We further show, as an example, that including the effect of formation time enhances appreciably the survivability of $\Upsilon$(1S) in the produced hot dense matter.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Factors of Micromanipulation Accuracy and Learning

Micromanipulation refers to the manipulation under a microscope in order to perform delicate procedures. It is difficult for humans to manipulate objects accurately under a microscope due to tremor and imperfect perception, limiting performance. This project seeks to understand factors affecting accuracy in micromanipulation, and to propose strategies for learning improving accuracy. Psychomotor experiments were conducted using computer-controlled setups to determine how various feedback modalities and learning methods can influence micromanipulation performance. In a first experiment, static and motion accuracy of surgeons, medical students and non-medical students under different magniification levels and grip force settings were compared. A second experiment investigated whether the non-dominant hand placed close to the target can contribute to accurate pointing of the dominant hand. A third experiment tested a training strategy for micromanipulation using unstable dynamics to magnify motion error, a strategy shown to be decreasing deviation in large arm movements. Two virtual reality (VR) modules were then developed to train needle grasping and needle insertion tasks, two primitive tasks in a microsurgery suturing procedure. The modules provided the trainee with a visual display in stereoscopic view and information on their grip, tool position and angles. Using the VR module, a study examining effects of visual cues was conducted to train tool orientation. Results from these studies suggested that it is possible to learn and improve accuracy in micromanipulation using appropriate sensorimotor feedback and training