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To meet climate targets, consumption‐based household emissions need to fall rapidly. An important but still poorly understood question is whether generational change could contribute to decreases in emissions. It is sometimes assumed that younger generations such as Millennials and Generation Z are more concerned about climate change and have greener lifestyles than previous generations of the Silent Generation, Baby boomers, and Generation X, but carbon footprinting analysis typically focuses on age groups rather than comparing generations over time. This paper provides a first assessment of the change in consumption‐based carbon footprints of the Silent, Baby boomer, Generation X, and Millennial generations within the United Kingdom between 2001 and 2020 and a comparison of the footprints of different generational groups. The analysis is based on environmentally extended input–output analysis, using the Living Costs and Food Survey and emission data from the UK multi‐regional input–output database. We find some evidence for the hypothesis that younger generations have smaller footprints than older generations as Generation X and Millennial households have smaller carbon footprints compared to the generation before them at a similar life stage. We find that factors such as decarbonization, household occupancy, total expenditure, and changing consumption patterns contribute to the UK's changing carbon consumption emissions between 2001 and 2020, and the importance of these factors varies for different generational groups. However, future research that uses a longer time series is required to assess generational differences in carbon footprints over the whole lifespan of several generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study solves the problem of quasi-static deformation and stability of a cylindrical shell discretely reinforced with a cyclically symmetric system of stringers along which moves a uniformly distributed radial load. Due to the cyclic symmetry of the problem, a shallow panel with one stringer is conceptually isolated from the shell and further solutions are performed for that individual panel. The meridional edges of this panel may have boundary conditions of either symmetry or antisymmetry, depending on the expected buckling mode of the entire shell. The reinforcing effect of the stringer (considered as a beam) is incorporated in a contact formulation. The problem is solved in a contact formulation and in a quasi-static version. The problem is reduced to a system of two differential equations with discontinuous coefficients, which is associated with the discreteness of stringer position. In addition, the equations include load movement velocity as a parameter. The equations are solved by the Bubnov method. The resulting system of linear algebraic equations is solved in the regular way. Two special cases of the problem formulation, characterized by different ways of considering shell and stringer stiffness, are considered. In the examples given, the influence of stringer stiffness on the critical velocity of load movement is analyzed in various formulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind–solar power generating and hybrid battery-supercapacitor energy storage complex is used for autonomous power supply of consumers in remote areas. This work uses passivity-based control (PBC) for this complex in accordance with the accepted energy management strategy (EMS). Structural and parametric synthesis of the overall PBC system was carried out, which was accompanied by a significant amount of research. In order to simplify this synthesis, a structural decomposition of the overall dynamic system of the object presented in the form of a port-Hamiltonian system, which was described by a system of differential equations of the seventh order, into three subsystems was applied. These subsystems are a wind turbine, a PV plant, and a hybrid battery-supercapacitor system. For each of the subsystems, it is quite simple to synthesize the control influence formers according to the interconnections and damping assignment (IDA) method of PBC, which locally performs the tasks set by the EMS. The results obtained by computer simulation of the overall and decomposed systems demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in simplifying synthesis and debugging procedures of complex multi-physical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind–solar power generating and hybrid battery-supercapacitor energy storage complex is used for autonomous power supply of consumers in remote areas. This work uses passivity-based control (PBC) for this complex in accordance with the accepted energy management strategy (EMS). Structural and parametric synthesis of the overall PBC system was carried out, which was accompanied by a significant amount of research. In order to simplify this synthesis, a structural decomposition of the overall dynamic system of the object presented in the form of a port-Hamiltonian system, which was described by a system of differential equations of the seventh order, into three subsystems was applied. These subsystems are a wind turbine, a PV plant, and a hybrid battery-supercapacitor system. For each of the subsystems, it is quite simple to synthesize the control influence formers according to the interconnections and damping assignment (IDA) method of PBC, which locally performs the tasks set by the EMS. The results obtained by computer simulation of the overall and decomposed systems demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in simplifying synthesis and debugging procedures of complex multi-physical systems.

Objective: One of the factors affecting production and employment in one economy is investment. In economic literature, capital formation is the driving force of economic activities and economic growth patterns are based on the use of capital and labor. Despite the importance of investment in production and subsequent employment in the economy, unfortunately, in recent years, capital formation and the level of investment in the country have been very low due to several reasons such as economic instability. Therefore, it has created major problems in the field of production and employment in the country and its different regions, and it is necessary to make a codified and coherent planning to increase production and employment in the country. On the other hand, the first step for planning and making policies for the growth of production and employment is to identify the factors affecting them and to examine the effectiveness of each of these factors. The point that exists in relation to investment at the sector level (different economic sectors) is that the potential of creating production and employment (direct and indirect) of different economic sectors is different from each other. For this reason, investment in different economic sectors can have different effects on production and employment at the level of the sector as well as the whole economy. Among the reasons for the difference in the production potential and direct employment generation of the sectors, we can mention the difference in technology used in different sectors. In this way, some economic sectors have a high direct employment generation coefficient and some others have lower direct employment generation. Among the reasons for the difference in production potential and indirect employment generation of the sectors, we can also mention the difference in the communication and links between the sectors of each of the sectors with each other. Sectors that have more links with other sectors have a high potential in production and creating employment due to a certain amount of investment. Therefore, it can be said that in addition to the total amount of investment in the economy, the relative share of the sectors in the total investment, or in other words, the structure and composition of the investment is also effective in the production and employment of the entire economy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of investment expenditure change on changes in output and employment in different economic sectors in Iran. Method: In this study, structural decomposition Analysis (SDA) in the input-output model between 2011 and 2016 have been used. To do this, first, the investment demand matrix in the economy was divided into two matrices, one is the investment composition (structure) matrix and the other is the total investment matrix. The investment composition matrix represents the share of each sector in the total investment in the economy and the second matrix represents the total investment in different sectors of the economy. For the calculations of this study, the input-output tables of the years 2011 and 2016 are needed. The statistical table of 2011 and 2016 was obtained from Iran Statistics Center. In the next step, both input-output tables were aggregated based on the availability of employment statistics in 18 sectors. After that, to remove price effects in research calculations, input-output tables should be converted to constant price. In this study, to eliminate the effect of price changes between 2011 and 2016, the table of 2016 was converted to the constant price of 2011 with the double deflation method. For this purpose, the price adjustment index of eighteen sectors has been used. Finally, this adjustment index was used to convert the 2016 table to the 2011 price. Results: The results of this study showed that the increase in the level of investment (with a constant composition) has increased the total production of sectors of the economy by 2361599.59 billion rials, but the change in the structure of investment (with a constant volume) has reduced the total production 5224865 billion Rials. Changing the composition of investment has decreased 509620 people and changing the volume of investment has increased 3021509 people in the total employment of the economy. Conclusion: Considering the negative impact of the change in investment composition on production and employment in Iran's economy, it is suggested to prioritize investment in sectors that have higher production and employment coefficients in the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free trade has made developed economies transfer a great deal of energy-intensive industries to developing economies, which induces more energy consumption in developing economies. The global spread of COVID-19 has led to trade protectionism that directly undermine the international free trade system. This paper is aimed to explore how trade protectionist measures affect global embodied energy flows, taking the case for 43 typical economies. Firstly, we combine the multi-regional input-output analysis and scenario analysis to construct an accounting framework of embodied energy consumption under free trade and restricted trade scenarios. The impact of trade protection on 43 economies' energy flows is discussed from the perspective of industrial sectors and disaggregated value chain links. Secondly, the role of technology, structure and scale factors in the protection's impact on embodied energy consumption is discussed based on structural decomposition analysis. The results indicate that under the scenario of trade-free, global energy consumption is 3880.91 million tons of oil equivalent. Under the scenario of trade-restricted, global energy consumption is 4435.56 million tons of oil equivalent, and global trade protection measures would increase global energy consumption by 554.65 million tons of oil equivalent. Trade of final products, trade of last-stage intermediate products and trade of other-stage intermediate products of the value chain contributed 42.7%, 40.5% and 16.8%, respectively, with the manufacturing industry facing the biggest impact. For emerging developing economies, such as China and Russia, their domestic energy consumption would decrease by 193.52 and 163.74 million tons of oil equivalent due to export tightening, respectively, while for developed economies, trade protection would result in an increase of 343.31 million tons of oil equivalent in EU countries. In addition, structural change and scale growth are the main factors that promote energy consumption growth under the trade restriction scenario, making it increase by 66% and 21% respectively.

The permanent income hypothesis (PIH) has been empirically tested widely, but, the results are mixed. The probable reason for mixed resultsis different methodologiesthat make different underlying assumptions. The underlying assumptions are often contrary to the spirit of PIH. Moreover,some studies have tested it for a developed country or a set of developed countries, while others have tested it for a developing country or a set of developing countries. Therefore, this study applies both methods and uses the data of a developed country, such as the USA and of a developing country, such as Pakistan. The results show that PIH provides a good approximation of consumption decisions in both economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a structural decomposition of the input-output tables to investigate the sources of changes in the GDP of China, paying special attention to the import substitution of intermediate inputs. It is argued that the specific way GDP is decomposed in this paper sheds more light on the origin of growth than does the conventional decomposition of GDP by its final demand components. The results of the decomposition show that import substitution of intermediate products, which is an act of de-globalization of trade and a model of industrialization some Asian newly industrializing economies followed decades earlier, also became important in China, but only belatedly: in 2011–2012 and 2013–2014. The phenomenon is found to be significant in the manufacture of (i) computer, electronic and optical products, (ii) chemicals and chemical products, (iii) coke and refined petroleum products, and (iv) basic metals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method is proposed for reducing the hardware expenditure in the circuits of the Moore finite-state machines (FSMs) implemented in the EMB and LUT basis. The method is based on splitting a set of states into classes, with each of them corresponding to one block of logic elements. Moreover, each state has two codes. This approach leads to the three-level circuit of the Moore FSM. An example of the Moore FSM synthesis using the proposed method and the application conditions for this method are considered. Studies based on the standard benchmark FSMs have shown that the proposed method reduces the hardware expenditure compared to the other known solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon emissions of sectors and households enabled by primary inputs have practical significance in reality. Considering the mutual effect between the industrial sector and the household, this paper firstly constructed an environmentally extended semi-closed Ghosh input–output model with an endogenized household sector to analyze the relationship between carbon emissions and the Chinese economy from the supply-side perspective. The structural decomposition analysis and the hypothetical extraction method were remodified to identify the supply-side driving effects of the changes in carbon emissions and investigate the net carbon linkage. The results show that the electricity, gas, and water supply sector was the key sector with the highest carbon emission intensity enabled by primary inputs. The household sector had an above 93% indirect effect of the enabled intensity, with its enabled intensity dropping significantly by more than 55% from 2007 to 2017. The operating surplus and mixed income caused 3214.67 Gt (34.17%) of the enabled emissions in 2017. The supply-side economic activity, measured by the value added per capita, was the main factor of the carbon emission growth, mainly attributed to the development of the manufacturing sector and the electricity, gas, and water supply sector. The emission intensity and allocation structure both brought a decrease in carbon emissions. The electricity, gas, and water supply sector and the manufacturing sector were the major sources of the supply-induced cross-sectoral input emissions, while the commercial and service sector and the household sector were the top source of supply-induced cross-sectoral output emissions. This paper sheds light on the policies of the carbon emission abatement and the adjustment of the allocation structure from the perspective of supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a lower dimensional multi-agent system (MAS) utilizing the structural decomposition of system matrix. Through equivalent transformation, it has been proven that the sampling controllability of the original system is inherited by the lower dimensional system, allowing us to further obtain a criterion for determining the sampling controllability based on topology structure and sampling period. The paper also applies state feedback to the protocol design of MAS during the sampling period, achieving that the sampled-data MAS can still maintain controllability in uncontrollable topologies, and controllability is unaffected by the sampling period. Finally, numerical examples are provided for verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to identify the most important factor that explains productivity changes in energy use in Iran over the period of 1385-1394-. Towards this end, the authors have utilized three symmetric industry by industry input-output tables namely, IOT at 1385 constant prices introduced by research center affiliated to Iranian parliament, IOT at 1390 constant prices introduced by Iran’s statistics center and the 1394 -IOT updated by RAS method. Jacob (2003) attribute productivity Changes in energy use to six factors. The authors have applied the Jacob formula to decompose productivity changes into six cause factors namely, changes in value added, changes in energy consumption, changes in domestic energy supply, structural changes -technology factor, final demand changes, inter industry final demand changes pertaining to agricultural, industry, power, transportation and other service sectors. The results of this study reveal that productivity changes in energy use is negatively affected by value added changes while changes in energy consumption in agriculture and power sectors had a declining impact on productivity and the effect of other factors in productivity changes has been negligible over the period under study.

The number of process models in process repositories has grown in recent years. For this reason, it is becoming increasingly important to efficiently retrieve process models from the repositories for management purposes. In fact, the method of retrieval is also essential to increase the potential of additional analysis such as similarity and behavioral analysis and compliance checking. Most retrieval methods can be classified as structural or behavioral retrieval. Behavioral retrieval considers the relationships between activities during process execution. In this paper, we introduce such a new behavior-based retrieval method called Partitioning Behavioral Retrieval. It is the first retrieval method that allows process models to contain inclusive (OR) gateways. The method is based on the dominance relation and a node-based process structure tree known from compiler theory. Although it uses instance subgraph checking as a computational basis, it derives new behavioral relations by using transitive rules. Currently, the method is limited to acyclic process models for ease of introduction. Experiments show the time advantage offered by our new method.

Modern digital systems can be viewed as compositions of combinational and sequential blocks. In the article, we discuss a case when sequential blocks are represented using a model of Mealy finite-state machine (FSM). It is very important to improve such FSM characteristics as the number of used logic elements, operating frequency and power consumption. This article proposes a novel design method which allows diminishing the number of look-up table (LUTs) and increasing the operating frequency of multilevel LUT-based Mealy FSMs. The method is based on simultaneous use of such methods of structural decomposition as the transformation of states into FSM outputs and twofold state encoding. The proposed method results in three-level logic circuits of Mealy FSMs with regular systems of interconnections. Each function for any level of logic is implemented using a single LUT. An example of FSM synthesis with the proposed method is given. The experiments with standard benchmarks were conducted. The results of experiments show that the proposed approach leads to decreasing LUT counts from 11.9% to 62.6%. Also, it leads to increasing the operating frequency from 11.77% to 18.43% on average compared with other investigated approaches (Auto and One-hot of Vivado, JEDI, and replacement of FSM inputs and encoding the collections of outputs). The economy in used LUTs and gain in operating frequency grow with the growth of the FSM complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the very important problems connected with FPGA-based design is reducing the hardware amount in implemented circuits. In this paper, we discuss the implementation of Mealy finite state machines (FSMs) by circuits consisting of look-up tables (LUT). A method is proposed to reduce the LUT count of three-block circuits of Mealy FSMs. The method is based on finding a partition of set of internal states by classes of compatible states. To reduce the LUT count, we propose a special kind of state code, named complex state codes. The complex codes include two parts. The first part includes the binary codes of a state as the element of some partition class. The second part consists of the code of corresponding partition class. Using complex state codes allows obtaining FPGA-based FSM circuits with exactly four logic blocks. If some conditions hold, then any FSM function from the first and second blocks is implemented by a single LUT. The third level is represented as a network of multiplexers. These multiplexers generate either additional variable encoding collections of outputs or input memory functions. The fourth level generates FSM outputs. An example of synthesis and experimental results is shown and discussed. The experiments prove that the proposed approach allows reducing hardware compared to such methods as auto and one-hot of Vivado, JEDI. Further, the proposed approach produces circuits with fewer LUTs than for three-level Mealy FSMs based on joint use of several methods of structural decomposition. The experiments show that our approach allows reducing the LUT counts on average from 11 to 77 percent. As the complexity of an FSM increases, the gain from the application of the proposed method grows; the same is true for both the FSM performance and power consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Vertical specialization indicators provide critical but limited insights to analyze a country's degree of industrial densification. • China has promoted extensive industrial densification over the post-Global crisis period, especially high-technology-oriented industries, fostering domestic demand for final and intermediate goods and services produced domestically. • Strengthening local actors' productive links is consistent with the Chinese strategy of reducing dependence on imported inputs, increasing the share of intermediate and final goods and services produced domestically, and spurring China's local production importance in innovative industries. Industrial densification is illustrated by greater involvement of local actors in value chains, and a lower degree of industrial density is commonly presented as an attribute of in-depth integrated economies into global value chains (GVC). This paper contributes to the characterization of China's industrial densification using an empirical strategy that is not limited to a proxy of GVC participation. Our results indicate that China has intensified the process of industrial densification over the post-Global Crisis period, especially high-technology-oriented industries, fostering domestic demand for final and intermediate goods and services produced domestically. This means that strengthening local actors' productive links is consistent with the Chinese strategy of reducing dependence on imported inputs, increasing the share of intermediate and final goods and services produced domestically, and spurring China's local production importance in innovative industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practically, any digital system includes sequential blocks represented using a model of finite state machine (FSM). It is very important to improve such FSM characteristics as the number of logic elements used, operating frequency and consumed energy. The paper proposes a novel technology-dependent design method targeting a decrease in the number of look-up table (LUT) elements and their levels in logic circuits of FPGA-based Mealy FSMs. It produces FSM circuits having three levels of logic blocks. Also, it produces circuits with regular systems of interconnections between the levels of logic. The method is based on dividing the set of internal states into two subsets. Each subset corresponds to a unique part of an FSM circuit. Only a single LUT is required for implementing each function generated by the first part of the circuit. The second part is represented by a multi-level circuit. The proposed method belongs to the group of two-fold state assignment methods. Each internal state is encoded as an element of the set of states and as an element of some of its subsets. A binary state assignment is used for states corresponding to the first part of the FSM circuit. The one-hot assignment is used for states corresponding to the second part. An example of FSM synthesis with the proposed method is shown. The experiments with standard benchmarks are conducted to analyze the efficiency of the proposed method. The results of experiments show that the proposed approach leads to diminishing the number of LUTs in the circuits of rather complex Mealy FSMs having more than 15 internal states. The positive property of this method is a reduction in energy consumption (without any overhead cost) and an increase in operating frequency compared with other investigated methods.

The objective of this paper was to measure the drivers of the variation in employment and to make a comparative analysis of the results among 43 countries in the period 2000-2014. The methodology of Structural Decomposition Analysis was used to decompose the employment variation into four effects: intensity of labor use, technology, structure of final demand and volume of final demand. The results showed that the increase in labor productivity (negative intensity effect) is the main responsible for the loss of jobs in the economy, a figure close to 50% of the countries' total jobs in the 2000-2014 period of analysis. The creation of jobs occurs mainly due to final demand effects. However, the effect of demand structure tends to be negative for developed countries and positive for developing countries. In developing countries, the effect of final demand structure is relatively more important in creating jobsthan final demand volume effect. The inter-sector relocation of employment, disappearance of professions and increased requirements for qualification lead workers to a continuous learning process, adaptation to new technologies and a probable change of sector of activity in their professional life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very often, a digital system includes sequential blocks which can be represented using a model of the finite state machine (FSM). It is very important to improve such FSM characteristics as the number of used logic elements, operating frequency and consumed energy. The paper proposes a novel technology-dependant design method targeting LUT-based Mealy FSMs. It belongs to the group of structural decomposition methods. The method is based on encoding the product terms of Boolean functions representing the FSM circuit. To diminish the number of LUTs, a partition of the set of internal states is constructed. It leads to three-level logic circuits of Mealy FSMs. Each function from the first level requires only a single LUT to be implemented. The method of constructing the partition with the minimum amount of classes is proposed. There is given an example of FSM synthesis with the proposed method. The experiments with standard benchmarks were conducted. They show that the proposed method can improve such FSM characteristics as the number of used LUTs. This improvement is accompanied by a decrease in performance. A positive side effect of the proposed method is a reduction in power consumption compared with FSMs obtained with other design methods.

A method is proposed for optimizing hardware expenditure in the Moore FSM circuit implemented with FPGA. The method is based on joint input replacement use and transformation of state codes into codes of classes of pseudoequivalent states. This approach leads to a three-level FSM circuit. An example of synthesis of a Moore FSM with application of the proposed method is shown. Analysis of positive and negative features of the proposed method is constructed. The researches based on standard benchmark FSMs show that the proposed method allows reducing hardware expenditure and consumed power with insignificant amount of degradation of FSM performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very often, a digital system includes sequential blocks which can be represented using a model of the finite state machine (FSM). It is very important to improve such FSM characteristics as the number of used logic elements, operating frequency and consumed energy. The paper proposes a novel technology-dependant design method targeting LUT-based Mealy FSMs. It belongs to the group of structural decomposition methods. The method is based on encoding the product terms of Boolean functions representing the FSM circuit. To diminish the number of LUTs, a partition of the set of internal states is constructed. It leads to three-level logic circuits of Mealy FSMs. Each function from the first level requires only a single LUT to be implemented. The method of constructing the partition with the minimum amount of classes is proposed. There is given an example of FSM synthesis with the proposed method. The experiments with standard benchmarks were conducted. They show that the proposed method can improve such FSM characteristics as the number of used LUTs. This improvement is accompanied by a decrease in performance. A positive side effect of the proposed method is a reduction in power consumption compared with FSMs obtained with other design methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Market‐oriented housing reforms and the rapid urbanization process have led to spectacular growth in the Chinese real estate sector (RES). However, the changes in the role played by this sector in the structural dynamics of the Chinese economy have not been examined sufficiently. Accordingly, we analyze the intersectoral structural changes to the Chinese RES, its linkages with the rest of the economy, and its growth sources, using four Chinese input–output tables from 2002 to 2017. We depart from existing work on the RES by using the causative matrix approach and structural decomposition analysis, and obtain three main results. First, the RES, which received little non‐RES feedback during the 2002–2007 period, has subsequently received much more substantial feedback. Second, the impact of the RES on China's economic growth stems mainly from its forward linkages. Third, the growth in the RES has been driven mainly by domestic demand expansion. Our results highlight that the Chinese RES, which plays a key role in value chains, is highly dependent on its own final demand and a fall in its demand would impede economic development. An important implication of these results is that developing the national economy by stimulating the RES would not be as effective as developing the RES through stimulating the national economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is actively taking measures to guide the household energy‐saving consumption pattern because the total household indirect energy consumption and CO2 emissions have rapidly multiplied from 2002 to 2017 with an annual growth rate of 5.95%, and 5.56%, respectively. This paper calculates indirect energy consumption and CO2 emissions by four energy sources (raw coal, crude oil, natural gas, and electricity), analyzes the energy structure, and conducts a structural decomposition analysis in urban and rural areas in China from 2002 to 2017. The results reveal that the indirect energy consumption and CO2 emissions of urban households was 3.84 and 3.80 times, respectively, that of rural households in 2017 with most contributions from the 'Agriculture, Forestry, Animal Husbandry, and Fishery', 'Foods and Tobacco', and 'OTHERS' sectors. The energy consumption structure has changed. The percentage of coal consumption falls from 66.87% to 57.62%. Electricity consumption, ranked second, increased substantially from 10.77% to 22.90%. The key sectors of the energy mix have been found to help energy conservation. The high indirect energy consumption sectors with higher indirect energy intensity are the key sectors, especially the 'Processing of Petroleum, Coking and Processing of Nuclear Fuel' and 'Production and Supply of Electric Power and Heat Power'. The consumption structure effect is more obvious in urban areas than in rural areas. In the process of urbanization, its effect has little impact on urban indirect energy consumption. It implies that the focus is on optimizing consumption structure rather than reducing consumption scale. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very often, digital systems include sequential blocks which can be represented using a model of Mealy finite state machine (FSM). It is very important to improve such FSM characteristics as the number of used logic elements, operating frequency and power consumption. The paper proposes a novel design method optimizing LUT counts of LUT-based Mealy FSMs. The method is based on simultaneous use of such methods of structural decomposition as the replacement of FSM inputs and encoding of the collections of outputs. The proposed method results in three-level logic circuits of Mealy FSMs. These circuits have regular systems of interconnections. An example of FSM synthesis with the proposed method is given. The experiments with standard benchmarks were conducted. The results of experiments show that the proposed approach leads to reducing the LUT counts from 12% to 59% in average compared with known methods of synthesis of single-level FSMs. Furthermore, our approach provides better LUT counts as compared to methods of synthesis of two-level FSMs (from 9% to 20%). This gain is accompanied by a small loss of FSM performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating carbon emissions from the perspective of consumption and reducing carbon emission by guiding residents' consumption is paid more and more attention by some countries and organizations. This study by considering the capital formation as a productive input of final consumer products estimates the carbon consumption of Chinese residents. Furthermore, it explores the driving factors of carbon consumption based on structural decomposition analysis. Results showed that the carbon consumption of Chinese residents (rural and urban) grew steadily. The annual carbon consumption by urban and rural residents increased at a rate of 9.94% and 0.81%, respectively. The average per capita indirect carbon consumption by urban residents during the period was 3.17 times of that by rural residents. Structural decomposition analysis showed that the structure of the urban and rural population and that of the total population are both critical factors promoting carbon consumption by residents, where the former is more powerful. The per capita product consumption caused an increase in the carbon intake of households, while the carbon emission intensity of industrial production decreased the carbon use. Although other factors also contributed to the increase in carbon consumption by residents, their role was comparatively less. This study also provides consumer-focused important carbon emission mitigation policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method is proposed targeting implementation of FPGA-based Mealy finite state machines. The main goal of the method is a reduction for the number of look-up table (LUT) elements and their levels in FSM logic circuits. To do it, it is necessary to eliminate the direct dependence of input memory functions and FSM output functions on FSM inputs and state variables. The method is based on encoding of the terms corresponding to rows of direct structure tables. In such an approach, only terms depend on FSM inputs and state variables. Other functions depend on variables representing terms. The method belongs to the group of the methods of structural decomposition. The set of terms is divided by classes such that each class corresponds to a single-level LUT-based circuit. An embedded memory block (EMB) generates codes of both classes and terms as elements of these classes. The mutual using LUTs and EMB allows diminishing chip area occupied by FSM circuit (as compared to its LUT-based counterpart). The simple sequential algorithm is proposed for finding the partition of the set of terms by a determined number of classes. The method is based on representation of an FSM by a state transition table. However, it can be used for any known form of FSM specification. The example of synthesis is shown. The efficiency of the proposed method was investigated using a library of standard benchmarks. We compared the proposed with some other known design methods. The investigations show that the proposed method gives better results than other discussed methods. It allows the obtaining of FSM circuits with three levels of logic and regular interconnections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the World Input–Output Database, this paper calculates total factor productivity (TFP) growth for a sample of 40 economies during the period 1995–2009 to show that TFP growth in Asian economies has been relatively strong. In a number of Asian economies, TFP growth in services has outpaced that in manufacturing. This paper presents a novel structural decomposition of TFP growth and shows that the main drivers of aggregate productivity growth, as well as differences in productivity growth between services and manufacturing, have been changing factor requirements. These effects tend to offset the negative productivity effect of a declining ratio of value added to gross output.

Evidence in favour of the ability of the term spread to forecast economic growth of the South African economy is non-existent. This could be due to the term spread aggregating information contained in the expected spread and the term premium. To decompose the term spread into its subcomponents, we develop an estimable small open economy new Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (SOENKDSGE) model of the inflation targeting South African economy. The SOENKDSGE model is estimated with Bayesian methods over the quarterly period of 2000:01–2014:04. We then use a linear predictive regression framework to analyse the out-of-sample forecasting ability of the aggregate term spread, as well as the expected spread and term premium. Our forecasting results fail to detect forecasting gains from the aggregate term spread and also the term premium, but the expected spread is found to contain important information in forecasting output growth over short- to medium-run horizons, over the period of 2004:01–2014:04, using an in-sample period of 2000:01–2003:04. The results therefore highlight the importance of the forward-looking component of the term spread—the expected spread—in forecasting the output growth of South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional metamodeling in two levels gets to its limits when model elements of a domain should be described as instances of other model elements. For example in architecture description languages, components may be instances of their component types. Although workarounds to model such instance relations between model elements exist, they require many validation constraints and imply a cumbersome interface. To obtain more elegant metamodels, deep modeling seeks ways to represent non-transitive instantiation chains directly. However, existing concepts cannot be applied in some situations we refer as composite instantiation patterns. Further, these concepts make existing technologies for model transformation and analysis obsolete as these languages have to be adapted. In this paper, we present an approach to realize deep modeling through structural decomposition and refinements that can be implemented as a noninvasive extension to EMOF-like meta-metamodels. As a consequence, existing tools need not be adapted and composite instantiation patterns are fully supported. We validate our concept by creating a deep modeling architecture description language based on the Palladio Component Model and demonstrate its advantages by modeling a synthetic web application. We show that existing tools for incremental model analysis can be reused and manifest several orders of speedup for a synthetic example analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Handwritten character recognition is the active area of research. Development of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system for Indian script like Gujarati is still in infancy and hence, there exists many unaddressed challenging problems for research community in this domain. The paper proposes three novel features to represent handwritten Gujarati characters. These features include features extracted based on structural decomposition, zone pattern matching and normalized cross correlation. Methods based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Naive Bayes (NB) classifiers have been exercised for the classification of Gujarati characters represented using proposed features. Experiments have been carried out on a dataset of 20500 handwritten Gujarati characters. Experimental results showed significant improvement over state-of-the-art when classifiers were learnt using structural decomposition based features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine trends in innovation output for two highly ranked innovative countries: Finland and Sweden (1970-2013). Our novel dataset, collected using the LBIO (literature-based innovation output) method, suggests that the innovation trends are positive for both countries, despite an extended downturn in the 1980s. The findings cast some doubt on the proposition that the current stagnation of many developed countries is due to a lack of innovation and investment opportunities. Our data show that Finland catches up to, and passes, Sweden in innovation output in the 1990s. In per capita terms, Finland stays ahead throughout the period. We find that the strong Finnish performance is largely driven by innovation increase in just a handfull of sectors, but is not restricted to few companies. Both countries saw a rise in innovation during the dot-com era and the structural changes that followed. Since 2000 however, Sweden has outperformed Finland in terms of total innovations, especially in machinery and ICT, while the Finnish rate of innovation has stabilised. We suggest that these patterns may be explained by different paths of industrial renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnosing faults during the operation of a system is an essential task when investigating technological systems. In this paper, a new online fault identification method is proposed which is based on the occurrence graph of the coloured Petri net model of the system. The model is able to simulate the normal and faulty operations of the system given in the form of event lists, so called traces. The diagnosis is based on the search for deviations between the traces of the normal and the actual operations. In the case of complex technological systems, the occurrence graph can contain hundreds of nodes; therefore, the computational effort and searching-time increase significantly. Our proposed structural decomposition method can manage these demands so it has a crucial impact on the practical application of diagnostic processes. The main idea of our method is that the complex systems can be decomposed into technological units. Therefore, the diagnosis can be done by components separately and the diagnostic result of a unit can be used for the diagnosis of the other units connected to it. Because of the structural decomposition, the diagnosis has to be performed on much smaller occurrence graphs but the effect of faults in previous units is taken into account. The proposed method is illustrated by a simple case study.

In this paper, we combine data on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and sectoral employment shares to undertake a decomposition of GDP per capita growth for a sample of 43 Asian and non-Asian economies. We decompose income changes into three components: (i) changes in labor productivity within sectors, (ii) employment shifts across sectors (structural change), and (iii) changes in the intensity of employment participation. We then compare the decomposition results for the Asian economies that moved between different income levels of interest with those from a representative typical economy and other comparison economies. The results suggest that in most Asian economies labor productivity growth was the dominant source of gains in GDP per capita, with the observed gains in labor productivity often driven by changing labor productivity within sectors rather than by shifts in employment across sectors. This is not to diminish the role of structural change, which at lower income levels can explain a significant proportion of overall labor productivity growth.

Research background: the Latvian agrifood sector is continuously becoming more integrated in global markets. Imports and exports of agricultural commodities grow every year. At the same time, changes in output from agriculture and food processing are moderate. The main factors that can be used to characterize these sectors are employment, gross value added and income. The main causes of the changes of these three factors could be estimated by structural decomposition analysis. Purpose of the article: the objective of the research is the decomposition of the percentage changes over time in employment, gross value added and income in Latvian economy by their source: changes in intensities per unit of output, changes in the intermediate consumption and changes in the final demand structure. Methods: the traditional methods of the Input-Output framework, such as multipliers, elasticities, causative matrices enable the estimation of structural trends in economy sectors. However, they do not provide the share in the total impact of various factors on the changes in the economy. Structural decomposition analysis estimates the relative size of the impact of these factors within the total impact. Findings & Value added: the research results show rather large positive impact of final demand factor on employment, gross value added and income changes in both sectors. The impact of the intensities (reverse factor productivities), in turn, is large and negative. The impact of the intermediate demand is less marked. As the growth in final demand can be attributed solely to increase in export demand, this combined with the growth in labor productivity are the main drivers of employment changes in agriculture. The method can be effectively applied to other variables of interest for which the calculated intensities per unit of output make sense, such as carbon emissions, greenhouse gas emissions or energy input.

Very often, digital systems include sequential blocks which can be represented using a model of Mealy finite state machine (FSM). It is very important to improve such FSM characteristics as the number of used logic elements, operating frequency and power consumption. The paper proposes a novel design method optimizing LUT counts of LUT-based Mealy FSMs. The method is based on simultaneous use of such methods of structural decomposition as the replacement of FSM inputs and encoding of the collections of outputs. The proposed method results in three-level logic circuits of Mealy FSMs. These circuits have regular systems of interconnections. An example of FSM synthesis with the proposed method is given. The experiments with standard benchmarks were conducted. The results of experiments show that the proposed approach leads to reducing the LUT counts from 12% to 59% in average compared with known methods of synthesis of single-level FSMs. Furthermore, our approach provides better LUT counts as compared to methods of synthesis of two-level FSMs (from 9% to 20%). This gain is accompanied by a small loss of FSM performance.

A method is proposed targeting implementation of FPGA-based Mealy finite state machines. The main goal of the method is a reduction for the number of look-up table (LUT) elements and their levels in FSM logic circuits. To do it, it is necessary to eliminate the direct dependence of input memory functions and FSM output functions on FSM inputs and state variables. The method is based on encoding of the terms corresponding to rows of direct structure tables. In such an approach, only terms depend on FSM inputs and state variables. Other functions depend on variables representing terms. The method belongs to the group of the methods of structural decomposition. The set of terms is divided by classes such that each class corresponds to a single-level LUT-based circuit. An embedded memory block (EMB) generates codes of both classes and terms as elements of these classes. The mutual using LUTs and EMB allows diminishing chip area occupied by FSM circuit (as compared to its LUT-based counterpart). The simple sequential algorithm is proposed for finding the partition of the set of terms by a determined number of classes. The method is based on representation of an FSM by a state transition table. However, it can be used for any known form of FSM specification. The example of synthesis is shown. The efficiency of the proposed method was investigated using a library of standard benchmarks. We compared the proposed with some other known design methods. The investigations show that the proposed method gives better results than other discussed methods. It allows the obtaining of FSM circuits with three levels of logic and regular interconnections.

Highlights • A three-stage nested Theil index is adopted for assessing the inequality in research funding. • A university-institute hierarchical decomposition framework is constructed to decompose the overall inequality. • The empirical analysis is conducted in China and based on the data from the NSFC between 2013 and 2017. • The overall Theil index of research funding in China is 1.97, a value higher than in the United States but lower than in Japan. • The inequality within institutions dominates and contributes 80% of the overall inequality. Abstract The inequality in research funding is an important issue, in which the measurement of inequality is the basis. The literature has mostly investigated the inequality in research funding by providing overall values of inequality but has rarely explored this topic through the internal structure of the overall inequality. In this paper, a three-stage nested Theil index is employed to decompose the overall inequality in research funding into the between and within components. Moreover, a decomposition framework of university-institute sub-group is constructed to investigate the inherent structure of overall inequality in research funding. The data from the National Natural Science Foundation of China between 2013 and 2017 at the individual researcher level are collected as empirical data. The empirical results indicate that the overall Theil index of research funding in China is 1.97 (equal to 0.87 in the Gini index), a value higher than in the United States but lower than in Japan. The decomposition results regarding the inequality in research funding indicate that the inequality within institutions dominates and contributes 80.0% of the overall inequality. Moreover, 'Universities' contributes more than 'Institutes' to the inequality, and the 'World-class universities' contributes the most among the six groups of the Within-B component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]