function y=rwchng(x)
% rwchng: scaled first-difference of a time series
% rwchng(x);
% Last revised 6-29-99
%
% The scaled first difference of a ring-width or index time series is the
% change in the series from the previous year expressed as a decimal fraction
% of the local level of the series. The local level is the values of the series
% smoothed by a 9-weight Hamming filter. The steps in the transformation:<P>
%
% 1. 9-wt hamming low-pass filter the ring widths or indices<BR>
% 2. compute departures from low-pass series curve <BR>
% 3. compute first difference of departures to accentuate high-frequency change<BR>
% 4. take ratio of first diff of departures to value of the low-pass series in previous year<BR>
%
%
%*** INPUT ARGS
%
% x (mx x 1) input time series, a ring-width series or index series
%
%*** OUTPUT ARGS
%
% y (my x 1) scaled first difference of departures
% my=mx-1
%
%*** REFERENCES -- none
%
%*** UW FUNCTIONS CALLED -- none
%
%*** TOOLBOXES NEEDED
% signal processing
%
%*** NOTES
%
% filtfilt.m is used to Hamming-filter the series. The series is filtered in both the
% forward and backwards direction to avoid phase shift.
%
% The transformation in rwchng.m is useful to build a "crossdating" series representing
% high-frequency variations adjusted to remove effects of differing level of the series.
mx=length(x);
% Design low-pass Hamming Filter
b=fir1(8,.1);
% Filter the ring width
g=filtfilt(b,1,x);
% Departures from smooth curves
d=x-g;
% First differences of departures
f=diff(d);
% Standardized to value of smooth curve in previous year
gs=g(1:mx-1);
y=f ./ gs;
t=(1:length(y))';
%plot(t,x(2:length(x)),t,y,t,gs)';
