Transparency in European football : A study of financial disclosure transparency from a supporter perspective

Background and Problem: Despite the exploding increase in revenue by more than 500 percent (1996-2014) among European football clubs, the operating profit in the “big five” leagues are, paradoxically, inexistent or very low. Hence, there is a need for more transparent financial reporting in European football. To preserve the game’s well-being and establish a sustainable future, UEFA introduced Financial Fair Play (FFP) back in 2010 as a part of their club licensing requirements. The transparency that FFP is intended to improve is however only disclosed to UEFA and its member associations, which is only one of many stakeholders. In times of financial turmoil in European football clubs, where fair play and sustainability is frequently discussed since the implementation of FFP, one could ask; is it really fair play that not all European football clubs are obligated to be transparent towards all their stakeholders and supporters? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to, from a supporter perspective, look at how transparent European football clubs’ financial disclosure is. Methodology: The research has elements of both a deductive and an inductive approach and uses a disclosure checklist with a cross-sectional design, in order to measure disclosure transparency.  Empirical Results and Conclusion: Even though the empirical findings proved that financial reporting transparency are present within European football, the conclusion is that the financial reporting is generally not transparent within the industry.

Cosmic Explosions: Observations Of Infant Hydrogen-Free Supernovae Towards An Understanding Of Their Parent Systems

Radiation in the first days of supernova explosions contains rich information about physical properties of the exploding stars. In the past three years, I used the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory to conduct one-day cadence surveys, in order to systematically search for infant supernovae. I show that the one-day cadences in these surveys were strictly controlled, that the realtime image subtraction pipeline managed to deliver transient candidates within ten minutes of images being taken, and that we were able to undertake follow-up observations with a variety of telescopes within hours of transients being discovered. So far iPTF has discovered over a hundred supernovae within a few days of explosions, forty-nine of which were spectroscopically classified within twenty-four hours of discovery.

Our observations of infant Type Ia supernovae provide evidence for both the single-degenerate and double-degenerate progenitor channels. On the one hand, a low-velocity Type Ia supernova iPTF14atg revealed a strong ultraviolet pulse within four days of its explosion. I show that the pulse is consistent with the expected emission produced by collision between the supernova ejecta and a companion star, providing direct evidence for the single degenerate channel. By comparing the distinct early-phase light curves of iPTF14atg to an otherwise similar event iPTF14dpk, I show that the viewing angle dependence of the supernova-companion collision signature is probably responsible to the difference of the early light curves. I also show evidence for a dark period between the supernova explosion and the first light of the radioactively-powered light curve. On the other hand, a peculiar Type Ia supernova iPTF13asv revealed strong near-UV emission and absence of iron in the spectra within the first two weeks of explosion, suggesting a stratified ejecta structure with iron group elements confined to the slow-moving part of the ejecta. With its total ejecta mass estimated to exceed the Chandrasekhar limit, I show that the stratification and large mass of the ejecta favor the double-degenerate channel.

In a separate approach, iPTF found the first progenitor system of a Type Ib supernova iPTF13bvn in the pre-explosion HST archival mages. Independently, I used the early-phase optical observations of this supernova to constrain its progenitor radius to be no larger than several solar radii. I also used its early radio detections to derive a mass loss rate of 3e-5 solar mass per year for the progenitor right before the supernova explosion. These constraints on the physical properties of the iPTF13bvn progenitor provide a comprehensive data set to test Type Ib supernova theories. A recent HST revisit to the iPTF13bvn site two years after the supernova explosion has confirmed the progenitor system.

Moving forward, the next frontier in this area is to extend these single-object analyses to a large sample of infant supernovae. The upcoming Zwicky Transient Facility with its fast survey speed, which is expected to find one infant supernova every night, is well positioned to carry out this task.

Solution to reduce nonlinearity in LTE RoF system for an efficient das topology:a brief review

In this paper, a review on radio-over-fiber (RoF) technology is conducted to support the exploding growth of mobile broadband. An RoF system will provide a platform for distributed antenna system (DAS) as a fronthaul of long term evolution (LTE) technology. A higher splitting ratio from a macrocell is required to support large DAS topology, hence higher optical launch power (OLP) is the right approach. However, high OLP generates undesired nonlinearities, namely the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). Three different aspects of solving the SBS process are covered in this paper, where the solutions ultimately provided an additional 4 dB link budget.

CrashEd – A live immersive, learning experience embedding STEM subjects in a realistic, interactive crime scene

Interactive experiences are rapidly becoming popular via the surge of ‘escape rooms’; part game and part theatre, the ‘escape’ experience is exploding globally, having gone from zero offered at the outset of 2010 to at least 2800 different experiences available worldwide today. CrashEd is an interactive learning experience that parallels many of the attractions of an escape room – it incorporates a staged, realistic ‘crime scene’ and invites participants to work together to gather forensic evidence and question a witness in order to solve a crime, all whilst competing against a ticking clock. An animation can enhance reality and engage with cognitive processes to help learning; in CrashEd, it is the last piece of the jigsaw that consolidates the students’ incremental acquisition of knowledge to tie together the pieces of evidence, identify a suspect and ultimately solve the crime. This article presents the background to CrashEd and an overview of how a timely placed animation at the end of an educational experience can enhance learning. The lessons learned, from delivering bespoke versions of the experience to different demographic groups, are discussed. The article will consider the successes and challenges raised by the collaborative project, future developments and potential wider implications of the development of CrashEd.

Application of the Extended Kalman filter for speed sensorless control of PM synchronous machines

The increasing interest in the decarbonization process led to a rapidly growing trend of electrification strategies in the automotive industry. In particular, OEMs are pushing towards the development and production of efficient electric vehicles. Moreover, research on electric motors and their control are exploding in popularity. The increase of computational power in embedded control hardware is allowing the development of new control algorithm, such as sensorless control strategy. Such control strategy allows the reduction of the number of sensors, which implies reduced costs and increased system reliability. The thesis objective is to realize a sensorless control for high-performance automotive motors. Several algorithms for rotor angle observers are implemented in the MATLAB and Simulink environment, with emphasis on the Kalman observer. One of the Kalman algorithms already available in the literature has been selected, implemented and benchmarked, with emphasis on its comparison with the Sliding Mode observer. Different models characterized by increasing levels of complexity are simulated. A simplified synchronous motor with ”constant parameters”, controlled by an ideal inverter is first analyzed; followed by a complete model defined by real motor maps, and controlled by a switching inverter. Finally, it was possible to test the developed algorithm on a real electric motor mounted on a test bench. A wide range of different electric motors have been simulated, which led to an exhaustive review of the sensorless control algorithm. The final results underline the capability of the Kalman observer to effectively control the motor on a real test bench.