Fx swaps and outright forward validation

UNL - NSBE

Deploying public surface transit to forward messages in DTN

Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) is a communication architecture enabling connectivity in a topology with unregular end-to-end network connection. DTN enables communication in environments with cross-connectivity, large delays and delivery time variations, and a high error rate. DTN can be used in vehicular networks where public transport get involved. This research aims to analyze the role of public transit as a DTN routing infrastructure. The impact of using public transit as a relay router is investigated by referencing the network performance, defined by its delivery ratio, average delay and overhead. The results show that public transit can be used as a backbone for DTN in an urban scenario using existing protocols. This opens insights for future researches on routing algorithm and protocol design.

Phage therapy: a step forward in the treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections

Antimicrobial resistance constitutes one of the major worldwide public health concerns. Bacteria are becoming resistant to the vast majority of antibiotics and nowadays, a common infection can be fatal. To revert this situation, the use of phages for the treatment of bacterial infections has been extensively studied as an alternative therapeutic strategy. Since P. aeruginosa is one of the most common causes of healthcare-associated infections, many studies have reported the in vitro and in vivo antibacterial efficacy of phage therapy against this bacterium. This review collects data of all the P. aeruginosa phages sequenced to date, providing a better understanding about their biodiversity. This review will further address the in vitro and in vivo results obtained by using phages to treat or prevent P. aeruginosa infections as well as the major hurdles associated with this therapy.

Measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry of electron and muon pair-production in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements from the ATLAS experiment of the forward-backward asymmetry in the reaction pp→Z/γ∗→l+l−, with l being electrons or muons, and the extraction of the effective weak mixing angle. The results are based on the full set of data collected in 2011 in pp collisions at the LHC at s√ = 7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 fb−1. The measured asymmetry values are found to be in agreement with the corresponding Standard Model predictions. The combination of the muon and electron channels yields a value of the effective weak mixing angle of 0.2308±0.0005(stat.)±0.0006(syst.)±0.0009(PDF), where the first uncertainty corresponds to data statistics, the second to systematic effects and the third to knowledge of the parton density functions. This result agrees with the current world average from the Particle Data Group fit.

Measurement of differential J/psi production cross sections and forward-backward ratios in p plus Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector

Measurements of differential cross sections for J/ψ production in p+Pb collisions at sNN−−−−√=5.02 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS detector are presented. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 28.1 nb−1. The J/ψ mesons are reconstructed in the dimuon decay channel over the transverse momentum range 8Forward-backward production ratios are presented and compared to theoretical predictions. These results complement previously published results by covering a region of higher transverse momentum and more central rapidity. They thus constrain the kinematic dependence of nuclear modifications of charmonium and b-quark production in p+Pb collisions.

Development of a subject-specific musculoskeletal shoulder model : inverse and forward dynamics applications

A prevalência de pessoas que referem dor no complexo articular do ombro, com concomitante limitação na capacidade para realizar atividades da vida diária, é elevada. Estes níveis de prevalência sobrecarregam quer os utentes, como a própria sociedade. A evidência científica atual indicia a existência de uma relação entre as alterações da articulação escápulo-torácica e as patologias associadas à articulação gleno-umeral. A capacidade de quantificar, cinemática e cineticamente, as disfunções ao nível das articulações escápulo-torácica e gleno-umeral, é algo de enorme importância, quer para a comunidade biomecânica, como para a clínica. No decorrer dos trabalhos desta tese foi desenvolvido, através do software OpenSim, um modelo tridimensional músculo-esquelético do complexo articular do ombro que inclui a representação do tórax/coluna, clavícula, omoplata, úmero, rádio, cúbito e articulações que permitem os movimentos relativos desses segmentos, assim como, 16 músculos e 4 ligamentos. Com um total de 11 graus de liberdade, incluindo um novo modelo articular escápulo-torácico, os resultados demonstram que este é capaz de reconstruir de forma precisa e rápida os movimentos escápulo-torácicos e glenoumerais, recorrendo para tal, à cinemática inversa, e à dinâmica inversa e direta. Conta ainda com um método de transformação inovador para determinar, com base nas especificidades dos sujeitos, os locais de inserção muscular. As principais motivações subjacentes ao desenvolvimento desta tese foram contribuir para o aprofundar do atual conhecimento sobre as disfunções do complexo articular do ombro e, simultaneamente, proporcionar à comunidade clínica uma ferramenta biomecânica de livre acesso com o intuito de melhor suportar as decisões clínicas e dessa forma concorrer para uma prática mais efetiva.

Forward rates : predictive power and trading strategies

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Wirtschaftswiss., Diss., 2014

Forward induction and the excess capacity puzzle: An experimental investigation.

While the theoretical industrial organization literature has long argued that excess capacity can be used to deter entry into markets, there is little empirical evidence that incumbent firms effectively behave in this way. Bagwell and Ramey (1996) propose a game with a specific sequence of moves and partially-recoverable capacity costs in which forward induction provides a theoretical rationalization for firm behavior in the field. We conduct an experiment with a game inspired by their work. In our data the incumbent tends to keep the market, in contrast to what the forward induction argument of Bagwell and Ramey would suggest. The results indicate that players perceive that the first mover has an advantage without having to pre-commit capacity. In our game, evolution and learning do not drive out this perception. We back these claims with data analysis, a theoretical framework for dynamics, and simulation results.

Competition with forward contracts: a laboratory analysis motivated by electricity market design

We use experiments to study the efficiency effects for a market as a whole of adding the possibility of forward contracting to a pre-existing spot market. We deal separately with the cases where spot market competition is in quantities and where it is in supply functions. In both cases we compare the effect of adding a contract market with the introduction of an additional competitor, changing the market structure from a triopoly to a quadropoly. We find that, as theory suggests, for both types of competition the introduction of a forward market significantly lowers prices. The combination of supply function competition with a forward market leads to high efficiency levels.

Trans-Atlantic Pedagogy for Teaching Pre-Service Teachers ICT: Bringing forward cultural issues

Projecte de recerca elaborat a partir d’una estada a la Universitat de Toronto, Canadà, des d’octubre del 2006 a febrer del 2007. El projecte Barchito és un projecte Interrnacional que va involucrar tres universitats: La Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, la Universitat de Toronto (Canadà) i la Universitat de Roosevelt (USA). El seu objectiu principal era posar en contacte estudiants de les tres universitats (de tres cursos diferents) per discutir al voltant de temes com ara l'ensenyament/aprenentatge i elements culturals de cada país. Aquest projecte presenta la natura de l'experiència des de la visió dels participants: alumnat i professorat. Superant diferències inicials de llengua, els participants van aprendre d'altra cultura, van aprendre sobre altres maneres d'ensenyar i van aprendre, en definitiva, sobre ells mateixos. L'eina d'aprenentatge col.laboratiu els va ajudar a sobrepassar el context immediat, emprant per això, l'eina tecnològica anomenada: Knowledge Forum.

Local Currency Pricing, Foreign Monetary Shocks and Exchange Rate Policy

The implications of local currency pricing (LCP) for monetary regime choice are analysed for a country facing foreign monetary shocks. In this analysis expenditure switching is potentially welfare reducing. This contrasts with the existing LCP literature, which focuses on productivity shocks and thus analyses a world where expenditure switching is welfare enhancing. This paper shows that, when home and foreign producers follow LCP, expenditure switching is absent and a floating rate is preferred by the home country. But when only home producers follow LCP, expenditure switching is present and a fixed rate can be welfare enhancing for the home country.

Off-the-Record Target Zones: Theory with an Application to Hong Kongs Currency Board

This paper provides a modelling framework for evaluating the exchange rate dynamics of a target zone regime with undisclosed bands. We generalize the literature to allow for asymmetric one-sided regimes. Market participants' beliefs concerning an undisclosed band change as they learn more about central bank intervention policy. We apply the model to Hong Kong's one-sided currency board mechanism. In autumn 2003, the Hong Kong dollar appreciated from close to 7.80 per US dollar to 7.70, as investors feared that the currency board would be abandoned. In the wake of this appreciation, the monetary authorities finally revamped the regime as a symmetric two-sided system with a narrow exchange rate band.

Forward Looking and Myopic Regional Computable General Equilibrium Models. How Significant is the Distinction?

We present a stylized intertemporal forward-looking model able that accommodates key regional economic features, an area where the literature is not well developed. The main difference, from the standard applications, is the role of saving and its implication for the balance of payments. Though maintaining dynamic forward-looking behaviour for agents, the rate of private saving is exogenously determined and so no neoclassical financial adjustment is needed. Also, we focus on the similarities and the differences between myopic and forward-looking models, highlighting the divergences among the main adjustment equations and the resulting simulation outcomes.

Currency Issues and Options for an Independent Scotland

In this paper we take on the role of a ‘virtual consultant’ to a potentially independent Scotland. What should the exchange rate regime of an independent Scotland look like? We argue that the current proposal of the Scottish government to remain part of the sterling zone is doomed to failure, both because it falls short of a full political and monetary union and because it fails to recognize the reality of the Scottish economy post independence. We argue that the only tenable solution for an independent Scotland is to have a separate currency and for this currency to have some flexibility against Scotland’s main trading partners. One option offered here is managed float or crawl against a basket of currencies.

The Forward Premium Puzzle and The Euro

This paper evaluates the forward premium puzzle using the Euro exchange rate. Unlike previous studies, our analysis utilizes time-varying parameter methods and is based on two approaches for evaluation of the puzzle; the traditional approach analyzing the sensitivity of interest rate differentials to the forward premium, and the other looking into deviations from the covered interest rate parity (CIRP) condition. Then we provide evidence that the forward premium puzzle indeed became more prominent around the time of the recent crisis periods such as the Lehman Shock and the Euro crisis. This is also shown to be consistent with a deterioration in the CIRP.