Credit Risk Stress Testing of Commercial Banks in Tunisia

Stress tests of credit risk is greatly affected by data constraints in Tunisian banking system. Aiming to improve the assessment of credit risk in such conditions, we propose a model to conduct a macro stress test of credit risk for a sample of ten Tunisian commercial banks based on scenario analysis.The approach consists first in explaining the credit risk for each bank in terms of macroeconomic and bank-specific variables through a static fixed effects model, second in a stress-testing exercise using the Monte Carlo Simulation for generating credit risk losses distributions in case of different scenarios and for determining unexpected losses for each bank. The panel analysis applied suggests a robust negative relationship between the credit risk of bank loans and real GDP growth, with a lag response of four periods. In addition, return on assets ratio and bank size show significant negative effect on credit quality, while the net loans to total asset ratio is positively associated with it. The credit risk stress testing results indicate that an adverse scenario of economic downturn produces increase of the frequency of the higher credit loss comparatively to the lower ones for all banks of the sample and that the estimated unexpected losses that would take place in a stress situation can be covered by available capital of these banks

Folds of Authoritarianism: Political Mobilization, Financial Capitalism, and Islamism in Turkey

Beginning with 2002, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has mobilized millions of Turkish citizens from the most impoverished districts of Istanbul. Based on two years of ethnographic engagement in two districts of Istanbul (Esenler and Kucukcekmece), the party’s stronghold, this dissertation focuses on the conjunction of neoliberal economic transformations, mass mobilization and political Islam. By paying close attention to personal histories, daily capacities, emerging hopes and inter-generational grievances of the party members and sympathizers, it investigates how material and financial transformations facilitate and even promote a popular knowledge that authoritarian politics, embodied by the AKP in Turkey, are the only solution for the predicaments of late capitalism. The project aims to problematize some key presumptions of contemporary social scientific analyses, namely individualization, depoliticization, and economic rationality, and investigates the emergence of alternative practices in their steads: self-negation, authoritarian mobilization, and fundamentalist disposition. To this end, the dissertation intervenes in four current debates of social scientific and public significance. Firstly, against the long standing debates about the character and consequences of neoliberal transformation in the global south, in which the general consensus is that these new economic practices have resulted in depoliticization and apathy among the masses, the project demonstrates that the very same economic polices and practices result in the promotion of a form of mass mobilization that is authoritarian in its characteristics. Second, it intervenes in a related literature about depoliticization, which claims that the contemporary form of capitalism produces isolated individuals, i.e. individuation. The dissertation shows that neoliberal transformations have precipitated a wide range of political and social practices, like self-sacrifice of partisans, which produce alternative modes of political identification and new identities conditioned by economic vulnerability. Third, the research and analysis argues that the critique of bureaucracy and bureaucratic regulations, conceived as sources of unproductivity and institutional rigidities by neoliberal thought collectives, has been appropriated by the masses in Turkey as a part of anti-formalist policies that the AKP propagates. However, the popular critique of bureaucracy among the AKP partisans does not produce a version of liberal governance, in which transparency, flexibility, and accountability are dominant values, but a popular conviction that rules, regulations, and laws may be suspended for the interest of “the people,” thus legitimizing the violation of “bureaucratic” rights, be they human rights, freedom of speech, or fair trial principle. Lastly, this dissertation furthers a significant body of anthropological works on political Islam that complicates the relationships between secularism and religiosity by showing their co-constituted histories. However, it substantially diverges from the trajectory of this literature by shifting the focus from morality to efficacy, from cultural politics to political economy. Ultimately, the purpose of the dissertation is to understand how neoliberal economic transformations provided a suitable social, material and political context for religiously informed authoritarian practices without attributing any essentialized qualities to their religious characteristics

Flight Mechanics/Estimation Theory Symposium

Onboard and real time image processing to enhance geometric correction of the data is discussed with application to autonomous navigation and attitude and orbit determination. Specific topics covered include: (1) LANDSAT landmark data; (2) star sensing and pattern recognition; (3) filtering algorithms for Global Positioning System; and (4) determining orbital elements for geostationary satellites

GUIDANCE IN THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ONLINE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION COURSE

ABSTRACT Bryan Fede: Guidance in the Design and Implementation of an Online Mathematics Education Course (Under the direction of Susan N. Friel) The number of students taking online distance education (ODE) courses as part of their programs of study has steadily increased since 2012 (Seaman, Allen, & Seaman, 2018). This has led to a proliferation of resources related to online teaching pedagogy (Dennen, 2013). In many cases, instructors of ODE courses are left to sort through this information on their own as they decide how to design and implement ODE experiences for their students. The overarching goal of this research is to develop A Field Guide for Mathematics Educators in the Design and Implementation of Learning Environments in Online Distance Education that incorporates what is known about the best practices in teaching ODE courses as well as in applying high leverage teaching practices in mathematics education. The study addresses two questions: (1) In what ways does the instructor respond to, interpret, and apply the underlying premises and guidance provided in the Field Guide in course planning and implementation? (2) What are students’ perceptions of the distance education classroom in terms of any impact they consider it makes on their sense of transactional distance? The researcher followed one instructor as she applied advice from the Field Guide through one iteration an algebra course in a K-5 Elementary Mathematics Add-on Licensure (EMAoL) Program. After providing the instructor with a copy of the Field Guide, research analyzed the ways that that the instructor applied the guidance in the Field Guide to the design and implementation of her course and collected ‘instances of practice’ that might be used to illustrate principles contained in the Field Guide. The goal of this research is to inform a revision of the Field Guide that provides more detailed support for mathematics educators in design and implementation of ODE learning experiences. The work highlights the need for instructors to adjust their teaching practices in an ODE environment and resist the temptation to translate what is done in a face-to-face class setting and “put it online” (Pollock, 2013, p. 3).Doctor of Philosoph

Vocational teachers’ conceptions of, and approaches to, ICT in professional education

The aim of this research was to investigate vocational teachers’ ways of thinking about ICT enhanced teaching and teaching approaches associated with the use of ICT in teaching. The study focused on teachers’ ways of apprehending the role of ICT in professional work. Phenomenography, a qualitative research approach that places emphasis on the importance of people’s experience of a phenomenon, was selected as a research methodology for this study. A cohort of 23 teachers from three Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions in New South Wales, Australia, participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews. These interviews were used to identify the qualitatively different ways in which vocational teachers understand and conceptualise the phenomenon of ICT use in TAFE and workplace settings. Interviews were analysed using an iterative seven-step process through which five conceptions of, and five approaches to, ICT-enhanced teaching were revealed, and three conceptions of ICT in workplaces were discerned. Dimensions of variation among the categories of conceptions are presented and discussed, that extended previous knowledge by identifying new dimensions. Findings of this research enhance the existing teacher-centred and learning-centred frameworks of teachers’ conceptions. The study shows that approaches to ICT-enhanced teaching cover a range of aspects including: conveying information, promoting students’ active learning in development of knowledge and skills, and meeting the needs of industry. New knowledge on the way vocational teachers understand the role of ICT in workplaces also emerged through the study. These findings provide useful information for people who work in: the development of vocational educational, teaching of industrial practices, and academic development programs. The thesis proposes further lines of exploratory research: to investigate discipline-focused ICT-enhanced teaching in vocational education

Factors Affecting Entrepreneurial Intention of University Students: A Lebanese Case Study

Lebanon is an unstable country that is facing low economic growth and political instability, which resulted in high unemployment and immigration rates among its youth in general and its university students specifically. Entrepreneurship is related to a country’s long- term economic development and growth, as it involves activities associated with creativity and innovation; entrepreneurship is also the source of job and wealth creation. Due to these facts policy makers have heavily relied on entrepreneurship in their policy agendas. Previous research shows that intention is the starting point of pursuing an entrepreneurial career. Therefore, this research is aimed to investigate the factors affecting entrepreneurship intention among university students in Lebanon and the possible policy implications of the findings. This research was based on mixed approach to data collection. The first phase of the research involved quantitative self-administered questionnaire, distributed to nine different areas across the country. The initial sample included 3,154 students, and the obtained response rate was 34.9%. In the follow up qualitative phase, semi- structured interviews were conducted with 12 individuals to help explain and obtain a deeper understanding of the quantitative results and gather their opinion regarding the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Lebanon and the factors affecting students’ intention in the country. The data was subjected to two analytical techniques, structural equation modelling was used to examine the measurement model and test the study hypotheses, whereas template analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The findings of this study provided theoretical and practical implications. Theoretical contribution is in the application of the theory of planned behaviour in a non- Western country, were little literature is presented. This study is the first of its kind in Lebanon, as no study has attempted to explain the factors affecting entrepreneurial intention among university students over different Lebanese regions. The results have practical implications for policymakers, universities, practitioners and other concerned parties to gain a better insight of students’ personal characteristics, how they perceive the support offered from the university, environment and government towards entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it also provided an understanding of how the antecedents are related, which could be useful in enhancing entrepreneurial intention in Lebanon

Organisational change from the perspectives of translation : a case study of transformation in the Libyan banking system

This study examines an organisational change process in its real-time. Two theoretical approaches have inspired a search for explanations to the process of change occurring as part of large transforming the Libyan banking sector to become compliant with the Islamic Banking and Finance (IBF) model. The first is change as fluxing reality (Tsoukas & Chia, 2002). The second theoretical approach reflects insights mainly from new translation embodied in process philosophy and neo-institutionalist perspectives as articulated by Czarniawska and Joerges (1996). The two theoretical views are seen as complementary to empirical investigations that seek to capture the dynamic unfolding nature of organisational change. The study draws upon a cross sectional case-study approach in the banking sector in Libya and qualitative abductive reasoning.The methodology of this study incorporates qualitative thematic analysis situated within the theoretical framework underpinning this study. This study is an exploratory in nature, consequently, the unit of analysis revolves around the idea of IBF and its associated processes which designed to transform the idea into organisational practice. This includes, the change process subsequent process associated with this change and the unintended consequences of such complicated large scale program. The study combines different research method and data sources, including interviews, IBF literature and literature on the Libyan banking system.The outcome of the research can be considered as a contribution to the knowledge of change and translation as well as the field of IBF. The current study, through adopting a processual analytical mind-set has described for the first time the organisational change process in the context of Islamic banking. Thereby, opening up a field which is in need of further and extensive research. The key findings of this study were in fluctuation with the translation model. This fluctuation due partly to the different nature of the change process in the Libyan banking context. In this regard, it can be argued that the translation model depicts change as utterly an open-ended process. However, this research has revealed that change process is constructed and translated within various historical social and institutional limitations

Planejamento de Sistemas de Informação aplicado a inserção de softwares de startups no mercado

TCC(graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro Tecnológico. Sistemas de Informação.Planejamento Estratégico de Sistemas de Informação (PSI) é uma metodologia de engenharia de sistemas que visa identificar as TIC que melhor efetivam o plano estratégico de uma organização. Quando essas se tratam de empresas produtoras de software, o PSI tem duas contribuições potenciais: pode tanto ajudar a empresa a selecionar os SI mais adequados à sua efetividade (como em qualquer organização) quanto ser um instrumento de difusão de suas soluções nos clientes. Quando se tratam de startups, o primeiro resultado do PSI é menos relevante do que a possibilidade de alinhar sua solução com a estratégia de seu cliente, já que a empresa ainda está em fase de crescimento e uma das principais necessidades (e um dos principais desafios) é conhecer o seu cliente e entrar no mercado. Assim, neste trabalho, propõe-se a adoção do método de PSI para apoiar empresas startups produtoras de software na inserção de sua solução na estratégia de seus clientes. Para tal, aplica-se o método Fatores Críticos de Sucesso (FCS), que permite à startup identificar as necessidades e valor da demanda de seus clientes e avaliar o grau de contribuição de suas soluções. Além da adaptação do método FCS, o trabalho realizou uma aplicação em startup produtora de software para intermediação de serviços de compra para o setor alimentício. Os resultados indicam que a aplicação do método proposto pode ajudar uma startup tanto em sua estratégia de marketing como na gestão de sua inovação de produto.Strategic Planning for Information Systems is a Systems Engineering methodology that aims to identify the ICT that improve an organization's strategic plan. When these are software companies, ISP has two potential contributions: it can either help the company to select the most appropriate IS for its effectiveness (as in any organization) or be an instrument for disseminating its solutions to the customers. When it comes to startups, the first ISP result is less relevant than the ability to align your solution with your customer's strategy, since the company is still growing and one of its main needs is to know your customer and entry the market. Thus, in this work, it is proposed to adopt a ISP method to support startup software companies when inserting their solutions in the strategy of their clients. Therefore, the Critical Success Factors (CSF) method is applied, which allows the startup to identify the needs and value of its customers' demand and to evaluate the degree of contribution of its solutions. In addition to the adaptation of the CSF method, the work carried out an application in a startup that develops softwares for intermediating purchase services for the food sector. The results indicate that the proposed method can help a startup both in its marketing strategy and management of its product innovation

Intelligent and Efficient Transport Systems

The aim of this book is to present a number of digital and technology solutions to real-world problems across transportation sectors and infrastructures. Nine chapters have been well prepared and organized with the core topics as follows: -A guideline to evaluate the energy efficiency of a vehicle -A guideline to design and evaluate an electric propulsion system -Potential opportunities for intelligent transportation systems and smart cities -The importance of system control and energy-power management in transportation systems and infrastructures -Bespoke modeling tools and real-time simulation platforms for transportation system development This book will be useful to a wide range of audiences: university staff and students, engineers, and business people working in relevant fields