Signal processing methods for EEG data classification

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Efficiency, Profitability and Quality of Banking Services

This paper develops a general framework for combining strategic benchmarking with efficiency benchmarking of the services offered by bank branches. In particular, the service-profit chain is cast as a cascade of efficiency benchmarking models. Three models-based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-are developed in order to implement the framework in the practical setting of a bank's branches: an operational efficiency mode, a quality efficiency model and a profitability efficiency model. The use of the models is illustrated using data for the branches of a commercial Bank. Empirical results indicate that superior insights can be obtained by analyzing operations, service quality, and profitability simultaneously than the information obtained from benchmarking studies of these three dimensions separately. Some relations between operational efficiency and profitability, and between operational efficiency and service quality are investigated. This paper was presented at the Financial Institutions Center's conference on Performance of Financial Institutions, May 8-10, 1997.

Disentangling Within- and Between-Country Efficiency Differences of Bank Branches

In this paper we propose a framework to assess the efficiency of bank branch networks operating in different financial environments. The framework can be used to disentangle within- from between-country performance differences. The framework is constructive in that it identifies operational aspects responsible for superior performance and suggests guidelines for branch improvement. We report results from three bank branch networks in the U.K., Greece and Cyprus, and demonstrate how branch networks can benefit from such international comparisons.Bank Branch Efficiency, International Benchmarks, Data Envelopment Analysis.

Searching for the Value of Quality in Financial Services

In this paper we report results from a study, which explores the impact of quality on performance in the financial services industry. Although some disagreement exists, the operations management, economics and marketing literatures advocate a positive relationship between quality and financial performance. Recent strong evidence suggests that in order to be meaningful, such studies must focus on individual industries. Our study focuses on the financial services industry and provides new insights on the relationship between quality and financial performance in this important service sector. Stock performance information is used to further explore this relationship. Through the results reported here, we also identify the weaknesses inherent in existing stock-performance studies on the impact of quality, and identify the methodological approaches that should be pursued in order to avoid such weaknessses.

Intelligent on/off dynamic link management for on-chip networks

Networks-on-chips (NoCs) provide scalable on-chip communication and are expected to be the dominant interconnection architectures in multicore and manycore systems. Power consumption, however, is a major limitation in NoCs today, and researchers have been constantly working on reducing both dynamic and static power. Among the NoC components, links that connect the NoC routers are the most power-hungry components. Several attempts have been made to reduce the link power consumption at both the circuit level and the system level. Most past research efforts have proposed selective on/off link state switching based on system-level information based on link utilization levels. Most of these proposed algorithms focus on a pessimistic and simple static threshold mechanism which determines whether or not a link should be turned on/off. This paper presents an intelligent dynamic power management policy for NoCs with improved predictive abilities based on supervised online learning of the system status (i.e., expected future utilization link levels), where links are turned off and on via the use of a small and scalable neural network. Simulation results with various synthetic traffic models over various network topologies show that the proposed work can reach up to 13% power savings when compared to a trivial threshold computation, at very low (<4%) hardware overhead

Towards customer-driven management in hospitality education: A case study of the Higher Hotel Institute, Cyprus

Applying total quality management (TQM) principles in education still remains a great challenge. This paper focuses on hospitality education. Although anecdotal evidence on successful TQM implementation in various hotels can be easily found, no formal approaches on how to implement TQM to the hospitality educational process have appeared in the literature. The Higher Hotel Institute, Cyprus, has recently embarked towards the establishment of a customer-driven management culture. The paper presents and discusses the approach taken by the Institute in collecting and using service quality-related information from three principal groups: namely, future employers, staff and students, towards this goal. Future research directions are also discussed

Testning the Adaptive Market Hypothesis on the OMXS30 Stock Index: 1986-2014 : Stock Return Predictability And Market Conditions

We evaluate the validity of the Adaptive Market Hypothesis (AMH) in a Swedish context by testing for stock return predictability on the OMXS30 stock index between 1986 and 2014 using daily returns and monthly two year moving subsamples. To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the AMH in a Swedish context. Three tests for linear independence based on Lo and MacKinlay (1988) variance ratio test, namely the Chow and Denning joint test as well as Wright (2000) joint rank and sign tests are used. We also test for non-linear independence using the BDS test statistics. Presented in our findings is evidence of time-varying predictability where stock returns go through periods of return predictability and non-predictability. When evaluating the different market conditions (volatility, bull, bear, up, down and normal markets) we find that these different market conditions govern the degree of stock return predictability in different ways. Our findings support the AMH on the OMXS30 stock index and in contrast to previous research regarding market efficiency on the Swedish stock market, we do not find persistent stock return predictability over the short and long term.

Campania in the framework of the earliest Greek colonization in the west

I. - Cephalonia during the 8th and 7th centuries This paper mainly deals with the area of Campania during the period of the earliest Greek colonisation in the West, although it also presents new data that are relevant to the history of Great Greece as a whole. More specifically, it focuses on the role of Cephalonia in the colonial period, and the route followed by the Corinthians on their way to the West. Cephalonia is blessed with a strategic geographical position (fig. 1), being situated pr..