Mechanical Fatigue on Gold MEMS Devices: Experimental Results

The effect of mechanical fatigue on structural performances of gold devices is investigated. The pull-in voltage of special testing micro-systems is monitored during the cyclical load application. The mechanical collapse is identified as a dramatic loss of mechanical strength of the specimen. The fatigue limit is estimated through the stair-case method by means of the pull-in voltage measurements. Measurements are performed by means of the optical interferometric technique.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

Imparare a documentarsi in biblioteca, educare a documentarsi in biblioteca

La biblioteca è notoriamente luogo di conservazione e trasmissione di conoscenza; grazie ai servizi di reference, però, essa può aiutare i lettori ad accrescere la «competenza informativa» durante il corso della loro vita. Infatti, oltre alla risposta a fronte a domande spicciole, il bibliotecario si trova sempre più spesso nella condizione di dover aiutare gli utenti a districarsi tra le grandi quantità di fonti informative disponibili (siamo nell’era dell’informazione), e quindi sempre più spesso la biblioteca organizza corsi, laboratori, occasioni di apprendimento che permettano all’utente di essere in grado di trovare informazioni e documenti. L’information literacy in Italia attualmente sembra essere quasi unica prerogativa delle biblioteche scolastiche e universitarie; mentre infiniti potrebbero essere gli ambiti a favore del cittadino adulto, che le biblioteche pubbliche potrebbero educare a documentarsi sui temi della vita quotidiana -come l’ambito finanziario-. Perché ciò avvenga, è necessaria una salda cultura documentale da parte dei bibliotecari, affinchè nelle biblioteche si alimenti la funzione educativa della biblioteca stessa

Computing the survival probability in the Madan-Unal credit risk model: application to the CDS market

We obtain a quasi-analytical approximation of the survival probability in the credit risk model proposed in [Madan, D.B. and Unal, H., Pricing the risk of default. Rev. Deriv. Res., 1998, 2(2), 121--160]. Such a formula, which extensive numerical simulations reveal to be accurate and computationally fast, can also be employed for pricing credit default swaps (CDSs). Specifically, we derive a quasi-analytical approximate expression for CDS par spreads, and we use it to estimate the parameters of the model. The results obtained show a rather satisfactory agreement between theoretical and real market data

Score-Driven Modeling with Jumps: An Application to S&P500 Returns and Options

We introduce a novel score-driven model with two sources of shock, allowing for both time-varying volatility and jumps. A theoretical investigation is performed which yields sufficient conditions to ensure stationarity and ergodicity. We extend the model to consider a time-varying jump intensity. Both an in-sample and an out-of-sample analysis based on the S&P500 time series show that the proposed methodology provides excellent agreement with observed returns, outperforming more standard Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) specifications with jumps. Finally, we apply our models to option pricing via risk neutralization. Results show this novel approach produces reliable implied volatility surfaces. Supplementary Materials including proofs, the derivation of the conditional Fisher information, and two figures showing additional empirical results are available onlin