Parametric vs. non-parametric methods for estimating option implied risk-neutral densities: the case of the exchange rate Mexican peso – US dollar.

This research paper presents statistical comparisons between two methods that are commonly used to estimate option implied Risk-Neutral Densities (RND). These are: 1) mixture of lognormals (MXL); and, 2) volatility function technique (VFT). The former is a parametric method whilst the latter is a non-parametric approach. The RNDs are extracted from over-thecounter European-style options on the Mexican Peso–US Dollar exchange rate. The non-parametric method was the superior one for out-of-sample evaluations. The implied mean, median and mode were, in general, statistically different between the competing approaches. It is recommended to apply the VFT instead of the MXL given that the former has superior accuracy and it can be estimated when there is a relatively short crosssection of option exercise price range. The results have implications for financial investors and policy makers given that they could use the information content in options to analyze market’s perceptions about the future expected variability of the financial asset under study.currency option implied volatility, exchange rate, parametric methods, non-parametric methods, risk-neutral densities

Essays on two contemporary topics through an intergenerational lens: smart technologies and economic sanctions

This thesis centers its scope on the macroeconomic implications of two contemporary issues affecting welfare: the arrival of smart technologies and global control policies as sanctions. The key element that integrates these topics into the thesis is the intergenerational perspective. The thesis employs overlapping generations (OLG) models to study how smart technologies could modify long-term economic conditions and how fiscal policies are to be thought as a global matter rather than isolated decisions. The first chapter addresses the circumstances under which smart technologies may drive people out of well-compensated work. The Chapter uses a two-period OLG model comprising two type of workers, high and low-tech, and two goods –a capital intensive one and a labor intensive one. Automation, characterized as legacy code, combines with capital to give birth to a smart machine: a robot. In turn, as automation capacity grows these robots leave future workers– both high and low-tech– worse off. The lower code relative to capital increases the high-tech worker’s compensation, savings, and capital formation. However, as code accumulates, demand for high-tech labor falls, limiting younger generations’ savings and investments. Similarly, the second chapter seeks to answer whether robots raise or lower economic well-being. The setup is once again a two-period OLG. However, in this economy two goods are produced and consumed, but only one is fully automatable. Robots may be harmful except when robotic productivity is high enough that induces a virtuous circle of rising wages, savings, and output, producing the open-ended constant growth of an AK model. Additionally, a government transfer can turn an increase in robotic productivity into a long-term welfare improvement for future generations. Finally, the third chapter develops a large-scale multi-country OLG model to address the fiscal implications of global sanctions to a country –namely Russia. The model is uniquely suited to understanding the long-term effect of different trade and fiscal regimes. The sanctioned country responds either by seizing foreign assets, or imposing capital controls, policies that might hurt the sanctioning countries. In all scenarios, except for the most benign, all generations alive at the time are made worse off in the sanctioned country

Una propuesta metodológica para la optimización de portafolios de inversión y su aplicacion al caso colombiano

El mercado de capitales constituye un universo oferente de diversas alternativas de inversión donde cada activo tiene un nivel de riesgo dado. La función de los financistas está en lograr el mayor rendimiento minimizando el riesgo y sobre este tema han surgido varias teorías. El trabajo plantea la aplicación de un modelo de optimización en Excel que permite crear portafolios eficientes a partir de la teoría del portafolio moderno de Markowitz y empleando el concepto de la línea del mercado de capitales con activos disponibles en el mercado.Portafolios internacionales, frontera eficiente, línea de mercado de capitales, renta fija, varianza, covarianza, acciones y optimización

¿Cómo Evaluar el Desempeño Docente?

Evaluar el desempeño docente puede resultar una tarea muy compleja por la resistencia del evaluado, el modelo utilizado y el uso de los resultados obtenidos; pese a ello, para mejorar el sistema educativo en general, es necesario implementar en las instituciones educativas la evaluación del docente, para mejorar sus prácticas y el rendimiento de los estudiantes, teniendo en cuenta sus funciones y los factores que afectan su desempeño tales como: el propio docente, los estudiantes, padres de familia y los ámbitos donde ejerce su función (el entorno, el colegio y el  aula). El presente artículo es el producto de una investigación mayor, aquí se muestra un estudio documental de la evaluación del desempeño en Colombia a la luz de la propuesta de Montenegro, Valdés, Santos Guerra y el Ministerio de Educación Nacional de Colombia, se propuso valorar los factores intervinientes en el desempeño docente. Se concluye que en el desempeño docente son diversos los factores que intervienen derivado de la misma complejidad del proceso

Efectos del tape mcconnell y taping neuromuscular en la rehabilitación de pacientes con síndrome de dolor patelofemoral

86 p.El Síndrome de Dolor Patelofemoral (SDPF) es un término para una variedad de patologías o anomalías anatómicas que conducen a dolor anterior de rodilla. Se ha reportado una incidencia del 25% de la población con SDPF. Sigue siendo un tema controversial el manejo efectivo para esta patología, en la actualidad las tasas de fracaso de los tratamientos continúan siendo altas. Dentro de las técnicas vigentes utilizadas para el tratamiento del SDPF está el uso del Taping neuromuscular y el Tape McConnell. Las técnicas de taping patelar y/o tape son de bajo costo, fácil de utilizar y frecuentemente utilizadas. Por lo general las cintas son aplicadas directamente sobre la piel en la zona anterior de la rodilla con una variedad de métodos y técnicas, conjuntamente con variaciones en el tipo de cinta (elástica o rígida), la dirección y número de capas utilizadas en la aplicación. Con el propósito de determinar los efectos del tratamiento con Tape McConnell y Taping neuromuscular en la rehabilitación de pacientes con SDPF se concretó el proceso investigativo mediante una búsqueda y revisión de la literatura de las técnicas mencionadas.Los resultados obtenidos tras la investigación arrojaron, entre otros que no existe suficiente evidencia clínica que respalde las aplicaciones tanto de Taping neuromuscular como de Tape McConnell utilizadas en el SDPF

Determinación de la ley aplicable a los contratos de licencia y transferencia de tecnología

El presente estudio examina la determinación de la ley aplicable a los contratos de licencia y transferencia de tecnología sobre la base del derecho internacional privado argentino. Se analiza la posibilidad de determinar tal ley mediante el propio acuerdo de las partes y los límites a tales acuerdos. Se estudian las distintas soluciones aplicables en caso de falta de cláusulas de elección de la ley aplicable, examinando puntos de contacto tales como el lugar de cumplimiento del contrato, el domicilio de la parte que cumple las prestaciones características del contrato y el lugar de celebración de este. También se analiza la solución aplicable utilizando los contactos más significativos o el centro de gravedad del contrato. El estudio de la ley aplicable se ve complementado por el examen de ciertas variantes de contratos de licencia y transferencia de tecnología, como los relativos a conocimientos no patentados y los dirigidos al desarrollo conjunto de tecnologías, que plantean cuestiones específicas en cuanto a la determinación de la ley aplicable. También se analiza el ámbito de aplicación de la ley del contrato, distinguiéndose entre las cuestiones típicamente contractuales de las regidas por otras normas de conflicto, como ser las relativas a los efectos de los derechos de propiedad industrial. Se estudian los límites que el orden público y diversas normas imperativas plantean a la aplicación de la ley del contrato en el ámbito de las licencias y acuerdos de transferencia de tecnología. Asimismo, se propone la solución para estas diferentes cuestiones bajo el derecho argentino, pero utilizando los antecedentes existentes en los principales sistemas de derecho internacional privado desde un punto de vista comparativo

Case Report: Resolution of submacular haemorrhage secondary to exudative age-related macular degeneration after a single intravitreal dobesilate injection

[Introduction] Submacular haemorrhage is not an unusual cause of acute central vision loss, particularly in older people. It may be caused by a number of conditions, most common of which is exudative age-related madular degeneration. In patients affected by this type of macular degeneration, choroidal neovascularization extends into the subretinal space, producing substantial bleeding in approximately 17% of cases, resulting in large haemorrhages in the subretinal space that detach the neurosensory retina from the supporting retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) layer. This leads to substantial vision loss because of a relatively fast process of extensive photoreceptor atrophy in the overlying neuroretina and formation of macular scars[Case presentation] We describe a patient with submacular haemorrhage secondary to exudative age-related macular degeneration, treated with intravitreal injection of dobesilate. Two months later, visual acuity in the treated eye reached 0.50 with a significant improvement of the distortion and an anatomical resolution of the haemorrhage, as confirmed by optical coherence tomography.[Conclusions] Submacular haemorrhage secondary to exudative age-related macular degeneration can be successfully treated with intravitreal dobesilate. To our knowledge, this is the first case reporting a resolution of submacular haemorrhage after a single dobesilate injection.We acknowledge support by the CSIC Open Access Publication Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI)Peer reviewe

Aerial video geo-registration using terrain models from dense and coherent stereo matching

In the context of aerial imagery, one of the first steps toward a coherent processing of the information contained in multiple images is geo-registration, which consists in assigning geographic 3D coordinates to the pixels of the image. This enables accurate alignment and geo-positioning of multiple images, detection of moving objects and fusion of data acquired from multiple sensors. To solve this problem there are different approaches that require, in addition to a precise characterization of the camera sensor, high resolution referenced images or terrain elevation models, which are usually not publicly available or out of date. Building upon the idea of developing technology that does not need a reference terrain elevation model, we propose a geo-registration technique that applies variational methods to obtain a dense and coherent surface elevation model that is used to replace the reference model. The surface elevation model is built by interpolation of scattered 3D points, which are obtained in a two-step process following a classical stereo pipeline: first, coherent disparity maps between image pairs of a video sequence are estimated and then image point correspondences are back-projected. The proposed variational method enforces continuity of the disparity map not only along epipolar lines (as done by previous geo-registration techniques) but also across them, in the full 2D image domain. In the experiments, aerial images from synthetic video sequences have been used to validate the proposed technique

On the Mahalanobis Distance Classification Criterion for Multidimensional Normal Distributions

Many existing engineering works model the statistical characteristics of the entities under study as normal distributions. These models are eventually used for decision making, requiring in practice the definition of the classification region corresponding to the desired confidence level. Surprisingly enough, however, a great amount of computer vision works using multidimensional normal models leave unspecified or fail to establish correct confidence regions due to misconceptions on the features of Gaussian functions or to wrong analogies with the unidimensional case. The resulting regions incur in deviations that can be unacceptable in high-dimensional models. Here we provide a comprehensive derivation of the optimal confidence regions for multivariate normal distributions of arbitrary dimensionality. To this end, firstly we derive the condition for region optimality of general continuous multidimensional distributions, and then we apply it to the widespread case of the normal probability density function. The obtained results are used to analyze the confidence error incurred by previous works related to vision research, showing that deviations caused by wrong regions may turn into unacceptable as dimensionality increases. To support the theoretical analysis, a quantitative example in the context of moving object detection by means of background modeling is given

COLOMBIA CAPITAL INVESTMENT S.A.

ABSTRACT This case study presents the experiences, analyses, and decisions of a financial fixed-income investment firm over a two year period, focusing on the 10 last days and providing an in-depth analysis of the events that occurred in the last two days of transactions. It also includes an attachment with a glossary that explains useful financial terminology. A second attachment shows the forecasting model, and the third attachment provides an explanation of the mathematical relation between the market yield and the price of bonds.