Notes on financial assets, banks, markets and investments

The essay aims to represent the relationship between financial assets, banks, markets and investment. In particular it highlights the public interest so that banks and markets are actually useful for the performance of production processes. Subsequently it consider the factors that alter the physiological functioning of the circuit, that are the growing public debt, the excessive proliferation of financial instruments, the high market volatility and the uncertainly of political activity. Finally, it identify the possible leeway helpful to the recovery and support investments

Futures prices and basis risk: relationship and strategies

The assets prices in the spot markets generally diverge from those in the futures markets. The drivers of the misalignments derive from the configurations of the rates curve and from the types of financial products traded on both markets. In particular, the prices in the futures markets are very sensitive and, following the changes of economic scenario and the new information, they readjust themselves ahead compared to the spot prices. For this reason, the analysis of the forecast of the new relationships that may set up between the prices of the two markets allows to address in a more rational manner the choice of portfolio, which is the positioning, as appropriate, in the most advantageous market. The corally for all the previous statements is the possible increasing of profits and the potential restraints of losses

Diversionary diplomacy: domestic political effects on US-directed foreign policy in Russia

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on September 12, 2013).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. A. Cooper DruryIncludes bibliographical references.M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2013.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Political science."May 2013"This paper applies the concepts found within diversionary theory to a lower level of international conflict outside the United States. Specifically, it tests whether changes in Russian domestic political contention cause corresponding changes in diplomatic conflict with the United States. Relying on both a quantitative model spanning 1990-2004 and a qualitative case study of the 2011 and 2012 political protests in Russia, the paper finds evidence for differing short and long-term effects of domestic contention. In the short term, diversionary tactics appear to be a cheap and effective way for a regime to manage domestic contention. However, in the long term, it appears that domestic politics has little impact on Russia-US relations, implying several strategies for the creation of US foreign policy

Sensitive detection of photoexcited carriers by resonant tunneling through a single quantum dot

We show that the resonant tunnel current through a single energy level of an individual quantum dot within an ensemble of dots is strongly sensitive to photoexcited holes that become bound in the close vicinity of the dot. The presence of these holes lowers the electrostatic energy of the quantum dot state and switches the current carrying channel from fully open to fully closed with a high on/off ratio (> 50). The device can be reset by means of a bias voltage pulse. These properties are of interest for charge sensitive photon counting devices.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure