Hedging versus not hedging: strategies for managing foreign exchange transaction exposure

This paper compares a number of strategies for managing foreign exchange exposures. The strategies are never hedging, hedging every exposure using a forward exchange contract, and hedging on selective occasions using a forward exchange contract. With regard to the selective hedging, the decision as to whether to hedge or not depends on the future spot exchange rate as determined by a number of forecasting techniques. The techniques include the random walk, the large premia model and a volatility model. The paper considers the USD vis a vis the AUD, SGD and JPY. The results are mixed and show that for the period 1992 to 2003 the Australian exporter is better off always hedging while the Singapore and Japanese exporters are better off never hedging. The various management strategies are compared using Sharpe’s model and the minimum variance model though it seems the results are not sensitive to use of either.Selective foreign exchange currency hedging; random walk; large premia model;

Edges of the mind : psychic margins and the modernist aesthetic in Vernon Lee, Evelyn Underhill, May Sinclair, Dion Fortune and Jane Harrison.

PhDThe question 'Where does she begin and I end, asked in Virginia Woolf's The Years, voices a modernist concern with the limits of self-identity and related questions of egoism and altruism. In this thesis I argue that this concern is informed by a pre-history of thinking about selfhood, psychic boundaries and the spiritual mainly ignored by readings of modernism which map the psyche via psychoanalysis, or Freud's 'discovery of the unconscious'. Our thinking about the self has become colonised by the literary doctrines of better known canonical figures of the modernist period, generating a way of thinking about the limits of the psyche which is both literally and metaphorically circumscribed. A reading of more eccentric discourses explicitly engaged in negotiating the boundaries of individuality can provide a history of the psychic underpinnings to the modernist conception of the self. The representation of marginal states of consciousness, or epiphanic moments, is crucial to the literature of modernism: interpretation of these altered states, or edges, can be refigured through readings of Vernon Lee, Evelyn Underhill, May Sinclair, Dion Fortune and Jane Harrison: five women writing between 1880-1930 for whom pre-Freudian forms of dissolution and challenge to self-unity are palpably present in the form of telepathy, subliminal selves, oceanic consciousness and internal multiplicity. In addition to writing non-fictional texts which variously explore the psychological, philosophical, ethical, spiritual and occult implications of the modernist position, each of these women, excepting the classical scholar Jane Harrison, also wrote fiction. The aesthetic questions of modernism dovetail into the theoretical arguments of the writers in this thesis, inviting a different reading of its psychological sub-text and to suggest that where 'stream-of-consciousness' is stylistically indispensable, the 'oceanic', as counterpart, thematically haunts the modernist aestheti

RAFDA: A Policy-Aware Middleware Supporting the Flexible Separation of Application Logic from Distribution

Middleware technologies often limit the way in which object classes may be used in distributed applications due to the fixed distribution policies that they impose. These policies permeate applications developed using existing middleware systems and force an unnatural encoding of application level semantics. For example, the application programmer has no direct control over inter-address-space parameter passing semantics. Semantics are fixed by the distribution topology of the application, which is dictated early in the design cycle. This creates applications that are brittle with respect to changes in distribution. This paper explores technology that provides control over the extent to which inter-address-space communication is exposed to programmers, in order to aid the creation, maintenance and evolution of distributed applications. The described system permits arbitrary objects in an application to be dynamically exposed for remote access, allowing applications to be written without concern for distribution. Programmers can conceal or expose the distributed nature of applications as required, permitting object placement and distribution boundaries to be decided late in the design cycle and even dynamically. Inter-address-space parameter passing semantics may also be decided independently of object implementation and at varying times in the design cycle, again possibly as late as run-time. Furthermore, transmission policy may be defined on a per-class, per-method or per-parameter basis, maximizing plasticity. This flexibility is of utility in the development of new distributed applications, and the creation of management and monitoring infrastructures for existing applications.Comment: Submitted to EuroSys 200

The hegemony of men in global value chains:why it matters for labour governance

Substandard labour practices continue to be observed in global value chains (GVCs), even where there are strong legal frameworks and in those that engage with ethical accreditation schemes. We argue that this indicates a slow rate of progressive change in GVC labour governance, that is due in part to the lack of attention paid to the interplay of men, masculinities and GVC operation. We offer a reading of Jeff Hearn’s ‘hegemony of men’ framework as a means of showing and deconstructing men’s power within GVC labour standards and welfare programmes, to understand how particular forms of masculinity are reproduced to detrimental effect. Our critical review of the GVC literature emphasises the need to recognise how the social category of ‘men’ has both material and discursive effects on GVCs. We then present a research agenda that emphasises how an intersectional lens on the hegemony of men can surface how complexities of race, class, caste and other experiences of working in GVCs interact with dominant forms of masculinity. This would significantly enhance our understanding of how governance mechanisms might be better designed and operationalised in GVCs, for the betterment of all

A system theoretic safety analysis of friendly fire prevention in ground based missile systems

Thesis (S.M. in Engineering and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (page 61).This thesis used Dr. Leveson's STAMP (Systems-Theoretic Accident Model and Process) model of accident causation to analyze a friendly fire accident that occurred on 22 March 03 between a British Tornado aircraft and a US Patriot Missile battery. This causation model analyzes system constraints, control loops, and process models to identify inadequate control structures leading to hazards and preventative measures that may be taken to reduce the effect of these hazards. By using a system-based causation model like STAMP, rather than a traditional chain of events model, this thesis aimed to identify systemic factors and component interactions that may have contributed to the accident, rather than simply analyzing component failures. Additionally, care was taken to understand the rationale for decisions that were made, rather than assigning blame. The analysis identified a number of areas in which control flaws or inadequacies led to the friendly fire incident. A set of recommendations was developed that may help to prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future.by Scott McCarthy.S.M.in Engineering and Managemen

Your Daddy Did The Same Thing Fifty Years Ago.

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4842/thumbnail.jp

Leicester Research A Study in Effective Technology in Education

The LPS Research Team has been tasked with researching and recommending a technology plan for a new school that Leicester Public Schools is planning to build. In this paper, we present an overview of the our goals and our client’s goals, an introduction to industry trends, and discuss our findings based on research conducted via interviews with schools that have undergone similar projects. We also outline the conclusions drawn from this research and our analysis of the data we uncovered, and make specific recommendations for technology to be utilized in Leicester’s new school. Finally, we present a 3-part framework that Leicester Public Schools can use to refresh this data as needed, for this or future educational technology endeavors

Biodegradable Wound Dressing for Skin Regeneration

Using the delayed healing model of diabetic (db/db) mice, we evaluated the ability of a novel silk based dressing to facilitate healing of full-thickness excisional wounds. Silk protein from Bombyx mori was used to create wound dressings via a proprietary electrospinning technique. The resulting dressing is vapor and air transmissible. Eight millimeter diameter full-thickness wounds were created on the backs of diabetic mice and covered with either a standard (n=12) telfa-gauze or the silk (n=12) dressing. At 2 day intervals, the telfa dressings were removed, the wounds photographed, measured and fresh dressings placed. For mice receiving the silk dressing, it was allowed to remain in place unless it became dislodged. In that case, a fresh dressing was placed into the wound bed. Wound healing was followed for 21 days at which time the mice were sacrificed, the wound areas excised and subjected to H & E and Trichrome staining. Wounds covered with the silk dressings developed an eschar encompassing the silk whereas wounds dressed with gauze remained moist and without eschar throughout the study period. Upon histologic examination, 1 of the gauze dressed wounds developed a complete epithelial layer across the wound. The remaining 11 wounds had large areas remaining without an epithelial cover. In contrast, 5 of 12 mice receiving the silk dressing developed complete epithelial layers, 2 additional mice had very small areas remaining without a complete epithelium. The remaining 5 had modest areas without an epithelial covering. The ability of silk dressings to permit the formation of an eschar versus gauze in which the wounds remained wet may contribute significantly to the healing response observed. These results suggest that the breathable, vapor transmissible nature of the silk dressing may be an effective dressing for difficult to heal wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers