Big Data and the Stock Market: Distilling Data to Improve Stock Market Returns

In our modern competitive market, businesses are seeking efficient and innovative platforms to remain profitable and prepared, especially in the uncertain world of the financial stock market. One possible avenue for improving stock market returns that companies can turn to is harnessing a substantial volume of information, known as big data. However, because of the nature of big data, distilling and analyzing the vast amount of information can require complex analytical methods. Using a keyword selection process based on word frequency, we were able to filter out the data amongst the noise and derive a sector-specific keyword list. This list, used in combination with a previously created trading method along with the implementation of a thresholding technique, allowed us to develop a more specific trading strategy focused on different market sectors. Our results show that the use of thresholding techniques in addition to the Google Trends strategy may improve returns in the stock market

Exploring the Electrical Properties of Twisted Bilayer Graphene

Two-dimensional materials exhibit properties unlike anything else seen in conventional substances. Electrons in these materials are confined to move only in the plane. In order to explore the effects of these materials, we have built apparatus and refined procedures with which to create two-dimensional structures. Two-dimensional devices have been made using exfoliated graphene and placed on gold contacts. Their topography has been observed using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) confirming samples with monolayer, bilayer, and twisted bilayer structure. Relative work functions of each have been measured using Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) showing that twisted bilayer graphene has a surface potential 20 mV higher than that of monolayer graphene and 35 mV below bilayer graphene

Supporting the American Dream of Homeownership: An Assessment of Neighborhood Reinvestment's Home Ownership Pilot Program

Based on recommendations from a group of NeighborWorks organization (NWO) directors, Neighborhood Reinvestment initiated the Campaign for Home Ownership in 1993. That campaign provided NWOs with both funding and technical assistance to expand homeownership opportunities in the communities they serve. Based on the experiences of organizations involved with that campaign, Neighborhood Reinvestment staff distilled a model homeownership assistance strategy they call Full-Cycle Lending. This model includes six components: partnership building, pre-purchase home-buyer education, flexible loan products, property services, post-purchase counseling and neighborhood impact. Based on the success of this first five-year Campaign, Neighborhood Reinvestment supported a second five-year campaign called the Campaign for Home Ownership 2002.In 1998 Congress authorized $25 million for a NeighborWorks Home Ownership Pilot program designed to leverage additional local support and test new strategies for assisting first-time home buyers. In less than four months, the Neighborhood Reinvestment Home Ownership Campaign staff developed and implemented specific program guidelines for the distribution of funds to local NWOs. These guidelines allowed NWOs great flexibility in the use of Pilot funds including using the funds for upgrading computers, hiring staff, developing marketing plans and programs, capitalizing loan funds, providing down payment assistance as well as other uses.Campaign staff developed guidelines for three funding categories, A, B, and C, designed to respond to the different needs of NWOs. Category A grants (up to$500,000) were to assist NWOs that were already assisting 30 or more home buyers a year increase the number of home buyers assisted. Category B grants (up to $500,000) were to assist NWOs that were already assisting a large number of new home buyers enhance the positive impacts of home ownership on their target areas by undertaking other neighborhood improvement activities as well as increasing the number of home buyers assisted. Category C grants (up to$50,000) were to assist NWOs that were assisting a relatively low number of new home buyers build their capacities to do so. A total of 35 Category A grants were made, nine Category B grants and 40 Category C grants.To assist Campaign and Pilot sites in achieving their goals, Neighborhood Reinvestment provides several types of technical assistance. The semi-annual Neighborhood Reinvestment Training Institute offers a variety of courses on developing homeownership promotion programs and home-owner education methods. Neighborhood Reinvestment has also developed an extensive array of marketing materials that can be used by Campaign and Pilot organizations. Finally, Neighborhood Reinvestment Campaign and field staff assist participating organizations with special challenges as they arise.This report is the second of three reports evaluating the outcomes, implementation process and impacts of the Pilot. The outcome evaluation was designed to document the results of the Pilot including the number of persons trained and/or counseled, the number of new home owners assisted, and the value of housing units purchased, built or rehabilitated with the assistance of the Pilot organizations. This evaluation is based on information provided to Neighborhood Reinvestment by participating NWOs. The process evaluation was designed to document and evaluate the efforts of Neighborhood Reinvestment and participating NWOs in planning and implementing the Pilot programs. This part of the evaluation is based on interviews conducted in two rounds of site visits to eight Category A and B Pilot programs -- once in the fall of 1999 and once in the spring and summer of 2001. Finally, the impact evaluation was designed to assess the influence of the Pilot on the participating NWOs and their clients. The evaluation is based on interviews with NWO staff and focus groups of new home owners assisted in the eight sites visited

Understanding and Enhanching the Study Abroad Experience: Australian and New Zealand Students in Europe

This dissertation is the product of a study that examined the experiences of 21 Australian and New Zealand undergraduate students who spent a semester or more on exchange in Europe. It examines what the students learned from their experience, focussing specifically on the insights that they acquired with regards to their host society. It does so guided by the idea of deep understanding, a concept developed for this study drawing primarily on literature from the discipline of anthropology. It is a concept that describes a level of understanding that students may acquire vis-à-vis their host society. It has three central elements: (1) it is a level of understanding that avoids or transcends stereotypes and sweeping generalisations, (2) it is more than the mere observation of certain practises or peculiarities, but also involves understanding the values, beliefs and assumptions that underpin these, and (3) it is based on wide and meaningful engagement with members of the host society. This thesis also focusses on the difficulties that the students involved experienced while abroad, guided by the stress-adaptation-growth model, which considers the challenges associated with being in an unfamiliar environment to be a key antecedent to intercultural growth (Kim, 2001, 2008, 2015). This focus on the difficulties associated with study abroad and their pedagogical implications allows us to better understand the process by which students learn, mislearn and do not learn through study abroad. Data was collected in three phases. The students completed an online questionnaire before their departure, which collected basic demographic information about them, as well as their reasons for going on an exchange and their choice of country; they were then interviewed during their exchange at their destination and they completed a follow-up questionnaire upon their return home. The analysis of the resulting data focused primarily on the interview transcripts and the responses to certain questions asked in the follow-up questionnaire, although the responses to certain questions asked in the pre-departure questionnaire were also analysed to provide important background. The analysis was an iterative process that involved attaching codes to each unique aspect of the dataset considered relevant to the analytic interests of the study, examining the coded data with a view to adding context where necessary and drawing conclusions, guided by the question: What can be learned from my research? The thesis constitutes an original contribution to knowledge in two main ways. Firstly, there is insufficient research that has examined the insights that study abroad students acquire vis-à-vis their host society. This matters because study abroad holds the potential to cultivate the capacity to live with difference, but do students achieve the level of insight necessary to cultivate this on their own or is some form of intervention necessary? Secondly, there are few studies to have employed conceptual frameworks that account for the processes by which learning occurs, including testing the applicability of the stress-adaptation-model in the study abroad context and examining the difficulties associated with study abroad in terms of their pedagogical implications more generally. This is despite research indicating that students often resort to generalisation and stereotypes to make sense of challenges experienced abroad (Beaven, 2012; De Nooy & Hanna, 2003). This thesis addresses these gaps, casting doubt on the applicability of the stress-adaptation-growth model to the study abroad context (Shannon, 2016). The students either did not experience sufficient difficulties due to unfamiliarity, or they were not compelled to learn new cultural elements due to the short duration of the experience. Nonetheless, they did frequently resort to generalisations and stereotypes to make sense of difficulties experienced, contrary to the idea of deep understanding. This thesis raises questions about the level of insight that study abroad students acquire with regards to their host society, as well as the extent to which they grow in related areas. This requires a level of inquiry, host national contact and reflection that my analysis shows does not occur automatically, corroborating the growing body of literature that emphasises the importance of academic intervention in the study abroad process. This dissertation concludes by presenting a possible model of academic intervention, which centres around an ethnographic research project students must undertake abroad. The aim is to actively shape the study abroad experience, requiring students to step outside the international student bubble that they regularly find themselves confined within and investigate a particular area of observed difference in detail