Weak Euler Scheme for Stochastic Differential Equations with Applications in Finance

In this thesis, a new type of path-dependent options, referred to as the average-Asian options, are introduced to further reduce the volatility of the underlying price risk and minimize the option manipulation threat. Euler method is adopted to discretize the associated stochastic differential equation, based on which the options are priced by using Monte Carlo simulations for both the cases when volatility is constant and when it is stochastic during the life of the option

Endoscopic Resolution and Recurrence of Gastric Antral Vascular Ectasia After Serial Treatment with Argon Plasma Coagulation

AIM To evaluate long-term endoscopic resolution and recurrence rate of gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) after argon plasma coagulation (APC) treatment. METHODS This was an IRB-approved retrospective single center study that included patients endoscopically treated for GAVE between 1/1/2008 to 12/31/2014. The primary and secondary end points of the study were rate of endoscopic resolution of GAVE after APC treatment and recurrence rate of GAVE after endoscopic resolution, respectively. Endoscopic resolution of GAVE was defined as no endoscopic evidence of GAVE after treatment with APC. Recurrence of GAVE was defined as endoscopic reappearance of GAVE after prior resolution. RESULTS Twenty patients met the study criteria. Median age (range) of the patients was 59.5 years (42-74 years). GAVE was associated with underlying cirrhosis in 16 (80%) patients. Indications for initial esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) included hematemesis and/or melena (9/20, 45%), iron deficiency anemia (6/20, 30%), screening or surveillance of varices (4/20, 20%), and occult gastrointestinal bleeding (1/20, 5%). The patients were treated with a total of 55 APC sessions (range 1-7 sessions). Successful endoscopic resolution of GAVE was achieved in 8 out of 20 patients (40%). There was no correlation between number of treatment sessions and GAVE treatment success (P = NS). Recurrence of GAVE was noted on a subsequent EGD in 2 out of 8 patients (25%) with prior endoscopic resolution of GAVE. Median follow-up period for the study population was 627 d (range 63-1953 d). CONCLUSION Endoscopic resolution rate of GAVE was low (40%) with a 25% recurrence rate after treatment with APC. These rates suggest that APC treatment of GAVE may not be optimal in many circumstances

Cognitive Radio and Dynamic Spectrum Access Using Fuzzy Logic

Cognitive Radio is artificially intelligent radio and dynamic spectrum. This research paper presents an application of Cognitive Radio and Dynamic Spectrum Access with the help of fuzzy logic considering the inputs: radio and satellite frequency and outputs: adjust power and modulation. This research paper shows the real approach of comparing the simulation and design algorithm result and its successful use

Volatility of stock markets (An analysis of South Asian and G8 countries)

The objective of this study is to make an analysis of volatility of stock markets between South Asian Stock Markets and Stock Markets of Group of Eight Countries. For this purpose, three major South Asian countries Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka are selected while Group of Eight Countries include France, Russia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA. The stock indexes include KSE 100 (Pakistan), SENSEX (India), ASPI (Sri Lanka), CAC 40 (France), DAX (Germany), S &P / TSX Composite (Canada), FTSE MIB (Italy), RTS (Russia), Nikkei 225 (Japan), S & P 500 (USA) and FTSE 100 (UK). Data is collected from the period of January 1st 2005 to August 31st 2015. ARCH and GARCH model is used to analyze the volatility of South Asian Stock Markets and stock markets of Group of Eight Countries. The findings show that South Asian Stock Markets are less volatile while Stock Markets of Group of Eight Countries are high volatile. This study is helpful for investors and decision maker to handle the trend of stock market and provide a direction for investors to reduce the barrier factors which affect stock market efficiency.&nbsp

Relationship between Major developed equity markets and Major Frontier Equity Markets of World

The core aim of this study is to compute the long run relationship between frontier equity markets Pakistan (KSE 100 Index), Argentina (MERVAL BUENOS AIRES) stock Exchange, NSE.20 (Kenya), MSM 30 (MSI) Oman and equity markets of developed world (OMXS30) Sweden, SMI (Switzerland), SSE Composite Index (China) and STI index (Singapore) by taking weekly values from stock return prices for the period 1st week of January-2000 to last week of January/2014.  Descriptive statistic, Correlation, Augmented dickey fuller (ADF), Phillips Perron test, Johanson and Jelseluis test of co-integration, Granger causality test, Variance Decomposition Test and Impulse Response are used to find the relationship among frontier and developed markets. The results of this study reveal that frontier markets have no long run relationship with equity markets of developed world. Furthermore, this study is helpful for investors to enhance the returns by diversifying the unsystematic risk at given level of profit because results of this study confirm that markets are no co-integrated

Microbicides for the Prevention of HPV, HIV-1, and HSV-2: Sexually Transmitted Viral Infections

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) can be transmitted through genital-genital, orogenital, or anogenital contacts and remain to be a public health concern worldwide. Approximately one million people around the world are believed to be newly infected with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) each day. Numerous causative agents including bacteria, viruses, protozoa, yeast, and fungi are responsible for STIs; however, viruses exhibit more serious risks, probabilities and outcomes of STDs than other organisms. The most lethal viral STIs are human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV), herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2), and human papillomavirus (HPV), which are responsible for major sexually transmitted viral infections including AIDS, herpes simplex, and genital warts, respectively. Despite the fact that several prevention strategies such as vaccination, abstinence from sex, limiting sex partners, the use of condoms and a range of therapeutic drugs have drastically reduced the risk of contracting STIs, these three infections continue to spread at an alarming rate. The high incidence and lack of effective vaccine, instigated scientists to look for alternate, cheap, and efficient strategies for controlling these deadly viruses. Microbicide are relatively new approach that may be helpful in preventing STIs transmission when applied inside the genitals before intercourse. Like other interventions, microbicides are used as prophylactic measures against STIs. Therefore, an excellent safety and efficacy profile analysis is mandatory before their approval for human use. Although no safe and efficacious microbicide is yet available, many candidates including nonoxynol-9, Savvy, cellulose sulfate, Carraguard, VivaGel, tenofovir gel, and PRO 2000 have shown promising in vitro activity and many more are under development. However, very few of them have moved to large-scale phase III trials. This chapter aims to provide a brief overview of various microbicides along with their mechanism of actions and recent updates on safety and effectiveness trials

Preventive Strategies against Human Papillomaviruses

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is among the most common viral infections of the reproductive tract. Out of more than 100 different types of HPV identified so far, only a few (termed as “high-risk” subtypes) are associated with cervical cancer. On the other hand, “low-risk” subtypes are associated with genital warts and other benign changes in cervical and oral mucosa. Majority of the HPV infections usually clear up without any intervention within a few months. However, a fraction of HPV infections, such as those with types 16 and 18, can become persistent which may lead to the development of anogenital or cervical cancers. HPV subtypes 16 and 18 together are responsible for approximately 70% of all cervical cancer cases, the fourth major cause of cancer-related deaths in women. In the absence of any specific treatment options, preventive measures are considered as cornerstone of strategies aimed at curbing the burden of this disease. This chapter presents a comprehensive review of strategies that can be employed to prevent and eradicate HPV infection. Minimizing the exposure to HPV risk factors such as unprotected sex, multiple sex partners, early age sex, and not being circumcised, can reduce the chances of getting HPV infection to a significant level. Mass screening programs have also been effective in HPV eradication. Nevertheless, immunization against HPV has proven to be the most promising strategy in fight against HPV. Virus-like particles based on bivalent, quadrivalent, and nonavalent anti-HPV vaccines have been licensed and are available in market under the trade names of Cervarix®, Gardasil®, and Gardasil9®, respectively. Various clinical trials and population-based studies have demonstrated high levels of efficacy for all the three vaccines in preventing type-specific malignancies

Implications of return migration intentions of Pakistani immigrants for urban development in Pakistan

The literature identifies various typologies of and reasons for migration out of which economic motive has been considered as one of the paramount reasons. This reflects that migratory patterns, translocal practices and behaviours of international economic migrants are associated with the changes in the economic conditions of the immigration countries. Though evidence of increased international return migration during past economic crises has been found to be significant, recent empirical findings suggest that return migration is becoming resilient towards crisis shocks. This observation has been illustrated in the literature by the theories of livelihood strategies, transnationality and globalization. However, there is no insight available for the effects of economic crises on ‘return migration intentions’ (RMI) of immigrants. Although, some studies show that immigrants remit more to origin countries under RMI, the nature of the performed translocal spatial practices through increased remittances and their implications for urban development in origin countries has until now been unclear. Another associated underlying problem is the lack of clear understanding of the term ‘urban development’. Given this background, this study firstly conceptualizes the debate of development by interconnecting the theories of development, sustainability and globalization. Then, the conceptualized debate about development is synthesized with the urban theory to better understand the term urban development in a broader context of multi-scaled urban change factors. Secondly, by applying a sequential mixed methods research approach, this study investigates the relation between the effects of the global economic crisis and RMI of the Pakistani immigrants residing in Germany. This study further explores the translocal spatial practices of Pakistani immigrants performed in Pakistan during a period of 2008-12 and the reasons behind their performance. Lastly, a method of ‘Urban Development Index (UDI)’ has been devised within the presented urban development debate to assess the implications of the performed practices for the urban development in Pakistan. This study finds a significant association between the effects of the global economic crisis and RMI of the Pakistani immigrants. Though a majority of the translocal spatial practices was being performed in the human capability development sector, about half of the remittances were invested for performance of the practices in the local housing markets. Other than the labour market interactions, little difference was found between the practices performed by immigrants who had RMI and by those who had not. Adding to the theoretical debate of transnationality, this study finds that some translocal practices were being performed under RMI by initiating a return migration process in order to bring an end to the transnational lifestyles instead of keeping the transnational lifestyles intact. This study finds that the performed translocal spatial practices of Pakistani immigrants had positive implications for urban development in Pakistan at micro level. Finally, it is found that around one fifth of the total impact within the constructed urban development frame was exerted by the practices performed under RMI. It is mainly recommended that local labour markets, urban housing sector and overseas investments should be the priority strategy response areas for emigrating countries, while formulating policies to deal with the implications of economic crisis conditions in immigration countries. Through harnessing the skills and resources of the potential return migrants, economic crisis periods could be converted into opportunities for urban development in origin countries