ONLINE ASSESSMENT OF INTEREST RATE RISK

In addition to being of great importance to bank managers (due to the particular significance of Interest Rate to banking institutions: its fluctuation is, at the same time, a premise for success AND potentially fatal in case of inadequate management), Interest Rate Risk is of concern to any individual who possesses a financial portfolio (made up of loans, deposits, various investments, etc.), as any such portfolio may be endangered when exposed to fickle Interest Rates. Members of this latter category, however, are grossly neglected when it comes to availability of both information about and affordable or, better yet, free methods of protection against Interest Rate Risk. Approaches to Interest-Rate-Risk assessment, from the traditional, time-honored methods (maturity and repricing schedules) to the more complex and experimental ones, are at least partially suited for software implementation. Using the Internet as medium, fairly simple, yet effective methods of Interest-Rate-Risk assessment can be made available to a vast audience, including current and potential bank employees involved in risk management, individuals whose interest in the matter is academic or, quite simply, members of the general public aware of the implications of Interest-Rate variation upon their financial investments.Computerized Risk Management, Banking Risk, Interest Rate Risk, Gap Analysis, Duration Gap Analysis

Qualitative and Quantitative Solution Diversity in Heuristic-Search and Case-Based Planning

Planning is a branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI) concerned with projecting courses of actions for executing tasks and reaching goals. AI Planning helps increase the autonomy of artificially intelligent agents and decrease the cognitive load burdening human planners working in challenging domains, such as the Mars exploration projects. Approaches to AI planning include first-principles heuristic search planning and case-based planning. The former conducts a heuristic-guided search in the solution space, while the latter generates new solutions by adapting solutions to previously-solved problems.The ability to generate not just one solution, but a set of meaningfully diverse solutions to each planning problem helps cater to a wider variety of user preferences and needs (which it may be difficult or even unfeasible to acquire and/or represent in their entirety), produce viable alternative courses of action to fall back on in case of failure, counter varied threats in intrusion detection, render computer games more compelling, and provide representative samples of the vast search spaces of planning problems.This work describes a general framework for generating diverse sets of solutions (i.e. courses of action) to planning problems. The general diversity-aware planning algorithm consists of iteratively generating solutions using a composite candidate-solution evaluation criterion taking into account both how promising the candidate solutions appear in their own right and on how likely they are to increase the overall diversity of the final set of solutions. This estimate of diversity is based on distance metrics, i.e. measures of the dissimilarity between two solutions. Distance metrics can be quantitative or qualitative.Quantitative distance measures are domain-independent. They require minimum knowledge engineering, but may not reflect dissimilarities that are truly meaningful. Qualitative distance metrics are domain-specific and reflect, based on the domain knowledge encoded within them, the kind of meaningful dissimilarities that might be identified by a person familiar with the domain.Based on the general framework for diversity-aware planning, three domain-independent planning algorithms have been implemented and are described and evaluated herein. DivFF is a diverse heuristic search planner for deterministic planning domains (i.e. domains for which the assumption is made that any action can only have one possible outcome). DivCBP is a diverse case-based planner, also for deterministic planning domains. DivNDP is a heuristic search planner for nondeterministic planning domains (i.e. domains the descriptions of which include actions with multiple possible outcomes). The experimental evaluation of the three algorithms is conducted on a computer game domain, chosen for its challenging characteristics, which include nondeterminism and dynamism. The generated courses of action are run in the game in order to ascertain whether they affect the game environment in diverse ways. This constitutes the test of their genuine diversity, which cannot be evaluated accurately based solely on their low-level structure.It is shown that all proposed planning systems successfully generate sets of diverse solutions using varied criteria for assessing solution dissimilarity. Qualitatively-diverse solution sets are demonstrated to constantly produce more diverse effects in the game environment than quantitatively-diverse solution sets.A comparison between the two planning systems for deterministic domains, DivCBP and DivFF, reveals the former to be more successful at consistently generating diverse sets of solutions. The reasons for this are investigated, thus contributing to the literature of comparative studies of first-principles and case-based planning approaches. Finally, an application of diversity in planning is showcased: simulating personality-trait variation in computer game characters. Sets of diverse solutions to both deterministic and nondeterministic planning problems are shown to successfully create diverse character behavior in the evaluation environment

News and the Public Sphere: The Boston Marathon Bombing in \u3ci\u3eThe New York Times\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eLe Figaro\u3c/i\u3e

The current dissertation explores the online mediatization of the Boston Marathon bombing crisis by an American newspaper (The New York Times) and a French one (Le Figaro) and their publics’ reactions to it. The research was conducted along two main analysis axes: (1) the main frames and themes through which the journalists and the publics gave meaning to the event, and (2) the characteristics of the online public spheres therefore created. The comparative perspective on the journalistic frames showed a strong tendency of homogenization, as the same main frames appeared in both analyzed newspapers. However, the online comments analysis revealed that in both cases, while the publics debated the event within those journalistic frames, they also negotiated or assigned new meanings, therefore creating new themes. The comparative perspective on the online public spheres showed that the major normative conditions of a public sphere were achieved. Nevertheless, certain differences were found that could be explained as pertaining to different cultures: the French debates were characterized by more moments of subjective personal involvement and flaming. From a journalistic practice standpoint the findings indicated that both the American and French publics critically scrutinized every piece of news information, addressed precise requests, and expected journalists to reply and fulfill their informational needs

U.S. MEDIATED PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN A CRISIS: ROMANIAN CASE ANALYSIS OF ROMANIAN MEDIA VERSUS U.S. EMBASSY FRAMING

This thesis studies a case of U.S. mediated public diplomacy in Romania by analyzing the Romanian media framing as compared to the U.S. embassy’s framing of a public diplomacy crisis. It seeks to participate in the discussion about public diplomacy in general and mediated public diplomacy in particular. The case, from 2004, concerns the death of Romanian rock star, Teo Peter, in a car accident caused by an American marine serving in the U.S. embassy. A public diplomacy crisis situation focuses on the U.S. mediated public diplomacy efforts to prevent damaging its image; and also intensifies media’s interest on writing about the subject. The analysis in this study is based on the investigation of the similarities and differences in the frames used in the press releases and news articles to construct the image of the same event. The thesis employs Entman’s concept of U.S. mediated public diplomacy when analyzing the framing process of two of the major actors presented in his model: the target nation media and the U.S. public and media diplomacy (U.S. officials in that country). Benoit’s model is used to better explain the press releases’ framing. Framing analysis was chosen as a qualitative research method, as this study aims to explore the images created by mass media or by public diplomacy efforts (through the press releases) when they construct a specific reality for the same public diplomacy crisis. Three major Romanian national, daily newspapers and the U.S. embassy’s press releases were analyzed. The findings revealed that the Romanian media framed the public diplomacy crisis in a different way than the U.S. officials framed it. It seems that the U.S. failed in promoting its framing of the public diplomacy crisis to the Romanian media and therefore the public

Geometric algebra techniques in flux compactifications

We study `constrained generalized Killing (s)pinors', which characterize supersymmetric flux compactifications of supergravity theories. Using geometric algebra techniques, we give conceptually clear and computationally effective methods for translating supersymmetry conditions into differential and algebraic constraints on collections of differential forms. In particular, we give a synthetic description of Fierz identities, which are an important ingredient of such problems. As an application, we show how our approach can be used to efficiently recover results pertaining to N=1 compactifications of M-theory on eight-manifolds.Comment: 70 page

Retrospective Assessment of Animals Experimentation Projects in Romania – A Critical Analysis of Non-Technical Summaries

The aim of the present inquiry was to design an overview about the non-technical summaries available on the web page of the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Agency (Romania). We analyzed the compliance to the requirement of replacement, reduction and refinement (the 3R’s). 56 projects were found, the most of them (48), were assigned as “basic research”, 2 as “translational and applied research”, 2 as “regulatory use and routine analysis”, while 4 projects targeted “higher education or training”. The most common animals species used were rats, and mice, followed by rabbits, pigs, hamsters, guinea pigs and frogs (Rana sp.). According to cumulative severity of the project, 20 projects were classified as “severe”, six as “moderate”, three “mild”, and three as “non-recovery”. 24 projects had nor a severity assessment, neither a proper description of the level of severity. In our opinion, the number of projects classified as “severe” is too high; at least for some of them, the level of severity could be reduced using appropriate pain control techniques and / or human end-points. Overall, our recommendation is further improving the knowledge and skills of the personal involved in authorization and execution of the projects and of the authority inspectors that authorized the projects

The switch from patented medicine to the generic one: an option or a necessity?

This paper assesses the influence of a number of factors taken into account when a brand name drug is replaced by a generic one. It also evaluates responses of health professionals – physicians and pharmacist—and patients regarding the issue of switching. We compared and contrasted their responses in order to identify new points of cooperation for the intended benefit of the patient. Thus, the sample drew from all three groups, consisting of 50 doctors, 50 pharmacists, and 50 patients. We collected information regarding the age, residence, income level, and education level for the patients, and age and experience for the specialists. Based on responses to the survey, replacing the original medication with a generic one raises many issues, such as lack of information for the patient and specialist, lack of collaboration between physician and pharmacist, ineffective communication between specialist and patient, and the influence of the overall profit motive

Cochlear implant in a 10 months old patient

Otorhinolaryngology Clinic, Targu Mures Emergency Clinical County Hospital, Romania, The 6th International Medical Congress for Students and Young Doctors, May 12-14, 2016Introduction: World Health Organisation declares that over 5% of the global population, 32 million children included, suffer from disabling hearing loss, meaning a loss greater than 30 decibels in the better hearing ear in children. Objective: The purpose of this study is to present the case of the youngest bilateral cochlear implant receiver in Romania and the correlations between the imaging and surgical findings.Results: Both findings, the imaging and the surgical ones, were concordant, no pathological modifications were found that could have discomforted the cochlear implantation. Conclusion: This is the first case of an infant patient under 12 months suffering bilateral cochlear implantation in Romania, with activation of the implant after 7 weeks from implantation, and having a favourable outcome subsequent to the surgery

The switch from patented medicine to the generic one: an option or a necessity?

This paper assesses the influence of a number of factors taken into account when a brand name drug is replaced by a generic one. It also evaluates responses of health professionals – physicians and pharmacist—and patients regarding the issue of switching. We compared and contrasted their responses in order to identify new points of cooperation for the intended benefit of the patient. Thus, the sample drew from all three groups, consisting of 50 doctors, 50 pharmacists, and 50 patients. We collected information regarding the age, residence, income level, and education level for the patients, and age and experience for the specialists. Based on responses to the survey, replacing the original medication with a generic one raises many issues, such as lack of information for the patient and specialist, lack of collaboration between physician and pharmacist, ineffective communication between specialist and patient, and the influence of the overall profit motive