A real-time facial expression recognition system for affective computing

A thesis submitted to the University of London in partial fulfillment to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

The Extremes of the P/E Effect

The price-earnings effect has been a challenge to the idea of efficient markets for many years. The P/E used has always been the ratio of the current price to the previous year’s earnings. However, the P/E is partly determined by outside influences, such as the year in which it was measured, the size of the company, and the sector in which the company operates. Looking at all UK companies since 1975, we determine the power of these influences, and find that the sector influences the P/E in the opposite direction to the others. We use a regression to weight the influences according to their power in predicting returns, reversing the sector influence so that it works for us and not against us. The resulting weighted P/E widens the gap in annual returns between the value and glamour deciles by 8%, and identifies a value decile with average returns of 32%.

Decomposing the P/E Ratio

The price-earnings effect has been a challenge to the idea of efficient markets for many years. The P/E used has always been the ratio of the current price to the previous year’s earnings. However, the P/E is partly determined by outside influences, such as the year in which it was measured, the size of the company, and the sector in which the company operates. Looking at all UK companies since 1975, we determine the power of these influences, and find that the sector influences the P/E in the opposite direction to the others. We use a regression to weight the influences according to their power in predicting returns, reversing the sector influence so that it works for us and not against us. The resulting weighted P/E widens the gap in annual returns between the value and glamour deciles by 8%, and identifies a value decile with average returns of 32%.

The Long-Term P/E Radio

The price-earnings effect has been thoroughly documented and widely studied around the world. However, it has always been calculated on the basis of the previous year’s earnings. We show that the power of the effect has until now been seriously underestimated, due to taking too short-term a view of earnings. We look at all UK companies since 1975, and using the traditional P/E ratio we find the difference in average annual returns between the value and glamour deciles to be 6%, similar to other authors’ findings. We almost double that gap by calculating P/E ratios using earnings averaged over the last eight years. Averaging, however, implies equal weights for each past year. We widen the gap further by optimising the weights of the past years of earnings in the P/E ratio.

Exact methods for modal transient response analysis including feedback control

This paper presents a modal method for the analysis of controlled structural systems that retains the uncoupled nature of the classical transient response analysis of a structure subjected to a prescribed time-varying load. The control force is expanded as a Taylor series that remains on the right side of the equations, and it does not lead to a computational approach that requires coupling between modes on the left side. Retaining a sufficient number of terms in the series produces a solution to the modal equations that is accurate to machine precision. The approach is particularly attractive for large problems in which standard matrix exponential methods become computationally prohibitive. Numerical results are presented to show the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed approach for dynamic feedback compensation of a truss structure with local member modes in the controller bandwidth

Does Community and Environmental Responsibility Affect Firm Risk? Evidence from UK Panel Data 1994-2006

The question of how an individual firm’s environmental performance impacts its firm risk has not been examined in any empirical UK research. Does a company that strives to attain good environmental performance decreases its market risk or is environmental performance just a disadvantageous cost that increases such risk levels for these firms? Answers to this question have important implications for the management of companies and the investment decisions of individuals and institutions. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between corporate environmental performance and firm risk in the British context. Using the largest dataset so far assembled, with Community and Environmental Responsibility (CER) rankings for all rated UK companies between 1994 and 2006, we show that a company’s environmental performance is inversely related to its systematic financial risk. However, an increase of 1.0 in the CER score is associated with only a 0.02 reduction in firm’s risk and cost of capital.

Basement Complex Biotite Granite at Dubuque, Iowa

The city well No. 8 at Dubuque, Iowa penetrated slightly more than 15 feet of the upper part of the crystalline pre-Cambrian basement complex. This well is of particular interest because it is the southeastern-most of the 15 wells in Iowa known to reach the crystalline basement, and because samples from the well were sufficiently large to permit preparation of thin sections for petrographic examination. The well was drilled in 1946 to a depth of 1,781.7 feet by the Varner Well Company of Dubuque. Drilling was by the cable-tool method. The well is located on the floodplain of the Mississippi River at CSL SE¼ SE¼ sec. 7, T. 89 N., R. 3 E. The surface altitude is 610 feet