Optimal investment and hedging under partial and inside information

This article concerns optimal investment and hedging for agents who must use trading strategies which are adapted to the filtration generated by asset prices, possibly augmented with some inside information related to the future evolution of an asset price. The price evolution and observations are taken to be continuous, so the partial (and, when applicable, inside) information scenario is characterised by asset price processes with an unknown drift parameter, which is to be filtered from price observations. We first give an exposition of filtering theory, leading to the Kalman-Bucy filter. We outline the dual approach to portfolio optimisation, which is then applied to the Merton optimal investment problem when the agent does not know the drift parameter of the underlying stock. This is taken to be a random variable with a Gaussian prior distribution, which is updated via the Kalman filter. This results in a model with a stochastic drift process adapted to the observation filtration, and which can be treated as a full information problem, and an explicit solution to the optimal investment problem is possible. We also consider the same problem when the agent has noisy knowledge at time $0$ of the terminal value of the Brownian motion driving the stock. Using techniques of enlargement of filtration to accommodate the insider's additional knowledge, followed by filtering the asset price drift, we are again able to obtain an explicit solution. Finally we treat an incomplete market hedging problem. A claim on a non-traded asset is hedged using a correlated traded asset. We summarise the full information case, then treat the partial information scenario in which the hedger is uncertain of the true values of the asset price drifts. After filtering, the resulting problem with random drifts is solved in the case that each asset's prior distribution has the same variance, resulting in analytic approximations for the optimal hedging strategy

SFDL: MVC Applied to Workflow Design

Process management based on workflow systems is a growing trend in collaborative environments. One of the most notorious areas of improvement is that of user interfaces, especially since business process definition languages do not address efficiently the point of contact between workflow engines and human interactions. With that in focus, we propose the MVC pattern design to workflow systems. To accomplish this, we have designed a new dynamic view definition language called SFDL, oriented towards the easy interoperability with the different workflow definition languages, while maintaining enough flexibility to be represented in different formats and being adaptable to several environments. To validate our approach, we have carried out an implementation in a real banking scenario, which has provided continuous feedback and enabled us to refine the proposal. The work is fully based on widely accepted and used web standards (XML, YAML, JSON, Atom and REST). Some guidelines are given to facilitate the adoption of our solution

A hybrid recommendation model for learningo object repositories

Learning Objects (LOs) have emerged as a cornerstone approach for the development and distribution of educational content. These resources are distributed by Learning Object Repositories (LORs), which can make it easier for users to find suitable LOs by using Recommender Systems (RSs). This paper presents a hybrid recommendation model for LORs that combines content-based, demographic and context-aware techniques, along with the use of quality and popularity metrics. This article also describes how the model has been used to implement two RSs for two real LORs: ViSH and Europeana. Each of these RSs was evaluated in terms of accuracy, utility,usability and satisfaction perceived by end users. Besides, an A/B testing was performed in ViSH to compare the recommendations of the RS with random suggestions. The results showed that the RSs had a high user acceptance in terms of utility, usability and satisfaction, and that the RSs significantly exceeded the performance achieved by the random recommendations

Work in progress - Exploiting videoconferencing possibilities to promote the European convergence process

This paper introduces the experience of using videoconferencing and recording as a mechanism to support courses which need to be promoted or discontinued within the framework of the European convergence process. Our objective is to make these courses accessible as live streaming during the lessons as well as recorded lectures and associated documents available to the students as soon as the lesson has finished. The technology used has been developed in our university and it is all open source. Although this is a technical project the key is the human factor involved. The people managing the virtual sessions are students of the courses being recorded. However, they lack technical knowledge, so we had to train them in audiovisuals and enhance the usability of the videoconferencing tool and platform. The validation process is being carried out in five real scenarios at our university. During the whole period we are evaluating technical and pedagogical issues of this experience for both students and teachers to guide the future development of the service. Depending on the final results, the service of lectures recording will be available as educational resource for all of the teaching staff of our university

Enhancing K-12 science education through a multi-device web tool to facilitate content integration and e-infrastructure access

An effective K-12 science education is essential to succeed in future phases of the curriculum and the e-Infrastructures for education provide new opportunities to enhance it. This paper presents ViSH Viewer, an innovative web tool to consume educational content which aims to facilitate e-Science infrastructures access through a next generation learning object called "Virtual Excursion". Virtual Excursions provide a new way to explore science in class by taking advantage of e-Infrastructure resources and their integration with other educational contents, resulting in the creation of a reusable, interoperable and granular learning object. In order to better understand how this tool can allow teachers and students a joyful exploration of e-Science, we also present three Virtual Excursion examples. Details about the design, development and the tool itself are explained in this paper as well as the concept, structure and metadata of the new learning object

Enhancing web-based learning resources with quizzes through an Authoring Tool and an Audience Response System

Quizzes are among the most widely used resources in web-based education due to their many benefits. However, educators need suitable authoring tools that can be used to create reusable quizzes and to enhance existing materials with them. On the other hand, if teachers use Audience Response Systems (ARSs) they can get instant feedback from their students and thereby enhance their instruction. This paper presents an online authoring tool for creating reusable quizzes and enhancing existing learning resources with them, and a web-based ARS that enables teachers to launch the created quizzes and get instant feedback from the class. Both the authoring tool and the ARS were evaluated. The evaluation of the authoring tool showed that educators can effectively enhance existing learning resources in an easy way by creating and adding quizzes using that tool. Besides, the different factors that assure the reusability of the created quizzes are also exposed. Finally, the evaluation of the developed ARS showed an excellent acceptance of the system by teachers and students, and also it indicated that teachers found the system easy to set up and use in their classrooms

Facilitating the creation of interactive multi-device Learning Objects using an online authoring tool

Learning Objects facilitate reuse leading to cost and time savings as well as to the enhancement of the quality of educational resources. However, teachers find it difficult to create or to find high quality Learning Objects, and the ones they find need to be customized. Teachers can overcome this problem using suitable authoring systems that enable them to create high quality Learning Objects with little effort. This paper presents an open source online e-Learning authoring tool called ViSH Editor together with four novel interactive Learning Objects that can be created with it: Flashcards, Virtual Tours, Enriched Videos and Interactive Presentations. All these Learning Objects are created as web applications, which can be accessed via mobile devices. Besides, they can be exported to SCORM including their metadata in IEEE LOM format. All of them are described in the paper including an example of each. This approach for creating Learning Objects was validated through two evaluations: a survey among authors and a formal quality evaluation of 209 Learning Objects created with the tool. The results show that ViSH Editor facilitates educators the creation of high quality Learning Objects

Work in Progress - Developing Joint Degrees through E-Learning Systems

The development of Joint Degrees is an important mechanism for opening higher education systems nationwide, adapting them to the international standard, and promoting quality assessment to a broader environment. Since e-Learning systems covers a wide range of academic programs, and as joint degrees such as e-Learning are rapidly growing trends, finding a suitable solution that enables universities to design joint degrees through their own e-Learning systems becomes necessary. This paper introduces the design of a federated service-oriented architecture, which through collaboration agreements, will allow the development of new curricula and the participation in the unstoppable process of globalization

A flexible open source web platform to facilitate Learning Object evaluation

Systematic evaluation of Learning Objects is essential to make high quality Web-based education possible. For this reason, several educational repositories and e-Learning systems have developed their own evaluation models and tools. However, the differences of the context in which Learning Objects are produced and consumed suggest that no single evaluation model is sufficient for all scenarios. Besides, no much effort has been put in developing open tools to facilitate Learning Object evaluation and use the quality information for the benefit of end users. This paper presents LOEP, an open source web platform that aims to facilitate Learning Object evaluation in different scenarios and educational settings by supporting and integrating several evaluation models and quality metrics. The work exposed in this paper shows that LOEP is capable of providing Learning Object evaluation to e-Learning systems in an open, low cost, reliable and effective way. Possible scenarios where LOEP could be used to implement quality control policies and to enhance search engines are also described. Finally, we report the results of a survey conducted among reviewers that used LOEP, showing that they perceived LOEP as a powerful and easy to use tool for evaluating Learning Objects

Towards a Learning Object pedagogical quality metric based on the LORI evaluation model

Evaluating and measuring the pedagogical quality of Learning Objects is essential for achieving a successful web-based education. On one hand, teachers need some assurance of quality of the teaching resources before making them part of the curriculum. On the other hand, Learning Object Repositories need to include quality information into the ranking metrics used by the search engines in order to save users time when searching. For these reasons, several models such as LORI (Learning Object Review Instrument) have been proposed to evaluate Learning Object quality from a pedagogical perspective. However, no much effort has been put in defining and evaluating quality metrics based on those models. This paper proposes and evaluates a set of pedagogical quality metrics based on LORI. The work exposed in this paper shows that these metrics can be effectively and reliably used to provide quality-based sorting of search results. Besides, it strongly evidences that the evaluation of Learning Objects from a pedagogical perspective can notably enhance Learning Object search if suitable evaluations models and quality metrics are used. An evaluation of the LORI model is also described. Finally, all the presented metrics are compared and a discussion on their weaknesses and strengths is provided