Real and nominal effects of monetary policy shocks

Using Canadian data we estimate the effects of monetary policy shocks on various real and nominal variables using a fully recursive VAR model. We decompose the nominal interest rate into an ex-ante real interest rate and inflationary expectations using the Blanchard-Quah structural VAR model with the identifying restriction that ex-ante real interest rate shocks have but a temporary impact on the nominal interest rate. The inflationary expectations are then employed to estimate a policy reaction function that identifies monetary policy shocks. We find that a positive shock introduced by raising the monetary aggregates raises inflationary expectations and temporarily lowers the ex-ante real interest rate. As well, it depreciates the Canadian dollar and generates other macro effects consistent with conventional monetary theory although these effects are not statistically significant. Using the overnight target rate as the monetary policy instrument we find that a contractionary monetary policy shock lowers inflationary expectations and raises the ex-ante real interest. Such a contractionary monetary policy shock also appreciates the Canadian currency, decreases industrial output and increases the unemployment rate. We obtain qualitatively better results using the overnight target rate rather than a monetary aggregate as the monetary policy instrument. Our estimated results are robust to various modifications of the basic VAR model and do not encounter empirical anomalies such as the liquidity and exchange rate puzzles found in some previous VAR studies of the effects of monetary policy shocks in an open economy

Time Series Analysis of Stock Returns for Two Pharmaceutical Companies Listed in Chittagong Stock Exchange

The primary aim of the study is to analyze and prediction of stock returns for 02 popular pharmaceutical companies namely BEXIMCO and SQUARE pharmaceuticals which are listed in Chittagong Stock Exchange. Generally the effective performance of stock market is one of the major indicators for economic development of a country.  In this study, secondary data on stock index and daily average stock price with a sample period 1st January 2010 to 27th December 2016 for selected 02 popular pharmaceutical companies listed in Chittagong Stock Exchange. Descriptive statistics, important graphs, statistical tests, fitted dynamic time series regression models with ARCH effect are used to complete the analysis. It is found that for both companies , the return occurs high with a high risk and risk is low for the companies with small amount of return. Generally SQUARE pharmaceutical has more gross return than BEXIMCO pharmaceutical. The gross returns for both companies follow the non-stationary but the log returns shows stationarity and the transformed variable log returns is used in the analysis to predict the return for these two companies.  The daily log returns of selected 2 companies confer the normality of the white noise of this variable. It is observed that the average VIF for both companies are less than 10, indicate the not severity of multicollinearity and can use these transform explanatory variables ∆Yt ,  ∆2Yt , ∆Xt and ∆2Xt in the model. Significant LM test statistic indicates the situation of having ARCH effect for the log return of both companies. Parkinson’s monthly volatility of both companies also confers the conditional heteroscadisticity in the behavior of the residuals. The dynamic regression model with volatility regression of ARCH(1) and ARCH(2) are employed for the log return of BEXIMCO and SQUARE pharmaceutical respectively. A modified ARDL (2, 2) regression model is proposed for forecasting the log return for BEXIMCO and SQUARE pharmaceuticals. Predicted daily log return for BEXIMCO pharmaceuticals for 28 th December ,2016 is 0.78122,i.e. the gross return is 2.1236 with 1-step ahead volatility is 0.04701, whereas the actual return is 2.087. One can try to analyze the data considering dynamic models such as GARCH, PARCH, ARIMAX, EGARCH model and different dynamic panel data models to predict the data.   Key Words: Stock returns, Parkinson’s Volatility, ARCH model, Modified ARDL model

Engineering a Suburban Ad-Hoc Network

Networks are growing in popularity, as wireless communication hardware, both fixed and mobile, becomes more common and affordable. The Monash Suburban Ad-Hoc Network (SAHN) project has devised a system that provides a highly secure and survivable ad-hoc network, capable of delivering broadband speeds to co-operating users within a fixed environment, such as a residential neighbourhood, or a campus. The SAHN can be used by residents within a community to exchange information, to share access to the Internet, providing last-mile access, or for local telephony and video conferencing. SAHN nodes are designed to be self-configuring and selfmanaging, relying on no experienced user intervention. Thus, they are suitable for use by the general public, in ‘plug-and-play’ fashion. This paper investigates possible architectures for an implementation of the SAHN (Tyson 2005), and presents a real-world prototype. The prototype presented takes the form of a Linux kernel module, and a user-space daemon

A Comprehensive Review on Autonomous Navigation

The field of autonomous mobile robots has undergone dramatic advancements over the past decades. Despite achieving important milestones, several challenges are yet to be addressed. Aggregating the achievements of the robotic community as survey papers is vital to keep the track of current state-of-the-art and the challenges that must be tackled in the future. This paper tries to provide a comprehensive review of autonomous mobile robots covering topics such as sensor types, mobile robot platforms, simulation tools, path planning and following, sensor fusion methods, obstacle avoidance, and SLAM. The urge to present a survey paper is twofold. First, autonomous navigation field evolves fast so writing survey papers regularly is crucial to keep the research community well-aware of the current status of this field. Second, deep learning methods have revolutionized many fields including autonomous navigation. Therefore, it is necessary to give an appropriate treatment of the role of deep learning in autonomous navigation as well which is covered in this paper. Future works and research gaps will also be discussed

Online Model Predictive Control of a Robotic System by Combining Simulation and Optimization

In the field of robotics, model predictive control is considered as a promising control strategy due to its inherent ability to handle nonlinear systems with multi-dimensional state spaces and constraints. However, in practice, the implementation of model predictive control for a nonlinear system is not easy, because it is difficult to form an accurate mathematical model for a complex nonlinear system. Moreover, the time required for solving a nonlinear optimization problem depends on the complexity of the system and may not be suitable for real-time implementation. In this thesis, a general approach for implementing model predictive control for nonlinear systems is proposed, where a physics-based simulator is used for the prediction of the states and a stochastic optimization based on particle belief propagation is used to solve the optimization problem. To study the ability of the controller, a nonlinear robotic system is built. The designed controller is capable of handling nonlinear system for both single variable and multiple variables. For the current system, the controller is unable to solve the optimization problem in real time with the presence of constraints. The proposed method provides a simpler approach for implementing model predictive control, which can be used for a range of robotic applications. However, in this method, the capability of the controller depends on the physics engine's ability to simulate different physical systems and the speed and accuracy of the physics engine.Validerat; 20150824 (global_studentproject_submitter

Quality of service aware topology control for wireless ad hoc networks using smart antennas.

Wireless ad hoc networks can suffer from capacity and scalability problems, especially when omni-directional antennas are used. Meeting the required Quality of Service (QoS) of the communications becomes a difficult task in such networks. To help alleviate these traditional problems of wireless ad hoc networks, this thesis presents the design and analysis of low level protocols and algorithms that intelligently use adaptive beamforming smart antennas to facilitate the provision of communications meeting QoS constraints of applications. The network model for which the protocols and algorithms in this thesis are designed is a cooperative, community wireless ad hoc network where nodes are in general fixed and there is no centrally owned infrastructure. This is an extension to the Suburban Ad-Hoc Network (SAHN). Though SAHN is a quasi-static network, much of the work of this thesis can be extended to include mobility. In this thesis medium access control, routing and topology control protocols and algorithms that are aware of QoS requirements of communications have been developed, simulated and evaluated. These protocols and algorithms take advantage of special characteristics of smart antennas. As a complete system, the new algorithms and protocols within a smart antenna equipped wireless ad hoc network, offers significant performance gains over traditional wireless networks

Quality of service aware topology control for wireless ad hoc networks using smart antennas.

Wireless ad hoc networks can suffer from capacity and scalability problems, especially when omni-directional antennas are used. Meeting the required Quality of Service (QoS) of the communications becomes a difficult task in such networks. To help alleviate these traditional problems of wireless ad hoc networks, this thesis presents the design and analysis of low level protocols and algorithms that intelligently use adaptive beamforming smart antennas to facilitate the provision of communications meeting QoS constraints of applications. The network model for which the protocols and algorithms in this thesis are designed is a cooperative, community wireless ad hoc network where nodes are in general fixed and there is no centrally owned infrastructure. This is an extension to the Suburban Ad-Hoc Network (SAHN). Though SAHN is a quasi-static network, much of the work of this thesis can be extended to include mobility. In this thesis medium access control, routing and topology control protocols and algorithms that are aware of QoS requirements of communications have been developed, simulated and evaluated. These protocols and algorithms take advantage of special characteristics of smart antennas. As a complete system, the new algorithms and protocols within a smart antenna equipped wireless ad hoc network, offers significant performance gains over traditional wireless networks

Eco-friendly scouring of cotton knit fabrics with enzyme and soapnut: An alternative to conventional NaOH and synthetic surfactant based scouring

Eye-catching, aesthetic fashions often suppress its untold dark story of unsustainable processing including hazardous wet treatment. Considering the risks imposed by conventional cotton scouring and following the trend of scouring with enzymes, this study was undertaken to evaluate the bioscouring of cotton knit fabric involving saponin-enriched soapnut as a natural surfactant, applied from a bath requiring a few chemicals and gentle processing conditions, contributing to the eco-friendliness. The proposed application was compared to synthetic detergent engaged enzymatic scouring as well as the classic scouring with Sodium hydroxide. A cellulolytic pectate lyase enzyme (0.5%–0.8% o.w.f) was applied at 55 °C for 60 min at pH 5–5.5 with varying surfactant concentrations. A low concentration of soapnut extract (1 g/L to 2 g/L) was found sufficient to assist in the removal of non-cellulosic impurities from the cotton fabric after bioscouring with 0.5% o.w.f. enzyme, leading to good hydrophilicity indicated by an average wetting time of 4.86 s at the expense of 3.1%–3.8% weight loss. The scoured fabrics were further dyed with 1% o.w.f. reactive dye to observe the dyeing performance. The treated samples were characterized in terms of weight loss, wettability, bursting strength, whiteness index, and color value. The proposed application confronted level dyeing and the ratings for color fastness to washing and rubbing were 4–5 for all of the samples scoured enzymatically with soapnut. The study was also statistically analyzed and concluded