A STRUCTURAL MODEL FOR CREDIT-EQUITY DERIVATIVES AND BESPOKE CDOs

We present a new structural model for single name equity and credit derivatives which we also correlate across reference names to produce a model for bespoke synthetic CDOs. The model captures volatility and outlook risk along with correlation risk for small and for large moves separately. We show that the model calibrates well to both equity structured products and credit derivatives. As examples, we discuss a number of single name derivatives on IBM spanning the credit-equity spectrum and ranging from volatility swaps, to cliquets, CDS options and CDSs on leveraged loans with pre-payment risk. We also use the model to price tranches on the investment grade DJ.CDX.IG index along with tranches on the high yield index DJ.CDX.HY. We show that the model gives consistent and high precision pricing across all these derivative asset classes. We show that this can be achieved consistently, with the very same parameter choices across these diverse derivative assets and making use of only minor explicit time dependencies.Credit derivatives; equity derivatives; long dated derivatives; CDOs; structural model

Dynamic Conditioning and Credit Correlation Baskets

Dynamic conditioning is a technique that allows one to formulate correlation models for large baskets without incurring in the curse of dimensionality. The individual price processes for each reference name can be described by a lattice model specified semi-parametrically or even nonparametrically and which can realistically have about 1000 sites. The time discretization step is chosen so small to satisfy the Courant stability condition and is typically of about a few hours. This constraint ensures needed smoothness for the single name probability kernels which can thus be directly manipulated. A flexible multi-factor correlation model can be obtained by means of conditioning trees corresponding to binomial processes with jumps. There is one conditioning tree associated to each reference names, one associated to each industry sector and a global one to the basket itself. Since the conditioning trees are correlated, the underlying processes are also mutually correlated. In this paper, we discuss a modeling framework for CDOs based on dynamic conditioning in greater detail than previously done in our other papers. We also show that the model calibrates well to index tranches throughout in the period from 2005 to the Spring of 2008 and yields instructive insights.CDO, pricing, dynamic conditioning, correlation modeling, semi-parametric, operator methods

Evaluating “Discovery Bible Study” in an Evangelism Program at African Christian College

The problem addressed in this project emerges from my understanding of evangelism. For me evangelism must include proclamation, discipleship, a reliance on the Holy Spirit, and the utilization of small groups. I see DBS as accomplishing these goals, and the problem of this work was to demonstrate whether this is true in the context of African Christian College and the surrounding area. I used a method called participatory action research. I made it my goal to learn all that I could about DBS and then share this material in a classroom setting with my students at ACC. We then participated together by going into the community around the ACC campus and actually doing DBS with those persons of peace who were discovered. Careful records were maintained so that it would be possible to measure the success of the effort. Many things happened that were not controllable. Adjustments had to be made on the spot. Still the students got into the field and followed the plan they had been taught. They were very surprised because no team had to make more than two calls on potential prospects before they were granted a study. As the studies progressed, they became increasingly aware of the fact that DBS really does work. Deep personal relationships were formed and significant specific positive things happened: the Holy Spirit did work in ways that were observable (such as one healing). There is no doubt in my mind, nor in that of the students who participated, that DBS really did work in the environs of ACC. The students were very enthusiastic each day when they returned to campus after their time in the field. At the end of the project the students overwhelmingly expressed an enthusiastic desire to put the DBS method to work in their home region after they leave school

Non-Physician Providers of Obstetric Care in Mexico: Perspectives of Physicians, Obstetric Nurses and Professional Midwives

Background In Mexico 87% of births are attended by physicians. However, the decline in the national maternal mortality rate has been slower than expected. The Mexican Ministry of Health’s 2009 strategy to reduce maternal mortality gives a role to two non-physician models that meet criteria for skilled attendants: obstetric nurses and professional midwives. This study compares and contrasts these two provider types with the medical model, analyzing perspectives on their respective training, scope of practice, and also their perception and/or experiences with integration into the public system as skilled birth attendants. Methodology This paper synthesizes qualitative research that was obtained as a component of the quantitative and qualitative study that evaluated three models of obstetric care: professional midwives (PM), obstetric nurses (ON) and general physicians (GP). A total of 27 individual interviews using a semi-structured guide were carried out with PMs, ONs, GPs and specialists. Interviews were transcribed following the principles of grounded theory, codes and categories were created as they emerged from the data. We analyzed data in ATLAS.ti. Results All provider types interviewed expressed confidence in their professional training and acknowledge that both professional midwives and obstetric nurses have the necessary skills and knowledge to care for women during normal pregnancy and childbirth. The three types of providers recognize limits to their practice, namely in the area of managing complications. We found differences in how each type of practitioner perceived the concept and process of birth and their role in this process. The barriers to incorporation as a model to attend birth faced by PMs and ONs are at the individual, hospital and system level. GPs question their ability and training to handle deliveries, in particular those that become complicated, and the professional midwifery model particularly as it relates to a clinical setting, is also questioned. Conclusions Hospitals in the Mexican public health sector have a heavy obstetric workload; physicians carry the additional burden of non-obstetric cases. The incorporation of a non- physician model at the primary health center level to attend low-risk, normal deliveries would contribute to the reduction of non-necessary referrals. There is also a role for these providers at the hospital level

I Love A Sunburnt Anomaly: The Polarisation Of The Australian National Identity.

This article will argue that Janet Laurence’s and Fiona Foley’s ‘Edge of the Trees’, a permanent installation at the entrance to the Museum of Sydney, is an allegorical microcosm of non-Aboriginal Australia’s and, in some ways, Aboriginal Australia’s current perception of its Aboriginal history and its place in a national identity. This article will examine the role of the ‘Aboriginal Memorial’ and contemporary Aboriginal art, in particular that of Laurence and Foley, in relation to traditional and modernist ideologies. The work will be exposed as an expression of modernist and colonialist ideas, rather than the traditional memorial and somewhat all-inclusive postmodern perspective that is implied and perhaps intended. The argument will expose the ambiguity within the concepts of traditionalism and modernity and will ultimately deduce that for two nations to survive distinctively, in close proximity to each other, they must maintain difference, even though that means never reaching complete acceptance or forgiveness. Australian society, much like the ‘Edge of the Tress’ installation, will forever oscillate between binding and separation, between “us” and “them”

The role of inflammatory chemokine receptors in hypertension and blood pressure regulation

Chemokines regulate the migration of leukocytes through binding to chemokine receptors. The inflammatory CC chemokine receptors CCR1, CCR2, CCR3 and CCR5 (iCCRs) are expressed by several different leukocytes and are important in orchestrating inflammatory responses. These receptors can bind to multiple CC chemokines and many of these chemokines share receptors, resulting in a highly complex system in which the exact role of each receptor is not understood. To aid understanding of these receptors, two unique mouse strains have been developed. These are mice that are deficient for all four iCCRs (iCCR-KO) and mice that express fluorescent reporter proteins for each of the iCCRs (REP mice). Hypertension is when blood pressure (BP) is elevated above 140/90 mmHg. There is evidence for a role of inflammation in the development of hypertension and the consequent end organ damage which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Several chemokines and chemokine receptors have been implicated in hypertension but due to the complexity of the chemokine system, the role they play in the pathogenesis of the disease is unclear. Therefore the role of iCCRs in hypertension was investigated using iCCR-KO and REP mice. WT, REP and iCCR-KO mice were subject to 7 or 14 days of Angiotensin (Ang) II induced hypertension. iCCR expression was characterised in REP and WT mice and the effect of iCCR deficiency on BP, vascular function, inflammation and cardiac and vascular remodelling was assessed using the iCCR-KO mice. Aortic CCR2 and CCR5 expression increased in Ang II treated WT mice compared to control WT mice. Further, iCCR-KO mice were protected from Ang II induced vascular dysfunction but iCCR deficiency did not influence BP or remodelling. iCCR-KO mice were also shown to have altered circulating leukocyte populations in Ang II induced hypertension. Control iCCR-KO mice tended to have a lower BP than WT mice so the effect of iCCR deficiency on regulators of BP in the kidneys and kidney leukocyte infiltration was investigated. iCCR-KO mice had fewer inflammatory monocytes and reduced mineralocorticoid receptor mRNA expression. This could influence BP but further studies are needed. Overall, novel mouse models have been used to identify how iCCRs are involved in hypertension. The results described here suggest that iCCRs, in particular CCR2 and CCR5, are involved in regulating vascular dysfunction in hypertension. Through improving understanding of these receptors in the disease, there is increased potential to target them as treatments that would ultimately reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease

Pension reform: an analysis of the economic foundations of private pensions

The dissertation investigates support by economists for the global policy shift away from unfunded public pension schemes towards funded private pension schemes. Influential economists and institutions, including the World Bank, present a suite of economic arguments that suggest that this shift will have positive effects on national economies, particularly in the context of aging. The arguments may be categorised according to their relation to the operation of three sets of institutions: capital markets, labour markets and political systems. In capital markets, the transition is purported to increase private and national saving, increase the quantity and quality of investment, and provide more efficient private administration. In labour markets, it is claimed that the shift will reduce labour market distortions associated with public pensions, which inhibit competitiveness, produce unemployment and encourage early retirement. According to the World Bank, public pensions systems cause these distortions without achieving their stated objective of reducing inequality. In the political sphere, the shift is purported to insulate the pension system from political pressures, which otherwise inevitably lead to crisis. The thesis provides evidence which refutes these claims. The best research, including studies by orthodox economists, indicate that the shift does not increase savings or investment, or improve the quality of financial investment. The main effect of tax concessions associated with private pension systems is to divert to private pension funds savings that would occur in any case via other mechanisms. The tax concessions are also regressive, even in systems with compulsory elements. Private administration of pensions, particularly in a plural consumer market setting, is highly inefficient, with customers at a disadvantage in dealing with providers due to the complexity and opacity of products and pricing. A negative relationship is found between public pension spending and levels of elderly poverty, suggesting that reducing public pension spending increases levels of elderly inequality. Public pensions are found not to explain differences in economic growth between regions. Elements of system design which distort labour markets, such as by encouraging early retirement, can easily be adjusted. However, such elements are explicit government policy in several countries. A review of public and private pensions finds that examples of public system crisis are associated with instances of economic and political collapse, rather than system design. Private funded systems are found to be more vulnerable, not less, to the same external influences. Relatively generous universal public pension systems are found to be financially sustainable despite demographic change, assuming modest levels of economic growth

Discriminating customers, responsible patients, empowered users: consumerism and the modernisation of health care

The centrality of patient choice in the recent political rhetoric of both New Labour and the Conservative Party has prompted a renewed interest in the shift towards a more consumerist conception of health care in the UK. Accordingly, this article reports on early findings from a project in the ESRC/AHRB Cultures of Consumption Programme, exploring how the 'consumer' is constituted in narratives of health reform, and the ways in which policy documents present a particular image of the consumer as a rationale for institutional and cultural change. The article then goes on to look at the ways in which service delivery organisations have responded to New Labour's consumerist imperative. Drawing upon a series of interviews with senior health care managers in two case study locations, the article highlights ways in which choice, responsibility and empowerment have become critical points at which a consumerist orientation is articulated with established professional cultures, and how health organisations have experienced – and attempted to resolve – the tensions that result

The Third Law of UK Nuclear Policy: for Every Protestation There is an Equal and Opposite Affirmation

Despite consecutive UK governments’ continual support for and renewal of the nuclear program, the UK’s nuclear arsenal has remained a contentious issue on the basis of both ethical framework and the cyclical costs of acquiring new nuclear weapons during a climate of austerity. Given the political turmoil currently faced post-Brexit, and amidst a potential upset in the global axis of power, with its inherent implications for national security, the question of the UK’s nuclear program is of critical importance. This policy paper provides an expository overview of the major points of contention in the UK nuclear policy debate namely; financial, moral, and legal, with consideration given to the internal climate of the UK. Additionally it will examine the potential impact that the UK leaving the EU will have on the nuclear policy of both the EU and the UK within the methodological framework of Sagan’s Three Model’s for Nuclear Weapons Proliferation

A Characterization of Actuation Techniques for Generating Movement in Shape-Changing Interfaces

Abstract This article characterizes actuation techniques for generating movement in shape-changing displays with physically reconfigurable geometry. To date, few works in Human Computer Interaction literature provide detailed and reflective descriptions of the implementation techniques used in shape-changing displays. This hinders the rapid development of novel interactions as researchers must initially spend time understanding technologies before prototyping new interactions and applications. To bridge this knowledge gap, we propose a taxonomy that classifies actuator characteristics and simplifies the process for designers to select appropriate technologies that match their requirements for developing shape-displays. We scope our investigation to linear actuators that are used in grid configurations. The taxonomy is validated by (a) examining current implementation techniques of motorized, pneumatic, hydraulic, magnetic, and shape-memory actuators in the literature, (b) constructing prototypes to address limited technical details and explore actuator capabilities in depth, (c) describing a use-case scenario through a case study that details the construction of a 10 ? 10 actuator shape-display, and (d) a set of guidelines to aid researchers in selecting actuation techniques for shape-changing applications. The significance of our taxonomy is twofold. First, we provide an original contribution that enables HCI researchers to appropriately select actuation techniques and build shape-changing applications. This is situated amongst other past works that have investigated broader application scenarios such as a shape-changing vocabulary, a framework for shape transformations, material properties, and technical characteristics of various actuators. Second, we carry out in-depth investigations to validate our taxonomy and expand the knowledge of vertical actuation in shape-changing applications to enable rapid development