An asset and liability management (ALM) model using integrated chance constraints

This paper discusses and develops a Two Stage Integrated Chance Constraints Programming for the Employees Provident Fund Malaysia. The main aim is to manage, that is, balance assets and liabilities. Integrated Chance Constraints not only limit the event of underfunding but also the amount of underfunding. This paper includes the numerical illustration

The Core, Periphery, and Beyond: Stock Market Comovements among EU and Non-EU Countries

We thank conference participants at the 2016 Financial Management Association and our discussant Fernando Moreira, and two anonymous referees for immensely helpful comments. We also thank Andrew Patton and James P. LeSage for sharing their MATLAB codes for computing quantile dependence. The authors of this paper are responsible for any errors or omissions. The Securities and Exchange Commission, as a matter of policy, disclaims responsibility for any private publication or statement by any of its employees. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission or the authors\u27 colleagues on the staff of the Commission

Presence and task performance:an approach in the light of cognitive style

The paper highlights the relationship between each of four bi-polar dimensions of personality cognitive style, such as extraversion–introversion, sensing–intuition, thinking–feeling and judging–perceiving, and the level of sense of presence experienced. Findings indicate that individuals who are more sensitive, more feeling or more introverted experience a higher level of presence. While not reaching statistical significance, differing cognitive styles appear to impact on task performance. The apparent negative relationship discovered between sense of presence and task performance should be considered in the light of task characteristics. We discuss the implications of these findings and how they contribute to an understanding of the complex relationship that exists between presence and task performance and how this subsequently ought to influence the design of virtual environments

Exploring Bluetooth based Mobile Phone Interaction with the Hermes Photo Display

One of the most promising possibilities for supporting user interaction with public displays is the use of personal mobile phones. Furthermore, by utilising Bluetooth users should have the capability to interact with displays without incurring personal financial connectivity costs. However, despite the relative maturity of Bluetooth as a standard and its widespread adoption in today’s mobile phones, little exploration seems to have taken place in this area - despite its apparent significant potential. This paper describe the findings of an exploratory study nvolving our Hermes Photo Display which has been extended to enable users with a suitable phone to both send and receive pictures over Bluetooth. We present both the technical challenges of working with Bluetooth and, through our user study, we present initial insights into general user acceptability issues and the potential for such a display to facilitate notions of community

Constraints to the sustainability of a ‘systematised’ approach to livestock marketing amongst smallholder cattle producers in South Africa

Commercialization of smallholder agriculture in South Africa is underpinned by reforms to improve livestock off-take in communal areas and engage smallholder farmers with formal markets. To achieve this, Custom Feeding Programmes (CFPs) were established to improve the condition of communal cattle prior to their sale into formal markets and to ‘systematise’ the informal marketing of cattle in communal areas by enabling participants to achieve higher informal market prices. We evaluate the sustainability of eight CFPs located in Eastern Cape Province in terms of their ability to add value to smallholder cattle production and encourage market participation. Communities with CFPs achieved a 16.6% mean cattle off-take rate, substantially higher than in most communal systems. Furthermore, cattle sold through CFPs attained a 17% higher mean selling price than those sold through other marketing channels. However, these benefits were mainly realized by better-off farmers with larger cattle herds and greater ability to transport animals to and from CFPs. More marginalized farmers, particularly women, had low participation. CFPs also face challenges to their sustainability, including inconsistent feed and water supplies, poor infrastructure and high staff turnover. Key to enhancing participation in CFPs, will be improving the way they are supported and embedded within communities

Potential and current distribution in strongly anisotropic Bi(2)Sr(2) CaCu(2)O(8) single crystals at current breakdown

Experiments on potential differences in the low-temperature vortex solid phase of monocrystalline platelets of superconducting Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8) (BSCCO) subjected to currents driven either through an "ab" surface or from one such surface to another show evidence of a resistive/nonresistive front moving progressively out from the current contacts as the current increases. The depth of the resistive region has been measured by a novel in-depth voltage probe contact. The position of the front associated with an injection point appears to depend only on the current magnitude and not on its withdrawal point. It is argued that enhanced nonresistive superconducting anisotropy limits current penetration to less than the London length and results in a flat rectangular resistive region with simultaneous "ab" and "c" current breakdown which moves progressively out from the injection point with increasing current. Measurements in "ab" or "c" configurations are seen to give the same information, involving both ab-plane and c-axis conduction properties.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, typo error corrected, last section was refine

Antithrombin Budapest 3 An antithrombin variant with reduced heparin affinity resulting from the substitution L99F

AbstractThe molecular basis and functional properties of a variant antithrombin (AT) protein. AT Budapest 3, were studied. A single base substitution was identified in codon 99, CTC→TTC, altering the normal leucine to phenylalanine. The proband presented with a history of venous thrombotic disease and was found to be homozygous for the mutation. The variant protein demonstrated reduced heparin affinity and reduced antiproteinase activity in the presence of either unfractionated heparin or the AT-binding heparin pentasaccharide, when compared to normal AT. A small change in the isoelectric point was also identified. The substituted amino acid residue of AT Budapest 3 is located near to the proposed AT heparin binding site, and it is suggested that reduced heparin affinity of the variant protein may result from substitution-induced distortion of positive charge geometry in the binding site and/or changes in its position relative to the rest of the inhibitor molecule