VIX AND VIX FUTURES: A TOOL OF RISK REDUCTION AND DOWNSIDE PROTECTION FOR HEDGE FUNDS

We analyze VIX, VIX futures and hedge funds. VIX is a measure of the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options. VIX futures performance is measured by the S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures Index and the CBOE VIX Premium Strategy Index. Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index and Hedge Fund Research Indices represent hedge funds performance. In our project, we expand Dash and Moran (2005) by expanding the end period of survey from December 2004 to May 2014 and including two hedge fund databases, Credit Suisse and Hedge Fund Research. In addition, we conduct analyses on both VIX index and VIX futures indices, which are not included in the Dash and Moran (2005). Not only we check the addition of VIX index or VIX futures indices to hedge fund portfolios for risk reduction or downside protection, but also our analysis pays more attention to the period of 2008 financial crisis. We find that broad-based hedge fund indices and most narrow hedge fund indices are negatively and asymmetrically correlated with VIX. Addition of VIX index as well as VIX futures indices protects hedge fund portfolios from major drawdowns and helps reduce risk

Carbonation mechanism of different kind of C-S-H : rate and products

During the carbonation of cement paste blended with supplementary cementitious materials, the C-S-H with different Ca/Si ratios, formed from the hydration and pozzolanic reactions, are the major calcium-bearing phases which react with CO2. Therefore, it’s important to study the carbonation mechanism of different C-S-H phases. In this paper, the pure C-S-H phases (Ca/Si ratio: 0.66 to 2.0) were synthesized and used for the accelerated carbonation test. Synthesized C-S-H phases with different Ca/Si ratio were identified by X-ray diffraction and 29Si nuclear magnetic resonance. The carbonation rate and products of different C-S-H phases are also determined. The results show that pure C-S-H phases with different Ca/Si ratio (lower than 1.40) can be synthesized in the lab. The structure of synthesized C-S-H is similar to the C-S-H(I) reported by Taylor. The mean chain length of the C-S-H decreases dramatically when the Ca/Si ratio increases from 0.66 to 1.40, then it keeps no change. The portlandite appears in the products when the designed Ca/Si ratio is over 1.40. The C-S-H with lower Ca/Si ratio is decomposed faster than that with a higher Ca/Si ratio. All the C-S-H phases are fully decomposed to CaCO3 and silica gel after 3 days’ accelerated carbonation

Empirical Research on the Impacts of Geographic Boundary-spanning Search on Innovation Performance

Boundary-spanning search has been argued to be important for the success of innovation. There are various kinds of dimensions about organizational search activities. Past studies on boundary-spanning search have focused mainly on technological dimension. We characterize the boundary-spanning search on geographic dimension. We propose a conceptual model and 6 hypotheses. Data from 156 firms were collected to test above hypotheses. The results show that both local search and nonlocal search have positive effect on incremental innovation. What’s more, local search is more positive than nonlocal search on incremental innovation. Meanwhile, both local search and nonlocal search have positive effect on breakthrough innovation. However, it is not supported by data that nonlocal is more positive than local search on breakthrough innovation

Large-Scale MIMO Detection for 3GPP LTE: Algorithms and FPGA Implementations

Large-scale (or massive) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is expected to be one of the key technologies in next-generation multi-user cellular systems, based on the upcoming 3GPP LTE Release 12 standard, for example. In this work, we propose - to the best of our knowledge - the first VLSI design enabling high-throughput data detection in single-carrier frequency-division multiple access (SC-FDMA)-based large-scale MIMO systems. We propose a new approximate matrix inversion algorithm relying on a Neumann series expansion, which substantially reduces the complexity of linear data detection. We analyze the associated error, and we compare its performance and complexity to those of an exact linear detector. We present corresponding VLSI architectures, which perform exact and approximate soft-output detection for large-scale MIMO systems with various antenna/user configurations. Reference implementation results for a Xilinx Virtex-7 XC7VX980T FPGA show that our designs are able to achieve more than 600 Mb/s for a 128 antenna, 8 user 3GPP LTE-based large-scale MIMO system. We finally provide a performance/complexity trade-off comparison using the presented FPGA designs, which reveals that the detector circuit of choice is determined by the ratio between BS antennas and users, as well as the desired error-rate performance.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processin

Crystal structure of 3-methyl-2-oxo-2H-chromen-7-yl propionate, C13H12O4

Abstract C13H12O4, triclinic, P1̄ (no. 2), a = 6.141(5) Å, b = 8.108(6) Å, c = 12.234(9) Å, α = 79.257(12)°, β = 76.820(12)°, γ = 74.687(11)°, V = 566.8(7) Å3, Z = 2, R gt(F) = 0.0515, wR ref(F 2) = 0.1575, T = 296(2) K