本研究的目的是希望在第二十七號公報正式適用（八十七年十二月三十一日）之前，探討國內上市公司與銀行業會計人員對衍生性金融商品的認知程度，並瞭解其差異。另一目的則是希望瞭解企業依照第二十七號公報之要求揭露衍生性金融商品時，最難決定之事項及對第二十七號公報的看法。 本研究以問卷為資料收集的工具，其中「認知能力」定義為會計人員對衍生性金融商品的瞭解程度，而瞭解程度的高低，一種為會計人員自已主觀的衡量，另一種則依據會計人員在問卷第五部份「衍生性金融商品基本知識」測驗答對題數來判定。答對題數之高低，可作為會計人員瞭解衍生性金融商品程度之指標。 在回收的106份問卷中，只有2位（佔2.3%）會計人員不知道什麼是衍生性金融商品。至於造成會計人員對衍生性金融商品認知與瞭解程度差異的原因，經統計檢定後，有以下幾項： (1)企業的型態， (2)會計人員熟悉衍生性金融商品的程度， (3)會計人員認定衍生性金融商品的能力， (4)會計人員是否接受衍生性金融商品相關訓練，及 (5)企業目前使用（或過去使用過）衍生性金融商品與否。 大約有八成的會計人員在會計處理過程中，主要是依據「揭露要點」來判斷某項金融商品是否為衍生性金融商品。在目前使用（或使用過）衍生性金融商品的企業中，大約有六成的會計人員認為依照第二十七號公報揭露衍生性金融商品時，最難決定的項目為各商品的財務風險，而未曾使用過衍生性金融商品的企業中，亦有六成會計人員認為各類商品的財務風險最難決定。 影響會計人員對衍生性金融商品的認知與瞭解能力的因素中，有一項為會計人員是否接受衍生性金融商品的相關訓練，由此可知，提昇會計人員對衍生性金融商品瞭解的方法就是加強其有關衍生性金融商品的訓練。會計人員對衍生性金融商品的瞭解程度超高，將可增進其對衍生性金融商品的認定、會計處理、甚至報導的能力。 / In recent years, many derivative financial instruments (DFI) have been introduced into the domestic market. While transaction volumes of DFI are increasing, the relative risk enterprises expose to is increasing. Under this circumstance, accountants' understanding ofDFI becomes more and more important to the users of financial statement. If an accountant understands DFI well enough, he/she can adequately report the transactions ofDFI and, therefore, users of financial statements can properly assess the risk the enterprise faces. In this study, the author investigated the extent of the accountants understanding DFI and their ability to adequately report DFI transactions in accordance with the Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No.27 in ROC. The author used questionnaire as a tool in gathering data. Questionnaires are sent to the accountants of listed companies and companies in banking industries in Taiwan. Two indexes are used in measuring the extent of the accountants' understanding about DFI. One is a five-scale measurement to be filled by the accountants evaluating their own capability. The other is the number of correctly answered questions about DFI by the accountants, in addition, the accounts are asked weather they have the capability of adequately disclosing DFI transactions in accordance with the Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No.27 in ROC. The Results of this research can be concluded as follow: 1. Generally speaking, the extent of the accountants understanding DFI is moderate. 2. The accountants in the enterprises involve in DFI transactions understand DFI better than those in the enterprises not involve in DFI transactions. 3.The accountants have difficulties to report DFI in accordance with the statement of financial accounting standard No.27 in ROC.

Derivative pricing, and in particular the pricing of options, is an important area of current research in financial mathematics. Experts debate on the best method of pricing and the most appropriate model of a price process to use. In this thesis, a ``Switching Black-Scholes'' model of a price process is proposed. This model is based on the standard geometric Brownian motion (or Black-Scholes) model of a price process. However, the drift and volatility parameters are permitted to vary between a finite number of possible values at known times, according to the state of a hidden Markov chain. This type of model has been found to replicate the Black-Scholes implied volatility smiles observed in the market, and produce option prices which are closer to market values than those obtained from the traditional Black-Scholes formula. As the Markov chain incorporates a second source of uncertainty into the Black-Scholes model, the Switching Black-Scholes market is incomplete, and no unique option pricing methodology exists. In this thesis, we apply the methods of mean-variance hedging, Esscher transforms and minimum entropy in order to price options on assets which evolve according to the Switching Black-Scholes model. C programs to compute these prices are given, and some particular numerical examples are examined. Finally, filtering techniques and reference probability methods are applied to find estimates of the model parameters and state of the hidden Markov chain. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Applied Mathematics, 2003.

For years, the modelling of the brain tissue has been widely investigated. Indeed, a biomechanical model of the brain would find applications in fields like image-guided neurosurgery or safety system design (helmets, car manufacturing, security fences design,...). In the present thesis, we propose an original, fractional calculus-based, constitutive equation of the brain tissue. Different types of experiments (unconfined compression, relaxation and cyclic tests) were carried out in order to characterize the mechanical behaviour of the brain tissue. The use of the digital image correlation enabled us, for the first time to our best knowledge, to prove the incompressibility of the brain tissue, a widespread assumption. The constitutive model was calibrated and validated using these experiments. The agreement between the model and the experimental results is very satisfactory. The model reproduces with only a few percent error the stress-strain curves for the compression tests at three different loading rates covering two orders of magnitude as well as the behaviour in the relaxation and cyclic tests. La modélisation du tissu cérébral fait l'objet de nombreuses recherches depuis quelques années. En effet, un modèle biomécanique du cerveau trouverait des applications dans le domaine de la neurochirurgie guidée par l'image et chez les fabricants de système de sécurité (casques, automobiles, barrières de sécurité,...). Dans cette thèse, nous proposons un modèle d'équation constitutive original pour le tissu cérébral basé sur l'utilisation des dérivées d'ordre réel arbitraire (aussi connues sous le terme de dérivées fractionnaires). Divers types d'essais (compression, relaxation et essais cycliques) ont également été réalisés afin de caractériser le comportement mécanique du tissu cérébral. L'utilisation de la corrélation d'images numériques a permis, pour la première fois à notre connaissance, de démontrer expérimentalement son incompressibilité, justifiant ainsi une hypothèse couramment rencontrée. La loi constitutive développée a été calibrée et validée à partir de ces essais. L'accord entre le modèle et les résultats expérimentaux est très satisfaisant en ce qui concerne le comportement en compression à trois vitesse de déformation différentes s'étalant sur deux ordres de grandeur. Il en va de même pour les comportements en relaxation et lors des essais cycliques.

Chapter I - Derivative Market Competition: OTC Markets Versus Organized Derivative Exchanges  Recent regulatory initiatives in the United States have again raised the issue of a ''level regulatory and supervisory playing field'' and the degree of competition globally between over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives and organized derivative exchange (ODE) markets. This chapter models some important aspects of how an ODE market interrelates with the OTC markets. It analyzes various ways in which an ODE market can respond to competition from the OTC markets and considers whether ODE markets would actually benefit from a more level playing field. Among other factors, such as different transaction costs, different abilities to mitigate credit risk play a significant role in determining the degree of competition between the two types of markets. This implies that a potentially important service ODE markets can provide OTC market participants is to extend clearing services to them. Such services would allow the OTC markets to focus more on providing less competitive contracts/innovations and instead customize their contracts to specific investors’ risk preferences and needs.  Chapter II – Crisis Resolution and Private Sector Adaptation Efforts at crisis resolution that succeed in reducing potential inefficiencies and instability in the international financial system are in the interest of both the private and the public sector. Unlike in the domestic context, in the international context, in the absence of clearly established rules of the game, the approaches adopted toward crisis resolution, and the extent to which they are interpreted by market participants as setting a precedent, can have profound implications for the nature and structure of international capital flows. The key conclusion of this chapter is that recent experiences with payment suspensions and bond restructurings are limited as guides to determining the future success or failures of these initiatives, as the private sector most likely has adapted in order to minimize any unwanted public sector involvement. Chapter III - European Equity Market Integration: Cyclical or Structural? Reviewing the empirical evidence of equity market integration in the European Union, the chapter finds a significant increase in the importance of global sector factors for a number of industries. Unlike most past studies, which only covered developments during the bull market of the late nineties, the results presented in this chapter suggest that the degree of Euroland equity market integration has declined gradually following the bursting of the TMT bubble. This seems to suggest that the findings of previous studies that Euroland equity markets were nearly fully financially integrated is worth revisiting. There are, however, several good reasons to believe that the structural factors driving European equity market integration have yet to play themselves out fully. Institutional investors both outside the Euroland area and within have substantial untapped capacity to take on Euroland exposures and invest additionally in Euroland equities. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2004

This thesis describes studies directed towards development of novel antiadhesive agents, with particular emphasis on compounds that prevent attachment of bacteria to a host-cell. Three different proteins involved in the assembly or function of adhesive pili in uropathogenic Escherichia coli have been targeted either by rational structure based design or statistical molecular methods. A library of substituted galabiose (Galα1-4Gal) derivatives was screened for binding to the E. coli adhesin PapG in an assay based on surface plasmon resonance, and for inhibition of Streptococcus suis adhesins PN and PO in a hemagglutination assay. The results were used to generate QSAR models which had good predictive powers and provided further insight in the structural requirements needed for high affinity binding. 2-pyridones and amino acid derivatives were modelled into the binding site of chaperones involved in pilus assembly in E. coli and a heuristic method, VALIDATE, was used for affinity prediction. The affinity of the compounds for the chaperones PapD and FimC were assessed in assays based on surface plasmon resonance and relaxation-edited NMR spectroscopy. Their ability to disrupt chaperone/subunit complexes was investigated in vitro through a FPLC assay and their capacity to inhibit pilus formation in vivo was determined via hemagglutination and confirmed with atomic force microscopy. Statistical molecular design was used to design a diverse peptide library targeting pili subunits, and an ELISA was developed to investigate the ability of the peptides to inhibit chaperone/subunit complexation. The resulting QSAR model provided extensive information regarding binding of the peptides to the subunits. Because the peptides were suggested to bind in an extended β-strand formation, β-strand mimetics consisting of oligomeric enaminones were designed. Finally, new methods to synthesize enaminone building blocks were developed using microwave assisted chemistry. The projects described have generated compounds that besides their value as leads for developing novel antibacterial agents, also constitute new chemical tools to study the mechanisms underlying bacterial virulence.

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In this thesis, higher derivative theories are investigated. Ostrogradskian instability of higher derivative theories is examined both at the classical and quantum levels. It is shown that avoiding the instability in nondegenerate higher derivative theories is impossible. Moreover, the degenerate model of relativistic particle with a curvature term is studied as a viable higher derivative theory. Most of the work we present here is not original. We give a review of the literature and compile various detached works that already exist.

Active safety systems for road vehicles have been improved considerably in recent years along with technological advances and the increasing demand for road safety. In the development route of active safety systems which started with introduction of digital controlled ABS in the late seventies, vehicle stability control systems have been developed which today, with an integration approach, incorporate ABS and other previously developed active safety technologies. ABS, as a main part of this new structure, still maintains its importance. In this thesis, a design methodology of an antilock braking system controller for four wheeled road vehicles is presented with a detailed simulation work. In the study, it is intended to follow a flexible approach for integration with unified control structure of an integrated active safety system. The objective of the ABS controller, as in the previous designs in literature, is basically to provide retention of vehicle directional control capability and if possible shorter braking distances by controlling the wheel slip during braking. iv A hierarchical structure was adopted for the ABS controller design. A high-level controller, through vehicle longitudinal acceleration based estimation, determines reference slip values and a low-level controller attempts to track these reference slip signals by modulating braking torques. Two control alternatives were offered for the design of the low-level controller: Fuzzy Logic Control and PID Control. Performance of the ABS controller was analyzed through extensive simulations conducted in MATLAB/Simulink for different road conditions and steering maneuvers. For simulations, an 8 DOF vehicle model was constructed with nonlinear tires.