In the first essay we explore and establish a direct link between investor attention to advertising videos viewed on social media, and trading activity in a firm's securities. We find a positive relation between views of these advertising videos and volume, and a negative relationship between views and bid-ask spread. Returns are positively related to change in views. The positive price pressure is reversed over the following two weeks. The decreases in spread and temporary increase in returns are consistent with increased purchasing by individual investors who view the advertising videos. Our results support the hypothesis that the number of views (attention) is more important than advertising dollars. Views are tested concurrently with Google Abnormal Search Volume Index (ASVI), and the empirical results suggest that views and ASVI provide measures of attention for different investor groups. Our results also suggest that the link of ASVI to individual investors may be diminished in more recent periods. In the second essay, using a unique data set provided by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts along with Dallas County, Texas Appraisal District files and Multiple Listing Service (MLS) sales, we examine whether residential properties sold through a multiple listing service sell at similar prices compared to properties that do not sell through a multiple listing service after controlling for Grantor (seller) type. We find a 1.8% premium for properties sold through a MLS by individuals after controlling for different grantor types. Our results indicate that only individuals receive this premium.

隨著經濟環境的轉變以及法令對公司籌資管道逐漸鬆綁，使得公司有多種融資方式可以選擇，而特別股亦是公司的另一種選擇。本研究以民國74年至90年間在台灣證券交易所之特別股上市公司為樣本，藉由探討影響公司決定發行特別股之因素及影響普通股與特別股價差之因素，來觀察特別股融資方式適合於哪些公司，以及怎樣型態的特別股股價表現會較佳，實證結果可提供公司融資決策與投資人投資決策之參考。 　　研究結果顯示，在發行特別股的決定因素方面，公司的財務狀況、資本結構的確會影響公司是否發行特別股之決定。當公司財務狀況不佳時，為避免財務結構更形惡化，公司會傾向以特別股方式來籌資，且當公司債務比率已經高過產業平均債務水準時，公司較不會再以舉債的方式來籌資，以避免公司債務比率更高。至於租稅利益的考量上，卻無法獲得實證之支持。而於特別股與普通股的進一步分析中，實證結果顯示，當公司財務狀況不佳或是較具成長潛力的公司，越傾向發行特別股。 　　在影響普通股與特別股價差的因素方面，當特別股條款具有轉換權、無償配股權者，由於給予特別股股東額外權利，故該類特別股股價表現較佳。此外，當普通股的市場流動性與波動性相對較高時，該標的公司的特別股較不受投資大眾所關注，也因此使其股價表現較差。但在有同意權的特別股條款及普通股配股比率上，卻與本研究的預期相反，可能是因為同意權與特別股報酬率呈顯著正相關，故當特別股條款同意權愈低時，特別股報酬率也愈低，導致特別股股價表現較差。而當普通股配股率愈高時，可能由於特別股股價也隨著標的普通股股價而上漲，使得普通股配股率愈高，特別股股價反而愈高。 / With the change of economic environment and the loose regulation of law for financing ways, firms have many choices of financing, and preferred stock is an alternative. This study examines, during 1985-2001 for a sample of preferred stocks in Taiwan Stock Exchange, what firm is appropriate for issuing preferred stock and what type of preferred stock has higher value. By studying the factors that determine the issuance of preferred stock and that affect price spread between common stock and preferred stock, the empirical result could be used for decision-making of firms and investors. 　　In the factors of determining the issuance of preferred stock, we find that financial position and capital structure could indeed affect the firm's decision of whether to issue preferred stock or not. When firms are in weaker financial position, they are inclined to finance by issuing preferred stock to avoid worse financial structure. Besides, when firms that have debt ratio higher than the average levels of industry, they are not likely to finance by issuing additional debt to make the debt ratio even higher. On the other hand, empirical evidence does not support the tax benefit hypothesis. By the advanced analysis of preferred stock and common stock, the empirical result shows that firms with weaker financial position or with higher potential growth are more inclined to issue preferred stock. 　　As for the price spread between common stock and preferred stock, preferred stock with convertible right or stock dividend provisions, which give the preferred stockholders additional rights, tend to have higher stock price. In addition, when the market liquidity and the volatility of common stock returns are relatively higher, the preferred stock of the corresponding firms tends to have lower stock price. However, the coefficients of the variables about approval provision and dividend rate on common stock have signs contradictory to the prediction. The reasons may be that the approval provision (APR) and the return of preferred stock (RET_PS) are significantly positively correlated. Therefore, when APR is smaller, RET_PS is also lower, leading to worse preferred stock price. As for the stock dividend rate (ST_D), since the preferred stock price may have risen with the common stock price, higher ST_D may on the contrary leads to higher preferred stock price.

<p>This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of interest rate swap spreads in Sweden during the period 1999-2003. The results suggest that the spread between STIBOR and the general collateral repo rate is positively related to shorter maturity swap spreads. The risk premium associated with commercial bonds is positively related to swap spreads of all maturities. A negative relationship is observed between the term structure of interest rates and swap spreads. The short-term interest rate is positively related to spreads with shorter maturities. Interest rate volatility, stock-market movements and exchange rate movements appear to have no impact on Swedish swap spreads.</p>

<p>This thesis investigates techniques for stealth hydroacoustic communication using spread spectrum. The Swedish naval defense organisations have a vision that all their units should be able to communicate with each other, even between underwater vehicles. But the properties of water makes it a complex channel to use for wireless communications. Radiomagnetic waves have very limited range in water, therefore acoustic waves are used. </p><p>In this report the basics of wireless communication systems are described including source coding, channel coding, modulation techniques as well as different techniques for spread spectrum. The fundamental principle for all spread spectrum systems is to use more bandwidth than necessary to spread the signal energy in the frequency spectrum. This limits the data rate but results in a robust communication link which is difficult to detect, intercept and to jam. </p><p>In addition to the theoretical background, this thesis also gives a brief description of a Matlab system and a VHDL-system that was developed during the project. Finally the results of this project are presented and some suggestions of further developments are given.</p>

<p>A complex system is a system for which the statement "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" holds. A network can be viewed as a backbone of a complex system. Combining the knowledge about the entities constituting the complex system with the properties of the interaction patterns we can get a better understanding of why the whole is greater than the sum. One of the purposes of network studies, is to relate the particular structural and dynamical properties of the network to the function it is designed to perform. In the present work I am briefly presenting some of the advances that have been achieved in the field of the complex networks together with the contributions which I have been involved in.</p>

<p>In 2002 an amendment was added to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) which opened up for shipbuilders to replace steel with lightweight materials in the superstructures. However, SOLAS requires equal fire safety compared to ships with steel superstructures.</p><p> </p><p>LASS-c is a cross-organizational project with the aim to find a method to build cruise ships with part of the superstructure made in lightweight materials. As a part of the LASS-c project the purpose of this thesis has been to develop an application in Java (FISPAT). The tool has been designed to find fire sensitive areas in structures such as cruise vessels. A second aim with the thesis has been to evaluate the cruise ship Norwegian Gem with respect to fire sensitive areas.   </p><p> </p><p>In FISPAT the user can make a model of a structure. The model is built up by rooms, networks and devices. With the model, FISPAT can simulate fire spread and the effects on the networks included in the model. The user can then analyze the results to find fire sensitive parts.</p><p> </p><p>One of the main results in this thesis is the tool itself together with this report which also serves as a manual to FISPAT. An evaluation of Norwegian Gem was also made which points to some critical parts of the ship. One example is the main water supply pipe to the sprinklers which has no redundant systems and all sectioning valves are manually operated, hence it is vulnerable to faults. The electrical feed to the three pump units is also a vulnerable point on the vessel. The pumps have redundant electrical networks, but the wires are drawn on the same paths, making it possible to take out both systems with one fire.</p>

This thesis addresses handoff issues in a WCDMA system with space-time block coded transmit antenna diversity. Soft handoff has traditionally been used in CDMA systems because of its ability to provide an improved link performance due to the inherent macro diversity. Next generation systems will incorporate transmit diversity schemes employing several transmit antennas at the base station. These schemes have been shown to improve downlink transmission performance especially capacity and quality. This research investigates the possibility that the diversity obtained through soft handoff can be compensated for by the diversity obtained in a transmit diversity system with hard handoff. We analyze the system for two performance measures, namely, the probability of bit error and the outage probability, in order to determine whether the improvement in link performance, as a result of transmit diversity in a system with hard handoffs obviates the need for soft handoffs.

This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of interest rate swap spreads in Sweden during the period 1999-2003. The results suggest that the spread between STIBOR and the general collateral repo rate is positively related to shorter maturity swap spreads. The risk premium associated with commercial bonds is positively related to swap spreads of all maturities. A negative relationship is observed between the term structure of interest rates and swap spreads. The short-term interest rate is positively related to spreads with shorter maturities. Interest rate volatility, stock-market movements and exchange rate movements appear to have no impact on Swedish swap spreads.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how well Swedish banks’ follow the interest rate development of Swedish Treasury Bills and Swedish Government Bonds when they are determining the levels for their deposit and lending rates. Individuals’ deposits in a bank serves as one of the banks main assets in the balance sheet, and the spread between the bank’s deposit rate and the short-term market rate is a large source of funding for the bank. If there is a strong relationship of this spread over time, one may assume that this spread is of great importance for financing of the banking firm. The spread between the bank’s lending rate and the long-term market rate – credit risk spread – also serves a large source of interest income for the bank, and if this relationship is strong over time, one may assume that this spread is of great importance for financing of the banking firm as well. The banks subjected for investigation in this paper are Handelsbanken (SHB) and Föreningssparbanken (FSB). This paper finds a weaker relationship between the banks’ deposit rates and the short-term market rates, than for the lending rates and the long-term market rates. This indicates that the credit risk spread is of greater importance for financing of the banking firm than the funding spread. The weaker relationship between the banks’ deposit rates and the short-term market rate may be due to the great variability of savings alternatives offered in the market place today. The fact that banks today have deposit-deficit may also explain the weaker relationship, which may be explained by the Baumol-Tobin transaction model – where the higher the interest rate, the greater amount is being kept in the account. The stronger relationship between the banks’ lending rate and the long-term market rate may be due to the nature of the credit risk spread to function as a price-discrimination tool between lending clients.

Den här uppsatsen behandlar företag som är listade på Stockholmsbörsen som gjorde omvänd split mellan 1995 och 2004. Företagen är testade för abnormal avkastning kring tillkännagivandet av den omvända spliten, samt förändringar i köp-sälj ratio, handels volym och antalet handelsdagar där ingen handel skedde i aktien. Inga abnormala avkastningar eller signifikanta förändringar i köp-sälj ration eller handelsvolymen kunde hittas. Däremot så visar förändringen i antalet handelsdagar utan handel i aktien en försämring och antalet handelsdagar minskade i de aktier som genomgått en omvänd split. Detta medför att likviditeten minskade för de företag som genomförde en omvänd split. / This paper addresses reverse splits for firms trading on the Stockholm stock exchange between 1995 and 2004. The related sample are tested for abnormal returns surrounding the announcement day of the reverse split, as well as any changes in bid-ask spread, trading volume and the number of non-trading days. No findings of abnormal returns or significant changes in either bid-ask spread or trading volume could be found, while the number of non-trading days for the whole sample increased. This may suggest that the marketability decreased for the reverse splitting firms.