Starting from Maxwell’s equations, we derive a sensor model for three-axis magnetometerssuitable for localization and tracking applications. The model dependson the relative position between the sensor and the target, orientation of the targetand its magnetic signature. Both point targets and extended target modelsare provided. The models are validated on data taken from various road vehicles.The suitability of magnetometers for tracking is analyzed in terms of local observabilityand Cramér Rao lower bound as a function of the sensor positions in atwo sensor scenario. Also the signal to noise ratio is computed to determine theeffective range of the magnetometer. Results from field test data indicate excellenttracking of position and velocity of the target, as well as identification of themagnetic target model suitable for target classification.

<p>My doctoral work stems from an original motivation to understand more closely why some areas of sandy coastlines erode and others accrete<—>an intriguing fundamental question and one of societal relevance wherever human coastal infrastructure exists. What are the physical processes driving shoreline change, and over what spatial and temporal scales are they manifest? If forces driving the littoral system change, how does the shoreline respond? Can we attribute observed patterns of shoreline change to a particular process?</p><p>Recent novel numerical shoreline-evolution modeling demonstrated that wave-driven gradients in alongshore sediment transport could produce self-organized, emergent features on spatial scales from sand waves to large-scale capes [<italic>Ashton et al.</italic>, 2001], introducing a new theoretical perspective to the cross-shore-oriented considerations of the coastal scientific community. The unexpected model results inspired fresh hypotheses about shoreline pattern formation and the forcing mechanisms behind them.</p><p>One overarching hypothesis was that under regimes of high- and low-angle deep-water incident waves, alongshore shoreline perturbations grow or diffuse away, respectively. To test the hypothesis we looked for a correlation between shoreline curvature (showing perturbations to a nearly straight coastline) and shoreline change in observed measurements. High-resolution topographic lidar surveys of the North Carolina Outer Banks from 1996<–>2006 allowed robust, quantitative comparisons between shoreline surveys spanning tens of kms. In Chapter 1 [<italic>Lazarus and Murray</italic>, 2007] we report that over the last decade, at multi-km scales along the barrier islands, convex-seaward promontories tended to erode and concave-seaward embayments accrete<—>a pattern of diffusion consistent with the smoothing effects of alongshore-transport gradients driven by a low-angle wave climate. Why then, after a decade or more of smoothing, do plan-view bumps in the shoreline still persist? In Chapter 2 [<italic>Lazarus et al.</italic>, in review] we compile evidence suggesting that (a) a framework of paleochannels may control the areas of persistent multi-km-scale shoreline convexity that (b) in turn drive decadal-term transient changes in shoreline morphology by (c) affecting gradients in wave-driven alongshore sediment transport.</p><p>In Chapter 3, a third investigation of large-scale coastal behavior, we explore an existing premise that shoreline change on a sandy coast is a self-affine signal wherein patterns of changes are scale-invariant, perhaps suggesting that a single process operates across the scales. Applying wavelet analysis<—>a mathematical technique involving scaled filter transforms<—>we confirm that a power law fits the average variance of shoreline change at alongshore scales spanning approximately three orders of magnitude (5<–>5000 m). The power law itself does not necessarily indicate a single dominant driver; beach changes across those scales likely result from a variety of cross-shore and alongshore hydrodynamic processes. A paired modeling experiment supports the conclusion that the power relationship is not an obvious function of wave-driven alongshore sediment transport alone.</p><p>Our tests of theory against field observations are middle steps in pattern-to-process attribution; they fit into a larger body of coastal morphodynamic research that in time may enable shoreline-change prediction. Present hydrodynamic models are still too limited in spatial and temporal scope to accommodate the extended scales at which large morphological changes occur, but more integrated quantitative models linking bathymetry, wave fields, and geologic substrate are underway and will set the next course of questions for the discipline.</p> / Dissertation

<p>My dissertation seeks to understand how and why governments make major changes in financial sector regulations. I focus on two specific puzzles. First why is financial sector regulation not normally central to electoral competition and why are changes in financial sector regulation rare events? Second, why do we observe substantive intellectual debates and efforts of policy persuasion despite the conclusion of many researchers and observers that financial regulatory policy outcomes are driven by the preferences of powerful special interest groups? What are the mechanisms precisely by which ideas versus interests shape policy outcomes in a domain that is not often central to electoral politics? I investigate these questions through a formal game theoretical model of the regulatory policymaking process and through case studies of historic episodes of financial regulatory change in the United States which draw upon a wide variety of primary and secondary source historical materials. I conclude that financial regulatory change is most likely to occur when events of different types cause heads of government to perceive that the existing regulatory status quo threatens the realization of broader policy objectives. Heads of financial sector policy bureaucracies shape outcomes by providing cognitive frameworks through which leaders understand regulatory consequences. Interest groups influence policy outcomes primarily through their ability to act as veto players rather than by controlling the policy agenda.</p> / Dissertation

The aim of the paper is to discuss the way that the online job banks send resumes to businesses for job seekers, and most businesses and job seekers have chosen online job banks as channel management for job wanted due to the rapid development of information technology for recent years. What businesses find employees and job seekers find jobs through the online job banks can be classified into two kinds, one is active candidates for the job, and another is matching pair by the online job banks. The online job banks help job seekers to send resumes to businesses by means of both ways, and how the online job banks send resumes to businesses for job seekers will affect the outcome. Therefore, this paper focuses on original way of sending resumes used by the online job banks, and also uses Gale-Shapley algorithm to devise different way of sending resumes which the online job banks possibly use in the future and consequently by comparing two ways of sending resumes, it can analyze what ways of sending resumes can be adopted by the online job banks under different situations.

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After China entry WTO at the end of 2001, the financial market will open to the outside world progressively , and it will even open business of RMB after five years. It will attract more foreign banks to invest to China's market ; On the other hand, the Taiwanese investing banks want to serves small and medium-sized enterprises invest in China, so it is necessary to the Taiwanese investing banks to invest in China. It is obvious that more and more foreign banks want to make investment in China. For the Taiwanese investing banks or other foreign banks can make investment successfully in China, through the study of the foreign banks make investment successfully and for a long time in China to probe the development of the foreign banks in China. And find the competitiveness of the five cities that absorb the foreign banks in SWOT analysis¡FAnd then analyse with the investment strategy of case banks , such as HSBC , Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank. Finally the study find that the foreign banks still faced the hindrance on a lot of policies when made investment in China. China want to open the private banks at present , and it will form state-run bank , the foreign banks and private banks to compete with each other in China¡¦s financial market in the future. It¡¦s important to the foreign banks to use one's own assets strength and develop investment strategy actively. The best choice is to cooperate with China¡¦s banks and replace competing. Finally the study offers the suggest to the Taiwanese investing banks or other foreign banks¡G(1)Stoke the China Banks of the good performance and have complementary or develop the strategic alliance¡F(2)Take the identity of Hong Kong -invested banks in order to enjoy the CEPA policy¡F(3)Develop variety of the retailing financial business¡F(4)Develop the on-line banks¡F(5)Invest in the big city to forming the function of radiating¡F(6)Plant the local market deeply with the localization strategy¡F(7)Cooperate with private bank.

Abstract This thesis is examining not only the relationship between earnings management and information disclosure but also which information disclosure dimensions influence earnings management in banks and financial holding corporations. I classified the information into five dimensions and they are independent variables in this thesis. Due to different industrial characteristics among financial and other industries, I didn¡¦t use The Healy Model ( 1985), The Jones Model (1991), The DeAngelo Model(1986), The Modified Jones (1995) Model to estimate earnings management. Instead, I choose eight proxies selected in Liu¡¦s paper (1999), and they are Bad Debt, Provisions of Other Loss, Gain on Disposal of Investment, Loss on Disposal of Investment, Gain -Disposal of Fixed Asset, Loss -Disposal of Fixed Asset, Gain on Trading S-T Investment, Loss on Trading S-T Investment as the earnings management proxies for financial industry. Hence, I also chose those proxies as my earnings management proxies. The results show that the total scores of information disclosure are not related to earnings management in banks and financial holding corporations. On the other hands, it is the score of information disclosure dimensions related to earnings management. It demonstrates that different information disclosure dimensions influence the earnings management in different ways for banks and financial holding corporations. Key words: earnings management, information disclosure, banks, financial holding industry

CROSS-BORDER BANK ACQUISITIONS AND COMPANY PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF EMERGING MARKETS Demir, Mert MBA, Department of Business Administration Supervisor : Assist. Prof. Dr. Seza DaniSoglu May 2008, 103 pages In recent years, cross-border mergers and acquisitions have spurred in the global economy. With the breaking down of barriers around national economies, those economies that used to be centrally-planned and closed in the past have emerged as economies that offer invaluable investment and risk diversification opportunities that investors seek. As a natural result of this change, these economies become major targets for foreign investors. This thesis examines the impact of this foreign investment trend specifically for those bank mergers and acquisitions that take place in emerging economies. The impact of these transactions on the acquirer and target company shareholders and firm performance are analyzed and it is found that neither parties&rsquo / shareholders receive a significantly positive benefit in the short-term but there are significant benefits in the long-term. Moreover, while these bank consolidations resulted in improved profitability, efficiency and asset size for the target firms, no significant change is observed in deposit size, market share and capital adequacy of the targets. Similarly, improvement in profitability is evidenced for the acquirers while no major change in leverage risk is observed.

The service quality of banking industry - the empirical research of public-owned banks in Kaohsiung area. Public-owned banks usually gives us bureaucratic image. Although they try to raise their service quality under the press of competition, but the improvement is limited. When managers of public-owned banks strive for raising the service quality, the employees usually don¡¦t make enough efforts. What reason does result in such gap? How to solve this problem? How to inspire employees to work hard for the image of ¡§high service quality¡¨, which is accepted by high level manager? According to these motives, we use the PZB model to evaluate the service quality gap. Our research targets are the public-owned banks in Kaohsiung area. Findings indicates that there is no significant difference between the managers¡¦ and the employees¡¦ cognition of customer service expectation in public-owned banks. But there is gap existence between the managers¡¦ cognition of customer service expectation, and the service conveyed to the customer. ¡§control system¡¨ and ¡§team work¡¨ are the main reasons of the gap between service cognition and conveyance. Besides, most employees think the poor ¡§ performance evaluation system¡¨ causes the poor service quality in public-owned bank. They suggest that ¡§creating good working atmosphere¡¨, ¡§building a property performance evaluation system¡¨, ¡§managers should lead by personal example¡¨, and ¡§ a strong determination of change¡¨ may promote the service quality of public-owned banks. Standing on our empirical study, we make the following suggestions for the public-owned banks to raising their service quality: 1. The support of manager. 2. Adopt a proper performance measurement and evaluation system. 3. Managing in humanistic way. 4. Accelerate the rotation and promotion. 5. Strengthen the training of service quality raising.

Monetary policy has been given either too many positive attributes or, in contrast, only economy-disturbing features. Central banks must take into account a wide variety of factors to achieve a proper characterization of modern economies for the optimal implementation of monetary policy. Such is the case of central bank accountability and monetary policy effectiveness. The objective of this dissertation is to examine these two concerns relevant to the current macroeconomic debate. The analyses are carried out using an innovative set of tools to extract presumably important information from historical data of selected macroeconomic indicators. This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay explores the causality between the elements of the "celebrated" Taylor rule, using a Structural Vector Autoregression approach on US data. Directed acyclical graph techniques and Bayesian search models are used to identify the contemporaneous causal structure in the construction of impulse-response functions. Further analysis is performed by evaluating the implications of performing standard innovation-accounting procedures, derived from a Structural Vector Autoregression on interest rates, inflation, and unemployment. This is examined whenever a causal structure is imposed vs. when it is observed. We find that the interest rate causes inflation and unemployment. This suggests that the Fed has not followed a Taylor rule in any of the two periods under study. This result differs significantly to the case when the causal structure is imposed. The second essay presents an incentive-compatible approach based on proper scoring rules to evaluate density forecasts in order to reduce the central banks' accountability problem. Our results indicate that the surveyed forecasters have done a "better" job than the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). The third essay analyzes the causal structure of the factors that are presumed to influence the effectiveness of monetary policy, represented by the sacrifice ratio. Directed acyclical graph methods are used to identify the causal flow between such determinants and the sacrifice ratio. We find evidence that, while wage rigidities and central bank independence are the two major determinants of the sacrifice ratio, the degree of openness has no direct effect on the sacrifice ratio.