The objective to this bachelor degree project was to redesign a structure of the doors and add windows of a convertible car. This was carried out in collaboration with the company Hurtan Desarrollos S.L. To establish the requirements for the design, initial studies were performed: a literature review, a benchmark of related products and a study of standard car door designs. After this the final requirements were defined and the concept generation design phase was begun. In this phase a number of design methods were applied. The design concepts were systematically evaluated in respect to if, and to what degree, the concepts met the defined demands and needs of the design. The final concepts were completed with the demands of the company to obtain the results. In order to define, create and communicate ideas and solutions, the design was modelled in Solidworks software and exported to Creo Parametric 2.0 to create the final renders. Once the overall design was defined, materials and accessories were specified. The final result is presented in detail in photorealistic renderings and a physical design made by Hurtan Desarrollos S.L.

This study examines the stock market reaction to new convertible bond (CB) issuing firms in Japan during the period 2009 to 2013. The evidence suggests that issuing firms experience significantly negative abnormal following the announcement dates. The relationship between certain firm characteristics and magnitude of market reaction is also studied. Firm size, leverage and book-to-market ratios are found to have no association with abnormal return following a CB announcement.

This study was designed to yield three types of information: (1) The degree of perfection prevailing in the parimary and secondary convertible bond markets; (2) the profit potential of various investing and hedging techniques in the convertible bond market; and (3) a judgment on whether each technique can be classified as rational or irrational.

Dann and Mikkelson (1984) report that the common stockholders of firms issuing convertible debt realize significantly negative returns upon the announcement of such financing. They further state that this observation is not consistent with the leverage hypothesis nor with the new financing models of Myers and Majluf (1984) and Miller and Rock (1982). This study also documents negative returns to the stockholders of convertible debt issuing firms on the announcement date. However, Dann and Mikkelson's assumption that the issuance of convertible debt increases financial leverage is questioned. A new convertible bond valuation model is proposed which valuates a convertible bond as the sum of its market perceived equity and straight debt components. Convertible bond rates of return are regressed on common stock and straight debt rates of return to demonstrate that convertible bonds have a large and significant equity component; often large enough to cause leverage decreasing changes to the issuing firm's capital structure. Furthermore, the perceived change in leverage is shown to be significant in explaining the announcement period excess returns realized by the stockholders of convertible issuing firms. In this way, negative announcement period excess returns are shown to be consistent with the leverage hypothesis. In addition, the results support the new financing model developed by Myers and Majluf. / Ph. D.

This dissertation analyzes factors associated with the apparent decision that firms make when choosing a source of long-term capital. Straight debt, common stock, convertible debt, and units of debt with warrants (units) are included in the issuer’s opportunity set, with particular emphasis being placed on the choice between convertible debt and units. A unit of debt with warrants is a financial package consisting of a straight bond or note, and one or more common stock warrants. This study finds that issuers earn insignificant average abnormal returns around the announcement and issuance period for unit offerings, thus presenting units as a unique case of a "penalty-free" equity offering. Finnerty [1986] suggests that units may be structured in such a way as to create a synthetic convertible bond. He shows how a unit provides the issuer an advantage of a larger tax shield than does a comparatively structured convertible. The present study finds that the market views the tax advantage as being only marginally important. Also, a comparison of the terms of units and convertibles reveals that, in practice, units are not structured as synthetic convertible bonds. A cross—sectional analysis evaluates unit and convertible issuer abnormal returns in light of hypotheses that the securities reduce agency costs to the firm. The evidence is generally inconsistent with the agency cost reduction hypothesis. This study presents the first information about the valuation consequences of unit issuances and factors that may be related to the decision to make such offerings. / Ph. D.

This study provides information about convertible preferreds generally and, in particular, those used in financing mergers during the period 1968-1984. Specifically, the following topics are examined: (1) traditional corporate motives for the use of convertible preferreds as a financing means in mergers and acquisitions, (2) annual data about convertible preferreds' issuance by volume and purpose for the period 1968-1984, (3) average annual returns of merger-related convertible preferreds and average annual returns of common stock of the same companies for the period 1968-1980, (4) performance of convertible preferreds in relation to the market in general, and (5) the future of convertible preferreds as a financing instrument in merger activity.

Cette thèse concerne les drones dits "convertibles", qui allient capacité au vol stationnaire et efficacité énergétique en vol de croisière. Les principales contributions de ce travail comportent trois volets. D'abord, nous concevons une nouvelle structure de drone en ajoutant de chaque côté d'un quadrirotor une aile qui peut pivoter autour d'un axe appartenant au plan des hélices. Notre prototype a de nombreux avantages par rapport aux structures convertibles existantes: conception mécanique simple car dérivée d'un quadrirotor classique, flexibilité pour le montage de différents composants (ailes, hélices), etc. Deuxièmement, nous proposons une modélisation énergétique de ce type de drone convertible, en tenant compte de ses caractéristiques par rapport aux hélicoptères avec pilote à bord (grande variation des forces aérodynamiques, dégradation des performances à faible nombre de Reynolds, etc.). Finalement, concernant la conception de la commande, les degrés de liberté des ailes permettent le découplage entre les orientations des hélices et celle des ailes. Cela augmente considérablement les possibilités de contrôle par rapport aux aéronefs traditionnels. S'appuyant sur cette caractéristique, plusieurs approches de contrôle sont proposées. En particulier, en utilisant une conception géométrique spécifique, nous montrons qu'un contrôle efficace peut être obtenu sans mesures de la vitesse air. Les résultats de simulation confortent cette stratégie de contrôle, même en présence de vent fort et variable. Afin de valider la théorie, un prototype mécanique du drone a été construit dans notre laboratoire et des essais en vol préliminaires ont été effectués. / There is a growing interest to design convertible aerial vehicles that can hover like helicopters and fly forward efficiently like airplanes. This thesis is devoted to the conception, modeling, and control of such a convertible mini-UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). The main contributions of this work are threefold. Firstly, we design a novel UAV structure by adding to each side of a quadrotor one wing that can rotate around an axis belonging to the propellers' plane. Our prototype has many advantages over existing convertible structures: simple mechanical concept since inspired by a classical quadrotor, flexibility for selecting different components (wings, propellers), flexibility for the control design, etc. Secondly, we provide an energy modeling of this type of convertible UAVs, taking into account their characteristics as compared to full-scale helicopters (large variation of aerodynamic forces, performance degradation at low Reynolds number, etc.). Finally, as for the control design, the degrees of freedom of the wings permit the decoupling between propellers and wings' orientations. This greatly enhances the control flexibility as compared to traditional aircraft. Relying on this feature, several control approaches are proposed. In particular, using a specific geometrical design, we show that an efficient control of our UAV can be obtained without air-velocity measurements. Simulation results confirm the soundness of our control design even in the presence of strong and varying wind. En route to validate the theory, a mechanical prototype of the UAV was constructed in our laboratory and preliminary flight tests were performed.

Mak Nga-sze. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-46). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Purpose --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2 --- Flow of the study --- p.3 / Chapter 2 --- Review of Equity Linked Securities --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- Backgrond of Equity Linked Securities in Hong Kong --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2 --- Differences of trading between listed and non-listed ELIs --- p.7 / Chapter 2.3 --- Non-listed ELIs --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Definition --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Variables specification --- p.11 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Payoff possibilities --- p.13 / Chapter 3 --- Data --- p.17 / Chapter 3.1 --- Data sources --- p.17 / Chapter 3.2 --- Data treatment --- p.18 / Chapter 4 --- Methodology --- p.21 / Chapter 4.1 --- Volatility --- p.23 / Chapter 4.2 --- Implied volatility by CRR binomial Tree --- p.24 / Chapter 4.3 --- Historical volatility --- p.26 / Chapter 5 --- Estimation of Empirical Data --- p.28 / Chapter 5.1 --- Statistical results of the issuer's profit margin --- p.29 / Chapter 5.2 --- Empirical analysis of the profit margin trends --- p.31 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Factor 1: Volatility --- p.34 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Factor 2: Trading volume --- p.34 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.37 / Chapter 6.1 --- Conclusion --- p.37 / Chapter 6.2 --- Extensions --- p.38 / Appendix --- p.40 / Chapter .1 --- "Tables of non-listed ELIs in Hong Kong, updated to January 31,2005" --- p.40 / Chapter .2 --- "Stock options in HKEx, lastest to June 2004" --- p.43 / Chapter .3 --- Histograms of the issuer's profit margins --- p.44 / References --- p.45

Les essais en environnement libre et en soufflerie ont été effectués pour étudier la performance propulsive et la déformation de pales de référence et de pales souples. La poussée et le couple ont été évalués par deux méthodes: une mesure directe par balance et une estimation indirecte par bilan de quantité de mouvement, les deux méthodes ayant leurs avantages et limitations respectifs. La méthode indirecte s’est construite sur l’acquisition de champs de vitesse obtenus par PIV et s’appuie sur une estimation de la pression par mise en œuvre de l’équation de Poisson. En vol stationnaire, les pales flexibles ne peuvent pas aider à l’amélioration du rendement en mode rotor (FM), à chargement faible, puisque la distribution de vrillage est sans doute assez éloignée de l’optimal de vol stationnaire. En vol avancé, le rendement propulsif des pales flexibles est la plupart du temps plus élevé que l’hélice rigide de référence en raison de la torsion bénéfique généré en rotation. Dans le cas des pales flexibles, la vitesse axiale se trouve être inférieure au cas rigide, à même station aval; ceci correspondant à la la déformation de vrillage négatif. Pour les deux pales, la différence de poussée entre celle déduite du champ PIV test 2et celle obtenue avec la balance est plus grande que la différence entre les valeurs déduites du champ PIV test 1 et de la mesure directe. La technique de mesure laser pour les déplacements(LDS) a été utilisée pour mesurer la déformation stationnaire des pales lors de leur rotation. Par analyse du nuage de points mesurés par la LDS, la flexion et la torsion de la lame en rotation ont été identifiées à l’aide des régressions multiples. / The wind tunnel tests were conducted to explore the performance difference caused by the potential twist deformation between baseline blades and flexible blades. The balance was built in SaBre wind tunnel for measuring the thrust and torque of blades. The BEMT predictions of blades with varied twist were also performed in hover and forward flight, respectively. In hover,flexible blades cannot help in improving the FM at light disk loading since the twist generated on flexible blades is probably beyond the ideal hover twist. In forward flight, the propulsive efficiency η of flexible blades is mostly higher than baseline blades due to the beneficial twist generated in rotation. A Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) approach of loads determination was developed based on control volume method to obtain thrust and torque of small-scale proprotor,especially for off-optimum conditions. The pressure Poisson equation was implemented for the pressure estimation based on the PIV velocity data. The axial velocity of flexible blades is found to be lower than baseline blades on the same station at downstream. This corresponds to the lower inflow ratio distribution along flexible blade, which results from the negative twist deformation. For both baseline blades and flexible blades, the thrust differences between PIV test 2 and balance are larger when compared to the differences between PIV test 1 based on nearfield and balance. The Laser Displacement Sensor (LDS) technique was employed for measuring the stationary deformation of rotating flexible blades. By obtaining the LDS point cloud, the bending and torsion of the rotating blade were identified using the multiple regressions.

This diploma thesis addresses the issue of evaluation of investments in newly created companies in the high-tech industry, so-called start ups. Firstly, theoretical basis of investment decision-making are defined together with special aspects of venture capital investments. Furthermore, the known methods of investment evaluation are analysed in detail, their strengths and weaknesses are outlined and the suitability of using these methods to evaluate investments in start-ups is assessed. A case-study is then used to examine application of these methods in practice. Part of the thesis is also devoted to detailed analysis of financing options that are available to start-ups in the USA. The most widely used types of start-up financing are identified together with current trends in this area. Issues concerning various types of start-up financing are then explained and demonstrated on examples.