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Credit derivatives are very popular on financial markets in recent days. The most liquid credit derivative is a credit default swap (CDS). In this research we investigate methods for modeling and monitoring of the price process of CDS. We study Hull and White model to calculate CDS spread and have data for our analysis. We consider different methods for monitoring of the price process of CDS. In particular we study CUSUM method. And we calculate more commonly used perfomance measures for this method.

Corrosion can cause devastating damage to materials, and to protect materials from corrosion is crucial, especially in the aeronautical industry. An electroplated Zinc-Nickel coating provides excellent corrosion protection of steel. Electroplating of ZnNi is a sensitive process which needs frequent and fast feedback controls and adjustments of the process electrolyte. A common process control for electroplating processes is the Hull cell test, which is investigated in this study. The Hull cell test is a lab scaled electroplating unit, which spans a wide range of current densities. It is crucial to establish the relation between process parameters in the Hull cell and the resulting coating characteristics in order to implement it as a process control. The purpose of this study is to establish these relations for the ZnNi electroplating process, and evaluate if the Hull cell test is a suitable process control for this process. How the process parameters; current density, temperature, metal ion concentration, and carbonate contaminations affect the coating characteristics; visual appearance, thickness, composition, surface structure, and phase content has been established. Influence on the coatings were mainly seen at current densities higher and lower than the ones used in production. This demonstrates the strength of the Hull cell test for early detection of process deviations. Coating thickness and composition was measured with X-ray fluorescence. However, the composition values for thin coatings were discovered to be inaccurate, which was avoided by increasing the plating time. Once addressed, the Hull cell test is suitable as a process control for the electroplating process of ZnNi.

The effectiveness of colonoscopy depends on the quality of the inspection of the colon. There was no automated measurement method to evaluate the quality of the inspection. This thesis addresses this issue by investigating an automated post-procedure quality measurement technique and proposing a novel approach automatically deciding a percentage of stool areas in images of digitized colonoscopy video files. It involves the classification of image pixels based on their color features using a new method of planes on RGB (red, green and blue) color space. The limitation of post-procedure quality measurement is that quality measurements are available long after the procedure was done and the patient was released. A better approach is to inform any sub-optimal inspection immediately so that the endoscopist can improve the quality in real-time during the procedure. This thesis also proposes an extension to post-procedure method to detect stool, bite-block, and blood regions in real-time using color features in HSV color space. These three objects play a major role in quality measurements in colonoscopy. The proposed method partitions very large positive examples of each of these objects into a number of groups. These groups are formed by taking intersection of positive examples with a hyper plane. This hyper plane is named as 'positive plane'. 'Convex hulls' are used to model positive planes. Comparisons with traditional classifiers such as K-nearest neighbor (K-NN) and support vector machines (SVM) proves the soundness of the proposed method in terms of accuracy and speed that are critical in the targeted real-time quality measurement system.

Graded concentrations of soybean hull pellets (SHP) fed to calves consuming annual ryegrass baleage was evaluated in two experiments. Experiment one evaluated performance and serum glucose of animals fed three treatments. Treatments were: 0.0% (TRT 0), 0.5% (TRT 0.5), 1.0% (TRT 1) body weight (BW) of SHP fed daily while calves had ad libitum access to baleage. Average daily gain and BW increased for calves receiving TRT 1 (P < 0.05). Experiment two evaluated passage rate of treatments using ytterbium chloride as a marker. Passage rate of diet decreased for TRT 1 compared to TRT 0 (10.9 h vs. 16.72 h TRT 1 and TRT 0 respectively, P < 0.05). Calves receiving TRT 0.5 had greater ADG than calves fed TRT 0 (0.54 kg/d and 0.30 kg/d respectively; P < 0.05). Diet passage rate decreased as supplement amount increased (P < 0.05). Serum glucose concentrations were not affected.

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Eugene Clement created a design method for swept-back cambered step hulls with deadrise. The cambered step is designed to carry 90% of the planing vessels weight with the remaining 10% being support by a stern mounted hydrofoil. The method requires multiple design iterations in order to achieve an optimal design. Clement stated that the method was not suitable for cambered planing surfaces with high deadrise angles greater than 15 degrees. The goal of this thesis is to create a design procedure for swept-back cambered planing surfaces with high deadrise angles that does not require multiple iterations to obtain an optimal design. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program STAR CCM+ is used to generate a database for performance characteristics for a wide range of designs varying deadrise angle, load requirements, trim angle, and different camber values. The simulations are first validated with experimental data for two different cambered steps designed by Stefano Brizzolara and tested in the tow tank at the United States Naval Academy. A series of validation studies utilizing fixed and overset meshes led to a final simulation set up with an overset mesh that allowed for accurate prediction of drag, trim moment, wetted keel length, and the wake profile aft of the cambered planing surface. The database is fitted such that the final equations for optimal design values such as camber, trim angle, drag (shear and pressure), wetted keel length, wetted surface area, and trim moment are in terms of deadrise angle and lift. The optimized design equations are validated with CFD simulation. / Master of Science / Eugene Clement developed a new design method to improve the performance of ultra-fast planing crafts. A planing craft uses the force generated from the flow of water over the bottom to lift the vessel without the use of the static buoyancy force that classic boat designs rely on. Clement wanted to improve the performance of the planing vessel by reducing the total drag force caused by the flow of water on the bottom of the vessel. Clement's design method involves reducing the wetted surface area which reduces drag. Reducing the wetted surface area would normally cause the lifting force on the vessel to reduce, but with the addition of curvature in the smaller wetted surface area, the lifting force would remain the same. Clement's new design method requires multiple iterations to obtain an optimal design. The method limits the angle of the vessels bottom relative to horizontal to under 15 degree. The goal of this thesis is to create a new design method for planing vessels with bottoms that have an incline of 15 degrees or more relative to horizontal. The design method is created using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solver to model the planing surface moving through water. The CFD solver is validated with experimental test performed at the United States Naval Academy. The improved design method uses equations that can predict the forces and other design characteristics based on the desired vessel weight and seakeeping requirements.

Focusing on Darwinism, David Hull argues that the protean character of conceptual systems is explained by their nature as historical entities which evolve. If they evolve as biological species do, Hull argues, then they cannot have an "essence" — a set of tenets that all and only instances of the conceptual system has throughout all time. There are no tenets a scientific research program must retain to count as an instance of a particular program. I advance two considerations against this view. First, research programs require a critical cohesiveness among their tenets to inspire and guide research. Second, it is the function of such programs to guide the search for answers to families of questions in a particular domain in a particular spirit. These factors dictate that conceptual systems must retain certain key tenets. This re-emergence of a sort of essentialism does not bar the evolution of conceptual systems, provided we recognize that there are patterns of evolution other than the one Hull considers (anagenesis). It also implies that conceptual systems simply evolve differently than species do. I defend this position by illustrating two episodes of conceptual evolution: the dispute between William Bateson and the British biometricians over discontinuous evolution, and the formation of Neo-Lamarckism in 19th century America. / Master of Arts

In this thesis, the interest rates derivatives and their valuation based on the future development of interest rates are presented. The Hull-White model focusing on the modeling of the instantaneous spot rates is described in detail. The model is calibrated to the market caplet volatilities and is used to evaluate various interest rates derivatives. The main emphasis is put on the LIBOR market model describing the development of set of forward rates. There are presented and in detail discussed results of the calibration of LMM model on the market swaption volatilities. At the end the two models are compared.

The subject of this thesis are selected interest rate models and valuation of interest rate derivatives, especially interest rate options. Time-homogeneous one-factor short rate models, Vasicek and Cox-Ingersoll-Ross, and time-inhomogeneous short rate model, Hull{White, are treated. Heath-Jarrow-Morton framework is introduced as an alternative to short rate models, evolving the entire term structure of interest rates. The short rate models are shown to be special cases of models within the framework. The models are derived using the risk-neutral pricing methodology.