The study of the Earth’s electromagnetic fields prior to the occurrence of strong seismic events has repeatedly revealed cases were transient anomalies, often deemed as possible earthquake precursors, were observed on electromagnetic field recordings of surface, atmosphere and near space carried out measurements. In an attempt to understand the nature of such signals several models have been pr...

In this work we present a solution for the transmission of H.263 bitstream over error prone channels. The significance of each H.263 syntactical element has been investigated. This allows designing Equal (EEP) and Unequal Error Protection (UEP) schemes. By using a joint source-channel coding scheme we achieved video PSNR improvements over 20 dB.

The paper deals with strategies for optimizing the transmission of JPEG2000 coded images over a MIMO quasi-static Rayleigh fading channel, by exploiting different available MIMO STBC (Space Time Block Codes), as well as the image content to be transmitted. The aim is to propose a link adaptation scheme based on the variable radio channel’s conditions, by establishing an UEP (Unequal Error Prote...

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of prepayment data based on the historical prepayment experience of two banks in Hong Kong. One of the most distinctive features of mortgages as an asset class is the existence of prepayment risk. Research in prepayment has matured into a coherent body of work that has a sound theoretical framework and consistent empirical validation. Previous researc...

Brazil has adopted price-level indexation of financial contracts to a much greater degree than any other country. Indexation was adopted during the mid-1960s, following a period of extremely high and volatile inflation, in response to virtual stagnation in financial markets and a host of related problems. Although there is considerable controversy over the ex ~nt to which indexation has contrib...

Modeling energy demand at local scales (district, city or region) becomes more and more relevant in view of massive implementation of energy efficiency actions and energy solutions based on renewable. For instance, the knowledge of energy needs for space heating, cooling or domestic hot water production enables to imagine solutions adapted to these scales, either to reduce the needs or to meet ...

4-{[4-({(3R)-1-Butyl-3-[(R)-cyclohexyl(hydroxy)methyl]-2,5dioxo-1,4,9-triazaspiro[5.5]undec-9-yl}methyl)phenyl]oxy}benzoic acid hydrochloride (873140) is a potent noncompetitive allosteric antagonist of the CCR5 receptor (pK(B) = 8.6 +/- 0.07; 95% CI, 8.5 to 8.8) with concomitantly potent antiviral effects for HIV-1. In this article, the receptor-based mechanism of action of 873140 is compared ...

This handout describes an locally efficient version of an off-line advantage learning (ALearning) method for estimating dynamic treatment regimes using batch data based on (Murphy (2003); Robins (2004); Blatt et al. (2004)). The local efficient version is derived by Robins (Robins (2004)). These notes are meant to compliment the powerpoint slides found at http://www.stat.lsa.umich.edu/∼samurphy...

Existing evidence seems to indicate that Muslims in Scotland have constructed hyphenated or hybrid identities that draw on religion, ethnicity and nationality. However, minor attention has been given to the differences in importance, meanings, and strengths of these identities, or the significance of their identity markers. Ethnic minority people can be identified with both their ethnic groups ...

In this paper, I test the hypothesis that anti-predatory lending laws inhibited the volume of mortgage lending during the housing-bubble period. I use cross-state variation in the strictness of these laws and their application only to mortgage refinancing as opposed to home purchases to develop a difference-in-difference estimate of the impact of these laws on mortgage volume. Consistent with m...