Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Emerging Data'

Large-scale HPC systems are an important driver for solving computational problems in scientific communities. Next-generation HPC systems will not only grow in scale but also in heterogeneity. This increased system complexity entails more challenges to data movement in HPC applications. Data movement on emerging HPC systems requires asynchronous fine-grained communication and efficient data placement in the main memory. This thesis proposes an innovative programming model and algorithm to prepare HPC applications for the next computing era: (1) a data streaming model that supports emerging data-intensive applications on supercomputers, (2) a decoupling model that improves parallelism and mitigates the impact of imbalance in applications, (3) a new framework and methodology for predicting the impact of largescale heterogeneous memory systems on HPC applications, and (4) a data placement algorithm that uses a set of rules and a decision tree to determine the data-to-memory mapping in heterogeneous main memory. The proposed approaches in this thesis are evaluated on multiple supercomputers with different processors and interconnect networks. The evaluation uses a diverse set of applications that represent conventional scientific applications and emerging data-analytic workloads on HPC systems. The experimental results on the petascale testbed show that the approaches obtain increasing performance improvements as system scale increases and this trend supports the approaches as a valuable contribution towards future HPC systems.
Storskaliga HPC-system är en viktig drivkraft för att lösa datorproblem i vetenskapliga samhällen. Nästa generations HPC-system kommer inte bara att växa i skala utan också i heterogenitet. Denna ökade systemkomplexitet medför flera utmaningar för dataförflyttning i HPC-applikationer. Dataförflyttning på nya HPC-system kräver asynkron, finkorrigerad kommunikation och en effektiv dataplacering i huvudminnet. Denna avhandling föreslår en innovativ programmeringsmodell och algoritm för att förbereda HPC-applikationer för nästa generation: (1) en dataströmningsmodell som stöder nya dataintensiva applikationer på superdatorer, (2) en kopplingsmodell som förbättrar parallelliteten och minskar obalans i applikationer, (3) en ny metologi och struktur för att förutse effekten av storskaliga, heterogena minnessystem på HPC-applikationer, och (4) en datalägesalgoritm som använder en uppsättning av regler och ett beslutsträd för att bestämma kartläggningen av data-till-minnet i det heterogena huvudminnet. Den föreslagna programmeringsmodellen i denna avhandling är utvärderad på flera superdatorer med olika processorer och sammankopplingsnät. Utvärderingen använder en mängd olika applikationer som representerar konventionella vetenskapliga applikationer och nya dataanalyser på HPC-system. Experimentella resultat på testbädden i petascala visar att programmeringsmodellen förbättrar prestandan när systemskalan ökar. Denna trend indikerar att modellen är ett värdefullt bidrag till framtida HPC-system.

QC 20171128

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, June 2000.
"May 2000."
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-179).
by Walter Alberto Aldana.
M.Eng.

Ce travail de thèse s'intéresse à la sécurité des futures communications aéronautiques de donnée. Le travail est divisé en trois grandes parties. La première contribution est une architecture de sécurité adaptative pour les communications aéronautiques intégrant un segment sol-bord par satellite. Un module de gestion de la sécurité a été conçu, développé, puis validé lors de la phase finale d'intégration du projet FAST (Fibre-like Aircraft Satellite Communications). La deuxième contribution est une méthodologie quantitative d'estimation du risque lié à la sécurité réseau. L'originalité de notre approche est d'être basée sur la notion de propagation du risque au sein des différents noeuds du réseau. Commecas d'étude, un réseau de communication aéroportuaire utilisant le protocole AeroMACS a été étudié dans le cadre du projet SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research). La troisième contribution est une infrastructure à clés publiques (PKI) qui permet d'optimiser les échanges de signalisation (échanges de clés, certificats, vérification des signatures) entre l'avion et l'autorité de certification au sol. Le modèle de PKI proposé est un modèle hiérarchique utilisant la certification croisée entre les autorités de certification mères
This research work deals with the information and network security in the aeronautical communication domain. Three fundamental research axes are explored. First, a quantitative network security risk assessment methodology is proposed. Our approach is based on the risk propagation within the network nodes. As study cases, the algorithm has been validated in the scope of the European industrial project entitled SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) and the Aerospace Valley FAST (Fibrelike Aircraft Satellite Communications). Particularly, experimental results relative to the case study devoted to the FAST project shown that the global network risk in the non secured system architecture is relatively high, meaning the system needs more consideration from a security point of view. To cope with this issue, an adaptive security management framework for a satellite-based aeronauticalcommunication architecture has been proposed as a second contribution. A security manager module has been designed, implemented, then tested in the scope of the FAST project. Finally, as the security primitives used in the adaptive security management framework need to be efficiently exchanged, the last contribution consists in a scalable PKI adapted for the upcoming network-enabled aircraft. The idea is to minimize the air-ground additional overhead induced by the security procedures (keys, digital certificates, revocation/verification procedures). The PKI model we propose is a cross-certified multirooted hierarchical model

Data centers have been growing rapidly in recent years to meet the surging demand of cloud services. However, the expanding scale of a data center also brings new security threats. This dissertation studies emerging security issues in clouds and data centers from different aspects, including low-level cooling infrastructures and different virtualization techniques such as container and virtual machine (VM). We first unveil a new vulnerability called reduced cooling redundancy that might be exploited to launch thermal attacks, resulting in severely worsened thermal conditions in a data center. Such a vulnerability is caused by the wide adoption of aggressive cooling energy saving policies. We conduct thermal measurements and uncover effective thermal attack vectors at the server, rack, and data center levels. We also present damage assessments of thermal attacks. Our results demonstrate that thermal attacks can negatively impact the thermal conditions and reliability of victim servers, significantly raise the cooling cost, and even lead to cooling failures. Finally, we propose effective defenses to mitigate thermal attacks. We then perform a systematic study to understand the security implications of the information leakage in multi-tenancy container cloud services. Due to the incomplete implementation of system resource isolation mechanisms in the Linux kernel, a spectrum of system-wide host information is exposed to the containers, including host-system state information and individual process execution information. By exploiting such leaked host information, malicious adversaries can easily launch advanced attacks that can seriously affect the reliability of cloud services. Additionally, we discuss the root causes of the containers' information leakage and propose a two-stage defense approach. The experimental results show that our defense is effective and incurs trivial performance overhead. Finally, we investigate security issues in the existing VM live migration approaches, especially the post-copy approach. While the entire live migration process relies upon reliable TCP connectivity for the transfer of the VM state, we demonstrate that the loss of TCP reliability leads to VM live migration failure. By intentionally aborting the TCP connection, attackers can cause unrecoverable memory inconsistency for post-copy, significantly increase service downtime, and degrade the running VM's performance. From the offensive side, we present detailed techniques to reset the migration connection under heavy networking traffic. From the defensive side, we also propose effective protection to secure the live migration procedure.

Management of research data is globally being seen as part of good research practice. As a result of this, funders are increasingly insisting on proof of good research data management (RDM) practices when funding proposals are submitted. This study aimed at establishing the data management practices of emerging researchers at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa. With no official RDM procedures currently being implemented at the CSIR, it was hoped that by gaining information about the RDM practices of emerging CSIR researchers, as well as insight into the RDM challenges experienced by them, this researcher would be able to put forward recommendations enabling the establishing of an RDM regime at the CSIR. The study aimed at answering several research questions. The main research question was: How can an organisation like the CSIR ensure that future researchers apply best practices when managing the CSIR’s research data? Five research sub-questions were identified: 1. What are the international RDM requirements, standards, best practices and expectations that are being developed? 2. What data practices need more formalised support: at CSIR, nationally, internationally? 3. What data are collected and held by emerging researchers in the CSIR? 4. What are the current RDM practices and themes among emerging researchers in the CSIR? 5. What are the RDM-related challenges, issues and concerns facing emerging researchers at the CSIR? A total of 48 emerging researchers from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa completed an online survey investigating their RDM practices. RDM practices investigated included the use of data management plans, data storage and backup locations, creation of metadata, metadata standard adherence, and data sharing practices. Challenges faced when managing research data, as well as RDM needs and requirements, also formed part of the survey. Results of the online questionnaire revealed that the RDM practices of the group studied do not show to differ significantly from experienced CSIR researchers, or from researchers studied elsewhere on the globe. Findings enabled this researcher to put forward several recommendations which would assist in the implementing of a formalised RDM structure at the CSIR. Recommendations addressed, but were not limited to: formalization of RDM procedures, RDM marketing, and RDM training.
Dissertation (MIS)--University of Pretoria, 2016.
Information Science
MIS
Unrestricted

The global solar PV market is growing fast, and so is the production and trade with photovoltaic products and peripherals. Until now, the largest development has taken place in highly developed and electrified countries with good administrative control over their electricity system. Recently, however, new markets in developing countries have become increasingly relevant in terms of market share, system sizes and installed capacities. Statistics from these types of countries are often weak or non-existent, leading to problems for global organizations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) or the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), whose task is to follow, analyze and document named development.  In this report, a method is presented in which customs data monitored by the ‘Market Analysis and Research’ section of the International Trade Centre, an agency of UN’s World Trade Organization, is analyzed and converted into annual installed PV capacity volumes. By complementing the basic data from the customs database with price statistics from IEA PVPS task 1 along with national module production data from IEA PVPS task 1 and the RTS cooperation a data conversion is executed.  The method has been improved incrementally, where different assumptions have been modified or added, so that the data conversion of exported and imported PV products, expressed in dollar per yearly quarter, match the official statistics of annual installed capacity for a number of reference countries with comprehensive PV capacity statistics. The sensitivity analysis shows that the method is sensitive to the accuracy of the annual domestic national PV module production data and to price changes of Chinese PV modules. For countries with accurate PV module production data, or countries with no module production, the method seems to be able to estimate the annual installed capacity in 2018 with an average difference of 21% and a maximum difference of ±38% and a total average difference of 12%, 17% and 11% for 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.  By implementing this method, an estimate on yearly installed capacities can be generated in all countries connected to the UN customs database and where the domestic module production is known. This gives the opportunity to at least get an assessment of how much PV that has been installed in developing countries that lack official statistics about their domestic PV market. The regions with the lowest existing data coverage in the world have been determined to be Africa and the Middle East. When applying the method on countries in Africa and the Middle East, larger capacities than the reference data were obtained.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.
Title from electronic title page (viewed Oct. 5, 2009). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Computer Science." Discipline: Computer Science; Department/School: Computer Science.

This work investigates emerging knowledge distribution means through a descriptive study. Despite the amount of attention that processes and structures for knowledge management has received within research during the last decade, little attention has been directed towards the actual means used for the distribution of knowledge by individuals. In this respect it is the aim of the study to contribute with knowledge regarding knowledge distribution means. The study consists of a survey of emerging electronically mediated distribution means followed with a characterization and analysis. For the characterization and analysis a framework for interpretation of the different distribution means was created based on the constructs of organizational learning and the levels of knowledge system interpretation. Within the framework characteristics and concepts were identified and then used for the analysis of the knowledge distribution means. The characterization of the different knowledge distribution means as such may be used as an instrument for evaluation since it generalizable to other means of knowledge distribution. The results of the study show that knowledge distribution is not an isolated event. It takes place in larger context, such as organizational learning, since it touches upon other activities or phenomena such as knowledge acquisition, knowledge interpretation, and organizational memory. The concept of genre of knowledge distribution was found to be a viable concept to base exploration and development of support for knowledge distribution. The investigated distribution means only partly support a model for knowledge representation that captures both the problem-solution as well as an understanding of their relationship. In this respect existing distribution means must be enhanced or new ones developed if we wish to endorse such a representational model.

Licentiate thesis in partial fulfillment of the Licentiate of Philosophy degree in Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University

Infectious agents transmitted between animals and humans (zoonoses) are important causes of emerging infectious diseases with major societal, economic, and public health implications. In order to prevent and control emerging zoonotic diseases (EZDs), they should ideally be identified in animals before they affect the human population. The utility of animal data for public health EZD surveillance was investigated in this thesis in four studies: a systematic literature review of current EZD surveillance systems and three critical examinations of pilot agricultural animal health surveillance systems. The first critical examination used expert-elicited criteria of EZD surveillance needs to evaluate a sentinel clinical pre-diagnostic system. The other two studies used statistical modeling to assess the ability of a laboratory-based system and an integrated system with both human and animal data to detect known patterns and outbreaks. The systematic review identified few evaluated surveillance systems, hence an evidence base for successful systems could not be obtained. Experts identified diagnostic data from laboratories and information on potential human exposures as important for public health action. While the sentinel animal surveillance system was not deemed useful on its own, identified gaps and biases in laboratory submissions suggest that sentinel veterinarians could inform animal laboratory surveillance. Seasonal trends and expected events of public health importance were identified in animal diagnostic laboratory data, however, statistical surveillance in either pre-diagnostic or diagnostic data streams did not provide adequate early warning signals for action. While the integrated surveillance for Salmonella bacteria allowed for the examination of the relationship between human and animal data, statistical alerts did not correlate with expert-identified investigations. Laboratory surveillance is likely the best candidate for EZD surveillance in animals, however, this information needs to be supplemented with potential human exposure information, as well as knowledge of data gaps and biases inherent in the data. Without this additional risk information to convert the animal data into risk for humans, the best use of animal laboratory data at this time is to help generate hypotheses in epidemiological investigations and in helping evaluate programs by examining longer-term trends.

Until very recently, most emerging market economies have achieved higher growth rates for the last decade. It is controversial whether this good economic environment is due to domestic reforms or due to favorable external factors. In this framework, the main aim of this study is to investigate the structure and sources of business cycles in emerging market economies and to determine how these cycles differ than those in developed countries. The role of external and domestic factors on business cycles are analyzed by applying not only the conventional panel data estimations but also common correlated effects panel mean group method which is introduced by Peseran (2006). Besides, the convergence of business cycles in emerging market economies to the business cycles in developed countries is discussed based on factor analysis. The major results indicate the common global factors are the leading source of the business cycles both in emerging market economies and developed countries. However, domestic determinants of fluctuations differ across two groups of countries. In addition, results show that in the last two decades fluctuations in emerging market economies have started to be more dependent on the fluctuations in developed countries.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
This paper addresses the creation of a large virtual-range environment whereby multiple, geographically dispersed, test ranges may operate in concert to support test operations. The most significant benefit of the virtual range environment is the time-sharing of costly processing resources. Other benefits include improved reliability and responsiveness of inter-range data transfer. This paper will focus on existing and near-term technology that may be applied to create a virtual-range and will address the technological and economic advantages and disadvantages of TDM vs. ATM approaches.

The current study was undertaken as a preliminary evaluation of a qualitative extension measure for use with emerging adults. A series of studies have been previously conducted to provide evidence for the reliability and validity of the RDA framework in evaluating youth development programs (Kurtines et al., 2008) and this study furthers this research to utilize RDA with emerging adults. Building on previous RDA research, the current study analyzed psychometric properties of the Identity Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood-Qualitative Extension (IDEA-QE) using RDA. Inter-coder percent agreement among the Theoretical Open Coders (TOC) and Theoretical Content Coders (TCC) for each of the category levels was moderate to high, ranging from .67 to .87. The Fleiss’ kappa across all category levels was from moderate agreement to almost perfect agreement, ranging from .60 to .88. The correlation between the TOC and the TCC demonstrated medium to high correlation, ranging from r(31)=.65, pr(31)=.74, p<.001.

Commodities futures trading went through unparalleled structural transformation during the first decade of the 2000s, which ultimately resulted in long lasting impacts on the volume and open interest levels as well as on the access to these markets and inclusion of new participants. Benefiting from the new sets of high frequency data made available due to these transformations, this dissertation is composed of three papers that investigate different market microstructure aspects of the commodities futures markets at BM&F-Bovespa. The first paper analyzes the modelling and forecasting of realized volatility in the corn and live cattle markets. For this purpose, the heterogeneous autoregressive model (HAR-RV) proposed by Corsi (2009) was used, as well as its extensions adapted to include jump components (Andersen et al., 2007) and leverage components (Corsi and Reno, 2012). Using measurements to compare both analysis, results show that modelling in-sample realized volatility is best performed if jumps and leverage components are included in the model. Out-of-sample forecasts results for the live cattle market show that there was no statistically significant difference between the models. For the corn markets, difference in the models\' forecast performance was found at the daily horizon only. The second paper delves into the relationship between volatility, volume and bid-ask spread in the corn and live cattle markets. Considering that these are emerging agricultural markets, concentration measures were also included. A three-equation structural model was used to capture the relationship between volatility, volume and bid-ask spread and the estimation was performed using the IV-GMM approach. Findings show that bid-ask spread levels are higher for live cattle markets than it is for corn markets. In addition, bid-ask spread is negatively related to volume and positively related to volatility. The significance and magnitude of the responses depend on the level of liquidity in each market. Further, results point out that concentration impacts corn and live cattle differently. The third paper examines the dynamic relationship between dealers activity and market structure in the live cattle inter-dealer market at BM&F-Bovespa. First, a descriptive analysis of the live cattle inter-dealer market structure is carried out and then follows an investigation of the dynamic of dealers\' activity and its determinants. Results indicate that the live cattle inter-dealer market is not competitive and that dealers\' activity is positively related to market concentration, quoted bid-ask spread, number of active dealers and the dealer\'s traded quantity.
Negociações nos mercados futuros de commodities passaram por transformações estruturais significativas durante a primeira década dos anos 2000, resultando em uma elevação dos níveis de volume e open interest, e também em uma maior facilidade de acesso a esses mercados e inclusão de novos participantes. Beneficiando-se da divulgação de dados de alta frequência possibilitada por estas transformações, esta tese, composta por três artigos, tem por objetivo investigar diferentes aspectos da microestrutura dos mercados de commodities da BM&F-Bovespa. O primeiro artigo analisa a modelagem e previsão de volatilidade realizada nos mercados futuros de milho e boi gordo. Para este fim, utilizou-se o modelo heterogêneo auto regressivo proposto por Corsi (2009), bem como suas extensões adaptadas para a inclusão dos componentes de saltos (jumps) (Andersen et al., 2007) e alavancagem (Corsi e Reno, 2012). Utilizando diferentes métricas de comparação, os resultados encontrados mostram que os modelos que incluem os componentes de saltos e os de alavancagem tem melhor desempenho que os demais em análises in-sample (modelagem). Por outro lado, a análise das previsões out-of-sample mostra que, para o mercado de boi gordo, não há diferença entre os modelos empregados, enquanto que para o mercado de milho verificou-se uma diferenciação preditiva no horizonte diário, porém para os horizontes semanal e mensal, os quatro modelos tiveram performance indistinta. O segundo artigo explora a relação entre volatilidade, volume e bid-ask spread nos mercados de milho e boi gordo. Levando em conta que se trata de mercados emergentes, métricas de concentração de mercado foram incluídas na análise. Para capturar a relação entre volatilidade, volume e bid-ask spread, um modelo estrutural de três equações simultâneas foi utilizado e a estimação foi feita através do modelo GMM com variáveis instrumentais. Os resultados indicam que os níveis de bid-ask spread encontrados para o mercado de boi gordo são maiores que os encontrados para o mercado de milho. Além disso, o bid-ask spread é negativamente relacionado ao volume e positivamente relacionado à volatilidade. Entretanto, a intensidade e magnitude da relação entre as variáveis depende dos níveis de liquidez dos mercados analisados. A concentração impacta o mercado de milho e boi gordo de forma diferente. O terceiro artigo investiga a dinâmica da relação entre a atividade dos dealers e estrutura do mercado de boi gordo na BM&F-Bovespa. Primeiramente, faz-se uma análise descritiva deste mercado e posteriormente estuda-se o comportamento dos dealers e seus determinantes. Os resultados indicam que os dealers no mercado de boi gordo não operam em uma estrutura competitiva e que a atividade destes é positivamente relacionada à concentração de mercado, ao bid-ask spread, ao número de dealers ativos e à quantidade de contratos transacionada pelos dealers.

Low-rank matrix factorizations have become increasingly popular to project high dimensional data into latent spaces with small dimensions in order to obtain better understandings of the data and thus more accurate predictions. In particular, they have been widely applied to important applications such as collaborative filtering and social network analysis. In this thesis, I investigate the applications and extensions of the ideas of the low-rank matrix factorization to solve several practically important problems arise from collaborative filtering and social network analysis. A key challenge in recommendation system research is how to effectively profile new users, a problem generally known as \emph{cold-start} recommendation. In the first part of this work, we extend the low-rank matrix factorization by allowing the latent factors to have more complex structures --- decision trees to solve the problem of cold-start recommendations. In particular, we present \emph{functional matrix factorization} (fMF), a novel cold-start recommendation method that solves the problem of adaptive interview construction based on low-rank matrix factorizations. The second part of this work considers the efficiency problem of making recommendations in the context of large user and item spaces. Specifically, we address the problem through learning binary codes for collaborative filtering, which can be viewed as restricting the latent factors in low-rank matrix factorizations to be binary vectors that represent the binary codes for both users and items. In the third part of this work, we investigate the applications of low-rank matrix factorizations in the context of social network analysis. Specifically, we propose a convex optimization approach to discover the hidden network of social influence with low-rank and sparse structure by modeling the recurrent events at different individuals as multi-dimensional Hawkes processes, emphasizing the mutual-excitation nature of the dynamics of event occurrences. The proposed framework combines the estimation of mutually exciting process and the low-rank matrix factorization in a principled manner. In the fourth part of this work, we estimate the triggering kernels for the Hawkes process. In particular, we focus on estimating the triggering kernels from an infinite dimensional functional space with the Euler Lagrange equation, which can be viewed as applying the idea of low-rank factorizations in the functional space.

In the context of South Africa, there is an increasing interest in the provision of a TSA to be made available at a region level (Ragab, 2014). The satellite accounting approach and its regional extension are likely to be the most appropriate tools to estimate the economic contribution of the tourism sector (Jean-Pierre & Perrain, 2016). Nonetheless, due to the complexity and limitations of the methodology (Jones & Munday, 2010) the researcher had to define the boundaries of the data available in South Africa at a regional level in terms of the RTSA requirements (United Nations, 2013). The construction of an RTSA can be done through a top-down or bottom-up approach (Jean-Pierre & Perrain, 2016; Song et al., 2012; Pham et al., 2008; Fletching, 2008). The top-down approach is the more common method used in literature since it is more cost effective, utilises existing resources and allows for national level and inter-regional comparisons. Taking this into consideration, the researcher applied a top-down approach in order to determine the appropriateness of the secondary data available in South Africa in the context of constructing an RTSA for a region. The data challenges in constructing an RTSA for the Western Cape region, in South Africa, related to the lack of a regional account, the inadequate tourism surveys at a regional level, and the unbalanced reconciliation of supply and demand. As in most emerging destinations, the study area did not have an available regional account detailed enough to satisfy the structural requirements of an RTSA. The location quotient technique was used to regionalise the national production table made it less accurate. The tourism data available at a regional level did not report on the necessary expenditure indicators to regionalise the national tourism expenditure; further, the international and domestic tourism data varied in indicators reported at granular level. This created inconsistencies in the estimated regional expenditure distribution between international and domestic tourism. Finally, these data challenges resulted in the regional supply and tourism demand ratio to be unbalanced. The aforementioned needs to first be addressed for an accurate and reliable RTSA to be constructed for a region. Therefore, as in many emerging destinations, the lack of adequate tourism supply and demand data is a critical limitation in estimating the value of tourism as an economic activity at a regional level. In conclusion, emerging tourism destinations would need to use alternative methods to construct an RTSA that would be deemed less accurate but still adequate for policymakers decision-making processes.
Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria 2019.
Tourism Management
MCom
Unrestricted

Big data availability in areas such as social networks, online marketing systems and stock markets is a good source for knowledge discovery. This thesis studies how discriminative itemsets can be discovered in the data streams made of transactions out of user profiles. Discriminative itemsets are frequent in one data stream with much higher frequencies than same itemsets in other data streams in the application domain. This research uses heuristics to manage the large and complex datasets by decreasing the number of candidate patterns. This gives researchers a better understanding of pattern mining in multiple data streams.

The focus of this research is on the specific relational and particular circumstances that result in an emerging cancer identity expressed through the daily lived- experiences of emerging adults via personal weblogs. Identity, a complex term in its own right, is discussed here under the rubric of social identity as processual, therefore it is expected that an emerging cancer identity will develop as the participants begin to narrativize their daily experiences with cancer on their weblogs. By critically engaging with notions of emerging adulthood theories with theories on the sociology of death and dying and illness narratives, this research seeks to understand the specific psychosocial changes that occur as the participants engage with their illness on their weblogs, which arguably contributes to an emerging cancer identity.

Modern main memory is primarily built using dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. As DRAM chip scales to higher density, there are mainly three problems that impede DRAM scalability and performance improvement. First, DRAM refresh overhead grows from negligible to severe, which limits DRAM scalability and causes performance degradation. Second, although memory capacity has increased dramatically in past decade, memory bandwidth has not kept pace with CPU performance scaling, which has led to the memory wall problem. Third, DRAM dissipates considerable power and has been reported to account for as much as 40% of the total system energy and this problem exacerbates as DRAM scales up. To address these problems, 1) we propose Rank-level Piggyback Caching (RPC) to alleviate DRAM refresh overhead by servicing memory requests and refresh operations in parallel; 2) we propose a high performance and bandwidth efficient approach, called SELF, to breaking the memory bandwidth wall by exploiting die-stacked DRAM as a part of memory; 3) we propose a cost-effective and energy-efficient architecture for hybrid memory systems composed of high bandwidth memory (HBM) and phase change memory (PCM), called Dual Role HBM (DR-HBM). In DR-HBM, hot pages are tracked at a cost-effective way and migrated to the HBM to improve performance, while cold pages are stored at the PCM to save energy.

Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Program, 2017.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 129-130).
Airlines in the Middle East have captured significant attention from governments, media and consumers over the past decade. By building large networks that facilitate international connections at their hubs, Middle East carriers are able to compete in a wide range of origin destination markets around the globe. Three of these carriers stand out with their recent expansion to European, US and Asian destinations: Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, also known as the ME3 carriers. From a capacity perspective, ME3 airlines have grown very rapidly on routes where they compete with US and European airlines. Over the 2010-2015 period, from Europe to the ME, ME3 airlines increased their seat capacity by 97% against a 1% reduction by European legacy carriers. At the same time, ME3 carriers increased the number of seats from the US by 181% while, as of 2017, US carriers have cut all flights to the Middle East, with the exception of Israel. In addition, ME3 capacity to Asia, and in particular to India, grew significantly. From a traffic perspective, ME3 carriers have had a significant impact in markets beyond the Middle East. Passenger traffic in the EU-India and US-India markets grew by 14% and 26% respectively since 2010. Most of the growth was driven by ME3 carriers, allowing them to reach 26% and 37% market share in these markets in 2015. The ME3 capacity growth likely stimulated the overall demand in markets to India but has also caused some diversion of traffic away from nonME3 carriers. In a two-way fixed effect econometric model, we estimated that the presence of ME3 carriers in average EU-India and US-India markets diverted, respectively, 20% and 32% of nonME3 traffic to ME3 carriers. The growing influence of ME3 carriers has led to significant controversy over claims of subsidies and unfair competition from both US and ME3 airlines. Based on a brief review of the various claims, we found that both sides have received government backing. It is difficult to determine whether either of the parties have violated established competition rules while benefiting from this support. Nonetheless, the dispute is likely to continue, if not for legal purposes at least for public relations and political purposes.
by Matthieu de Vergnes.
S.M. in Technology and Policy

This thesis argues that while simplifications are a necessary part of the modelling process, there is a lack of empirical research to identify which types of variability should be included in our models, and how they should be represented. This research aims to develop methodologies to undertake empirical analyses of variability on the road network, focusing specifically on traveller behaviour. This is particularly timely given the emergence of rich new data sources. Firstly, a method is proposed for examining predictable differences in daily link flow profiles by considering both magnitude and timing. Unlike previous methods, this approach can test for statistically significant differences whilst also comparing the shapes of the profiles, by applying Functional Linear Models to transportation data for the first time. Secondly, a flexible, data-driven method is proposed for classifying road users based on their trip frequency and spatial and temporal intrapersonal variability. Previous research has proposed methodologies for identifying public transport user classes based on repeated trip behaviour, but equivalent methods for data from the road network did not exist. As there was not an established data source to use, this research examines the feasibility of using Bluetooth data. Spatial variability is examined using Sequence Alignment which has not previously been applied to Bluetooth data from road networks, nor for spatial intrapersonal variability. The time of day variability analysis adapts a technique from smart card research so that all observations are classified into travel patterns and, therefore, systematic and random variability can be measured. These network- and traveller-focused analyses are then brought together using a framework which uses them concurrently and interactively to gain additional insights into traveller behaviour. For each of the methods proposed, an application to at least one year of real world data is presented.

Technological innovations and advancements are helping people gain an increasingly comfortable life, as well as expand their social capital through online networks by offering individual's new opportunities to share personal information. By collecting vast amounts of data a whole new range of services can be offered, information can be collected and compared, and a new level of individualization can be reached. However, with these new technical capacities comes the omnipresence of various devices gathering data, potential threats to privacy, and individuals' increasing concern over data privacy. This paper aims to shed light on the 'privacy paradox' phenomenon, the dichotomy between privacy attitude, concern, and behavior, by examining previous literature as well as using an online survey (N=463). The findings indicate that there is a difference between attitude, concern, and actual behavior. While individuals' value their data privacy and are concerned about information collected on them, few take action to protect it and actions rarely align with expressed concerns. However, the 'privacy paradox' is a complex phenomenon and it requires further research, especially with the implications of a data driven society and when introducing emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things.
Tekniska innovationer och framsteg har bidragit till att människor kan erbjudas en alltmer bekväm livsstil. Genom insamling av stora mängder data kan individer erbjudas ett helt nytt utbud av tjänster, information kan samlas in och jämföras, och en helt ny nivå av Individualisering kan uppnås. Dock innebär dessa innovationer enallt större närvaro av datainsamlandeenheter, potentiella hot mot privatliv, samt individers ökade oro kring dataintegritet. Denna uppsats undersöker "the privacy paradox", skillnaden mellan attityd och beteende kring datasäkerhet, och dess konsekvenser i ett datastyrt samhälle i och med att ny teknik introduceras. Undersökningen har skett genom en litteraturstudie samt en enkätundersökning (N=463) och resultaten visar på ett det finns en skillnad mellan attityd och beteende. Individer värderar datasäkerhet och är oroliga kring vilken mängd information som samlas in, dock är det få som agerar för att inte dela information och attityd går sällan i linje med faktiskt beteende. "The privacy paradox" är ett komplext fenomen och mer forskning krävs, speciellt i och med introduktion av ny teknik så som Artificiell intelligens och Internet of Things.

The mobile telecommunications industry continues to be at the epicentre for growth, innovation, and disruption for virtually all other industries. It is one of the keys to sustainable economic development especially in developing and emerging economies. Over the past two decades, the industry has been very dynamic, experiencing high growth rates. This paper uses econometric models to investigate the impact of market structure on market outcomes such as mobile prices and investment in emerging economies. This is done using quarterly panel data on fifteen emerging economies across four continents for the period between 2006 and 2015. The Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI) and the number of operators are used to proxy market structure and effective price per minute paid by consumers and capital expenditure per subscriber are used to proxy mobile prices and investment respectively. Empirical results indicate that increase in market concentration increases market prices. Results also indicate an inverted-U relationship between market concentration and investment. These results indicate that there is a trade-off between static and dynamic efficiency which means that competition in mobile telecommunications reduces both market prices and investments.

This paper examines the innovative behavior of agri-food firms located in Central and Eastern Europe. In the literature, empirical analyses on innovation activities of firms focus on various case studies from around the world. However, very few studies explored the innovation of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from Central and Eastern Europe’s agri-food sector. The analysis uses the logit estimation method and firm-level data, which are obtained from ERBD-World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS). Results suggest that firms that spent some proportion of their financial budget on research and development (R&D), had workforce training programs and bought fixed assets are more likely to launch product, process, organizational and marketing innovations.

The global photovoltaic (PV) market is growing, contributing to reduced climate emissions from electricity production. Historically, PV deployment mainly occurred in developed and electrified countries with a high level of certainty over their electrical system. Recently, this trend has started to change, contributing to a more globally distributed PV market. In primarily two of the emerging markets, Africa and the Middle East, the statistical situation is weak or non-existent, making it hard to monitor and track the PV development. PV devices can be grid-connected or off-grid, installed in PV parks or in smaller household applications, which further complicates the monitoring. As a result, the best available statistics on these markets, provided by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), are to a major part based on estimations not built on any official data.  In a pilot study a instrument prototype, Njord, for converting monetary trade data of PV devices into installed PV capacities was initiated, with the aim to provide more accurate estimates for these markets. Njord is in this study further developed, by increasing its resolution and adjusting assumptions. Further, an additional conversion factor, namely PV module weight, is implemented to improve the accuracy of the predictions. The time frame of Njord is enlarged enabling estimates of accumulated capacities, in contrast to previously only annual installations. The instrument methodology is based on a bottom-up approach of processing import and export customs data, and converting the data to installed capacities using the price and weight of a PV module per wattage. In addition to the further development of Njord, the trade data is used to map and analyse monetary trade flows and thereby market values. Identified improvements concerned, among others, to adjust the percentage of PV modules in the customs code for countries without specific codes, and to fill data gaps with additional mirror data. The weight conversion factor was initially implemented as a parallel instrument to the price based. The two conversion factors were then combined into an instrument choosing the most suitable conversion factor with regards to a number of constraints. The instrument performance was validated against reference countries with well documented PV markets, qualitatively customs data, and small domestic PV manufacturing. For the reference countries and the comparative period of 2016 – 2018, the total deviations were improved from spanning 11.1 % – 17.0 % to 0.5 – 22.6 %. The best performance is seen for the most recent years of 2018 and 2019, with total deviations of 0.5 % and 4.1 % respectively. Njord shows high performance for estimating accumulated capacity, with a deviation of 4.3 % in the end of 2019. When applying Njord to the markets of interest, Africa and the Middle East, the results are significantly higher than the IRENA estimates, with a result of 118 % higher for Africa and 127 % higher for the Middle East. This indicates that the PV deployment in these emerging markets could be underestimated in today's statistical situation.  In combination with the instrument results, mapping trade flows has shown to give comprehensive information about the PV markets of interest and shows the potential of using trade data for this type of analysis. China distinguishes as the dominant trade partner for both Africa and the Middle East, in line with the global PV market. Although these markets are small relative the global PV context, there was in 2019 still a net import of PV modules of in total 879 million US$ for Africa and 728 million US$ for the Middle East, and the markets are growing fast. Further, mapping trade flows has shown to identify manufacturing countries on the markets of interest, which there also is a lack of information on. The trade patterns and its inherent monetary values could be used to for example identify market development and business opportunities.

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTITUIÇÕES COMUNITÁRIAS DE ENSINO PARTICULARES
A área de química do estado sólido ocupa uma posição cada vez mais importante nas atividades de pesquisa e desenvolvimento farmacêuticas. A compreensão das propriedades do estado sólido de um insumo farmacêutico ativo (IFA) mostra-se crítica no desenvolvimento de formulações em função de seus impactos na biodisponibilidade e solubilidade dos fármacos, sendo essencial para garantir o benefício terapêutico, otimizar o desenvolvimento e garantir a proteção da propriedade intelectual. Esta tese investiga indicadores científicos e tecnológicos na área de química do estado sólido utilizando ferramentas de ciência dos dados a partir de publicações científicas e depósitos de patentes, visando contribuir para o aumento da competitividade da indústria farmoquímica e farmacêutica brasileira e de outros mercados emergentes. A partir da utilização de ferramentas de ciência dos dados é proposta uma metodologia baseada em técnicas de text mining associadas a relações fuzzy. Essa metodologia de identificação de competências específicas aplicada na área de química do estado sólido tem como estudo de caso a descoberta de uma nova forma polimórfica para o IFA acetato de dexametasona. Os resultados revelam que existem competências científicas em química do estado sólido no Brasil. Contudo, quando comparada com a interação universidade-empresa mundial, a indústria farmoquimica e farmacêutica local perde em estágio de competitividade e desenvolvimento. Por outro lado, os resultados demonstram a robustez da metodologia e sua capacidade de identificar pesquisadores em área específicas, oferecendo soluções para apoio a tomada de decisão e identificação de pesquisadores relevantes para o desenvolvimento do setor farmoquímico e farmacêutico.
The solid-state chemistry area has received increased attention in the pharmaceutical research and development activities. The comprehension of the solid-state properties of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) is critical in the development of formulations due to their impact on the bioavailability and solubility of the final drug, being essential to ensure therapeutic benefit, optimize development and allow a proper intellectual property protection. This research investigates science and technology indicators in the solid-state chemistry area using data science tools applied to scientific publications and patent documents, aiming to contribute to the increase of the competitiveness of the pharmaceutical industry in Brazil and in other emerging markets. Through data science tools, a methodology based on text mining techniques associated to fuzzy relations is proposed. This methodology for identifying specific competencies is applied in the solid-state chemistry area exploring a case study of the discovery of a new polymorphic form of the API dexamethasone acetate. The results reveal the existence of scientific competencies in solid-state chemistry in Brazil. However, when compared to the global university-company interaction, the local pharmaceutical industry shows a lower stage of competitiveness and development. On the other hand, the results indicates the robustness of the methodology and its ability to identify researchers in specific areas, offering solutions to support the decision making and identification of researchers relevant to the development of the pharmaceutical sector.

In the new millennium, West Indian territories began embarking on the introduction of information rights legislation such as Freedom of Information (FoI) and Data Protection. However, this type of legislation is proving challenging for West Indian nation states to implement. This thesis investigates the challenges faced by West Indian territories as it relates to the implementation of data protection legislation and explores the idea that these challenges are as a result of their historical background and developmental trajectory. Additionally, the thesis considers the implications of data protection for West Indian societies and a contextual account is undertaken to explain why data protection as a concept is misinterpreted, misunderstood or unknown by policy-makers and the citizenry at large. Moreover, the study seeks to understand and explore whether the sub-standard management of records and information compared with internationally accepted standards, at all levels of West Indian society could be seen as a significant obstacle to the introduction of information rights legislation, in particular, the implementation, regulation and enforcement of data protection. The thesis analyses whether there is an irrefutable link between data protection and records management and if a sound records management environment would provide the required stability for the successful implementation of data protection at all levels. In seeking to inform emerging practice in the West Indies, this is the first multi-disciplinary study that examines the provisions for data protection in select international jurisdictions from a records management perspective. The jurisdictions selected for examination are two European Union Member States, Germany and the United Kingdom as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand where four distinct approaches for the implementation of data protection have been identified. The study examines the core principles, policies, procedures and practices in these four models for data protection using a comparative approach. Thereafter, principally qualitative data is extrapolated towards the development of a framework for the implementation of data protection in the West Indies with a view of data protection’s relationship to records management. The thesis first interrogates how and why data protection emerged as a public issue across the selected jurisdictions in order to establish the main drivers in these societies. It examines the relationship between data protection and the management of records and information, particularly as it relates to the administration and use of the personal data of citizens by public and private agencies. It explores how new trends and advances in technology impact on data protection and records management in today’s digital world. Using the data gathered, it identifies the main drivers and obstacles for the West Indies as they relate to data protection implementation and finally, what issues are expected to arise with the implementation of data protection and the management of records and information in future that would affect regions similar to the West Indies. Additionally, the comparative research makes a case for key solutions, mechanisms and strategies that would prepare professionals working with records and information for how to deal with data protection implementation in an increasingly technological environment in the West Indies.

One of the most visible signs of the globalization of the world economy is the increase of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows across countries. This past decade the trend of FDI has shifted from developed countries to emerging economies, which is most notably in the BRICS countries. However, as BRICS reputation has been damaged these past years due to its weak growth outlook in the early 2010s, investors are shifting to the new economic grouping acronym, the MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) countries for better future prospects of FDI destination. Since the MINT countries have emerged as a popular destination of FDI, it is necessary to investigate what are the key factors that make these four countries attractive as FDI destinations. Hence, this paper analyzes what are the determinants of inward FDI into the MINT countries during the time period from 1990 to 2014. To be able to answer the research question and demonstrate the effect of the seven independent variables (market size, economic instability, natural resources availability, infrastructure facilities, trade openness, institutional stability and political stability) on FDI as a dependent variable, the study uses a panel data analysis. The data is based on secondary data, which is collected from the World Bank dataset. The empirical finding from the study illustrates that market size, economic instability, infrastructure facilities, trade openness, institutional stability, and political stability are significant as determinants FDI inflows to the MINT countries, meanwhile, natural resources availability appears to be an insignificant determinant of FDI inflows to the MINT countries.

Aquesta tesi ofereix un examen en profunditat del comportament d’apreuament de les accions dipositades per part dels mercats emergents que, en gran part, s’han menystingut tot i el seu paper de dominació en l’àmbit del creuament de cotitzacions estrangeres. Les característiques de les accions dipositades fan que tinguin un valor idèntic al del seu stock subjacent i, per tant, esperen ser valorades de la mateixa manera. El fet de dur a terme una anàlisi detallada d’aquesta qüestió ha estat obstaculitzat fins ara per la falta de qualitat de les dades del dia a dia dels mercats emergents, unes informacions que faciliten l’anàlisi a temps real de la relació entre els preus de les accions dipositades i els seus stocks subjacents. Aquest estudi directe és necessari des del moment que aquests mercats tenen grans barreres comercials que possiblement distorsionen les relacions d’apreuament teòriques i emmascaren els veritables patrons d’apreuament. En el primer assaig s’examina el llarg funcionament fonamental de la relació econòmica que lliga els dos valors: la llei del preu únic. Proves recents demostren que, contràriament a allò que ocorre amb els valors de mercat, l’equitat de preus es trenca en els valors dels mercats emergents a causa de la presència de barreres comercials com ara els preus de comerç, les restriccions de la venda al detall i el control de capital. En el primer assaig es confirma la violació de la llarga carrera de la paritat en els preus de les accions dipositades egípcies, fet que està corroborat per proves de fortalesa dutes a terme durant diversos caps de setmana al mercat local i al mercat amfitrió, com també en els moviments del règim del tipus de canvi. El segon assaig se centra a identificar si existeixen oportunitats reals d’arbitratge quan es viola l’equilibri en la relació d’apreuaments subjacent. En l’anàlisi s’utilitza una única freqüència elevada durant dos anys de dades diàries de 16 valors egipcis i argentins per identificar si existeixen oportunitats d’arbitratge durant el període en què els dos valors estan comerciant i establir si les comercialitzacions d’arbitratge juguen algun paper en la convergència de preus. La metodologia emprada es basa en un procediment d’identificació del nou arbitratge que té en compte les despeses del comerç dinàmic i el volum d’aquest. S’ha establert una evidència de la presència d’un gran nombre d’oportunitats d’arbitratge a través de la mostra. S’ha vist que les oportunitats d’arbitratge persisteixen durant uns quants minuts i demanen més d’una comercialització per convergir en zones no arbitrades. A partir d’un algoritme de filtració s’extreuen les veritables comercialitzacions d’arbitratge de la comercialització d’arbitratge de les dades i s’estableix la importància del rol d’arbitratge en el moment de restablir els preus al seu valor fonamental i en el moment d’evitar que els preus vagin a la deriva lluny d’un preu implícit comú i eficient. El tercer assaig afegeix l’anàlisi de l’arbitratge i fa servir les mateixes dades diàries per examinar si és el mercat local o l’estranger el que juga un paper més dominant en l’apreuament diari dels valors de les cotitzacions creuades egípcies i argentines. Els resultats mostren que els dos mercats són importants per al procés de descobriment de preus, però que tant per a tots els valors egipcis com per a la major part dels argentins, el mercat local juga un paper més dominant. S’ha determinat que la localització de la descoberta del preu depèn de múltiples factors, entre els quals la liquiditat i el volum de comercialitzacions que cada mercat pot atraure són els més importants. El darrer assaig de la tesi va estar motivat pels resultats del tercer assaig i inspirat pels moviments de la Primavera Àrab de l’Orient Mitjà. L’aixecament a Egipte del 25 de gener va estar acompanyat pel tancament complet dels mercats d’stock durant dos mesos sencers. Aquest fet va crear una situació interessant en la qual els únics valors egipcis que podien comercialitzar eren aquells que tenien accions dipositades i que comercialitzaven al Regne Unit. Utilitzem aquest fet per examinar l’efecte d’un canvi en el marc legal en la localització de la descoberta del preu i per determinar que durant el període d’excepció durant el qual el mercat local va estar tancat, la localització de la descoberta del preu va canviar al mercat estranger, fent que aquest fos la localització dominant per a les activitats d’apreuament. Això proporciona dades de la naturalesa dinàmica del descobriment de preus de les accions dipositades.
Esta tesis ofrece un examen en profundidad del comportamiento de pricing de los recibos de depósito por parte de los mercados emergentes que, en gran parte, ha sido negligido a pesar de su papel dominante en el ámbito del cross-listing extranjero. Las características de los recibos de depósito hacen que sean títulos idénticos a su stock subyacente y, por tanto, se espera que sean valorados de la misma forma. El análisis detallado esta cuestión ha visto obstaculizado hasta ahora por la falta de datos de calidad intradía de los mercados emergentes, que facilite el análisis en tiempo real de la relación entre los precios de los recibos de depósito y su stock subyacente. Este análisis directo es necesario desde el momento que estos mercados tienen grandes barreras comerciales que posiblemente distorsionan las relaciones de pricing teóricas y enmascaran los verdaderos patrones de pricing. En el primer estudio, se examina la relación económica fundamental a largo plazo que relaciona los dos títulos: la ley del precio único. Pruebas recientes demuestran que, contrariamente a aquello que ocurre con los valores del mercado desarrollado, la paridad de precios se rompe en los valores de los mercados emergentes debido a la presencia de barreras comerciales como los precios comerciales, las restricciones de venta a corto y el control de capital. Este primer estudio confirma la violación de la paridad de precios de los recibos de depósito egipcios, hecho que está corroborado por los tests de fortaleza llevados a cabo durante varios fines de semana entre el mercado local y el de acogida, como también en los cambios de régimen del tipo de cambio. El segundo estudio se centra en identificar si existen oportunidades reales de arbitraje cuando se viola la relación de pricing de equilibrio subyacente. En el análisis, se usa una única serie de datos intradía de alta frecuencia durante dos años de 16 valores egipcios y argentinos para identificar si existen oportunidades de arbitraje durante el período en que los dos valores se están comerciando y establecer si las comercializaciones de arbitraje tienen algún papel en la convergencia de precios. La metodología usada se basa en un nuevo procedimiento de identificación del arbitraje que tiene en cuenta los costes comerciales dinámicos y los volúmenes. Se ha constatado que existe un gran número de oportunidades de arbitraje a lo largo de la muestra. Se ha visto que las oportunidades de arbitraje persisten durante unos cuantos minutos y requieren más de una comercialización para converger en zonas no arbitradas. A partir de un algoritmo de filtración, se extraen los intercambios reales de arbitraje de los intercambios de la serie de datos y se establece la importancia del rol de los árbitros para restablecer los precios a sus valores fundamentales y evitar que los precios se alejen de un precio implícito común y eficiente. El tercer estudio se basa en el análisis del arbitraje y utiliza la misma serie de datos intradía para examinar si es el mercado local o el extranjero el que tiene un papel más dominante en el pricing intradía de los valores de las cotizaciones cruzadas egipcias y argentinas. Los resultados muestran que los dos mercados son importantes para el proceso de revelación del precio, pero que para todos los valores egipcios y para la mayor parte de los argentinos el mercado local tiene un papel más dominante. Se ha observado que la localización de la revelación del precio depende de múltiples factores, entre los cuales la liquidez y el volumen de comercialización que cada mercado puede atraer son los más importantes. El último estudio de esta tesis fue motivado por los resultados del tercer estudio e inspirado por los movimientos de la Primavera Árabe del Oriente Medio. La revuelta del 25 de enero vino acompañado por el cierre total de los mercados bursátiles durante dos meses enteros. Este hecho creó un escenario interesante en el cual los únicos valores egipcios que se podían comercializar eran aquellos que tenían recibos de depósito y que comercializaban en el Reino Unido. Utilizamos este hecho para examinar el efecto de un cambio en el marco legal de la locación del descubrimiento del precio y para ver que durante el período de excepción durante el cual el mercado estuvo cerrado, la localización de la revelación del precio ha pasado al mercado emergente, haciendo que este fuera la localización dominante para las actividades de pricing. Esto demuestra la naturaleza dinámica del descubrimiento de precios de los recibos de depósito.
This thesis provides an in-depth examination of the pricing behavior of depository receipts from emerging markets which have been largely overlooked despite their dominating role in the foreign cross-listing arena. Characteristics of depository receipts make them identical securities to their underlying stock and therefore both are expected to be priced equally. A detailed analysis of the issue has been so far hampered by the lack of quality intraday data from emerging markets that facilitates a real time analysis of the relationship between the prices of the depository receipt and its underlying stock. This direct examination is required since those markets have large trading barriers that are hypothesized to distort the theoretical pricing relationship and mask true pricing patterns. The first essay examines the fundamental long run economic relationship that ties both securities: the law of one price. Recent evidence shows that contrary to developed market equities, price parity is broken in emerging market equities due to the presence of trading barriers such as trading costs, short selling restrictions and capital controls. The first essay confirms the violation of long run price parity in Egyptian depository receipts which is corroborated by robustness tests around the different weekends between the local and host market as well as around exchange rate regime shifts. The second essay focuses on identifying whether real arbitrage opportunities exist when the underlying equilibrium pricing relationship is violated. The analysis uses a unique two year high frequency intraday dataset from 16 Egyptian and Argentinean equities to identify whether arbitrage opportunities exist during the period when both securities are simultaneously trading and establish whether arbitrage trades play a role in price convergence. The methodology used relies on a novel arbitrage identification procedure that uses dynamic trading costs and volumes. Evidence of the presence of large number of arbitrage opportunities across the sample is established. Arbitrage opportunities are found to persist for several minutes and require more than one trade to converge to no-arbitrage zones. A filtering algorithm extracts real arbitrage trades from the arbitrage trades from the dataset and establishes the important role of arbitrageurs in restoring prices to their fundamental values and in keeping prices from drifting away from a common efficient implicit price. The third essay builds on the arbitrage analysis and uses the same intraday dataset to examine whether the local or foreign market plays a more dominant role in the intraday pricing of the Egyptian and Argentinean cross-listed securities. The results show that both markets are important for the price discovery process, but that for all of the Egyptian and most of the Argentinean securities, the local market plays a more dominant role. The location of price discovery is found to depend on several factors, most importantly the liquidity and trading volume that each market can attract. The final essay in the thesis was motivated by the results of the third essay and inspired by the Arab spring movements in the Middle East. The 25th of January uprising in Egypt was accompanied by a full stock market closure for a complete two months. This created an interesting setting in which the only Egyptian equities that were allowed to trade were those with depository receipts trading in the UK. We use this event to examine the effect of a change in the legal environment on the location of price discovery and find that during the interim period where the local market was closed, the location of price discovery has shifted to the foreign market making it the dominant location for pricing activity. This provides evidence of the dynamic nature of the price discovery of depository receipts.

The purpose of this thesis is to clarify what the international regulatory techniques governing Transborder Data Flows (TDF) should be. This thesis deals mainly with the concepts and implementation of rules relating to the protection of privacy and transborder flows of personal data, as adopted by two international organizations, namely the OECD and the Council of Europe. The focus of this study is on the influence of two instruments adopted in 1980 (namely the OECD Guidelines and the CoE Convention), on the national data protection policies of the member states. A further section is devoted to reviewing their impact on Japanese public and private sectors.
Employing the findings arising from the activities of these two organizations, the concluding chapter links the theoretical and empirical components of the study to indicate certain conditions necessary for establishing an effective legal regime over a rapidly emerging field of telematics.

Le programme d’élimination du paludisme de l’OMS est menacé par l’émergence etla propagation potentielle de parasites de l’espèce Plasmodium falciparum résistants à l’artémisinine. Récemment il a été montré que (a) des SNPs dans une région du chromosome 13 subissaient une forte sélection positive récente au Cambodge,(b) plusieurs sous-populations de parasites de P. falciparum résistants et sensibles à l’artémisinine étaient présentes au Cambodge, (c) des mutations dans le domaine Kelch du gène k13 sont des déterminants majeurs de la résistance à l’artémisinine dans la population parasitaire cambodgien et (d) des parasites de sous-populations du nord du Cambodge près de la Thaïlande et du Laos sont résistants à la méfloquine et portent l’allèle R539T du gène de k13.Il est donc nécessaire d’identifier la base génétique de la résistance dans le but de surveiller et de contrôler la transmission de parasites résistants au reste du monde, pour comprendre le métabolisme des parasites et pour le développement de nouveaux médicaments. Ce travail a porté sur la caractérisation de la structure de la population de P. falciparum au Cambodge et la description des propriétés métaboliques des sous-populations présentes ainsi que des flux de gènes entre ces sous-populations. Le but est d’identifier les bases génétiques associées à la transmission et l’acquisition de résistance à l’artémisinine dans le pays.La première approche par code-barre a été développée pour identifier des sous-populations à l’aide d’un petit nombre de loci. Une approche moléculaire de PCR-LDR-FMA multiplexée et basée sur la technologie LUMINEX a été mise au point pour identifier les SNP dans 537 échantillons de sang (2010 - 2011) provenant de 16centres de santé au Cambodge. La présence de sous-populations le long des frontières du pays a été établie grâce à l’analyse de 282 échantillons. Les flux de gènes ont été décrits à partir des 11 loci du code-barre. Le code-barre permet d’identifier les sous-populations de parasites associées à la résistance à l’artémisinine et à la méfloquine qui ont émergé récemment.La seconde approche de caractérisation de la structure de la population de P.falciparum au Cambodge a été définie sur la base de l’analyse de 167 génomes de parasites (données NGS de 2008 à 2011) provenant de quatre localités au Cambodge et récupérés à partir de la base de données ENA. Huit sous-populations de parasites ont pu être décrites à partir d’un jeu de 21257 SNPs caractérisés dans cette étude. La présence de sous-populations mixtes de parasite apparait comme un risque majeur pour la transmission de la résistance à l’artémisinine. L’analyse fonctionnelle montre qu’il existe un fond génétique commun aux isolats dans les populations résistantes et a confirmé l’importance de la voie PI3K dans l’acquisition de la résistance en aidant le parasite à rester sous forme de stade anneau.Nos résultats remettent en question l’origine et la persistance des sous-populations de P. falciparum au Cambodge, fournissent des preuves de flux génétique entre les sous-populations et décrivent un modèle d’acquisition de résistance à l’artémisinine.Le processus d’identification des SNPs fiables a été ensuite appliqué au génome de Babesia microti. Ce parasite est responsable de la babésiose humain (un syndrome de type malaria) et est endémique dans le nord-est des Etats-Unis. L’objectif était de valider la position taxonomique de B. microti en tant que groupe externe aux piroplasmes et d’améliorer l’annotation fonctionnelle du génome en incluant la variabilité génétique, l’expression des gènes et la capacité antigénique des protéines. Nous avons ainsi identifié de nouvelles protéines impliquées dans les interactions hôte-parasite
The undergoing WHO Malaria elimination program is threatened by the emergenceand potential spread of the Plasmodium falciparum artemisinin resistant parasite.Recent reports have shown (a) SNPs in region of chromosome 13 to be understrong recent positive selection in Cambodia, (b) presence of P. falciparum parasiteresistant and sensitive subpopulations in Cambodia, (c) the evidence that mutationsin the Kelch propeller domain of the k13 gene are major determinants ofartemisinin resistance in Cambodian parasite population and (d) parasite subpopulations in Northern Cambodia near Thailand and Laos with mefloquine drugresistance and carrying R539T allele of the k13 gene.Identifying the genetic basis of resistance is important to monitor and control thetransmission of resistant parasites and to understand parasite metabolism for the development of new drugs. This thesis focuses on analysis of P. falciparum population structure in Cambodia and description of metabolic properties of these subpopulations and gene flow among them. This could help in identifying the genetic evidence associated to transmission and acquisition of artemisinin resistance over the country.First, a barcode approach was used to identify parasite subpopulations using smallnumber of loci. A mid-throughput PCR-LDR-FMA approach based on LUMINEXtechnology was used to screen for SNPs in 537 blood samples (2010 - 2011) from 16health centres in Cambodia. Based on successful typing of 282 samples, subpopulations were characterized along the borders of the country. Gene flow was described based on the gradient of alleles at the 11 loci in the barcode. The barcode successfully identifies recently emerging parasite subpopulations associated to artemisinin and mefloquine resistance.In the second approach, the parasite population structure was defined based on167 parasite NGS genomes (2008 - 2011) originating from four locations in Cambodia,recovered from the ENA database. Based on calling of 21257 SNPs, eight parasite subpopulations were described. Presence of admixture parasite subpopulation couldbe supporting artemisinin resistance transmission. Functional analysis based on significant genes validated similar background for resistant isolates and revealed PI3K pathway in resistant populations supporting acquisition of resistance by assisting the parasite in ring stage form.Our findings question the origin and the persistence of the P. falciparum subpopulations in Cambodia, provide evidence of gene flow among subpopulations anddescribe a model of artemisinin resistance acquisition.The variant calling approach was also implemented on the Babesia microti genome.This is a malaria like syndrome, and is endemic in the North-Eastern USA. Theobjective was to validate the taxonomic position of B. microti as out-group amongpiroplasmida and improve the functional genome annotation based on genetic variation, gene expression and protein antigenicity. We identified new proteins involved in parasite host interactions

Platform based ecosystems are becoming dominant models in the software engineering industry. ‘Big data’ has recently gained increased attention from both academia and practitioners and it is believed that big data affects every sector and industry. While an abundance of research focuses on big data and platform-based ecosystems, these two are typically approached as secluded spheres. This study aimed toward an investigation of big data’s role in the evolution of platform-based ecosystems in the software engineering industry. In the present thesis the influence of big data on the software engineering industry and more specifically, the impact of big data on the evolution of software ecosystems, is examined. A case study focused on a platform owner and pioneer in the software engineering industry has been conducted. This study identifies challenges and opportunities triggered by the advent of big data in context of platform-based ecosystems. Hence, considerable insight regarding the impact of big data on contemporary platform providers and the evolution of platform-centric ecosystems is gained. The findings illustrate that software ecosystems are affected by big data in a positive manner, but some identified challenges emerge and have to be tackled. Additionally, in this paper, it is suggested that both academia and practitioners should dig deeper into this relationship and identify how the evolution of platform-based ecosystems is impacted by the advent of big data.

In this study, we aim to investigate the impact of inflation targeting (IT) and the recent global disinflation on exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) using quarterly data from 1980:1 to 2009:1 for 51 industrial and emerging market (EM) countries. To this end, we employ not only the conventional panel data estimation methods but also the recent Common Correlated Effects Pooled estimation procedure by Pesaran (2006) which allows estimating the impact of common global shocks such as global inflation. We also explore some other determinants of ERPT during the recent global disinflation period. Furthermore, we consider asymmetric effects of positive and negative output gaps as proxies for domestic demand conditions on ERPT for IT industrial and EM countries. Our results strongly suggest that, for the non-IT samples, ERPT is significantly higher in EM countries than industrial countries. For every country groups excluding Euro area countries, we find that ERPT declined substantially during the recent global disinflation period. The decline in the ERPT is, however, much higher in IT countries especially in EM ones. One striking result is the convergence of ERPT coefficients of EM countries to industrial IT countries with the adoption of IT. This supports the endogenous response of ERPT to monetary policy credibility and price stability. Consequently, a high ERPT, per se, may be interpreted as not a binding constraint for the adoption of IT as it tends to decline with the success of monetary policy regime. We also find that ERPT appears to be more sensitive to positive output gaps in IT industrial countries whilst it does not have such a response to positive or negative output gaps in IT emerging market countries.

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The thesis at hand adds to the existing literature by investigating the relationship between economic growth and outward foreign direct investments (OFDI) on a set of 16 emerging countries. Two different econometric techniques are employed: a panel data regression analysis and a time-series causality analysis. Results from the regression analysis indicate a positive and significant correlation between OFDI and economic growth. Additionally, the coefficient for the OFDI variable is robust in the sense specified by the Extreme Bound Analysis (EBA). On the other hand, the findings of the causality analysis are particularly heterogeneous. The vector autoregression (VAR) and the vector error correction model (VECM) approaches identify unidirectional Granger causality running either from OFDI to GDP or from GDP to OFDI in six countries. In four economies causality among the two variables is bidirectional, whereas in five countries no causality relationship between OFDI and GDP seems to be present.

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Quantifying country risk – and in particular, political risk – poses great difficulties for business, institutions, and investors alike. As economic indicators are updated far less frequently than Facebook feeds, it can be challenging for political risk analysts to understand, and more importantly measure, what is taking place in real time on the ground. However, with the growing availability of big data from social media platforms such as Twitter, now is an opportune moment to examine the types of social media metrics that are available and the limitations to applying them to country risk analysis, particularly during episodes of political upheaval. This study, using the qualitative method of bibliographical research, identifies the current landscape of data available from Twitter, analyzes the current and potential methods of analysis, and discusses their possible application to the field of political risk analysis. After a thorough review of the field to date, and given the expected near- to medium-term technological advancements, this study concludes that despite obstacles like the cost of data storage, limitations of real-time analysis, and the potential for data manipulation, the potential benefits of the application of social media metrics to the field of political risk analysis, particularly for structured-qualitative and quantitative models, outweigh the challenges.
A quantificação do risco país – e do risco político em particular – levanta várias dificuldades às empresas, instituições, e investidores. Como os indicadores econômicos são atualizados com muito menos freqüência do que o Facebook, compreender, e mais precisamente, medir – o que está ocorrendo no terreno em tempo real pode constituir um desafio para os analistas de risco político. No entanto, com a crescente disponibilidade de 'big data' de ferramentas sociais como o Twitter, agora é o momento oportuno para examinar os tipos de métricas das ferramentas sociais que estão disponíveis e as limitações da sua aplicação para a análise de risco país, especialmente durante episódios de violência política. Utilizando o método qualitativo de pesquisa bibliográfica, este estudo identifica a paisagem atual de dados disponíveis a partir do Twitter, analisa os métodos atuais e potenciais de análise, e discute a sua possível aplicação no campo da análise de risco político. Depois de uma revisão completa do campo até hoje, e tendo em conta os avanços tecnológicos esperados a curto e médio prazo, este estudo conclui que, apesar de obstáculos como o custo de armazenamento de informação, as limitações da análise em tempo real, e o potencial para a manipulação de dados, os benefícios potenciais da aplicação de métricas de ferramentas sociais para o campo da análise de risco político, particularmente para os modelos qualitativos-estruturados e quantitativos, claramente superam os desafios.

In this exploratory thesis project, I consider what emerging approaches we can take as social scientists to showcase and critically engage self-representations of diasporic individuals, who often lack visibility and legibility within the dominant cultural archive. Filmmaking as a social research practice can provide rich audiovisual data, physical and social access to materials for nonacademics, and opportunities to document and share subjects' comments and settings without the limitations of transcription. This is especially salient in the emerging media landscape of Web 2.0, where digital communications technology applications (such as Facebook, Skype, and Snapchat) are accessible by a global audience, and can act as tools for cultural identity production by diasporic individuals. This project documents the experiences of several first- and second-generation Bangladeshi American immigrants in relation to digital communications technology advances within the past decade, for the purposes of collecting and sharing stories of diasporic individuals, offering a venue for self-expression through empathetic interviewing and collaborative oral history methods, and contributing to the American cultural archive in the context of emerging media and academic landscapes. The full project is comprised of this text document, alongside a short documentary film containing portions of audiovisual data from interviews which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh9puazpdrw.
Master of Science

This thesis examines the relationship between private equity activity and perceived corruption in Asian countries controlling for many different economic factors. The study finds indications that perceived corruption negatively affects private equity in Asia, however this is not statistically proven for all countries. When analysing groups of countries separately, the study finds that higher perceived corruption is positively correlated with private equity activity in Developed markets but negatively correlated with private equity activity in Emerging markets. For Frontier markets, the relationship is not statistically significant, even though indications point to a negative relationship. The ability to enforce contracts, measuring the quality of judicial systems, is the most significant determinant of private equity activity. Furthermore, the paper finds that control variables overall have bigger effects for emerging and frontier countries than for developed economies, implying that richer economies already have higher levels of economic development and small changes do not have much impact, but for poorer countries, smaller changes in different factors seem to boost private equity activity

The advent of Social Networking Systems (SNS) has introduced new possibilities for planners to refine and extend conventional engagement and data-gathering techniques by leveraging user-contributed, spatially-referenced content freely available online. This study examines the use of SNS content as community input, complementing input gathered through traditional participatory processes such as workshops, public comment hearings, and charrettes. Four case studies of recent community planning projects in the United States are analyzed, comparing the data gathered from traditional participatory processes with available SNS content related to each project study area, to determine to what extent the inclusion of SNS data would improve the overall data- gathering efforts of these projects. Three significant findings emerge from this analysis: (i) that SNS data analysis can positively complement data gathered from traditional participatory processes, (ii) that although SNS data analysis can provide useful data to planners, it is not a direct replacement for conventional engagement techniques, and (iii) that SNS data analysis is most effective for projects in neighborhoods with a well- defined identity. The study also examines the characteristics of effective SNS data analysis integration and discusses broader implications for planning practitioners and additional research needed.