Syllabus GNDS 125: Gender, Race, and Popular Culture Winter 2025 Course Description GNDS 125 explores popular culture from feminist and anti-racist perspectives, with attention to sexuality, gender, race, and nation in a variety of media. In this class, we will examine and unpack how race, gender, sexuality, and class are constructed and re-constructed in mass media and popular culture. Specifically, we will investigate how popular culture elements are framed through the processes of production, consumption, representation, and reception. The course is not an appreciation of popular culture; rather, it aims to develop a critical understanding of media productions and cultural texts that are produced through social, political, cultural, and historical contexts. In this class, through intersectional analysis, students will engage critically with the most contemporary examples of popular culture. Course Objectives By the end of the course, student who actively participate in the course will be able to: 1. Identify and apply key concepts and theories drawn from gender and feminist studies, antiracist and decolonization studies, and media studies; 2. Apply media literacy skills to make connections between everyday events, popular culture, politics, and social justice issues as global citizens; 3. Engage in unlearning around the construction, representation and entrenchment of gender, race, sexuality, class, (dis)ability, ethnicity and nationhood in popular culture and develop and apply a feminist, critical, and intersectionallens to analyze popular culture products; 4. Critically reflect on power, privilege, and oppression and how they are implicated and operate in popular culture and the new media, including evaluating one’s own positionality; 5. Utilize an intersectional approach to analyze how the racialization processes and other experiences of various social groups are revealed, subverted, and/or challenged through popular culture; 6. Actively and creatively respond to popular culture, exploring resistance as well as consumption or consumptive relationships with received knowledge(s) about gender, race, and social justice; 7. Apply academic research and writing skills as well as ethical citation practices for the field of Gender Studies. Course Material You will need to purchase a ticket at the ReelOut Queer Film Festival 2025. More info in Film Review section below. All the other material will be provided online through the course onQ site and Queen’s University Course Reserves. Please make sure that you have turned your notifications on to receive alerts from the course onQ. GNDS 125 Assessment Components • Syllabus Quiz • Citation Exercise Quiz 2X5% Jan 10-20th Jan 27-Feb 3rd • ReelOut Queer Film Festival Review 20% January 30- Feb 8th Review Due Feb 14th • Creative Project • Creative Project Plan 25% March 5th March 17th • Tutorial Participation+ Attendance 20% Tutorials- ongoing Feedback on weeks 6 and 12 • Final Paper 25% April 7th *Detailed instructions for each grading component will be posted on the course onQ. ** Each assignment submission will have a 3-day grace period. That is, your assignments will be accepted without penalty up to 72 hours after the due dates. *** Students with Accommodations should refer to Accommodations for Disabilities section in this syllabus on how to use the accommodations recommended by QUSAS. Quizzes There will be two (2) quizzes, each worth 5% (for a total of total 10%). The quizzes will be completed via onQ. Details will be provided in class. ReelOut Film Review For this assignment, you will write a review for a film in the ReelOut Queer Festival Film, Kingston, Ontario and Videofest. This assignment requires that you watch a film at ReelOut 2025- the fee per screening is $15 plus tax. You will prepare a brief assignment to introduce the festival, review the film you watched, and reflect on your experience of attending a queer film festival. The 2025 festival runs from January 30th to February 8th. The details of the screenings are available on their website: https://reelout2025.eventive.org/welcome Creative Project Students will create a plan for and then develop a creative project on a pop cultural theme that relates to this course. These projects will be shared with classmates via Padlet. The project is an opportunity to critically assess an aspect of pop culture, discuss its influence, and its effects on audiences. Proposal & Final Paper For the final paper, GNDS 125 students will critically evaluate a popular culture piece from feminist and anti-racist perspectives with attention to sexuality, gender, race, and nation. You are expected to write an essay through an intersectional feminist lens by applying two course concepts to analyze an example of popular culture. The essays will be approximately 1500 words excluding the cover and references pages. The papers will be graded on your analysis of the popular culture piece; your thesis and working definition of the two course concepts; writing, flow of argument, grammar, engagement with academic resources, and proper citation format. Participation 20% of the final grade will be based on tutorial attendance and active participation. You are expected to arrive at the tutorial on time having completed the assigned readings of the corresponding week. Teaching assistants (TAs) will assign participation grades twice during the term based on your attendance and active participation that contributes to the learning of your peers. Active participation will be assessed on an ongoing basis by your tutorial leader with a mix of in-class exercises and activities. Failure to attend 3 tutorials without appropriate documentation will result in a loss of the final grade by 10%. This term, GNDS 125 is offered as an on-campus course in two sections. The course sections, lectures and tutorials are not interchangeable. You may attend only the tutorials you are registered in on SOLUS. Lectures are given by me each Tuesday on campus. Some weeks I will be allocating time to discuss upcoming assignments and respond to your questions. Do your best to review assigned course materials before class each week. You are encouraged to prepare your questions or comments for lectures as you will get chances to share them. Tutorials are led by Teaching Assistants and will start in the second week of classes. You need to attend the tutorial group that you have been assigned to on your SOLUS. Your TA will also contact you through the ‘tutorial discussion board’ on the course onQ. In Winter term, GNDS 125 is offered as an on-campus course in two sections. The course sections, lectures and tutorials are not interchangeable. You may attend only the lectures and tutorials you are registered in on SOLUS. Both lectures and tutorials will proceed on campus and attendance is required. GNDS 125 Guidelines and Expectations Grace Period All written assignments have a 3-day grace period to offer students some extra time and flexibility– be it because of a short-term illness, competing assignment deadlines, a small “life interruption” leading up to the assignment, etc. What this means is that assignments are due on their original due date but will be accepted without penalty up to 72 hours after time. The grace period serves as a built-in extension if you might need it. You do NOT need permission to use the grace period. Extensions will NOT be granted on top of the grace period, save for extenuating circumstances. Assignments submitted after the grace period will incur a late penalty of -1/3 letter grade per day (including weekends), up to four (4) days after the end of the grace period. For example, if you earned a B+ on a paper but it was submitted one day after the grace period ended, it would become a B after two days, a B-, etc. Assignments will not be accepted after one week from the original due date. Grading Policy: “Mixed Marking” In this course, some components will be graded using numerical percentage marks. Other components will receive letter grades, which for purposes of calculating your course average, will be translated into numerical equivalents using the Faculty of Arts and Science approved scale (see below). Your course average will then be converted to a final letter grade according to Queen's Official Grade Conversion Scale (see below). Arts & Science Letter Grade Input Scheme Assignment mark Numerical value for calculation of final mark A+ 93 A 87 A- 82 B+ 78 B 75 B- 72 C+ 68 C 65 C- 62 D+ 58 D 55 D- 52 F48 (F+) 48 Queen’s Official Grade Conversion Scale Grade Numerical Course Average (Range) A+ 90-100 A 85-89 A- 80-84 B+ 77-79 B 73-76 B- 70-72 C+ 67-69 C 63-66 C- 60-62 D+ 57-59 D 53-56 D- 50-52 F 49 and below
MN-3507 Risk Management in Banking Academic Year 2023-24 Module Overview Introduction Banks are subject to various risks due to the roles they play as intermediaries, the business models they adopt, and the rapidly changing environment. The risks banks face as intermediaries are primarily credit risk, liquidity risk, and interest risk. Additionally, banks are exposed to operational risk and country risk. This module examines the sources of these risks and the methods that banks can employ to evaluate and control them. Furthermore, the module covers the latest innovations in banking and the main reasons that led to the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008. This booklet contains: · an introduction to the module · details of all learning interactions · details of the core textbooks via the reading list · information on assessment and feedback, including the coursework brief · an overview of the entire module Module Delivery Lectures will be delivered in person on campus. The lecture for this module is timetabled on: Friday /13:00/Great Hall 014 (Bay) A recording will be posted on Canvas within 48 hours following the lecture. Seminars Seminars will be delivered in person on campus. Friday /15:00/Great Hall 014 (Bay) Communication All information related to the module will be conveyed to students via Canvas through the Announcements feature which will also send an e-mail notification to student accounts. Learning Outcomes On completion of this module students should be able to:- -Identify the main sources of risk in banking; -Appreciate the changing nature of risk in banking; -Explain and evaluate the credit, liquidity, interest rate and market risk exposure of a bank; -Evaluate the main techniques for managing credit, liquidity, interest rate and market risk exposures; -Discuss the problems with the originate and distribute business model of banking; -Discuss the nature of operational risk and the problems of measuring exposure to this risk; -Evaluate the role of derivatives in managing risks in banking; -Discuss the impact of the 2007/8 global banking crisis on risk management in banking. Transferrable Skills Problem solving skills Critical thinking Personal and career development Business research skills Reading Material Every effort has been made to provide the books and journals featured in the reading list for this module in digital and hard copy format via the library. For more details of the resources available to support your studies please consult the Library Services Guide for Management or watch this short recording by Subject Librarian, Naomi Prady. The full reading list for this module is available via Canvas The core textbooks for the module are: Saunders, A., Cornett, M. (2011) “Financial Institutions Management: A Risk Management Approach”, 7th edition, McGraw-Hill. Saita, F. (2010) “Value at Risk and Bank Capital Management: Risk Adjusted Performances, Capital Management and Capital Allocation Decision Making”. Elsevier A core textbook is only a starting point and provides introductory and background information only. Supplemental reading will be identified at each lecture. To achieve high marks in this module students will need to do background and supplemental reading as well as conduct their own independent research, for instance through the reading of academic journals, into the topics identified. Assessment The assessment for the module is structured as follows: · 30% Individual coursework assignment of 1,500 words · 70% Open Book Examination taken online – students will have a 2 hour window in which to complete the exam. Example questions will be worked through in the final seminar session of the module. The format of the exam will be 4 numerical questions of which students will be asked to answer all of them worth 60 marks, as well as three essay type questions of which students will be asked to answer two worth 20 marks each. Submission in Welsh Any written work submitted as part of any assessment or examination may be submitted in Welsh, and that work submitted in Welsh will be treated no less favourably than written work submitted by you in English as part of an assessment or examination. Canvas – Digital Learning Platform To ensure that students have everything they need to get the most out of Canvas, the University has produced a comprehensive guide called “Passport to Canvas”, which can be accessed via this Passport to Canvas link. “Passport to Canvas” will always be available to students, meaning that they can go through the material in one go, or dip in and out of it as required. Students can access the platform. via this Canvas Platform. link or from within the university apps and the MyUni webpages. Canvas Support is available 24/7 365 days a year in the following ways: · Canvas Support Hotline · Canvas Chat · Report a problem Students can also access these avenues of support via the Canvas Help icon in the navigation menu on the Canvas Platform. The Canvas Student Guides and Canvas Online Community may also be helpful. Note on Terminology For the purpose of all information, regulations and policies associated with Swansea University, we use the terms ‘Module’ and ‘Programme’ when making reference to students’ studies. Modules are discrete educational components of a programme which, when considered collectively, make up the required credit for students to complete each level of a programme. However, in Canvas, your Digital Learning Platform, the term ‘Modules’ has a different meaning - it is used to describe where all of the learning resources are stored. For this reason, students will see the term ‘Course’ used in Canvas instead, but it means the same as Module (above). The coursework assignment for this module is an individual assignment worth 30% of the overall module mark. Coursework Brief Critically compare two British banks’ current risk management strategies Key Marking criteria will include: · Initiative: originality, innovativeness of answer · Assignment Structure: clarity of aims, objective, structure and presentation · Quality of Writing: Readability and ability to convey key message(s) concisely · Quality/Scope of Literature Review: Understanding of established knowledge · Suitability of Literature: Use of suitable sources, focused to answer key research aims · Literature Analysis: Quality/level of analytical skill demonstrated · Insightfulness of Analysis: Interest and usefulness of findings, conclusions drawn. · Understanding: Assignment demonstrates students have understood key topics · Overall Quality of Assignment
N1550 Data Analytics for Accounting & Finance Assessment Instrument Group Project (assessment type PRJ) Your Assessment at a glance. The aim of this assessment is to analyse a dataset of your choice using the techniques covered in the module. Number of group members Two Number of words 2,000 +/- 10% as per Sussex policy. Word count includes tables and charts that are part of the main body (i.e, not part of any optional appendices) Word count excludes optional references and appendices. Please supply tables and charts inline (not at the end). Screenshot all Python code. References are optional in this assignment (apart from a reference to the dataset), if you include them please use Harvard referencing style. Percentage of total mark 40% Deadline End of Week 10. Please check Sussex Direct for the definite date and time. Choice of dataset You can choose a dataset of your choice, which must meet the following criteria: 1. It must be a public domain, freely available dataset. 2. The dataset should ideally contain at least two tables connected by primary keys and foreign keys. If the dataset contains just one table, it should be clear that it has been denormalised. 3. The dataset must contain a metric variable which can realistically serve as a dependent variable (for example, a performance score of some kind) 4. The dataset must contain another metric variable which can realistically serve as an independent variable. 5. The dataset must contain at least one categorical variable (to assist with analysis). You could create a categorical variable from a metric variable using Python. 6. The dataset’s main table must contain at least 500 datapoints (double check with module convenor if you are very keen on a dataset which meets all other criteria, just not this one). A good place to look for suitable datasets is Kaggle (https//www.kaggle.com) but this is not required. The textbook has a list of suitable sites in Chapter 2, Exhibit 2-1, p. 55. To ensure there is no duplication, each dataset must be approved by the module convenor before the report is submitted. We approve datasets on a first-come first served basis, meaning if a dataset is already used by other students you can no longer use it for your project. Approval does not necessarily mean that your dataset meets the above conditions: it remains your responsibility to ensure that it does. Email your approval request to [email protected], please do not include the actual dataset to avoid large size emails, but just a link to the dataset. Any report with a dataset that does not meet the above criteria and is not pre-approved will normally be capped at 40%. Marking criteria We will assess your report on the basis of the standard criteria for projects at the Year 2 Undergraduate Level, which you can find on Canvas. More specific marking guidance for this project is provided in the section “Structure of the Report” below. Structure of report Use the following structure to write your report: IMPACT Step Mark weighting Minimum required (Mark guidance 40%- 60%) Going the extra mile (Mark guidance 60%- 80+%) 1. Identifying the questions 15% Introduce the dataset, and three potential questions you wish to investigate Include equal contribution statement (see below). Introduce the dataset, and three potential questions you wish to investigate Include equal contribution statement (see below). 2. Mastering the Data 25% Produce a database model for the dataset, either ERD or UML. Identify primary and foreign keys. Produce a database model for the dataset, either ERD or UML. There are multiple tables for the dataset, and one-to-many (The model may contain only one table, but you can and should still identify how the table was constructed from normalised tables) Use Excel VLOOKUP or DB Browser for SQLite to access and join the data into a denormalised table. relationships are clearly identified. Identify primary and foreign keys. Use DB Browser for SQLite or Python to import the data. Join the datasets with Pandas and export the final dataset to Excel. 3. Performing test plan 25% Perform. a regression analysis using Excel Document the outcome. The regression result may relate to your questions. Perform. a regression analysis using Excel or Python. Use Python to import the dataset and highlight some unusual values. Document the outcome. The regression result should relate to your questions. 4. Address and Refine Results 25% Answer the three questions about your dataset, and use three appropriate visualisations to illustrate your answers. Provide a clear and concise narrative. Answer the three questions about your dataset, and use three appropriate visualisations to illustrate your answers. Include traditional & non- traditional charts to illustrate your points (something else other than pie charts, bar charts, or line charts). 5. Communicate Insights 10% Wrap up your report. Write in plain English what you have found. Wrap up your report. 6. Optional References 7. Optional Appendices For a definition of some of the terms, please refer to the module lectures, seminars, and textbook. Document all Python code that is used. A statement such as ‘we used Python’ is not sufficient. Liberally use screenshots to document your points. All screenshots should be full-screen screenshots. We do not accept partial or strategically cropped screenshots. Group dynamics You are expect to produce this report in pairs of two. We will not accept groups of one, or 3 or more. Any report not produced in pairs would normally be capped at 40%. If you have reasonable adjustments in place for this module, and these adjustments cover your ability to function in a group, please contact the module convenor, and exceptionally you will be able to produce this report on your own. Each report must contain the following statement: “Both authors contributed equally to the final project report”. Any report without this statement would normally be capped at 40%. Each member of the group will receive the same mark. Please make sure each project member contributes equally to the project report. This doesn’t mean that each project member needs to write exactly 1,000 words, because contributions can also be made in analysis and data modelling. However, it does mean that hours spent to produce the final deliverable should be more or less equal. In case of dispute, which cannot be resolved amicably and in time for the deadline: please submit the report individually and document clearly the source of dispute, and any proposed resolutions that have not helped (outside of the 2,000 word limit). If you cannot find a student partner through no fault of your own, and you have exhausted all reasonable options, please get in touch with the module convenor. You will then be assigned another student who is in the same position. You will be expected to work together as a pair in the same way as other pairs. Such manual assignment will normally be on a first-come first-served basis. Learning Outcomes being Asssessed The following two course learning outcomes are being assessed with this instrument: • LO2 Work effectively independently and collaboratively • LO4 Communicate information, ideas, problems, and solutions to specialist and nonspecialist audiences using a variety of technologies The following two module learning outcomes are being assessed with this instrument: • LO2 Develop and correctly interpret core data management concepts that are fundamental to the design of modern information systems in accounting and finance • LO3 Extract, visualise, and communicate key trends and insights from large datasets in the context of accounting and finance
ECON GU 4251: Problem set 1 Spring 2024 Problem sets are graded (check/check minus) based on effort, this includes the formatting of your work (typesetting is strongly encouraged). You can work in groups, but each student must upload an individual solution. Submissions need to be in pdf format and submitted via Canvas. We will not accept other formats. Demand and welfare analysis 1. Consider a market with two goods j = 1, 2. Good j = 1 consists of “green” but slow vehicles, while j = 2 corresponds to polluting yet fast vehicles. There are four types of consumers, differing in terms of their derived utilities from owning a vehicle. A consumer of type t = 1, 2, 3, 4 has preferences described by the pair Vt = (V1(t), V2(t)). Consumers of type t choose j = 1 if V1(t) - p1 ≥ V2(t) - p2 , and V1(t) - p1 ≥ 0; they choose j = 2 if V2(t) - p2 ≥ V1(t) - p1 , and V2(t) - p2 ≥ 0; and they choose to not purchase either good otherwise. The following table provides values of Vt for t = 1, 2, 3, 4 and a brief description of the consumers. )Description1environmental,walkstowork1022neutral,walkstowork543environmental,drivestowork1594likesspeed,drivestowork1120
ECON GU 4251: Problem set 2 Spring 2024 Problem sets are graded (check/check minus) based on effort, this includes the formatting of your work (typesetting is strongly encouraged). You can work in groups, but each student must upload an individual solution. Submissions need to be in pdf format and submitted via Canvas. We will not accept other formats. Second Degree Price Discrimination There are two music streaming services, NO ADS and ADS. The marginal cost per-user of NO ADS is $0.5, the marginal cost per-user of ADS is $0.2. There are 10 million consumers who value NO ADS $2, and ADS $0.7. There are 10 million consumers who value NO ADS $0.7, and ADS $0.5. a. The two streaming services are supplied by a perfectly competitive industry. What is the price of NO ADS, and what is the price of ADS? How many users choose NO ADS, and how many users choose ADS? What are the industry profit? What is total consumer surplus? b. Due to a change in the licensing system, the marginal cost of NO ADS increases by $0.01, while the marginal cost of ADS increases by $0.115. What happens to the perfect competitive prices? What happens to the number of consumers choosing each product? c. The costs are nowas in part a. However, instead of being supplied by a perfectly competitive industry, the two streaming services are offered by a monopolist. The firm knows the composition of consumers, and their preferences, but it cannot set prices individually to each buyer. (The firm chooses one price for NO ADS and one price for ADS, and the consumers self-select freely between the two options). Compute the optimal prices set by the firm, consumer surplus, and welfare. d. How much money would the monopolist pay to obtain a technology allowing them to distinguish and price discriminate between differen types of buyers? Nash Equilibrim in Simple Games Solve for the Nash equilibria of the following (normal-form) game. (Ignore mixed strategies; if you do not know what this means, nevermind.) Wasteful Races? Consider a country with 10 million individuals. In a semi-public service (think about education, healthcare, transportations) individuals use non-redeemable vouchers. If a firmi enters the market, and they charge any price Pi ≤ 5, individuals can pay with the voucher. If there are more than one firm, say N firms, individuals choose randomly (in equal share) between the firms with a price lower than 5. Entering implies a fixed cost of $10 million dollars, marginal costs are zero. a. Argue that, upon entering, any firm will select a price Pi = 5. Formally, you can argue that taking entry as given, Pi = 5 is a dominant strategy. (Hint: the profit of a firm after entering is surely -10(million), to which we must add revenues. These are equal to...) b. Consider the case of N = 2 and “fill in” the following normal form game, where firms are only choosing whether or not to enter, and upon entering they surely set Pi = 5. c. Find the Nash equilibrium of this game. d. Can you argue (in less than 20 words) that Nash equilibrium leads to lower welfare than a case in which the government only allows one firm to enter the market?
159.352 Topic 4 — Exercises Transport Layer Security and HTTP Here we will write a secure HTTP server in Python. HTTP server Here we continue using the Python http.server module. Import the module import http .server Define a simple“handler” class as before class MyHandler(http .server .BaseHTTPRequestHandler): def do_GET(self): self.send_ response(200) self.send_header( ' Content-type ' , ' text/html ' ) self.end_headers() respbody = f ' URI path : {self.path} ' self.wfile .write(respbody .encode( ' utf-8 ' )) Get a multithreaded server object and start serving. In this case we will listen on port 4443. webServer = ThreadedHTTPServer(( ' ' , 4443), MyHandler) webServer .serve_forever() As before, connect to the server using a browser and/or curl. HTTPS server Now we will make this an HTTPS server by wrapping the underlying socket with a TLS layer. First check that you have OpenSSL installed on your system. In a terminal window type openssl help If you don’t have this installed, then follow the instructions at: https://www . openssl . org/source/gitrepo . html Now we need to generate a certificate and key. Make a new sub-directory tmp and issue the following command from a terminal window openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout tmp/key.pem -out tmp/cert.pem Verify that the two files key.pem and cert.pem have been created. Use these to create a “context” in your Python code—make sure to first import the ssl module: context = ssl.SSLContext(ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS_SERVER) context.load_cert_chain(certfile= ' tmp/cert.pem ' , keyfile= ' tmp/key .pem ' ) The socket used for the connections is an attribute of the webServer object. Use the context to wrap this socket under a secure layer webServer .socket = context.wrap_socket(webServer .socket , server_side=True) Start the server again. Now you have an HTTPS server running. What happens when you try to connect using? curl http://localhost:4443 Now try: curl https://localhost:4443 You should find that curl will not allow you access to the site because the site certificate is self-signed. You can override this with the -k switch, i.e. curl -k https://localhost:4443 Try connecting using various browsers and compare their behaviours.
ECE5550: Applied Kalman Filtering SIMULTANEOUS STATE AND PARAMETER ESTIMATION USING KALMAN FILTERS 9.1: Parameters versus states ■ Until now, we have assumed that the state-space model of the system whose state we are estimating is known and constant. ■ However, the system model may not be entirely known: We may wish to adapt numeric values within the model to better match the model’s behavior. to the true system’s behavior. ■ Also, certain values within the system may change very slowly over the lifetime of the system—it would be good to track those changes. ■ For example, consider a battery cell. Its state-of-charge can traverse its entire range within minutes. However, its internal resistance might change as little as 20% in a decade or more of regular use. • The quantities that tend to change quickly comprise the state of the system, and • The quantities that tend to change slowly comprise the time-varying parameters of the system. ■ We know that Kalman filters may be used to estimate the state of a dynamic system given known parameters and noisy measurements. ■ We may also use (nonlinear) Kalman filters to estimate parameters given a known state and noisy measurements. ■ In this section of notes we first consider how to estimate the parameters of a system if its state is known. ■ Next, we consider how to simultaneously estimate both the state and parameters of the system using two different approaches. The generic approach to parameter estimation ■ We denote the true parameters of a particular model by θ . ■ We will use Kalman filtering techniques to estimate the parameters much like we have estimated the state. Therefore, we require a model of the dynamics of the parameters. ■ By assumption, parameters change very slowly, so we model them as constant with some small perturbation: θk = θk−1 + rk−1 . ■ The small white noise input rk is fictitious, but models the slow drift in the parameters of the system plus the infidelity of the model structure. ■ The output equation required for Kalman-filter system identification must be a measurable function of the system parameters. We use dk = hk (xk, uk,θ , ek ), where h(·) is the output equation of the system model being identified, and ek models the sensor noise and modeling error. ■ Note that dk is usually the same measurement as zk , but we maintain a distinction here in case separate outputs are used. Then, Dk = {d0, d1 , . . . , dk }. Also, note that ek and vk often play the same role, but are considered distinct here. ■ We also slightly revise the mathematical model of system dynamics xk = fk−1(xk−1 , uk−1,θ,wk−1) z k = hk (xk, uk,θ,vk ), to explicitly include the parameters θ in the model. ■ Non-time-varying numeric values required by the model may be embedded within f (·) and h(·), and are not included in θ . 9.2: EKF for parameter estimation ■ Here, we show how to use EKF for parameter estimation. ■ As always, we proceed by deriving the six essential steps of sequential inference. EKF step 1a: Parameter estimate time update. ■ The parameter prediction step is approximated as ■ This makes sense, since the parameters are assumed constant. EKF step 1b: Error covariance time update. ■ The covariance prediction step is accomplished by first computing θ˜ k −.k— . ■ We then directly compute the desired covariance ■ The time-updated covariance has additional uncertainty due to the fictitious noise “driving” the parameter values. EKF step 1c: Output estimate. ■ The system output is estimated to be d(^)k = E[h(xk, uk,θ , ek ) | Dk — 1] ≈ hk (xk , uk , θ(^)k— , e-k ). ■ That is, it is assumed that propagatingθ(^)k— and the mean estimation error is the best approximation to estimating the output. EKF step 2a: Estimator gain matrix. ■ The output prediction error may then be approximated using again a Taylor-series expansion on the first term. ■ From this, we can compute such necessary quantities as ■ These terms may be combined to get the Kalman gain ■ Note, by the chain rule of total differentials, ■ But, ■ The derivative calculations are recursive in nature, and evolve over time as the state evolves. ■ The term dx0/dθ is initialized to zero unless side information gives a better estimate of its value. ■ To calculateC(^)k(θ) for any specific model structure, we require methods to calculate all of the above the partial derivatives for that model. EKF step 2b: State estimate measurement update. ■ The fifth step is to compute the a posteriori state estimate by updating the a priori estimate using the estimator gain and the output prediction error dk − d(^)k EKF step 2c: Error covariance measurement update. ■ Finally, the updated covariance is computed as ■ EKF for parameter estimation is summarized in a later table. Notes: ■ We initialize the parameter estimate with our best information re. the parameter value: θ(^)0( ) = E[θ0]. ■ We initialize the parameter estimation error covariance matrix: ■ We also initialize dx0 /dθ = 0 unless side information is available.
N1577 Principles of Banking Seminar 5 Managing Credit Risk 1. Which of the following loan requests by a pizza restaurant would be unacceptable and why? a. To buy cheese for inventory. b. To buy a pizza heating oven. c. To buy a car for the owner. d. To repay the original long-term mortgage used to buy the pizza oven. e. To pay employees due to a temporary cash-flow problem. f. To buy stock in the company that supplies cheese to the restaurant. 2. “Because diversification is a desirable strategy for avoiding risk, it never makes sense for a bank to specialise in making specific types of loans.” Critically discuss this statement. 3. Critically discuss the five Cs of credit. 4. Critically discus the pros and cons of competition in the credit ratings industry. Read the following article (focus on the underlying theory/contribution, literature review of the paper rather than the technical parts) to give supporting arguments. Bolton, P., Freixas, X. and Shapiro, J., 2012, The credit ratings game, The Journal of Finance, Vol. 67, No.1, pp 85-111. (Available on Canvas).
Optimization and Algorithms February 6, 2023 Exam 1. Deconfiicted trajectories. A trajectory T of duration T in Rd is a sequence of T points in Rd, denoted as T = {x(1), x(2), . . . , x(T)}, with x(t) ∈ Rd for 1 ≤ t ≤ T. Note that t denotes discrete-time; thus t is an integer (such as t = 0, 1, 2, 3. . . .). Let T1 = {x1 (1), x1 (2), . . . , x1 (T)} and T2 = {x2 (1), x2 (2), . . . , x2 (T)} be two tra- jectories of duration T in Rd. We say that T1 and T2 are space-decon icted if Ⅱx1 (t) - x2 (s)Ⅱ2 > ∈ for 1 ≤ t, s ≤ T, where ∈ is a given positive number. We say that T1 and T2 are time-decon icted if Ⅱx1 (t) - x2 (t)Ⅱ2 > ∈ for 1 ≤ t ≤ T. Consider the following two controlled dynamic linear systems. The state of system 1 at time t is denoted by x1 (t) ∈ Rd , for 1 ≤ t ≤ T and obeys the recursion x1 (t + 1) = A1x1 (t) + B1u1 (t), 0 ≤ t ≤ T - 1, where A1 ∈ Rd×d and B1 ∈ Rd×p are given matrices, x1 (0) ∈ Rd is a given initial state and u1 (t) ∈ Rp is the control input of system 1 at time t, for 0 ≤ t ≤ T - 1. Note that the trajectory T1 depends on the inputs u1 (t), 0 ≤ t ≤ T - 1. Similarly, for system 2 we have x2 (t + 1) = A2x2 (t) + B2u2 (t), 0 ≤ t ≤ T - 1. Note that the trajectory T2 depends on the inputs u2 (t), 0 ≤ t ≤ T - 1. Finally, let Tref = {r(1), r(2), . . . , r(T)} be a given, fixed reference trajectory of duration T in Rd. We want to design the control inputs u1 (t) (0 ≤ t ≤ T - 1) and u2 (t) (0 ≤ t ≤ T - 1) so that: • the final state x1 (T) of system 1 is as close as possible to a given, desired state p1 ∈ Rd; • the final state x2 (T) of system 2 is as close as possible to a given, desired state p2 ∈ Rd; • the trajectories T1 and T2 are time-deconflicted; • the trajectories T1 and Tref are space-deconflicted; • the trajectories T2 and Tref are space-deconflicted. One of the following problem formulations is suitable for the given context. Which one? Write your answer (A, B, C, D, E, or F) in the box at the top of page 1 2. Unconstrained optimization. Consider the optimization problem The point x★ = 0 is a global minimizer of (7) for one of the following choices of a: (A) a = -2 (B) a = -1 (C) a = 0 (D) a = 1 (E) a = 2 (F) a = 3 Which one? Write your answer (A, B, C, D, E, or F) in the box at the top of page 1 Hint: the numerical values log(2) ≈ 0.7 and log(3) ≈ 1.1 might be useful 3. Gradient descent algorithm. Consider the function f : R2 → R given by f (a, b) = 2/1a2+(a−b) 2 . Suppose we do one iteration of the gradient descent algorithm (applied to f) starting from the point and using the stepsize 1. Which of the following points is the next iteration x1 ? Write your answer (A, B, C, D, E, or F) in the box at the top of page 1 4. Signal-denoising as a least-squares problem. Consider the function f : Rn → R, f (r) = rT Dr, where D is a given n × n diagonal matrix with positive diagonal entries: with di > 0 for 1 ≤ i ≤ n. Consider the following optimization problem where the variables to optimize are s ∈ Rp and v ∈ Rn; the matrix A ∈ Rn×p and the vectors y ∈ Rn , and s ∈ Rp are given. This problem can be interpreted as a signal-denoising problem: we observe y and want to decompose it as the sum of a signal of interest s and noise v; we know that s should be close to the nominal signal s and that v should be close to zero (the larger the di, the more confident we are that the component vi should be close to zero). Problem (8) can be reduced to a least-squares problem involving only the variable s, that is, it can be reduced to a problem of the form. for some matrix A and vector β . Give A and β in terms of the constants D , y , A, and s. 5. A simple optimization problem. Consider the function f : R2 → R, f(x) = 2/1xTMx, where The constants a and b satisfy 0 < a < b. Solve in closed-form. the optimization problem where 1 denotes the vector 1 = (1, 1). 6. A convex optimization problem. Consider the following optimization problem where the variables to optimize are xi ∈ R, for 1 ≤ i ≤ n. The vectors a i ∈ Rp , 1 ≤ i ≤ n and b ∈ Rp are given. The constants ci, 1 ≤ i ≤ n, are also given. The function g : R → R is defined as follows: Show that (11) is a convex optimization problem. 7. A convex function based on a worst-case representation. Show that the function f : R → R, f (x) = max {Ⅱ(a + u)x — bⅡ2 : ⅡuⅡ2 = r} (12) is convex, where the vectors a, b ∈ Rn and the constant r > 0 are given. In words: f takes as input a number x and returns as output the largest value of the expression Ⅱ(a + u)x — bⅡ2 as u ranges over the sphere centered at the origin and with radius r.
African American History GEIG1424, Summer 2024 (May 13 - June 14) Overview This course analyzes the tribal and national background of Africans before their forced migration to Latin and North America. It examines the so-called "Triangle Trade," Africans in colonial and revolutionary America and the lives of free Black Americans as well as those held in bondage. A close look at the Abolitionist Movement and the American Civil War is included. Prominent African Americans from Benjamin Banneker and Phyllis Wheatley to Martin Luther King and Maya Angelou will be studied. The political, social, economic and religious positions and circumstances of African Americans in the twentieth century will conclude the course. Credits 4 Contact hours 60 Course Goals At the end of the course the student will be able to: 1. Discuss verbally and in written form the events that precipitated the African presence in Colonial America. 2. Discuss verbally and in written form the evolution of slavery in Colonial America, noting the differences in selected colonies. 3. List and discuss the experiences of African Americans prior to the Civil War and after Reconstruction. 4. Discuss verbally and in written form how state legislatures and the Supreme Court defined race relations in America. 5. Discuss the African American experiences in 20th century America. Required Text(s) Freedom On My Mind (combined Volume), 2ed, Deborah GrayWhite, Mia Bay and Waldo E. Martin, Bedford/St. Martin's Macmillan Learning, Jr. ISBN:978-1-319-02133-7 Other reading materials will be provided by the instructor Course Evaluation Quizzes 40% Writing Assignments 20% Weekly Exams 40% Total 100% Meetings: Students will be required to meet in zoom on three separate occasions during the semester: The first time will be for orientation on the Monday this class opens. The other two times will be for the one-hour course meetings scheduled on the Mondays before the midterm and the final exam. Students will have 2 points deducted from their final grade for each meeting that they do not attend with the cameras on. Division of the Course: This course is divided into 10 units. Each unit has 6 videos that corresponds with the unit. Each unit is broken down into sub-themes which are illustrated below in the schedule as well as in the videos. Quizzes: (40%) There will be 10 quizzes with each one being worth 4 percentage points of the total grade. These quizzes will be based on the reading and the lecture and will be given at the end of every unit. These quizzes will be multiple choice. Writing Assignments: (20%) There will be 10 writing assignments. Five of the lowest writing assignments will be dropped. The writing assignments will consist of students reading either from the textbook and/or articles posted. Students must cite their work with Turabian or Chicago Style citations. Each one of the assignments should be at least 250 words. Writing assignments that are not at least 250 words will result in a 0. Exams: (40%) There will be two exams worth 20 percent each. These exams will be essay based and will require the student to respond to three questions. Each response will be 600 words and must cite the word with books and articles used in the course. Grading Scale Letter Grade A+ A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D E X Scores 90-100 85-89 80-84 77-79 73-76 70-72 67-69 63-66 60-62 40-59 1-39 0
MATH2003J, OPTIMIZATION IN ECONOMICS, BDIC 2023/2024, SPRING Problem Sheet 3 Θ Question 1: Use the method of Lagrange multipliers to find the maximum and minimum of f (x, y) = 5x2 + 5y2 + 1 subject to the constraint xy = 1. Θ Question 2: Use the method of Lagrange multipliers to find the maximum and minimum of f (x, y) = x+3y subject to the constraint x2 + y2 = 10. Question 3: Use the method of Lagrange multipliers to find the maximum and minimum of f (x, y) = 2x2 + 2y2 + 1 subject to the constraint x2 + xy + y2 = 6. Θ Question 4: Use the method of Lagrange multipliers to find the maximum of f (x1 , x2 , x3 ) = 5x1x2x3 subject to the constraint x1 + 2x2 + 3x3 = 24. Question 5: Use the method of Lagrange multipliers to find the maximum and minimum of f (x,y, z) = x + 2y + 2z subject to the constraint x2 + y2 + z2 = 9. Θ Question 6: Use the method of Lagrange multipliers to find the maximum and minimum of f (w, x,y, z) = w + x + y + z subject to the constraint w2 + x2 + y2 + z2 = 1. Θ Question 7: Use the method of Lagrange multipliers to find the maximum and minimum of f (x,y, z) = y subject to the constraints z = x + y and 2x2 + y2 + 2z2 = 8. Θ Question 8: Find the minimum of x2 − 2x + 2y2 + z2 + z subject to the constraints x + y + z = 1 and 2x − y − z = 5. Question 9: Find the maximum and the minimum of x + 2y subject to the constraint x2 + y2 = c, where c is a positive constant. Explain why the maximum and the minimum are attained. Θ Question 10: A company is planning to sell a new product at the price of ¥125 per unit and estimates that if x euro is spent on training staff and y euro is spent on advertising the product, then y + 300/50y + x + 200/75x units of the product will be sold. The cost of manufacturing the product is ¥45 per unit. If the company has a total of ¥5,000 to spend on training staff and advertisement, how should this money be allocated to generate the largest possible profit? + Note: the profit function is given by (No. of units) × (price per unit - cost per unit) - total amount spent on training and advertisement
Principles of Banking - N1577 Seminar 6. Value at Risk and Bank Capital Question 1. A fund manager announces that the fund’s one-month 95% Value at Risk is 6% of the size of the portfolio being managed. You have an investment of £100,000 in the fund managed. How do you interpret the portfolio manager’s announcement? Question 2. Suppose that the gain from a portfolio during six months is normally distributed with a mean of £2 million and a standard deviation of £10 million. Find the portfolio’s 99% six-month VaR. (Use the standard normal distribution table) What would be the six-month VaR at the 98%, 97%, 95% and 90% levels, respectively? Question 3. Suppose that each of two investments has a 4% chance of a loss of $10 million, a 2% chance of a loss of $1 million, and a 94% chance of a profit of $1 million. They are independent of each other. (a) What is the VaR for one of the investments when the confidence level is 95%? (b) What is the expected shortfall when the confidence level is 95%? (c) What is the VaR for a portfolio consisting of the two investments when the confidence level is 95%? (d) What is the expected shortfall for a portfolio consisting of the two investments when the confidence level is 95%? (e) Show that, in this example, VaR does not satisfy the subadditivity condition whereas expected shortfall does.
INFOSYS 110 (15/02/2022 12:30) Digital Systems (Exam) Exam Case TakeLead (TL) is a dog walking business located in Whangārei, New Zealand. TL’s founder, Simon, started the business in the summer of 2011. At the time Simon was a keen cricket player, and his team needed to raise funds in order to attend the national tournament in the following year. Having already walked his neighbour’s dog for a year, Simon sprung to life with an idea – walk all the dogs in his neighbourhood to slowly reach his funding goal. With this new idea, Simon began attending local community events, talking to friends at school, and approaching various people in dog parks. Simon would sit outside these locations with freshly printed poster advertisements and pen and paper sign- up forms. As Simon was on a budget, he could not afford an EFTPOS machine and so all his customers paid with cash. At first it was tough to get any responses at all, but as time passed, Simon was quickly growing his reputation as the neighbourhood’s go-to dog walker. Over time, Simon realised that many of his customers began asking to pay with card as opposed to cash, and so he bought an EFTPOS machine at an affordable price from a family friend. He also identified that he had many repeat customers who wanted Simon to walk their dog daily. From here, Simon decided that it would be a great idea to introduce ‘daily-walk’ coupons to encourage more customers to sign up for regular, daily walks – and these turned out to be a great success. To keep organised, Simon began storing information about his customers and their dogs on an Excel Spreadsheet. As his business grew drastically, he found that as these spreadsheets grew in size, and they were becoming very inaccurate, clunky, and messy. For example, the prevalence of popular dog names in Simon’s customer base meant that multiple customers are recorded in the same file. Fast-forward a few years and Simon’s business has grown considerably with 8 employees spread out over 3 locations. Given such tremendous success, Simon has ambitious plans to further develop his company into the largest dog walking business in Northland and is working hard on making that happen. 1 TL’s Chief Data Officer, Madeleine, suggested that it was better to use an online sign-up form as opposed to the paper sign-up version. When TL implemented this, Madeleine also found that the paper version contained many unnecessary questions, and so these were later excluded in the online sign-up forms. Using the information from this exam case, provide: a. Two benefits produced by utilising the ‘digital’ version of the sign-up forms. Explain your answer for each benefit. (4 marks) b. Two drawbacks/negatives of using the ‘digital’ version of the sign-up forms. Explain your answer for each drawback. (4 marks) c. One challenge that those unnecessary questions may have posed to TL’s overall Data Management and why. (4 marks) d. An explanation as to how Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) may occur when using the paper sign-up forms at TL, what the likely outcome will be, and how such problems may be avoided. (4 marks) Construct your answer using the following template (a - d). Copy and Paste it into the answer area and fill in your answers accordingly: a. Benefit 1 and why: Benefit 2 and why: b. Drawback 1 and why: Drawback 2 and why: c. One challenge in relation to Data Management: d. How GIGO may occur: Likely outcome: How it may be avoided: 2 To stay competitive and reach their goal of becoming the largest dog-walking business in Northland, TL must be able to generate useful information to guide their strategy. At the same time, Simon has also been approached by a software development business that has offered to create a Collaboration system to improve the workflows, completion, and organisation of tasks at TL. Using the information from the exam case, provide: a. An explanation as to what Business Intelligence is and how it may be useful to TL. (4 marks) b. Two examples of data collected by a TPS at TL and two examples of information generated by a DSS at TL. (4 marks) c. An explanation as to what type of Collaboration System is being offered/proposed and why it is that type. (2 marks) Construct your answer using the following template (a - c). Copy and Paste it into the answer area and fill in your answers accordingly: a. What Business Intelligence is and how it is useful: b. Data example 1: Data example 2: Information example 1: Information example 2: c. Type of Collaboration System and Explanation: 3 Over the three office locations, TL has various departments ranging from Accounting & Finance, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Operations. TL has the option of (a) having an information system running with a centralised database over all offices and departments, or (b) to let each office and department run and maintain its own information system. Based on what you have learnt from INFOSYS110, which option would you recommend to TL? Explain your recommendation. Suggest two advantages and two disadvantages associated with your recommendation. Construct your answer using the following template. Copy and Paste it into the answer area and fill in your answers accordingly: Your recommendation: Explanation for your recommendation: Advantage 1: Advantage 2: Disadvantage 1: Disadvantage 2: 4 Ashley, TL’s Chief Technology Officer is frustrated. She’s been asking Simon for funding to move away from using Excel to store their customer data. She believes using a database will be more efficient, easier to use, and will be able to handle the ever increasing amount of data the business is storing. Simon has finally agreed to provide the funding for Ashley to make this happen, but has some specific requirements for this implementation. · The database must be able to handle all of the data requirements for at least the next 10 years. · The work must be finished within the next four weeks, as Simon needs Ashley to focus on already planned office fit out upgrades after that. · Ashley cannot use existing staff to help her with the implementation as they are all busy. However, Simon has approved a business case for her to hire two contractors to assist. a. Explain whether the work required qualifies as a project. If you believe that it does meet the requirements of a project, state four characteristics about the work that results in it qualifying as a project. If you believe that it does not meet the requirements of a project, state which of the four project management characteristics it does not meet. Provide an explanation for your answer. (10 marks) b. What is the time constraint? (2 marks) c. What is the cost constraint? (2 marks) d. It soon becomes clear that the team of 3 will not be able to complete the job in four weeks Suggest one way that Ashley can still proceed, and the impact on the "quality” of the work. (6 marks) e. Ashely knows how important this is to the business, and therefore to Simon. However, she is not sure how and when to update him on any progress. Explain how using the Agile Methodology might assist Ashely in ensuring that Simon is up to date on the work. (8 marks) Construct your answer using the following template ( a - e). Copy and Paste it into the answer area and fill in your answers accordingly: a. b. c. d. e. 5 Although the dog walking business has been very profitable over the years, Simon is now looking to take things to the next level. One of the options available to him is to partner with various companies within the wider pet industry. He has been approached by a large pet food franchise who are interested in the valuable data he has collected. This data includes customers details, how much they spend, dog breed, and frequency of engagement. Simon knows that this partnership will be very profitable. Provide two security and two ethical considerations Simon should be aware of when providing access to this data to the pet food franchise. For each consideration, recommend one way that the risk can be mitigated or minimised. Explain and justify your recommendations. (Marks: 1 for each consideration, 2 for each recommendation, 2 for each explanation/ justification). Construct your answer using the following template. Copy and Paste it into the answer area and fill in your answers accordingly: Security consideration 1: Risk mitigation/minimisation recommendation: Explanation: Security consideration 2: Risk mitigation/minimisation recommendation: Explanation: Ethical consideration 1: Risk mitigation/minimisation recommendation: Explanation: Ethical consideration 2: Risk mitigation/minimisation recommendation: Explanation: 6 Simon has decided to proceed with the pet food partnership (described in Question 5). As part of this lucrative deal, both parties will share all the data they have on their customers. Some of the information the pet food franchise will provide to TL includes: the amount and type of pet food purchased, location, customer details, and dog breed. In class, we discussed two data mining techniques that can help Simon and the pet stores to gain useful information. a. Provide a brief description of each technique and a short explanation about why this technique will be useful for both TL and the pet food franchise. (10 marks) b. For each technique, provide one example of a potential piece of information that could be beneficial for TL, and one potential piece of information that could be beneficial for the pet food company. (4 marks) Construct your answer using the following template ( a - b). Copy and Paste it into the answer area and fill in your answers accordingly: a. Technique 1: Description: Explanation (for TL and pet food franchise): Technique 2: Description: Explanation (for TL and pet food franchise): b. Technique 1 Example (for TL): Technique 1 Example (for pet food franchise): Technique 2 Example (for TL): Technique 2 Example (for pet food company):
Individual Assignment (15%) Assignment 1: Used Car Price Prediction Objective: In this assignment, you will take on the role of a data science consultant for a national used car resale company in America. The company wishes to expand its business by purchasing more used cars from the market. Your task is to develop a machine learning model to predict the selling prices of these cars. Accurate price predictions will help the company buy cars that can be sold for a higher price, thereby increasing profit margins and avoiding cars with lower resale value. You are tasked with delivering the first sprint of this project within three weeks. This first sprint focuses on data understanding and preparation. Specifically, you need to produce the following deliverables presented in a report format at the end of this sprint. • Data Quality Summary: Validate with client that the data received is accurate, reliable, and representative. • Data Exploration Summary: Provide insights on interesting patterns and relationships between variables. • Data Preparation and Feature Engineering Plan: Detail the strategies to address data issues and outline the feature engineering process. Suggested steps for to Follow: 1. Perform Data Profiling: Understand the data by examining its structure and contents (e.g. statistical summary, visual exploration, etc.) 2. Identify Insights: Analyze the data to uncover interesting patterns and relationships (e.g. correlation analysis, etc.) 3. Address Data Issues: Investigate ways to fix any data issues (e.g. outlier detection, data capping, etc.) 4. Feature Engineering: Transform. existing features and derive new ones to improve the predictive power of the ML model. (e.g. data standardization, feature transformation, features construction, etc.) This assignment will help you apply concepts learned in the first three lectures of this course, facilitating practical understanding and application of machine learning methodologies for financial market modelling opportunities. Dataset Description You will be provided with a CSV file (`car_data.csv`) containing historical resale data of used cars. Here's a description of the dataset: Name: pre-owned_cars_data.csv (7,100 records, 13 variables) Column Description Name Brand name and model Year_Manufactured Manufacturing year of the car Mileage_Offered The standard mileage offered by the car company in km per liter Type_Of_Owner Number of previous ownerships Type_Of_Transmission Automatic/Manual Car_Engine The displacement volume of the engine in CC. Distance_Driven Total kilometers driven by the previous owner(s) Type_Of_Fuel Type of fuel used by the car (Petrol, Diesel, Electric, CNG, LPG) Number_Of_Seats The number of seats in the car Car_Power The maximum power of the engine in bhp (brake horsepower). Price_When_New The price of a new car of the same model in USD. Location The location in which the car was sold Price The price of this car sold in USD Submission Requirements: • To successfully complete Assignment 1, please submit a client consultancy report in PowerPoint format. The report should include data profiling, insight generation, a data preparation strategy, and the input dimensions of the data and the description of selected variables to be used for the machine learning model development. • At the end of the report, you also have to include an appendix section with answers to the specific questions listed below. You should find it easy to answer these questions, as you will have considered them while preparing your consultancy report. • Marks will be deducted if you do not include this appendix section. Deadline: • Submit your assignment by January 15, 2025, 23:59:00. Answer these specific questions put your answers in the appendix section of your ppt. Data Profiling Questions: 1. What are the basic statistics and distributions of values for each variable? 2. Are the values in the numeric variables normally distributed? 3. What are the cardinalities of the categorical variables? 4. Are there any variables with missing or invalid values? 5. Will you create any new variables from the “Name” column? If so, what are they? Data Cleaning Questions: 6. Will you reformat values in any of the variables? 7. Excluding null or empty values, how many invalid values are present in the “Number_Of_Seats” variable prior to data cleaning? 8. What is a more accurate method for filling in missing values in the “Number_Of_Seats” variable, using mean, median, mode or other method? 9. When imputing missing values in the “Car_Engine” column, is it better to use the median or mean? Please explain your reasoning. 10. For the “Mileage_Offered” variable, how would you handle a value of 0.0 kmpl? Would you convert it to a null value, change it to a float number of 0.0, or use another method? Please explain your reasoning. 11. Similarly, how would you address the value “null bhp” that appears in the “Car_Power” variable? Feature Engineering Questions: 12. Will you discretize “Car_Engine” variable? If “yes”, which discretization method is better for this variable: equal-width discretization or equal-frequency discretization? Please explain your choice. 13. If you plan to use linear machine learning prediction algorithms with the provided dataset, to build develop your model: a) How would you encode the “Type_Of_Owner” variable which is a categorical variable? Would you use one-hot encoding, label encoding, or ordinal encoding? Explain your choice. b) Similarly, how would you encode the “Location” variable? Explain your choice. c) What is one disadvantage of encoding the “Type_Of_Transmission” variable using two dummy variables with one-hot encoding instead of a single dummy variable? 14. For the “Mileage_Offered” variable, should you use min-max scaling or z-score standardization for feature scaling? Please explain your reasoning. Feature Selection Questions: 15. Are there any dependent variables that are highly correlated with each other? What are they? 16. To assess the correlation between the “Location” variable and the “Price” variable, should you use Pearson Correlation or Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)? 17. Are there any variables you would eliminate for the machine learning model which is used to predict the “Price”? If there is, which variables will you eliminate and why?
5QQMN532 Asset Management Tutorial 3 Practical applications of valuing equity. A case study of Ferrari You are a buy-side analyst who works for a large asset management firm. Your head of investments has requested you prepare a valuation of Ferrari. Your firm is interested in purchasing a significant stake in Ferrari but only at the right price. This is a real case designed to demonstrate the valuation challenges faced by asset managers. Your task is to read through the case and identify and extract relevant data. I have also uploaded a spreadsheet with the financial data. Hint: this case does not require a lot of calculations. This case is mainly about identifying and interpreting data relevant to equity valuation. Read the Harvard case and come prepared to the tutorial to discuss the following: 1. What industry is Ferrari competing in? How competitive is the industry? You may find it helpful to employ Porter’s Five Forces to describe the industry. 2. What is Ferrari’s current financial strategy? Why does Ferrari take part in an IPO? 3. Using a multiples approach, place a value on Ferrari shares. You decide what multiple to use to arrive at a valuation. Justify your approach as much as you can. 4. Your firm’s brokerage has supplied a valuation of Ferrari using free flows (shown in Exhibit TN 3 [pg. 10] of the case). How does this valuation approach work? Be ready to answer questions from your investment team about assumptions made and how sensitive the valuation is to changes in these assumptions. 5. At what price do you recommend your firm would be buyer of Ferrari shares?
CYBR 372 Applications of Cryptography Te Aromatawai Tuatahi--Assignment 1 Ngā Whāinga --Objectives In this assignment,you will learn how to use the Java Cryptography Extension(JCE)to: perform. symmetric encryption and decryption ■use password-based key derivation for encryption/decryption ■evaluate the effect of different parameters of encryption on its overhead ■ implement a brute-force attack Te Whakariterite--Preparation This is based upon the following resources, note that some are from O'Reilly (Safari books online)and require you to initially access them via the library and create an account. O'Reilly videos that provide a great hands-on introduction to the JCE: Basic Encryption with Symmetric Ciphers(6 minutes,42 seconds)video,code Encrypting and Decrypting Files(8 minutes,20 seconds)video,code Common Security Flaws When Using Symmetric Ciphers(6 minutes,20 seconds) video Note that the code above uses a Util class available from here. Oracle provides these useful reference materials that will help with completing the assignment: Java Cryptography Architecture(JCA)Reference Guide Java""Crvptoqraphv Architecture Standard Alqorithm Name Documentation What to Submit? Submit a zip file containing a directory for each part (i.e.part1,part2,part3,and part4).Each subdirectory should contain the following: Code: o Must also have standard comments to help the marker understand your code. o The code should output human-readable error messages that will help users correct their mistakes rather thanjust providing a stack trace. ■A file named README.md listing any references used,and optionally,explaining your design choice and explaining why it is secure and how it meets the requirement. ■For part3,it should also have the raw results of vour timing experiments saved as either results.csv,results.json,or results.xml file.Moreover,you should also include a file report.pdf where you presentand discuss your findings.The pdf file should clearly have your assignment1 s r c -- part1 -- README.md -- Part1.java -- Util.java -- part2 -- README.md --Part2.java —- Util.java part3 --README.md --results.cSv --report.pdf --Part3.java --Util.java part4 --README.md -- Part4.java --Util.java Part 1:Perform. symmetric encryption and decryption (25%) Extend the existing FileEncryptor.java to allow the user to specify: Encryption or decryption operation. ■Secret key and initialisation vector (IV)in Base64 encoding as input files. ■AES mode of operation. Input file(path and name). ■Output file(path and name). The encryption operation is indicated by the keyword enc and the decryption operation is indicated by the keyword dec.This is a mandatory parameter,and always appears first. The other parameters are not positional (can appear in any order).They are identified by their name. Si e,cike(fic)y(a)ll-yfi(:)le:what comes after is interpreted as the path to the file containing the secret key (in Base64 encoding).This parameter isoptional for encryption but is mandatory for decryption. If this option is not provided (for encryption),then a secret key is randomly generated and used, ■ -iv,--initialisation-vector:what comes after is interpreted as the path to the file vector is randomly generated and used,which is also saved in a file iv.base64 encoded in (ECB/CBC/CTR/OFB/CFB/GCM).This is an_optional parameter.If not provided,the default of AES/CBC/PKCS5PADDING should be used.For padding,use the same PKCS5PADDING for other modes too. -i,--input-file:this is a mandatory parameter.For enc,this the file containing the data to be encrypted(the plaintext).For dec,this is the file containing the encrypted data(thē ciphertext). ■ -o,--output-file:this is an optional parameter.For enc,this the file will contain the encrypted data,for dec,this is the file containing the decrypted data.If this option is not message.txt.enc,becomes message.txt.dec,and message.dat becomes message.dat.dec. Some example usage: xt.txt-ociphertext.encjavaPart1enc-ociphertext.enc-i plaintext.txtjavaPart1enc-iplaint hertext.enc -k key.base64-m GCMjavaPart1 enc -iv iv.base64-m CFB-i plainte FB-k key2.base64-iv iv3.base64javaPart2enc--pass"mypassword"-iplaintext.txt-ociphertext.encjavaPart2dec-p"mypassword"-iciphertext.enc-oplaintext.txt java Part4 ciphertext.enc -t 2 Use your implementation to estimate the time it takes to crack a sample ciphertext for each of these various types,and report it in your readme file of this section.
ULMS 766 JANUARY EXAMINATIONS 2021 Marketing Management 1. Assess the extent to which MACRO environmental trends in change might impact on organisations continuing to adopt a market led approach to doing business. 2. Critically discuss the marketing mix as a tool to drive consumers through the decision-making process (DMP). 3. Discuss the benefits of the ‘bases of segmentation’ theory to today’s organisations when profiling potentials customers to target. 4. Assess how an understanding of social, psychological and personal factors assist marketers to promote their brands in their minds of their target audience. 5. Critically evaluate the usefulness of secondary marketing research informing a company deciding if they need to conduct primary research.
CMT120 Fundamentals of Programming Web Application Development Learning Outcomes • LO3: Develop secure web applications that make use of database technologies • LO4: Critically appreciate the role of security, quality and usability within software projects Submission Instructions The coversheet can be found under ‘Assessment & Feedback’ in the COMSC-ORG-SCHOOL organisation on Learning Central. All files should be submitted via Learning Central. The submission page can be found under ‘Assessment & Feedback’ in the CMT120 module on Learning Central. Your submission should consist of multiple files: Description File Type File Name Location (0) Coversheet .pdf file Coversheet.pdf Learning Central (1) git repository on COMSC’s GitLab server complete source code of website Repository name should be: YOUR_USERNAME_cmt120_cw2* https: //git.cardiff.ac.uk/ (2) video demo of the website .mp4 file YOUR_USERNAME_demo .mp4 *,** Learning Central (3) report on your website’s quality, usability and security .pdf file YOUR_USERNAME_report.pdf * Learning Central (4) Coursework submission Details Form online form submission ’CMT120 - CW 2 - Submission Details Form (24-25)’ link will be posted in ’Assessment’ area on Learning Central * Replace YOUR_USERNAME with your Cardiff’s user name, which is typically a letter ’c’ (or ’d’) + your student number, e.g. c1234567. ** In case of problems uploading the video to Learning Central, please share it through OneDrive to Jandson Santos Ribeiro Santos ([email protected]) and Federico Liberatore ([email protected]) . More specifically: • For item (1) : – submit (push) your complete source code to COSMC’s GitLab server, and share your repository with Jandson Santos Ribeiro Santos and Federico Liberatore as follows: * On the Project page, go to: Project Information > Members * In GitLab member or Email address field: search for Jandson Santos Ribeiro Santos (user name: scmjs8) * In Select a role dropdown, choose Maintainer * Click on Invite button Repeat for Federico Liberatore (user name: scmfl2), making sure the role permission is also set as Maintainer. – Your git repository must include a README text file ( .md or .txt), which contains the following information: * Your Username (or Student Number) * (If deployed on OpenShift) URL of your website on the OpenShift server; * [Optional] References (if appropriate). * [Optional] Any other information you think is relevant, e.g. how to run your code. – Note:nochangesareallowedafterthesubmissiondeadline! Non compliance with this requirement,i.e. working on the coursework after the deadline, may be penalised and may result in capping the mark at the pass rate (for the work submitted < 24 hrs late) or an award of zero marks (> 24 hrs late submission). • For item (2) - see instructions in Section ’2Video Demo of the Website’ . • For item (2) - specific requirements for your report on the website’s security and usability are given in Section ’3Report on Website’s Security, Quality and Usability’ . • For item (4) - you will need to fill in and submit the online ‘CMT120 - CW 2 - Submission Details Form (23-24)’ form, the link to which will be posted in ’Assessment’ area on Learning Central. Any code submitted will be run on a system equivalent to the laptops provided to the students, and must be submitted as stipulated in the instructions above. The code should run without any changes being required to the submitted code, including editing of filenames. Any deviation from the submission instructions above (including the number and types of files submitted) may result in a deduction of up to 10% from the overall mark. Staff reserve the right to invite students to a meeting to discuss coursework submissions. If you are unable to submit your work due to technical difficulties, please submit your work via e-mailto [email protected] and notify the module leader. Assessment Description For this coursework, you are asked to: 1. Implement a personal digital portfolio in the form of a dynamic website, which showcases your competences, skills and expertise, e.g. your technical skills, work produced to date, previous work experience, etc. - the choice of what you want to cover it’s up to you, but make sure you cover a reasonable range of these. 2. Record a short 3-mindemo of your website. 3. Write a report to evaluate your website’s quality, usability and security. 1 Personal Digital Portfolio as Dynamic Website 1.1 Website Implementation • The website is to be implemented using any appropriate tools and methodologies, covered in this module, e.g. JavaScript, Python/Flask, HTML, CSS, databases, etc. • The majority of your website content must be ’dynamic’, i.e. appropriate data and content are pulled from/pushed to a database. - Examples of dynamic content include, but are not limited to: interaction with the user (e.g. user comments or rating), user accounts, automatically generated web pages. - You can employ any type of database system/service. • Use of external libraries, extensions and APIs is allowed, e.g. Flask-WTF, Flask-Security, Bootstrap. However, the final code must be authored by you. You are reminded of the need to comply with Cardiff University’s Student Guide to Academic Integrity. If you use external resources, you must provide complete references, e.g. as in-line comments in your code, and/or in README.md file. Evidence of unfair practice will be penalised. • Use of the code you developed when working on the lab exercises for this module is allowed. • Although it’s advisable to use the university laptop, you can use your own computer to implement your website. However, you must use School-based systems and servers for hosting ’dynamic’ parts of your website, e.g. database for content and user accounts, deployment server. The use of external services for these elements is not allowed. • Complete code of your website must be submitted to COMSC’s GitLab server (https://git.cardiff.ac.uk/) and shared with the module lecturers - complete instructions on how to do it are given in ’Submission Instructions’ section below. 1.2 Structure and Functionality of the Website You are free to choose how to structure your website, and what functionality to implement,bearing in mind that appropriate advanced functionality will attract higher marks - see ’Assessment Criteria’ section below. 1.3 Deployment of Website The expectation is that initially you will be implementing and deploying your website on localhost. Deployment of your website on a localhost will allow for a mark up to a ’Pass’ for the website implementation part. To obtain a higher mark, your website needs to be deployed on COMSC’s OpenShift server - see ’Assessment Criteria’ section. The process is described in ’Flask 4: Deployment on OpenShift’ lab sheet and is demonstrated in the practical session. Make sure you state the correct URL in your REAMDE.md submitted in your git repository on GitLab and in your report. If this is missing or incorrect, it will be assumed that you have not deployed your website on OpenShift. 2 Video Demo of the Website Record a short video demo of maximum 3 minutes, which demonstrates the functionality you implemented on your website. If you have successfully deployed your website on OpenShift, you should clearly demonstrate you are running your website using the URL you submitted in your REAMDE.md file. More detailed instructions will be provided in the contact sessions. 3 Report on Website’s Security, Quality and Usability Write a report of 800 words (± 10%), in which you critically appraise TWO examples from your website implementation that demonstrate your appreciation of best practice in security, quality and usability (choose any two). The front page of your report must contain: • Your student number • URL of your website on OpenShift (if deployed) Your report must also include two appendices at the end of your report: • Appendix A: list of advanced functionality you have implemented; • Appendix B: screenshots of all of your website’s pages.
