Pricing and Hedging European Energy Derivatives: A Case Study of WTI Oil Options

Chih-Chen Hsu,Shih-Kuei Lin,Ting-Fu Chen 한국증권학회 2014 Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies Vol.43 No.3

This study extends the mean-reversion dynamic framework of (Pilipovic, Energy risk: Valuingand managing energy derivatives, 1997) and (Schwartz, The stochastic behavior of commodityprices: Implications for pricing and hedging, Journal of Finance 52, 1997, 923) and focuses ondeveloping a variety of continuous-time commodity-pricing and hedging models by analyzingthe pricing and hedging errors found in an empirical investigation of options contracts onlight sweet crude oil traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Thus, this study contributesto furthering the applicability of the models developed. The inclusion of the benchmarkBlack-Scholes pricing model generates systematic biases that are consistent with (Bakshi, Caoand Chen, Handbook of Quantitative Finance and Risk Management, 2010). The mean-reversionjump-diffusion and seasonality option-pricing model best describes the extreme pricevolatility experienced during a financial collapse, but the mean-reversion and seasonalityoption-pricing model offers the best pricing and hedging capability for other periods. Theperformances of hedging models are generally consistent with pricing errors.

Preparation and characterization of Y-TZP powders coated with alumina

Chih-Cheng Chen,Shu-Wei Hsu,Hsing-I Hsiang 한양대학교 세라믹연구소 2008 Journal of Ceramic Processing Research Vol.9 No.2

In this study, alumina was coated onto yttria tetragonally stabilized zirconia (Y-TZP)core powder using aluminum nitrate with urea in an aqueous solution. Boehmite coating onto the surface of Y-TZP powders was confirmed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and zeta potential measurements. The sintering behaviors of Y-TZP powders with and without an alumina coating were investigated using a dilatometer and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Boehmite coating onto the surface of Y-TZP powders significantly improved the densification of the resulting ceramic bodies. The relative density of the Y-TZP with a boehmite coating sintered at 1350oC can reach 97.3%. In this study, alumina was coated onto yttria tetragonally stabilized zirconia (Y-TZP)core powder using aluminum nitrate with urea in an aqueous solution. Boehmite coating onto the surface of Y-TZP powders was confirmed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and zeta potential measurements. The sintering behaviors of Y-TZP powders with and without an alumina coating were investigated using a dilatometer and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Boehmite coating onto the surface of Y-TZP powders significantly improved the densification of the resulting ceramic bodies. The relative density of the Y-TZP with a boehmite coating sintered at 1350oC can reach 97.3%.

Research on Recognition of Graphic Symbols in Amusement Park: A Case Study of Taiwan's Theme Amusement Park

Hsu, Yao-Wen,Chung, Yi-Chan,Chen, Ching-Piao,Tsai, Chih-Hung The Korean Society for Quality Management 2008 The Asian Journal on Quality Vol.9 No.2

Each amusement park has a wayfinding system, while symbols are important mediums to guide tourists to find their destinations. It is very important that whether the meanings of symbols recognized by tourists immediately. This paper mainly discusses the recognition of graphic symbols in amusement park, and proposes the improvement suggestions. Materials for this study were drawn from 20 different graphic symbols of a theme amusement park in Taiwan. The testees were required to evaluate the design of graphic symbols based on symbolic meaning and graphics recognition to summarize the confusion matrix. The results show that there are three groups of graphic symbols easy to be confused, and five symbols not meeting a criterion of 67% correct responses. The reasons were discussed, and improvement and relevant suggestions have been proposed, which may be helpful to redesign of symbols.

Epidemiological trend in inflammatory bowel disease in Taiwan from 2001 to 2015: a nationwide population-based study

Hsu-Heng Yen,Meng-Tzu Weng,Chien-Chih Tung,Yu-Ting Wang,Yuan Ting Chang,Chin-Hao Chang,Ming-Jium Shieh,Jau-Min Wong,Shu-Chen Wei 대한장연구학회 2019 Intestinal Research Vol.17 No.1

Background/Aims: Incidences of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), ulcerative colitis (UC), and Crohn’s disease (CD), havebeen increasing in Asia. In this study, we report the relevant clinical characteristics and determined the epidemiological trend ofIBD in Taiwan from 2001 to 2015. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to analyze data recorded from January 2001through December 2015 in the registered database compiled by the National Health Insurance and provided by the Ministry ofHealth and Welfare, Taiwan. Results: A total of 3,806 patients with catastrophic IBD illness were registered from 2001 to 2015 inTaiwan (CD, 919; UC, 2,887). The crude incidence of CD increased from 0.17/100,000 in 2001 to 0.47/100,000 in 2015, whereasthat of UC increased from 0.54/100,000 in 2001 to 0.95/100,000 in 2015. The prevalence of CD increased from 0.6/100,000 in2001 to 3.9/100,000 in 2015, whereas that of UC increased from 2.1/100,000 in 2001 to 12.8/100,000 in 2015. The male-to-femaleratio in the study sample was 2.19 for CD and 1.62 for UC. The median age of those registered with CD was lower than that ofthose registered for UC: 38.86 and 44.86 years, respectively. A significantly greater increase in CD incidence rate was identifiedamong 20 to 39-year-old compared with other age groups. Conclusions: Using Taiwan’s nationwide insurance database, we determinedthat the number of patients with CD increased more rapidly during the study period than the number of patients withUC, especially among age 20 to 39-year-old, resulting in a decreased UC-to-CD ratio. (Intest Res 2019;17:54-62)

The Neural-Network Approach to Recognize Defect Pattern in LED Manufacturing

Chen, Wen-Chin,Tsai, Chih-Hung,Hsu, Shou-Wen The Korean Society for Quality Management 2006 The Asian Journal on Quality Vol.7 No.3

This paper presents neural network-based recognition system for automatic light emitting diode (LED) inspection. The back-propagation neural network (BPNN) is proposed and tested. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristic data of LED from the inspection process is used for the network training and testing. This study selects 300 random samples as network training and employs 100 samples as network testing. The experimental results show that if the classification work is done well, the accuracy of recognition is 100%, and the testing speed of the proposed recognition system is almost one half faster than the traditional inspection system does. The proposed neural-network approach is successfully demonstrated by real data sets and can be effectively developed as a recognition system for a practical application purpose.

A Theoretical Study of the Performance of a CuPc/V2O5/CuPc Vertical Triode by Using Numerical Simulations

Chih-Chieh Hsu,He-Ping Chen,Wei-Chieh Ting 한국물리학회 2015 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.67 No.2

was studied by using numerical simulations. The electrical characteristics of the triodes with V2O5 doping concentrations of 1016 − 1018 cm −3 and electrode work functions (WFs) of 4.4 − 5.1 eV were simulated. In addition, the corresponding physical mechanisms were investigated by quantitatively analyzing the energy band diagram, carrier distribution, injection and transports which were difficult to measure and obtain experimentally. The optimal triode performance was obtained for a doping concentration of V2O5 of 2 × 1017 cm −3 and WFs of the emitter and the collector electrodes of 5.1 eV and 4.8 eV, respectively. The simulation results were reasonable when compared with experimental data reported by other groups.

Smart monitoring system with multi-criteria decision using a feature based computer vision technique

Chih-Wei Lin,Wen-Ko Hsu,Dung-Jiang Chiou,Cheng-Wu Chen,Wei-Ling Chiang 국제구조공학회 2015 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.15 No.6

When natural disasters occur, including earthquakes, tsunamis, and debris flows, they are often accompanied by various types of damages such as the collapse of buildings, broken bridges and roads, and the destruction of natural scenery. Natural disaster detection and warning is an important issue which could help to reduce the incidence of serious damage to life and property as well as provide information for search and rescue afterwards. In this study, we propose a novel computer vision technique for debris flow detection which is feature-based that can be used to construct a debris flow event warning system. The landscape is composed of various elements, including trees, rocks, and buildings which are characterized by their features, shapes, positions, and colors. Unlike the traditional methods, our analysis relies on changes in the natural scenery which influence changes to the features. The “background module” and “monitoring module” procedures are designed and used to detect debris flows and construct an event warning system. The multi-criteria decision-making method used to construct an event warring system includes gradient information and the percentage of variation of the features. To prove the feasibility of the proposed method for detecting debris flows, some real cases of debris flows are analyzed. The natural environment is simulated and an event warning system is constructed to warn of debris flows. Debris flows are successfully detected using these two procedures, by analyzing the variation in the detected features and the matched feature. The feasibility of the event warning system is proven using the simulation method. Therefore, the feature based method is found to be useful for detecting debris flows and the event warning system is triggered when debris flows occur.

Vimentin Is Involved in Peptidylarginine Deiminase 2-Induced Apoptosis of Activated Jurkat Cells

Hsu, Pei-Chen,Liao, Ya-Fan,Lin, Chin-Li,Lin, Wen-Hao,Liu, Guang-Yaw,Hung, Hui-Chih Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology 2014 Molecules and cells Vol.37 No.5

Peptidylarginine deiminase type 2 (PADI2) deiminates (or citrullinates) arginine residues in protein to citrulline residues in a $Ca^{2+}$-dependent manner, and is found in lymphocytes and macrophages. Vimentin is an intermediate filament protein and a well-known substrate of PADI2. Citrullinated vimentin is found in ionomycin-induced macrophage apoptosis. Citrullinated vimentin is the target of anti-Sa antibodies, which are specific to rheumatoid arthritis, and play a critical role in the pathogenesis of the disease. To investigate the role of PADI2 in apoptosis, we generated a Jurkat cell line that overexpressed the PADI2 transgene from a tetracycline-inducible promoter, and used a combination of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate and ionomycin to activate Jurkat cells. We found that PADI2 overexpression reduced the cell viability of activated Jurkat cells in1a dose- and time-dependent manner. The PADI2-overexpressed and -activated Jurkat cells presented typical manifestations of apoptosis, and exhibited greater levels of citrullinated proteins, including citrullinated vimentin. Vimentin overexpression rescued a portion of the cells from apoptosis. In conclusion, PADI2 overexpression induces apoptosis in activated Jurkat cells. Vimentin is involved in PADI2-induced apoptosis. Moreover, PADI2-overexpressed Jurkat cells secreted greater levels of vimentin after activation, and expressed more vimentin on their cell surfaces when undergoing apoptosis. Through artificially highlighting PADI2 and vimentin, we demonstrated that PADI2 and vimentin participate in the apoptotic mechanisms of activated T lymphocytes. The secretion and surface expression of vimentin are possible ways of autoantigen presentation to the immune system.

An investigation on dicing 28-nm node Cu/low-k wafer with a Picosecond Pulse Laser

Hsu, Hsiang-Chen,Chu, Li-Ming,Liu, Baojun,Fu, Chih-Chiang The Korean Microelectronics and Packaging Society 2014 마이크로전자 및 패키징학회지 Vol.21 No.4

For a nanoscale Cu/low-k wafer, inter-layer dielectric (ILD) and metal layers peelings, cracks, chipping, and delamination are the most common dicing defects by traditional diamond blade saw process. Sidewall void in sawing street is one of the key factors to bring about cracks and chipping. The aim of this research is to evaluate laser grooving & mechanical sawing parameters to eliminate sidewall void and avoid top-side chipping as well as peeling. An ultra-fast pico-second (ps) laser is applied to groove/singulate the 28-nanometer node wafer with Cu/low-k dielectric. A series of comprehensive parametric study on the recipes of input laser power, repetition rate, grooving speed, defocus amount and street index has been conducted to improve the quality of dicing process. The effects of the laser kerf geometry, grooving edge quality and defects are evaluated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and focused ion beam (FIB). Experimental results have shown that the laser grooving technique is capable to improve the quality and yield issues on Cu/low-k wafer dicing process.

Indoxyl sulfate, homocysteine, and antioxidant capacities in patients at different stages of chronic kidney disease

Chen Cheng-Hsu,Huang Shih-Chien,Yeh En-Ling,Lin Pei-Chih,Tsai Shang-Feng,Huang Yi-Chia 한국영양학회 2022 Nutrition Research and Practice Vol.16 No.4

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Increased levels of uremic toxins and decreased antioxidant capacity have a significant impact on the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, it remains unclear whether they interact with each other to mediate the damage of kidney function. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether uremic toxins (i.e., homocysteine and indoxyl sulfate [IS]), as well as glutathione-dependent antioxidant enzyme activities are dependently or independently associated with kidney function during different stages of CKD patients. SUBJECTS/METHODS One hundred thirty-two patients diagnosed with CKD at stages 1 to 5 participated in this cross-sectional study. RESULTS Patients who had reached an advanced CKD stage experienced an increase in plasma uremic toxin levels, along with decreased glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity. Plasma homocysteine, cysteine, and IS concentrations were all positively associated with each other, but negatively correlated to GSH-Px activity levels after adjusting for potential confounders in all CKD patients. Although plasma homocysteine, cysteine, IS, and GSH-Px levels were significantly associated with kidney function, only plasma IS levels still had a significant association with kidney function after these parameters were simultaneously adjusted. In addition, plasma IS could interact with GSH-Px activity to be associated with kidney function. CONCLUSIONS IS plays a more dominant role than homocysteine and GSH-Px activity in relation to kidney function.