What's in a Chinese Room? 20th Century Chinoiserie, Modernity and Femininity

The first three decades of the twentieth century saw a resurgence in chinoiserie in the West. This chapter uses primary sources to provide an original exploration of the ways in which 'Chinese' styles of interior design, furniture and fashion were used in Britain to communicate modern feminine identities. Marked out as an indulgent, fanciful, and hence feminine and irrational style choice, early 20th century British chinoiserie drew heavily on its previous incarnations, such as 18th century wallpapers and Chippendale chinoiserie chairs, and yet fitted well with the colour and exoticism of modern art and design. Both old and new, elite yet commonplace, the fantastical but reassuringly familiar nature of 'Chinese' design made chinoiserie a potent vehicle for the expression of modern British femininities. The chapter forms the culmination of an edited collection produced as the catalogue for the exhibition 'Chinese Whispers: Chinoiserie in Britain 1650-1930', Brighton Museum and the Royal Pavilion, 3 May- 2 November 2008, of which Sarah Cheang curated the 20th century section. The exhibition received extensive and highly positive national press coverage and was awarded Best Temporary Exhibition at the Museum and Heritage Awards 2009. The catalogue was praised as ‘insightful’ and the ‘What’s in a Chinese Room’ essay was singled out as ‘excellent’ (Burlington Magazine October 2008) and widely quoted. The production of the catalogue was supported by a Paul Mellon grant

Hedge Portfolios in Markets with Price Discontinuities

We consider a market consisting of multiple assets under jump-diffusion dynamics with European style options written on these assets. It is well-known that such markets are incomplete in the Harrison and Pliska sense. We derive a pricing relation by adopting a Radon-Nikodym derivative based on the exponential martingale of a correlated Brownian motion process and a multivariate compound Poisson process. The parameters in the Radon-Nikodym derivative define a family of equivalent martingale measures in the model, and we derive the corresponding integro-partial differential equation for the option price. We also derive the pricing relation by setting up a hedge portfolio containing an appropriate number of options to "complete" the market. The market prices of jump-risks are priced in the hedge portfolio and we relate these to the choice of the parameters in the Radon-Nikodym derivative used in the alternative derivation of the integro-partial differential equation.incomplete markets; equivalent martingale measure; compound Poisson processes; Radon-Nikodym derivative; multi-asset options; integro-partial differential equation

Exchange Options Under Jump-Diffusion Dynamics

Margrabe provides a pricing formula for an exchange option where the distributions of both stock prices are log-normal with correlated Wiener components. Merton has provided a formula for the price of a European call option on a single stock where the stock price process contains a continuous Poisson jump component, in addition to a continuous log-normally distributed component. We use Merton’s analysis to extend Margrabe’s results to the case of exchange options where both stock price processes also contain compound Poisson jump components. A Radon-Nikod´ym derivative process that induces the change of measure from the market measure to an equivalent martingale measure is introduced. The choice of parameters in the Radon-Nikod´ym derivative allows us to price the option under different financial-economic scenarios. We also consider American style exchange options and provide a probabilistic intepretation of the early exercise premium.American options; exchange options; compound Poisson processes; equivalent martingale measure

A Modern View on Merton's Jump-Diffusion Model

Merton has provided a formula for the price of a European call option on a single stock where the stock price process contains a continuous Poisson jump component, in addition to a continuous log-normally distributed component. In Merton's analysis, the jump-risk is not priced. Thus the distribution of the jump-arrivals and the jump-sizes do not change under the change of measure. We go onto introduce a Radon-Nikodym derivative process that induces the change of measure from the market measure to an equivalent martingale measure. The choice of parameters in the Radon-Nikodym derivative allows us to price the option under different financial-economic scenarios. We introduce a hedging argument that eliminates the jump-risk in some sort of averaged sense, and derive an integro-partial differential equation of the option price that is related to the one obtained by Merton.financial derivatives; compound Poisson processes; equivalent martingale measure; hedging portfolio

A High Performance and Platform Independent Web-Based Distance Learning Environment

The growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) has significantly increased the amount of online information and services available to the general population of society. The fast development of high-powered communication technology, together with an increasingly computer-wise society have created new opportunities for the delivery of educational material and distance education on the Web. Among the popular Web-based distance learning systems are WebCT, Blackboard, Lotus LearningSpace and Virtual-U. However, these systems have limitations such as platfonn dependent, slow performance and expensive cost. In this thesis, a Web-based distance learning environment (WebEd 2000) has been developed using Java servlets and random access file to address these problems. It is essentially an extension of WebEd, a first working prototype of Web-based distance learning system developed at the Broadband and ATM Research Group, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). This new version provides significant improvement over its predecessor in various aspects, such as system performance, usability, scalability, security, reliability and stability. WebEd 2000 enables delivering conventional lecture notes over the Web and providing various tools to help in managing and maintaining course materials in a server. It also enables traditional face-to-face interaction to be carried out asynchronously via email and announcement services. Moreover, the system also supports monitoring and tracking of students activities as well as managing of students within a course. WebEd 2000 is mainly developed using the combination of Java servlets and JavaScript technologies. The server-side servlets, together with the binary format random access file, are used to process various client requests and store data, while the client-side JavaScript is used to enable DHTML features and perform less security concern processes such as generating an input dialogue box, hence lessening the workload of the server in relative. Finally, WebEd 2000 can easily be set up and deployed in any platforms with minimal modifications. Flexibility is achieved by utilizing Java technology for the system applications and random access file for the system data repository. It is this platform neutrality of Java bytecodes and binary file format that makes WebEd 2000 a completely platform independent Web-based distance learning environment

LEADING CHANGE IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: DR MOURE-ERASO’S CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE U.S. CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD

This paper examines the challenges of leading a public sector organization via a case study of the U.S. Chemicals Safety Board (CSB), a federal agency charged to conduct independent investigations of industrial chemical accidents. Although largely modelled after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the CSB’s performance has often been compared unfavorably with the NTSB’s, in terms of the rate of output and time taken to complete investigations. The case focuses on the CSB’s organizational developments since Dr Rafael Moure-Eraso assumed chairmanship of the agency in June 2010. It examines his assessment of the CSB’s strategic challenges, his plan for addressing the challenges and the resulting organizational performance. The case sifts through the main criticisms of Dr Moure-Eraso’s leadership and possible motivations behind these criticisms, leading readers to explore whether the organizational changes initiated by Dr Moure-Eraso were well implemented and to thoughtfully assess the CSB’s performance during his term

An Analysis of American Options under Heston Stochastic Volatility and Jump-Diffusion Dynamics

This paper considers the problem of pricing American options when the dynamics of the underlying are driven by both stochastic volatility following a square root process as used by Heston (1993), and by a Poisson jump process as introduced by Merton (1976). Probability arguments are invoked to find a representation of the solution in terms of expectations over the joint distribution of the underlying process. A combination of Fourier transform in the log stock price and Laplace transform in the volatility is then applied to find the transition probability density function of the underlying process. It turns out that the price is given by an integral dependent upon the early exercise surface, for which a corresponding integral equation is obtained. The solution generalises in an intuitive way the structure of the solution to the corresponding European option pricing problem in the case of a call option and constant interest rates obtained by Scott (1997).American options; stochastic volatility; jump-diffusion processes; Volterra integral equations; free boundary problem; method of lines

‘“Our Missionary Wembley”: China, Local Community and The British Missionary Empire, 1901-1924.’

Western overseas missionaries have been significant conduits of knowledge about non-Western cultures. British Christian missions in China in the late nineteenth and early-twentieth century created a wealth of written and photographic sources on Chinese society. They also sent a range of Chinese material culture to Britain in order to educate and engage British congregations and thus raise money and support for the missions. This article develops debates in the history working and middle class global networks and British education history, in an exploration of missionary education and fund raising. Through cross-cultural exchanges of material goods, through the exhibiting of Chinese things and even people in Britain, and through the promotion of named individuals and institutions in China, local communities in Britain and China became intertwined. Close examination of a wealth of detail held in UK missionary archives and parish records reveals how local parish boundaries were stretched to the provinces of China, and China was condensed within the missionary empire and read through a web of British cultural values and a myriad of local allegiances. The publication of this journal was delayed until November 2008, hence its inclusion in the 2008-2013 publication period

Cornrow Culture

If hairdressing is the simultaneous cultivation of hair, self and society, then cornrows are a bumper crop. This article was commissioned by MacGuffin magazine for a special issue on 'rope' to explore some social and personal meanings of the cornrow hairstyle in contemporary fashion