Abstract-The plasmonic effects of a gold prolate nanospheroid on the spontaneous emission of an adjacent emitter, regarded as an oscillating electric dipole, at the excitation and emission stages are studied respectively by using the multiple multipole method. The numerical results show that when an irradiating light is at the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance frequency of the nanospheroid and with a polarization parallel to the long axis, the strongest excitation rate occurs at the proximity of the long-axis vertex. In addition, if the emitter is at this region, and its orientation is also parallel to the long axis, the apparent quantum yield of the emission is the maximum, compared to the other locations and orientations. Therefore, for this case the overall enhancement factor of a nanospheroid on an emitter's spontaneous emission is the maximum. In contrast, the emitter's emission could be quenched, if it is near the short-axis vertex.

The introduction of the Euro has drawn interested parties' attention on the Euro/U.S. Dollar exchange rate market. In this research, three variance ratio tests: Lo-MacKinlay's (1988) conventional variance ratio test, Chow-Denning's (1993)

Abstract. There are numerous synchronization methodologies available for consideration in solving the problem of network synchronization in digital communication networks [ 1.21. They include: independent clocks, pulse stuffing, eiastic stores, master-slave hierarchical, time reference distribution, mutual synchronization, etc. This paper considers the network synchronization performance achievable using the method of mutual clock synchronization observed first by Christiaan Huygens in 1665 [3]. Network synchronization performance memcs studied include: nodal timing accuracy, timing jitter, slip rate, time interval between slips, probability of loss of synchronization. These metr i c~ are shown to depend upon the distance (range) between clocks, ranging enor, clock stability, nodal phase error processing bandwidth, data rate, signal-to-noise ratio and network connectivity. In this regard, the mutual synchronization performance achievable with long wavelength biological rhythms and electric power system rhythms is compared with the performance achievable using short wavelength rhythms required in wideband and broadband digital communications networks. The results are further applied to the problem of synchronizing a satellite communications network. When intrasatellite communication crosslinks (links between satellites in the same orbital plane) are used in a constellation of communication satellites, it is shown that the maximum data rate, the network connectivity and the constellation altitude drive the achievable network synchronization performance; the latter is set by technological limitations due to clock frequency stability, the maximum range between satellites and the minimum ranging error achievable by the ranging system. In h s sense, low Earth orbits (LEO) are preferred over geosynchronous (GE0)Earth orbits. The theory is also applied to the Teledesic and Iridium networks.

The prices of maturing US Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) during the last 6-month coupon period reveal whether the market is anticipating an inflationary or disinflationary regime. Against the benchmark of the Treasury bill yield to adjust for the time value of money, maturing TIPS prices represent a sequence of updated forecasts of the consumer price index (CPI) to be used to determine the final single cash flow on the maturity date. Under the assumption of risk-neutrality, the sequence of forecasts is modelled as a martingale. Generalized method of moments and regression analysis are used to test two martingale properties of the CPI forecasts: (1) the unconditional mean of daily changes in the CPI forecasts is zero and (2) serial correlations of the daily changes in the CPI forecasts are zero. The test statistics reject both martingale properties of the CPI forecasts implied in maturing TIPS prices. A persistent upward movement of the CPI forecasts toward the actual target CPI during the first quarter of 2002 implies the market was then anticipating a disinflationary regime. One policy implication is that time series behaviour of CPI forecasts can provide timely feedback to the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee.

This study demonstrates that a popular graphing calculator among students, TI-83 Plus, has a powerful function to draw the NPV profile and find the accurate multiple IRRs for a project with non-conventional cash flows. However, finance textbooks or related supplementary materials do not provide students instructions for this part. The detailed steps to find multiple IRRs utilizing TI-83 Plus are displayed in this paper. In addition, the complete and detailed procedures to find multiple IRRs utilizing different financial calculators and Excel spreadsheet are discussed.