This dissertation investigates the volatility of the relationships between exchange rates and interest rates. The first part of the paper explores the transmission relationship between these two markets using a time-series model. Previous studies have assumed that covariance was constant in both markets. However, if the volatilities of the exchange rate and interest rate markets are correlated over time, the interaction and spillover effects between the two markets may be affected by time-varying covariance. Hence, this paper utilizes the BEKK-GARCH model developed by Engle and Kroner (1995) to capture the dynamic relationship between the exchange rates and interest rates. This study uses the returns data for G7 members¡¦ exchange rates and interest rates to test whether these markets exhibited volatilities spillover from 1978 to 2009. The results show bi-directional volatility spillovers in the markets of the UK, the Euro countries, and Canada, where the volatilities of the two markets were interrelated. The second part of the paper explores the relationship between exchange rates and interest rates using a jump diffusion model. Previous studies assumed that the dynamic processes of exchange rates and interest rates follow a diffusion process with a continuous time path, but an increasing number of empirical studies have shown that a continuous diffusion stochastic model does not capture the dynamic process of these variables. Thus, this paper investigates the discontinuous variables of exchange rates and interest rates and assumes that these variables follow a jump diffusion process. The UIRP model is employed to explore the relationship between both variables and to divide the systematic risk into systematic continuous risk and systematic jump risk. The returns data for G7 members¡¦ exchange rates and interest rates from 2005 to 2010 were analyzed to test whether the expected exchange rate is affected by jump components when the interest rate market experiences a jump. The results show that the jump diffusion model has more explanatory power than the pure diffusion model does, and, when the interest rate market experiences a jump risk, the systematic jump risk has a significant relationship with the expected exchange rates in some G7 countries.

Prior studies have found that a firm advertising for one of its products not only can increase the sales of the advertised product, but also spill over the advertising effect by increasing sales of other existing products in the same brand. This study examines whether a fund family spending money on one of its managed funds can attract more money flows into the advertised fund and bring the advertising spillover effect that attract more money flows into other members in the same family. Under the assumption that a fund family is a risk aversion investor endowed with a negative exponential utility function, this study finds a theoretical allocation proportion for a fund family¡¦s spending on advertising of individual funds under management, which is the function of the fund family¡¦s risk aversion level and initial wealth, as well as the mean and the variance of the expected returns generated by individual funds¡¦ advertising and the advertising spillover effect. Empirically, the evidence shows that an advertised fund can significantly attract greater cash flows and bring the significant advertising spillover effect on cash flows of other individual funds in the same family. After grouping funds into lower-, mid- and higher-performing funds based on funds¡¦ past performance, the results indicate that an advertised fund with mid performance can attract greater cash flows than an advertised fund with higher and lower performance. Moreover, an advertised fund can bring stronger advertising spillover effect on cash flows of higher-performing funds than lower- and mid-performing funds in the same family. Regarding with the family cash flows, the evidence shows that a fund family¡¦s aggregating advertising expenditures on managed funds can significantly increase the family cash flows and the advertising effect on the family cash flows is stronger in large families than in small families. The empirical results suggest that a fund family can benefit from its advertising expenditures and which allocating higher proportion for advertising of mid-performing funds than higher-performing funds could attract money flows into its managed funds more efficiently.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between knowledge capital (including research & development (R&D), Automation capital stock (AICT), Electronic system (EICT)) diffusion and productivity. We used translog production function to estimate for all six Taiwan high-technology industries. And we also construct the diversification (DIV) and vertical indicator (VIC) to analysis the relationship with organization using the AICT and EICT.

The upward movement in oil and food prices in the 2000s has triggered interest in the information transmission mechanism between the two markets. This research investigates the volatility spillover between oil, food, and agricultural raw material price indexes for the period January 1980 to April 2008. The results of the Cheung-Ng procedure show that variation in oil prices does not Granger cause the variance in food and agricultural raw material prices. However, there is bi-directional spillover between agricultural raw material and oil markets. Besides, it examines volatility spillover between maize, wheat, soybean, rice, and oil spot prices for the period January-1998 to February-2009. The results show that volatility spillover in oil returns leads fluctuations in maize, soybean, wheat, and rice returns in 3 months. In addition, there are bi-directional spillovers between oil and soybean returns, rice and wheat returns. This topic is essential for countries whose populations grow rapidly because forecasting of commodity prices plays an important role in instituting the economic policy. Also, understanding the dynamics of the economy leads to better economic policies. Thus, results are important for investors and policy makers interested in price shocks and transmission.

Univ., Diss.--Kiel, 2006. / Internetausg.: http://e-diss.uni-kiel.de/diss_1746.

Univ., Diss.--Louvain-la-Neuve, 2007.

In this dissertation, hydrogen storage enhancement in hypercrosslinked polystyrene, effects of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) supported ruthenium (Ru) catalyst on the kinetics and ammonia suppression in the LiNH2-MgH2 complex hydride system and the accuracy of hydrogen storage measurements are investigated in detail. High surface area physisorption materials are of interest for room temperature hydrogen storage enhancement by spillover. Six different commercially available hypercrosslinked polystyrenes are screened by considering the specific surface area, average pore size, pore volume, and adsorption enthalpy. MN270 is selected mainly due to its high surface area and narrow pores for investigation of the spillover enhancement at room temperature. Two different platinum (Pt) doped MN270 samples are prepared by wet impregnation (MN270-6wt%Pt) and bridge building technique (MN270-bridged) with an average Pt particle size of 3.9 and 9.9nm, respectively, as obtained from X-ray diffraction analysis. Pt doping altered the surface property of MN270, and reduced the nitrogen and hydrogen uptake at 77 K and 1 atm due to pore blocking. The room temperature hydrogen uptake at 100 atm demonstrated a 10% enhancement for the MN270-bridged (0.36 wt. %) compared to the pristine MN270 (0.32 wt. %), but did not show any enhancement for the MN270-6wt%Pt under the same conditions. The hydrogen uptake of MN270-bridged has little value for practical applications; however, it showed the effectiveness of the bridge building technique. The LiNH2 - MgH2 (2:1.1) complex metal hydride system (Li-Mg-N-H), which is prepared by high energy ball milling, is investigated in terms of the hydrogen ab/desorption kinetics and the concomitant NH3 emission levels. By selecting more intense ball milling parameters, the hydrogen ab/desorption kinetics were improved and the NH3 emission reduced. However, it is shown that NH3 emission cannot be completely eliminated by ball milling. The hydrogen desorption kinetics of the Li-Mg-N-H system is much faster than the absorption kinetics at a specific T and P, but the desorption kinetics degraded considerably over a number of cycles as opposed to the stabilized absorption kinetics. Furthermore, SWCNTs and 20 wt. % Ru doped SWCNTs (SWCNT-20Ru) are utilized as catalysts to study their effects on NH3 emission and kinetics characteristics of the Li-Mg-N-H system. The SWCNT doped sample did not show any kinetics improvement, whereas the SWCNT-20Ru doped sample showed similar kinetics performance as that of the base sample. More importantly, the presence of SWCNT increased the NH3 emission as compared to the base sample. On the other hand, SWCNT-20Ru doping reduced the NH3 emission compared to the SWCNT doping, but did not eliminate it completely. As revealed from the mass spectrometry signals, the SWCNT-20Ru catalyst starts to decompose NH3 at a temperature as low as 200°C. However, an optimal catalyst still needs to be developed by fine tuning the Ru particle size and the SWCNT structural properties to maximize its effectiveness to suppress NH3 release in the Li-Mg-N-H system. The design of a volumetric measurement apparatus is studied by means of an uncertainty analysis to provide guidelines for optimum hydrogen sorption measurements. The reservoir volume should be as small as possible (i.e., 10 cc) to minimize the uncertainty. In addition, the sample mass loading has a profound effect on the uncertainty and the optimum loading is a function of the sample's intrinsic storage capacity. In general, the higher the sample mass loading the lower is the uncertainty, regardless of any other parameters. In cases where the material to be tested is not available in gram quantities, the use of high accuracy pressure and temperature transducers significantly mitigates the uncertainty in the sample's hydrogen uptake. Above all, the thermal equilibration time is an important parameter for high accuracy measurements and needs to be taken into consideration at the start of the measurements. Based on computational analysis, a 5 min wait time is required for achieving thermal equilibrium when the instrument enclosure temperature is different than the ambient temperature.

The retinogeniculate synapse, the connection between retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and thalamic relay neurons, undergoes extensive remodeling and refinement in the first few postnatal weeks. While many studies have focused on this process, little is known about the factors that influence excitatory transmission during this dynamic period. A major goal of my dissertation research was to identify mechanisms that regulate glutamate release and clearance at the developing synapse. First, we investigated the role of glutamate transporters and metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) in shaping excitatory transmission. Early in development, we found presynaptic group II/III mGluRs are present and are activated by glutamate released from RGCs following optic tract stimulation at natural frequencies. This response was found to diminish with age, but glutamate transporters continued to shape synaptic currents throughout development. The finding that glutamate is able to escape the synaptic cleft and bind extrasynaptic high-affinity mGluRs led us to speculate that glutamate might also diffuse to neighboring synapses and bind ionotropic glutamate receptors opposing quiescent release sites. Excitatory currents recorded from immature, but not mature, retinogeniculate synapses display a prolonged decay timecourse. We found evidence that both asynchronous release of glutamate as well as spillover of glutamate between neighboring synapses contributes to these slowly decaying synaptic currents. Furthermore, we uncovered and characterized a novel, purely spillover-mediated current from immature relay neurons, which strongly supports the presence of glutamate spillover between boutons of different RGCs. The results of my studies indicate that far more RGCs contribute to relay neuron firing than would be predicted by the anatomy alone. Finally, in an ongoing study, we investigated the functional role of the neuronal glutamate transporter GLT-1 at the immature retinogeniculate synapse. While GLT-1 has been found in both neurons and glia, excitatory currents at the retinogeniculate synapse were largely unaffected in mice lacking neuronal GLT-1, suggesting non-neuronal glutamate transporters are responsible for the majority of glutamate removal from the developing synapse. Taken together, these results provide insight into the synaptic environment of the developing retinogeniculate synapse and identify a number of mechanisms that shape excitatory transmission during this period of synaptic maturation and refinement.

In this study we analyse the role of speculation in forging cross-market linkages between agriculture, equity and crude oil over the period 1992-2014. The market interdependence of ten U.S. traded agricultural commodities futures is measured through the spillover index of Diebold and Yilmaz (2009, 2012) and the dynamic conditional correlation framework of Engle (2002). Utilising data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, ve dierent measures of speculation are constructed, which are used to examine the long-run and short-run dynamics between market integration and speculation. To explore time-varying characteristics in this relationship, and as a test for robustness, we perform a sub-sampling analysis for the periods 1992-2006 and 2006-2014. We show that cross-market linkages grew stronger post-2005, particularly in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. The results of our econometric analysis indicate that any conclusions regarding the role of speculation in this process are highly sensitive both to the choice of market integration measure, as well as to how the extent of speculation is captured. Overall, though, there is little to indicate that speculation has played an important role in creating cross-market linkages. We do provide some evidence of market integration increasing with market size, but other factors, such as inflation and exchange rates, seem to provide better explanations of agriculture-equity-energy price dynamics. In line with previous research, we also find market interdependence to increase with stock market uncertainty, which suggests that the diversification benefits of commodity futures investments are actually reduced when needed the most. Considered together with our findings on the sizes of markets, which are increasingly made up of speculators, it appears at least possible that financialisation has made food markets more vulnerable to disturbances in financial markets.

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