This thesis aims to advance our understanding of banking in the post-crisis era. It makes three distinct contributions to the literature on banking. The first chapter examines whether "too-big-to-fail" (TBTF) factors affect estimates of scale economies for large banks. Based on a standard model of bank production that does not control for any TBTF factors, we find evidence of scale economies for our sample of large banks. However, once we control for TBTF factors, we instead find evidence of constant returns to scale. These results suggest that estimates of scale economies for large banks are affected by TBTF factors. The second chapter examines the impact of forbearance lending on firm dynamics and performance in Europe since the sovereign debt crisis. We develop a quantitative model, which features endogenous forbearance lending and endogenous firm defaults, as well as information asymmetry faced by the lender. We fit the model to key Euro Area firm statistics over the period 2011 to 2014. We show that in the absence of forbearance lending, the average firm sales growth, investment and productivity are higher than in the benchmark scenario with forbearance lending. These results suggest that forbearance lending practices have contributed to the recent economic stagnation across the Euro Area. The third chapter introduces a novel way to identify the causal effect of bank capital on risk-taking. We use provisions for misconduct issues as an instrument for bank capital. We show that misconduct provisions are an appropriate instrument due to their strong and negative impact on bank capital, and are otherwise unrelated to asset risk-taking. Our main finding is subsequently that a negative shock to bank capital leads to an increase in risk-taking, as measured by detailed information on mortgage underwriting standards.

Experiences as a composer and performer in Australia involve a number of significant collaborations with musicians from diverse cultures and musical backgrounds. The musical result incorporates a number of world music elements in the form of drones, rhythms and the use of instruments such as modified guitars and the tabla. But it is distinctly different in content and approach from the generic term, World music, because it deals almost exclusively with music traditions where improvisation is central to collaborative processes. The application of the term ‘intercultural improvisation’ is a more useful descriptor of the process in which musicians from diverse backgrounds cross the boundaries of their music and step into ao zone of experimentation. This is explored through composition and improvisation that cross musical boundaries / Master of Arts (Hons.)

Music of balance is a portfolio of eight compositions, all of which bear the concealed influence of mandalas in their conception - these are made manifest musically in cycle structures with shifting drones, pedals and tonal ambiguities.The compositional process maximises minimal materials - circles and squares - symbolically. Organising thought, feeling and knowledge into a balanced acoustic music form of expression is the objective of this creative project - which is carried out under the influence of symbols. Whilst the compositional processes are intuitive, they involve a disciplinary measure which employs the circle and the square as tools. Acting symbolically these tools imbue the music with deeper meaning than the obvious listening surface, and provide a rich substance of sound. Programmatic influences have been absented; replaced instead by the language of symbols - namely the mandala symbol. A range of apparent opposites arising from circles and squares - physical/ephemeral matter, chronological/eternal time and form/expression - are investigated for musical reconciliation. The compositional exploration is guided and focused by the circle in a square image understood as a universal symbol (grounded in the ancient Indian Arts, Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism and Jungian psychology), and active in representing, and thus restoring the natural balance of the soul in the universe. / Master of Arts (Hons)

This thesis is comprised of a survey of all the varying influences behind the author's art making. All pre-occupations are included, the concepts of childhood memory; the use of imagination; the ability to comprehend and put together an old fashioned story in varying forms; as well as considering the notion of blurring historical and actual fact with personal elements of fantastical fiction. These themes have all been threaded delicately through the motif of time-travel, the author's personal favourite of literary genres. The main aim has been to make an attempt to re-create the feelings of childhood.Whilst embracing whimsy, the absurd and the time travel genre, this project hopefully shows a struggle and is an allegorical comment on the author as an artist, who having lost a little of his faith in the world and his abilities, becomes seduced by a new focus. / Master of Arts (Hons) (Creative Arts)

This thesis considers how the Twentieth Century 'death of painting' debate brought about a series of challenges and changes to painting that have ironically ensured its survival. This is illustrated in the practice of artists Gerhard Richter and Glenn Brown, whose investigations into painting's failures and limitations have paradoxically resulted in their works demonstrating the continued relevance and success of the medium. Specifically, this discussion analyses Richter's Annunciation After Titian (1973) series and Brown's series of works that appropriate Frank Auerbach paintings (1998 - 2000). These works illustrate the ways in which painting has developed in the last half of the Twentieth Century as a result of the 'death of painting' debate. The primary developments identified are that painting now draws from and references many other media; painting now embraces photography (instead of seeing it as a threat); the use of appropriation in painting is now seen as expansive rather than as representing depletion; there has been a return to romanticism and pleasure in painting; and women are now included in the broader discussion of painting. In considering the 'death of painting' debate, as well as the changes painting has experienced as a result of it, the primary point of departure is Yve-Alain Bois' pivotal essay 'Painting: The Task of Mourning' (1986) and his analysis of Hubert Damisch's 'theory of games'. The evolution of the 'death of painting' debate is also outlined via the writings of Douglas Crimp, Arthur C. Danto, Douglas Fogle, Michael Fried, Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. This thesis also considers how the debate has impacted contemporary painters' practices, as well as how my own practice owes a debt not only to the response of artists like Brown and Richter, but also to the debate itself.

Includes the novel and exegetical essay. / With: "Knitting a novel" in the back section of the volume bound upside down. / Bibliography: p. 92-97. / 97, 244 p. ; 30cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Discipline of English, Creative Writing, 2006

Despite the fact that conservation ideology has led conservation practice over the last quarter of a century, the removal of local residents from protected areas in the name of biological preservation remains the most common strategy in developing countries. Its wide-ranging impacts on displaced societies have rarely been properly addressed, particularly in regard to the establishment of parks. This thesis is based on 15 months fieldwork carried out among a group of displaced park residents known as Rana Tharus in the country of Nepal. They have long lived in Royal Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in the far-western part of that nation. This thesis is largely inspired by recent academic advocacy that conservation-induced dislocations on rural communities are having a serious influence on policy implementation. Such advocacy is leading to more effective and pragmatic park policies. West, Igoe and Brockington (2006) point out that park residents are an indispensable part of protected areas and their cultural and economic interactions with parks occur in diverse ways. Without a full understanding of these interrelationships, any kind of forced conservation policies will be doomed to fail and cause severe disturbances to people’s lives. Like most protected areas in developing countries, this thesis shows that the unplanned resettlement scheme of Shulkaphanta failed to mitigate the socio-economic losses that Rana Tharus experienced due to their displacement. The ethnographic data notes that when attention is paid solely to the economic losses experienced by Rana Tharus, the social costs such as social exclusion, loss of culture, and psychological depression are rarely addressed in the dislocation program. An inadequate understanding of the links between protected areas and local livelihoods is one of the major causes for the continuation of park-people conflicts including Shuklaphanta. In this thesis, I demonstrate how the displacement and other social changes have gradually diminished the social and economic livelihoods of the Rana people. I argue that many of these social impacts were unexpected because Rana Tharus actively responded to all these changes by putting new social relations into effect. As a result, significant social transformations have occurred in contemporary Rana Tharu society. The undivided household unit was no longer their first preference when the new economic realities made themselves felt, and gender and patrilineal kin relationships became more tense. The traditional labouring system (Kamaiya) that existed between wealthy and poor Rana Tharus declined due to increasing poverty. All these had erased their ability to maintain sustainable livelihoods that they had previously enjoyed. Moreover, substantial loss of landownership had made it impossible for Rana Tharus to share equal social, economic and political status with the new migrants - the twice-born Pahaaris. These accumulated and unforseen results of conservation practices can only be well understood if a holistic analytical perspective is adopted. This thesis borrows the concept of sustainable household livelihood system and the social theories of practice, power and agency to explore the dynamic relationships between conservation, local livelihoods and culture. The stories told by the Rana Tharu provide some important lessons. I argue that dislocation programs should be put aside or at least closely reviewed if their hidden social impacts are not well understood or at least lead to some form of compensation. Such action may prevent the further expansion of park-people conflicts which are shown to hinder conservation efforts of Shuklaphanta and local sustainable livelihoods. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1369652 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2009

Nanoparticles (particles less than 100 nm in at least one dimension) exhibit chemical properties that differ from their bulk counterparts. Furthermore, they exhibit increased potential for systemic toxicities due to their deposition deep within pulmonary tissue upon inhalation. Thus, standard regulatory assays alone may not always be appropriate for evaluation of their full spectrum of toxicity. Systems biology (e.g., the study of molecular processes to describe a system as a whole) has emerged as a powerful platform proposed to provide insight in potential hazard, mode of action and human disease relevance. This work makes use of systems biology to characterize carbon black nanoparticle-induced toxicities in pulmonary and extra-pulmonary tissues (i.e., liver and heart) in mice over dose and time. This includes investigations of gene expression profiles, microRNA expression profiles, tissue-specific phenotypes and plasma proteins. The data are discussed in the context of potential use in human health risk assessment. In general, the work provides an example of how toxicogenomics can be used to support human health risk assessment.

Title: Det nya Ryssland - En inblick over Rysslands utrikespolitik under 2000-talet Author: Tim Balder and Jens Kindh Linnaeus University Department of Political Science Autumn term 2011 The purpose of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of how the Russian foreign policy is, how it is conducted and how it may develop in the future. To do that, we are going to try to answer the following questions: What characterizes Russia's official foreign policy? What theories are there for the Russian foreign policy? How can the various theories explain the Russian foreign policy actions at the international level? Our theory is to try explaining how the Russian foreign policy is continuing its development during the 21st century through three theories known as the Western liberalism, Pragmatic nationalism and Fundamental nationalism. Furthermore, to explain Russia's foreign policy and their behaviour, we are going to use the two foreign policy doctrines from 2000 and 2008. In addition, books and articles will also be used to explain how Russia's foreign policy is conducted and developed.

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation has a vast potential for abrupt climate change due to its large heat transport through the ocean and its nonlinear dynamics. Because of these unique properties, this paper investigates how the climate of West Africa and Europe will respond to a shutdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation at the end of the 21st century. Here we use a regional climate model with 90-km grid spacing is forced by an idealized sea-surface temperature anomaly, based upon coupled atmosphere/ocean global model water hosing experiments, with a business-as-usual global warming scenario to discover how West African and European climate will change. In both the boreal spring and summer, cooling in the eastern Atlantic is associated with a strong intensification and eastward extension of the North Atlantic subtropical high over Europe throughout the depth of the atmosphere, a strengthening of the heat low over West Africa at low levels, and a weakening of the Saharan High in the upper atmosphere. Rainfall rates also decrease markedly throughout most of West Africa and Europe: in spring, rainfall rates decrease by 50-80% over Sahelian Africa, in summer rainfall over Europe decreases by up to 90%, while precipitation over West Africa is reduced by 40%. / text