This thesis investigates the effects of micro-saving on the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) using unbalanced panels that straddle the period 2000-2012. This issue is also examined in a country-specific case study of Vietnam. There are four important findings. First, we found that serving more voluntary savers is costly and curtails depth of microfinance outreach. Second, micro-savings, in terms of the total deposits and the number of deposit accounts per staff member have a positive and significant impact on financial sustainability, cost-efficiency and breadth of outreach of MFIs. Third, a trade-off between financial sustainability and depth of outreach was found for deposit-taking MFIs, compared with MFIs that do not offer micro-savings financial products. Fourth, the findings from the cross-country studies are consistent with the findings from Vietnam. Overall, these findings have important implications for policy makers, microfinance practitioners and researchers.

This thesis analyses inflation dynamics in eight Asian countries. The second chapter analyses inflation persistence and exchange rate pass through (ERPT). The findings on inflation persistence show that for most countries this declines after the Asian financial crisis. The findings for ERPT are more mixed and vary by country. The role of Inflation Targeting Framework (ITF) on inflation persistence and ERPT is also examined. The estimation results suggest it is too early to generalize that ITF exerts a consistently discernible influence on inflation dynamics across this group of Asian ITF countries. The third and fourth chapters focus on the impact that world oil and world food price shocks have on domestic prices. On average, the pass-through of the world oil price is higher than for world food prices. Another finding is that the domestic food supply capacity of a country succeeds in dampening the effect of world food price shocks. The fifth chapter employs disaggregated data on prices to examine inflation dynamics in Indonesia. The main finding is that price behaviour exhibits heterogeneity. Disaggregated prices are more flexible in response to sector specific shocks and are more sluggish in response to macroeconomic shocks. In response to deposit rate shocks, the price puzzle becomes weaker after the full implementation of ITF.

Delivery of complex molecules such as peptides, proteins, oligonucleotides and plasmids is an intensively studied subject, which has attracted considerable medical and pharmaceutical interest. Encapsulation of these molecules with biodegradable polymers represents one way of overcoming various problems associated with the conventional delivery of macromolecules, for example instability and short biological half-life. The use of carriers made of hydrophilic polysaccharides such as chitosan, has been pursued as a promising alternative for improving the transport of biologically active macromolecules across biological surfaces. The development of nanoparticles as a delivery system also has major advantages of achieving possible drug protection, controlled release and drug targeting by either a passive or an active means. The aim of this study was to develop a simple and effective method to formulate biodegradable nanoparticles for the delivery of a model protein-bovine serum albumin (BSA) and an angiogenesis inhibitor, arginine-rich hexapeptide (ARE peptide). Major factors which determine nanoparticle formation and loading of the protein and the peptide as well as the underlying mechanisms controlling their incorporation and release characteristics were investigated. The preparation technique, based on the complex coacervation process, is extremely mild and involves the mixture of two aqueous solutions (chitosan and dextran sulfate) at room temperature. The formation of nanoparticles is dependent on the concentrations of chitosan (CS) and dextran sulfate (DS); particles with size, of 257 to 494nm can be obtained with 0.1%w/v solutions of CS and DS. Zeta potential of nanoparicles can be modulated conveniently from -34.3mV to +52.7mV by varying the composition of the two ionic polymers. / Both bovine BSA and the ARH peptide were successfully incorporated into CS-based nanoparticles, mainly via an electrostatic interaction, with entrapment efficiency up to 100% and 75.9% for the protein and peptide respectively. Incorporation of both the protein and peptide into nanoparticles resulted in an increase in size suggesting their close association with the nanoparticle matrix material. The difference in sign and magnitude of zeta potential of empty and macromolecules-loaded nanoparticles supports the hypothesis that protein and peptide association with nanoparticles can be modulated by their ionic interaction with the oppositely charged ionic polymer (DS) in the nanoparticles. The release of BSA from the nanoparticles was very slow in water compared to that in l0mM phosphate buffer pH 7.4; whereas, ARH peptide showed extremely low level of release in water at the low ratio of DS but at the high ratio of DS, its release was in biphasic fashion, with an initial burst effect followed by an almost constant but very slow release up to 7 days in both water and 1 OmM phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). It was found that, unlike ARH peptide, the percentage of BSA released was relatively slower for the nanoparticles with a high ratio of DS. It is speculated that this difference in the release behaviour of BSA and ARH peptide, could be due to the effect of molecular size of the compounds and their interaction with the polymer matrix of the nanoparticle. The results of this study suggest that these novel CS/DS nanoparticulate system, prepared by a very mild ionic crosslinking technique, have potential to be a suitable carrier for the entrapment and controlled release of peptides and proteins.

In this thesis, we propose a modified blind adaptive approach to MAI cancellation for synchronous DS-CDMA systems, termed PCMA Approach. It has the same advantage as MOE and CMA of suppressing MAI without the explicit knowledge of interference parameters. We study the effect of arrival and departure of new users to the synchronous blind multiuser receivers, namely MOE and CMA. The perturbation caused by this sudden birth or death of interferers is examined from the viewpoint of the change of the cost function under the noiseless assumption. It is shown that in the vicinity of lock convergence, the changes in the CMA and MOE costs are the same if the perturbation is small enough. But it is also observed that the transient behavior of the CMA detector becomes significantly less robust as the existing number of users approaches the processing gain. To overcome this question of the CMA detector, we employ a projection matrix P that can remove the desired signal from the received signal with other interferers unchanged. Finally its performance has been demonstrated by numerical results in comparison with CMOE, ANMMSE, BAMMSE and Linear MMSE. The proposed receiver can combat MAI, approach the performance of Linear MMSE and have a higher capacity and fast convergence rate for a time-varying user population.

In a multiuser DS-CDMA system with frequency selectivity, each user’s spreading sequence is transmitted through a different channel and the autocorrelation and the cross correlation properties of the received sequences will not be the same as that of the transmitted sequences. The best way of designing spreading sequences for frequency selective channels is to design them at the receiver exploiting the users’ channel characteristics. By doing so, we can show that the designed sequences outperform single user AWGN performance. In existing sequence design algorithms for frequency selective channels, the design is done in the time domain and the connection to frequency domain properties is not established. We approach the design of spreading sequences based on their frequency domain characteristics. Based on the frequency domain characteristics of the spreading sequences with unconstrained amplitudes and phases, we propose a reduced-rank sequence design algorithm that reduces the computational complexity, feedback bandwidth and improves the performance of some existing sequence design algorithms proposed for frequency selective channels. We propose several different approaches to design the spreading sequences with constrained amplitudes and phases for frequency selective channels. First, we use the frequency domain characteristics of the unconstrained spreading sequences to find a set of constrained amplitude sequences for a given set of channels. This is done either by carefully assigning an already existing set of sequences for a given set of users or by mapping unconstrained sequences onto a unit circle. Secondly, we use an information theoretic approach to design the spreading sequences by matching the spectrum of each user’s sequence to the water-filling spectrum of the user’s channel. Finally, the design of inner shaping codes for single-head and multi-head magnetic recoding channels is discussed. The shaping sequences are designed considering them as short spreading codes matched to the recoding channels. The outer channel code is matched to the inner shaping code using the extrinsic information transfer chart analysis. In this dissertation we introduce a new frequency domain approach to design spreading sequences for frequency selective channels. We also extend this proposed technique to design inner shaping codes for partial response channels.

Noting the inadequacies of existing IR theories to explain the security policies of states in the global south and the frequent intra-state conflicts there, this research demonstrates the analytical capacity of the insecurity dilemma as an alternative framework. The research develops the insecurity dilemma first and then applies it on the Chinese-Tibetan conflict. Over sixty years of violence and dialogue has brought the Chinese and the Tibetans no closer to a resolution of their conflict. The insecurity dilemma provides a nuanced understanding of the underlying reasons for this protracted conflict. This research argues that, conscious of its weakness as a state, which has implications for state, regime and ‘national’ security, China has pursued state-building through its policies on religion, language, education and economy in Tibet. Beijing has also denied the existence of a ‘Tibet Issue’ and rejected a number of Tibetan proposals for autonomy out of fears that they threaten their state-building project in Tibet. Conversely, Tibetan identity insecurity, generated by the Chinese policies, migration and cultural influences inside Tibet, explains both the Dalai Lama’s unpopular decision to give up his erstwhile aspiration for Tibetan independence as well as his steadfast demands for autonomy and unification of all Tibetans under one administration. Identity insecurity also drives the multi-faceted Tibetan resistance both inside Tibet and in the diaspora. Although the intentions of both Beijing and the Tibetans are to increase their respective securities identified above, the outcome is greater insecurity for both, plunging them into dilemmatic cycles of state-building and hardening of policies on the Chinese side and strengthening of identity and resistance on the Tibetan side. This study gives play to a multiplicity of actors, objectives and strategies on both sides and examines the feed-back effect that exists between the Sino-Tibetan conflict and the regional and global political strategic and ideological competitions.

This research is an exploration of ethnic narratives of the Circassian community in Jordan, in addition to the nationalist narratives promoted by the state of Jordan, and their reconstruction by the research participants. This research aims to understand how the research participants, as non-Arabs, understand and makes sense of the Pan-Arab ethnonational narratives promoted by the state through the ‘Jordan First’ nationalist campaign and textbooks of national and civic education. It also seeks to understand the ethnic narratives of the Circassian community. It highlights the fact that ethnic narratives are often contextualised, and come to light always in comparison to the other. It also shows how ethnic narratives are gendered, can include or exclude women, and gender relations are ethnicised, or in other words used as markers for group boundaries. The main aim of this research is to unpack the research participants’ conceptualisations of Jordan and the Pan-Arabism, and to understand the strategies they use to include themselves within these narratives. It intends to evaluate whether research participants see themselves as integrated into the Jordanian society or not. Whereas the community itself is often portrayed as integrated into the society, because many of them are in high governmental positions, and the ceremonial guards of the Royal Family are the Circassians, it is also important to examine whether they believe that they are, and how. This thesis contributes to the literature on ethnicity and nationalism based on a minority with unique profile, and also contributes to the overall body of literature on state nationalism in the Middle East. The research has been approached through the use of both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. It is based on the analysis of textbooks of national and civic education, and the ‘Jordan First’ campaign, in addition to 13 interviews and 62 questionnaires.

In the post-war, post-independence period, India became a key site of intervention and experimentation for international population control advocates. During the 1950s, the Government of India became the first government to announce an official policy of population limitation as part of its first Five Year Plan in 1952, constituting its own national population as an object of study and intervention. The Khanna Study—a well-known population control experiment conducted in the Ludhiana District of Punjab—is emblematic of these processes. Between 1953 and 1960, Khanna was the site of population control experimentation for the Indian State and international organisations alike. Through a case study of the Khanna Study, this dissertation asks why India was so important to strategies of international population control and, conversely, why population control was so important to the newly-independent Government of India. I argue that international population control advocates focused on India because of the scale, poverty and—crucially—accessibility of its population. International organisations were able to experiment upon the Indian population primarily because of the collaboration of the Government of India. Population control was of mutual interest to international ‘overpopulation’ theorists and for Indian officials, who viewed population growth as an obstacle to economic development. In an attempt to render the Indian population legible and, therefore, amenable to population control interventions, these actors collaborated to make Khanna—and India generally—a laboratory for population control. Although the Khanna Study did not succeed in its stated goal of reducing the birth rate, it nevertheless helped to consolidate the position of population control as national policy, and produced Khanna as a study site to be re-visited and re-studied over the following five decades. As such, the Khanna Study itself helped to solidify the relationships between India and population control, and between international population control and India.

This dissertation provides a comprehensive analysis of the coding-spreading tradeoff problem in finite-sized synchronous DS-CDMA systems. In contrast to the large system which has a large number of users, the finite-sized system refers to a system with a small number of users. Much work has been performed in the past on the analysis of the spectral efficiency of synchronous DS-CDMA systems and the associated coding-spreading tradeoff problem. However, most of the analysis is based on the large-system assumptions. In this dissertation, we focused on finite-sized systems with the help of numerical methods and Monte-Carlo simulations.Binary-input achievable information rates for finite-sized synchronous DS-CDMA systems with different detection/decoding schemes on AWGN channel are numerically calculated for various coding/spreading apportionments. We use these results to determine the existence and value of an optimal code rate for a number of different multiuser receivers, where optimality is in the sense of minimizing the SNR required for reliable multiuser communication. Our results are consistent with the well-known fact that all coding (no spreading) is optimal for the maximum a posteriori receiver.Simulations of the LDPC-coded synchronous DS-CDMA systems with iterative multiuser detection/decoding and MMSE multiuser detection/single-user decoding are also presented to show that the binary-input capacities can be closely approached with practical schemes. The coding-spreading tradeoff is examined using these LDPC code simulation results, where agreement with the information-theoretic results is demonstrated.We extend our work to the DS-CDMA systems on two idealized Rayleigh flat-fading channels: the chip-level flat-fading (CLFF) and the (code) symbol-level flat-fading (SLFF). These models represent ideal fast fading and slow fading channels, respectively. Both information-theoretic results and LDPC code simulation results are presented to show the effects of channel fading on system performance and the coding-spreading tradeoff. It is shown that fast fading can be beneficial to system performance under the condition of perfect channel state information at receiver, but slow fading is very harmful. Slow fading also increases the importance of coding greatly, compared to the AWGN and fast fading.Finally, we present some comparisons with large-system results on AWGN and CLFF channels, which show both consistencies and discrepancies.

Neotropical cichlid fishes are highly diverse and occupy diverse environments. Visual pigment evolution has been important in the diversification of African rift lake cichlids, but little is known of Neotropical cichlid visual systems. This thesis addresses the molecular evolution of rhodopsin in the Geophagini tribe of Neotropical cichlids. We use likelihood-based codon models of molecular evolution and newly isolated sequences for Neotropical cichlid rhodopsin to compare patterns of selective constraint among Neotropical, African rift lake, and African riverine cichlid rhodopsin. We provide evidence for differences in selective constraint among clades, with positive selection occurring in the Neotropical and African rift lake clades. Further, we find variation in selective constraint within geophagine cichlids. Our results suggest that Clade model C may be more appropriate than branch-site models for investigating variation in selective constraint among clades. Neotropical cichlids are emerging as an excellent system for investigating molecular evolution in visual pigments.