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This thesis focuses on the high strain rate behavior of Maraging steel 300, High Hardness Armor (HHA) and Aluminum 5083 – H131 Alloy. These materials are used by the Department of National Defense (DND) of Canada as armor plate materials in military applications. The aim of the research is to investigate the dynamic shear-strain response of these armor materials at high strain rate loading to study the occurrence of Adiabatic Shear Bands and the subsequent failure. The effects of impact momentum and strain rates on the dynamic stress-strain curve and on the adiabatic shear failure of these armor materials under impact and torsion loading need to be investigated to evaluate their capability to withstand military conditions.

The thesis attempts to find the determinants of unemployment rates for a geographical area, the Inland Empire. San Bernardino and Riverside County, located east of Los Angeles, are home to over 4 million people. After reviewing the literature on the determinants of unemployment and the relevance of human capital theories, I develop a human capital index and apply it to the 36 cities in Inland Empire. While some of the control variables are found to be important determinants of unemployment, the human capital index appears to dominate as an explanatory factor. The study concludes with a policy implications.

This thesis consists of two parts: the first examines the Expectations Hypothesis of the Term Structure for New Zealand, and the latter examines the predictive power of the term spread on future economic activity in New Zealand. For both parts, I divide the sample period into two sub-sample periods – the pre-OCR period and the OCR period. Using Mankiw & Miron’s (1986) approach for testing the expectations hypothesis, the findings in this paper suggest that the theory is consistent with New Zealand data during the OCR period. I attribute the success of the theory to the introduction of the Official Cash Rate system in March 1999. The change from targeting the settlement cash balance to targeting an interest rate variable has substantially improved the predictability of short-term interest rates. In regards to the predictive power of the spread, the findings in this paper support the conventional view that the spread is positively related to future economic activity. Using Hamilton & Kim’s (2002) approach, I decomposed the term spread into an expectation component and a term premium in an attempt to find out whether these two variables have distinctly separate effect on future economic activity. My findings are in contrast to that reported by Hamilton & Kim. In particular, I find that the term premium in some cases is significant and negatively related to future economic activity in New Zealand. I attribute the negative relationship to lower long-term interest rates and a fallen term premium in New Zealand.

Milling is a commonly used machining process where a rotating cutter removes material from the workpiece. In recent years, attention has been turned towards so called dynamic milling methods which differ from the conventional way of milling. Dynamic milling normally uses, as opposed to the conventional way, more of the axial cutting edge, smaller radial depth of cut, significantly higher cutting speed and feed per tooth. The method has demonstrated potential to save both time and money under specific circumstances, for manufacturing companies.This thesis was conducted at ISCAR Sverige AB in Uppsala, Sweden. ISCAR Metalworking is a full service supplier of carbide cutting tools. The objective is to establish if there are benefits with dynamic milling methods with regard to material removal rate and lifetime of the tool by experimentally investigating and comparing tool wear that occur with conventional- and dynamic milling methods in hardened steels. Tools used were ISCAR’s MULTI-MASTER end mills, MM A and MM B, and the hardened steels were Hardox 600 and Dievar. Analysis was performed by using a USB-microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a Wyko-profilometer. The results of this study show that dynamic milling parameters can give several benefits regarding tool life and material removal rate. When machining in Hardox 600 and Dievar, both end mills were able to achieve a higher material removal rate and lifetime with dynamic parameters compared to more conventional ones. MM A outperformed MM B in Dievar, but the results were reversed in Hardox, MM B performed better. Results from the profilometry analysis showed that in Dievar, the dynamic parameters generated a smoother surface while the surface results from Hardox were more equivocal. The main conclusion was that milling with dynamic parameters is generally more advantageous and should be utilised, if possible.

Core executive decision-making in economic policy in the UK is dominated by a Prime Minister-Chancellor axis and a set of constraints defined by vast flows of capital around foreign exchange markets. This thesis examines policy-making during the Thatcher governments in relation to the debate about ERM membership from 1979 to 1990. The analysis reconstructs the choices which faced the Thatcher governments given their economic and European policy interests and capital accumulation priorities, and investigates core executive actors' activity against this background. From the first Thatcher administration onwards, the core executive was seriously divided on ERM membership and the government was unable to pursue a coherent policy on the issue. As a result of both a power struggle between the Prime Minister and successive Chancellors and the retention of empirically untenable policy positions by core executive actors, economic policy-making failed as a judgement about effective means to ends. In this sense, decision-making became non-rational. Having renounced the potential benefits of ERM membership for most of the 1980s, the Prime Minister and Chancellor decided to enter ERM in autumn 1990 at a central rate of DM2.95 which served neither their own interests nor those of UK producers. The failure of the Conservative government to pursue an effective policy on ERM membership represented a failure to cope with or understand the implications for successful economic management of vast capital flows around foreign exchange markets.

The policy instrument of central banks everywhere has usually been a short-term nominal interest rate. This means that central banks have adopted operating procedures whose goal has been to produce some desired level of money market interest rates. Although the Bank of England was in many respects the pioneer of these operating procedures, theoretical and empirical attention has focused almost exclusively on the Federal Reserve. This thesis aims to redress this imbalance by examining - in detail - the sterling money market and the operations of the Bank of England. This task is carried out in two parts. Part I reviews central banks' use of the interest instrument more generally, beginning with an historical sketch of the evolution of central bank money market operations. This sketch is complemented by a critical discussion of two important concepts relating to such operations, namely interest rate smoothing and money base control. A simple analytical model is then developed to illustrate the determination of money market interest rates by the central bank. Part II specifically concerns the money market operations of the Bank of England, and their implications for the behaviour of sterling money market interest rates. First, a model of the term structure of money market interest rates is derived. Its predicted behaviour in reaction to a change in the Bank's official rate is then empirically verified. Next, the yield on eligible bills - the Bank's intervention asset - is examined. It is argued that these assets carry an excess liquidity premium, arising from the Bank's constraints on their issue. Finally, an empirical model of the overnight interest rate - the UK equivalent of the federal funds rate - is developed, and the reasons for its volatility are investigated.

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