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This thesis presents an empirical investigation of the behaviour of financial markets and also the relationship on the real economy. The thesis will focus on Ireland, a small open economy with increased dependence on international developments. Two important aspects of the Irish economy, the term structure of interest rates and impact of exchange rate volatility, will be analysed. The motivation for the analysis of the term structure of interest rates in part I is two fold. Central banks can control very short-term interest rates, but of course the real economy will only really be affected by the long-term interest rate. Therefore the transmission mechanism from monetary policy to the real economy will depend on the relationship between short-term interest rates and long-term interest rates, i.e. the term structure of interest rates. The second important issue is that of market efficiency, and whether asset prices and returns are correctly valued by the market. A number of different interest rate maturities will be used to test the Expectations Hypothesis (EH) of term structure. The EH will also be tested assuming constant and time varying term premia. The results give support for the EH, and fmd no evidence of a time varying term premium. Given the recent extraordinary growth in the share of Irish exports in GDP, the impact of exchange rate volatility on Irish exports is analysed in part 2. The moti vation behind part 2 is to test whether the resulting monetary union will lead to a rise in exports, as a result of the end of exchange rate risk. Using the cointegration-ECM methodology I fmd that in the long-run there is no significant effect on Irish exports to the UK, while there is actually a positive impact on exports to European countries (UK included). I tentatively conclude that in the long-run the involvement in a single European currency will have no impact on trade.

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The issue of nonresponse to surveys is a serious problem in survey research because it reduces the amount of information obtained, creates a significant nuisance for data analysis and may introduce bias into the survey results by flawing the representativeness of the target population under investigation. This paper examines item-nonresponse and "don't know" responses in the General Social Survey of Canada of 1985 and comments specifically on the different effects of personal and telephone interviewing technique on rate of item omission. The effect of sensitivity of the question, and position of the item in the questionnaire on nonresponse are also examined in an exploratory descriptive analysis. Results of an analysis of variance and multiple regression/correlation indicate that both sensitivity and position are factors influencing item omission. In addition, demographic characteristics were found to be significantly and differentially correlated with item omission and "don't know" responses by topic area for the survey under investigation. The results of this study further demonstrate that telephone interviewing significantly increases the rate of item omission, especially for questions on social support.

Resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the minimum energy expenditure necessary for survival. RMR varies widely both among and within species and a central question in evolutionary physiology concerns the functional basis for this variation. Juvenile North American red squirrels were used to investigate fitness consequences of variation in RMR by considering how expenditure relates to differences in food availability and to overwinter survival. Additionally, this thesis examines whether red squirrels exhibit phenotypic plasticity in RMR in response to varying levels of food availability. Results indicate that heavier juveniles with relatively low RMRs were more likely to survive overwinter. Moreover, these juveniles were capable of allocating more energy towards mechanical work and possessed larger food stores. Food supplemented yearlings exhibited higher RMRs than unsupplemented controls at the onset of the breeding season, while no difference in RMR was detected following termination of supplementation. / Wildlife Ecology

The incidence of restenosis has been shown to be correlated with the overstretching of the arterial wall during an angioplasty procedure. It has been proposed that slow balloon inflation results in lower intramural stresses, therefore minimizing vascular injury and restenosis rate. The analysis of the biomechanics of the arterial tissue might contribute to understand which factors trigger restenosis. However, few mechanical data are available on human arteries because of the difficulty of testing artery samples often obtained from autopsy while arteries are still considered "fresh". Various solutions mimicking the physiological environment have been used to preserve artery samples from harvesting to testing. In vitro mechanical testing is usually preferred since it is difficult to test arteries in vivo. Uniaxial and biaxial testing has been used to characterize anisotropic materials such as arteries, although methodological aspects are still debated. Several objectives were formulated and analyzed during the making of this thesis. In one study, the effect of deformation rate on the mechanical behavior of arterial tissue was investigated. The effect of several preservation methods, including cryopreservation, on the mechanical properties of porcine thoracic aortas was also analyzed. Finally, the differences in the mechanical behavior between three different types of sample geometry and boundary conditions were compared under uniaxial and equi-biaxial testing. Thoracic aortas were harvested within the day of death of pigs from a local slaughterhouse. Upon arrival, connective tissue was removed from the external wall of the artery. Then the artery was cut open along its length and cut out in rectangular samples for uniaxial testing, and square and cruciform samples for biaxial testing. Samples belonging to the freezing effect study were preserved for two months at -20°C and -80°C in isotonic saline solution, Krebs-Henseleit solution with 1.8 M dimethylsulfoxide, and dipped in liquid nitrogen. Samples belonging to the deformation rate effect study were tested uniaxially and equi-biaxially at deformation rates from 10 to 200 %/s. The uniaxial and biaxial experiments were simulated with the help of an inverse finite element software. The use of inverse modeling to fit the material properties by taking into account the non-uniform stress distribution was demonstrated. A rate-dependent isotropic hyperelastic constitutive equation, derived from the Mooney-Rivlin model, was fitted to the experimental results (i.e. deformation rate study). In the proposed model, one of the material parameters is a linear function of the deformation rate. Overall, inverse finite element simulations using the proposed constitutive relation accurately predict the mechanical properties of the arterial wall. In this thesis, it was found that easier attachment of samples (rectangular and cruciform) is accomplished using clamps rather than hooks. It was also found that the elastic behavior of arteries is nonlinear and non-isotropic when subjected to large deformations. Characterization of the arterial behavior at large deformations over a higherdeformation range was achieved using cruciform samples. The mechanical properties of arteries did not significantly change after preservation of arteries for two months. Under uniaxial and biaxial testing, loading forces were reduced up to 20% when the deformation rate was increased from 10 to 200 %/s, which is the opposite to the behaviour seen in other biological tissues. The differences observed in the mechanical behavior of fresh and thawed samples were not significant, independently of the storing medium or freezing temperature used. The lack of significant differences observed in the freezing study was likely due to the small number of samples tested per storing group. Further studies are required to clarify the impact of cryopreservation on extracellular matrix architecture to help tailor an optimized approach to preserve the mechanical properties of arteries. From the results obtained in the deformation rate study, it is concluded that the stiffness of arteries decreases with an increase in the deformation rate. In addition, the effect of deformation rate was observed to be higher than the effect of anisotropy. The inverse relationship between stiffness and deformation rate raises doubts on the hypothesized relationship between intramural stress, arterial injury, and restenosis.

Thesis (MAppSc (Medical Laboratory Sc)) --University of South Australia, 1993

The Basel Committee has released a consultative document (Basel (2003)) on the management and supervision of interest rate risk (IRR). This document outlines a standardised model to calculate a duration-based proxy for IRR in depository institution balance sheets. We utilise this methodology to define an IRR measure which we denote BIRRM (Basel Interest Rate Risk Measure). It is the change in the value of a financial institution produced by a 200 basis-point increase in interest rates at all maturities, relative to Tier I and Tier II capital. This study has three primary objectives. Firstly, we utilise BIRRM to provide an overview of IRR exposure of Australian Credit Unions and Building Societies (CUBS) over the period September 1997 to September 2007. Secondly, we seek an understanding of the relationship between BIRRM and measures of CUBS' interest rate sensitivity over a period of rising interest rates (December 1998 to September 2000) and another period of falling rates (September 2000 to December 2001). Finally, we seek an understanding of the economic factors that influence IRR exposure decisions of CUBS by modelling the determinants of CUBS' IRR exposure. We find that IRR exposure of CUBS is relatively low and, on average, CUBS are exposed to falling interest rates. We also find significant relationships between BIRRM and measures of CUBS' interest rates sensitivity consistent with a priori expectations, supporting the use of the Basel Committee's measure of IRR in identifying CUBS with large IRR exposures. The models examining the determinants of CUBS' IRR have relatively low explanatory power. There are however significant relationships between a number of factors and CUBS' exposure to changing rates.