This qualitative, descriptive study explored physiotherapists' experience of participating in peer review in public and private health services in New Zealand. Peer review is a professional activity where one health practitioner evaluates the practice of another. Accordingly, much professional effort has been expended on developing peer review systems and implementing review processes, yet the benefits of peer review are uncertain. A changing legislative environment where producing evidence of ongoing professional development is required, has provided impetus for this study given the limited research to support the use of peer review in this context. While the literature identifies competing focuses on professional development and accountability, there is lack of clarity about which model of peer review is being implemented in this country and which might serve the profession better. This study is a first step in clarifying the issues by identifying the personal, professional and organisational factors that influence health professionals' participation in peer review. The methodology consisted of a qualitative descriptive approach situated within a post positivist paradigm. Seven physiotherapists working in the New Zealand health system who had participated in a peer review process within the last 3 years participated in this study. Semi structured interviews were conducted, guided by broad questions relating to central themes identified during an extensive literature review. Interviews were then audio taped and transcribed verbatim to form the data. Transcripts were analysed by assigning content labels to units of text that seemed to encapsulate one complete thought or idea. The labelled groups were analysed into sub themes. Finally, the general themes that arose were described. Findings indicate that while peer review systems have been developed and are carried out as prescribed, therapists lack clarity about the intended outcomes. While recognising the benefits of receiving feedback on practice, many manage the review process to maintain positive working relationships and ensure their practice is favourably reviewed. The strategies they employ and the consequences of managing peer review in these ways are described. Current peer review processes in New Zealand do not provide reliable information about competence to practice. Neither do they fully achieve their potential as a professional development tool. Therefore, the professional emphasis and effort on peer review needs to be revisited. The findings highlight the need for consultation amongst individual physiotherapists, physiotherapy managers, physiotherapy professional organisations, and the registration board, to negotiate whether regulatory or professional development needs will drive peer review processes in New Zealand in the future.

This qualitative, descriptive study explored physiotherapists' experience of participating in peer review in public and private health services in New Zealand. Peer review is a professional activity where one health practitioner evaluates the practice of another. Accordingly, much professional effort has been expended on developing peer review systems and implementing review processes, yet the benefits of peer review are uncertain. A changing legislative environment where producing evidence of ongoing professional development is required, has provided impetus for this study given the limited research to support the use of peer review in this context. While the literature identifies competing focuses on professional development and accountability, there is lack of clarity about which model of peer review is being implemented in this country and which might serve the profession better. This study is a first step in clarifying the issues by identifying the personal, professional and organisational factors that influence health professionals' participation in peer review. The methodology consisted of a qualitative descriptive approach situated within a post positivist paradigm. Seven physiotherapists working in the New Zealand health system who had participated in a peer review process within the last 3 years participated in this study. Semi structured interviews were conducted, guided by broad questions relating to central themes identified during an extensive literature review. Interviews were then audio taped and transcribed verbatim to form the data. Transcripts were analysed by assigning content labels to units of text that seemed to encapsulate one complete thought or idea. The labelled groups were analysed into sub themes. Finally, the general themes that arose were described. Findings indicate that while peer review systems have been developed and are carried out as prescribed, therapists lack clarity about the intended outcomes. While recognising the benefits of receiving feedback on practice, many manage the review process to maintain positive working relationships and ensure their practice is favourably reviewed. The strategies they employ and the consequences of managing peer review in these ways are described. Current peer review processes in New Zealand do not provide reliable information about competence to practice. Neither do they fully achieve their potential as a professional development tool. Therefore, the professional emphasis and effort on peer review needs to be revisited. The findings highlight the need for consultation amongst individual physiotherapists, physiotherapy managers, physiotherapy professional organisations, and the registration board, to negotiate whether regulatory or professional development needs will drive peer review processes in New Zealand in the future.

This thesis presents an application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical PCA to credit spreads. The aim is to identify the underlying factors that drive the behavior of credit spreads as well as the left over idiosyncratic risk, which is crucial for risk management and pricing of credit derivatives. The study employs a dataset from the Swedish market of credit spreads for different maturities and ratings, split into Covered Bonds and Corporate Bonds, and performs PCA to extract the dominant factors that explain the variation in the data of the former set. The results show that most of the systemic movements in Swedish covered bonds can be extracted using a mean which coincides with the first principal component. The report further explores the idiosyncratic risk of the credit spreads to further the knowledge regarding the dynamics of credit spreads and improving risk management in credit portfolios, specifically in regards to new regulation in the form of the Fundemental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB). The thesis also explores a more general model on corporate bonds using HPCA and K-means clustering. Due to data issues it is less explored but there are useful findings, specifically regarding the feasibility of using clustering in combination with HPCA. / I detta arbete presenteras en tillämpning av Principal Komponent Analysis (PCA) och Hierarkisk PCA på kreditspreadar. Syftet är att identifiera de underliggande faktorer som styr kreditspreadarnas beteende samt den kvarvarande idiosynkratiska risken, vilket är avgörande för riskhantering och prissättning av diverse kreditderivat. I studien används en datamängd från den svenska marknaden med kreditspreadar för olika löptider och kreditbetyg, uppdelat på säkerställda obligationer och företagsobligationer, och PCA används för att ta fram de mest signifikanta faktorerna som förklarar variationen i data för de förstnämnda obligationerna. Resultaten visar att de flesta av de systematiska rörelserna i svenska säkerställda obligationer kan extraheras med hjälp av ett medelvärde som sammanfaller med den första principalkomponenten. I rapporten undersöks vidare den idiosynkratiska risken i kreditspreadarna för att öka kunskapen om dynamiken i kreditspreadarna och förbättre riskhanteringen i kreditportföljer, särskilt med tanke på regelverket "Fundemental Review of the Tradring book" (FRTB). I rapporten undersöktes vidare en mer allmän modell för företagsobligationer med hjälp av HPCA och K-means-klustering. På grund av dataproblem är den mindre utforstkad, men det finns användbara resultat, särskild när det gäller möjligheten att använda kluster i kombination med HPCA.