Currency carry trade is an investment strategy that recently started gaining a lot of interest not only among investors and financial institutions but also academically. One of the underlying theoretical assumptions regarding the mechanisms of the foreign exchange market, the Uncovered Interest Parity has frequently been disproved in practice which has led to the conclusion that carry trade is profitable in practice. The function of a carry trade strategy is that a short position is taken in a low interest rate currency to finance a long position in another currency offering higher yields. This thesis is adding to the existing literature that is explaining the characteristics of currency carry trade but is adopting a different approach than most other recent researches that has focused on identifying especially risk factors. Gold as a financial asset has also received much attention largely due to its, contrarily to other asset classes, low dependence on macroeconomic factors. This makes gold desirable to diversify portfolios and decreasing overall risks. By investigating how the returns of currency carry trades and gold relates to each other an increased understanding in how carry trades can be beneficially included in managing portfolios are developed. Looking at a currency carry trade index, Deutsche Bank’s G10 Currency Future Harvest index, and the development of the gold price at the London bullion market for the 20 year period of 1993-2013 this research is exploring correlation, mean and volatility spillover effects. Spearman’s correlation, Vector Autoregression and a diagonal BEKK GARCH model are employed to test these effects. It also investigates if gold possesses hedge, diversifier and safe haven characteristics when combined with carry trades as it has been found to do with stock markets. This is determined by a regression analysis and supplemented by a portfolio simulation. This thesis found that there is a low positive correlation between the returns of gold and currency carry trades and that there is spillover effects as well between the two in both returns and volatility. This in addition to the regression analysis and portfolio analysis determined that there are diversification benefits by adding gold to a portfolio consisting of currency carry trade in the form of higher risk adjusted returns. However special caution has to be taken to the spillover effects as these complicate the relationship between the returns of the two variables and especially the volatility spillover effects slightly decreases the potential diversification benefit. The regression analysis concluded that gold work as a diversifier for carry trade but could not determine if it also exhibited hedge or safe haven characteristics. These findings pushes the existing understanding of carry trades forward and adds to focus of matching carry trades within a portfolio which could have implications to more efficiently match risks and returns by combining several asset classes in portfolio management.

A survey of relevant literature on the topic of wave propagation and scattering in pipes is given first. This review is followed by a theoretical framework which is pertinent to wave propagation in homogeneous, isotropic, pipes. Emphasis is placed on approximate solutions stemming from a computer based, Semi-Analytical Finite Element (SAFE) formulation. A modal analysis of the dynamic response of homogeneous, isotropic pipes, when subjected to a transient ultrasonic excitation, demonstrates that dominant features, i.e., singularities in an unblemished pipe’s displacement Frequency Response Function (FRF) coincide with its cutoff frequencies. This behaviour is confirmed experimentally. A novel technique is developed to deduce such a pipe’s wall thickness and elastic properties from three cutoff frequencies. The resulting procedure is simulated numerically and verified experimentally. Agreement between the new ultrasonic procedure and traditional destructive tests is within experimental uncertainty. Then a hybrid-SAFE technique is used to simulate waves scattered by various open rectangular notches. The simulations show, for the first time, that singularities distinct from the unblemished pipe’s cutoff frequencies arise in a displacement FRF when an axisymmetric notch is introduced. They also suggest that the new singularities depend on the properties of the parent pipe and the finite element region but effects are local to a notch. It is demonstrated further that the difference between the frequency at which a singularity introduced by a notch occurs and the nearest corresponding unblemished pipe’s cutoff frequency is a function of the notch’s dimensions. By plotting contours of constant frequency differences, it is shown that it is usually possible to characterize the notch’s dimensions by using two modes. However, the frequency difference for a third mode may be also needed occasionally. The more general case of nonaxisymmetric notches is shown to be a straightforward extension of the axisymmetric case.

This study aims to determine the safe and sustainable development and management of groundwater resources in Ergene River Basin located in northwestern Turkey. A numerical groundwater model was developed for the Sandy Complex aquifer, which is the most productive and the most widespread aquifer in the basin. The finite difference model with 5900 cells was used to represent the steady and unsteady flow in the aquifer. The model was calibrated in two steps: a steady state calibration by using the observed groundwater levels of January 1970, followed by a transient calibration by using the observed groundwater levels for the period of January 1970 and December 2000. The resulting model was used to develop groundwater pumping scenarios in order to predict the changes in the aquifer system under a set of different pumpage conditions for a planning period of 30 years between January 2001 and December 2030. A total of eight pumping scenarios were developed under transient flow conditions for the planning period and the results were evaluated to determine the safe and sustainable yields of the aquifer. The results, presented in the form of a trade-off curve, demonstrate that the continuation of the present pumping rates exceeds both the safe and the sustainable yields of the aquifer system.

Intrinsically safe (IS) active power supplies subjected to certain transient load conditions can deliver power to a circuit at significantly higher levels than indicated on their nameplate ratings. During a transient load such as an intermittent short-circuit, energy is transferred from the power supply to the short-circuit and an electrical arc may form when the short-circuit is applied or removed. This poses a spark ignition risk as energy is transferred from the arc to the surrounding atmosphere. Currently various International and Australian Standards define the performance requirements for IS electrical apparatus. A duly accredited laboratory is required to establish the intrinsic safety compliance of an apparatus with the Standards. It involves an assessment of the apparatus and may include testing. The assessment of the apparatus determines adequate segregation, separation, construction, and selection of components. The tests performed on the apparatus include a temperature rise test and in some cases, the sparking potential of the circuit is tested using the spark test apparatus (STA). Testing the sparking potential of active power supplies to establish compliance adds significantly to the time and costs involved in establishing compliance. A new alternative assessment method is proposed in this report to augment or replace the testing phase of the compliance certification process for active power supplies. The proposed alternative assessment method (PAAM) is derived from a determination of the steady-state and transient output characteristics of the active power supply under consideration. Parameters such as peak output current, time constant of peak current decay, and the output voltages at these times are measured from the circuit's output characteristics. These measurements can subsequently be used to derive the topology and component values of an equivalent circuit. The resulting equivalent circuit is then considered like a linear power supply and the sparking potential can be determined using existing assessment methods. This thesis investigates in detail the equivalent circuit of a number of direct current (DC) active power supplies whose transient output characteristics exhibit predominantly capacitive behaviour. The results of the PAAM using the equivalent circuit are then compared with results achieved using the current testing procedure with a STA. A small sample of active power supplies is used to generate data from which a relationship between the current testing procedure and the PAAM can be established. The PAAM developed in this research project can be used as a pre-compliance check by designers, manufacturers, or IS testing stations. A failure of this test would indicate that the active power supply's sparking energy is not low enough to be regarded as intrinsically safe. The PAAM requires fewer resources to establish a result than the STA. The benefits of a simplified spark ignition test would flow on from designers and manufacturers to end users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed March 18, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-98).

Thesis (M.P.H.M.)--Mahidol University, 2000. / LICL has E-Thesis 0038 ; please contact computer services.

Thesis (M.P.H.M. (Primary Health Care Management))--Mahidol University, 2006. / LICL has E-Thesis 0011 ; please contact computer services.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed on June 10, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-103).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Australian National University, 2000. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 2, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (p. [243]-264).

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborgs universitet. / Added t.p. with thesis statement, inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-264).