In this dissertation, I examine two research questions. In chapters 2 and 3, based on idea of reference value that was first proposed by Kahneman and Tversky, I look at a potential house seller’s pricing strategy when the reference value plays a role. In chapter 2, I focus on the reference-dependence and its implications on loss aversion behavior, and I compare model predictions with documented empirical findings in the literature. In particular, I show that the stylized empirical evidence in the literature has relatively limited power on testing loss aversion, and I provide new specifications that aim to correctly test the loss aversion effect. In chapter 3, I examine a reference-dependent seller’s pricing strategy in a less heterogeneous housing market such as the multi-unit residential market. Acknowledging the fact that units in the same building serve as close substitutes for each other, I show that the recent transaction price on a unit in the same building may generate two signaling effects. First, the average willingness to pay among buyers is positively correlated with the observed price, which generates a spatio-temporal autocorrelation effect; second, after observing the prior price, the heterogeneity of the potential buyer’s willingness to pay decreases, inducing house sellers to mark down their asking prices. In chapter 4, I examine the power of monitoring and forcing contract on improving the managerial efficiency of REITs. I put particular emphasis on its implications regarding the choice of advisor type in REITs. I show that, for both internal and external advisors, increasing levels of monitoring power will increase their equilibrium effort under a stochastic forcing contract. Furthermore, I show that a crucial driving force regarding advisor choice is the heterogeneity of monitoring power between internal and external advisors and across REIT firms. Provided that the gap of monitoring power is large enough between internal and external advisors, shareholders could make use of the heterogeneity, and induce higher effort from external advisors. Hence, I am able to provide a theoretical justification regarding the potential appeal of an external managerial structure, which is usually regarded as being inferior to an internal managerial structure.

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The most commonly used transport protocol, TCP (Transport Control protocol) reacts to loss by throttling the transmission rate. This impacts performance if the loss is non-congestion related, corruption loss. A link layer protocol may use ARQ to provide reliability and shield TCP from corruption loss. The advantage of fragmentation together with link ARQ is; it is able to retransmit the requested frame and instead of the entire data packet. For a link to perform transparent fragmentation, an adaption layer (AL) protocol is needed. Although link ARQ may improve TCP performance, it introduces undesirable delay (i.e. receiver side head of line blocking) and negatively impacts the end-to-end TCP performance. This thesis presents new results on the impacts link ARQ have on the <i>cwnd </i>(congestion window) limited TCP sessions sharing the same link ARQ. To minimise the delay, we proposed to use a more assertive link layer protocol (APRIL). To eliminate the interaction between classes of flow sharing the link with ARQ, flow isolation is required. We discussed the role of the virtual channel (VC) and how it can be used to provide flow isolation. We identified the role of the VC as related to the reassembly process at the receiver end. It allows different traffic classes/flows to be reassembled independently. Therefore, multiple reassembly processes are desirable, one for each traffic class/flow. Our novel approach performs reassembly in the link receive buffer, without demultiplexing frames into the respective channel (as in ATM and X.25) to eliminate the interaction between flows sent on different virtual channel. An approach to increase the robustness of sequence number wrapping in a VC reassembly process without increasing the protocol overhead is also proposed. The inefficiency in the multiple reassembly processes is discussed in the thesis. A simple reassembly process requires massive CPU effort at the receiver since it does not know what exists in the buffer before the process is triggered. We proposed the use of three lists, channel, retransmission and suspended list to minimise this inefficiency in the multiple reassembly processes. During link layer frame processing, it updates all the VC encountered in the block in the channel and retransmission lists. The adaption layer can refer back to these lists prior commencing reassembly process. Therefore, irrelevant blocks, frames and VC can be identified and ignored during the reassembly process. We demonstrate that these lists greatly reduced the processing cost.

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This work presents a collection of creative verse written in both classical forms, e.g., sonnet, pantoum, haiku, tanka, sestina, prose poem, and blank verse, as well as open form pieces. Examples of both narrative and lyrical verse are represented, with an emphasis on the narrative craft as well as an exploration of the lyrical forms in the context of contemporary and historical themes. While the theme of loss, in all its aspects, is present throughout, it is present as a geist rather than as a dictum. These poems have as their subject matter a wide range of experiences, both imaginative and commonplace, both familiar and magical. Mundane situations are elevated to the level of emotional consideration, and the overwhelming is reduced to familiar and intimate terms. These poems deal largely with the resilience of the human spirit and the buoyancy of hope despite the roiling seas of uncertainty and the unpredictable winds of change. / Department of English

This paper discusses the formation of personality and identity in the context of family and loss.

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Abstract This paper investigates the determinatives of loan loss provisions by using U.S., Asian and European banks data. The purpose of this paper is to do a cross-country comparison of bank managers’ choices for capital, earnings management and signaling effects. Our results show that capital management plays an important role for loan loss provisions in these three regions. Our results also show that earnings smoothing are important determinatives for U.S. and European banks’ loan loss provisions. Additionally, we find that loan loss provisions are positively related to future earnings changes in U.S. banks which supports the hypothesis of signaling effects. In a separate section, we examine ownership structure’s influences on banks’ choices of loan loss provisions. We find that capital and earnings management can be seen in U.S. banks with diffused or concentrated ownership. We also find that earning management play an important role for loan loss provisions in Asian banks with diffused or concentrated ownership, however, capital management is not apparent for banks with concentrated ownership. In addition, our results show that capital management plays an important role for loan loss provisions in European banks with diffused or concentrated ownership, but earnings management can not be found in banks with concentrated ownership.

Objective: Since short-term weight loss is often achievable in overweight individuals but long-term weight maintenance is generally poor, this thesis examines the effect of the nature of support programmes and macronutrient composition on weight maintenance following weight loss. Research design and methods: A 2x2 multifactorial design was used to compare two support programmes and two diets differing in macronutrient composition on maintenance of weight loss over a 2-year period. Two hundred women who had recently lost at least 5% of initial body weight were randomised into one of two support programmes. One provided intensive expert, health professional support with regular circuit training classes. The other provided brief and frequent �weigh-ins� and support facilitated by a nurse. Participants were also randomised with regard to recommended diet composition. One eating plan was high in carbohydrate and dietary fibre, emphasising low glycemic index foods. The second eating plan was relatively high in monounsaturated fat and protein and had a low overall glycaemic load. At baseline, 1 and 2-years, weight, waist circumference and blood pressure were measured and body composition was estimated using bioelectrical impedance. Three-day weighed diet records were collected to estimate dietary intake. A fasting blood sample was used to measure glucose, insulin and lipids. Results: At 2-years weight was measured for 87% of participants. On average those randomised to the Expert Support Programme reduced weight by 2.5kg while those on the Nurse Support Programme reduced weight by 3.6kg (difference between support programmes, P=0.976). On the High Carbohydrate Diet average weight loss was 2.4kg compared with a loss of 3.8kg on the High Monounsaturated fat Diet (difference between diets, P=0.419). At follow-up, there were no signficant differences between the support programmes with regards to body composition, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, blood lipid levels, glucose, insulin, and predicted insulin sensitivity. From a health system perspective and relative to the Nurse Support Programme, the Expert Support Programme cost $NZ 928, 970 per QALY gained (or $9, 290 per person). At follow-up, there were no signficant differences between the dietary prescriptions with regard to body composition, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, glucose, insulin and predicted insulin sensitivity. However, total and LDL cholesterol were significantly lower on the High Carbohydrate Diet compared with the High Monounsaturated fat Diet (total cholesterol 0.2mmol/l, P=0.044, LDL cholesterol 0.2mmol/l, P=0.042). At follow-up those on the High Monounsaturated fat Diet reported significantly higher intakes of saturated fat (1.5%TE), total fat (5%TE), monounsaturated fat (2.4%), and a significantly lower intake of carbohydrate (-5%TE) than those on the High Carbohydrate Diet. Conclusion: A relatively inexpensive nurse led programme appears to be as effective as a more costly expert health professional led programme in achieving weight maintenance over a 2-year period. This inexpensive and successful weight maintenance programme offers a feasible option for implementation in primary health care in New Zealand. Similarly, both dietary approaches produced comparable beneficial effects in terms of weight loss maintenance. However the High Carbohydrate Diet was associated with lower levels of total and LDL cholesterol, possibly due to a lower intake of saturated fat.