The study of interest pass through has been on the core attention of researchers since it serves as an incentive to evaluate the accuracy of monetary policy transmission mechanism. Therefore there are a lot of studies conducted under this topic encompassing a large number of countries and data. My aim, inspired by the great previous works, is to develop the same topic but by focusing on Balkan countries and more specifically on Albania. Being a developing country located on the heart of Balkan while aspiring the EU integration, Albania has gone under a considerable number of economic reforms which are also reflected on the degree and speed of transmission of policy rates to landing rates and on the determinants of such rates. Crisis of 2008 had a global impact but yet several conducted studies revealed that Albania was not directly affected by it. My contribution to this thesis consists in measuring how the pass-through mechanism performance was affected by the crisis and the implications derived from it. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Explicit metacognitive instruction is hypothesised to have positive consequences for the cognitive processing skills of learners, resulting in improved academic performance. Such instruction is likely to be beneficial across the curriculum, but particularly for reading, as low literacy levels are reported in South Africa. A paradigm shift in instruction appears necessary to enhance the current literacy levels in South African schools. This study examined the impact of a Cognitive Enrichment Advantage (CEA), metacognitive intervention on reading comprehension in 83 Grade six learners in two mainstream government schools in Gauteng. Its theoretical and conceptual basis was informed by Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development and Feuerstein’s theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability. The study utilised a pre-and post-test, mixed methods, quasi-experimental and cross-lagged research design. The metacognitive intervention was presented to two groups within the experimental school, each with 28 learners, who received the intervention over two phases in the school year (Group one in Term 1 and Group 2 in Term 2). The control school received only regular classroom teaching and served as a comparison against which the experimental school could be measured. Standardised quantitative data was collected from the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) and the Joint Education Trust (JET) reading comprehension test. Qualitative data was collected from semi-structured interviews, sentence completion tasks, focus groups and feedback from the teacher and parents, pre- and post-intervention. The results indicated that the learners in the experimental school did not show any statistically significant differences in their reading comprehension or CAS scores following the intervention, when compared to the control school. However, the qualitative data revealed increased awareness of the effects of the metacognitive instruction on reading in particular and on learning in general. The intervention also provided opportunities for the learners to reflect on their thinking processes through group discussions, as well as individual tasks. Transfer of skills taught in the intervention could not be confirmed, as post-test results may reflect application when assessed immediately following the intervention, but may not necessarily indicate precise or sustained transfer. Nevertheless, increased learner, parent and teacher metacognitive awareness was evident in the qualitative responses following the intervention and this provides an indication for how educational pedagogy in South Africa could be adjusted. Metacognitive instruction promotes reflection, evaluation and monitoring of thinking and learning processes which may not be observed on the quantitative measures over the duration of this study, but may need a longer period to become consolidated and transfer to other areas. This study contributed to the knowledge base regarding cognitive education, by demonstrating the qualitative value of explicit metacognitive instruction in reading comprehension.

Abstract The resilience of trade balances of the major industrialised economies such as the US and Japan to changes in their exchange rates following the switch from fixed to floating exchange rate regimes, triggered interest in the exchange rate pass-through relationship. Because of the importance of the pass-through issue particularly in economic policy formulation, a sizeable literature has developed over recent years. Comprehensive surveys of this literature include Menon (1995), Goldberg and Knetter (1997) and McCarthy (2002). However, not much attention has been paid to the comparison of the methodologies for estimating exchange rate pass-through. This research report aims to address this imbalance by comparing some of the exchange rate pass-through estimation methodologies via a Monte Carlo simulation study, based on the South African data set. The econometric results reported in this research report suggest that the Johansen type VECMs are superior to polynomial distributed lag models, exchange rate pass-through to South Africa’s import prices is incomplete (around 78%) and that the speed of adjustment to long-run equilibrium is low, about 7 per cent of disequilibrium in the previous month is corrected in the current month. We conclude that if we are not sure about the unit root properties of the data (as is normally the case), then the ARDL precedure is the appropriate model for empirical work.

In this thesis we study the thin-film type equations in one spatial dimension. These equations arise from the lubrication approximation to the thin films of viscous fluids which is described by the Navier-Stokes equations with free boundary. From the structural point of view, they are fourth-order degenerate nonlinear parabolic equations, with principal term from diffusion and lower order term from external forces. In Chapter one we study the dynamics of the equations when the external force is given by a power law. Classification of steady states of this equation, which is important for the dynamics, was already known. Previous numerical studies show that there is a mountain pass scenario among the steady states. We shall provide a rigorous justification to these numerical results. As a result, a rather complete picture of the dynamics of the thin film is obtained when the power law is in the range (1,3). In Chapter two we turn to the special case of the equation where the external force is the gravity. This is important, but, unfortunately not a power law. We study and classify the steady states of this equation as well as compare their energy levels. Some numerical results are also present. / Zhang, Zhenyu. / Asviser: Kai Seng Chou. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-107). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

This qualitative study investigated the experiences of family caregivers who cared for a stroke survivor throughout weekend passes from an in-patient rehabilitation facility. Following a Husserlian phenomenological perspective, I interviewed 15 family caregivers of stroke survivors on two separate occasions: within one week after their first scheduled weekend pass, and again two weeks after their final transition home. Interviews followed a semi-structured interview guide, and were audio recorded. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using the principles outlined by Giorgi (1997). Analysis of the caregivers’ descriptions of their experiences led to five themes: (i) Caregivers feel overwhelmed throughout the weekend pass, (ii) Access to supportive resources influences caregiving experiences, (iii) Caregivers adjust to the weekend pass throughout its subsequent use, (iv) Caregivers feel a responsibility and a need to be included by health professionals in the care of their family stroke survivor, and (v) Caregivers describe the weekend pass as a means towards recovery. This study has implications for future health services. By appropriately training and supporting caregivers throughout the weekend pass health care professionals can increase the positive experiences of caregivers, and optimize the opportunity to prepare caregivers and stroke survivors for the eventual transition home.

This qualitative study investigated the experiences of family caregivers who cared for a stroke survivor throughout weekend passes from an in-patient rehabilitation facility. Following a Husserlian phenomenological perspective, I interviewed 15 family caregivers of stroke survivors on two separate occasions: within one week after their first scheduled weekend pass, and again two weeks after their final transition home. Interviews followed a semi-structured interview guide, and were audio recorded. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using the principles outlined by Giorgi (1997). Analysis of the caregivers’ descriptions of their experiences led to five themes: (i) Caregivers feel overwhelmed throughout the weekend pass, (ii) Access to supportive resources influences caregiving experiences, (iii) Caregivers adjust to the weekend pass throughout its subsequent use, (iv) Caregivers feel a responsibility and a need to be included by health professionals in the care of their family stroke survivor, and (v) Caregivers describe the weekend pass as a means towards recovery. This study has implications for future health services. By appropriately training and supporting caregivers throughout the weekend pass health care professionals can increase the positive experiences of caregivers, and optimize the opportunity to prepare caregivers and stroke survivors for the eventual transition home.

Taiwan is usually considered as a small open economy. Trade and exchange rate policies in Taiwan have substantially changed since 1990s.Not only has trade been liberalized, but exchange rates of the New Taiwan Dollar(NTD) were also allowed to fluctuate. This paper applies the Threshold Regression with Endogenous Threshold Variables(THRET) Model that puted forward Kourtellos, Stengos and Tan (2007) and combines the expectation-augmented Phillips curve with a threshold for the pass-through. The paper examines whether the short-run magnitude of the pass-through is affected by the business cycle. For that purpose, the important variable is tested as thresholds: output gap change. The results indicate that the short-run pass-through is higher when the the economy is booming, as well as the exchange rate depreciates above some threshold. And showed in this has conformed to the business cycle theory which Goldfajn and Werlang (2000) , Carneiro, Monteiro and Wu (2002) , Muinhos (2001) proposed.

Conventional logic circuit designs are based on fully complementary CMOS logic circuits. In the past decade, many Pass-Transistor Logic (PTL) circuits have been proposed that are claimed to have better performance in area, speed and power. Most current PTL logic circuits are composed of a limited number of basic PTL cells (say 2 to 5 types of cells only). However, current placement-and-routing (P&R) CAD tools are mainly designed based on CMOS cell library which usually contains many cells with different logic functions. Thus the P&R tool does not fully exploit the features of the synthesized PTL gate-level netlists. In this thesis, we present a P&R tool dedicated to the generation of the final physical layout for the PTL netlists that are generated from a PTL synthesizer. This backend tool considers the efficient placement and routing of the PTL cells in order to reduce the area cost and to reduce the impact of the interconnection wirings on speed and power performances. Besides, in this thesis, the critical paths of the PTL netlists will be identified and the corresponding input patterns to activate these critical paths will be generated for post-layout speed simulation using HSPICE or Nanosim. In summary, the layout generator in this thesis performs the P&R of PTL netlists and also automatically find the critical paths and their corresponding input patterns.

In this thesis, a pass-transistor logic synthesizer is developed for logic mapping of any combinational circuits based on only two types of cells: 2-to-1 multiplexors and inverters. The input contains several sum-of-product Boolean function expressions. Our synthesizer will consider the hardware sharing among these Boolean functions in order to save area. The output of our synthesizer is pass-transistor-based circuits with optimized transistor width in terms of user-specified speed and power performance measurement. During optimization, the Elmore RC delay model is used to estimate the critical path delay and the power is characterized by the switching of all the internal nodes. The final outputs are HSPICE netlists and Verilog gate-level code that allow more detailed timing simulation and automatic placement-routing.

The relationship between monthly transit pass ownership and home-work trip mode choice in the Greater Toronto Area was explored using a logit formulation. A Nested Logit model was specified with the primary mode (non-motorised, auto, transit, or auto access to transit) in the upper level and the pass ownership in the lower transit nests. Inclusive value parameters confirm the chosen structure, and a range of policy sensitive, statistically significant parameters having expected signs and magnitudes reveal differences between socio-economic characteristics of pass holders and non-pass holders. In particular, pass holders are less likely to possess a driver’s license or automobile than non-pass holders, implying that passes can be thought of as complementary mobility tools. Cost parameters, which include differentiated pricing for pass and non-pass holders, result in plausible in-vehicle values of time of approximately $31/hour, $33/hour and $8/hour for auto, auto access to transit, and transit all way, respectively.