by Cheung Sin-ching, Suzanne, Wu Bin, Willliam. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-99). / ACKNOWLEDGMENT --- p.ii / ABSTRACT --- p.iii / TABLE OP CONTENTS --- p.v / LIST OF TABLES --- p.viii / LIST OP EXHIBITS --- p.ix / CHAPTER / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Background Information --- p.1 / Fixed Rate System --- p.1 / Pegged Rate System --- p.1 / Re-arrangement of RMB Exchange Rate --- p.2 / Repeated Realignments of the Official Rate / Multi-Rate System --- p.3 / Managed Floating Rate System --- p.4 / Purposes of Study --- p.4 / Statements of Problems --- p.4 / Scope of the Problem --- p.5 / Plan of the Report --- p.6 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEM --- p.7 / Chapter III. --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY --- p.11 / Secondary Source Data Collection --- p.11 / Primary Source Data Collection --- p.12 / Strengths and Weaknesses of the Methodology --- p.12 / Chapter IV. --- THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE RMB EXCHANGE RATE --- p.13 / The categorization of Exchange Rate System --- p.13 / The Selection of RMB Exchange Rate system --- p.15 / Pre-Reform Era . . ´ب --- p.15 / Post-Reform Era --- p.17 / The Alteration of Official Rate --- p.17 / The Multi-Rate System --- p.19 / Internal Settlement Rate --- p.19 / Swap Rate --- p.22 / Pros and Cons of Multi-Rate System --- p.24 / Termination of Multi-Rate System --- p.26 / The Determination of RMB Exchange Rate --- p.27 / Chapter V. --- RMB DEVALUATION --- p.30 / Reasons for Devaluation --- p.30 / General Background t The Overvaluation of RMB --- p.30 / Export Promotion --- p.31 / Inflation and Loss of RMB Purchasing Power --- p.32 / Import Surge and Foreign Trade Deficit --- p.33 / Speculative and Psychological Factors --- p.34 / Unification of Dual Rate System --- p.35 / Impacts of RMB Devaluation --- p.35 / External Economy --- p.35 / Merchandise Trade Account --- p.36 / Effects on Export --- p.36 / Effects on Import --- p.39 / Effects on Foreign Trade Balance --- p.39 / Other Considerations --- p.40 / Time Lags --- p.40 / The Fragmentation in China's Foreign Trade Industry --- p.41 / Non-Trade current Account --- p.42 / Tourism --- p.42 / Othet Items in Non-Trade Account --- p.43 / Capital Account --- p.43 / Other Countries' Response --- p.45 / Internal Economy --- p.46 / Imported Inflation --- p.46 / Import Substitution Industry --- p.47 / People's Faith in RMB --- p.47 / Practical Implications of RMB Devaluation: Strategies for Hedging against RMB Risk --- p.48 / Agreement with Chinese Side --- p.49 / Forex-Guaranteed Loan --- p.49 / Diversification of Business --- p.50 / Forex Future Market --- p.50 / Chapter VI. --- PROSPECT OF THE RMB EXCHANGE RATE --- p.52 / Expectation of RMB Exchange Rate: A Move in the Near Future --- p.52 / Forex Demand vs. Forex Supply --- p.53 / Inflation --- p.53 / Free Convertibility of RMB --- p.54 / Definition --- p.54 / Internal Convertibility --- p.55 / External Convertibility --- p.55 / Pros and Cons of RMB Convertibility --- p.56 / Prerequisites to RMB Free Convertibility --- p.57 / Rational Exchange Rate --- p.57 / Sufficient International Settlement Means --- p.57 / Sound Macroeconomic Policies --- p.58 / Efficient Microeconomic Environment --- p.58 / procedures for RMB Free Convertibility --- p.60 / Eliminating the Dual Rate System --- p.60 / Realizing the Limited Convertibility of RMB --- p.60 / Establishing Foreign Exchange Market --- p.62 / Eliminating the FECs --- p.63 / Allowing Free Transfer of Foreign Exchange in Capital Account --- p.63 / Chapter VII. --- CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS --- p.65 / Conclusions --- p.65 / A Rational Managed-Floating Rate System is in Need --- p.65 / Devaluation is not a Panacea --- p.67 / The RMB Rate is Bearish in Near Future --- p.68 / Free Convertibility is a Long Way to Go --- p.68 / Other Things to Do --- p.69 / Recommendations --- p.69 / Controlling Inflation --- p.69 / Rebalancing Trade Deficit --- p.70 / Restructuring Foreign Trade Industry --- p.70 / Improving the Chinese Enterprises' Efficiency --- p.70 / TABLES --- p.72 / EXHIBITS --- p.83 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.96

Chiu Wai Shing, Lam Ming Kei. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 35-37). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.v / CHAPTER / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- PREVIOUS RESEARCH --- p.5 / Chapter III. --- DATA AND METHODOLOGY --- p.11 / Chapter IV. --- COMPARISON OF BANK STOCK RETURNS WITH MARKET RETURNS --- p.19 / Chapter V. --- FACTORS INFLUENCING BANK STOCK PRICE --- p.21 / Chapter VI. --- INTEREST RATE SPREAD SENSITIVITIES AND ELASTICITIES OF BANK STOCK RETURNS --- p.26 / Chapter VII. --- CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS --- p.33 / REFERENCES --- p.35

by Hok-hoi Fung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-59). / LIST OF TABLES --- p.ii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.iii / CHAPTER / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.3 / Chapter 3. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.6 / Formulation of the TVTP Model --- p.6 / Filtered and Smoothed Probabilities --- p.9 / Maximization of the Expected Log-likelihood --- p.13 / Chapter 4. --- EMPIRICAL RESULTS --- p.15 / The Simple 2-state Markov Switching Model --- p.15 / The TVTP Model --- p.17 / The 3-state Markov Switching Model --- p.26 / Chapter 5. --- OUT - OF- SAMPLE FORECASTING --- p.34 / Chapter 6. --- CONCLUSION --- p.40 / APPENDICES --- p.42 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.58

Zhang Haiyan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-50). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- An Introduction to the Uncovered Interest Parity (UIP) and previous works on UIP --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Previous empirical works applying Band Spectrum Regression(BSR) --- p.15 / Chapter 3 --- Basic Band Spectral Regression (BSR) Techniques --- p.20 / Chapter 3.1 --- BSR Based on the complex Fourier transform --- p.20 / Chapter 3.2 --- BSR based on the real-valued Fourier transform --- p.24 / Chapter 3.3 --- Testing for parameter stability in the frequency domain --- p.26 / Chapter 4 --- Data and Standard Time Series Analysis in the Time Domain --- p.29 / Chapter 5 --- Analyze the UIP relation in the frequency domain --- p.33 / Chapter 5.1 --- An overview of the UIP relation across frequency --- p.33 / Chapter 5.2 --- Testing parameter stability across different time horizons --- p.37 / Chapter 6 --- Test of UIP with the forward premium --- p.42 / Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.45

Leung Sze Wan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-64). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / Acknowledgments --- p.iv / Table of Contents --- p.v / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- A review of the related literature --- p.7 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- The data --- p.12 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Research methodology --- p.31 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Determinants of peg duration --- p.34 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Main results --- p.41 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Predicted probabilities of devaluation --- p.51 / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Results from an alternative exchange rate peg definition --- p.54 / Chapter Chapter 9 --- Conclusion --- p.59 / Bibliography --- p.62 / Appendix --- p.65

Os anfíbios são organismos típicos dos ambientes de água doce e com vários representantes de hábitos terrestres e estão caracterizados por uma elevada permeabilidade da pele. Este atributo faz com que tanto no sistema aquático quanto no terrestre o fluxo de água através da pele seja considerado uma característica relevante. Nos ambientes aquáticos os animais ganham água como resultado do gradiente osmótico entre o animal e o meio, e o excesso de água é eliminado pelo sistema excretor através da produção de urina. Em meios com elevada salinidade os animais perdem água, portanto são susceptíveis de desidratação. Um dos efeitos negativos da desidratação é o aumento da concentração dos fluidos corporais dado o efeito desnaturante dos íons sobre as proteínas. O aumento da concentração também pode responder a entrada dos íons devido ao gradiente de concentração desses osmólitos entre o meio e o animal. Estes efeitos sobre os anfíbios fazem parte das explicações do por que estes organismos estão menos representados nos ambientes costeiros marinhos do que em outros ambientes. Porém, há um número elevado de espécies que usam este ambiente e pouco se sabe como se ajustam aos efeitos da elevada salinidade ambiental. Ao mesmo tempo, dado que o ambiente costeiro está caracterizado pela maresia assim como pelos ventos que vem do mar, os indivíduos que ocupam esta região também estariam expostos a perdas de água por evaporação que poderiam implicar riscos de desidratação. Relacionado com a perda de água por evaporação, a resistência cutânea é uns dos atributos que mostra variação entre as espécies, sendo mais elevada naquelas que por seus hábitos e as características dos ambientes que ocupam são propensas a perder água por evaporação e correr com o risco de desidratação. As taxas de desidratação também mostram variação entre espécies e populações com taxas mais baixas naqueles organismos que ocupam ambientes que promovem a perda de água por evaporação. Também existem evidências que indicam que as taxas de hidratação são mais elevadas nos indivíduos que ocupam ambientes ou que apresentam hábitos que facilitam a perda de água por evaporação do que os que ocupam ambientes úmidos ou têm hábitos aquáticos. Thoropa taophora é um bom modelo para avaliar se a tolerância à salinidade, resistência cutânea e as taxas de desidratação e hidratação fazem parte das vias de ajuste ao ambiente costeiro porque ocupa os costões rochosos da costa marinha do Litoral do Estado de São Paulo e regiões rochosas associadas a cachoeiras afastadas da costa em ambiente de Mata Atlântica. Através da comparação de uma população costeira localizada na região de Ubatuba e uma não costeira localizada na região de Picinguaba abordamos esses fatores. Como resultados gerias do presente trabalho podemos dizer que a população costeira não apresenta tolerância à salinidade comparável ao do grupo de espécies mais tolerantes à salinidade representadas por Fejervarya cancrivora, Xenopus laevis e Bufote viridis. Pelo contrário parece se tolerar níveis de salinidade similar à mais frequentemente reportadas para os anfíbios. Também não apresentou resistência cutânea por encima dos valores mais frequentes registrados na literatura. Por outro lado, detectamos que a tolerância à salinidade, a taxa de desidratação e taxa de hidratação fariam parte do ajuste a este tipo de ambiente. Neste sentido encontramos maior tolerância à salinidade, menor taxa de desidratação e maior taxa de hidratação nos indivíduos da população de Ubatuba do que nos de Picinguaba. Os resultados sugerem que a tolerância à salinidade e a taxa de desidratação estariam relacionados, o que permitiria elaborar hipóteses sobre outros ambientes que possam exibir variação na salinidade, como acontece com a salinização de corpos de água como consequências de práticas agrícolas, e variação na umidade do ambiente como consequência das variações do clima / Amphibians are typically found in freshwater environments and include various species of terrestrial habits all characterized by having a high skin permeability. In both terrestrial and aquatic environments, this attribute makes the water flow through the skin a featured system worth to be studied. In aquatic environments animals gain water as a result of the osmotic gradient between the animal and the environment, and the excess water is eliminated through the excretory system as urine. In environments where the salinity is high, animals lose considerable volumes of water which may lead to dehydration. One of the negative effects of dehydration is the raise of the osmotic concentration of body fluids due to the denaturing effect of the ions on the proteins. The increased concentration may also take place by the entrance of ions into the body, following the osmotic gradient between the medium and the animal. For these reasons, amphibians are seldom found in coastal marine environments. However, there are a large number of species that inhabit coastal areas and little is known about the physiological adjustments associated to the high environmental salinity. The skin resistance is one of the traits that show variation among species, being higher in those who inhabit environments where the risk of dehydration is higher. Dehydration rates also show variation among and within species with lower rates in those organisms which occupy environments that promote water loss by evaporation. The hydration rates of the organisms occupying such environments, or species whose habits facilitate the loss of water by evaporation, are higher than in those animals inhabiting humid environments or that are not exposed to this type stress. Thoropa taophora is a good model to evaluate if salt tolerance, skin resistance, and dehydration and hydration rates are part of the adjustments to coastal environment as it occupies the rocky marine coast of São Paulo and rocky outcrops associated with the waterfalls in the Atlantic Forest biome. We address these questions by comparing a coastal population located in the Ubatuba region and an inland population in the Picinguaba region. The results suggest that the coastal population has no extraordinary attributes associated to salinity tolerance in comparison with other coastal species such as Xenopus laevis and Bufote viridis. The values for skin resistance did not exceeded the once reported in the literature either. An increase of the tolerance to salinity, and lower dehydration and hydration rates were found in the individuals from Ubatuba than in the specimens from Picinguaba which suggests that tolerance to salinity, and dehydration and hydration rates may represent adjustments to different environments. Tolerance to salinity and dehydration rate appeared to be related, which could allow to draw assumptions on populations inhabiting other environments that may exhibit variations in salinity as a consequence of anthropogenic activities or climate change

Wu, Tujin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [47]-49). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / 摘要 --- p.ii / Acknowledgments --- p.iii / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- China´ةs Economic Transition and Literature Review --- p.6 / Chapter II.1. --- Export-led Strategy and Exchange Rate Evolution --- p.6 / Chapter II.2. --- Literature review of exchange rate misalignment --- p.10 / Chapter III. --- Theories Background --- p.14 / Chapter 1. --- Purchasing Power Parity and Balassa Samuelson Hypothesis --- p.14 / Chapter 2. --- Modified Balassa Samuelson Hypothesis --- p.17 / Chapter IV. --- Empirical Estimation --- p.21 / Chapter 1. --- Cross-Section Estimate --- p.21 / Chapter 2. --- Time Series Estimation --- p.25 / Chapter 3. --- Policy proposal in the duration of price revaluation --- p.36 / Chapter V. --- Summary --- p.44

The objective of this study was to clarify the relationships between drift rates, population density, production rates, key environmental factors, and movements of adults within two populations of stream insects (a caddisfly--Oligophlebodes sigma and a mayfly--Baetis bicaudatus). Samples of benthic invertebrates (424 total) were collected every 2 8 days at four stations on Temple Fork of the Logan River, Utah, from October, 1967 to September, 1969. Samples of drift invertebrates (181 total) were collected every 14 days at three stations on Temple Fork during the same period. During summer months (June-September) a day and a night drift sample (681 total) were collected every other day. Drift rates of O. sigma larvae were greatest (5,987 gm/year for O. sigma) when density in the benthos (256 mg/0.1 m2) and production (430 mg/0.1 m2 /year) were greatest. Drift rates were not related positively to density in the benthos over an entire year, but drift rates were correlated positively and significantly (r = .78 and .55 for day drift of O. sigma and B. biaaudatus, respectively) with density during the months of June-September for both O. sigma larvae and B. bicaudatus nymphs. Flow, distance below the spring source of Temple Fork, and densities of competing aquatic insects were other factors of significance in the multiple regression analyses of factors affecting drift rates of the two insects. The 17 independent variables in the multiple regression analyses accounted for 65 percent and 55 percent of the variability in day drift rates of o. sigma and B. bicaudatus, respectively. The adults of O. sigma (but not those of B. bicaudatus) undertook a definite upstream migration estimated at 2-3 km. This flight of adults resulted in a concentration of eggs being laid in the upper reaches of the stream. The advantage of the upstream flight may be that it stores reproductive products in areas where they are relatively safe from the effects of anchor-ice in the winter and floods in late winter and early spring.

Thesis (doctoral) - Freie Universität, Berlin, 2004. / "with 12 figures and tables". Includes bibliographical references ( p. [143]-155).

Wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region of North America provide habitat for over 50% of the continent's breeding waterfowl, but most of the region's wetlands have been lost or degraded through intensive agricultural development. Despite widespread wetland losses in much of the Canadian prairies, there is little information about trends in degradation of remaining wetlands. Using habitat data collected for ~10,500 wetlands across the Canadian prairies during annual waterfowl surveys, 1985-2005, I employed multistate models in Program MARK to estimate rates of impact and recovery of wetlands resulting from agricultural activities. Then, I characterized the incidence of agricultural degradation to these wetlands. Rates of impact to wetland margins (natural vegetation around flooded basins) declined over time, likely due to a decreasing percentage of unaffected wetlands; recovery rates for margins were always lower than impact rates, suggesting increased cumulative degradation of wetlands over time. Unlike margins, impact and recovery rates for basins fluctuated with spring pond densities. Shallow ephemeral wetlands located in agricultural fields had the highest impact and lowest recovery rates. Multistate modeling could also be used to estimate rates associated with other landscape processes.<p><p> My second objective was to determine whether physical characteristics of prairie Canada wetlands could be used to predict breeding duck abundance. First, I sought to determine how pre-existing models developed in the Dakotas (USA) performed when predicting breeding duck abundances on Canadian prairie wetlands. I related duck pair abundance to pond area, and then compared observed to predicted duck abundance. The Dakota models performed reasonably well in predicting numbers of blue-winged teal (<i>Anas discors</i>), gadwall (<i>A. strepera</i>), and northern pintail (<i>A. acuta</i>), but predicted fewer mallards (<i>A. platyrhynchos</i>) and northern shovelers (<i>A. clypeata</i>) than were observed on wetlands. Pond area was an important predictor of duck abundance in all models, but results were less biased and more consistent in models developed specifically for Canadian wetlands. Spatiotemporal variation in the relationship of breeding duck abundance and wetland characteristics was also affected by regional duck and pond densities. Overall, the new applications and models developed and validated in this study will be useful for wetland and waterfowl management in the Canadian prairies.