This thesis is a collection of essays where I explore and extend the study of the role of financial frictions for the determination of asset prices, financial stability, and economic resilience. The frictions included in the analysis are individual and aggregate uncertainty, agent heterogeneity, money, liquidity and default. The first essay is an empirical study that motivates my research objectives. This work starts with the exploration of the role of liquidity on asset prices, specifically on sovereign bonds of emerging countries. I present a comprehensive model where I developed a novel methodology for finding the role of liquidity in the determination of asset prices during the financial crisis. In the second essay, illuminated by the empirical findings, I apply and expand the general equilibrium theory of money, default and financial stability. The contributions at the theoretical level are the extension of two-period model with discrete state space to the infinite horizon dynamic stochastic setting, and the inclusion of liquidity restrictions. In the third essay, I further extend this framework, allowing for production technology and endogenous market liquidity. Given the theoretical setting, I have analyzed the responses of financial stability and economic performance variables to real and financial shocks. Finally, in the fourth essay I produce an empirical application of this work. I apply a novel semi-parametric financial stability metric, and evaluate its relevance for the determination of asset prices, in the presence of liquidity restrictions. As a result, this thesis suggest plausible explanations for financial and economic issues that conventional models have not dealt with adequately.

Slope stability is an important aspect of geotechnical engineering. Input parameters for the analysis are the governing factors and they must be determined accurately and precisely. Field investigations, laboratory testing and back analyses are vital instruments for the input parameters. This study presents the results of slope stability analysis for the soil slopes at Elbistan-&Ccedil / &ouml / llolar lignite mine. After executing the drilling programme, samples taken from the drilling work, delivered to soil mechanics laboratory for testing. The basic input parameters, namely cohesion and friction angle determined at soil mechanics laboratory were compared to the parameters obtained from back analysis of a large scale slope failure. Input parameters for the analysis are determined by this way. After determining the input parameters, slope stability analyses were carried out both for the permanent and temporary slopes in AfSin-Elbistan lignite basin, &Ccedil / &ouml / llolar sector. The effect of ground water on the stability of slopes was investigated in detail and maximum safe slope angles were determined for different water levels. For limit equilibrium analysis, Rocscience SLIDE software, for finite difference analysis in 3-D, Itasca FLAC3D was used. In the limit equilibrium analyses both circular and composite failures were considered. Shear strength reduction method is used for the finite difference method. The results between limit equilibrium and 3-D finite difference methods were compared. When the failure surfaces obtained from the finite difference analyses were imposed to limit equilibrium analysis, computations are resulted in lower factor of safety values for limit equilibrium analysis.

<p>We explore the effect of size on the phase stability of nanosystems by comparing calculated trends with the annealing behavior of nanoparticles (NPs) initially in a core-shell configuration. The NPs are characterized using a variety of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques.</p> <p>We first theoretically consider the equilibrium within a Au-Pt NP of a given size. When considering the contribution of surface and interface energies, we note the appearance of a restricted composition range of the phase diagram over which the liquid and solid phases cannot coexist in a core-shell configuration. A critical radius of ",42 nm is identified below which the NP is single-phased for any composition. It is demonstrated that both branches of the miscibility gap of the Au-Pt phase diagram shift towards the Au-rich composition with increasing curvature. The magnitude of the shift is found to be strongly correlated with the coupling of nonlinear terms entering the Gibbs energy. The main contribution to the shift arises from the composition-dependent surface energy, calculated by considering the selective adsorption of Au to the surface, evaluated using the available thermodynamic properties of the Au-Pt system.</p> <p>An array of TEM-related analytical methods were developed or adapted for the characterization of individual NPs. In particular, chemical maps with quantitative information from a NP with a spatial resolution of '" 1.2 nm could be achieved, with their corresponding error analysis. We introduce an algorithm to retrieve the radial elemental composition from the projected chemical map of a NP if a spherical symmetry can be assumed and test it with NPs of known structures. We also present a technique to determine the composition of a NP having one of the elements depleting during analysis, and test it experimentally with 5-20 nm Au-Ag NPs. Typically, for every Ag characteristic X-ray detected, one Ag atom is lost to knock-on damage. We discuss the detection limit of the method as a function of NP size and composition.</p> <p>We follow the structural evolution of a ",20 nm Au(core) Pt(shell) NP during annealing at various temperatures between 300 and 800 °e. At low temperatures, interdiffusion occurs between the core and the shell, while at temperatures abovt: ",600 °e, the configuration evolves towards one composed of Au- and Pt-rich spherical caps, separated by a relatively fiat interface. We could measure a 5-10% shift in the composition of each phase with respect to the bulk phase diagram that we assigned to capillarity effect. The shift agrees qualitatively with the calculated trends. The ratio of the surface to the interface energy is measured directly from a TEM micrograph of a segregated NP and is in close agreement with the calculated ones.</p> <p>This work contributes to the understanding of the phase stability of binary NPs. The prospect of extending these studies to NPs of other bimetallic systems while probing their properties seems promising, especially in view of their catalytic, magnetic and optical potential.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Neste trabalho estudam-se diversos aspectos conceituais relativos à modelagem mecânico-matemática para a descrição do comportamento estrutural não-linear geométrico. Apresenta-se, inicialmente, a aplicação do Princípio dos Trabalhos Virtuais na caracterização do equilíbrio na posição deslocada. Em seguida, a partir do emprego do Método dos Elementos Finitos, analisam-se as formas discretizadas Lagrangiana e Euleriana da expressão do equilíbrio, que resultam em função da descrição adotada para o movimento. A questão da estabilidade estrutural é tratada, abordando-se os conceitos de ponto limite e de bifurcação. Estudam-se, finalmente, os procedimentos incrementais, em combinação com o Método de Newton, para a solução do sistema não-linear de equações e para a caracterização de pontos singulares de equilíbrio. Exemplos consistindo na análise do comportamento de estruturas reticulares compõem as aplicações numéricas. / In this work, several conceptual aspects related to the mechanic-mathematical modeling for description of the geometrical nonlinear stuctural behavior are studied. First of all the Principle of Virtual Work is presented in order to characterize the equilibrium in the displaced position. Then, from the use of finite element method one analyses the Lagrangian and Eulerian forms which result from the adopted description of the motion. Stability of the structural response is treated by discussing the concepts of limit and bifurcation points. Finally, the incremental procedures in combination with the Newton schemes for solution of nonlinear equations and characterization of the singular points of equilibrium are studied. The numerical applications are related to the analysis of simple linear structures.

Neste trabalho estudam-se diversos aspectos conceituais relativos à modelagem mecânico-matemática para a descrição do comportamento estrutural não-linear geométrico. Apresenta-se, inicialmente, a aplicação do Princípio dos Trabalhos Virtuais na caracterização do equilíbrio na posição deslocada. Em seguida, a partir do emprego do Método dos Elementos Finitos, analisam-se as formas discretizadas Lagrangiana e Euleriana da expressão do equilíbrio, que resultam em função da descrição adotada para o movimento. A questão da estabilidade estrutural é tratada, abordando-se os conceitos de ponto limite e de bifurcação. Estudam-se, finalmente, os procedimentos incrementais, em combinação com o Método de Newton, para a solução do sistema não-linear de equações e para a caracterização de pontos singulares de equilíbrio. Exemplos consistindo na análise do comportamento de estruturas reticulares compõem as aplicações numéricas. / In this work, several conceptual aspects related to the mechanic-mathematical modeling for description of the geometrical nonlinear stuctural behavior are studied. First of all the Principle of Virtual Work is presented in order to characterize the equilibrium in the displaced position. Then, from the use of finite element method one analyses the Lagrangian and Eulerian forms which result from the adopted description of the motion. Stability of the structural response is treated by discussing the concepts of limit and bifurcation points. Finally, the incremental procedures in combination with the Newton schemes for solution of nonlinear equations and characterization of the singular points of equilibrium are studied. The numerical applications are related to the analysis of simple linear structures.

This thesis deals with complex analysis of fine-grained magnesium alloy AZ91 prepared by ECAP process. Mechanical properties of investigated alloy in different states at various external conditions are compared. The structure of this material is inherently unstable therefore changes on microstructural and sub-microstructural level occur during thermal exposure and/or mechanical loading. These changes are analysed and quantified for investigated alloy in selected states in this thesis.