The following pages of my master thesis aim to acquaint the reader with the major changes brought about by Basel III banking regulation. This new regulatory framework was created in response to the financial crisis (beginning in 2007), which revealed some weaknesses in the original Basel II regulation, and its purpose is to prevent future similar situations in the financial market by increasing the stability and resilience of the banking sector. Impacts of Basel III are reflected primarily in increased demand for quality capital used by banks and maintaining sufficient liquidity. As shown by the results of the analysis, these factors have further effect on interest spread of banks and the real economy.

Masters of Commerce / This study investigates caregiver’s perceptions of the purposes, uses and adequacies of the Child Support Grant (CSG) in Mfuleni (Cape Town, South Africa). Moreover, the research was underpinned by the following research questions: What is the CSG intended for in South Africa? To what extent does the CSG enable caregivers to use it? What is the perception of caregivers with regards to the uses and purposes of the CSG in Mfuleni? What is the perception of caregivers regarding their power and agency to influence policy in terms of how the CSG should be structured (both in terms of benefit level and how it is administered)? A model by DFID (2011) focusing on the causal pathway for cash transfers was used as the conceptual framework for the study. Qualitative research methods were utilized to achieve the aims of the study. Ten interviews and a focus group discussion comprising six caregivers were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The study revealed that caregivers understood the CSG is proposed for children, households and being a source of income for caregivers. Caregivers also revealed the CSG was utilized towards the basic needs of children. Through the CSG many caregivers had agency and power in their household and could establish small businesses.

Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) are legally binding documents required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for students with disabilities. These plans are intended to help teachers use positive, function-based interventions to decrease problem behaviors and promote functionally-equivalent appropriate social behaviors. The Behavior Intervention Plan Quality Evaluator (BIP-QE II) identifies six components of BIP technical adequacy including behavior function, situation specificity and behavior change, reinforcement tactics, reactive team strategies, team coordination and goals and objectives. Unfortunately, in practice BIPs often lack these key components, which can lead to ineffectiveness of plans, as well as lack of communication among team members and low implementation fidelity, leading to poor student outcomes. In this study, the research team evaluated the effects of providing feedback to plan developers on the technical adequacy of BIPs, using the BIP-QE II. The study employed a waitlist control group experimental design where five participants in the treatment group received feedback immediately and four the control group received feedback after a short delay. In addition, previous research suggests that feedback is only as valuable as participants perceive it to be so. A social validity interview confirmed that feedback was valuable to participants but there was a perception that external reviewers did not appreciate some important contextual factors impacting participants' work. Feedback to support the technical adequacy of BIPs is a promising practice that appears both effective and efficient and deserves further research, refinement, and exploration.

Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) are used in public schools for students with disabilities, replacing target behaviors with socially appropriate behaviors using positive behavior support strategies. However, research suggests that BIPs are often poorly written or fail to be implemented as intended. One reason for the ineffectiveness of BIPs may be that the interventionist (e.g., classroom teacher or other staff member responsible for implementing the plan) and the context of his/her classroom is not considered when plans are written by specialists (e.g., school psychologist, special education teacher, etc.). The purpose of this study was to evaluate BIPs written and used for students in public schools in the intermountain west for their contextual fit, using a researcher-developed measure of contextual fit based on key concepts previously established in research and modeled after the Behavior Support Plan-Quality Evaluation, Second Edition (BSP-QE II). With the coding guide created by our research team, we coded previously collected BIPs for practicality, the skill level and competency required for the interventionist to implement, and the consideration of cultural values for both the interventionist and the student who would receive the intervention. In addition, a previous research study by a graduate student at the same university had previously coded BIPs from the four school districts in Utah for technical adequacy using the BSP-QE II and, using the results from that study, we ran a Pearson correlation to determine whether there was a statistically significant relationship between BIP quality and contextual fit. Ultimately, our study found that BIPs often failed to include all elements for contextual fit to reasonably be considered established, particularly in the cultural values of those who would implement or receive the plan. In addition, we found a moderate, positive relationship between BIP technical adequacy and contextual fit. Implications for practitioners and ideas for future research are also discussed, including: ensuring that BIPs are developed in teams that include the interventionist, creating BIP templates that are culturally and contextually appropriate, and the possibility of research that documents actual interventionist participation in BIP team meetings as a comparison to the results of our scoring guide of BIP contextual fit.

Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) are legally binding documents required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for students with disabilities. These plans are intended to help teachers use positive, function-based interventions to decrease problem behaviors and promote functionally-equivalent appropriate social behaviors. The Behavior Intervention Plan Quality Evaluator (BIP-QE II) identifies six components of BIP technical adequacy including behavior function, situation specificity and behavior change, reinforcement tactics, reactive team strategies, team coordination and goals and objectives. Unfortunately, in practice BIPs often lack these key components, which can lead to ineffectiveness of plans, as well as lack of communication among team members and low implementation fidelity, leading to poor student outcomes. In this study, the research team evaluated the effects of providing feedback to plan developers on the technical adequacy of BIPs, using the BIP-QE II. The study employed a waitlist control group experimental design where five participants in the treatment group received feedback immediately and four the control group received feedback after a short delay. In addition, previous research suggests that feedback is only as valuable as participants perceive it to be so. A social validity interview confirmed that feedback was valuable to participants but there was a perception that external reviewers did not appreciate some important contextual factors impacting participants' work. Feedback to support the technical adequacy of BIPs is a promising practice that appears both effective and efficient and deserves further research, refinement, and exploration.

Agile methods provide an organization or a team with the flexibility to adopt a selected subset of principles and practices based on their culture, their values, and the types of systems that they develop. More specifically, every organization or team implements a customized agile method, tailored to better accommodate its needs. However, the extent to which a customized method supports the organizational objectives, i.e. the 'goodness' of that method, should be demonstrable. Existing agile assessment approaches focus on comparative analyses, or are limited in scope and application. In this research, we propose a systematic, comprehensive approach to assessing the 'goodness' of agile methods. We examine an agile method based on (1) its adequacy, (2) the capability of the organization to support the adopted principles and strategies specified by the method, and (3) the method's effectiveness. We propose the Objectives, Principles and Strategies (OPS) Framework to guide our assessment process. The Framework identifies (a) objectives of the agile philosophy, (b) principles that support the objectives and (c) strategies that implement the principles. It also defines (d) linkages that relate objectives to principles, and principles to strategies, and finally, (e) indicators for assessing the extent to which an organization supports the implementation and effectiveness of those strategies. The propagation of indicator values along the linkages provides a multi-level assessment view of the agile method.  In this dissertation, we present our assessment methodology, guiding Framework, validation approach, results and findings, and future directions. / Ph. D.

The primary objective of this is to confront the DSGE model (Ireland, 2011) with data in an attempt to evaluate its empirical adequacy. The perspective used for this evaluation is based on unveiling the statistical model (structural VAR) behind the DSGE model, with a view to test its probabilistic assumptions vis-a-vis the data. It is shown that the implicit statistical model is seriously misspecified and the information from mis-specification (M-S) testing is then used to respecify the original structural VAR in an attempt to achieve statistical adequacy. The latter provides a precondition for the reliability of any inference based on the statistical model. Once the statistical adequacy of the respecified model is secured through thorough M-S testing, inferences like the likelihood-ratio test for the overidentifying restrictions, forecasting, impulse response analysis are applied to the original DSGE model to evaluate its empirical adequacy. At the end, the same inferential procedure is applied to the CAPM model. / Ph. D.

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The ability to test software is invaluable in all areas of computer science, but it is often neglected in computer science curricula. Test adequacy criteria (TAC), tools that measure the effectiveness of a test suite, have been used as aids to improve software testing teaching practices, but little is known about how students respond to them. Studies have examined the cognitive processes of students programming and professional developers writing tests, but none have investigated how student testers test with TAC. If we are to improve how they are used in the classroom, we must start by understanding the different ways that they affect students’ thought processes as they write tests. In this thesis, we take a grounded theory approach to reveal the underlying cognitive processes that students utilize as they test under no feedback, condition coverage, and mutation analysis. We recorded 12 students as they thought aloud while creating test suites under these feedback mechanisms, and then we analyzed these recordings to identify the thought processes they used. We present our findings in the form of the phenomena we identified, which can be further investigated to shed more light on how different TAC affect students as they write tests. i

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