Background: The financial crisis of 2007-2010 had a massive impact on the financial markets worldwide. The crisis was partly blamed on the credit derivatives collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps. These instruments were used to create leverage and speculation, which led to uncertainty in the financial system worldwide. There has been no recent documentation of how credit derivatives are used in Swedish banks, and what risks and opportunities they bring along. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe the use of credit derivatives in Swedish banks, what benefits and risks they may generate and how the recent financial crisis has affected their use. Research Method: This is a qualitative multiple case study which uses an inductive approach. The study covers four cases, three of the largest Swedish commercial banks, and a bank that specializes on international financing. Seven people working in different fields in these banks have been interviewed. Conclusions: Credit derivatives are mostly used for hedging in Swedish banks, which mainly involves the use of credit default swaps, and sometimes iTraxx. Purely speculative trades are rare. The risks that arise are mainly due to lack of transparency in OTC trading, and abusive use of these instruments. Credit derivatives greatly facilitate risk management in banks. Regulations have increased since the financial crisis and the demand for more complex products greatly decreased.

The objective of this dissertation is to model the volatility of financial time series data using ARCH, GARCH and stochastic volatility models. It is found that the ARCH and GARCH models are easy to fit compared to the stochastic volatility models which present problems with respect to the distributional assumptions that need to be made. For this reason the ARCH and GARCH models remain more widely used than the stochastic volatility models. The ARCH, GARCH and stochastic volatility models are fitted to four data sets consisting of daily closing prices of gold mining companies listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange. The companies are Anglo Gold Ashanti Ltd, DRD Gold Ltd, Gold Fields Ltd and Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd. The best fitting ARCH and GARCH models are identified along with the best error distribution and then diagnostics are performed to ensure adequacy of the models. It was found throughout that the student-t distribution was the best error distribution to use for each data set. The results from the stochastic volatility models were in agreement with those obtained from the ARCH and GARCH models. The stochastic volatility models are, however, restricted to the form of an AR(1) process due to the complexities involved in fitting higher order models. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

The purpose of this study was to examine how small-scale private forest owners make decisions regarding pre-commercial thinning. In 2015 it is ten years ago since the storm Gudrun hit the southern parts of Sweden and now large areas are in need of pre-commercial thinning. This study is built upon qualitative interviews with seven small-scale private forest owners with forest properties in the county Kronoberg. The respondents were chosen by the model SKOGSÄGARPROFILENTM (forest owner profile). The results of the interviews showed that five categories: ownership, the storm Gudrun´s impact, silviculture, forestry contacts and driving force was important. How will their purpose and aim affect the pre-commercial thinning? Personal interests, and expectations of the next generation to take over, are purposes this study has found. Furthermore, when pre-commercial thinning is not carried out or postponed, the silviculture has got lower priority, and other chores higher priority. Lack of knowledge might be one issue. If so, a contact with someone with this knowledge is important for starting up the pre-commercial thinning. Key words: Gudrun clearing, pre-commercial thinning, personal interest, net of contacts, private forest owners, change-of generation, “forest owner profile”.

Man's ability to change an agricultural landscape to suit his own needs is associated with the basic principles that govern all landscapes. This study incorporates several environmental and cultural variables to help explain the resultant woodlots patterns in rural Delaware County, Indiana. To a large degree, cultural variables are deemed most significant in describing the size and locations of agriculturally oriented woodlots in Delaware County.Agriculture in Delaware County ranks high in productivity when compared with the entire state. Most of the farming is now specialized, such as dairy farms and cash-grain farms, with small family farms decreasing in number. As a result, fields are being combined, enlarged, and intensified leaving woodlots in remote, distant locations. Agricultural land use, comprising about 85 percent of the total area in the county, is viewed as the primary culprit controlling the pattern of .woodlots existing today. This study attests to quantify the governing parameters of agriculturally oriented woodlots in order to describe their size and location in Delaware County, Indiana, in 1980.

ABSTRACT In this thesis, relationship between two most important transient stability indices, critical clearing time and generator rotor angle is examined for one machine-infinite bus system and then extended to the multimachine case and is observed to be linear. By using the linear relationship between critical clearing time and generator rotor angle and utilizing the daily load curve, a new preventive method is proposed. The aim of this method is to make all critical clearing times longer than the relay and circuit breaker combination operation time. In the proposed method, desired critical clearing times are obtained by using on line system data and daily load curves. Then desired values are adjusted by generators output rescheduling and terminals voltage control Visual computer language is used for graphical and numerical solutions. Comprehension of one machine infinite bus system and multimachine system transient stability become easier.

Habitat fragmentation involves the break-up of continuous native vegetation into remnant patches that are set in a matrix of altered habitat. The consequences of habitat fragmentation include the loss of original habitat which is followed by reductions in remnant size that increase edge effects and reduce habitat quality, and also increase the isolation of remnants from one another. Habitat fragmentation is an international environmental concern that also effects Australia. Over the last ten years Queensland has been responsible for some ninety percent of the clearing occurring in Australia, and as a result recorded some of the highest vegetation clearing rates in the world. / thesis (PhDEnvironmentalManagement)--University of South Australia, 2004.

Thesis (M. Env. St.)--University of Adelaide, Centre for Environmental Studies, 1983. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-160).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Waikato, 2004. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Feb. 7, 2006). Includes bibliographical references (p. [349]-374).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-159).

This thesis focuses on economic relations between the Third Reich and Yugoslavia before the German attack in April 1941. It questions the conventional wisdom, according to which economic relations served mainly as a tool of German foreign policy towards Yugoslavia. Instead, it aims to place mutual economic relations within both the broader context of the German economic and financial plans and policies in the 1930s, and within the already existing economic and trading ties between the two countries, as they had been developing since the 1920s. Before 1936, economic relations between Yugoslavia and Germany are observed from the context of the polycratic character of the Third Reich’s executive, which enabled various economic policies, pursued by different levels of authority such as the Foreign Ministry, Economic Ministry, Food and Agriculture Ministry, the Reichsbank, etc. to exist alongside each other. After 1936, Yugoslav-German economic relations increasingly functioned within the framework of the German Four-Year-Plan. Yugoslavia’s mineral riches were of importance for German rearmament and, particularly after the Anschluss and the creation of the Bohemian Protectorate, Yugoslavia found itself increasingly dependent on trade with Germany. At the same time, the German market and exports were necessary for the process of Yugoslavia’s industrialisation, which had gathered momentum since the mid-1930s. This was however in many aspects inconsistent with the German long-term imperialist ambitions in South-Eastern Europe. This dissertation concludes that German economic policy towards Yugoslavia failed. Also, that contrary to the traditional view in historiography and despite its economic dependency on Germany, Yugoslavia maintained its political agency. It was international political developments beyond Yugoslavia’s control which eventually decreased Belgrade’s political maneuverability and forced the government in Belgrade to become more receptive towards German demands, particularly after the fall of France in June 1940.