Exchange rate economics has achieved substantial development in the past few decades. Despite extensive research, a large number of unresolved problems remain in the exchange rate debate. This dissertation studied three puzzling issues aiming to improve our understanding of exchange rate behavior. Chapter Two used advanced econometric techniques to model and forecast exchange rate dynamics. Chapter Three and Chapter Four studied issues related to exchange rates using the theory of New Open Economy Macroeconomics. Chapter Two empirically examined the short-run forecastability of nominal exchange rates. It analyzed important empirical regularities in daily exchange rates. Through a series of hypothesis tests, a best-fitting fractionally integrated GARCH model with skewed student-t error distribution was identified. The forecasting performance of the model was compared with that of a random walk model. Results supported the contention that nominal exchange rates seem to be unpredictable over the short run in the sense that the best-fitting model cannot beat the random walk model in forecasting exchange rate movements. Chapter Three assessed the ability of dynamic general-equilibrium sticky-price monetary models to generate volatile foreign exchange risk premia. It developed a tractable two-country model where agents face a cash-in-advance constraint and set prices to the local market; the exogenous money supply process exhibits time-varying volatility. The model yielded approximate closed form solutions for risk premia and real exchange rates. Numerical results provided quantitative evidence that volatile risk premia can endogenously arise in a new open economy macroeconomic model. Thus, the model had potential to rationalize the Uncovered Interest Parity Puzzle. Chapter Four sought to resolve the consumption-real exchange rate anomaly, which refers to the inability of most international macro models to generate negative cross-correlations between real exchange rates and relative consumption across two countries as observed in the data. While maintaining the assumption of complete asset markets, this chapter introduced endogenously segmented asset markets into a dynamic sticky-price monetary model. Simulation results showed that such a model could replicate the stylized fact that real exchange rates tend to move in an opposite direction with respect to relative consumption.

Memorization of a method is a commonly used re-factoring wherein developer modules the code of a method to save return values for some or all incoming parameter values. Whenever a parameter-tuple is received for the second or subsequent time, the method's execution can be elided and the corresponding saved value can be returned. It is quite challenging for developers to identify suitable methods for memorization, as these may not necessarily be the methods that account for a high fraction of the running time in the program. What are really sought are the methods that cumulatively incur signi_cant execution time in invocations that receive repeat parameter values. Our primary contribution is a novel dynamic analysis approach that emits a report that contains, for each method in an application, an estimate of the execution time savings to be expected from memorizing this method. The key technical novelty of our approach is a set of design elements that allow our approach to target real-world programs, and to compute the estimates in a re-grained manner. We describe our approach in detail, and evaluate an implementation of it on several real-world programs. Our evaluation reveals that there do exist many methods with good estimated savings that the approach is reasonably ancient, and that it has good precision (relative to actual savings).

In South Africa, where 75% of the worlds platinum is produced, electricity tariffs have increased significantly over recent years. This introduces challenges to the energy intensive mineral processing industry. Within the mineral processing chain, run-of-mine ore milling circuits are the most energy-intensive unit processes. Opportunities to reduce the operating costs associated with power consumption through process control are explored in this work. In order to reduce operating costs, demand side management was implemented on a milling circuit using load shifting. Time-of-use tariffs were exploited by shifting power consumption of the milling circuit from more expensive to cheaper tariff periods in order to reduce overall costs associated with electricity consumption. Reduced throughput during high tariff periods was recovered during low tariff periods in order to maintain milling circuit throughput over a week long horizon. In order to implement and evaluate demand side management through process control, a load shifting controller was developed for the non-linear Hulbert model. Implementation of the load shifting controller was achieved through a multi-layered control approach. A regulatory linear MPC controller was developed to address technical control requirements such as milling circuit stability. A supervisory real-time optimizer was developed to meet economic control requirements such as reducing electricity costs while maintaining throughput. Scenarios, designed to evaluate the sensitivities of the load shifting controller, showed interesting results. Mill power set-point optimization was found to be proportionally related to the mineral price. Set-points were not sensitive to absolute electricity costs but rather to the relationships between peak, standard, and off-peak electricity costs. The load shifting controller was most effective at controlling the milling circuit where weekly throughput was between approximately 90% and 100% of the maximum throughput capacity. From an economic point of view, it is shown that for milling circuits that are not throughput constrained, load shifting can reduce operating costs associated with electricity consumption. Simulations performed indicate that realizable cost savings are between R16.51 and R20.78 per gram of unrefined platinum processed by the milling circuit. This amounts to a potential annual cost saving of up to R1.89 m for a milling circuit that processes 90 t/h at a head grade of 3 g/t. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / Unrestricted

This study investigated the psychobiological and pacing characteristics of the 1.5 mile run. Sixty-six males (18-27 years) performed the run, and were monitored for ratings of perceived exertion, heart rate and split times. The perceived exertion values increased in a near-linear fashion inconsistent with other measures, and thus are not considered a supportable indicator of physiological performance during the run. Pace was characterized by an initial sprint that slowed to a near-steady pace and concluded with a final sprint. The initial and final sprints were most highly related to the variance of performance time. Initially, heart rate accelerated greatly. This acceleration slowed, ending in near-maximum heart rates. The data suggested that performance may rely heavily upon anaerobic mechanisms, and that variance in previously reported correlational analyses of VO2max and 1.5 mile run performance times may be somewhat due to anaerobic mechanisms.

Correct behavior of programs can be defined by their temporal properties. One of the options for formal specification of such properties is  linear temporal logic - LTL . This master's thesis describes design and implementation of a tool for automatic checking of temporal properties of programs, that are specified using Past-Time LTL formulae. The trace of a given program is analyzed in run-time and any violation of given formulae is reported in details to help to find the code location with a root cause of the bug.

Abstract Background/problem definition: Mental illness, such as anxiety, is a health problem affecting about 10-20% of adolescents worldwide. Studies have found a person’s physical fitness to be associated with their mental health, but most studies have been done in the western world and few have investigated sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. It has also been found that SSA countries’ guidelines regarding physical activity are few and incomplete, although the importance of it is well known.   Aim: To investigate to what extent physical fitness: grip strength (GS), 20 meter shuttle run test (20MSRT), body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) correlate to self-assessed anxiety in South African students at the UWC.   Methods: The study had a quantitative, cross-sectional and correlational research design with a non-randomized convenience sampling. The physical fitness data were collected through a hydraulic grip strength dynamometer, 20MSRT and by measuring anthropometric measurements in order to calculate BMI and WC. An electronic version of the GAD-7 form was used for self-assessed anxiety.   Results: The results showed a significant positive correlation between BMI and levels of anxiety in women, but not in men. The correlation of anxiety related to WC, GS and 20MSRT showed no significance for the whole sample or related to gender, respectively. Conclusion: No significant correlation could be determined between physical fitness and anxiety. Severe anxiety affected 25% of the population, supporting previous research indicating that students are a group prone to anxiety. / Sammanfattning Bakgrund: Mental ohälsa, till exempel ångest, är ett hälsorelaterat problem som drabbar cirka 10-20% av ungdomar i världen över. Studier har visat att en persons fysiska kondition (physical fitness) kan kopplas till mental hälsa och välmående, men de flesta studier har gjorts i västvärlden och det råder brist på forskning i länder söder om Sahara. Dessutom har afrikanska länder söder om Sahara få och inkompletta riktlinjer gällande fysisk aktivitet trots att betydelsen av fysisk aktivitet är väl etablerad. Syfte: Att undersöka om och till vilken utsträckning fysisk kondition (innefattande grepp styrka, beep-test, BMI och midjemått) korrelerar med självskattad ångest (GAD-7) hos Sydafrikanska studenter vid University of the Western Cape (UWC).   Metod: En kvantitativ tvärsnittsdesign användes och korrelationer studerades. Deltagarna rekryterades genom ett icke randomiserat bekvämlighetsurval. Datan för fysisk kondition och hälsa samlades in genom en greppstyrka-dynamometer, beep-test samt genom antropometriska mätningar för att mäta midjemått och räkna ut BMI. Självskattad ångest samlades in genom en elektronisk version av GAD-7 formuläret.   Resultat: Resultaten visade en statistiskt signifikant, positiv korrelation mellan BMI och ångest bland kvinnor. Inga signifikanta korrelationer kunde i övrigt ses i gruppen som helhet eller hos kvinnor respektive män. Konklusion: Ingen signifikant korrelation fastslogs mellan fysisk kondition och ångest. Svår ångest rapporterades av 25% av deltagarna, vilket stödjer tidigare forskning på området som indikerar att studenter är en grupp utsatt för ångest.

Cette thèse étudie le comportement des investisseurs des fonds mutuels ouverts et ses implications au risque de liquidité. Ces travaux de recherche ont pour objectif d’aider les gérants de fonds à éviter le scénario de "fund run" où ils perdent leurs clients de manière soudaine. La première étape de cette étude est de collecter une nouvelle base de données qui enregistre les "micro-transactions" des investisseurs. Cela nous permet d’analyser leurs comportements au niveau individuel et d’effectuer trois articles de recherche autours de ce sujet. Dans le premier article, nous développons un modèle de comptage auto-excitant qui capture des faits stylisés des séries des flux du fonds. De là, nous montrons un risque lié au passif du fonds qui est différent de celui lié à l’actif déjà documenté par la littérature précédente. Nous identifions également une contagion des chocs de liquidité entre les différents clients dans un même fonds. Dans le chapitre suivant, nous étudions les horizons d’investissement des clients individuels. Ces horizons sont fortement liés aux caractéristiques des investisseurs et aux conditions économiques. Nous montrons également que les gérants de fonds subissent un risque de sortie pré-maturée relatif au raccourcissement des horizons d’investissement de ses clients. Nous observons ensuite une hétérogénéité entre les investisseurs: ceux de long-terme comportent différemment que ceux de court-terme. Enfin, dans le dernier chapitre, nous nous intéressons aux activités de rééquilibre. Nous trouvons que de nombreux investisseurs détiennent un portefeuille contenant plusieurs fonds et le rééquilibrent afin de garder la même allocation d’actifs / This thesis studies the behaviour of investors in open-end mutual funds and its implications to the liquidity risk. We seek to help the fund managers to avoid the "fund run" scenarios where they loss their clients in a sudden way. We begin our research by collecting a unique data set which records the micro-transactions of fund investors. It allows us to monitor investors’ behaviour at the individual level and to accomplish three research articles around this topic. In the first article, we develop a self-exciting counting process to model the stylized facts of fund flows. Therefrom, we highlight a novel risk linked to the fund liability which is different than the asset-related risk documented by the previous literature. We also identify a liquidity contagion among different investors in a same fund. In the next chapter, we study the dispersion in the investing horizons of individual fund clients. These horizons are strongly determined by investors’ characteristics and economic conditions. We show that the fund managers suffer a pre-mature redemption risk, i.e. clients shorten their investing horizons and redeem pre-maturely. Especially, we observe a heterogeneity among investors: long-term ones bring a higher pre-mature redemption risk. In the last chapter, we are interested in the rebalance behaviour. We find that numerous investors hold a multi-funds portfolio and rebalance it to keep the target asset allocation.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Nearly half a century after independence, the Cameroon economy has experienced little or no growth in per capita incomes in spite of the enormous natural and human potentials of the country and in spite of the huge packages of aid and subsequent debt relief received from the international donor community, suggesting a more profound cause to the development problems facing the country. Under the current WTO rules-based system of multi-lateral trade management, Cameroon, like other poor countries, is left with limited scope for effective implementation of industrial and trade policies that could bail her out of her present predicament. Against this backdrop, this study seeks to explore the fundamental determinants of sustainable growth within the context of the Cameroonian economy. While acknowledging the role of openness to international markets in promoting growth, its effects could only be maximised with the attainment of certain threshold conditions such as the availability of basic skills, provision of vital infrastructure services and public goods, and good governance. In a nutshell, for development to happen, the country needs not only well functioning markets, but also good governments that do not steal the fruits of workers' labour. Drawing on the endogenous growth models, the study suggests that incentives for investment in knowledge capital, for infrastructure provision and for good governance could bail the country out of its low level traps, setting it on the path of sustainable growth in an evermore globalising world economy.

A trend in modern warfare is to conduct war both conventionally and unconventionally. This modern era sets high demands on conventional forces to face the contemporary threat. Most of the modern conventional forces conduct war through maneuver warfare and uses the practice of combined arms to organize and fight, but is the method of combined arms still a valid method? This study examines Robert Leonhard’s theory of combined arms in the Yom Kippur war 1973 and during the American Thunder Runs in Baghdad 2003. The research question that this study is trying to answer is how the combined arms theory can explain the tactical success in the two cases. Previous studies about the theory explains how it could be understood, not how it is used. The theory encompasses three principles which is applied to the two cases to allow a structured analysis. The results show that both the Israelis and the Americans use the combined arms theory to achieve tactical success. What the analysis also shows is that the theory is not the only element that achieved success, but also technical advantage, moral and experience made an impact on the outcome of the cases.

The Swedish market has over the past couple of years seen a large increase in companies going public through an IPO. At the same time the capital on the private equity market is increasing for each year which enables companies to stay private longer. Our research focuses on two main areas. First, we investigate if companies that enter the public market at an early stage in the company life cycle have worse aftermarket performance than companies that wait to go public. In our research we will define companies that went public at an early stage as younger than six years at the time of the IPO, based on Brown & Wiles (2015) research, and companies that delayed an IPO as older than six years at the time of the offering. The second area investigates whether the large capital increase on the private equity market have affected the long-run aftermarket performance of IPOs.  Our dataset consists of 746 Swedish IPOs from four different Swedish stock exchanges. We will collect long-run aftermarket performance data from companies that conducted an IPO between the years 2003-2018. The long-run aftermarket performance will be measured over a three-year period. Both buy and hold abnormal returns (BHAR) and monthly abnormal returns are used to analyze the aftermarket performance of the IPO firms. Our main findings are that Swedish IPOs generally underperform the reference market index in the long run. Additionally, we find that the underperformance is generated by companies that conduct an early IPO, which makes us question the IPO readiness of these young companies. We also show that profitability is a key determinant for greater IPO aftermarket performance. Lastly, we do not provide any support that the increase in capital on the private equity markets have any effect on the IPO aftermarket performance. However, the results indicate that companies who went public after the increase of capital perform worse. In our research we contribute with practical variables for retail investors to focus on when investing in IPOs and provide companies with useful information on how to increase the chances of a successful IPO.