An Empirical Analysis of the Canadian Term Structure of Zero-Coupon Interest Rates

Zero-coupon interest rates are the fundamental building block of fixed-income mathematics, and as such have an extensive number of applications in both finance and economics. The risk-free government zero-coupon term structure is, however, not directly observable and needs to be generated from the prices of marketable, coupon-bearing bonds. The authors introduce the first public-domain database of constant-maturity zero-coupon yield curves for the Government of Canada bond market. They first outline the mechanics of the curve-fitting algorithm that underlie the model, and then perform some preliminary statistical analysis on the resulting yield curves. The full sample period extends from January 1986 to May 2003; it is broken down into two subsamples, reflecting the structural and macroeconomic changes that impacted the Canadian fixed-income markets over that time. The authors examine the evolution of a number of key interest rates and yield-curve measures over the period, perform a principal-components analysis of the common factors that have influenced yield changes over time, and compare holding-period returns over the sample for assets of various maturities.Financial markets; Interest rates; Econometric and statistical methods

Snowmelt and rainfall runoff in burned and unburned catchments at the intermittent-persistent snow transition, Colorado Front Range

2016 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Winter snowmelt and summer monsoonal rains are the dominant sources for streamflow in the Colorado Front Range, and wildfire can greatly affect the hydrologic regime through which these inputs are delivered to the stream. However, the specific changes to the hydrologic processes that drive runoff production made by wildfire are not clearly understood. This research examines how wildfire affects the timing and magnitude of runoff production from snowmelt and rainfall by comparing four catchments in and near the High Park Fire area, two burned and two unburned, at the intermittent-persistent snow transition. Catchments were instrumented to monitor snow accumulation and ablation, rainfall, soil moisture, soil and air temperature, and streamflow response throughout water year 2015. These data were then utilized to determine the primary mechanisms of seasonal runoff generation and the magnitude of that runoff from each catchment. Runoff remained very low at all catchments during winter months. Spring snowmelt runoff in the form of lateral subsurface flow dominated catchment hydrographs for the water year. Following spring snowmelt, runoff production transitioned to a rainfall-dominated, drier summer period. During this time, limited infiltration excess overland flow was produced from high intensity rainfall events. Results of this research suggest that the loss of canopy cover due to wildfire may result in increased snowpack density and more intermittent snowpack throughout the winter months. Burned monitoring sites also maintained higher soil moisture than unburned sites, but this may be a function of site-specific variability rather than burning. Elevated soil moisture at burned sites did not translate to consistently higher runoff production. Both total runoff production and runoff ratios were highest in the high elevation unburned site with the highest snow persistence and the lowest elevation burned site with low snow persistence. During the one high intensity rain event that affected all catchments, burned catchments experienced an increase in discharge above baseflow of a greater magnitude than unburned sites. Overall, all catchments monitored showed site specific characteristics that defied easy classification but illustrated local variability in the hydrologic variables monitored

The Use of Graphic Novels to Support Struggling Fifth Grade Student Story Writing

This study focuses on the use of graphic novels to support struggling fifth grade students with story writing skills. Forms of data collected were student interviews, student work, and recorded observations. Three themes emerged from analyzing the data. First, graphic novels increase student motivation and confidence in writing. Second, students gained a knowledge of the relationship between image and text. Third, students improved writing skills in the areas of sequencing, plot, and character development. Teachers should include graphic novels in their literacy curriculum. Graphic novels could be used across all curriculum. Another implication that arose from this study was that creative writing should be included in the writing curriculum

The Role of Homework in a Mathematics Classroom

Research Topic: The topic I researched is assignment grading techniques. I would studied which type of grading works best for students to learn. Participants: Participants in this study came from a lower class public middle school and high school. The population is 90% white with 60% of students qualifying for free and reduced lunches. The size of the study will be approximately 15 students in the 9th grade. 65% of the students come from a single parent home or have divorced parents. Instrument: Tests that I have created on the topic will be the measuring instrument. The test will only cover the topics covered in class and each class will take the exact same test. The test had 15 questions covering each topic. They will not be multiple choice questions and will be problems where they are open ended where the students have to show work. At the end of the tests, I will also attach a survey for students to state how they felt the homework helped them on the test. Hypothesis Statement: If grading assignments using various strategies, then grading assignments by grading for completion will show the most growth

Secretsharers: Intersecting Systems of Knowledge and the Politics of Documentation in Southwesternist Anthropology, 1880-1930

This dissertation examines shifting relationships between Anglo anthropologists and indigenous informants in the Southwestern United States, 1880–1930. Through an in-depth study of Southwesternist anthropological fieldwork, this dissertation explores the politics of ethnographic documentation, presenting anthropologists’ strategies and motivations for obtaining certain sorts of ethnographic data, and the management of ethnographic inquiry by indigenous communities that hosted (or tolerated) anthropologists. Southwesternist ethnographers pioneered fieldwork immersion in the 1880s and 1890s, but soon found that both Pueblo and Navajo social restrictions on the free flow of knowledge complicated attempts to produce ethnographic documentation of ceremonial practices. Ethnographers, in response to resistance to public documentation, forged more intimate, even clandestine, relationships with select informants to obtain novel and “secret” information. Despite the idea that modern anthropology is rooted in participant observation, Secretsharers reveals a turn away from it in the early twentieth century, toward tactics that isolated individual informants to provide in-depth cultural information on sensitive issues about which an Anglo (or any outsider) could not openly ask. Southwesternist ethnographers grappled with the professional tensions of discretion and disclosure in their inquiries among Pueblo and Navajo communities. On the one hand, anthropologists needed to practice discretion regarding the sensitive components of sacred events and the identities of their informants. On the other hand, scientific standards demanded disclosure of ethnographic documentation to be considered a contribution to “scientific” knowledge. Even as anthropologists sought indigenous “secrets,” they worked to keep their ethnographic publications “secret” from the communities they presumed to describe. The disjunction between scientific epistemological standards and Pueblo and Navajo beliefs in the importance of contextualized, situated knowledge spotlights the unforeseen consequences of information accumulation and dissemination within scientific knowledge production—the presumption that the science of humankind has a “right to know,” regardless of risks to “secretsharing” informants or to the integrity of sacred, situated knowledge systems.PHDHistoryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146056/1/afjhnsn_1.pd

Disability access and local government: Co-researching the City of Bunbury’s aim to become the most accessible regional city in Australia

This study used Participatory Action Research (PAR) to investigate the facilitators of disability access in local government, with a focus on the City of Bunbury in Western Australia. In 2014, the City of Bunbury adopted a long-term aspirational goal to become the Most Accessible Regional City in Australia (MARCIA), and the findings and recommendations from this study are intended to inform strategic priorities for achieving that goal, including a potential change of corporate approach required to attain MARCIA status. The thesis critically evaluates the historical, cultural and systemic factors that have influenced accessibility and inclusion in the development of Bunbury’s public infrastructure, situating this discussion in the context of national and international disability research. It also draws on literature about deliberative democracy, knowledge partnering and co-design. A defining feature of this study is its methodology. Participatory Action Research seeks to position the researched as researchers and activists, engaged in a concurrent process of inquiring, sharing and influencing. To achieve this aim, eleven people with lived experience of disability were recruited as co-researchers, working alongside the PhD student who adopted the role of PAR facilitator to ‘animate’ and facilitate the process of inquiry. Together, they engaged Informants from the City of Bunbury (elected members, executives, managers and technical officers) in deliberative dialogue about the system of public design. Interviews and group discussions were recorded and transcribed, and analysed using the Framework Analysis method. Informed by an extensive literature review undertaken by the PhD student, the framework was developed collaboratively with the project’s co-researchers. Historically, universal design has been minimally and inconsistently applied by regional cities such as the City of Bunbury in the development of public infrastructure, including buildings, facilities, services, information and events intended for use by the public. The study found five key facilitators of universal design in public infrastructure: documenting and applying benchmarks and safeguards for best practice in universal design, providing training and technical support for staff and contractors, and engaging people with lived experience of disability in co-design. The five facilitators of universal design in local government are presented in this thesis as a model of Universal Public Design, that may be usefully applied in other public design contexts, including other local governments, other tiers of government, and the commercial sector. In keeping with the action research philosophy of Participatory Action Research, and to fulfil the obligations of the ‘industry engagement scholarship’ that supported this study, the preliminary findings and recommendations were presented to Council in a research report in June 2018, and endorsed unanimously for implementation by the City of Bunbury. The thesis concludes by detailing some of the progress that has been made to date by the City, and situates the study in the context of global efforts, especially by the United Nations, to engage ‘neighbourhood’ leaders such as local governments in fulfilling a key objective of the United Nations’ New Urban Agenda – accessible, inclusive and sustainable cities

Giant Leaps and Minimal Branes in Multi-Dimensional Flux Landscapes

There is a standard story about decay in multi-dimensional flux landscapes: that from any state, the fastest decay is to take a small step, discharging one flux unit at a time; that fluxes with the same coupling constant are interchangeable; and that states with N units of a given flux have the same decay rate as those with -N. We show that this standard story is false. The fastest decay is a giant leap that discharges many different fluxes in unison; this decay is mediated by a 'minimal' brane that wraps the internal manifold and exhibits behavior not visible in the effective theory. We discuss the implications for the cosmological constant.Comment: Minor updates to agree with published version. 9 pages, 4 figure

The effects of aneuploidy on gene expression in a dosage series of maize chromosome arm 1L /

Aneuploidy is a class of genetic conditions involving an unbalanced number of chromosomes. The most familiar human aneuploid condition is trisomy 21, called Down syndrome. Aneuploid conditions necessarily involve a change in the dosage of those genes which are located on the varied chromosome. However, the dosage level of a gene does not automatically correspond to the amount of RNA or protein that will be produced in vivo. Based on previously published studies, the impact of chromosome dosage changes on the transcription of single genes may be direct, inverse, or anywhere in between; and genes may be impacted anywhere in the genome, not just on the varied chromosome. Using a maize model system, a dosage series of plants was produced in which sibling plants are identical, except for the copy number of chromosome arm 1L. These plants were grown until 45 days postgermination, at which point leaf tissue was collected for RNA extraction. This dosage series included 5 dosage levels for comparison: diploid, trisomic, tetrasomic, haploid, and disomic haploid. A second dosage series was grown up to day 55, and included diploid, monosomic, and trisomic. Using RNA sequencing, expression levels for all genes were determined. The results were analyzed in aggregate, allowing for a view of effects on the level of the whole transcriptome. Results suggest that dosage of genes on the varied chromosome region has some correlation with expression of those genes, though the change compared to a diploid is often partial. Inverse relationships between chromosome dosage and RNA expression of genes elsewhere in the genome are seen to occur. Both direct and inverse reactions were amplified by increased levels of genomic imbalance. The kinetics of interacting proteins and other cellular components, as described in the gene balance hypothesis, may be the mechanism leading to these responses. Using the same methods of analysis, similar phenomena were observed in aneuploid/euploid comparisons in other organisms. Partial dosage compensation and inverse effects were observed in published datasets from aneuploid yeast and mouse. A set of trisomics in Arabidopsis displayed the same effects, though to a different extent in different trisomies. Using a published database of transcription factors, the responses of genes to dosage changes of their regulators was analyzed. A number of cascade effects were observed, in which inverse relationships of transcription factor dosage and target gene expression occurred sequentially, disrupting normal regulation of several genes in a network by changing the dosage of a single component.Dr. James Birchler, Dissertation Supervisor.|Includes vita.Includes bibliographical references (pages 88-90)