Institutional Investors, Financial Sector Development And Economic Growth in OECD Countries

This paper studies the role of institutional investors (pension fund, insurance companies and investment companies) in the development of the financial sector and economic growth in OECD countries by employing a dynamic panel VAR. While pervious studies in this area have mainly focused on contractual savings institutions of pension funds and insurance companies, we provide a consistent analysis of institutional investors that includes pension funds, insurance companies, and investment companies both at the aggregated and disaggregated levels. At the aggregate level, we found that institutional investors significantly Granger causes stock market developments and economic growth. However, we do not find such evidence with the banks. At the disaggregated level, we found that market capitalization Ganger causes the development of contractual savings institutions of pension funds and insurance companies. While these contractual savings institutions Granger causes liquidity and turnover in the stock market, the results suggest that the maturity and large coverage of these institutional investors have diluted the impact in deepening the stock market. In turn, the ‘risk averseness’ of these contractual savings institutions in holding large capitalized and diversified stock portfolio verifies the reverse causality evidence. Contrary to a passive ‘buy and hold’ strategy, the unidirection causality to both market liquidity and turnover verifies that contractual savings institutions actively manage their portfolios. Another key finding of this study is the significant role of investment companies in Granger causing both financial sector development and economic growth. While both contractual savings institutions exhibit uni -directional causality on economic growth, we found a dynamic relationship between investment companies and growth due to the risk taking activities of investment companies.Institutional Investors, Financial Sector Development, Economic Growth, Causality

Identification of sources and extent of weathering of tar-balls from the eastern seaboard of peninsular malaysia using hopanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as molecular marker

Oil pollution is considered to be one of the major contributors to marine pollution. The threat that oil pollution poses to the marine environment is extremely dangerous to its ecosystem. The South China Sea region is blessed with crude oil and has a proven oil reserves. Leaks and contaminations by oil fields are usually contributing factor to oil pollution in the region. However other major contributing factors like tanker accidents and ballast water is also substantial. Once oil is spilled to the ocean, the oil will go through many physical and biological processes like evaporation, emulsification, dissolution and microbial degradation; these initial processes will soon change the physical shape and chemical composition of the oil slick. Tar-balls are generated when emulsification occur on an oil slick, the very last stage of weathering. Tar-balls therefore are considered to be the remnants of an oil spill. These tar-balls will travel the oceans and end up on beaches. This study utilizes diagnostic ratios of n-alkanes, hopanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to determine he origins, distribution and weathering of tar-balls. Hopanes ratios (e.g. C29/C30, and ΣC31 – C35/C30 ratios) were used to identify the origin of tar-balls. The weathering effects were distinguished by using alkanes, namely the Unresolved Complex Mixture (UCM) and low molecular weight/ high molecular weight (L/H) ratios. Similarly, PAHs were also used for the determination of weathering processes undergone by the tar-balls. These diagnostic ratios gave a very strong indication on the origins of tar-balls in this study. For example, 16 out of 17 samples originate from South East Asian Crude Oil (SEACO) with one sample from Merang, Terengganu originating from the North Sea Oil (Troll). The TRME-2 sample may have come from a supertanker’s ballast water discharge. The second possibility is that the source may have been transported via oceanography. The approaches applied in this study have given more insights on the behavior and weathering of the tar-balls in the marine environment

Robust decentralised variable structure control for rigid robotic manipulators

In this thesis, the problem of robust variable structure control for non-linear rigid robotic manipulators is investigated. Robustness and convergence results are presented for variable structure control systems of robotic manipulators with bounded unknown disturbances, nonlinearities, dynamical couplings and parameter uncertainties. The major outcomes of the work described in this thesis are summarised as given below. The basic variable structure theory is surveyed, and some basic ideas such as sliding mode designs, robustness analysis and control1er design methods for linear or non-linear systems are reviewed. Three recent variable structure control schemes for robotic manipulators are discussed and compared to highlight the research developments in this area. A decentralised variable structure model reference adaptive control scheme is proposed for a class of large scale systems. It is shown that, unlike previous decentralised variable structure control schemes, the local variable structure controller design in this scheme requires only three bounds of the subsystem matrices and dynamical interactions instead of the upper and the lower bounds of all unknown subsystem parameters. Using this scheme, not only asymptotic convergence of the output tracking error can be guaranteed, but also the controller design is greatly simplified. In order to eliminate chattering caused by the variable structure technique, local boundary layer controllers are presented. Furthermore, the scheme is applied to the tracking control of robotic manipulators with the result that strong robustness and asymptotic convergence of the output tracking error are obtained

Flow Dynamics of Natural Gas in a Metering Station for Natural Gas Vehicles.

This is a Final Year Project entitled "Flow Dynamics of Natural Gas in a Metering Station for Natural Gas Vehicles". The main objective for this project is to derive an equation that represents the relationship between pressure drop and energy loss in ametering station for natural gas vehicles. The system was divided into two sections. The first section is the pipeline which is from the source/reservoir till the end of pipe. The condition of flow in apipe was applied when deriving the equation. The equation was tested against the data that was taken from a PETRONAS natural gas metering station. The second section is the receiver tank which is aclosed tank. Thermodynamic relations were used to derive arelationship between the pressure drop and energy loss in the system. The equation was also tested against the same data. This report will highlight the steps in deriving the equations for the respective sections. The graphical interpretation of the results lias been included in this report to gain abetter understanding of the relationship. The steps in creating the program to calculate the energy loss in the pipeline has also been included. This project is part of astudy on how to improve the efficiency ofnatural gas metering stations

The effect of particle properties and solids concentration on the yield stress behaviour of drilling fluid filter cakes

Filter cakes made from model water-based drilling fluids were tested to determine cake properties such as porosity, thickness and yield stress. The effects of drilling fluid particle concentration, size distribution and shape on the properties of the resulting cakes were investigated. A hole punch tester was used to find the shear stress of the cakes, obtaining a yield stress from the measured peak force. The cake yield stress increased with increasing barite solids content in the fluid from 16.5 kPa at 3.1 vol% to 65.6 kPa at 24.8 vol%. A similar trend was observed for cakes made from calcium carbonate. Furthermore, the calcium carbonate cakes were thicker and stronger than the barite equivalents, with yield stresses increasing by between 29% and 56%. The addition of calcium carbonate particles to the existing barite network did not affect the cake thickness appreciably but gave cakes of lower porosity and higher yield stress.BP ICA

A study of the filtration of fibre/particle mixtures

This thesis investigates the constant pressure cake filtration of interacting cellulose fibre/TiO2 (rutile) mixtures, and involved experimental studies using an automated pressure filtration apparatus. The influence of suspension composition, filtration pressure and solution environment on filtration has been discussed in relation to cake properties such as average cake porosity and specific resistance. To help interpret the filtration results, sedimentation data were also obtained. The average porosities of filter cakes formed from pure rutile and fibre suspensions in deionised water were approximately 0.6 and 0.75, respectively, and a steady and progressive increase in porosity with fibre fraction was generally observed. With filtrations at 450 kPa, the average specific cake resistances for pure fibre and rutile in deionised water were approximately 9.4x1013 and 4.2x1012 m kg-1 respectively, with the variation of specific resistance with solids composition showing a minimum. Similar trends were observed at other tested filtration pressures with suspensions in deionised water but not with filtrations of suspensions in 0.2 M NaCl and 0.1 M CaCl2 solutions. The minima in average specific cake resistance with solids composition for feeds in deionised water was attributed to rutile-fibre interactions. Abrupt transitions in cake structure were evident part way through some filtrations, and resulted in unexpected filtrate flow behaviour. This is an interesting phenomenon, and not only were the changes in cake structure relatively reproducible, but also the nature of the change could be altered by changes in filtration pressure, solids composition and/or solution environment. The study of fibre/particle binary filtration behaviour, in particular the porosity and specific cake resistance trends, were substantiated by relevant theoretical treatment and modelling analysis. With the porosity trends, an additive porosity concept seemed to represent the data better than interparticle penetration models. With the specific cake resistance trends, a semi-empirical equation was proposed which appeared to represent a wide range of binary mixture filtration data. A mathematical framework was also developed in an attempt to understand the underlying physical mechanisms which led to filter cake restructuring, and possible explanations were postulated.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

India's pluralist Islam under siege

Saudi-exported Salafism is trying to “purify” India’s pluralistic strands of Islam. Even a cursory glance at the history of Islam in India will reveal that numerous denominations have coexisted since the religion’s advent in the subcontinent, as early as the 7th century AD. This naturally led to diverse forms of worship and rites, all innately at conflict, finding acceptance. These socio-cultural paradigms underwent periods of crests and troughs that led to them eventually being defined by the more vocally and numerically stronger sections. Islam in India is today undergoing one such trough, that is shifting it from polytheism (shirk, also meaning idolatry) to monotheistic Islam (tawhid)

Flow Dynamics of Natural Gas in a Metering Station for Natural Gas Vehicles.

This is a Final Year Project entitled "Flow Dynamics of Natural Gas in a Metering Station for Natural Gas Vehicles". The main objective for this project is to derive an equation that represents the relationship between pressure drop and energy loss in ametering station for natural gas vehicles. The system was divided into two sections. The first section is the pipeline which is from the source/reservoir till the end of pipe. The condition of flow in apipe was applied when deriving the equation. The equation was tested against the data that was taken from a PETRONAS natural gas metering station. The second section is the receiver tank which is aclosed tank. Thermodynamic relations were used to derive arelationship between the pressure drop and energy loss in the system. The equation was also tested against the same data. This report will highlight the steps in deriving the equations for the respective sections. The graphical interpretation of the results lias been included in this report to gain abetter understanding of the relationship. The steps in creating the program to calculate the energy loss in the pipeline has also been included. This project is part of astudy on how to improve the efficiency ofnatural gas metering stations

Institutional investors, financial sector development and economic growth

Master'sMASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCE