Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Physics." Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-119).

Are we able to help younger students to develop their understanding and their use of the capital letter, dot and question mark by giving them intensive teaching on the subject during a short period, and would the effect be long lasting? I decided to investigate this together with young students in second and third grade and at the same time try to see which grade would benefit most. By using an experimental research design I conducted the investigation in a class with children from both grades where the result was compared with two similar control groups. The investigation lasted during five months, while the students were able to show their knowledge in the subject just before and after a two weeks period of intensive teaching and then again after four months. The result showed that the intensive teaching had an effect that lasted over time and that it was the students in second grade that would benefit most.

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The correlation function is the critical ingredient for Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) sum-rule methods that are used to predict hadronic properties. Thus, in order to perform a sum-rule analysis of hybrids, we need to compute a correlation function involving an operator that probes hybrid states composed to quark-antiquark pair with a gluonic excitation. Using particular combinations of quark and gluon fields and Dirac matrices, we construct currents that probe hybrid states with various J^{PC} quantum numbers. We compute the correlation function to order g_s^3 in QCD, obtaining both perturbative and condensate contributions. The focus here is on light quarkonium and strangeonium hybrids, which involve quark masses small compared to the external momentum scale (m_q^2 << Q^2). While for light quarkonium the calculations are performed in the massless limit, for strangeonium we include a strange quark mass correction to the perturbative result. While the details of the calculations outlined throughout this thesis are outlined for J^{PC} = 0^{+-} and 1^{--} due to interest in the exotic quantum numbers 0^{+-}, ultimately the correlation function is computed for all J^{PC} values with J=0,1. Comparison with existing results for a subset of these J^{PC} quantum numbers provides a validation of our calculations.

Market power mitigation has been an integral part of wholesale electricity markets since deregulation. In wholesale electricity markets, different regions in the US take different approaches to regulating market power. While the exercise of market power has received considerable attention in the literature, the issue of market power mitigation has attracted scant attention. In the first chapter, I examine the market power mitigation rules used in New York ISO (Independent System Operator) and California ISO (CAISO) with respect to day-ahead and real-time energy markets. I test whether markups associated with New York in-city generators would be lower with an alternative approach to mitigation, the CAISO approach. Results indicate the difference in markups between these two mitigation rules is driven by the shape of residual demand curves for suppliers. Analysis of residual demand curves faced by New York in-city suppliers show similar markups under both mitigation rules when no one supplier is necessary to meet the demand (i.e., when no supplier is pivotal). However, when some supplier is crucial for the market to clear, the mitigation rule adopted by the NYISO consistently leads to higher markups than would the CAISO rule. This result suggest that market power episodes in New York is confined to periods where some supplier is pivotal. As a result, I find that applying the CAISOs' mitigation rules to the New York market could lower wholesale electricity prices by 18%. The second chapter of my dissertation focuses on supply function equilibrium. In power markets, suppliers submit offer curves in auctions, indicating their willingness to supply at different price levels. Although firms are allowed to submit different offer curves for different time periods, surprisingly many firms stick to a single offer curve for the entire day. This essentially means that firms are submitting a single offer curve for multiple demand realizations. A suitable framework to analyze such oligopolistic competition between power market suppliers is supply function equilibrium models. Using detailed bidding data, I develop equilibrium in supply functions by restricting supplier offers to a class of supply functions. By collating equilibrium supply functions corresponding to different realizations of demand, I obtain a single optimal supply function for the entire day. Then I compare the resulting supply function with actual day-ahead offers in New York. In addition to supply function equilibrium, I also develop a conservative bidding approach in which each firm assumes that rivals bid at marginal costs. Results show that the supply functions derived from equilibrium bidding model in this paper is not consistent with actual bidding in New York. This result is mainly driven by the class of supply functions used in this study to generate the equilibrium. Further, actual offers do not resemble offers generated by the conservative bidding algorithm.

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Tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti kaip vykdomi aplinkosauginiai reikalavimai Joniškio rajono žemės ūkiuose. Magistro darbe aprašomi pagrindiniai agrariniai aplinkosaugos reikalavimai, aptariamos Lietuvos 2007-2013 m. Kaimo plėtros programos priemonių, Kraštovaizdžio gerinimo programos reikalavimai ir jų nauda aplinkai. Uždaru klausimynu atliktas aplinkosaugos reikalavimų vykdymo Joniškio rajono ūkiuose tyrimas. Patvirtinta mokslinė hipotezė, kad aplinkos apsaugos priemonės žemės ūkyje įgyvendinamos problematiškai: aplinkosaugos reikalavimai neįgyvendinami dėl to, kad ūkininkai nežino ar nepaiso reikalavimų. Išanalizavus teisės aktus, mokslinius straipsnius ir kitą publikuojamą literatūrą, paaiškėjo, kad yra daug patarimų, taisyklių, reglamentų ir kitų reikalavimų, kaip saugiai naudoti trąšas, pesticidus, bei ūkininkauti tausojant aplinką, tačiau neaiški ūkio subjektų atsakomybė ir nėra konkrečiai numatytų baudų neatsakingai vykdant ūkinę veiklą. Cheminės medžiagos pesticidai ir trąšos Joniškio rajono ūkiuose naudojamos intensyviai, tuo sudaromos sąlygos atsirasti potencialiems taršos šaltiniams. / Purpose of this analysis is to estimate Environmental rules Execution in Joniskis' district farms. Master work describes the main agri-environment rules, 2007-2013 Lithuanian Rural Development Programme of measures for improving the program requirements of landscape and environmental benefits. It was made environmental survey by closed questionnaire about Environmental rules Execution in Joniskis' district farms. Was approved scientific hypothesis that environmental protection measures implemented in agriculture are problematic: Environmental requirements are not being met due to the fact that farmers are unaware of the requirements or ignore them. There are a lot of guidance, rules, regulations and other requirements for safe use of fertilizers, pesticides, and farming in a sustainable manner, however, unclear responsibilities and the operators are not specifically provided for penalties in an irresponsible farming activity. Pesticides and fertilizers in Joniskis farms are used intense, that allows the lead to potential pollution sources.

This thesis is an investigation of rules which are historically conceptualized as static and unidirectional constructs strictly enforced by parents. This behavioural perspective is focused on parents as active agents and children immediately obey parental requests (Patterson, 1982). In contrast, a developmental perspective was used in this study in which rules are flexible and coconstructed by parents and children (Parkin & Kuczynski, 2012). Forty families participated in open-ended interviews; each family had one child between the ages of eight and thirteen. A thematic analysis was conducted and results suggested that rules were constructed by a bidirectional process in which parents and children were active agents. Parents most commonly perceived the rules to be flexible, coregulated and inherent - few parents described firm and explicit rules. Rules were developed by negotiation, based on the child’s development and by accommodating external influences. Leeway was an inherent, expected component of parent-child interactions

Association rules are a useful concept in data mining with the goal of summa- rizing the strong patterns that exist in data. We have identified several issues in mining association rules and addressed them in three main areas. The first area we explore is standardized interestingness measures. Different interestingness measures exist on different ranges, and interpreting them can be subtly problematic. We standardize several interestingness measures and show how these are useful to consider in association rule mining in three examples. A second area we address is incomplete transactions. By applying statistical methods in new ways to association rules, we provide a more comprehensive means of analyzing incomplete transactions. We also describe how to find families of distributions for interestingness measure values when transactions are incomplete. Finally, we address the common result of mining: a plethora of association rules. Unlike methods which attempt to reduce the number of resulting rules, we harness this large quantity to find a higher-level set of patterns. / NSERC Discovery Grant and OMRI Early Researcher Award

Magistro darbo tikslas yra nustatyti, kaip įgyvendinami kompleksiniai aplinkosaugos reikalavimai Šiaulių regiono ūkiuose. Teorinėje dalyje, remiantis išnagrinėta moksline literatūra ir kitais informacijos šaltiniais, pateikiama aplinkosaugos reikalavimų įgyvendinimo vaidmuo ūkiuose ir aplinkosaugos teorijose. Analizuojama nauda gaunama įgyvendinant kompleksinius aplinkosaugos reikalavimus, remiantis moksline literatūra ir kitais informacijos šaltiniais, norminiais teisės aktais atskleista aplinkos apsaugos reikalavimų įgyvendinimo praktika. Pateikiama Šiaulių regiono ūkininkų nuomonė apie kompleksinių aplinkosauginių reikalavimų įgyvendinimo priemones ir jų teikiamą naudą. Magistro darbo pabaigoje, remiantis empiriniais tyrimo rezultatais, pateikiamos išvados ir pasiūlymai. / Master‘s paper aim of the study: to analyse complex environmental requirements realization in agriculture in regional Siauliai. In this master‘s paper the role of complex environmental requirements in agricultures and environment control by analyzing methodical literature and using descriptive method. Also with reference to methodical literature, there is environmental requirements inspection system revealed by the means, based on the normative acts and the requirements for institutions. There are given the opinions of Siauliai citizens about environmental requirements realization. The conclusions and recommendations are given in the end of the Master’s work.