This doctoral thesis contains three essays on the economics of climate change and the electricity sector. The first essay deals with the subject of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and economic growth. The second essay addresses the issues of climate change policies, especially the role of the emergent innovative technologies, and the restructuring of the electricity sector. The third essay presents a model of transmission investments in electric power networks. Chapter One studies the impacts of climate change on economic growth in the world economies. The paper contains explicit formalization of the depletion process of exhaustible fossil fuels and the phase of technology substitution. The impacts of climate change on capital flows and welfare across countries are also investigated. The restructuring of the electricity sector is studied in Chapter Two. It also analyzes how climate change policies can benefit from emergent innovative technologies and how emergent innovative technologies can lower GHG emissions. It is shown that the price of electricity is strictly rising before emergent innovative firms with zero GHG emissions enter the market, but strictly declining as the entry begins. In Chapter Three, a model of electricity transmission investments from the perspective of the regulatory approach is formulated. The Mid-West region of Western Australia, a sub-system of the South West Interconnected System is considered. In contrast with most models in the literature that deal only with network deepening, this model deals with both network deepening and network widening. Moreover, unlike the conventional investment models which are static and deal only with the long run, this model is dynamic and focuses on the timing of the infrastructure investments. The paper is a study of an optimal transmission investment program which is part of the optimal investment program for an integrated model in which investments in transmission and investments in generation are made at the same time.

This study analyzes discussions from online language teacher education to understand how conversations between monolingual and bilingual preservice teachers (PSTs) in the US create and delimit structural constraints on teachers’ agency, (re)positioning teachers’ capacity to act in the instruction of emergent bilingual students (EBs). Employing positioning theory within a critical discursive psychology approach, findings demonstrate how bilingual PSTs pushed back on structural constraints introduced as potential barriers to achieving linguistic pluralism in monolingual teachers’ posts, asserting teachers’ agency by simultaneously positioning themselves and others as capable and responsible for education of EBs. These findings inform theoretical understandings of agency as a discursive construct and offer insights for teacher educators as they conceptualize the role of discursive exchanges in developing PSTs’ understanding of structures and agentive possibilities regarding the equitable education of EBs.

As early childhood educators of young children, we recognize that children draw what they know from cultural transmissions, moving through many developmental transitions with drawing. As children’s skills developed, a PreK/Kindergarten teacher in a university laboratory school classroom with 27 children was interested in studying ways children can use drawing to enhance their learning of critical concepts within the curriculum. This paper explores her teacher research, a case study using an action research approach guided by these questions: (1) How do young children use drawing during short and long-term projects? (2) What can teachers learn from close attention to children’s representation drawing? A Drawing to Learn protocol was developed to study children’s drawings of curriculum topics like the wind, affording opportunities to use drawing to express their understanding of motion and their theories of how something works. The teacher research was organized around the Cycle of Inquiry process typically used for curriculum planning in the classroom. The curriculum planning data (observation, interpretation, questions, reflections) informed teachers’ understanding of the meaning of children’s drawings and guided teachers as to how to proceed to inquire more deeply into meaning and discovery with children. The findings of this two-semester study indicate multiple purposes and strategies for using drawings in the learning process (predict, study functions of objects, revisit and reflect, and plan).

Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka metoder och arbetssätt förskollärare förhåller sig till för att främja barns språkutveckling genom läsning i förskolan.Denna studie görs utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv och baserar sig på grundtesen att människors interaktion, möten med varandra, är betydelsefullt för hur språkinlärning och lärandet sker i samspelet med andra i olika situationer och med olika verktyg. Detta har undersökts genom en kvalitativ metod där fem förskollärare från fem olika förskolor har intervjuats.Studiens resultat visar att läsning förekommer i verksamheten varje dag på alla fem förskolorna men att det skiljer sig åt i vilken utsträckning läsning sker mellan förskollärare och barngrupp. De äldre barnen tar del av kapitelböcker för att skapa en djupare förståelsen för orden och de yngre barnen får möjligheten att själva kunna skapa sig en bild av sagan. Barnen lär sig på det sättet nya ord i samspel med andra som de sedan själva använder i sina lekar. Läsning sker initierat av både barn och vuxna och valet av litteraturen beror på om tillfället är planerat eller spontant.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka och analysera förskollärarens syfte med och uppfattning om högläsning i relation till barns språkutveckling. I studien användes de teoretiska begreppen literacy, emergent literacy, språkutveckling och sociokulturellt perspektiv med utgångspunkt i Vygotskij. En kvalitativ metod användes i undersökningen, där sex förskollärare intervjuades på två olika förskolor.Resultatet visade att förskollärarna anser att högläsning har betydelse för undervisningen. Många förskollärare svarade att de ville skapa en gemenskap och ett intresse för böcker på olika sätt. Genom att läsa högt kan det öka barns språkutveckling. Förskollärarna strävar efter att kunna ge barnen olika förutsättningar med högläsning och framför allt kunna skapa en medvetenhet hos barnen till att utveckla nya kunskaper. I verksamheterna arbetar förskollärarna både planerat och spontant med högläsning. Förskollärarna beskrev att en givande högläsning kan genomföras på olika sätt beroende på barngruppens storlek, planering och olika slags böcker.Nyckelord:

The purpose of this project is to examine how collaboration in groups of children change from a face-to-face emergent environment to a computer mediated emergent environment. To examine this, a methodology was devised in order to track individual group members‟ contributions to exercises performed by the group. Groups of five children built structures out of LEGOs and in the game Minecraft, and through the devised tracking method, data from the different exercises were juxtaposed with each other and compared in order to determine how the collaborative patterns within the groups varied depending on what exercise they were partaking in. The results of this research is that the computer based emergent system was experienced as more engaging and immersive, and that it fostered continuous discovery and problem solving throughout the game session, which wasn‟t the case in the LEGO exercise.

La pollution des eaux superficielles et souterraines par des composés organiques est bien connue comme une préoccupation majeure de l'environnement dans de nombreux pays. Si les polluants prioritaires sont actuellement surveillés par la directive cadre européenne sur l'eau, il est désormais urgent de prendre en considération les nouveaux polluants dérivés de principes actifs des produits pharmaceutiques et d'identifier leurs produits de transformation à risque. Ce travail de thèse propose une étude globale sur l'état et l'avenir des produis pharmaceutiques dans l'environnement, sur l'exemple de deux pharmaceutiques choisis, dans le cadre de cette importante problématique environnementale. Nous avons donc appliqué les procédés électrochimiques d'oxydation avancée, électro-Fenton (EF), oxydation anodique(OA) et photoélectro-Fenton solaire (PEFS), ainsi que le couplage électro-Fenton/traitement biologique pour une élimination effective des polluants médicamenteux furosémide et ranitidine. Les résultats obtenus confirment l'efficacité de ces technologies électrochimiques pour la minéralisation quasi-totale des produits pharmaceutiques étudiés. En outre, l'utilisation du pré-traitement par EF suivi d'un procédé biologique confirme la capacité de l'EF de transformer les polluants organiques en produits biodégradables qui peuvent être consommés par des microorganismes lors d'un traitement biologique, démontrant ainsi l'applicabilité potentiel de cette technique combinée, en termes d'une consommation énergétique réduite. L'identification des produits de transformation (PTs) des pharmaceutiques étudiés par voie électrochimique (électro-oxydation) et biologique (bioconversion) a été effectuée par différentes techniques d'analyse physico-chimiques. La biotransformation du FRSM a conduit à la formation de trois PT principales; saluamide, pyridinium et un dérivé céto-alcool. Les deux premiers ont aussi été détectés lors du traitement électrochimique, ce qui suggère la probabilité de les trouver dans l'environnement comme les produits de transformation les plus plausibles par des différentes conditions de dégradation. Les tests de toxicité basés sur l'inhibition de la bioluminescence des bactéries marines Vibrio fischeri ont montré que certains PT formés lors de traitement électrochimiques sont plus toxique que la molécule mère, car une augmentation de la toxicité globale de la solution a été observée au début des électrolyses. Néanmoins, la toxicité de la solution est complètement éliminée à la fin des traitements électrochimiques, ce qui indique l'efficacité de ces technologies aussi pour la détoxification des solutions des médicaments traités. Par conséquent, cette étude constitue une contribution importante à l'évaluation des risques environnementaux des produits pharmaceutiques / The present project contributes with valuable data for a better fundamental understanding on the fate of pharmaceutical residues in the environment, dealing with the main challenges concerning this increasingly worrying environmental issue. The used Electrochemical Advanced Oxidation Processes (EAOPs), electro-Fenton (EF) and anodic oxidation (AO), showed to be a very efficient alternative for the mineralization of acid solutions of the pharmaceuticals RNTD and FRSM, attaining almost complete mineralization of the drugs after 6h of electrolysis. A comparative study on the mineralization of RNTD solutions by EF and SPEF processes in a 2.5 L capacity pre-pilot flow plant demonstrates the higher oxidation capacity of SPEF, achieving very good mineralization rates, thus evidencing the potentiality of this technology at greater scale for the treatment of wastewaters containing pharmaceutical products. The application of an EF pre-treatment coupled with a biological process for the degradation of both drugs was conducted. EF pre-pretreatment was capable of enhancing the solution biodegradability envisaging a biological treatment, which efficiently removed the short-chain carboxylic acids that had been formerly generated during the pre-applied electrolysis. In this way, the combination of both processes was confirmed as a very promising technology for the treatment of pharmaceuticals-containing wastewater. Several transformation products (TPs) were detected and identified during the electrochemical oxidation of the studied drugs. Toxicity tests based on the bioluminescence of the marine bacteria V. fischeri. evidenced the toxicity some of these oxidation by-products, since the toxicity of the solution increased on the first stages of the electrolysis. However, the abatement of the toxicity in the final stages of the electrochemical treatments, demonstrated the effectiveness of these technologies for both the mineralization and detoxification of the RNTD and FRSM solutions. The use of the fungi Cunninghanella echinulate for the bioconversion of FRSM led to the formation of three main bio-transofrmation products: the previously identified saluamide and pyridinium, and the new detected keto-alcohol derivate. These TPs were generated by both, biological and electrochemical approches, evidencing their high probability to be found in environmental compartments as the most likely TPs of FRSM by different oxidation conditions. This study is thus presented as a very useful alternative for the assessment of the fate of pharmaceutical residues in the environment

Historically, students with intellectual disabilities (ID) have low reading comprehension skills that can impede their overall academic success. There is a gap in practice regarding the identification and effective use of evidence-based reading comprehension instructional strategies for students with ID. Guided by Piaget's and Vygotsky's constructivist theories, the purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a metacognitive reading strategy on the emerging reading comprehension (ERC) skills of kindergarten students with ID. A single-participant, multiple baseline design with graphical visual analysis was used across 4 kindergarten students with ID to illustrate the influence of the reading intervention. All 4 kindergarten students showed increases in their ERC skills after the completion of the intervention. An effect-size statistic was calculated to measure the improvement in percentage rate of correct responses between each participant's baseline and intervention phase. The effect-size results indicated a 60% to 80% improvement rate difference. Therefore, for these kindergartners, the metacognitive reading strategy significantly increased the ERC skills of the participants. The implications for social change include providing teachers with effective metacognitive instructional strategies for ERC skills and for improving ERC skills among students with ID, thus, allowing ID students greater opportunity to benefit from curriculum and instruction over time.

"In From Eden to Dystopia: An Ecocritical Examination of Emergent Mythologies" "in Early Los Angeles Literary Texts, ecocriticism and critical regionalism were utilized" "alongside other American Studies practices to analyze nineteenth- and early-twentieth-" "century depictions of nature in Los Angeles. Specifically, these tools were applied to" "travel guides and narratives of the 1870s and 1880s, the turn-of-the-century magazine" "The Land of Sunshine, Upton Sinclair’s Oil! (1926) and Raymond Chandler’s The Big" "Sleep (1939), and other non-fiction publications of the 1920s and ’30s to track an" "evolving narrative of Los Angeles as a paradise and later as a place perched on the edge" "of ecological ruin. Key themes included nature as aesthetic or health-related amenity vs." "exploitable resource, along with both subtle and overt class- and race-based" "environmental exclusions. The chief aim of this thesis was to elucidate how Los Angeles" "went from a “new Eden for the Saxon home-seeker” to the place where its river was" "paved with cement and virtually forgotten for decades. This thesis concluded that with" "the Los Angeles River’s recent revitalization efforts, there could be future gains made for" "other aspects of the city’s environment, with the hope that uncovering past idea-shaping" "narratives of nature in Los Angeles may help illuminate how current ideas of Los" "Angeles as a place without nature came to be and how that city-versus-nature dichotomy" "can be both damaging and false."

Our understanding of how the world works is shaped through countless interactions with things in it. These interactions are our first exposure to science. Through them, we learn that heavy things are hard to push and books do not fall through tables. Our interactions are also shaped by the rules of the groups to which we belong (e.g., families, religious organizations, athletic teams). These rules lead us to accept that some things cannot or should not be done, limiting our interactions with the world. At the same time, these rules change our appreciation for what we do experience. Prior research has focused largely on the separate influences of either physical interactions or social interactions, leaving (relatively) unexplored their combined effects. In this dissertation, I describe how adults understand science related to their long-term participation in a recreational road bicycling group. The cyclists demonstrated a rich understanding of gearing and air resistance that paralleled, on a practical level, the explanations taught in school. This understanding was shaped by the cyclists’ years of physical experience interpreted in light of their individual goals for participating. For the cyclists in this study, knowing the science helped them be more efficient and faster riders. In the end, this study supports the idea that productive and valuable learning takes place in many settings and that it is important to account for the relationship between the social and physical aspects of learning when designing instructional experiences.