This thesis consists of four self-contained papers related to the Nordic electricity market. Paper [I] examine how the reform of the Nordic electricity markets has affected competition in the electric power supply market, Nord Pool. The question is if the common power market has been competitive or if electric power generators have had market power during the period 1996 -2004. Moreover, since there was a stepwise evolution from national markets to a multinational power market, we also ask how the degree of market power has evolved during this integration process. The results show that electric power generators have had a small, but statistically significant, degree of market power during the whole period.  However, studying the integration effect, i.e. how the market power has been affected by additional countries joining Nord Pool, it show that the degree of market power has been reduced and finally vanished as the market has expanded and more countries joined the collaboration. Paper [II] analyse how the deregulation of the Swedish electricity market has affected the price of electric power and how the change in electric power price, in turn, has affected consumers’ welfare. The result shows that the change in pricing principle of electric power following the deregulation has increased consumer welfare over the period studied (1996-2006), with welfare gains about 100 SEK per customer per year, indicating a three per cent welfare gain for the average customer. Paper [III] study whether (and to what extent) the multinational electricity market integration has affected the price dynamics at the Nordic power exchange. The results shows that a larger electricity market seems to reduce the probability of sudden price jumps, but also that the effect on volatility seem to depend on the characteristics, i.e. production structure, of the integrated markets. In Paper [IV] a two-stage study is conducted to investigate the extent to which shocks in the demand and supply for electricity translate into price jumps, and the extent to which this process is affected by the prevailing market structure. The main findings from the study is that whether demand and supply shocks translate into price jumps largely depends on the prevailing market structure, i.e. on how far the market works from capacity constraints. A notable feature of the empirical analysis is also that the marginal effects from positive demand and negative supply shocks on the jump probabilities are mostly insignificant and of small magnitude.

In the limit we analyze the generators of families of reversible jump processes in the n-dimensional space associated with a class of symmetric non-local Dirichlet forms and show exponential decay of the eigenfunctions. The exponential rate function is a Finsler distance, given as solution of certain eikonal equation. Fine results are sensitive to the rate functions being twice differentiable or just Lipschitz. Our estimates are similar to the semiclassical Agmon estimates for differential operators of second order. They generalize and strengthen previous results on the lattice.

This thesis includes three chapters on electricity and natural gas prices. In the first chapter, we give a brief introduction to the characteristics of power prices and propose a mean reversion jump diffusion model, in which jump intensity depends on temperature data and overall system load, to model electricity prices. Compared to the models used in the literature, we find the model proposed in this chapter is better to capture the tail behavior in the electricity prices. In the second chapter, we use the model proposed in the first chapter to simulate the spark spread option and value the power generations. In order to simulate power generation, we first propose and estimate mean reversion jump diffusion model for natural gas prices, in which jump intensity is defined as a function of temperature and storage. Combing the model with the electricity models in chapter 1, we find that the value of power generation is closer to the real value of the power plants as reflected in the recent market transaction than one obtains from many other models used in literature. The third chapter investigates extremal dependence among the energy market. We find a tail dependence that exceeds the Pearson correlation ρ, which means the traditional Pearson correlation is not appropriate to model tail behavior of oil, natural gas and electricity prices. However, asymptotic dependence is rejected in all pairs except Henry Hub gas return and Houston Ship Channel gas return. We also find that extreme value dependence in energy market is stronger in bull market than that in bear market due to the special characteristics in energy market, which conflicts the accepted wisdom in equity market that tail correlation is much higher in periods of volatile markets from previous literature.

Vertical jumping ability is an important fundamental skill for many athletic activities. The present work is focused on developing an understanding of the role of various movement strategies on vertical jump performance. The overall objective of this study was to determine if higher hip than knee joint contribution was more effective in enhancing vertical jump height. Additionally, the study explored possible links between the muscle activity and mechanical outputs, and to develop understanding of the role of the lumbar spine and hip. Twenty male university varsity athletes performed ten repetitions of three jumping strategies: preferred, hip dominant and knee dominant. Kinematics, kinetics and muscle activity of the lower limb and trunk were collected. The main observation was that the vertical jump height was positively associated with higher hip than knee work done. However, the within-subject comparisons between the trained hip and knee dominant tasks did not provide additional support for the importance of the hip. Higher hip work appeared associated with greater biceps femoris than gluteus maximus activity. The knee work increased with higher activity of the vastus lateralis and rectus femoris. Finally, higher trunk muscle activity and tighter coupling were associated with the vertical jump height and the max force. This study provides some evidence that encouraging hip dominance together with higher spine stiffness may improve two-foot vertical jump performance. This work has potential implications for training protocols that may be used to improve vertical jump performance.

Digital options, the basic building blocks for valuing complex financial assets, they play an important role in options valuation and hedging. We survey the digital options pricing formula under diffusion processes and jump-diffusion processes. Since the existent first-touch digital options pricing formulas with jump-diffusion processes are all in their Laplace transform of the option value. To inverse the Laplace transforms is critical when doing options valuation. Therefore, we adopt a phase-type jump-diffusion model which is developed by Chen, Lee and Sheu [2007] as our main model, and use FFT inversion to get the first-touch digital option price under (2,2)-factor exponential jump-diffusion processes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the information content in a trading, confirm the relationship between information-trading probability (PIN) and asset returns, and apply PIN to construct an investing strategy on a point of uninformed trader¡¦s view. I develop a decision marking model about trading decision between under order-driven market which is combined on the decision tree of the concept of D. Easley et al. (1997) and Merton (1976) jump diffusion model for modifying the PIN model to apply to order-driven market. As a result, the daily PIN were positive relatively with return, and the investing strategy which was based my model could make profit significantly in the sample period at TWSE in 2003, this investing strategy can earn profit in down and up market condition both. This result supports that hedging against information asymmetric risk is potential.

The 2008 measurement of the electron magnetic moment is the most precisely measured property of an elementary particle, with an astonishing precision of 0.28 parts per trillion. It makes possible the most precise determination of the fine structure constant and the most precise test of quantum electrodynamics and the Standard Model of particle physics. This thesis describes the installation of a new apparatus designed to have improved stability, more optimal control over the radiation field and inhibited spontaneous emission, and narrower resonance lines. / Physics

Vertical jumping ability is an important fundamental skill for many athletic activities. The present work is focused on developing an understanding of the role of various movement strategies on vertical jump performance. The overall objective of this study was to determine if higher hip than knee joint contribution was more effective in enhancing vertical jump height. Additionally, the study explored possible links between the muscle activity and mechanical outputs, and to develop understanding of the role of the lumbar spine and hip. Twenty male university varsity athletes performed ten repetitions of three jumping strategies: preferred, hip dominant and knee dominant. Kinematics, kinetics and muscle activity of the lower limb and trunk were collected. The main observation was that the vertical jump height was positively associated with higher hip than knee work done. However, the within-subject comparisons between the trained hip and knee dominant tasks did not provide additional support for the importance of the hip. Higher hip work appeared associated with greater biceps femoris than gluteus maximus activity. The knee work increased with higher activity of the vastus lateralis and rectus femoris. Finally, higher trunk muscle activity and tighter coupling were associated with the vertical jump height and the max force. This study provides some evidence that encouraging hip dominance together with higher spine stiffness may improve two-foot vertical jump performance. This work has potential implications for training protocols that may be used to improve vertical jump performance.

Determining if an athlete, who has had Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) surgery, is ready to return to sport is a difficult clinical decision, partially due to the lack of standardized evaluation protocols. Since there is a risk of re-injury post-surgery, medical teams need to be cautious. However, athletes who are perceived to be ready to return to sport do not necessarily do so. Some leave sport altogether while others return to a lower competition level. As psychological thoughts and emotions are relevant to athletes’ injury experiences, a psychological component, such as sport confidence, needs to be thoughtfully considered during the return to sport process. Our objectives were to develop the relationship between drop vertical jump (DVJ) performance and physical attributes in young healthy adults and to then apply this relationship to ACL participants. Another objective was to see if the relationship is improved by including confidence (determined from a survey). It was hypothesized that including confidence will predict the ACL participants’ DVJ performance more precisely. Thirty-five participants were in the control group with thirteen participants in the ACL group. All were recreationally active and all had the following anthropometric and performance measurements recorded: height, weight, calf and thigh girth, knee angle, leg dominance, percent body fat, skeletal muscle mass, anaerobic power, balance, and drop vertical jump height. The ACL group also completed a confidence survey. Regression analyses were performed. The results showed that anaerobic power and relative skeletal muscle mass were significant predictors of DVJ performance; however, DVJ performance could not be predicted precisely. The analysis was also carried out by gender. No significant predictors for male’s DVJ performance were found while the significant predictors for female’s DVJ performance were weight, power and knee extension angle. Once again, DVJ performance could not be precisely predicted. On the other hand, results showed that power could be more precisely predicted by body weight than could DVJ performance. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2009-08-19 16:08:52.13

Processes having the same bridges as a given reference Markov process constitute its reciprocal class. In this paper we study the reciprocal class of compound Poisson processes whose jumps belong to a finite set A in R^d. We propose a characterization of the reciprocal class as the unique set of probability measures on which a family of time and space transformations induces the same density, expressed in terms of the reciprocal invariants. The geometry of A plays a crucial role in the design of the transformations, and we use tools from discrete geometry to obtain an optimal characterization. We deduce explicit conditions for two Markov jump processes to belong to the same class. Finally, we provide a natural interpretation of the invariants as short-time asymptotics for the probability that the reference process makes a cycle around its current state.