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This research evaluates the post-program treatment effects of the Southwest Poverty Reduction Project (SWPRP), a large-scale ($463.55 million) rural development project jointly funded by the World Bank and the Chinese Government from 1995 to 2001. The SWPRP aimed at reducing poverty and increasing living standards for the absolute poor in southwest China. The treatment effects are measured by the changes in 21 indicators at the village level. The dataset for this research includes 327 project villages and 3887 non-project villages in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Rigorous econometric methods are employed to remove selection bias. A probit model is established to investigate the selection rule of the project villages. In addition to the control function approach, different methods of propensity score matching such as nearest neighbor, caliper or radius, and kernel-based matching, are used to estimate the treatment effects, including the average treatment effect, average treatment effect on the treated, and average treatment effect on the untreated.The evidence from the treatment effect estimations shows that the SWPRP achieved its overall objective but not necessarily all specific objectives. The evidence supports a statement of significant impacts on farming, offarm employment, and infrastructure by the project investments, while there is no strong evidence to support a conclusion of significant impacts on primary education and rural healthcare services. The poverty rate in the project villages was reduced by about 3.0-3.3 percent and net income increased by about 24-26 Yuan. Further investigation of the specific treatment effects on individual villages expose that the treatment effects vary with land resources in the villages. Lastly, the project was successful in targeting the poorer villages but not necessarily the poorest.This research also reveals some findings of practical relevance for social program design. The approach of integrated policies proves to be effective in large-scale poverty reduction. However, designers should be aware that households may trade off one activity against another to maximize their utility rather than simply follow the whole package of integrated activities. In addition, the minimization of operational costs of the project agents should not be detrimental to the effectiveness of the project.

An important part of almost every student‟s high school experience is participation in an extracurricular activity. Many schools encourage their students to participate in these voluntary activities because they build skills that may not be taught in the classroom, but may be important in becoming successful in school and in the community. Extracurricular activities put students in leadership positions, teach them team work, and can instill a confidence in their abilities. Previous research has shown that participation in extracurricular activities in high school can affect labor market conditions and educational achievements, but few studies have differentiated the impacts of different types of extracurricular activities on earnings and educational attainment. This paper examines the academic and labor market effects of participating in a performing arts activity in high school. The arts are of particular interest because the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 lists it as a core academic course. The core courses are believed to increase the academic attainment of students, and are eligible for increased federal funding based on “scientifically-based research” (Arts Education Partnership, 2005; Arts Education Partnership, 2006, p. 4). A major problem in program evaluation is the possibility of selection bias due to the non-randomized way individuals self-select into activities. To reduce the bias, a treatment effects model is estimated using the covariate matching technique. I use the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) to test my hypotheses.

Finite-Difference (FD) based complex modes solver and Complex Mode Matching Method (CMMM) is one of the most popular combinations in modeling and simulation of opti- cal waveguides. This thesis covers the basic theories behind the approaches and impor- tant implementation details. Weighted Optical Path Distance is proposed to speed up convergence and improve numerical accuracy to deal with asymmetric structures. An improved formula is derived for Complex Mode Matching Method expansion process based on matrix optimization. The latter part applies the above approach in the mod- eling of bending structures and grating structures. Typical structures, including bend- ing structures, straight-bend-straight structures, long-period gratings, gratings with de- posited layer, gratings with deep corrugations, are investigated and analyzed. / Thesis / Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering (MSECE)

This study focuses on creating a spectral matching algorithm that modifies the real strong ground motions in the time domain by adding wavelets adjustment to the acceleration time series. The spectral matching procedure is at its core a nonlinear problem, thus a nonlinear solving method was employed in the proposed algorithm. The Broyden updating method was selected as the nonlinear solving method because it does not require a differentiation analysis. The Broyden updating also makes use the information of spectral misfit and wavelet magnitudes vector to approximate the Jacobian matrix which expected to give an efficient calculation. A parametric study was numerically conducted to obtain a set of gain factors that reduce the computational time and minimize the spectra misfit. The study was conducted using ten different ground motions, taken from FEMA P-695 (FEMA, 2009), which represent far field, near field-pulse and near field-no pulse earthquake ground motions. A study of compatible wavelet functions was carried out to determine the appropriate wavelet function for the proposed method. The study include the baseline drift, the frequency and time resolution, and the cross correlation between wavelet adjustments during the spectra matching procedure. Based on this study, the corrected tapered cosine wavelet was selected to be used in the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm has been tested and compared with other methods that are commonly used in spectral matching; the RSPMatch method and the frequency domain method. The comparing parameters were the computational time, the average misfit, the maximum misfit and error, the PGA, PGV, PGD, the Arias Intensity and the frequency content for both acceleration and displacement time histories. The result showed that the proposed method is able to match the target while preserving the energy development and the frequency content of the original time histories. / Master of Science

A set S of vertices in a graph G is a paired dominating set if every vertex of G is adjacent to a vertex in S and the subgraph induced by S contains a perfect matching (not necessarily as an induced subgraph). The minimum cardinality of a paired dominating set of G is the paired domination number of G. This chapter presents a survey of the major results on paired domination with an emphasis on bounds for the paired domination number.

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