The feasibility of using optical sensors and non-nitrogen limiting reference crops to determine post-emergent nitrogen fertilizer requirements of canola was evaluated. Normalized difference vegetation index was well suited for estimating yield potential and nitrogen status. Although sensor-based nitrogen management was generally agronomically feasible for canola, the economic benefits of doing so remain uncertain because of the added cost of applying post-emergent nitrogen. / February 2008

This thesis explores the various discursive strategies that black women employ when they encounter street harassment from men. To investigate the ways in which these women choose to respond to men’s attention during social interactions, I examine their perception of social situations to understand how they view urban spaces and strangers within these spaces. Drawing on qualitative interviews that I conducted with 10 black women, I focus on how the unique convergence of this group’s racial and gender identities can expose them to sexist and racist street harassment. Thus, I argue that black women face street harassment as a result of gendered and racialized power asymmetries. I found that black women rely on a variety of discursive strategies, including speech and silence, to neutralize and negotiate these power asymmetries. They actively resist reproducing racialized and gendered sexual stereotypes of black women by refusing to talk back to men who harass. Understanding silence as indicative of black women’s agency, not oppression, remains a key finding in this research.

In practice today, pressure transient analysis (PTA) and production data analysis (PDA) are done separately and differently by different interpreters in different companies using different analysis techniques, different interpreter-dependent inputs, on pressure and production rate data from the same well, with different software packages. This has led to different analyses outputs and characterizations of the same reservoir. To avoid inconsistent results from different interpretations, this study presents a new way to integrate PTA and PDA on a single diagnostic plot to account for and see the early time and mid-time responses (from the transient tests) and late time (boundary affected/PSS) responses achievable with production analysis, on the same plot; thereby unifying short and long-term analyses and improving the reservoir characterization. The rate normalized pressure (RNP) technique was combined with conventional pressure buildup PTA technique. Data processing algorithms were formulated to improve plot presentation and a stepwise analysis procedure is presented to apply the new technique. The new technique is simple to use and the same conventional interpretation techniques as PTA apply. We have applied the technique to a simulated well case and two field cases. Finally, this new technique represents improvements over previous PDA methods and can help give a long term dynamic description of the well’s drainage area.

Compact fully anechoic chambers may gradually replace open area test sites as the preferred type of testing facility for the measurement of radiated emissions. This dissertation theoretically and experimentally investigates the suitability of a compact fully anechoic chamber with ferrite tiles being partially lined on the floor ground as a free-space environment at frequency range below 300MHz. The results show that, for vertical polarization, the practical chamber will behave like a free-space test site. However, for the horizontal polarization, it seems have relatively significant effect on the NSTL performance and will not behave well like a free-space test site. Based on FDTD modeling approach, a numerical tool with the measuring tunable dipole antennas being considered is established to simulate the NSTL performance of the compact EMC chamber with different layout design of ferrite tiles. Furthermore, several designs of reduced coverage of the ferrite tiles in the compact chamber are proposed and discussed. In addition, this dissertation also investigates the correlation test of a 3m fully anechoic chamber ¡]FAC¡^ and a 10m semi-anechoic chamber ¡]SAC¡^ at frequency range from 80MHz to 1000MHz. Based on correction factor between two test sites, the EMI behaviors of the EUT in a 10m SAC could be predicted rapidly at frequency from 200MHz to 900MHz. Thus, a 3m FAC has been expected to provide a low cost as a pre-compliance test site, if the predicted EMI behaviors of the EUT are close to the practical measured results in a 10m SAC.

In spite of the abundance of opening-mode fractures in the earth's upper crust, knowledge about their spatial arrangement remains limited. The spatial arrangement of fractures refers to the patterns of fracture positions in space. On one-dimensional analyses, fracture position can be obtained by combining fracture apertures, spacings, and their sequence along a one-dimensional scanline. Previous approaches failed to account for fracture position and fracture size, thus a new technique, normalized correlation count (NCC), was used to overcome these limitations. This technique was designed to distinguish random from non-random (fractal, inherited/imposed, periodically arranged fractures, or periodically arranged clusters) spatial arrangements of fractures. In addition, another method to quantify the attributes of microfractures in rock samples larger than a thin section was developed and used to quantify their spatial arrangements. NCC indicated that where statistically significant (non-random) clusters exist, large fractures are more clustered than small ones. Differential clustering according to fracture size was detected in data sets from different lithologies at outcrop and rock-sample scale, suggesting that this phenomenon is related to development of fracture systems as opposed to host rock lithology and scale. Fracture clusters with power-law variation of spatial correlation with length scale are not strictly natural fractals because clusters occur in cascades at discrete values of length scale and not in a continuous fashion. Some statistically significant clusters with a power-law of spatial correlation are formed by smaller clusters with a power-law of spatial correlation that are also periodically arranged. Fractures from the Cupido Fm. in the Monterrey salient were grouped in three categories based on their trace morphology, cement composition, and timing of fracture cements with respect to fracture opening. Fractures at outcrop scale in two of the categories exhibit low percentages of synkinematic cement and random arrangements, whereas fractures in the remaining category exhibit large amounts of synkinematic cement and periodically arranged clusters. An evolutionary model of fracture development based on subcritical propagation is proposed. This model suggests that mechanical layering increases during cluster development, explaining the non-random clustering within interclustering domains at outcrop scale and implies that cluster spacing increases with mechanical layering but decreases during evolution towards cluster saturation. / text

Our thesis was conducted through quantitative research on the validity of the Sharpe ratio as a performance measure in bear market conditions. Previous research had identified problems with mismatches in ranking due to Sharpe ratios rewarding unsystematic risk in funds. Alternative Sharpe  ratios have been developed to solve this problem; Scholz (2006) developed the Normalized  Sharpe ratio, which he argued to be a more valid performance measure in bear market conditions. We conducted a comparative analysis between rankings of the Sharpe ratio and Scholz Normalized Sharpe ratio to find out whether the Sharpe ratio provides mismatches in ranking due to rewarding unsystematic risk. The research was conducted on Swedish premium pension funds within the Swedish Pension system. We aimed to highlight the potential problems with interpreting the Sharpe ratio in bear market periods. Various models and theories was utilized to support our research question and attempt to link them to our quantitative analysis. The results from our analysis showed us that there were mismatches between the different ratios, additionally our findings provided support to previous researchers’ conclusions which stated that  the Sharpe ratio rewards unsystematic risk.

Šiame darbe atliekami stochastinių minimumų asimptotiniai tyrimai. Įrodomos minimumų ribinės teoremos tuo atveju, kai tiesinis normalizavimas neduoda neišsigimusių ribinių skirstinių, tokiu atveju taikau netiesinį minimumų normalizavimą. Konkretaus skirstinio atveju randamos netiesinės normalizavimo funkcijos, kurių pagalba yra gaunami minimumų klasikiniai ribiniai skirstiniai. Įrodoma Perkėlimo teorema netiesiniam normalizavimui. Darbo tikslai: • ištirti netiesinio normalizavimo reikalingumą; • išanalizuoti netiesinio normalizavimo galimybes minimumų schemoje. Darbo uždaviniai: • parinkti netiesinio normalizavimo funkciją konkretaus skirstinio atveju; • gauti ribinius klasikinius skirstinius, kai minimumai normalizuojami netiesiškai; • įvertinti konvergavimo greitį ribinėse teoremose; • atlikti aproksimavimo paklaidų kompiuterinę analizę. / This paper is the asymptotic analysis of stochastic minima. Proofs of minima limit theorems are provided for cases, when linear normalization does not give non-degenerate limit distributions. In this cases, non-linear minima normalization is used. For a specific distribution, non-linear normalization functions are calculated, which are then used to get classic limit distributions for minima. Objectives: • Examine the necessity of non-linear normalization; • Analyze the possibilities for non-linear normalization in minimum pattern. Tasks: • Choose non-linear normalization function for a specific distribution; • Get classic limit distributions, where minima are normalized non-linearly; • Investigate the rate of convergence within the limit theorems; • Perform computer-based analysis of approximation errors.

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The feasibility of using optical sensors and non-nitrogen limiting reference crops to determine post-emergent nitrogen fertilizer requirements of canola was evaluated. Normalized difference vegetation index was well suited for estimating yield potential and nitrogen status. Although sensor-based nitrogen management was generally agronomically feasible for canola, the economic benefits of doing so remain uncertain because of the added cost of applying post-emergent nitrogen.

The feasibility of using optical sensors and non-nitrogen limiting reference crops to determine post-emergent nitrogen fertilizer requirements of canola was evaluated. Normalized difference vegetation index was well suited for estimating yield potential and nitrogen status. Although sensor-based nitrogen management was generally agronomically feasible for canola, the economic benefits of doing so remain uncertain because of the added cost of applying post-emergent nitrogen.