An electricity market is very complex and different in its nature, when compared to other commodity markets. The introduction of competition and restructuring in global electricity markets brought more complexity and major changes in terms of governance, ownership and technical and market operations. In a liberalized electricity market, all market participants are responsible for their own decisions; therefore, all the participants are trying to make profit by participating in electricity trading. There are different types of electricity market, and in this research a bilateral electricity market has been specifically considered. This thesis not only contributes with regard to the reviewing UK electricity market as an example of a bilateral electricity market with more than 97% of long-term bilateral trading, but also proposes a dual aspect point of view with regard to the bilateral electricity market by splitting the generation and supply sides of the wholesale market. This research aims at maximizing the market participants’ profits and finds the equilibrium point of the bilateral market; hence, various methods such as equilibrium models have been reviewed with regard to management of the risks (e.g. technical and financial risks) of participating in the electricity market. This research proposes a novel Conjectural Variation Equilibrium (CVE) model for bilateral electricity markets, to reduce the market participants’ exposure to risks and maximize the profits. Hence, generation companies’ behaviors and strategies in an imperfect bilateral market environment, oligopoly, have been investigated by applying the CVE method. By looking at the bilateral market from an alternative aspect, the supply companies’ behaviors in an oligopsony environment have also been taken into consideration. At the final stage of this research, the ‘matching’ of both quantity and price between oligopolistic and oligopsonistic markets has been obtained through a novel-coordinating algorithm that includes CVE model iterations of both markets. Such matching can be achieved by adopting a hierarchical optimization approach, using the Matlab Patternsearch optimization algorithm, which acts as a virtual broker to find the equilibrium point of both markets. Index Terms-- Bilateral electricity market, Oligopolistic market, Oligopsonistic market, Conjectural Variation Equilibrium method, Patternsearch optimization, Game theory, Hierarchical optimization method

Background. Handball is a fast paced sport, with high velocity movements performed in a predominantly unilateral plane. In order to make training as specific as possible to on court movements, resistance training programmes should involve exercises that reflect the speed and stance of how they will be performed during gameplay however, working velocities are rarely prescribed due to the lack of research in the area. Aim. The aim of this study was (1) to determine the effect of three different training modes; unilateral high velocity (UHV), bilateral high velocity (BHV) and bilateral slow velocity (BSV) on vertical loaded and unloaded jumps, sprint, agility and balance. (2) To determine if any of these interventions had more of an effect when compared to each other. Methods. 29 women from four teams in the Swedish Elitserien participated in a 16-week intervention study. Teams were assigned to either UHV, who performed unilateral exercises with a high intended movement velocity, BHV, bilateral exercises at a high intended movement velocity, or BSV, who continued their regular bilateral slow velocity training. Power was assessed pre- and post-intervention by loaded vertical squat jump and countermovement jump (CMJ) both unilaterally and bilaterally. Performance assessments were conducted through 20m Sprints, agility T-test and Y-balance test. Effect sizes were calculated to determine the magnitude of differences from pre- to post-intervention in three training modes. One-way ANOVA determined if the group interactions were significant. Results. All three training modes increased their power output to varying levels and effect sizes. The UHV group demonstrated large effect sizes for all improvements in power output, whilst the BHV and BSV groups ranged from trivial to large. UHV got significantly faster at reaching time to peak velocity in unilateral and bilateral measures compared to both BHV and BSV (p=<0.05). Conclusion. The results suggest that a 16-week resistance training intervention regardless of stance improves power however to varying magnitudes. The high velocity groups showed greater improvements in measures of power and performance. This study suggests that resistance training at a high intended movement velocity may be beneficial for improving power and performance in elite women’s handball players.

This thesis seeks to evaluate the progress of regional community building in Southeast Asia, which has been undertaken by the Association of Southeast Asians (ASEAN). The thesis analyses the extent to which there has been a shift from policies and processes associated with “old regionalism” (state-security-economic centred regionalism) towards those which are associated with “new regionalism” and a regional community (the widening of regionalism to non-state actors, and expansion of regional cooperation into new areas, and regional solidarity). The first half of the thesis demonstrates the persistence of “old regionalism,” based on a tendency to differentiate others as an external security threat in Thailand's bilateral relations. This tendency is driven by a deeply embedded historical legacy of differentiation, which is pursued by state actors for domestic political interests, as well as on-going bilateral disputes, and a militarised border. The second half of the thesis tests the significance of “new regionalism,” based on three case studies on civil society participation in regional community building. These case studies demonstrate how “new regionalism” is significant in form, rather than in substance, and how progress in community building is mainly driven by the more democratic ASEAN member states. Visible progress in community building includes the emergence of ASEAN-CSO meetings, an ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), and a transnational civil society network (TCSN), which is increasing society's regional awareness and society's participation in regionalism. However, substantive progress is lacking, due to the region's political diversity and the prioritization of regional unity over the realization of a people-oriented ASEAN Community. Thus, ASEAN community building is empty in substance, due to the continuation of politically motivated differentiation and border insecurity, symbolic meetings between states and CSOs, a powerless regional human rights body, and the remaining gap between regional declarations and policy implementation.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Educação Física, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Física, 2018. / Introdução: As pessoas com a doença de Parkinson geralmente possuem um maior acometimento em um lado do corpo. Hipotetiza-se que o treinamento resistido unilateral possa provocar mudanças no controle motor e na força no lado mais afetado pela doença, quando comparado ao treinamento resistido bilateral. Objetivo: Verificar os efeitos dos treinamentos resistidos unilateral versus bilateral no controle motor e na força em indivíduos com a DP. Materiais e Métodos: A amostra foi composta por 17 indivíduos diagnosticados com a DP, divididos de forma aleatória, em grupo de treinamento unilateral [(GTU), n = 9] e grupo de treinamento bilateral [(GTB), n = 8]. Foram realizadas 24 sessões de treinamento resistido. As seis primeiras sessões de treino foram voltadas à familiarização do treinamento. Antes (T0), durante (T12) e após (T24) a intervenção foram coletados dados do controle motor fino, utilizando-se os testes Nine-Hole Peg e o Box and Blocks; dados da força de membros superiores por meio do dinamômetro de preensão palmar e da força de membros inferiores por meio do dinamômetro isocinético, todos os testes foram feitos unilateralmente. Para a análise estatística dos dados foi utilizado uma ANOVA de Friedman [3 (TEMPO) x 4 (GRUPO)] bem como os testes de Mann-Whitney U e Wilcoxon. Resultados: O pico de torque a 60°/s do lado direito no momento T12, no GTU foi significativamente maior que no GTB. O pico de torque do lado direito foi significativamente menor no momento T24 em relação aos momentos T12 e T0 no GTU. Conclusão: O TR unilateral a curto prazo não se mostrou eficiente para provocar mudanças no controle motor e na força no membro mais acometido pela doença por meio do cross-education e nem diminuiu o déficit bilateral.

The first generation of agricultural crops developed using biotechnology have offered the primary producers of the crops agronomic benefits. Some consumers have resisted accepting this technology because of concerns with food and environmental safety, and ethical issues that arise from the processes that are involved in developing these products. The second and third generation of agricultural biotechnology are being developed to offer products with direct benefits to consumers. The focus of this thesis is the second generation, which have added health benefits. Specifically, the obstacles to commercialization of functional foods derived through biotechnology are examined. The three factors which have the potential to set back commercial introduction of functional foods derived through biotechnology are government regulatory uncertainty, consumer aversion and brand risk, and gaining access to intellectual property. The regulations governing functional foods are examined to show the regulatory ambiguity that exists in Canada. Comparisons are drawn to other nations. Literature that focuses on consumer aversion to agricultural biotechnology is reviewed, along with consumer preference studies with regards to genetically modified (GM) foods with and without health benefits. Transaction cost economics literature is used to analyse the problems related to gaining access to intellectual property and the resulting supply chain implications. Three separate theoretical models are developed to examine each of the three factors separately. Government regulatory uncertainty is incorporated into an expected profit model to show the effects of increased uncertainty on the expected profit from a new technology. A heterogeneous consumer preference model is used to show the effects of changing consumer preferences on the market share of the firm introducing the GM functional food to the market. Simulation analysis using this model shows the effects of changing variables on the market shares of three products in the market. Finally a stylized model of the vertical market shows the effects of increased transaction costs incurred in gaining access to intellectual property on the rent that is available for distribution throughout the supply chain. The results show that these factors could be an obstacle to commercial development of functional foods derived through biotechnology. When the three factors are combined, the rent available for distribution is important for the success of the supply chain. Multiple bilateral monopoly negotiations cause this rent to be less than optimal. Increased levels of government regulatory uncertainty, consumer aversion and brand risk, and costs gaining of access to intellectual property decrease the expected rent available for distribution. This could be a problem facing developers of functional foods derived through biotechnology.

Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is commonly considered a powerful sensor to detect sea ice. Unfortunately, the sea-ice types in SAR images are difficult to be interpreted due to speckle noise. SAR image denoising therefore becomes a critical step of SAR sea-ice image processing and analysis. In this study, a two-phase approach is designed and implemented for SAR sea-ice image segmentation. In the first phase, a Gamma-based bilateral filter is introduced and applied for SAR image denoising in the local domain. It not only perfectly inherits the conventional bilateral filter with the capacity of smoothing SAR sea-ice imagery while preserving edges, but also enhances it based on the homogeneity in local areas and Gamma distribution of speckle noise. The Gamma-based bilateral filter outperforms other widely used filters, such as Frost filter and the conventional bilateral filter. In the second phase, the K-means clustering algorithm, whose initial centroids are optimized, is adopted in order to obtain better segmentation results. The proposed approach is tested using both simulated and real SAR images, compared with several existing algorithms including K-means, K-means based on the Frost filtered images, and K-means based on the conventional bilateral filtered images. The F1 scores of the simulated results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach whose overall accuracies maintain higher than 90% as variances of noise range from 0.1 to 0.5. For the real SAR images, the proposed approach outperforms others with average overall accuracy of 95%.

This thesis aims to investigate the trade intensity between the Baltic States and the Nordic countries over a period of 14 years. The bilateral exports of 42 European countries are explored with the focus on the Baltic-Nordic trade. Since many previous studies provided support for the strong relationship between the Baltic States and the Nordic countries, this thesis aims to explore this relationship over time. The Baltic States after their independence, shifted their trade to the Western economies, including Nordic countries. The results reveal that the magnitude of the trade intensity between these two regions have become more important and is higher than expected. Furthermore, it is accounted for commodities of different values traded between the Baltic States and the Nordic countries by introducing dummy variables. It has been shown that the value of commodities is not very important in the Baltic-Nordic trade and therefore there is no trend over time.

The first generation of agricultural crops developed using biotechnology have offered the primary producers of the crops agronomic benefits. Some consumers have resisted accepting this technology because of concerns with food and environmental safety, and ethical issues that arise from the processes that are involved in developing these products. The second and third generation of agricultural biotechnology are being developed to offer products with direct benefits to consumers. The focus of this thesis is the second generation, which have added health benefits. Specifically, the obstacles to commercialization of functional foods derived through biotechnology are examined. The three factors which have the potential to set back commercial introduction of functional foods derived through biotechnology are government regulatory uncertainty, consumer aversion and brand risk, and gaining access to intellectual property. The regulations governing functional foods are examined to show the regulatory ambiguity that exists in Canada. Comparisons are drawn to other nations. Literature that focuses on consumer aversion to agricultural biotechnology is reviewed, along with consumer preference studies with regards to genetically modified (GM) foods with and without health benefits. Transaction cost economics literature is used to analyse the problems related to gaining access to intellectual property and the resulting supply chain implications. Three separate theoretical models are developed to examine each of the three factors separately. Government regulatory uncertainty is incorporated into an expected profit model to show the effects of increased uncertainty on the expected profit from a new technology. A heterogeneous consumer preference model is used to show the effects of changing consumer preferences on the market share of the firm introducing the GM functional food to the market. Simulation analysis using this model shows the effects of changing variables on the market shares of three products in the market. Finally a stylized model of the vertical market shows the effects of increased transaction costs incurred in gaining access to intellectual property on the rent that is available for distribution throughout the supply chain. The results show that these factors could be an obstacle to commercial development of functional foods derived through biotechnology. When the three factors are combined, the rent available for distribution is important for the success of the supply chain. Multiple bilateral monopoly negotiations cause this rent to be less than optimal. Increased levels of government regulatory uncertainty, consumer aversion and brand risk, and costs gaining of access to intellectual property decrease the expected rent available for distribution. This could be a problem facing developers of functional foods derived through biotechnology.

This study explores the impact of economic downturn in the EU-27 on Syrian trade and the sensitivity of oil and petroleum products to this downturn. This is carried out using a derivation of the gravity model to determine the export demand. Syrian export with its top 30 trading partners as well as the EU-27 are taken into consideration along with various other trade determinants when measuring the changes in total export volume. The study finds that EU-27 is an important source of demand for Syria, but a downturn in the EU economy will not necessarily have a detrimental effect on Syrian economy. On the other hand, oil plays a far more important role on the country’s exports and its demand is less sensitive to economic fluctuations.

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