Tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti didelio meistriškumo jaunimo grupių ir elito slidininkių varžybų krūvio apimtį, struktūrinę sudėtį, specifiškumą iki pagrindinių sezono varžybų ir nustatyti varžybinės veiklos taktinius ypatumus, rezultatyvumą, amžiaus rodiklius ir jų sąsają su sportiniais rezultatais pasaulio slidinėjimo čempionate ir Pasaulio slidinėjimo taurės varžybose. Tyrimo objektas – didelio meistriškumo jaunimo grupių (iki 20 metų ir iki 23 metų grupės) slidininkių ir elito slidininkių (užimančių 1–10 vietas pasaulio čempionate, Pasaulio slidinėjimo taurės varžybose) dalyvavimo varžybose sistemos ypatumai, varžybinė veikla ir jos rezultatyvumas, veiksniai, turintys įtakos varžybinės veiklos rezultatyvumui. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti jaunimo grupės (iki 23 metų) slidininkių varžybinės veiklos apimtį, struktūrinę sudėtį ir specifiškumą per slidinėjimo sezoną iki startų pasaulio jaunimo čempionate. 2. Ištirti didelio meistriškumo slidininkių varžybinę veiklą per 2008/2009 m. sezoną iki pasaulio slidinėjimo čempionato Liberece. 3. Išnagrinėti didelio meistriškumo slidininkių nuotolių įveikimo taktiką pasaulio slidinėjimo čempionate. 4. Nustatyti didelio meistriškumo slidininkių sportinių rezultatų ir amžiaus sąsają. 5. Išnagrinėti Lietuvos rinktinės slidininkių varžybinės veiklos rodiklius pasaulio jaunimo ir suaugusiųjų čempionate. Tyrimo rezultatai. Tyrimo rezultatai leidžia teigti, kad jaunimo ir elito grupių slidininkių rengimas vyksta trimis kryptimis: rengimas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Research aim was to establish the scope, structural components and specificity of the contest loads of high-mastery youth group and elite female skiers before the main contest of the season, and to reveal the tactical peculiarities of contest activities, resultativity, age indices and their links with sports results in the World skiing championship and World Cup Skiing Competition. Research object was the peculiarities of the system of participation in the contest activities of high-mastery youth group (up to 20 years and up to 23 years of age) female skiers and elite female skiers (having taken the 1st – 10th places in the World championship, World Cup Skiing Championship), their contest activities and resultativity, and factors influencing the resultativity of contest activities. Research objectives: 1. To establish the scope, structural components and specificity of contest activities of youth group (up to 23 years of age) female skiers during the skiing season before the starts in the World Youth Skiing Championship. 2. To study the contest activities of elite female skiers during the season of 2008/2009 before the World Ski Championship in Liberec. 3. To analyze the tactics of covering distances of elite female skiers in the World Skiing Championship. 4. To establish the links between the sports results of elite female skiers and their age. 5. To analyze the indices of contest activities of Lithuanian national team elite female skiers in the World Youth and Adult... [to full text]

Since its inception in 1956, the EurovisionSong Contest has been a stage for national representation and an opportunityfor countries to brand themselves. The 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku,Azerbaijan is a prime example of nation branding, both for the host country aswell as the participating countries. Hosting the event gives a country the opportunity to present a specific nation brand, but there are other opportunities for those countries which only have a three-minute time-frame for their performance in presenting a national image. These performances are themain subject of this thesis, which main question is: How do nation-states use the Eurovision Song Contest as a means of nation branding?            To answer this question, I use three sub-questions. First, I focus on the concept of identity: how does musical performance represent national and European identity in the context of the Eurovision Song Contest? Secondly, I study the translation of national identity into an image that should appeal to all of Europe, by creating a specific nation brand: how do nations use nation branding through culture as a tool to build an appealing image within the context of Eurovision? Lastly, I study the performance of these nation brands in specific cases during the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest: how is a nation-branded image performed in the Eurovision Song Contest?             The first two chapters of my thesis consist of an analysis of literature on identity and nation branding in combination with national representation in Eurovision. My third and last chapter consists of performance analyses of 2012 participants, focusing on performances from Romania, Russia, Ukraine and Montenegro, which in 2012 were some of the richest performances in terms of symbolism concerningnational representation.

This dissertation contains two essays which examine the roles that individual incentives, competition, and information play in network formation. In the first essay, I examine a model in which two competing groups offer different allocation rules that may depend on the network of connections among the individuals that make up each group. I assume the existence of a single divisible good, such as a monetary prize, which will be divided amongst the members of the winning network. The probability of winning the prize will depend on the network sizes. I examine two well-known allocation rules: the Myerson value and the egalitarian rule. I prove existence of equilibria and characterize the properties of the two networks. The implications of the equilibria networks for the outcome of the contest are discussed. I find that the winning probability of the network using the Myerson value has an upper bound very close to one half. There is no such upper bound for the network using the egalitarian rule. In my second essay, I examine a dynamic model of network formation in which individuals use reinforcement learning to choose their actions. Typically, economic models of network formation assume the entire network structure to be known to all individuals involved. The introduction of reinforcement learning allows us to relax this assumption. Through the use of a state-dependent reinforcement learning rule, one may allow for varying degrees of information available to the agents. Three informational settings are examined and I determine what networks, if any, each model may converge to in the limit. The long-run behavior of each model is examined through the use of simulations and compared to one another. I find that amount and type of information agents have access plays an important role in which networks emerge when there is no dominant strategy for the agents choosing links. If there is a dominant link choosing strategy, the most efficient network structure quickly emerges in each informational setting. Together, these essays investigate how information, incentives, and competition may affect network formation. Individual incentives in the presence of competition can create tension between an individual's social ties and the overall network size. Information plays a key role in the emergent network topologies when there are no dominate network building strategies.

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