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This thesis explored the opportunities to reduce energy demand and renewable energy feasibility at an off-grid science “community” called the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in Ontario. Being off-grid, ELA is completely dependent on diesel and propane fuel supply for all its electrical and heating needs, which makes ELA vulnerable to fluctuating fuel prices. As a result ELA emits a large amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) for its size. Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies can reduce energy consumption and consequently energy cost, as well as GHG. Energy efficiency was very important to ELA due to the elevated fuel costs at this remote location. Minor upgrades to lighting, equipment and building envelope were able to reduce energy costs and reduce load. Efficient energy saving measures were recommended that save on operating and maintenance costs, namely, changing to LED lights, replacing old equipment like refrigerators and downsizing of ice makers. This resulted in a 4.8% load reduction and subsequently reduced the initial capital cost for biomass by $27,000, by $49,500 for wind power and by $136,500 for solar power. Many alternative energies show promise as potential energy sources to reduce the diesel and propane consumption at ELA including wind energy, solar heating and bio-mass. A biomass based CHP system using the existing diesel generators as back-up has the shortest pay back period of the technologies modeled. The biomass based CHP system has a pay back period of 4.1 years at $0.80 per liter of diesel, as diesel price approaches $ 2.00 per liter the pay back period reduces to 0.9 years, 50% the generation cost compared to present generation costs. Biomass has been successfully tried and tested in many off-grid communities particularly in a small-scale off-grid setting in North America and internationally. Also, the site specific solar and wind data show that ELA has potential to harvest renewable resources and produce heat and power at competitive rates compared to diesel and propane.

MA paper “Improvement of efficiency of teaching pupils of primary grades of music school to play musical instruments through optimum combination of age peculiarities and individual working methods" analyses efficiency of individual working methods of teaching pupils of primary grades of different ages to play piano. As children of different ages having different physical and mental capacities, and different musical background study in a music school, this paper focuses on teaching psychology with consideration of individual properties and age peculiarities of pupils. Subject of the study – efficiency of individual working methods of teaching pupils of primary grades of different ages to play piano. Goal of the study – to evaluate efficiency of individual methods of delivering piano lessons for pupils of primary grades of different ages. In order to achieve this goal, the following objectives are set: to determine which individual work at the lessons stimulates pupils of primary grades to learn; to discover peculiarities of pupils of different ages of primary grades of a music school; to check efficiency of individual teaching model through questionnaire survey. Questionnaire survey was conducted, during which 60 pupils of primary grades of ten-year B.Dvarionas Music School were polled. The first part of the paper contains theoretical analysis of various aspects of the problem: factors to be considered during individual work at a lesson, a number of methods that can improve... [to full text]

Methods of assessment of the bank’s activities efficiency are analyzed in the master thesis. Theoretical and practical methods of assessment of the banks’ activities of different Lithuanian and foreign authors are analyzed and systemized. The role of risk management function in the commercial bank and its impact on the results of the bank’s activities are analyzed in the research work. Problems of the bank’s capital adequacy management are analyzed in a comprehensive way, too. The analysis of the balance sheet of Šiaulių bankas AB is carried out and investment activities are evaluated. Moreover, legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania, which influence the banks’ activities, are analyzed. The author’s formulated hypothesis of the scientific research is confirmed that an appropriately chosen strategy of assets management of the commercial bank has a direct impact on efficiency of the commercial bank’s activities.

In this master`s work, social assistance conception of Lithuania is didcussed, reasons of demand of social assistance are given, social assistance systems and rules for giving payments of foreign countries are analysed and systematyzed, estimation method of the efficiency of social assistance system and particular payments is presented. The paper includes the analysis of monetary assistance for families in Lithuania in 1999 – 2004. The hypothesis that the existing income compensatory rate reduces work incentives was confirmed.

The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between the traits of average daily gain, backfat, loin muscle depth, feed intake and feed conversion measured in growing gilts and their subsequent feed intake (as estimated by feed delivery) in lactation, and to estimate the effects of lactation feed intake on subsequent maternal productivity and sow longevity. Phenotypic performance measurements and estimated breeding values (EBV) were compared with first and second parity lactation feed delivery in a group of selected nucleus gilts of 3 genetic lines. The effects of lactation feed delivery on weaning to conception interval, total piglets born in the subsequent litter and lifetime productivity measures were investigated. Genetic parameters for the growing period traits of average daily gain, backfat, loin muscle depth, daily feed intake and feed conversion, as well as maternal productivity traits of litter size (number alive at day 2), weaning to conception interval and litter weaning weight were estimated and EBV were computed. Phenotypes of growth rate, feed intake, backfat and loin muscle depth recorded in the growing period were not good predictors of lactation feed delivery. However, one genetic line (YO-A) showed significant correlations between second parity lactation feed delivery and growth rate and loin muscle depth measured in the growing period. EBV calculated for the growing period traits of growth rate, feed intake and feed conversion showed much stronger relationships with lactation feed delivery than the growing period phenotypes, particularly for parity 2. Parity 2 lactation feed delivery showed favorable correlations with EBV for growth rate and feed conversion and an unfavorable correlation with the growing period daily feed intake EBV. Lactation feed delivery in the first and second parity had significant effects on the odds of occurrence of the next litter, next litter total born, stayability to parity 3 or parity 4 and sow longevity. Since lactation feed intake is very important to subsequent productivity and longevity of sows and has a positive (unfavorable) genetic correlation with growth period feed intake, it is recommended that lactation feed intake be measured directly and included in the selection goal. The correlation between lactation feed delivery in parity 1 and parity 2 was low at 0.28 across genetic lines, leading to the conclusion that lactation feed delivery in the first and second parities appear to be different traits under different control mechanisms. It is concluded that a balanced selection program for maternal lines that includes selection for reduced feed intake, feed conversion or residual feed intake measured in the growing period, should also include selection for increased lactation feed intake (probably in combination with changes in sow body weight or backfat during lactation in order to prevent negative consequences for sow longevity or productivity). It is also recommended that lactation feed intake in the first and later parities be evaluated as separate traits.

This dissertation consists of three essays which examine environmental policy, employer mandates and energy consumption. The essays explore how firms respond to government policies such as environmental regulation and employer mandates. Understanding how firms adjust to government policies is crucial to law makers attempting to design optimal policies that maximize net benefits to society. The first essay, titled Who Loses under Power Plant Cap-and-Trade Programs tests how a major cap-and-trade program, known as the NOx Budget Trading Program (NBP), affected labor markets in the region where it was implemented. The cap-and-trade program dramatically decreased levels of NOx emissions and added substantial costs to energy producers. Using a triple-differences approach that takes advantage of the geographic and time variation of the program as well as variation in industry energy-intensity levels, I examine how employment dynamics changed in manufacturing industries whose production process requires high levels of energy. After accounting for a variety of flexible state, county and industry trends, I find that employment in the manufacturing sector dropped by 1.7% as a result of the NBP. Young workers experienced the largest employment declines and earnings of newly hired workers fell after the regulation began. Employment declines are shown to have occurred primarily through decreased hiring rates rather than increased separation rates, thus mitigating the impact on incumbent workers. The second essay, titled Evaluating Workplace Mandates with Flows versus Stocks: An Application to California Paid Family Leave uses an underexploited data set to examine the impact of the California Paid Family Leave program on employment outcomes for young women. Most papers on mandated benefits examine labor outcomes by looking at earnings and employment levels of all workers. Examining these levels will be imprecise if the impacts of the program develop over time and firms are wary to immediately adjust employment and wages for existing workers. Using Quarterly Workforce Indicator data, we are able to measure the impact on hires, new hire earnings, separations and extended leaves among young women. Earnings for young female new hires fell in California relative to other workers, but changed little relative to country-wide comparison groups. We find strong evidence that separations (of at least three months) among young women and the number and shares of young female new hires increased. Many young women that separate (leave the payroll) eventually return to the same firm. Increased separation and hiring rates among young women in the labor market (“churning”) may reflect both increased time spent with children and greater job mobility (i.e., reduced job lock) as the result of mandated paid family leave across the labor market. The third essay, Evidence of an Energy Management Gap in U.S. Manufacturing: Spillovers from Firm Management Practices to Energy Efficiency, merge a well-cited survey of firm management practices into confidential plant level U.S. Census manufacturing data to examine whether generic, i.e. non-energy specific, firm management practices, ”spillover” to enhance energy efficiency in the United States. For U.S. manufacturing plants we find this relationship to be more nuanced than prior research on UK plants. Most management techniques are shown to have beneficial spillovers to energy efficiency, but an emphasis on generic targets, conditional on other management practices, results in spillovers that increase energy intensity. Our specification controls for industry specific effects at a detailed 6-digit NAICS level and finds the relationship between management and energy use to be strongest for firms in energy intensive industries. We interpret the empirical result that generic management practices do not necessarily spillover to improved energy performance as evidence of an “energy management gap.”

It is projected that energy demand worldwide will double from 2009 until 2050. There is a demand for additional clean renewable energy, which can be supplied by biogas. Farm-based biogas plants exist in small numbers in Sweden; for the benefit of society it important to increase their numbers throughout the country. The aim of this report is to create the tools to allow for a competent evaluation of newly built farm-based biogas plants from an energy efficiency and environmental perspective. In this thesis data from newly built plants has been analyzed to determine mistakes that could be avoided in future expansion. Research has been performed within the bounds of a SLF financed project focusing on the role of cooperation in achieving profitability and environmental benefits in farm based biogas plants. The thesis has found that the investment cost during the technical lifetime of the plant is 11-16 kWh/MWh and 2.65 – 3.65 kg CO2-eq. per MWh. The initial investment is repaid by a factor of at least 50 during the technical lifetime of the plant. Energy ratios have been calculated for two of the plants that express the usable energy produced from each. It has been found that 29 % of Högryd’s 2 GWh in energy production becomes usable electricity and heat; at Lövsta 62 % of its 10 GWh became usable electricity and heat. A larger biogas plant benefits from a higher electrical efficiency, however, the impact of the heat utilization is significant. Replacement of 120 MWh of oil and electricity reduces the import of fossil-fuels more than 1.5 GWh of wood chips.

This thesis investigates the integration of planar antennas, such as Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRAs) to the planar waveguide structure, specifically the Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) for high radiation efficiency millimeter-wave (mm-wave) applications. The SIW is a low cost and low loss technology, since it almost keeps the guided wave inside the structure. Therefore, it is an excellent candidate feeding scheme compared to traditional planar (multi-conductor) structures, such as the Microstrip Line (MSL) and Co-planar Waveguide (CPW) for many planar antennas. It enhances the antenna???s overall radiation efficiency by minimizing the conduction loss, which dominates at the mm-wave frequency band. For this thesis, two different SIW-integrated DRA configurations operating at mm-wave frequency band are presented. The rectangular DRA is excited in its fundamental mode TE??11 for radiation through a narrow slot cut on the SIW broad wall. However, the coupling slot itself is excited by the SIW TE10 fundamental mode. In addition, the design guidelines, and a parametric study is also conducted on the proposed antenna parameters to investigate their impact on the antenna???s overall performance including the reflection coefficient and radiation pattern (gain). The results are provided within this thesis. The antenna is made of low cost and low loss materials that are available commercially. It is fabricated by using a novel and simple technique, which is compatible with the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) technology. The board is treated as multi-layers composed of the SIW-layer, and DRA element(s) layer, respectively. The fabricated antenna prototypes are tested to demonstrate their validity for real microwave/mm-wave applications. Their reflection coefficients and radiation patterns are measured, and the antenna shows a boresight gain of 5.51 dB and a radiation efficiency of more than 90 % over the operating frequency band of 33-40 GHz. Antenna arrays based on the SIW integrated DRA are investigated for high gain/radiation efficiency applications. Different array configurations such as, linear (series-fed and corporate-fed) and two-dimensional (2D) arrays are presented. The series-fed DRA array is characterized by a single SIW line loaded by DRA-slot pairs, whereas the SIW-power splitter is used to form the corporate-fed DRA array, when loaded by DRA-slot pairs. While the SIW hybrid-feeding scheme (series-feed combined with corporate-feed) is used to form 2D DRA arrays. In this design, the SIW-power splitter is used to split the power equally and in-phase among the sets (rows) of SIW series fed-DRA elements (columns). A simple and generic Transmission Line (T.L.) circuit model is proposed to simplify and expedite the antenna array design process. It is used to calculate the antenna reflection coefficient and radiation pattern (gain). The T.L. model does not take the mutual coupling between the DRA elements into account, since our study shows that its less than -20 dB over the operating bandwidth. However, it is useful and faster than full-wave solvers, such as HFSS, which consumes time and memory due to the huge generated mesh. The developed T.L. circuit model is used to design the antenna array and study the impact of its main designed parameters on the antenna performance. The developed antenna array T.L. model leads to a general design methodology (guidelines). It also allows for optimum array designs for a given set of performance requirements and to have more physical insight into the SIW technology based antenna systems for mm-wave bands. The designed antenna array samples are fabricated and tested within the operating frequency band 33-40 GHz. The series-fed antenna array shows a measured boresight gain of 11.70 dB, and high radiation efficiency, which is more than 90 % over an operating frequency band of 4%. Furthermore, the measured results are compared to these calculated by the proposed T.L. circuit model and full-wave solver. A good agreement between the measured and the HFSS results are observed, especially near the frequency at which the reflection coefficient is minimum. However, some deviation is noticed between the proposed circuit model and the measured results. This deviation is attributed to the discrete nature of the SIW structure that affects the Short Circuit (SC) performance (magnitude and phase), the T.L. lengths, and the mutual coupling between any two adjacent antenna elements. All these issues are handled efficiently and are taken into account by the full-wave solver. Therefore, the measured reflection coefficient agrees with that of the HFSS, except for a very small deviation, caused by the fabrication tolerances and measurement errors. However, the proposed T.L. circuit model is still valid and can easily predict and estimate the resonance behavior and the impedance bandwidth of the proposed antenna arrays in a very short time compared with the full-wave solver.