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Published: 4 June 2021
Last updated: 2 February 2024

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1

Scully, Keelin. "Natural attenuation of biodiesel in a sandtank experiment." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/60789.

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The use of alternative fuels, including biodiesel, has increased steadily in the last two decades, increasing the risk of accidental spills. However, a comprehensive understanding of the fate of biodiesel in the subsurface is currently lacking. A large sandtank experiment was conducted over 18 months to evaluate the spatial and temporal evolution of biodiesel biodegradation with a focus on vadose zone impacts. 80 L of biodiesel was applied to the center of the sandtank. Monitoring and analysis focused on two zones: the saturated zone including the capillary fringe, and the unsaturated zone. Measured parameters included surficial CO2 and CH4 effluxes, gas concentrations and their isotopic composition in the vadose zone, moisture contents and temperature. In the saturated zone, groundwater chemistry was characterized based on dissolved cation and anion concentrations, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), pH and alkalinity. The experimental results displayed a rapid response to the biodiesel release, revealed by increases of surficial CO2 effluxes and CO2-concentrations in the vadose zone, while O2 concentrations remained close to atmospheric levels. In the saturated zone, elevated VFA concentrations were observed together with pronounced increases in cation concentrations, specifically Ca, Mg, Fe and Mn, indicating the rapid development of anaerobic conditions. The generation of acidity associated with aerobic and anaerobic degradation reactions led to a decline in pH, locally to values below 5, likely inhibiting the progress of biodegradation. The onset of CH4 generation was delayed and coincided with reaching maximum VFA concentrations in the saturated zone. CH4 effluxes at the ground surface were limited; however, stable isotope analysis indicated that CH4 oxidation in the vadose zone was weak, likely due to low-pH conditions. Increases in dissolved concentrations of Fe and Mn were attributed to the reductive dissolution of Mn- and Fe-oxides, with possible contributions from the dissolution of Fe- and Mn-bearing dolomite. Carbon balance estimates showed that the biodiesel was recalcitrant to degradation, and at 590 days less than 5% of the biodiesel had been transformed to VFAs, CO2 and CH4. The average biodiesel degradation rate derived from the carbon balance is 1.3 x 10-8 mol L-1 H2O s-1, comparable to literature values.
Science, Faculty of
Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of
Graduate
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2

Kassam, Saleem. "Comparing angiographic coronary revascularization strategies, a "natural" experiment." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0007/MQ40714.pdf.

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3

Hellekant, Bo. "Ranked Choice Voting in Alameda County : A Natural Experiment." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-403176.

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4

Bloemhof, Barbara Lynn Mestelman Stuart. "Market power and the sale of Ontario residential natural gas: An institutional analysis and a laboratory experiment." *McMaster only, 2004.

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5

Herridge, V. L. "Dwarf elephants on Mediterranean islands : a natural experiment in parallel evolution." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2010. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/133456/.

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Mediterranean dwarf elephants represent some of the most striking examples of phyletic bodysize change observed in mammals and are emblematic of the ‘island rule’, where small mammals become larger and large mammals dwarf on islands. The repeated dwarfing of mainland elephant taxa (Palaeoloxodon antiquus and Mammuthus meridionalis) on Mediterranean islands provide a ‘natural experiment’ in parallel evolution, and a unique opportunity to investigate the causes, correlates and mechanisms of island evolution and body-size change. This thesis provides the first pan-Mediterranean study that incorporates taxonomic and allometric approaches to the evolution of dwarf elephants, establishing a framework for the investigation of parallel evolution and key morphological correlates of insular dwarfism. I show that insular dwarfism has evolved independently in Mediterranean elephants at least six times, resulting in at least seven dwarf species. These species group into three, broad size-classes: ‘smallsized’ (P. falconeri, P. cypriotes and M. creticus), ‘medium-sized’ (P. mnaidriensis and P. tiliensis) and ‘large-sized’ (Palaeoloxodon sp. nov. and ‘P. antiquus’ from Crete). Size-shape similarities between independent lineages from the east and central Mediterranean indicate that homoplasy is likely among similar-sized taxa, with implications for the existence of meta-taxa. These homoplasies appear to result from the exploitation of ontogenetic trajectories common to the Elephantidae, underpinning the evolution of small size. Interspecific allometry between dwarf and full-sized species can be seen to result from these common, but grade-shifted ontogenetic trajectories, and this may also be true of broader macroevolutionary trends in the Proboscidea. These size-related grade-shifts suggest that similar, but increasingly extreme, modifications of pre-natal development underpin the evolution of insular dwarfism in elephants. By incorporating research into the morphology and ontogeny of teeth and post-crania in fullsized extant and extinct elephants, this thesis provides new insights into insular dwarfism, elephant systematics and elephant functional morphology and adaptation.
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O'Connor, Maureen Ann 1956. "Pre-voir dire instruction of the jury pool: A natural experiment." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291611.

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Presenting jury instructions at the pretrial stage of a trial may have benefits for how jurors evaluate evidence and for juror satisfaction. It is not yet clear what effect such instructions have on juror bias. Instruction to the jury prior to trial might reduce the effects of juror bias on verdict decisions. But, instruction prior to jury selection might encourage potential jurors to mask biases, making it more difficult for attorneys to obtain information during voir dire. This paper reports a natural experiment which sheds some empirical light on the question. The judge in a homicide case gave the first group of prospective jurors only a brief orientation lecture. The second group received an additional 15-minute lecture that consisted of legal instructions on procedure and proof. The paper reports analyses comparing the two groups and suggests implications of voir dire instruction on bias in the jury pool.
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7

Calabrese, Debora. "Design evaluation of a scaled experiment to investigate natural circulation in MYRRHA." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2021.

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Questo elaborato tratta il reattore di ricerca MYRRHA, in fase di sviluppo presso il centro di ricerca belga SCK CEN. In particolare si focalizza sullo studio della circolazione naturale del refrigerante, ovvero l'LBE (Lead-Bismuth Eutectic), utilizzata come sistema passivo di sicurezza dopo lo shutdown del reattore in caso di mancato funzionamento delle pompe. Lo scopo di questo lavoro è la creazione di un modello in scala ridotta del reattore per simulare la circolazione naturale dell'LBE. Lo scaling down del reattore viene effettuato tramite lo studio dei numeri adimensionali e la scelta di mantenere costante il coefficiente di scambio termico tra il reattore e il modello in scala. Questa scelta viene fatta al fine di avere sufficiente similarità tra i due per quanto concerne lo scambio termico, in modo che il comportamento del fluido sia lo stesso di quello all'interno del reattore. Nella prima parte vengono effettuate simulazioni 2D, tramite ANSYS 2020, per confrontare la circolazione naturale di fluidi caratterizzati da diverso numero di Prandtl. Viene, inoltre, effettuato un confronto tra i coefficienti di scambio termico ottenuti dalla simulazione e quelli ottenuti tramite calcoli a mano, al fine di verificare che la simulazione possa ben rappresentare il comportamento reale del fluido. Vengono poi calcolate le temperature che si hanno all'interno del reattore rimuovendo una potenza di 1MW, i relativi numeri adimensionali, quali Pr, Gr, Ra e Nu, e i coefficienti di scambio termico dell'LBE per ciascuna area, attraverso un modello semplificato per poter ricavare le dimensioni del modello in scala. Dopo aver disegnato uno sketch del modello, sono state infine effettuate delle simulazioni 3D del modello in scala per verificarne il comportamento, rispetto a quello reale. Le simulazioni 3D hanno dimostrato che il modello rispecchia correttamente il comportamento reale del fluido e che la circolazione naturale può essere usata per raffreddare il reattore.
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8

Rådberg, Ninni. "Experiment om tyngdkraft i fysikämnet : En kvalitativ studie om i vilken utsträckning barns intresse och lärande uttrycks genom experiment i fysikämnet." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-80932.

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9

Cipolato, Liza. "Analise exergetica de um ciclo em cascata para liquefação de gas natural." [s.n.], 2008. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/266261.

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Orientador: Jose Vicente Hallak D'Angelo
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Quimica
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Resumo: O comércio de gás natural liquefeito apresenta um crescente interesse por parte tanto de países exportadores como dependentes desta fonte energética. Apesar de o transporte por gasoduto ser muito menos suscetível a perdas, ele se torna inviável a longas distâncias ou a demandas variáveis. A liquefação do gás natural também proporciona o armazenamento desta fonte energética numa forma estável e de alto potencial energético,evidenciando o caráter estratégico do processo. Desde a década de 60 a tecnologia para liquefação do gás natural é utilizada, porém, apenas há alguns anos os países iniciaram o comércio desta fonte energética em larga escala e isto acarretará um aumento mundial tanto no número de terminais exportadores (plantas de liquefação) quanto importadores (terminais de regaseificação). O processo de liquefação do gás natural ocorre através de uma sequência de ciclos termodinâmicos de refrigeração, e estes, por sua vez, precisam trabalhar de forma otimizada para reduzir perdas. A análise exergética é uma ferramenta muito útil para avaliar estas perdas e pode ser essencial na instalação de uma nova planta ou melhoria de uma já existente. O presente trabalho realizou uma análise exergética de um ciclo de refrigeração utilizado para a liquefação de gás natural, o qual é do tipo multiestágio em cascata, padrão utilizado atualmente, sendo o mais conhecido e difundido entre as indústrias da área. Primeiramente, o processo foi simulado em software comercial Hysys (versão 3.2 da Aspen Technology). O resultado obtido da simulação foi validado através de comparação com dados da literatura, mostrando-se adequado. Em seguida, a simulação foi testada em diferentes condições operacionais, seguindo um planejamento fatorial completo, o qual teve como objetivo verificar a influência da variação das pressões de seis pontos específicos do ciclo sobre a variável resposta, que é a taxa de exergia total destruída no processo, visando sua minimização. Os resultados obtidos levaram a uma nova condição de operação para o ciclo de refrigeração com redução de aproximadamente 48% da taxa de exergia destruída com relação aos dados do caso obtido da literatura. Tal resultado evidencia o potencial da metodologia termodinâmica utilizada, demonstrando sua aplicação em estudos de melhoria do desempenho de ciclos de refrigeração para a indústria de liquefação de gás natural
Abstract: The liquefied natural gas trade shows a growing interest either from countries which are exporters or countries which depend on this kind of energetic source. Although gas pipelines are less susceptible of transportation losses, they become impracticable when distances are too long or when demands are highly variable. The liquefaction of natural gas also enables its storage in a stable way, in which energetic potential is high, expressing the strategic purpose of the process. Since the 1960 decade natural gas liquefying technology is been used, but only a few years ago countries have started the trade of this kind of energetic source on a large scale. Consequently, the number of exporter terminals (liquefaction industries) and importer terminals (regasification plants) will increase worldwide. The natural gas liquefaction process is based on a sequence of refrigeration thermodynamics cycles, which need to work in an optimized way in order to reduce losses. The exergy analysis is a very useful tool to evaluate these losses and can be crucial in a new plant installation or in a current one improvement. This dissertation performed an exergy analysis of a multistage cascade refrigeration cycle applied in natural gas liquefaction. The multistage cascade cycle is currently the standard type, being the most known and diffused among industries. Firstly, the process was simulated in commercial software Hysys (version 3.2 of Aspen Technology). The result obtained from the simulation was validated by comparison with the literature data and showed a very adequate similarity. After that, the simulation was checked in different operational conditions, according to the complete factorial design of experiments. The design of experiments¿ objective was to verify the pressure influence of six specific points of the cycle over the response variable, which is the rate of total exergy destroyed in the cycle, in order to reach its minimal value. The results showed a new operational condition to the refrigeration cycle, in which the destroyed exergy rate was reduced by approximately 48% in comparison with literature data. This result provides evidence of the high potential of the thermodynamic tool used, showing its application in studies of performance improvements for refrigeration cycles in industries of natural gas liquefaction
Mestrado
Sistemas de Processos Quimicos e Informatica
Mestre em Engenharia Química
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10

Rhéaume, Dave. "Income Effects on Worker Productivity : a natural experiment in the tree-planting industry." Thesis, Université Laval, 2006. http://www.theses.ulaval.ca/2006/23865/23865.pdf.

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11

Banerjee, Sourindra. "The international growth of emerging market firms : theory and evidence from a natural experiment." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.610214.

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12

Ozer, Mustafa. "Essays on non-market returns to education : evidence from a natural experiment in Turkey." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2016. https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/essays-on-nonmarket-returns-to-education(49236716-db9c-4e49-b341-e935753518e3).html.

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As a result of the political events in the mid-1990s, the compulsory schooling in Turkey was extended to 8 from 5 years. Cohorts who were at the fourth grade or lower had to continue 8 years of compulsory education. This reform generated a natural experiment, and therefore, enables researchers to obtain endogeneity-robust estimates of market and non-market returns of education. In this thesis, I used this reform to investigate some nonmarket returns of education. Chapter 2 is the first study to investigate the causal impact of maternal schooling on childhood immunisation rates. I used the exposure to the Compulsory Education Law (CEL), enacted in Turkey in 1997, by date of birth and the differentiation in its implementation across regions as an instrument for the schooling of young mothers. CEL generated an exogenous change in compulsory education from 5 to 8 years for women born after 1986. Using the CEL as an instrument, this chapter finds that an increase in the education of mothers significantly increases the coverage of the third (full) dose of DPT and Hepatitis B for their children. Furthermore, the chapter investigates the causality between maternal education and a range of channels affecting immunisation rates suggested in the literature. I find that education increases the age of first marriage and birth, changes women`s and their spouse`s labour market status and significantly effects women`s attitude towards spousal violence against women and gender discrimination in a manner that empowers women. Chapter 3 provides empirical evidence regarding the causality between education and mental health in the context of a large emerging economy, Turkey. I exploit differentiation in the exposure to the Compulsory Education Law (CEL) change by the date of birth as an instrument for schooling of young women. When the CEL is used as an instrument for schooling of women, I find that schooling increases the incidence of some mental health disorders. These findings seem quite robust to alterations in the regression definitions and to the inclusion of additional individual-level control variables such as having one`s own income, employment status, marital status, occupation, domestic abuse history in the family, and rural/urban status. I also find a heterogeneous effect of the CEL on educational attainment of women depending on residence status and whether their birth mother had been abused by her partner. Moreover, heterogeneous effect tests also indicate that the effect of education differs by personal income and labour market status of women. Chapter 4 is the first study to investigate the causal effect of the husband`s education on violent and abusive behaviour against their wife. To do this, I use a natural experiment, an education reform increasing compulsory schooling from five to eight years in Turkey, as an instrument to obtain endogeneity-robust estimates. I find that the husband`s education lowers the probability of suffering physical, emotional and economic violence as well as experiencing socially unacceptable behaviour. The only aspect of violence not affected by the spouse`s education is sexual violence. I also find that women whose mothers or whose husbands’ mothers experienced domestic violence are more likely to suffer violence themselves.
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Hanley, Margot. "The Impact of a Tuition Fee Policy in Scotland; Evidence from a Natural Experiment." Oberlin College Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1305140743.

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Myers, Teresa A. "Bringing it Home: A Natural Experiment Testing the Effect of Casualties on Local Opinion." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275417147.

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Riva, Flavio Luiz Russo. "Computerization, occupational tasks and the labor market: evidence from a natural experiment in Brazil." reponame:Repositório Institucional do FGV, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10438/16233.

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The 'routinization' or 'routine-biased technological change' hypothesis states that computers substitute for routine tasks - those that follow procedures that can be codified into computer software - and complement nonroutine abstract tasks. This paper testssome natural predictions of 'routinization' on labor market outcomes of a large developing economy. We use the end of the Brazilian market reserve policy on mini- and microcomputers (October 1992) as a natural experiment generating exogenous variation in technology prices to identify the effects of computerization on wages and labor inputs. Using matched employer-employee longitudinal data, we show that labor input shifted more prominently toward nonroutine manual and away from routine tasks after the price shock. Also, two (three) years after the shock the partial effect of our occupational measure on real wages was approximately 5% (6%) higher, following the begin of the growth in the IT hardware market size. Jointly, these results contribute to a growing literature based on 'task approaches' by bringing testable implications of a plausibly exogenous computer price decline to a setting with a more credible source of identification.
A hipótese de 'rotinização' ou estabelece que computadores substituem tarefas rotineiras e complementam tarefas abstratas não rotineiras. Essa dissertação de mestrado test algumas predições naturais sobre o impacto 'rotinização' sobre o mercado de trabalho de uma grande economia em desenvolvimento. Uso o final da política de reserva de mercado para mini e micro-computador (Outubro de 1992) como um experimento natural que gera variação exógena nos preços de tecnologia para identificar os efeitos do uso de computadores em salários e insumos de trabalho. Conjuntamente, os resultados contribuem para a crescente literatura sobre 'perspectiva das tarefas' por trazer implicações testáveis de um queda exógena de preços de computador em um contexto com uma estratégia de identificação crível.
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AVIGNONE, GIUSEPPE. "INTERNATIONAL LIQUIDITY, NEGATIVE INTEREST RATE POLICY AND BANKING SUPERVISION: EVIDENCE FROM A NATURAL EXPERIMENT." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Genova, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11567/1048854.

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Chapter 2: Given the importance Swap lines played during the coronavirus-induced crisis, this paper analyses the impact of temporary U.S. dollar liquidity arrangements (swap lines) on international reserves (IR). Specifically, I investigate the effect that the Federal Reserve (FED) swap lines have had on the accumulation of IR of those countries involved compared to those countries that do not have any type of liquidity arrangements with the FED. By analysing a sample of 47 countries over the period 2002-2018 and a difference-in-differences methodology, I find that, overall, there is no difference in the accumulation process of IR between those countries that were involved in the global financial crisis (GFC) swap lines and those that were not. However, on close inspection, by analysing the emerging market economies (EME) sub-sample, I find empirical evidences that these countries - involved in swap lines by FED, when these GFC arrangements expired - started to accumulate reserves to a greater extent to the other considered EME. Furthermore, when I investigate whether these divergences are due to ultra-easy monetary policies or turbulence periods, I find this greater accumulation to be a phenomenon clearly wanted by the countries involved. This result suggests that swap lines involved countries that do not believe in the benevolence of Fed operations, and being more exposed to dollar shocks than other EME, they need a higher stockpile of IR. My contribution could suggest that EME will continue to follow their precautionary patterns, also after the last coronavirus swap lines.
Chapter 1: This paper analyses the impact of the Banking Union on European bank credit risk. Specifically, we investigate the effect that the establishment of the Single Supervisory Mechanism has had on the credit risk of the banks it supervises in comparison to financial institutions that are still supervised by National Supervisory Authorities. We analyse a sample of 746 European banks over the period 2011-2018, by means of a difference-in-differences methodology. We provide empirical evidence that Single Supervisory Mechanism supervised banks reduced credit risk exposure compared to banks supervised by National Supervisory Authorities, suggesting that the Banking Union has successfully reduced the riskiness of the European banking sector. Our results passed a battery of robustness tests that support the reliability of our analysis. Our contribution sheds light on the benefits of centralised versus decentralised supervision, on the effectiveness of the current supervisory system in Europe, and on its impact on European bank risk.
Chapter 3: This paper investigates to what extent the introduction of negative monetary policy rates altered competitive conditions in the euro area banking sector. Specifically, it analyses the effect that negative policy rates had on euro area banks’ market power in comparison to banks that have not been subject to negative rates. The analysis, considering a sample of 4,223 banks over the period 2011–2018 and relying on a difference-in-differences methodology, finds that negative monetary policy rates led to an increase in euro area banks’ market power. Furthermore, it shows that, during the negative interest rate policy period, increased market power hindered the transmission of monetary policy and discouraged banks from taking excessive risks.
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Olofsson, Linnéa, and Heidi Patja. "Understand me, do you? : An experiment exploring the natural language understanding of two open source chatbots." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för programvaruteknik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-21475.

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What do you think of when you hear the word chatbot? A helpful assistant when booking flight tickets? Maybe a frustrating encounter with a company’s customer support, or smart technologies that will eventually take over your job? The field of chatbots is under constant development and bots are more and more taking a place in our everyday life, but how well do they really understand us humans?  The objective of this thesis is to investigate how capable two open source chatbots are in understanding human language when given input containing spelling errors, synonyms or faulty syntax. The study will further investigate if the bots get better at identifying what the user’s intention is when supplied with more training data to base their analysis on.  Two different chatbot frameworks, Botpress and Rasa, were consulted to execute this experiment. The two bots were created with basic configurations and trained using the same data. The chatbots underwent three rounds of training and testing, where they were given additional training and asked control questions to see if they managed to interpret the correct intent. All tests were documented and scores were calculated to create comparable data. The results from these tests showed that both chatbots performed well when it came to simpler spelling errors and syntax variations. Their understanding of more complex spelling errors were lower in the first testing phase but increased with more training data. Synonyms followed a similar pattern, but showed a minor tendency towards becoming overconfident and producing incorrect results with a high confidence in the last phase. The scores pointed to both chatbots getting better at understanding the input when receiving additional training. In conclusion, both chatbots showed signs of understanding language variations when given minimal training, but got significantly better results when provided with more data. The potential to create a bot with a substantial understanding of human language is evident with these results, even for developers who are previously not experienced with creating chatbots, also taking into consideration the vast possibilities to customise your chatbot.
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MacRae, Jayden. "Using a natural experiment to assess the effect of spatial barriers on health service utilization." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Geography, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/9346.

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The closure of the Manawatu Gorge in August 2011 caused a change in the travel time for patients living in the eastern area of the MidCentral Health District to their main hospital and health services located in Palmerston North. This presented an opportunity to study the effect a change in travel time and spatial access had on a population before and after such an event. This study used a retrospective cohort design, using routinely collected data from general practice, emergency department, hospital admissions and outpatient services. The investigation was completed using novel geospatial information systems methods to produce high fidelity data for analysis with free and open source software by developing and validating two new methods of improving geocoding data quality and a new travel time prediction model. Potential and realised spatial accessibility measures were calculated for 101,456 patients over 3.5 years while the gorge was both open and closed. Catchment sensitivity analysis and two-step floating catchment area using distance decays presented complimentary evidence of accessibility change during the Manawatu Gorge closure. Analysis of utilisation measures in both primary and secondary care were correlated with travel time. Utilisation of general practice services appeared to be negatively impacted by increased travel time when comparing realised accessibility in a control and intervention group during the gorge closure. It appeared as though other factors affected access to health services to a greater degree than an increase of up to fifteen minutes travel time.
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Kelly, Diana Michelle. "Evaluating financial incentives for girls' education evidence from a natural experiment in Tamil Nadu, India /." Connect to Electronic Thesis (CONTENTdm), 2009. http://worldcat.org/oclc/449187508/viewonline.

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Jerauld, Jason E. "A multiple-station experiment to examine the close electromagnetic environment of natural and triggered lightning." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2003. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0000708.

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Curran, Daniel Thomas. "Phosphate Removal and Recovery from Wastewater by Natural Materials for Ecologically Engineered Wastewater Treatment Systems." ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2015. http://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/455.

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Eutrophication due to excess loading of phosphorus (P) is a leading cause of water quality degradation within the United States. The aim of this study was to investigate P removal and recovery with 12 materials (four calcite varieties, wollastonite, dolomite, hydroxylapatite, eggshells, coral sands, biochar, and activated carbon. This was accomplished through a series of batch experiments with synthetic wastewater solutions ranging from 10-100 mg PO₄-P/ L. The results of this study were used to establish large-scale, calcite-based column filter experiments located in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources' Eco-Machine. Influent and effluent wastewater samples were routinely collected for 64 days. Measures of filter performance included changes in pH, percent reduction and mass adsorbed of P. After the columns reached saturation, filter media was analyzed for the mineralogical content by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). In the batch experiments, P removal and recovery varied among the media and across treatments. The best performing minerals were calcite, wollastonite, and hydroxylapatite. Eggshells, activated carbon, and coral sands also reduced and adsorbed P. The remaining materials had the lowest reductions and adsorption of P. Results from batch experiments informed the design of large column filters within the Rubenstein School of the Environment and Natural Resources' Eco-Machine. Removal and adsorption rates of P by the three column filters were similar. The columns achieved an average P reduction of 12.53% (se = 0.98) and an average P adsorption of 0.649 mg PO₄-P/ kg media (se = 0.03) over a 4-h hydraulic retention time. Paired T-tests showed that P reductions were statistically significant (p-value < 0.05) on the majority of sampling dates until the columns reached saturation. Saturation was reached after 31 days for two of the columns and 36 days for the third column. The filter media consistently buffered the pH of the wastewater to approximately 6.0-7.0 with no indication of diminishing buffer capacity after saturation. XRD analysis was not able to detect any P species within the crystalline structure of the filter media. This research contributes to the understanding of how the selected media perform during P removal and recovery programs, while providing information on the performance of large column filters operating within advanced, ecologically engineered wastewater treatment systems.
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Krejsa, Jiří. "Estimating the impact of the 2012 liquor prohibition on crime." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2016. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-262344.

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This thesis focuses on capturing causal link between alcohol consumption and one of its externalities, crime. The quasi-natural experiment of the Czech temporary ban on hard liquor following an outbreak of methanol poisonings in September 2012 provides a valuable setting for evaluation of the alcohol-crime relationship. Over the course of the prohibition, violent crime rates fell by approximately 10 %, just like the aggregate of aggravated assault, criminal threatening, vandalism and property damage. In addition, the biggest share of reduction in crime falls on weekend criminality. The number of offenders under the influence of alcohol dropped by approximately 18 % for traffic-related offences and by 28 % in non-traffic offenses. The possibility of the reduction in crime being caused by lower detection capabilities of the law enforcement was examined. The reduction in reported cases of e.g. driving under the influence might be to a large extend explained by lower detection, but it could have reduced only rates of victimless crimes. Finally, the property crime rate was not significantly affected by the intervention, except for burglaries into bars and restaurants.
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23

Gaeta, Simone. "Tigliane diterpenoids: isolation, chemistry and preliminary biosynthetic studies of a medicinal relevant class of natural compounds." Doctoral thesis, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11579/114870.

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Tiglianes are a class of polycyclic diterpenoids, densely functionalized, isolated from Euphorbiaceae and Thymelaceae family. Despite their extensive use in biomedical research, and their potent and unique biological profile, phorboids are still largely unexplored in terms of chemistry, biosynthetic origin, and mechanisms of activity. This thesis aims at providing a contribution en route to the clarification of these issues. Part la describes an expeditious isolation method of the parent diterpene polyol phorbol from croton oil (Croton tiglium L. oil), and of the basic diterpenoid skeleton of tigilanol tiglate from left-overs from the isolation of this compound from the seeds of Fontainea picrosperma C.T.White. Part Ib presents SAR studies aimed at the exploration of the chemical space of tiglianes, and an exploration of their chemical reactivity. Part II presents a biosynthetic investigation on the origin of the tigliane skeleton, inspired by the Jakupovic proposal of non lathyrane derivation of these compounds. The synthesis of labelled precursors is presented as well as a series of feeding experiments on Fontainea picrosperma.
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Stokes, Leah C. "Electoral backlash against climate policy : a natural experiment on retrospective voting and local resistance to public policy." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99561.

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Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Political Science, 2015.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 34-40).
Retrospective voting studies typically examine policies where the public has common interests. By contrast, climate policy has broad public support but concentrated opposition in communities where costs are imposed. This spatial distribution of weak supporters and strong, local opponents mirrors opposition to other policies with diffuse public benefits and concentrated local costs. I use a natural experiment to investigate whether citizens living in proximity to wind energy projects retrospectively punished an incumbent government because of its climate policy. Using both fixed effects and instrumental variable estimators, I identify electoral losses for the incumbent party ranging from 4-10%, with the effect persisting 3 km from wind turbines. Voters also discriminate by correctly punishing the level of government responsible for the policy, providing evidence that voters are informed. I conclude that the spatial distribution of citizens' policy preferences can affect democratic accountability and exacerbate political barriers to addressing climate change.
by Leah C. Stokes.
S.M.
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25

Roy, George J. "Prospective teachers' development of whole number concepts and operations during a classroom teaching experiment." Orlando, Fla. : University of Central Florida, 2008. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0002398.

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26

Taillard, Jerome Philippe Alain. "Three Essays in Corporate Finance." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1267652386.

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27

Hansson, Matilda. "Undersökande boksamtal kombinerat med kemiexperiment iförskolan : En kvalitativ studie om pedagogers upplevelser om ett arbetssätt med undersökande boksamtal kombinerat med experiment." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-85015.

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The purpose of this study is to contribute to the knowledge of educators’ experiences of a teaching approach concerning investigative discussions of literature combined with experiments in order to support children’s learning about the phase transformation of water. The study contains a theoretical framework based on variation theory. All educators that agreed to participate in the study were provided with instructions for the teaching arrangement, that consisted of an investigative discussions of literature and an experiment. These arrangements were pre-planned and were to be conducted with the children on the educator’s department. Seven educators participated in the study. The method for collection of data consisted of semi-structured interviews. The interviews were analyzed using a phenomenographic approach where eight clusters of data are summarized. The results of the study show that the educators had a positive experience working with this teaching approach. The educators experienced that the investigative discussions of literature combined with the experiment supported the children’s learning about the phase transformations of water. In a discussion about possibilities and challenges, the educators conveyed that by combining the two approaches, the children could share experiences and support each other in learning about the phase transformations of water. One of the challenges that were found was that the size of the group of children was a limiting factor, since each child needed individual support in their work. The conclusion is that all participating educators found that the approach of combining investigative discussions of literature with experiments supported the children’s learning about the phase transformations of water.W
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Alestad, Linda, and Catrine Bergqvist. "A natural economic experiment : An analysis of the macroeconomic consequenses of the Indian Ocean tsunami in Sri Lanka." Thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Economics, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-7024.

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In this thesis we analyze the macroeconomic impact of the tsunami in 2004 on the Sri Lankan economy. The theoretical framework we use, the Australian model of a developing economy, gives direct or indirect predictions for the development of a number of variables after a natural disaster. In our case, we believe that the main reason for developments of the output variables and the exchange rate is the extraordinary large and rapid inflow of foreign aid money. In summary, we find the overall impact of the tsunami on the Sri Lankan economy to be minor.

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Benk, Véronique. "Effect of delay in initiating radiotherapy in patients with early-stage breast cancer : results of a natural experiment." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0020/MQ55038.pdf.

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30

Gorman, Erin Melissa Patton. "Sedentary time in the workplace : a natural experiment of the transition to an activity-permissive workplace physical environment." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/42531.

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Objective: To describe the change in objectively measured sitting, standing and stepping time for officebased workers as they transitioned from a conventional to an activity-permissive workplace physical environment. Methods: This pre-post study observed 17 office-based working adults [mean age 33 (SD 7) years] from an academic research centre as they transitioned from a conventional to a purpose-built, innovative activity-permissive workplace physical environment with flexible layouts, workspaces, and working conditions. Participants wore an activity monitor (activPAL3, PAL Technologies Limited, Glasgow, UK) for seven consecutive days at both the conventional and innovative workplaces to determine time spent sitting, standing, stepping, the number of sit to stand transitions and the length and number of sitting bouts ≥ 30 minutes. They also completed a self-reported log of workplace time and monitor wear time. Participants’ height, weight, descriptive characteristics, body composition (measured by DXA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (measured by ActiGraph GT3X+; LLC, Fort Walton Beach, FL) were recorded. I standardized results to an 8-hour workday and compared outcomes between the conventional and innovative workplaces using Hodges-Lehmann median point estimate (90% CI). Results: The transition to the innovative workplace resulted in a non-significant decrease in workplace sitting time (-24 minutes/ 8-hour workday; 90% CI = -55 to 9 minutes/ 8-hour workday) and a corresponding increase in workplace standing (12 minutes/ 8- hour workday; 90% CI = -42 to 61 minutes/ 8-hour workday). There were no differences in the number of sit to stand transitions or sitting bouts ≥ 30 minutes in the workplace. Participants spent more time sitting in bouts ≥ 30 minutes at the innovative workplace (increase of 16 minutes/ 8-hour workday; 90% CI = -7 to 44 minutes/ 8-hour workday). None of these changes were statistically significant. Conclusions: This group of office workers did not significantly change their total workplace sitting time or how it was accumulated with the transition to the innovative workplace physical environment. The results of this preliminary investigation suggest that interventions include a multifaceted approach to complement physical environment changes in order to reduce prolonged sitting time.
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Larsson, Christina. "Uppfattningar om laborationens betydelse för utvecklandet av förståelsen i naturvetenskapliga ämnen." Thesis, Karlstad University, Karlstad University, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-1685.

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Sammanfattning

Laborationer i naturvetenskapliga ämnen är en naturlig del av undervisningen. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att ta reda på om man tar bort en möjlighet till inlärning och förståelse för eleverna om laborationer inte används i undervisningen. Vidare ville jag undersöka om lärare och elever anser att laborationer utvecklar förståelsen av naturvetenskap, dessutom om eleverna förstår syftena med laborationerna.

Undersökningen utfördes genom att kvalitativa intervjuer gjordes med fyra lärare och sex elever i en gymnasieskola. Resultatet visar att lärarna har olika åsikter om laborationens betydelse för förståelsen av ämnet. Däremot anser eleverna att laborationer utvecklar deras förståelse för naturkunskap. Undersökningen visar också att eleverna är osäkra på lärarens syfte och de förstår inte alltid vad laborationen ska ge för kunskap. Detta visar att det är viktigt att laborationsinstruktioner tydliggör syftet och den kunskap det är meningen att laborationen ska ge. Dessutom har diskussionerna under laborationen stor betydelse för lärandet av naturvetenskap.

Nyckelord: Förståelse, kunskap, laborationer/experiment/praktiskt arbete, syfte/mål


Abstract

Laboratory experiments in science are a natural part of the education. The purpose of this composition is to find out whether one removes a possibility of learning and understanding for students if one does not use laboratory experiments in education. Moreover, I wanted to examine if teachers and students are of the opinion that laboratory experiments help in deepening the understanding of natural science, and if the students understand the purposes of these experiments.

To carry out the study, qualitative interviews were made with four teachers and six students at an upper secondary school. Result shows that teachers are of different opinions about the importance of the laboratory experiments for the understanding of the subject. However, the students’ opinions are that laboratory experiments help in deepening their understanding for natural science. The study also shows that students feel uncertain of the teacher’s purpose and what knowledge the laboratory experiment is meant to give. This shows that it is important to explain the purpose of the experiment, and what knowledge it is meant to give, in laboratory instructions. Furthermore, the discussions during laboratory work are of considerable significance for learning natural science.

Keywords: Understanding, knowledge, laboratory experiments/experiments/practical work, purpose

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32

Geleta, Solomon. "Measuring Citizens' Preferences for Protecting Environmental Resources| Applications of Choice Experiment Surveys, Social Network Analysis and Deliberative Citizens' Juries." Thesis, Colorado State University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10262222.

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Many reasons have been suggested as explanation for observed differences in citizens' environmental conservation projects policy choices and willingness-to-pay (WTP) values. Some people attribute this distinctive decision behavior to contrasts in the overall policy outcome expectations (preference heterogeneity) and/or differences in reactions to the changes in the environmental attributes (response heterogeneity). Others attribute this to differences in individual choice rationales, personalities, encounters, and past and present experiences. In other words, regardless of the possibility that outcomes are the same, people do not have the same emotions, convictions, disposition, or motivations.

In three separate essays, I investigate the possible reasons for the observed differences in citizens' environmental conservation policy choices and examine how preference and response heterogeneity arise. In the first essay, I ask if a priori environmental damage perception is a source of heterogeneity affecting conservation option choice decisions. In the second, I investigate if social networks (interactions among decision-making agents) affect choice decisions. In the third, I investigate if preferences change when decision making agents are allowed to deliberate among peers.

For the first essay, I conducted an on-line choice experiment (CE) survey. The survey asked questions that help to measure citizen preference for protecting environmental public goods, ascertain the value local residents are willing-to-pay (WTP), and determine how preference heterogeneity arises. CE attributes included groundwater use (measured by share of total water use from groundwater), aquatic habitat (measured by count of spawning kokanee salmon return), natural habitat health (measured by the sensitive ecosystem area reclaimed), and rural character (measured by a decrease in urban sprawl and/or a decrease in population density in rural areas). I used a special property levy as the vehicle of payment. Random parameter logit (RP) and latent class (LC) models were estimated to capture response and preference heterogeneity. The results suggest that (1) both preference and response heterogeneities were found for the choices and all environmental attributes respectively (2) respondents who have a higher value for one environmental good will have a higher value for other environmental goods, and (3) a priori damage perception could be one of the sources of response and preference heterogeneity.

In the same survey, I included people's egocentric networks, interactions, environment related activities and perceptions to empirically evaluate whether social network effect (SNE) is a source of systematic differences in preference. I estimate consumer preferences for a hypothetical future environmental conservation management alternative described by its attributes within a Nested Logit Model: nesting broader and distinct conservation options within choices impacted by individual’s network structure. The results show that some network centrality measures capture preference heterogeneity, and consequently the differences in WTP values in a systematic way.

Third, I compare the value estimated based on the traditional choice experiment (CE) with the results obtained using the citizen jury (CJ) approach or a group-based approach or also called the "Market Stall" in some literature. I estimate the effect of deliberation on conservation choice outcomes by removing any significant differences between the people who participated in the CJ (people who volunteered to be contacted again after deliberation treatment) and those people who did the survey twice but did not volunteer for CJ (control group) in terms of their socioeconomic status and be able attribute the changes in preferences to deliberation treatment only. CJ approach involved two 90 minute deliberations held over two days to discuss and consider their preferences and WTP values with other household members. Results show that deliberation improves individuals' valuation process and there is observed difference in choice outcomes between the deliberation treatment and control groups. Both preference and response heterogeneity relatively vanish when people were allowed to deliberate among peers.

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33

Gauriot, Romain. "Essays on strategic behaviour in games: Empirical investigation using sport data." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2016. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/96005/1/Romain%20Germain%20Hugues_Gauriot_Thesis.pdf.

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This thesis investigates strategic behaviour in games; it aims at identifying the causal effect of incentives and contest designs on agents’ behaviours, such as expenditure of effort and risk taking. Career advancement, political campaign, patent races, marketing, competition for mates, warfare, and sports competition, are all examples of situations that can be described as contests. Such contests are ubiquitous in economics, and have thus attracted considerable attention from both theorist and empirical researchers. This thesis investigates strategic behaviour in games; more specifically it aims at identifying the causal effect of incentives and contest designs on the agents’ behaviours,such as expenditure of effort and risk taking. To do so, I use quasi experimental situations arising in different sports as natural experiments. This thesis consist of three essays. In the first essay I study the existence of the “winner effect” in a multi-stage contest using a large dataset of ball tracking data from tennis matches, in the second one I investigate whether professional tennis players serving behavior follows game strategic prediction, and finally I look at how individual incentives and team incentives influence risk taking in cricket.
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Omrani, Sara. "Natural ventilation in high-rise apartments in hot-humid climates." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2018. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/116593/1/Sara_Omrani_Thesis.pdf.

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This thesis contributes to improvement of natural ventilation and thermal comfort in high-rise residential buildings in hot-humid climates. Case study approach along with full-scale experiments and Computational Fluid Dynamics formed the methodology of the current thesis. Two main outcomes of this study are: 1) a model for integration of different methods of natural ventilation evaluation at different design stages, and 2) a holistic model for implication of various design parameters to improve natural ventilation in buildings.
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35

Joshi, Dev Raj. "Artificial and Natural Disturbances in the Equatorial Ionosphere: Results from the MOSC Experiment and the C/NOFS satellite mission." Thesis, Boston College, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108706.

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Thesis advisor: Michael J. Naughton
Thesis advisor: Keith M. Groves
The low-latitude ionosphere is characterized by large-scale instabilities in the post-sunset hours due to the distinct geometry of the earth’s magnetic field lines at the equator. The magnetic field lines are horizontal at the equator contributing to the high vertical drift velocity of the plasma bubbles growing from the bottomside of the ionospheric F-region. The phenomenon, commonly known as equatorial spread F, is an important problem in aeronomy as it can cause radio wave scintillation effects representing the most critical impacts of space weather on man-made technologies, such as satellite communications and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). Here, we present results from an artificial ionospheric modification experiment as well as from naturally occurring instabilities in the equatorial ionosphere. An artificial plasma cloud was created in the bottomside of the ionospheric F-layer during the Metal Oxide Space Cloud (MOSC) experiment in May 2013 to study the interactions of artificial ionization with the background plasma under the hypothesis that the artificial plasma might suppress the occurrence of natural instabilities. While the suppression hypothesis remains open to debate, the propagation results confirm that the injection of artificial ionization in the lower F–region causes dramatic changes to the ambient HF propagation environment. We also calculate various parameters needed to evaluate the growth rate of Rayleigh- Taylor instability created in the F-region bottomside of the ionosphere from the thirteen days of High-Frequency (HF) radar data during the MOSC campaign. These parameters have been used to calculate the growth rate to predict the diurnal variability of the spread F occurrence. The growth rate has also been calculated from model ionospheric profiles optimized by ray-tracing techniques to match actual delays as observed in the oblique HF links. The calculated growth rate provides a close prediction of spread F development as seen in its correlation with the ground scintillation observations. With regard to natural processes, data from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) / the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Communications/Navigations Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite mission has been analyzed to investigate the characteristics of equatorial ionospheric irregularities from in situ observations. We present a comprehensive investigation on the variation of apex-altitude distribution of equatorial ionospheric irregularities with solar activity supported by modeling, simulation and comparisons with ground- and space-based in situ density observations. We also analyze Physics Based Model (PBMOD) ionospheric model results to determine if a physics-based model can reproduce the observed dependence of bubble height on solar activity
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Physics
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Tapper, Josefine, and Cajsa Baars. "Put your head in the sand or lose a grand? : A natural experiment of the ostrich effect and the disposition effect." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Nationalekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-150095.

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This thesis presents an attempt to find evidence of the ostrich effect and the disposition effect, as well as individual differences in self-assessed financial knowledge and its effect on these biases. The ostrich effect refers to the tendency to deliberately avoid information that might be negative, by "sticking your head in the sand". The disposition effect refers to people who hold on to losing assets too long while selling winning ones too early. The two effects were examined through a natural experiment which emerged from the stock market crash that occurred February 5th, 2018. The data was collected during an internship at Länsförsäkringar AB and originates from the usage of Länsförsäkringar's application Sparnavigatorn, where customers can manage their savings. The customers login activity and number of placed sales orders were observed. The data material is unique, and the study enabled a unique presentation of real life behaviour within a financial context and an analysis of whether individual differences affect behaviour. To our knowledge, neither the ostrich effect nor the disposition effect have earlier been examined through a large scale natural experiment. The results show no significant indication of the ostrich effect, but rather a relatively constant login activity not affected by the stock market crash. Furthermore, they show a contradictory reaction to what the disposition effect suggests, meaning the respondents place more sales orders during the stock market fall than at the time before and after. The results imply that further research needs to be done to either reject or confirm the existence of the ostrich effect and the disposition effect.
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Eidelman, Hadas. "Children’s Internalizing Symptoms in Anticipation of the Transition to Middle School: Causal Inferences in the Context of a Natural Experiment." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13383551.

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The middle-school transition has long been linked with poor social-emotional and academic outcomes for children. However to date, research on the middle-school transition has been predominantly observational, not experimental, and has not addressed whether the transition itself – or unobserved factors – cause children’s outcomes. In my dissertation, therefore, I explored the causal impact of a policy that foreshortened by one year the timing of the middle-school transition on children’s developmental trajectories of anxiety and depressive symptoms. In the summer of 2006, five of the 18 schools participating in the New York City Study of Social and Literacy Development (Jones, Brown, Hoglund, & Aber, 2010) shifted from a pK-6 to a pK-5 structure. Students entering fifth grade in these schools in the fall of 2006, therefore, faced the new knowledge that it would be their final elementary-school year. With no evidence of advance warning to families, I argue that this shift provided an exogenous disruption to children’s trajectories and therefore supported the unbiased estimation of causal impact. I employed an analytic strategy that combined, in a single analysis, elements of three statistical approaches: the multilevel modeling of change, to estimate children’s symptom trajectories over a two-year period; an interrupted time-series design, to estimate the immediate causal impact of the change in policy on children’s symptoms at the discontinuity among children who experienced the policy disruption; and a difference-in-differences correction, to subtract from the estimated impact of the disruptive policy any secular differences estimated using data from children in the non-affected schools. I found that the foreshortening of the time to middle-school transition caused a rise in children’s depressive symptoms, but not in their anxiety symptoms. In addition to the causal impact of the policy, I observed developmental and gender-based patterns in trajectories of children’s anxiety and depressive symptoms during the important middle-childhood period.
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Johansson, Linn. "Gymnasielärares mål med laborationer i naturkunskap." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för naturvetenskapernas och matematikens didaktik, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-146270.

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Laborationen i skolan har länge haft en betydelsefull roll i undervisningen av de naturvetenskapliga ämnena. Det har visat sig i olika forskningsstudier att lärare har olika mål när de planerar och genomför laborationer i undervisningen men som överlag är ganska inbördes samstämmiga. Då naturkunskap har en annan karaktär än kemi, biologi och fysik så kanske resonemanget om laborationer och målet med dem har en annan innebörd i naturkunskap. Det här arbetet är inriktat på att ta reda på vilka mål som lärarna har med laborationer i naturkunskap samt vilka utmaningar som påverkar lärarna när de ska genomföra laborationer i ämnet och om de anser det motiverat att ha fler laborationer i ämnet. Undersökningen är gjord med en intervjustudie av några naturkunskapslärare på gymnasiet. Resultaten visar att det både finns likheter och skillnader när det gäller lärares mål med laborationer. Både sinsemellan, men också om man jämför med tidigare forskning för naturvetenskapliga ämnen. Det har också visat sig att gymnasielärare inte har en enhetlig definition när det kommer till vad en laboration är.  Elevgrupp och problem med att hitta bra laborationer som passar naturkunskapens samhällsinnehåll är några av de utmaningar som lärarna har för att nå målen.
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Alves, Denis Lima e. "Estrutura de capital de multinacionais no Brasil após o estabelecimento de regras para thin capitalization: um experimento natural." Universidade de São Paulo, 2018. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/12/12136/tde-07062018-122947/.

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Este trabalho emprega métodos quantitativos a dados de Demonstrações Financeiras para avaliar a existência de relação de causalidade entre a Lei 12.249 de 11 de junho de 2010, que institui normas de subcapitalização no Brasil, e a estrutura de capital de empresas brasileiras que possuem partes vinculadas no exterior. Esta lei estabeleceu limites ao endividamento oriundo de tais partes vinculadas para que os respectivos juros pagos sejam considerados dedutíveis para fins da apuração de tributos sobre o lucro e foi usada como intervenção exógena na análise proposta. Os dados são oriundos de empresas fechadas e de empresas públicas, coletados manualmente, em jornais publicamente disponíveis, e na base de dados Economatica® e foi obtida uma amostra inicial de 2,070 observações. Após exclusão daquelas com Patrimônio Líquido negativo, restaram 1,816 observações em um painel não balanceado, subamostra usada para estimação com o método principal de investigação deste trabalho, que foi o de Diferenças-em-diferenças (DD). Neste, a variável dependente consistiu da razão entre dívida onerosa total e Ativo Total, observados anualmente no período compreendido entre o ano de 2006 e ano de 2014. Este método foi estimado por OLS seus resultados foram complementados com o pareamento de observações por meio de quatro procedimentos de propensity score matching (PSM), one-to-one, nearest neighbour, radius e kernel, em que a variável resposta consistiu da diferença, observada entre o ano de 2011 e o ano de 2009, dos valores da variável resposta descrita anteriormente. Para estimação por meio de matching, foram excluídas observações de empresas que variaram a composição societária ao longo do período de forma a possuir partes vinculadas estrangeiras em determinado momento e não possuí-las mais tarde e também foram excluídas aquelas empresas que não possuem observações durante todo o período avaliado, obtendo-se um painel balanceado com 114 empresas e 1,026 observações. O propensity score obtido foi ainda empregado para ponderar as observações no modelo previamente estimado com o método DD. As variáveis de controle empregadas tanto no DD quanto na estimação do propensity score consistiram dos valores de Ativo Imobilizado, Vendas Líquidas, Lucro Bruto e Patrimônio Líquido, obsevados anualmente e dividido pelo Ativo Total. Os resultados obtidos não foram significantes aos níveis convencionais de confiança, apontando para possível redução da relação entre dívida total e Ativo Total das empresas do grupo tratamento em valores que variaram entre 4.17% e 0.5% em termos de Ativo Total, dependendo do método e modelo estimados. Observa-se que tanto a variável resposta quanto o endividamento oneroso total das empresas de ambos os grupos parecem ter aumentado durante o período investigado, mas a variável resposta, aparentemente, já apresentava crescimento menos acentuado nas empresas do grupo tratamento antes do advento da lei, não sendo possível concluir que esta seja a causa da tendência de decréscimo da relação entre dívida e Ativo Total no grupo de empresas que possuem partes vinculadas estrangeiras. Ressalvadas as limitações do estudo, conclui-se que a lei não teve efeito sobre o endividamento total e, portanto, sem efeitos sobre a arrecadação de tributos sobre o lucro destas empresas.
This work applies quantitative methods to data from Financial Statements to assess the existence of a causal relationship between the Law 12,249 of June 11, 2010, which establishes thin capitalization rules in Brazil, and the capital structure of Brazilian companies that keep foreign related parties. This law established limits to the tax deductibility arising from interest payments to such related parties and was here employed as a source of exogenous variation to perform the proposed analysis. The data came from private and public companies, were manually collected, from publicly available newspapers, and obtained from the Economatica database. An initial sample of 2,070 observations was obtained. After the exclusion of those with negative Equity, there were 1,816 observations composing an unbalanced panel, sub-sample which was used for estimation with the main research method of this investigation, which was the Differences-in-differences (DD) method. A dependent variable consisted of the ratio between total costly debt and Total Asset, observed annually in the period between the years 2006 and 2014. This method has been estimated by OLS and its results were complemented with the pairing of companies by means of four matching methods: One-to-one, nearest neighbour, radius, and kernel, where the response variable consisted of the difference between the dependent variable\'s values observed in the years 2011 and 2009. To estimate the laws\' effects by means of matching procedures, data from companies that showed variation at the societal composition in such a way that led them to have foreign related parties in less than the whole period and from those companies that do not have data throughout the whole period evaluated were excluded, and a balanced panel with 114 companies and 1,026 observations remained. Yet again, the obtained propensity score was applied as weight for another OLS DD estimation. Control variables consisted of the values of Fixed Assets, Net Sales, Gross Profits and Shareholders\' Equity, reported annually and divided by Total Assets. The results obtained were not significant at any conventional confidence levels, nevertheless pointing to a reduction of the treatment group companies\' ratio between debt and Total Assets which varied between 4.17% and 0.5% of Total Assets, depending on the estimated method and model. It appears that the companies\' both response variable and total costly indebtedness increased during the period analysed, but the response variable seems to have already presented a less pronounced growth in the treatment group\'s companies before the existence of the law, therefore making it not possible to conclude that this legislation piece is the cause of the downward trend in the ratio between debt and Total Assets of companies that keep foreign related parties. Subject to this study\'s limitations, it is possible to conclude that the law had no effect on total indebtedness and, therefore, had no effect on profit taxes base erosion regarding this group of companies.
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40

Karlberg, Victor. "Dynamic analysis of high-rise timber buildings : A factorial experiment." Thesis, Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för samhällsbyggnad och naturresurser, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-65559.

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Today high-rise timber buildings are more popular than ever and designers all over the world have discovered the beneficial material properties of timber. In the middle of the 1990’s cross-laminated timber (CLT), was developed in Austria. CLT consists of laminated timber panels that are glued together to form a strong and flexible timber element. In recent years CLT has been on the rise and today it is regarded as a good alternative to concrete and steel in the design of particularly tall buildings. Compared to concrete and steel, timber has lower mass and stiffness. A high-rise building made out of timber is therefore more sensitive to vibration. The vibration of the building can cause the occupants discomfort and it is thus important to thoroughly analyze the building’s dynamic response to external excitation. The standard ISO 10137 provides guidelines for the assesment of habitability of buildings with respect to wind-induced vibration. The comfort criteria herein is based on the first natural frequency and the acceleration of the building, along with human perception of vibration. The aim of this thesis is to identify the important structural properties affecting a dynamic analysis of a high-rise timber building. An important consequence of this study is hopefully a better understanding of the interactions between the structural properties in question. To investigate these properties and any potential interactions a so-called factorial experiment is performed. A factorial experiment is an experiment where all factors are varied together, instead of one at a time, which makes it possible to study the effects of the factors as well as any interactions between these. The factors are varied between two levels, that is, a low level and a high level. The design of a factorial experiment includes all combinations of the levels of the factors. The experiment is performed using the software FEM-Design, which is a modeling software for finite element analysis. A fictitious building is modelled using CLT as the structural system. The modeling and the subsequent dynamic analysis is repeated according to the design of the factorial experiment. The experiment is further analyzed using statistical methods and validated according to ISO 10137 in order to study performance and patterns between the different models. The statistical analysis of the experiment shows that the height of the building, the thickness of the walls and the addition of mass are important in a dynamic analysis. It also shows that interaction is present between the height of the building and the thickness of the walls as well as between the height of the building and the addition of mass. Most of the models of the building does not satisfy the comfort criteria according to ISO 10137. However, it still shows patterns that provides useful information about the dynamic properties of the building. Lastly, based on the natural frequency of the building this study recognizes the stiffness as more relevant than the mass for a building with CLT as the structural system and with up to 16 floors in height.
Idag är höga trähus mer populära än någonsin och konstruktörer runtom i världen har upptäckt de fördelaktiga materialegenskaperna hos trä. I mitten på 1990-talet utvecklades korslimmat trä (KL-trä) i Österrike. KL-trä består av hyvlade brädor som limmas ihop för att bilda en lätt och stark träskiva. På senare år har KL-trä varit på uppgång och idag anses materialet vara ett bra alternativ till betong och stål i framför allt höga byggnader. Jämfört med betong och stål har trä både lägre massa och styvhet. En hög träbyggnad är därför mer känslig för vibrationer. En vibrerande byggnad kan leda till obehag för de boende och det är därför viktigt att analysera byggnadens dynamiska respons då den utsätts för yttre belastning. Standarden ISO 10137 ger riktlinjer för att kunna utvärdera komfortkravet för byggnader med avseende på människors känslighet för vibrationer orsakade av vind. Komfortkravet i fråga jämför byggnadens första naturliga egenfrekvens med dess acceleration. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att identifiera de viktiga egenskaperna i en dynamisk analys av en hög träbyggnad. Förhoppningsvis leder det här examensarbetet till en ökad förståelse av samspelseffekterna mellan dessa egenskaper. För att undersöka dessa egenskaper och eventuella samspelseffekter genomförs ett så kallat faktorförsök. Ett faktorförsök är ett försök där alla faktorer varieras tillsammans, istället för en och en, vilket gör det möjligt att studera effekterna av faktorerna samt eventuella samspelseffekter. Faktorerna varieras mellan två nivåer: en låg nivå och en hög nivå. Ett faktorförsök använder sig av samtliga kombinationer av faktorernas nivåer. Försöket utförs med hjälp av programmet FEM-Design, vilket är ett modelleringsverktyg för FE-analys. En fiktiv byggnad modelleras med CLT som stomsystem och en dynamisk analys görs. Försöket analyseras ytterligare med hjälp av statistiska metoder och valideras enligt ISO 10137. Dessa steg upprepas enligt faktorförsöket. Den statistiska analysen av försöket visar att höjden på byggnaden, tjockleken på väggarna samt en ökad massa är viktiga i en dynamisk analys. Den visar också på en samspelseffekt mellan höjden på byggnaden och tjockleken på väggarna, samt mellan höjden på byggnaden och en ökad massa. Merparten av modellerna av byggnaden uppfyller inte komfortkravet enligt ISO 10137. Däremot går det att urskönja mönster som bidrar med viktig information om byggnadens dynamiska egenskaper. Avslutningsvis, baserat på byggnadens naturliga egenfrekvens framhåller den här studien byggnadens styvhet framför dess massa då byggnaden i fråga stabiliseras med KL-trä och har upp till 16 våningar.
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41

Roesel, Felix. "The causal effect of wrong-hand drive vehicles on road safety." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2017. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-229840.

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Left-hand drive (LHD) vehicles share higher road accident risks under left-hand traffic because of blind spot areas. Due to low import prices, the number of wrong-hand drive vehicles skyrockets in emerging countries like Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. I identify the causal effect of wrong-hand drive vehicles on road safety employing a new “backward version” of the synthetic control method. Sweden switched from left-hand to right-hand traffic in 1967. Before 1967, however, almost all Swedish vehicles were LHD for reasons of international trade and Swedish customer demand. I match on accident figures in the period after 1967, when both Sweden and other European countries drove on the right and used LHD vehicles. Results show that right-hand traffic decreased road fatality, injury and accident risk in Sweden by approximately 30 percent. An earlier switch would have saved more than 4,000 lives between 1953 and 1966.
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42

Hariharakumar, Pradeep. "Constant displacement rate experiments and constitutive modeling of asphalt mixtures." Texas A&M University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/3066.

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The focus of this dissertation is on constant displacment rate experiments on asphalt concrete and on developing continuum models in a general thermo-mechanical setting which will corroborate with the experimental results. Modeling asphalt concrete and predicting its response is of great importance to the pavement industry. More than 90 percent of the US Highways uses asphalt concrete as a pavement material. Asphalt concrete exhibits nonlinear response even at small strains and the response of asphalt concrete to different types of loading is quite different. The properties of asphalt concrete are highly influenced by the type and amount of the aggregates and the asphalt used. The internal structure of asphalt concrete keeps on evolving during the loading process. This is due to the influence of different kinds of activities at the microlevel and also due to the interaction with the environment. The properties of asphalt concrete depend on its internal structure. Hence we need to take the evolution of the internal structure in modeling the response of asphalt concrete. Experiments were carried out at different confinement pressures and displacement rates on cylindrical samples of asphalt concrete. Two different aggregates were used to make the sample -limestone and granite. The samples were tested at a constant displacement rate at a given confinement pressure. The force required to maintain this constant displacement rate is measured and recorded. The frame-work has been developed using the idea of multiple natural configurations that was introduced recently to study a variety of non-linear dissipative response of materials. By specifying the forms of the stored energy and rate of dissipation function of the material, specific models were developed using this frame work. In this work both a compressible and an incompressible model were developed by choosing appropriate forms of stored energy and rate of dissipation function. Finally the veracity of the models were tested by corroborating with the experimental results. It is anticipated that the present work will aid in the development of better constitutive equations which in turn will accurately model asphalt concrete in laboratory and in field.
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43

Pasuwan, Patrawan. "Measurements of luminosity and a search for dark matter in the ATLAS experiment." Licentiate thesis, Stockholms universitet, Fysikum, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-193096.

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This licentiate thesis presents contributions to the luminosity measurement from the data recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2017 using a track-counting technique, as well as a search for dark matter in the ATLAS experiment using 139 fb-1 of √s = 13 TeV pp collision data delivered by the LHC from 2015 to 2018. Track-counting luminosity measurements in low-luminosity operations are performed to study the effect of low collision rates on luminosity determination. The luminosity measured in a calibration transfer procedure using the track-counting technique is used to correct the pile-up dependence observed in ATLAS’s main luminosity detector called LUCID. A search in the final state of a lepton, jets and missing transverse energy, where the final state is produced from a pair of top quarks and a spin-0 scalar/pseudoscalar mediator, is presented. A dedicated signal region is designed to target this final state in which the mediator decays into dark matter particles. The signal region covers the search in the mass plane of the mediator and the dark matter particle. Dedicated control regions are designed to estimate the top-quark background events, as well as the events where a Zboson is produced in association with the top quarks. The signal region event counts in the data have not been unblinded yet, but expected exclusion limits at 95% confidence level as a function of mediator mass are presented. Scalar and pseudoscalar mediators are expected to be excluded up to 200 and 250 GeV, respectively, for the dark matter mass of 1 GeV, and the coupling strengths of the mediator to the dark matter and Standard Model particles of 1.
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44

Altberg, Lena. "Utveckling och utvärdering av en lektionsplanering gällande densitet i naturorienterande ämnen för årskurs 2-3." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för elektroteknik, matematik och naturvetenskap, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-36944.

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45

Cyriac, Praveen. "Tone mapping based on natural image statistics and visual perception models." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/402574.

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Les tècniques d'imatge d'alt rang dinàmic (HDR) potencialment permeten la captura i l'emmagatzematge de tota la informació de llum en una escena. No obstant això, els dispositius comuns de visualització són limitats en termes de les seves capacitats de contrast i brillantor, per tant, les imatges HDR han de ser mapejades tonalment abans de presentar-les en un dispositiu de visualització per assegurar que es reprodueix l'aspecte original de l'escena. En aquesta tesi, es prenen dos enfocaments del problema de mapeig tonal. En primer lloc, es desenvolupa un marc general per a la millora de qualsevol imatge mapejada tonalment mitjançant la reducció de la distància a la corresponent imatge HDR en termes d'una mètrica perceptiva no local. La distància es redueix al mínim per mitjà d'un algoritme de descens de gradient. En segon lloc, es desenvolupa un operador de mapeig tonal (TMO) en temps real que s'adapta bé a les estadístiques d'escenes naturals, i concorda amb els nous descobriments psicofísics i dades neurofísiques. Determinem les correctes adaptacions no lineals necessàries per als nostres resultats de mapeig tonal per tal d'obtenir l'aparença òptima en diferents condicions de visualització, a través d'experiments psicofísics i desenvolupar un mètode automàtic per poder predir dades experimentals. El nostre TMO produeix resultats d'aspecte natural, sense cap tipus d'artefactes espacials o temporals. Els tests de preferència dels usuaris mostren que el nostre mètode obté millors resultats en comparació amb les tècniques més recents. El TMO és ràpid i podria ser implementat en el hardware de la càmera. Pot ser utilitzat per al monitoratge de càmeres HDR en pantalles regulars, com a substitut de la correcció gamma, i com una manera de proporcionar al colorista amb contingut que té alhora un aspecte natural i una aparença nítida i clara.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging techniques potentially allow for the capture and storage of the full information of light in a scene. However, common display devices are limited in terms of their contrast and brightness capabilities, thus HDR images must be tone mapped before presentation on a display device to ensure that the original appearance of the scene is reproduced. In this thesis, we take two approaches to the tone mapping problem. First, we develop a general framework for improving any tone mapped image by reducing the distance with the corresponding HDR image in terms of a non-local perceptual metric. The distance is minimized by means of a gradient descent algorithm. Second, we develop a real-time Tone Mapping Operator (TMO) that is well suited to the statistics of natural scenes, and is in keeping with new psychophysical findings and neurophysical data. We determine the adequate non-linear adjustments needed for our tone mapping results to look best in different viewing conditions through a psychophysical experiment and develop an automatic method that can predict the experimental data. Our TMO produces results that look natural, without any spatio-temporal artifacts. User preference tests show that our method outperforms state of the art approaches. The TMO is fast and could be implemented on camera hardware. It can be used for on-set monitoring of HDR cameras on regular displays, as a substitute for gamma correction, and as a way of providing the colorist with content that is both natural looking and has a crisp and clear appearance.
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46

Heidelk, Tillmann. "Education, labor markets, and natural disasters." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/304527.

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This thesis explores the entire cycle of education, from initial access to schooling, over degree completion, to returns to education. Despite recent gains in increasing access, an tens of millions of children worldwide are still out of school. Abolishing school fees has increased enrollment rates in several countries where enrollments were low and fees were high. However, such policies may be less effective, or even have negative consequences, when supply-side responses are weak. The first part of the thesis evaluates the impacts of a tuition waiver program in Haiti, which provided public financing to nonpublic schools conditional on not charging tuition. The chapter concludes that school's participation in the program results in more students enrolled, more staff, and slightly higher student-teacher ratios. The program also reduces grade repetition and the share of overage students. While the increase in students does not directly equate to a reduction in the number of children out of school, it does demonstrate strong demand from families for the program and a correspondingly strong supply response from the nonpublic sector.Pertaining degree completion, it is well established that natural disasters can have a negative effect on human capital accumulation. However, a comparison of the differential impacts of distinct disaster classes is missing. Using census data and information from DesInventar and EMDAT, two large disaster databases, the second part of the thesis assesses how geological disasters and climatic shocks affect the upper secondary degree attainment of adolescents. The chapter focuses on Mexico, given its diverse disaster landscape and lack of obligatory upper secondary education over the observed time period. While all disaster types are found to impede attainment, climatic disasters that are not infrastructure-destructive (e.g. droughts) have the strongest negative effect, decreasing educational expansion by over 40%. The effects seem largely driven by demand-side changes such as increases in school dropouts and fertility, especially for young women. The results may also be influenced by deteriorated parental labor market outcomes. Supply-side effects appear to be solely driven by infrastructure-destructive climatic shocks (e.g. floods). These findings thus call for differential public measures according to specific disaster types and an enhanced attention to climatic events given their potentially stronger impact on younger generations.It is also widely appreciated that natural disasters can have negative impacts on local labor market outcomes. However, the study of differential types of negative capital shocks, the underlying labor market mechanisms, and the context of the poorest countries have been neglected. Following testable predictions of economic theory, the third part of the thesis exploits the exogenous variation of destruction of human and physical capital caused by the 2010 Haiti earthquake to disentangle the differential impact on local individual monetary returns to education. Employing individual-level survey data from before and after the earthquake the chapter finds that the returns decreased on average by 37%, especially in equipment-capital intensive industry. Higher educated individuals adjust into low-paying self-employment or agriculture. The returns are particularly shock-sensitive for urban residents, migrants, males, and people over age 25.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
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47

Aleksa, Linda C. "Management of a social experiment across multiple settings and institutions regarding childbirth education programs and type of birth." Diss., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/53615.

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Experimentation in field settings addressing socially sensitive topics are generally avoided by researchers. This avoidance is based on the restrictive nature of the required controls and the perceived inability to implement the required designs. In this study, the researcher has documented the necessary steps to meet design requirements for the conduct of a quasi-experimental study in two field settings. This quasi-experimental study addresses a case dealing with the attitudes of parents regarding their childbirth experiences. Programs for childbirth education traditionally emphasize the "natural" method of birth. Socially, cesarean births are currently being performed in 20 percent of the cases. Nursing education literature Suggests that prepared childbirth education programs contribute to negative parental attitudes for those experiencing cesarean birth. In the case for this study, attitudes of parents experiencing both vaginal and cesarean births and receiving three different levels of childbirth education were investigated. Documentation of the required research controls for the case was achieved through the maintenance of a log of events. The three levels of childbirth education included two types of Lamaze training and the non-prepared. Two hundred and sixteen (216) parents in each of the settings were included in the study representing 54 vaginal and 54 cesarean births. The measurements included hospital records/and response to a modified Likert scale. Analysis of variance was used to test the research hypothesis. Documentation of all research requirements for the study was successfully completed and case results obtained. Parents experiencing cesarean birth had more negative attitudes than those experiencing vaginal birth. In one of the two field settings, childbirth education was validated as contributing to more negative attitudes for cesarean birth, but was not replicated in the second setting. A significant (P<.05) first order interaction between type of birth and receipt of childbirth education was found in both settings.
Ed. D.
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48

Matour, Soha. "A new design for double skin facade in warm climates: Improving thermal performance and natural ventilation of the system." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2022. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/231909/1/Soha_Matour_Thesis.pdf.

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This thesis contributes to the improvement of Double Skin facades' thermal performance in warm climates. A new design for DSF was proposed and evaluated using an experimental study on a scaled model and Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations. The proposed facade named IS-DSF (Interstitial slat-blind DSF) showed the capability to reduce overheating risk in the cavity due to two applied strategies: shading devices’ specific placement and wind-induced ventilation improvement. Finally, a framework was developed for the implementation of IS-DSF in warm climates applicable at the early stage of building design.
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49

Siminski, Peter Economics Australian School of Business UNSW. "Essays on the distributional impacts of government." Publisher:University of New South Wales. Economics, 2008. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/41238.

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This thesis consists of three independent essays, unified by the common theme of the distributional impacts of government. The first paper estimates the price elasticity of demand for pharmaceuticals amongst high-income older people in Australia. It exploits a natural experiment by which some people gained entitlement to a price reduction through the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC). The preferred model is a nonlinear Instrumental Variable (IV) difference-in-difference regression, estimated on repeated cross sectional survey data using the Generalised Method of Moments. No significant evidence is found for endogenous card take-up, and so cross-sectional estimates are also considered. Taking all of the results and possible sources of bias into account, the ??headline?? estimate is -0.1, implying that quantity demanded is not highly responsive to price. The elasticity estimate is a key input into the second paper which analyses the distributional impact of the CSHC. I consider the trade-off between moral hazard and risk pooling. There have been few previous attempts internationally to address this trade-off empirically for any health insurance scheme. The utility gain through risk-pooling is found to be negligible. However, the deadweight loss through moral hazard may be considerable. I also use an illustrative model to demonstrate the possible effects of the CSHC on inter-temporal savings behaviour. While the CSHC may induce some people to save, it may have the opposite effect on others. The net impact was not determined. The third paper estimates the Australian public sector wage premium. It includes a detailed critical review of the methods available to address this issue. The chosen approach is a quasi-differenced panel data model, estimated by nonlinear IV, which has many advantages over other methods and has not been used before for this topic. I find a positive average public sector wage premium for both sexes. The best estimates are 10.0% for men and 7.1% for women. The estimate for men is statistically significant (p < 0.04) and borders on significance for women (p < 0.07). No evidence is found to suggest that the public sector has an equalising effect on the wages of its workers.
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50

Makovska, Alina. "Gamtamokslinio ugdymo vientisumo problema: pradinis ugdymas." Master's thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2005. http://vddb.library.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2005~D_20050616_205415-16665.

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In this manuscript there a new method that possesses an element of early development of children is introduced. In this case the “game”, that learn pupils of primary school to perform the laboratory work, is suggested. The primary school students are acquainted with the aim of experiments, the order of their performing and the results description. There have performed several examinations of the after performing the laboratory work. Thus, the good development results were achieved. Primary science education in Lithuania is compared with primary education in Sweden.
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