Separating Skill from Luck in REIT Mutual Funds

This study uses a bootstrap methodology to explicitly distinguish between skill and luck for 80 Real Estate Investment Trust Mutual Funds in the period January 1995 to May 2008. The methodology successfully captures non-normality in the idiosyncratic risk of the funds. Using unconditional, beta conditional and alpha-beta conditional estimation models, the results indicate that all but one fund demonstrates poor skill. Tests of robustness show that this finding is largely invariant to REIT market conditions and maturity.

The Papacy and the Nations of Christendom: a study with particular focus on the pontificate of John XXII (1316-1334)

This thesis offers a comparative examination of how expressions of nationhood and sovereignty in the four border nations of Poland, Scotland, Ireland and Lithuania were informed by the intellectual climate of the papal Curia in the early fourteenth century. It seeks to demonstrate that their shared conceptual language was in no small part due to their intended audience, the papacy, and the identity of their authors, whose understanding of apolitical language associated with the Curia was evidently profound. At a time when die more powerful monarchies of Christendom were articulating their national sovereignty in opposition to the universal claims of both empire and papacy, conceptions of nationhood and independence were evolving along, in many ways, quite different lines in these four frontier political communities. The inspiration for their assertions lay not with any powerful prince, but with a power vacuum, coupled with the threat of oppression or occupation from foreign neighbours. Responsibility for articulating concerns about nationhood and sovereignty lay with churchmen - both secular and regular - for whom such matters were naturally expressed within the legal and theological terms of reference provided by the Curia and its associated political discourse. While providing obvious parallels in conceptual language, the assertions of all four nations also demonstrate the breadth of ways in which canonistic thinking and other intellectual developments associated with the Curia could be harnessed as a means of expressing the political rights of a nation. The papacy's response to such articulations has often been characterised as unsympathetic, typified by the outlook of John XXII, to whom the most famed appeals from all four nations were directed. The comparative approach of this thesis reveals that in fact the pope's rather hesitant and carefully-worded responses did nothing to refute their assertions, and in many cases supported them, albeit sometimes inadvertently

An evaluation of selected estimation methods for the processing of differential absorption lidar data

This work examines the application of selected estimation methods to path integrated direct detection CO₂ lidar data, with the objective of improving the precision in the estimates of the log power, and log power ratios. Particular emphasis is given to the optimal estimation techniques of Kalman filtering theory, and to the consequent requirements for system and measurement model identification. A dual wavelength system was designed and constructed, employing two hybridised TEA lasers, a co-axial transceiver, and direct detection.Over a period of several months, a database of differential absorption measurements was accumulated, each consisting of 10,000 dual wavelength lidar returns. Various wavelength pairs were used, including those recommended for the monitoring of H₂O, CO₂, NH₃ and C₂H₄. A subset of this database is used to evaluate the above mentioned estimation methods. The results are compared with simulated data files in which it was possible to control precisely process models which are believed to form an approximation to the real processes latent in the actual lidar data

The Failure of Correlation to Describe Out-of-Plane Carbon=Carbon Bending

Carbon-carbon multiply bonded systems are improperly described with standard correlation methods and basis sets. For computations of vibrational modes, the out-of- plane bends can be reported as imaginary at worst or simply too low at best. Utilizing the simplest of aromatic structures (cyclopropenylidene) and various levels of theory, this work diagnoses this known behavior for the first time. A combined 1-particle and n-particle basis set effect conspire to produce these non-physical results. When moving from sp2 to sp3 hybridization in the carbon atoms, the larger number of basis functions overcorrects the energy. This is exacerbated by correlation methods. These allow for occupation of the and orbitals in the expanded wave function that combine with the hydrogen s orbitals. As a result, the improperly described space can be further and non-physically stabilized by post-Hartree-Fock correlation. This represents a fundamental problem with at least Hartree-Fock based methods of all flavors in describing carbon. Beyond being a flaw in quantum chemical theory, other repercussions will be present in computations regarding spectroscopy as well as energy and environmental studies where highly-accurate hydrocabon vibrational transitions or thermochemical data are needed

Pedagogy and profit: Multiethnic literature, gender and young adult publishing

This project argues that the adult/young adult division has the effect of maintaining social difference—especially along the lines of race and gender—while simultaneously ignoring the process of maintaining social hierarchies that occurs during the publication, reviewing and educational selection processes. Chapter One brings together the history of YAL as a pedagogical tool with its publishing history in order to show that both forces have redefined the genre in response to changing notions of social responsibility tied to American citizenship. There were five major eras within the history of young adult literature, each of which responded to changing notions of citizenship. Chapter Two is a case study of The House on Mango Street (1984) by Sandra Cisneros that examines the effect of texts popularized by young readers on commercial and small press publishing. The House on Mango Street serves as an example of how multicultural education not only influenced the classroom, but together with small, independent presses, increased publication of racially diverse authors during the 1980s and 1990s. Chapter Three interrogates assumptions about the gender bias in young adult publishing that privileges women writers. This chapter reveals how a post-feminist view of publishing creates a false assumption that women dominate YAL at the publication, distribution and consumer levels. Chapter Four outlines the development of “militarization” stories through analysis of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games series and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. The marketing mechanisms for twenty-first century militarization stories promote crossover reading across gender and age lines while simultaneously undercutting a text’s social criticism. Pedagogy and Profit suggests that the study of the publishing industry and educational reform is necessary to scholarship on twentieth century literature

The Case for Agricultural Education in Urban Schools

This student showcase essay explores how researching the city informs learning about the city. In it, I examine my senior thesis project for the urban studies program at Barnard College, in which I argue for the use of container farms to expand urban agricultural education opportunities in career and technical education settings. I review my research process, results, and the argument I developed about Perkins Act funding being essential to such programs. Through my commentary, I demonstrate how completing an urban-focused thesis can change students’ perceptions of the urban built environment.&nbsp

Intergenerational Service Learning: Bridging the Gap Between Two Golden Ages

Many programs in agricultural education and FF A focus on students/FFA members working with those in the early years of life. These are worthy efforts and the payoff will hopefully result in increased agricultural awareness among young people. However, caution should be taken to not overlook the rich resource available through interactions with senior citizens. According to the Census Bureau middle series projections, the elderly population will more than double between now and the year 2050, to 80 miUion. By that year, as many as 1 in 5 Americans could be elderly. Most of this growth should occur between 2010 and 2030, when the baby boom generation enters the elderly years (U.S. Census Bureau, 1996)