This thesis contributes to academic debate about the question: how much substantive protection should investment treaties (IITs) provide to foreign investment? Chapters 5 and 6 argue that arbitral tribunals have interpreted fair and equitable treatment and indirect expropriation provisions of existing IITs in several different ways. Each of these interpretations is sketched as a model level of protection that could be explicitly adopted by states in the future, either through inclusion in new IITs, or through amendment to existing IITs. In this way, the thesis defines a range of prospective options available to states concerning the level of protection to provide to foreign investment through IITs. The thesis evaluates the relative desirability of these different levels of protection. The thesis argues that different levels of protection should be evaluated according to their likely consequences. The thesis develops a framework for inferring and understanding the likely consequences of adopting different levels of protection. The framework proposes that the consequences of a given level of protection can be understood in terms of its likely effect on: economic efficiency; the distribution of economic costs and benefits; flows of foreign direct investment into host states; the realisation of human rights and environmental conservation in host states; and respect for the rule of law in host states. Within this framework, the thesis provides an assessment and synthesis of existing empirical evidence and explanatory theory so far as they relate to the consequences of IIT protections. It also specifies the normative criteria by which these consequences should be evaluated. Through the application of this framework, the thesis concludes that lower levels of protection of foreign investment are, in general, likely to be more desirable than higher levels of protection.

This thesis is a family history of Silas Molema and his three children from the late 1880s to the late 1920s. The Molemas were a family of devout Methodists and educated chiefs in Mafikeng north of British Bechuanaland (part of the Cape colony in 1895) but they held extensive landholdings across the border in the Bechuanaland Protectorate. The thesis explores education, landholding and political office as strategies through which the Molemas attempted to maintain their position of class, status and power. Chiefs perceived formal annexation by Britain in 1885 also as opportunity to pursue greater self-determination, preserve the institutions of chiefly rule, and sustain respectable livelihoods. These aspirations had come to be experienced and understood as sechuana, which was a fluid reconstruction of tradition that helped Molemas and other Bechuana notables straddle incongruous cultural spheres along a racially and ethnically diverse colonial frontier. The thesis argues that nationhood was a key identification through which Molemas and other educated Bechuana saw themselves, and considers why they imagined their nation within the British Empire. The thesis also points to the various historical transformations and private entanglements that enmeshed various conceptions of nationhood into the everyday experience of the family as an emotive and socialising institution. These sentiments of nationhood profoundly shaped this family’s self-understanding, and mediated the choices children made about work, marriage and other significant relationships. The challenge to transfer inherited privilege across generations shaped identities, intersected with the reconfiguration of the local political economy, and impinged upon structural transformations in southern Africa.

Cooperating in the Prisoner's Dilemma is irrational and some supporting mechanism is needed to stabilize cooperation. Indirect reciprocity based on reputation is one such mechanism. Assessing an individual's reputation requires first-order information, i.e. knowledge about its previous behavior, as it is utilized under image scoring. But there seems to be an agreement that in order to successfully stabilize cooperation, higher-order information is necessary, i.e. knowledge of others' previous reputations. We show here that such a conclusion might have been premature. Tolerant scoring, a first-order assessment rule with built-in tolerance against single defections, can lead a society to stable cooperation. (author's abstract)

White-tailed deer are ecosystem engineers that dramatically alter forest understory vegetation. Consequently, deer can impact many species in a forest through both direct and indirect effects. One species that deer may indirectly affect is the gypsy moth, whose pupae are preyed upon by the white-footed mouse. Through alterations to understory habitat of mice, deer may reduce mouse predation on gypsy moth pupae. In this study, I tested for indirect effects of deer on the gypsy moth by comparing mouse abundance, vegetation properties, and predation on pupae inside, and outside, of long-term deer exclosures. Overall, I did not find evidence for indirect effects of deer on the gypsy moth. There was little effect of the exclosures on mouse abundance, predation rates, and habitat measures. High mouse abundances, which likely resulted from a large acorn mast the previous year, may be obscuring indirect effects that would be detected at lower mouse abundances.

Purpose: The purpose of this retrospective chart review was to determine if the survival of two methods of vital pulp therapy (VPT) were influenced by the pre-operative radiographic depth and location of caries. Methods: Electronic patient records (axiUm®) that contained the procedure codes D3120, Indirect Pulp Therapy (IPT), or D3220, Therapeutic Pulpotomy (TP), were queried. Qualifying charts’ pre-operative and post-operative radiographs were viewed in MiPACS® by two raters. Visit records were queried again to identify any other treatment failures. Results: A total of 568 primary molars met the eligibility criteria. There was a difference in survival depending upon the treatment procedure (P < .0001), with D3220 having a significantly higher failure rate than D3120. In the 182 total cases with caries 2/3 to encroaching the pulp, therapy success was greater with IPT (P < .0001). Conclusion: IPT results in longer overall clinical success even at the deepest level of caries.

In this ubiquitous computing society, most students are required to be proficient in computer skills to compete in today’s global job market. These computer skills usually include skills in business productivity applications. Assessing those skills is normally accomplished by hands-on skills exams, which can become onerous and costly. This study explored whether a combination of a computer self-efficacy (CSE) survey, cognitive questions, and skill-based questions could indeed be a valid alternative to a hands-on skills exam. The findings of this study indicate some types of questions may be better predictors of performance on the hands-on skills exam, and some combinations of survey items and questions may be viable alternatives to hands-on skills exams. As a result of this research, schools and companies could adapt these indirect and direct assessments to their situation to perform their own study or assess the skills of their students/employees.

La thèse propose une réflexion sur les possibilités et limites de la traduction du discours second (ou rapporté) en allemand et en français. Le postulat de notre analyse est la complémentarité entre la linguistique contrastive et la traductologie. La première partie pose les concepts opératoires : d'une part, elle décrit le fonctionnement énonciatif du discours second - en posant le problème de sa délimitation - et présente les principes méthodologiques différents mais convergents, dans la perspective que nous adoptons, de la linguistique contrastive et de la traductologie. La deuxième partie est consacrée à la confrontation des deux systèmes de discours second. La troisième partie est une analyse traductologique, réalisée à partir d'un corpus de textes littéraires et de presse. L'analyse révèle l'importance des registres de langue, l'impact du genre de discours et met à jour de nouveaux aspects concernant la traduction des formes indirectes libres de représentation des discours. / The thesis proposes a reflection on the possibilities and limits of the translation of reported speech in both German and French. The postulate of this study is the complementarity between contrastive linguistics and translation study. In the first part, the operational concepts are ascertained : we describe the enunciative modalities of reported speech - thereby raising the issue of its delimitation - and we present the different, yet here convergent, methodological principles that surround contrastive linguistics and translation. The second part focuses on the confrontation from the reported speech systems. The third part consists of a translation analysis and is based on a corpus of literary texts and press. The analysis sheds light on the importance of speech levels, the impact of the type of speech, and reveals new aspects about the translation of free indirect forms of speech representation.

The aim of this thesis is to incorporate the effects of the indirect trade into the gravity model for Czech Republic. Using data from the recently released OECD-WTO TiVA database, a panel of 56 countries in 5 years between 1995 and 2009 is constructed. The traditional approach of estimating the log- linear form of the equation is questioned and in line with current academic research, the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood method is applied. The empirical analysis does not reveal any unambiguous effect of adjusting the gross exports for their foreign content; it rather confirms that Czech ex- ports are significantly driven by the demand for German exports and finds that they are the higher the greater is the share of services value added. Furthermore, it is found that the destination of Czech exports is not signif- icantly determined by target country's participation in global value chains. JEL Classification C13, C23, C67, F14, F60 Keywords gravity model, indirect trade, trade in value added, Czech Republic, Poisson regression, panel data Author's e-mail marek.wlazel@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail vsemerak@yahoo.com

Diploma Thesis Abstract This diploma thesis is focused on the several and joint liability institute as the main securing VAT institute (instrument) with its own legislation in the Czech VAT Act. This thesis should be a comprehensive analysis of the matter of the several and joint liability in the tax process and should provide an alternative view of some of Czech tax doctrinal conclusions. The introductory part of this thesis is devoted to the particular several and joint liability issues arising from the confrontation between private and public branches of law. The author considers the judicial praxis of awarding the subject of the several and joint liability by recourse wrong. This recourse is derived from the unjust enrichment institute by the Czech Supreme Court. The problem is seen by the author in the fact, that the subject of the joint and several liability does his own legal duty and does not fulfil someone else obligation. Then follows the section about the general legislation of the tax joint and several liability. This tax legislation notably regulates status of the tax subject of the several and joint liability in the tax process and the rest of this legislation should be applied on VAT several and joint liability due to the subsidiarity principle. The main section about the individual subject...

This thesis is aimed on the social phenomenon of conscientious objection, its theoretical perception as a legal concept and application in the real world, in particular by the supranational protection of human rights in the European area. Priority concern will be given to the transposition of the general assessments to the special "habitat" of EU law. The basis of the study is built on an analysis of definitions and categories refined by the doctrine and reinforced by the roots of natural law, both of which also serve to determine the methodology and legal perception of conscientious objection. A short study of the Czech law then follows to "pump the theory in legal veins". Large part of the thesis addresses the case law adopted by the European Court of Human Rights which serves as an inspiration and authority for the Union and its Member States. Abstracting the main trends in ECtHR reasoning the thesis draws basic limits laid down by the international protection. It also concludes that the Convention (ECHR) does not preclude developing its own pro or contra- objection approach by the EU institutions. It is, however, supposed to have a great impact on the Unions' legal "technique" in the field of the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. In the context of EU law the special nature of the...