Åskan har i alla tider påverkat livet på jorden med sin enorma kraft. Det har skapats och berättats många skrönor och historier angående olika budskap och bestraffningar i samband med åska. Inte förrän i modern tid har människan börjat att förstå uppkomsten och fysiken bakom åska, som inte än är helt förklarat i detalj. Sedan år 1987, då blixtpejlsystemet LLP (Lightning Location System) installerades i Sverige, har blixtnedslagen och deras egenskaper registrerats och sparats i stora databaser i Sverige. Detta kan ses som en milstolpe i åskforskningen, då mer information om ett blixtnedslag går att erhållas. Utbyggnader och effektivisering av LLP-systemet (blixtpejlsystemet) sker nu i samarbete med andra nordiska länder. Examensarbetet börjar med en introduktion om hur åska uppkommer samt dess elektriska uppladdningsprocesser för att sedan vidare gå in på blixtens fysik. Därefter följer en presentation av LLP-systemet, dess uppbyggnad och funktion. Fördelningen av blixtnedslag längs södra Sveriges kuster under olika förutsättningar, som tid på året, blixtens amplitud och nedslagsplats har studerats. Olika uppkomna effekter av blixtdensiteten längs kusterna till följd av meteorologiska faktorer, som land- och sjöbris, hävningseffekter samt konvektion har studerats. Studier visar att blixtnedslagens densitet är beroende av underlaget och dess egenskaper, som varierar under årstiderna. Sommartid observeras fler blixtnedslag in över land, medan för höstperioden förflyttas detta maximum ut över hav. Land- och sjöbris kan på västkusten ha en påverkande effekt, då ett intensitets-minimum observeras strax utanför kustbandet. En fallstudie av en åskfrontpassage, som passerade över södra och mellersta Sverige den 16 augusti 2001, har studerats med avseende på den uppkomna tråglinjen, så kallad ”squall line”, i samband med frontpassagen. Den genererade kraftig och intensiv blixtaktivitet innan själva frontens ankomst västerifrån. Här ovan har enbart meteorologiska effekter på uppkomsten av åska behandlats. Även den lokala mark- och havsytan kan ge upphov till elektriska fenomen, som har betydelse för uppkomsten av blixtar. Därför studerades de elektriska rymdladdningarna i atmosfären och olika effekter beroende på underlagets skrovlighet. De teoretiska studierna visar på en ökning av rymdladdningsdensiteten över områden med skrovligare underlag, som in över land, vid kraftiga konvektiva moln med höga elektriska fält. Lägre rymdladdningsdensitet över havsytor medför att över hav kan det förekomma mycket högre elektriska fältstyrkor än över ojämn mark. Däremot kan höga föremål ute till havs, som master och vindkraftverk, lätt utlösa blixturladdningar.

The curriculum at the English Language Center (ELC) at Brigham Young University (BYU) currently has two programs: Foundations and Academic. In order for students to progress from Foundations to the Academic Program, they must pass their Level Achievement Tests (LATs), which are administered as final exams. Each semester there are students who do not pass their LATs. The question then is what should happen to these students? Should they be asked to leave the ELC, should they have to repeat the same level until they pass, or should they be promoted without passing their LATs? This project presents an alternative solution to this situation through a curriculum specifically designed for these students. Outlined in this document are the analysis, design, development, and results of implementing that curriculum. The main elements of the course consist of 3 main classes: Reading, Listening/Speaking, Writing/Grammar, and an individualized Language Learning Plan (LLP) that allows the curriculum to be tailored to meet the individual student needs. These LLPs are an integral part of the curriculum and both the problems and benefits associated with them are set out in this paper. The course is woven together using a themed textbook series, which recycles vocabulary and helps to ensure that the students experience an integrated system despite having 3 separate classes. Budgeting is always a consideration for any school, and methods to increase the cost effectiveness of the curriculum are also discussed at various points of the document. Finally, the outcomes and value of the program to the different stakeholders and lessons learned are outlined in order to provide a summary of the overall usefulness and effectiveness of the General Academic Prep (GAP) curriculum.

This thesis dives into the three main aspects of today's experimental high energy physics: detector operation and data preparation, reconstruction and identification of physics objects, and physics analysis.The symbiosis of these is the key to reach a better understanding of the underlying principles of nature. Data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector during 2015-2018 are used. In the context of detector operation and data preparation, the data quality assessment for the Liquid Argon calorimeter of the ATLAS experiment is improved by an adaptive monitoring of noisy channels and mini noise bursts allowing an assessment of their impact on the measured data at an early stage. Besides data integrity, a precise energy calibration of electrons, positrons and photons is essential for many physics analyses and requires an excellent understanding of the detector. Corrections of detector non-uniformities originating from gaps in between the Liquid Argon calorimeter modules and non-nominal high voltage settings are derived and successfully recover the homogeneity in the energy measurement. A further enhancement is reached by introducing the azimuthal position of the electromagnetic cluster in the calibration algorithm. Additionally, a novel approach to exploit tracking information in the historically purely calorimeter-based energy calibration for electrons and positrons is presented. Considering the track momentum results in an about 30% better energy resolution for low-pT electrons and positrons. The described optimisation of the energy calibration is especially beneficial for precision measurements which are one way to test and challenge our current knowledge of the Standard Model of particle physics. Another path is the hunt for new particles, here presented by a search for stopped long-lived particles suggested by many theoretical models. This analysis targets gluinos which are sufficiently long-lived to form quasi-stable states and come to rest in the detector. Their eventual decay results in large energy deposits in the calorimeters. The special nature of the expected signature requires the exploration of non-standard datasets and reconstruction methods. Further, non-collision backgrounds are dominant for this search which are investigated in detail. In the context of simplified supersymmetric models an expected signal sensitivity of more than 3σ for gluinos with a mass up to 1.2 TeV and a lifetime of 100 μs is achieved.

An underlying issue which inheres in any taxation framework relates to the manner in which it operates and the actual distribution of its imposts or appropriations. In this respect, a tax system needs to confront two fundamental (and interrelated) questions – first, precisely how the tax or impost should be imposed and, secondly, who should bear the legal obligation or onus of payment. These issues can be conceptualised not only from a purely legal or positivist perspective, in terms of identifying who will incur the obligation to pay tax, but also in terms of a more economic and instrumental standpoint as to which entity or individual should effectively be paying the tax. These alternatives may not result in the same conclusions, particularly for the taxation of business forms. To provide one example, if the business form has separate legal entity status from its members, should the business form, as a legal person, be subject to tax separately from its members? From a legal standpoint the response to this question is that such a business form should bear the impost. However, from an economical perspective it may be preferable that the business income and/or losses are directly allocated to its members. Indeed, tax transparency (aggregate approach) has been argued as an economically superior model, although it is not without its critics...

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Im Rahmen eines vom Hochschuldidaktischen Zentrums Sachsen ausgelobten Projektes im Rahmen des Verbundes „Lehrpraxis im Transfer“ wurde eine online Lehr-/Lern-Plattform konzipiert und prototypisch implementiert. Dabei stand die Förderung des Wissenstransfers zwischen den verschiedenen sächsischen Hochschulen im Vordergrund, wodurch Lehrende und Lernende effizient im Wissenstransfer unterstützt werden sollen.

Im Rahmen eines vom Hochschuldidaktischen Zentrums Sachsen ausgelobten Projektes im Rahmen des Verbundes „Lehrpraxis im Transfer“ wurde eine online Lehr-/Lern-Plattform konzipiert und prototypisch implementiert. Dabei stand die Förderung des Wissenstransfers zwischen den verschiedenen sächsischen Hochschulen im Vordergrund, wodurch Lehrende und Lernende effizient im Wissenstransfer unterstützt werden sollen.

This thesis presents an investigation into the effect of Liberated Learning Technology (LLP) on academic listening comprehension, notetaking and listening strategies in an English as a foreign language context (L2). Two studies are reported: an exploratory study and subsequent main study. The exploratory study was undertaken to determine L2 and native speaker (L1) students' perceptions on the effectiveness of the technology on academic listening and notetaking. The main study took a more focused approach and as a result, extended the exploratory study that was done in an authentic lecture context in order to gather data to measure listening comprehension and notetaking quality. The participants in the main study comprised six L2 students: five of whom intended to go to university. The methodology was a multimethod one: data was gathered from notetaking samples, protocol analysis, email responses and a questionnaire. Results indicated that continuous speech recognition (CSR) has the potential to support the listening comprehension and notetaking abilities of L2 students as well as facilitate metacognitive listening strategy use and enhance affective factors in academic listening. However, it is important to note that as CSR is an innovative technology, it first needs to meet a number of challenges before its full potential can be realized. Consequently, recommendations for future research and potential innovative uses for the technology are discussed. This thesis contributes to L2 academic listening and notetaking measurement in two areas: 1. the measurement of LLP-supported notetaking; and, 2. the measurement of LLP-supported academic listening comprehension.

本論文之研究目的係驗證銀行管理當局是透過盈餘平穩化，增加盈餘對於未來盈餘的訊息，抑或是操控會計數字從而降低盈餘品質。本文採用兩種指標衡量盈餘平穩化：裁決性的貸款損失準備與公允價值第二等級與第三等級輸入值。以美國銀行作為本論文的樣本標的，經由實證結果發現，盈餘平穩化程度較高的銀行其股價能反映更多未來盈餘的資訊，顯示著平穩化程度會增加銀行當期盈餘對於未來盈餘的預測能力。除此之外，本文依照銀行規模與業務特性，分別比較大小銀行;商業銀行與儲蓄機構，個別探討盈餘平穩化和盈餘資訊性間的關聯。 / This paper investigates whether bank income smoothing is due to communication of future earnings or opportunism to garble accounting numbers. I adopt two measures of bank income smoothing, i.e., discretionary loan loss provision and Level 2&3 fair value inputs. Using a sample of U.S. banks, I find that higher-smoothing banks’ current stock prices capture more information about their future earnings to a larger extent than those of lower-smoothing banks. Moreover, I separate the bigger banks from the small banks and differentiate commercial banks from saving institutions to particularly investigate the association between income smoothing and earnings informativeness.

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