Studies have shown that climate change causes large scale human displacement. With this as background this thesis investigates the connection between climate change and immigration/asylum in EU documents. The EU is an institution that has not acknowledged the existence of climate change induced migration despite outside awareness that the phenomenon exists. This thesis analyzes discourses about climate change and immigration/asylum in the EU in order to find out how EU regards climate change induced migrants, and why it has not acknowledged their existence or provides protection. The thesis found that discourses of inclusion and exclusion based on European ethnicity and culture restricts possibilities for migrants from developing countries to come to Europe. It also found that EU represents its strategy to fight climate change as comprehensive and leaves no room for changes in that strategy. These two findings in combination explain why climate change induced migrants are not acknowledged, and in extension do not get protection from the EU. The research found that the absence of an acknowledgement and protection for climate change induced migrants is influenced by political discourses in the EU that see unskilled immigrants from developing countries as a threat and danger to Europe and its current climate change strategy as sufficient for coping with the effects of climate change.

This thesis explores the long-run relationship between forced migration and political outcomes in the host society. In the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), over 1.2 million Greek-Orthodox individuals were forcibly relocated from the lands of Anatolia to Greece. Their resettlement, facilitated by international assistance, meant an ethnic division between the locals and newcomers, with the latter group becoming the pivotal political actor. This study examines the legacy of the resettlement of the Greek-Orthodox refugees on the politics of Greece's debt crisis era (2010-2015), a period when Greece's alignment with Europe was in question. Using a newly compiled dataset on voting patterns in the 2015 Greek bailout referendum and four legislative elections, alongside municipality-level characteristics, the analysis finds no significant relationship between the local share of resettled refugees and support for the "NO" vote or Eurosceptic parties. These findings contribute to the existing literature by offering a perspective on the long-run political impacts of a historic episode of forced displacement within the context of Greece's strategic dilemma between Europeanisation and sovereigntism.

The aim of this thesis is to attempt to address gaps in the forced displacement-conflict escalation literature, as well as in the literature on conflict forecasting. By posing the question To what extent can data on forced displacement improve accuracy of conflict escalation forecasts?, the aim is to explore the possible bidirectional relationship between forced displacement and armed conflict, as well as how such a relationship may be beneficial for conflict forecasts. Through utilizing Random Forest classifiers and regressors, two hypotheses are tested: 1) Increasing numbers of displaced persons are associated with escalating violence, and 2) Incorporating forced displacement data into conflict forecasting models can improve the accuracy of conflict timing prediction. The obtained results offer support for both hypotheses, in turn providing two contributions to the field of peace and conflict studies. First, that the relationship between displacement and conflict escalation is not strictly causal. Second, data on displacement magnitudes can improve conflict escalation forecasts.

The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which existing law could provide a legal basis for the protection of cross-border, climate change displaced persons, with a particular focus on Southern Africa. Before such an analysis can be made, however, it is important first to determine what climate change displacement exactly implies. By means of integrating and refining existing legal terminology and ideas the study attempts to disentangle the international contention on the subject and proposes that individuals who are forced from their countries of habitual residence as a reaction primarily to climatic push factors which pose an existential threat to their right to life are most in need of protection and may be referred to as cross-border climate change displaced persons. As climate change displacement is expected to occur primarily on the sub-regional geopolitical level of governance, the inclusion of regional, AU, and sub-regional, SADC, elements is important for the practical feasibility of this study. Southern Africa's particular vulnerability to the effects of climate change, making the advent of large numbers of climate change displaced persons in the area a reasonable prediction for the future, further justifies this study's chosen scope. After analysing the different legal branches of refugee law, human rights law and environmental law for each geopolitical level of governance referred to, this study concludes that: While there are several potential provisions in law that could provide protection to persons displaced by climate change, a sufficient protection framework can be derived only from the composite characteristics of different branches of law. Therefore, it is recommended that a matrix approach is followed when providing legal protection to climate change displaced persons. Because different fields of law provide more prominent protection in different spheres of governance, it is also recommended that the configuration of a legal protection matrix be adjustable to particular circumstances. It is therefore suggested that a legal protection mechanism is developed for each geopolitical sphere, and that different mechanisms are coordinated internationally. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which existing law could provide a legal basis for the protection of cross-border, climate change displaced persons, with a particular focus on Southern Africa. Before such an analysis can be made, however, it is important first to determine what climate change displacement exactly implies. By means of integrating and refining existing legal terminology and ideas the study attempts to disentangle the international contention on the subject and proposes that individuals who are forced from their countries of habitual residence as a reaction primarily to climatic push factors which pose an existential threat to their right to life are most in need of protection and may be referred to as cross-border climate change displaced persons. As climate change displacement is expected to occur primarily on the sub-regional geopolitical level of governance, the inclusion of regional, AU, and sub-regional, SADC, elements is important for the practical feasibility of this study. Southern Africa's particular vulnerability to the effects of climate change, making the advent of large numbers of climate change displaced persons in the area a reasonable prediction for the future, further justifies this study's chosen scope. After analysing the different legal branches of refugee law, human rights law and environmental law for each geopolitical level of governance referred to, this study concludes that: While there are several potential provisions in law that could provide protection to persons displaced by climate change, a sufficient protection framework can be derived only from the composite characteristics of different branches of law. Therefore, it is recommended that a matrix approach is followed when providing legal protection to climate change displaced persons. Because different fields of law provide more prominent protection in different spheres of governance, it is also recommended that the configuration of a legal protection matrix be adjustable to particular circumstances. It is therefore suggested that a legal protection mechanism is developed for each geopolitical sphere, and that different mechanisms are coordinated internationally. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The different technologies of passive cooling concepts have to rely on a good thermal coupling between a building's thermal mass and indoor air. In many cases, the ceiling is the only surface remaining for a good coupling. Further research is necessary to investigate discrepancies between existing correlations. Therefore, the overall aim of the work described in this thesis is the investigation of heat transfer at a heated ceiling in an experimental chamber. Acoustic baffles obstruct the surface of the ceiling and impede heat transfer. However, there is nearly no published data about the effect of such baffles on heat transfer. Available results from simulations should be verified with an experimental investigation. Consequently, one of the primary aims of this work was to experimentally determine the influence of such acoustic baffles. A suitable experimental chamber has been built at Biberach University of Applied Sciences. The thesis describes the experimental chamber, the experimental programme as well as results from five different test series. With a value of ±0.1Wm⁻²K⁻¹ for larger temperature differences, uncertainty in resulting convective heat transfer coefficients for natural convection is comparable to that of results from an existing recent experimental work often recommended for use. Additionally, total heat transfer (by convection and radiation) results are presented. Results are given for natural, forced and mixed convection conditions at an unobstructed heated ceiling. Furthermore, results for acoustic baffles in both an unventilated and a ventilated chamber are shown. Natural convection results show a very good agreement with existing correlations. Under mixed convection conditions, convective heat transfer at an unobstructed ceiling decreases to the limiting case described by natural convection. Installation of acoustic baffles leads to a reduction in total heat transfer (convection and radiation) between 20% and 30% when compared to the case of an unobstructed ceiling.

This dissertation concerns the legacy of the Nazi forced enlistment during World War II and focuses more precisely on the case of Alsace/Moselle. Many of these French men, enlisted by force from 1942 in the German army, were sent to the Eastern Front and experienced Soviet prison camps. The aim of this thesis is to examine how knowledge and memories about forced enlistment and Soviet captivity have been remembered, commemorated, communicated and passed on since the Alsatian/Mosellan POWs (Prisoners of War) carried the tokens of enemies or traitors when reintegrating their motherland, France. Four strategies dealing with the experiences of forced enlistment and of internment in Soviet prison camps are examined. I present how the first and most common strategy, i.e. avoidance, is contributing to an individual and collective construction of silence. Then I argue that a second strategy, the constitution of families of remembrance, is helping them to articulate and narrate their experiences (third strategy). The fourth strategy is the organisation of pilgrimages (emic term) to the former prison camp of Tambov, where the majority of the Alsatian/Mosellan POWs were gathered during the war. This last strategy actualises the issue of the transmission of the war experiences given that pilgrimages bring together three to four generations. Through fieldwork observations of the journeys I show how the pilgrims engage with a sense of the past. They remember and reassess the meaning of the past in terms of the social, cultural and political needs of the present. The importance of place and the aspect of self-in-place are thoughtfully analysed in order to highlight the process of passing on the memory of Tambov. I conclude by arguing that the agents of remembrance interviewed for the purpose of this thesis are engaged in turning the tangible and intangible legacies of World War II into heritage. This is done by releasing the legacy of forced enlistment and internment in Soviet prison camp from the private/familial sphere and inscribing it in the public sphere. Yet, the agency of the former POWs and their descendants shows how to let pass a past “that does not want to pass” in a contemporary European context.

The aim of this dissertation was to address a theoretical debate on belief bias. Belief bias is the tendency for people to be influenced by their prior beliefs when engaged in deductive reasoning. Deduction is the act of drawing necessary conclusions from premises which are meant to be assumed as true. Given that the logical validity of an argument is independent of its content, being influenced by your prior beliefs in such content is considered a bias. Traditional theories posit there are two belief bias components. Motivated reasoning is the tendency to reason better for arguments with unbelievable conclusions relative to arguments with believable conclusions. Response bias is the tendency to accept believable arguments and to reject unbelievable arguments. Dube et al. (2010) pointed out critical methodological problems that undermine evidence for traditional theories. Using signal detection theory (SDT), they found evidence for response bias only. We adopted the SDT method to compare the viability of the traditional and the response bias accounts. In Chapter 1 the relevant literature is reviewed. In Chapter 2 four experiments which employed a novel SDT-based forced choice reasoning method are presented, showing evidence compatible with motivated reasoning. In Chapter 3 four experiments which used the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) method are presented. Crucially, cognitive ability turned out to be linked to motivated reasoning. In Chapter 4 three experiments are presented in which we investigated the impact of cognitive ability and analytic cognitive style on belief bias, concluding that cognitive style mediated the effects of cognitive ability on motivated reasoning. In Chapter 5 we discuss our findings in light of a novel individual differences account of belief bias. We conclude that using the appropriate measurement method and taking individual differences into account are two key elements to furthering our understanding of belief bias, human reasoning, and cognitive psychology in general.

According to the dominant approach in the theory of vagueness, the nature of the vagueness of an expression ‘F’ consists in its presenting borderline cases in an appropriately ordered series: objects which are neither definitely F nor definitely not F (where the notion of definiteness can be semantic, ontic, epistemic, psychological or primitive). In view of the various problems faced by theories of vagueness adopting the dominant approach, the thesis proposes to reconsider the naive theory of vagueness, according to which the nature of the vagueness of an expression consists in its not drawing boundaries between any neighbouring objects in an appropriately ordered series. It is argued that expressions and concepts which do present this feature play an essential role in our cognitive and practical life, allowing us to conceptualize—in a way which would otherwise be impossible—the typically coarse-grained distinctions we encounter in reality. Despite its strong initial plausibility and ability to explain many phenomena of vagueness, the naive theory is widely rejected because thought to be shown inconsistent by the sorites paradox. In reply, it is first argued that accounts of vagueness based on the dominant approach are themselves subject to higher-order sorites paradoxes. The paradox is then solved on behalf of the naive theory by rejecting the unrestricted transitivity of the consequence relation on a vague language; a family of logics apt for reasoning with vague expressions is proposed and studied (using models with partially ordered values). The characteristic philosophical and logical consequences of this novel solution are developed and defended in detail. In particular, it is shown how the analysis of what happens in the attempt of surveying a sorites series and deciding each case allows the naive theory to recover a "thin" notion of a borderline case.

在國內外陸續爆發財務報表舞弊案件(如安隆、博達等)後，我國主管機關透過增修各項規範(如會計師法、上市上櫃公司治理實務守則等)以及準強制性會計師輪調的實施，加強會計師的法律責任與獨立性，期許能確保會計師的審計品質，並保障投資人的權益，維護資本市場的健全。 在文獻回顧中發現，會計師的任期對審計品質的影響，目前尚未有較一致的看法；有學者主張強制性會計師輪調下，繼任會計師需付出較高的審計初始成本，且因對產業及公司之不熟悉，導致繼任會計師於審計初始任期時，審計品質反而較前任會計師低落。我國遭受懲戒會計師之審計品質較未受懲戒會計師低，但會計師遭受停業懲戒後，繼任會計師並未能對審計品質有所改善。本研究欲探討企業歷經會計師遭受停業而被迫必須予以更換下，繼任會計師在更換初期及擔任較長任期後的審計品質，相較原任會計師的審計品質是否有差異。 本研究以裁決性應計數報導幅度作為衡量審計品質的代理變數，參考相關文獻建立研究模型，並以台灣金管會證期局於民國96年公佈之近5年會計師懲戒名單為基準樣本，找出受懲戒會計師之客戶公司為觀察樣本，分析當企業因原任會計師受懲戒被停業或除名而必須更換會計師時，繼任會計師是否能改善原任會計師較差的審計品質，結果並未能發現繼任會計師審計品質相較原任會計師有顯著改善的證據。本研究進一步分析所內繼任會計師(相對初始成本較低、但獨立性亦較低)及所外繼任會計師(相對初始成本較高、但獨立性亦較高)間，審計品質改善是否有所差異，結果未能發現兩者有顯著的差異。 / From USA to Taiwan, lots of financial scandals have disheartened investors in recent years. For the purpose of improving audit quality of financial reports and protecting interests of the investing public, regulators in Taiwan instituted new rules and implemented a “quasi-forced CPA rotation system” to enhance auditors’ legal responsibility and independence. In literature review, findings about the relationship between auditor tenure and audit quality are not all consistent. Under forced CPA rotation, because of the necessary higher start-up cost and unfamiliarity of client business, succeeding auditor’s audit quality is often lower than the predecessor. Prior studies find the audit quality of sanctioned CPAs to be lower than those not sanctioned, and their succeeding auditors who replace CPAs whose licenses’ are suspended can not improve the audit quality significantly. The purpose of this study is to investigate the difference between the audit quality of predecessor CPAS, who are under temporary suspension of license and that of their successor auditors both at the initial stage of the change several years afterwards. ABSDA is the proxy of audit quality in this study, and a model based on literature to date is developed. This study uses the CPA sanction cases posted on the website of the Securities and Futures Bureau (SFB). The client firms whose CPAs were sanctioned by regulatory authorities during the part five years are taken as samples in the research. The empirical tests find that succeeding CPAs can’t significantly improve the audit quality subsequent to the change. Moreover, the study tests if the succeeding CPAs from the same firm of the predecessor CPA can make greater improvement on audit quality than succeeding CPAs from another firm can. The findings show no significant difference between those two either.