For the first time in Lithuania the foliage spectral reflectance properties of common tree species were investigated using hyperspectral imaging. The methodological outline was formulated and the procedures of practical hyperspectral imaging application were developed to stimulate the progress of hyperspectral remote sensing in Lithuanian forestry. Information extracted from foliage hyperspectral reflectance data was used to accurately determine forest tree species and the provenances of Scots Pine trees. The satisfactory results of determination of Scots Pine crown defoliation and the concentration of some needles chemical constituents were achieved investigating the foliar hyperspectral reflectance, too. The first spectral libraries of common Lithuanian tree species foliar reflectance were built considering the growing season. / Suformuoti hiperspektrinio skenavimo naudojimo įvairioms miško medžių savybėms tirti metodiniai ir praktiniai pagrindai – sukurtos ir išbandytos mėginių paėmimo, jų paruošimo skenuoti, skenavimo atlikimo ir gautos informacijos apdorojimo metodikos, kurios aprobuotos vykdant mokslinius tyrimus. Nustatyti vegetacijos sezono momentai, kuriais skirtingų miško medžių rūšių atpažinimas nuotoliniu būdu pagal jų spektrinus atspindžius būtų tiksliausias, o tai sudaro prielaidas tobulinti kitas nuotoliniais. Pasiūlyti metodai paprastosios pušies spyglių kai kurių cheminių elementų koncentracijai nustatyti naudojant hiperspektrinį skenavimą. Sukurtos Lietuvos miškuose augančių pagrindinių medžių rūšių lapijos spektrinio atspindžio kreivių bibliotekos, naudotinos miškų inventorizacijoje, kalibruoti ir klasifikuoti orlaiviuose sumontuotais jutikliais išgautus Lietuvos medynų hiperspektrinius vaizdus.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In the 1750s, a group of Scots-Irish families migrated from southeastern Pennsylvania to central North Carolina and became known to local historians as The Nottingham Settlement. To determine the motivation behind members' migration to and settlement in present-day Guilford County, I propose that factors used to identify the Settlement, such as proximity, society, culture and religion, establish a model for North Carolina's backcountry communities in the mid-eighteenth century. Relying on methods employed in similar backcountry community studies to explore extant source materials for this specific set of colonists, the study provides local and family historians with an in-depth view of the lives of those associated with the Settlement as well as others residing nearby in colonial Guilford County.

This thesis provides the first account of complaint in Older Scots literature. It argues for the coherent development of a distinctively Scottish complaining voice across the fifteenth century, characterised by an interest in the relationship between amatory and ethical concerns, between stasis and narrative movement, and between male and female voices. Chapter 1 examines the literary contexts of Older Scots complaint, and identifies three paradigmatic texts for the Scottish complaint tradition: Ovid’s Heroides; Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae; and Alan of Lille’s De Planctu Naturae. Chapter 2 concentrates on the complaints in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Arch. Selden. B. 24 (c. 1489-c. 1513). It considers afresh the Scottish reception of Lydgate’s Complaint of the Black Knight and Chaucer’s Anelida and Arcite, and also offers original readings of three Scottish complaints preserved uniquely in this manuscript: the Lay of Sorrow, the Lufaris Complaynt, and the Quare of Jelusy. Chapter 3 focuses on the relationship between complaint and narrative, arguing that the complaints included in the Buik of Alexander (c. 1438), Lancelot of the Laik (c. 1460), Hary’s Wallace (c. 1476-8), and The Buik of King Alexander the Conquerour (c. 1460-99) act as catalysts for narrative movement and subvert the complaint’s traditional identity as a static form. Chapter 4 is a study of complaint in Robert Henryson’s three major works: the Morall Fabillis (c. 1480s); the Testament of Cresseid (c. 1480-92); and Orpheus and Eurydice (c. 1490-2), and argues that Henryson consistently connects the complaint form with the concept of self-knowledge as part of wider discourses on effective governance. Chapter 5 presents the evidence that a text’s identity as a complaint influenced its presentation in both manuscript and print witnesses. The witnesses under discussion date predominantly from the sixteenth century; the chapter thus also uses them to explore the complaints’ later reception history.

Four regional Scots pine ring-width chronologies at the northern forest-limit, and in the northern, middle and southern boreal forest belts in Finland cover the last fourteen centuries. Tree-ring statistics and response functions were examined, and tree-ring width variation was also compared to North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and volcanic forcing. The tree-ring statistics show evidence of an ecogeographical gradient along a north-south transect. The three northernmost regional chronologies share a positive response to mid-summer temperature, and all four chronologies show positive and significant correlation to early-summer precipitation. Moreover, a positive and significant relationship to winter NAO was detected in three out of four regional chronologies. NAO also drives the common (inter-regional) growth variability. Years of known cool summers caused by volcanic forcing exhibit exceptionally narrow tree rings in the three northernmost regional chronologies.

In this dissertation is analysed the transfer of artificial radionuclides (137Cs and 90Sr) from soil to tree. The main goal of this work – to estimate specific activi-ties of 137Cs and 90Sr in selected trees, investigate the peculiarities of these ra-dionuclides distribution in trees, suggest the methodology for estimation of the transfer of radionuclides from soil to tree in tree wood by chemical analog in soil under the tree crown, and to do the forecast of transfer of radionuclides in sys-tem “soil–tree” by the most relevant models. The main tasks solved in this dissertation are following: to do the radiomet-ric, radiochemical and biological affections researches of selected pines, evalu-ate the specific activity and concentration in collected samples of investigated radionuclides and their chemical analogs, apperciate the transfer of 137Cs and 90Sr from soil to tree and analyse peculiarities of this process by soil radioactive pollution and plants growing peculiarities; to modelling the spread of 137Cs and 90Sr distribution in system “soil–plant”, the accumulation of these radionuclides in tree and internal doses. This dissertation consists of introduction, five chapters, the main conclusion and recommendation, bibliography and list of author publications. In the introduction it is discussed the investigated problem, actualities of work, object of research, scientific novelty and practical significant of this dis-sertation, protective hypotheses. Additionally it is... [to full text] / Disertacijoje nagrinėjama dirbtinės kilmės radionuklidų (137Cs ir 90Sr) per-naša iš dirvožemio į medį. Pagrindinis šio darbo uždavinys – nustatyti 137Cs ir 90Sr savituosius aktyvumus tyrimui parinktuose medžiuose bei įvertinti šių ra-dionuklidų pasiskirstymo juose ypatumus, pasiūlyti metodiką radionuklido per-našos iš dirvožemio į medį vertinimui pagal radionuklido cheminį analogą dir-vožemyje po medžio laja, atlikti radionuklido pernašos iš dirvožemio į medį prognozę, parinkus tinkamiausius modelius. Šiame darbe sprendžiami tokie pagrindiniai uždaviniai: atlikti medžių sandų radiometrinius, radiocheminius ir pušų biologinio pažeistumo tyrimus; įvertinti tiriamųjų radionuklidų ir jų stabiliųjų cheminių analogų savituosius aktyvumus bandiniuose; įvertinti 137Cs ir 90Sr pernašos iš dirvožemio į medžius ir pasiskirs-tymo juose ypatumus, atsižvelgiant į dirvožemio radioaktyviąją užtaršą ir augalo vystymosi ypatumus; modeliuoti 137Cs ir 90Sr migracijos sistemoje „dirvožemis–medis“ sklaidą, įvertinti radionuklidų sukauptą augale kiekį, modeliuoti augalo patiriamą vidinę apšvitą. Disertaciją sudaro įvadas, penki skyriai, bendrosios išvados, rekomendaci-jos, naudotos literatūros ir autorės publikacijų sąrašai. Įvadiniame skyriuje aptariama tiriamoji problema, darbo aktualumas, apra-šomas tyrimų objektas, darbo mokslinis naujumas, darbo rezultatų praktinė reikšmė, ginamieji teiginiai. Pristatomos disertacijos tema autorės paskelbtos publikacijos, pranešimai, disertacijos struktūra... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

This thesis traces the migration of Irish Presbyterian clerics to the Thirteen Colonies and the United States over the course of the years 1683 to 1901. Further, it demonstrates that this clerical migration can be used in conjunction with what is already known about Irish Presbyterian migration to America in the eighteenth century to sketch the general shape and parameters of general Irish Presbyterian migration to the United States in the nineteenth century—something which seemed a near impossibility due to factors such as an absence of useable demographic data. In so doing, it posits a solution to a problem that has bedeviled specialists in Irish-American immigration for thirty years: how to find and study Irish Protestant immigrants in the nineteenth century in a way which gives some idea of the overall shape and frequency of the phenomenon. The following thesis is interdisciplinary and broad in the techniques employed, questions asked, and the literature it has consulted, incorporating much developed by historians of religion, ethnicity, culture, Colonial America, the United States, the Atlantic world, Ireland, and Britain in this study of emigration from Ireland and immigration to America. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2012-10-31 16:08:27.855

Investigations of interactions between climate change and humans suffer from the lack of climate proxies directly linked to historical or archaeological datasets that describe past environmental conditions at a particular location and time. We present a new set of pine tree-ring records (Pinus sylvestris L) developed from burial timbers excavated at the historical center of Yaroslavl city, Russia. A 171 year delta C-13 tree-ring chronology from AD 1430 to AD 1600 evidences mostly wet summers during the 15th century but exceptionally dry conditions of the 16th century at the Upper Volga catchment. According to the tree-ring record there were four major droughts (<-1.5 sigma) lasting from 9 to 26 years: 1501-1517, 1524-1533, 1542-1555 and 1570-1596, and major pluvials (>+1.5 sigma) lasting from 70 to 5 years: 1430-1500, 1518-1523, 1534-1541, and 1556-1564. We discuss a plausible contribution of these droughts to crop failures and city fires documented with historical chronicles for the Upper Volga catchment. The devastating drought regime of the 16th century corresponds to the loss of independence of the Yaroslavl principality to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the formation of the centralized Russian State during the reign of Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) underpinning the emergence of the Russian Empire. This study substantiates the value of archaeological timbers from the oldest Russian cities and inclusion of stable carbon isotope analysis for understanding hydroclimatic regimes across the mid latitudes of East European Plain, and their relationship to the history of Russia. (C) 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Minimum blue intensity is a reflected light imaging technique that provides an inexpensive, robust and reliable surrogate for maximum latewood density. In this application it was found that temperature reconstructions from resin-extracted samples of Pinus sylvestris (L.) from Fennoscandia provide results equivalent to conventional x-ray densitometry. This paper describes the implementation of the blue intensity method using commercially available software and a flat-bed scanner. A calibration procedure is presented that permits results obtained by different laboratories, or using different scanners, to be compared. In addition, the use of carefully prepared and chemically treated 10-mm-diameter cores are explored; suggesting that it may not be necessary to produce thin laths with the rings aligned exactly perpendicular to the measurement surface.

Several studies carried out in boreal forests have found significant edge effects in Scots pine although, none of them in southern Sweden. The aim of this study was to investigate edge effects in adjacent Scots pine stands and its influence on tree growth and field vegetation composition. This was carried out in 10 selected forest edges in southeastern Sweden. Results showed reduced number of stems, height, diameter and basal area growth among young trees in particular within 2 m from the forest edge. In the older stands number of stems, diameter and basal area growth increased within the first 2 m from the edge. Field vegetation inventory showed differences in composition in the adjacent stands. In the older stands lichens, lingonberry and blueberry were more frequent, while heather and grasses showed a higher appearance in young stands.

This thesis critically analyses the law of promise. It does so for the purposes of identifying potential solutions to practical and doctrinal problems in the Thai law of promise. Scots law is chosen as the main point of comparison because, inter alia, both jurisdictions are mixed jurisdictions. Scots promissory law was influenced by the Canon Law and was part of the ius commune tradition. Scots law was not influenced by English law in this area. Scots law has developed its own promissory obligation as a free standing legal entity outwith contract. Thai promissory legal principles were derived from both Civilian and English sources. Consequently, promissory language is used both in the sense of a unilateral obligation and a contractual promise. Moreover, the Thai drafters did not acknowledge the different attitude towards a unilateral promise of French law (where a promise must be accepted in order to be binding) and German law (where particular types of unilateral obligations are recognised). This thesis argues that the flaws in promissory provisions under the Thai Code stem from the fact that, inter alia, the drafters did not understand the difference between unilateral and bilateral obligations. This thesis argues that the Scots promissory approach presents a more efficient structure of the law of obligations than the Thai approach. It encounters fewer problems than Thai law because a promise is deemed to be a standalone obligation. This thesis further analyses the practical applications of promise, arguing that a promissory analysis is useful in conceptualising practical circumstances. Adopting a promissory approach is beneficial, making doctrinal analysis clearer in comparison with the offer and acceptance approach. This thesis takes into account the role given to promise in the DCFR. The notion of a unilateral undertaking in the DCFR illustrates that the most recent model rule of European private law recognises the importance of a unilateral obligation. This reflects the fact that the notion of a contract cannot appropriately deal with certain situations in which a person unilaterally intends his/her undertaking to be bound without acceptance. It is concluded that the Scots approach of regarding a promise as an independent obligation separate from contract could be adapted to Thai law. There are certain resemblances between Scots and Thai law in promissory theories and the obligational nature of a promise. Therefore, Thai law is not unfamiliar with the notion that a declaration of wills can unilaterally create an obligation. The proposed approach provides a number of advantages e.g. eradicating an overlap between a promise and an offer; clarifying the legal status of promise; and making the legal status of a promise to make a contract compatible with a promise of reward. In particular, this thesis postulates that promise has a substantive role to play in governing an offer specifying a period of acceptance. This particular observation has, to date, not been made in relation to Thai law.