A novel broad spectrum neutron spectrometer has been created to extend the useful energy range of existing neutron Bonner Sphere Spectrometers (BSS). Both an active LiI(Eu) scintillator probe and passive gold foil detector were utilized to extend the energy response of the existing BSS. Above 20 MeV the energy structure for the standard polyethylene BSS are poor because the response functions are not unique. MCNPX was used to investigate several modifications to the BSS system which resulted in the Bonner Sphere Extension (BSE). This cost effective extension uses several concentric spheres of copper, lead, and tungsten heavy metal downscatter materials to extend the useful range of the current BSS from 20 MeV to above 1 GeV. Using both a 3" and 5" inner polyethylene spheres, aluminum shell sets were made with a 1" cavity and filled with the high Z materials for six total sets of spheres. a 12" and 8" polyethylene sphere were also milled to accept the heavy metal spheres. The system was validated at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) neutron beam. The system was calibrated at LANSCE for neutrons up to 800 MeV on target 4's 15 degree right flightpath (4FP15R) at 90 meters. Detailed models in MCNPX were made of the BSS, BSE and LANSCE facilities. Fine group responses were made and compared to the unfolded data from LANSCE. A vast improvement over the BSS system alone was seen with reasonable agreement with time of flight data measured at LANSCE and MCNPX calculated neutron spectra.

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Deux pièces de travail sont inclus dans cette thèse. La première partie analyse l'interaction d'une sphère excentrique avec un faisceau incident quelconque formé dans le cadre de généralisé de la théorie de Lorenz-Mie (generalized Lorenz-Mie theory, GLMT). Distributions de contrôle interne, près de la surface, loin des champs dispersés zone ainsi que le comportement de la morphologie dépendant résonances (MDR) dans une sphère excentrique éclairée par un faisceau focalisé guassien sont analysés. Dans la seconde partie, en utilisant l'EBCM, les propriétés de diffusion de lumière autour de l'angle arc pour un ensemble de sphéroïdes dans des orientations aléatoires éclairé par une onde plane sont étudiés. En comparant les paramètres extraits de ces paramètres originaux utilisés dans les expériences de simulation, la sensibilité de la technique d'arc de la sphéricité des gouttelettes non est quantifié. / Two parts of this work are included in this thesis. The first part analyses the interaction of an eccentric particle with an arbitrary incident shaped beam within the generalized Lorenz-Mie theory (GLMT). Distributions of internal, near-surface, far-zone scattered fields as well as the behavior of morphlogy-dependent resonances (MDRs) in an eccentric sphere illuminated by a focused Gaussian beam are analysed. In the second part, by using the ECBM, light scattering properties around the rainbow angle for an ensemble of spheroids in random orientations illuminated by a plane wave are studied. By comparing the extracted parameters with those original parameters used in the simulation experiments, the sensitivity of the rainbow technique to the non-sphericity of droplets is quantified.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第21520号 / 経博第588号 / 新制||経||288(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 久野 秀二, 教授 黒澤 隆文, 講師 久野 愛 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DFAM

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This research examined the role of communication – and in particular public relations (PR) and public affairs activities – in the decision-making processes around the proposal to build a bypass road around the city of Aberdeen. The study focused on the relative power of various discourses embodied in the arguments and strategies pursued by the promoters and opponents of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Road (AWPR) to affect eventual outcomes. The research sought to revisit theoretical accounts of democratic decision-making as conceptualised by Habermas (1984) in the deliberations of the public sphere, and Foucault (1970) on the role of discourse in structuring civil debates. In his classic study of New Haven, Dahl (2005) found empirical evidence to support a pluralist paradigm. Yet in Flyvbjerg’s (1998a) study of urban planning in Aalborg, Denmark, Lukes’s theories on the second dimension of power and a Foucauldian conceptualistion of power were found to have more acute explanatory power. These major theories have been applied tentatively to the field of public relations by Burkart (2009) who advocates for the utility of a consensus-oriented approach to public relations (COPR). Motion and Leitch (2009) theorise that discourse analysis provides important analytic tools for PR practitioners. This research used the AWPR issue as a case study spanning four key decision-making phases from 2004 to 2012. These stages include representations to the Scottish Parliament; a public local inquiry (PLI); judicial review to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, and a hearing in the UK Supreme Court. The research drew upon triangulated methodologies including Fairclough’s (2012) political discourse analysis; observations at public meetings; and semi-structured interviews The research found that whilst both sides promoted a range of established discourses and PR strategies, the relative power of these discourses and the implementation of the strategies was determining. Political discourse analysis of key texts from the pivotal post PLI phase of the case study provided evidence of the dominance of discourses around economic development and community over weaker environmental discourses. Save Camphill’s campaign was more effective due in large part to the calibre of the professional public relations advice retained. Road Sense used public relations strategies in the early phases of their campaign but the implementation of these activities tended to be tactical, partial or counter-productive. Road Sense focused resources on a legislative strategy which largely eschewed any further attempt to engage with government, community and media stakeholders. The route of judicial review was unsuccessful due to a combination of second dimension power factors, including the reluctance of the UK courts to intervene in planning issues despite the existence of European directives to protect the environment. The AWPR case study concluded that examples of decision-making, as demonstrated by Save Camphill’s success in altering the route, confirm the existence of both the public sphere and pluralism in action. Yet, following Lukes (2005) and Flyvbjerg (1998a), there is equally evidence of a second dimension power variable which yielded more plausible explanatory accounts of the decision-making in favour of the Scheme at the PLI, and subsequently in the Courts. The case study also finds that a Foucauldian interpretation of discourse is required to fully appreciate the weakness of the environmental agenda at the local level especially when pitted against prevailing discourses of economic growth and the popularity of the contemporary car culture. Against this background, Road Sense’s PR strategies were secondary to their ultimate legislative strategy and lacked the requisite consistency on goal alignment and relationship building in lobbying and media relations. For campaigns to be effectual, public relations professionals must audit the power of prevailing discourses as theorised by Motion and Leitch (2009) before Burkart’s consensus-oriented public relations (COPR) approach can realise pluralist outcomes consistent with deliberative democracy.

This thesis analyses the content of three Arab satellite television talk shows and their reception by women in Jordan. It aims to assess the role of talk shows in the Arab public sphere by engaging with different conceptualisations and criticisms of the public sphere theory, starting with Habermas (1989) influential work. The thesis argues that once the criticisms of the criteria that underpin Habermas original theory are taken into consideration, and alternative conceptualisations by different traditions of democratic theory are considered, contemporary popular media genres like talk shows can be re-evaluated for their role in the public sphere. The thesis aligns itself with conceptualisations of the public sphere as an on-going and continuous process, rather than a concluded state, and argues through the analysis that this process transpires and continues in different contexts, within and beyond the media. Through its theoretical and empirical engagement, the thesis hopes to contribute to research on Arab television genres and its audiences, and their implications for investigations of the Arab public sphere. The thesis employs a multi-method approach to analyse the three talk shows Kalam Nawaem [Soft talk], Ahmar Bel Khat Al Areed [In Bold Red] and Sireh Winfatahet [An Open Case] and their audiences as two contexts where engagements with the public sphere continually take place. First, it uses thematic analysis to examine the content of the talk shows in terms of the issues they discuss and their relation to the Arab public sphere. Second, it also uses formal analysis to examine the structural features of the shows in order to demonstrate how these aspects collaborate to further shape the function of these shows in the public sphere. Third, the thesis analyses the audience research conducted through focus groups with women in Jordan, in order to study audiences perceptions of these shows and their role in the public sphere. The thesis proposes different ways in which these shows discussions can be consequential to the Arab public sphere, and the ways in which these transnational shows and discussions are watched and deciphered by audiences at a national level. Finally, the thesis reflects back on what it has achieved, its methodological limitations and alternatives, as well as future work that can be pursued on this topic.

In Russia and Argentina modernism arrived well before the advent of socioeconomic modernization, and found societies with restricted civil liberties, only nascent middle classes, and virtually non-existent public spheres. Despite these factors, within a span of some fifty years, Petersburg and Buenos Aires turned into vibrant literary capitals rivaling London, New York, and Paris as centers of literary modernism. This dissertation offers a new understanding of the period by exposing the critical role of publishers and cultural patrons in this extraordinary cultural advancement. I argue that they were able to reformulate their countries’ historically ambivalent positions vis-à-vis Western European civilization by working closely with avant-garde literary groups and viii promoting their literary works that combined sometimes contending, sometimes complementary cosmopolitanism and nationalism. My analysis of the interrelated processes of the development of print culture, national identity, and the literary public sphere in Russia and Argentina is informed by Benedict Anderson’s thinking about nationalism and print culture, Pierre Bourdieu’s treatment of publishers as key participants in cultural production, and the concept of the public sphere as seen by Jürgen Habermas. Close reading of select literary works of the 1920s shows that Russian and Argentine “peripheral” experiences, once transformed into artistic creation, became consonant with cultural practices of international modernism precisely because they combined both cosmopolitan and nationalist tendencies. Each of the writers considered—Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Arlt, Veniamin Kaverin, and Konstantin Fedin—was able to formulate highly original and yet unmistakably national response to modernity. Following the writers’ trajectories from early literary experiments to the works of the late 1920s, when they renounced their youthful deviations and joined the literary (and sometimes even political) establishment, I show how these literary texts renegotiated the issues of national identity by reworking diverse and often “foreign” literary traditions into authentically Russian and Argentine prose. / text

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This works examines the question whether a vapour-liquid phase transition exists in systems of particles with purely dipolar interactions, a topic which has been the subject of a longstanding debate. Monte Carlo simulation results for two modi operandi to tackle this issue are presented. One approach examines the phase behaviour of fluids of charged hard dumbbells (CHD), each made up of two oppositely charged hard spheres with diameters σ and separation d. In the limit d/σ → 0, and with the temperature scaled accordingly, the system corresponds to dipolar hard spheres (DHS) while for larger values of d ionic interactions are dominant. The crossover between ionic and dipolar regimes is examined and a linear variation of the critical temperature T*c in dipolar reduced units as a function of d is observed, giving rise to an extrapolated T*cDHS ≈ 0:15. The second approach focuses on the dipolar Yukawa hard sphere (DYHS)fluid, which is given by a dipolar hard sphere and an attractive isotropic interaction Y of the Yukawa tail form. In this case, the DHS limit is obtained for Y → 0. It is found that T*c depends linearly on the isotropic interaction strength Y over a wide range, coinciding with the results for the CHD model and extrapolating to a similar value of T*c;DHS. However, with the use of specially adapted biased Monte Carlo techniques which are highly efficient, it is shown that the linear variation of T*c is violated for very small values of the Yukawa interaction strength, almost two orders of magnitude smaller than the characteristic dipolar interaction energy. It is found that phase separation is not observable beyond a critical value of the Yukawa energy parameter, even though in thermodynamic and structural terms, the DYHS and DHS systems are very similar. It is suggested that either some very subtle physics distinguishes the DYHS and DHS systems, or the observation of a phase transition in DHSs is precluded by finite-size effects. In the context of phase separation in highly correlated fluids, new flat-histogram Monte Carlo simulation techniques based on the Wang-Landau algorithm are evaluated and shown to be useful tools. This work presents a general and unifying framework for deriving Monte Carlo acceptance rules which facilitate flat histogram sampling. The framework yields uniform sampling rules for thermodynamic states given either by the mechanically extensive variables appearing in the Hamiltonian or, equivalently, uniformly sample the thermodynamic fields which are conjugate to these mechanical variables.