In this thesis I am describing the life and work of important Czech professor and lawyer Miroslav Zedníček. It goes throught his childhood, school years, study of theology, priest activity, especially the pastoration in his parish Liběšice by Úštěk, then his pedagogical period at the Roman Catholic St. Cyril and Methodius Theological Faculty in Litoměřice and later at Catholic Teological Faculty of Charles University in Prague. I am focusing at his scientist work, especially the translation of the Codex of the Canon Law from the year 1983. I am also showing the testimony of the people who knew Miroslav Zedníček in different periods of his life and their experiences with him. There is also include the list of his publication activity, briefly mention his job in advocacy, his appreciations and medal. In the end of my thesis I have placed the text from the memorial plaque in Liběšice, which the residents donated to the professor Miroslav Zedníček as a tribute. Keywords Miroslav Zedníček, Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University, Canon Law, The Codex of Canon Law 1983, Liběšice.

The present thesis compares media representations of Yekîneyên Parastina Jin (YPJ or the Women’s Protection Units), an all-female Kurdish military organisation, in British media versus the organisation’s own media outlets, with the aim to see how they differ, more specifically in terms of representations of their ideological agency. By utilizing critical discourse analysis (CDA) in combination with postcolonial theory, the media construction of four soldiers’ deaths have been scrutinized in 30 media texts in order to provide a deeper understanding of the hegemonic discourses and sociocultural practices which underpin these constructions. The result shows a discrepancy in terms of representations of YPJ’s ideological agency. On the one hand, YPJ adopts an explicit effort to assert their ideology through a propagandistic discourse that emphasises their values of resistance, freedom, egalitarianism, gender emancipation and democratic confederalism, portraying their fighters as fearless martyrs and heroines that are determined to die for their cause. On the other hand, the UK media represent YPJ’s ideology in generic ways in which hidden ideological ‘us vs. them’ representations are deeply rooted in a broader naturalised Western hegemonic discourse, with portrayals of YPJ’s fallen soldiers mostly characterised by sensationalism and victimisation. One part of such hidden ideological agenda is the way in which YPJ constantly gets included in, and excluded from, ‘us’ (the West), depending on who the enemy is, in addition to mainly receiving media coverage in direct relation to ISIS, a common Western enemy. The result is a representation that endorses YPJ’s fight within a hegemonic Western discourse, neglecting their ideological agency. This has sociocultural implications since such hegemonic discourse misrepresents YPJ’s struggle, constructing their fight mostly as part of a Western counterterrorist strategy, which further legitimises the Western power to construct history based on its own premises and claims of truth.

Pensions funds represent the collective savings of millions of people and the decisions and actions they take can be greatly beneficial or detrimental to the global economy, society, and the lives of people around the world. The aim of this project is to investigate the possibilities of citizen participation in relation to responsible investment in UK occupational pension funds, and what the barriers and opportunities are for citizens, in this context pension holders, to participate in financial decisions made on their behalf. The research questions focus on the arguments for and against such participation, in general and in relation to using an online voting platform. Qualitative interviews with Responsible Investment Advocates are used to scope ideas around participation, and the study is grounded in a social constructionist theory of meaning. This project sits at the intersection of two fields: Responsible Investment and Participatory Communication for Social Change. The main findings of this project are that RI Advocates disagree over the necessity for such citizen participation, as a process for change and as a goal. The perceived benefits of citizen participation ranged from empowerment, accountability, power redistribution and structural change. Barriers to participation exist based upon the current investment system, with the main barrier perceived as a lack of demand from the investment industry, wider civil society, and significantly citizens. It was stated in interviews that citizen participation is a relatively ignored area within Responsible Investment, and therefore much can be learned from existing C4D research and practice.

Die Quantenschlüsselverteilung (QKD), die erste anwendbare Quantentechnologie, verspricht informationstheoretisch sichere Kommunikation. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde das Zeit-Frequenz (TF)-QKD-Protokoll untersucht, das Zeit und Frequenz, nämlich Puls-Positionsmodulation (PPM) im Zeitbereich und Frequenzumtastung (FSK) im Frequenzbereich als die beiden komplementären Basen verwendet. Seine Sicherheit beruht den Quanteneigenschaften von Licht und auf der Zeit-Frequenz-Unschärferelation. TF-QKD kann mit größtenteils Standard-Telekommunikationstechnologie im 1550-nm-Band implementiert werden. Die PPM-Basis kann mit Modulatoren und die FSK-Basis mit Hilfe der Wellenlängenmultiplex-Technologie realisiert werden. Das TF-QKD-Protokoll ist in der Lage, ein beliebig großes Alphabet bereitzustellen, was mehr als 1 bit/Photon ermöglicht. Darüber hinaus ist es robust gegenüber athmosphärischen Störungen und somit für die Übertragung über den Freiraumkanal geeignet. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird das TF-QKD-Protokoll theoretisch bewertet, mit Standardkomponenten für 1 bit/Photon implementiert und die Freiraumübertragung mit optischem Tracking über eine 388 m Teststrecke wird bei Tageslicht demonstriert. Unter Verwendung der vorhandenen Komponenten konnte eine sichere Schlüsselrate von 364 kbit/s back-to-back und 9 kbit/s über den Freiraumkanal demonstriert werden. / Quantum key distribution (QKD), the first applicable quantum technology, promises information theoretically secure communication. In the presented work the time-frequency (TF)-QKD protocol was examined, which uses time and frequency, namely pulse position modulation (PPM) in the time domain and frequency shift keying (FSK) in the frequency domain as the two complementary bases. Its security relies on the quantum properties of light and the time-frequency uncertainty relation. TF-QKD can be implemented mostly with standard telecom-technology in the 1550 nm band. The PPM basis can be implemented with modulators and the FSK basis with help of wavelength-division multiplexing technology. The TF-QKD protocol is capable of providing an arbitrarily large alphabet enabling more than 1 bit/photon. Moreover, it is robust in the atmosphere making it suitable for transmission over the free-space channel. In the present work the TF-QKD protocol is assessed theoretically, implemented with off-the-shelf components for 1 bit/photon and free-space transmission with optical tracking over a 388 m testbed is demonstrated in daylight. Using components at hand, secret key rates of 364 kbit/s back-to-back and 9 kbit/s over the free-space channel could be demonstrated.

When too many afford too little, one could claim that a housing market is malfunctioning. The United Kingdom and Sweden suffer from housing shortages in the major cities, creating low affordability, great strain on lower income groups and worse foundation for social sustainability. Considering matters such as different housing histories, political ideologies and policies, Sweden and the UK may seem quite unalike at first, resulting in expectations for two ‘distinct’ housing shortages. However, when a more thoroughly examination is made, it is possible the situation may appear different. Perhaps, it is even possible solving the British and Swedish housing shortages with the same solutions; two birds with one stone.    The purpose with this thesis is to: analyse and compare the British and Swedish housing histories, identify challenges, present a few options to solving today’s low affordability, discuss how these shortages are solved so that affordable housing is obtained in both countries.    To investigate this, the four questions:   1.    Do Sweden and the UK have similar housing histories, and have they contributed to today’s shortages?   2.    Are there similar housing challenges in Sweden and the UK?   3.    Are there the same solutions to the housing shortages of Sweden and the UK?   4.    Which are the most effective options for achieving an affordable housing future?   ; were asked and tried to be answered.    The intentions are that this thesis will be of use to housing debates in both countries, planners, professionals and decision makers, as well as interested and affected laymen, in search for knowledge concerning the reality they are faced with.    Through examining the British and Swedish housing histories from 1946 to 2018, policies during the eras of the ‘Welfare State’, the ‘Liberal Society’ and the ‘State of Crisis’, the affordability challenges of tomorrow where formulated. To find possible options to face these challenges, five experts in the UK were interviewed, leading up to the four options concerning affordability; the market liberal: lowering construction cost and building smaller homes, and the social: local authority development / council housing and policy changes to increase social values in land.    After analysing pros and cons with these options, their effect on increasing affordability and social sustainability were discussed, along with preventing further deregulation and privatisation of the housing markets as well as investing more in the countryside.    The final recommendations and conclusions conclude that policies in both countries need to be changed if these housing shortages are to be truly ended and long-term sustainability on the housing markets achieved. To obtain affordability and stable housing markets, attitudes and policies throughout the societies would have to change towards viewing homes more as a human right, rather than a commodity. Another conclusion is that local authorities/councils have proven themselves to be capable developers in the past, which they can become yet again but only if the current systems change. / När alltför många har råd med alltför lite, kan man hävda att en bostadsmarknad fungerar felaktigt. I Storbritannien och Sverige råder bostadsbrist i storstäderna, vilket belastar låginkomsttagare och skapar en sämre grund för social hållbarhet. Med hänsyn till ämnen så som olika förflutna, politiska ideologier och politik, kan Sverige och Storbritannien i första hand tyckas vara ganska olika, vilket resulterar i förväntningar efter två "distinkta" bostadskriser. Dock, efter en grundligare undersökning är genomförd, kanske situationen uppfattas annorlunda. Kanske är det till och med möjligt att lösa de brittiska och svenska bostadskriserna med samma lösningar, så som det heter på engelska; two birds with one stone.    Syftet med denna avhandling är att: analysera och jämföra historien rörande bostadssituationen i Sverige och Storbritannien, identifiera utmaningar, presentera några alternativ för att lösa dagens kriser samt att diskutera hur dessa kriser bör lösas så att en hållbar morgondag blir uppnådd i båda länderna.    För att undersöka detta, ställdes de fyra frågorna:   1.    Har Storbritannien och Sverige ett liknande förflutet vad gäller bostäder och har dessa bidragit till dagens kriser?   2.    Finns det liknande utmaningar berörande bostäder i Storbritannien och Sverige   3.    Finns det samma lösningar på bostadskriserna i Storbritannien och Sverige?   4.    Vilka är de mest effektiva alternativen för att uppnå en hållbar framtid?   ; vilka försöktes besvaras.    Avsikten är att denna avhandling kommer vara till nytta för bostadsdebatten i båda länderna, planerare, professionella och beslutsfattare samt intresserade och påverkade lekmän på jakt efter kunskap om den verklighet de står inför.    Genom att undersöka hur den brittiska och svenska bostadssituationen tidigare sett ut, från 1946 till 2018, politiken under ”välfärdsstatens”, ”det liberala samhällets" och "staten i kris" eror, har utmaningarna för att uppnå en billigare morgondag formulerats. För att hitta möjliga alternativ för att möta dessa utmaningar, intervjuades fem experter i Storbritannien, vilket ledde fram till de fyra alternativen: de marknadsliberala; sänka byggkostnader och bygga mindre bostäder, samt de sociala; lokala myndigheters bostadsbyggande / kommunalt bostadsbyggande och politiska förändringar för att öka markers sociala värden vid utveckling.    Efter att ha analyserat för- och nackdelar med dessa alternativ diskuterades deras effekt på ökad köpkraft och social hållbarhet, att förhindra ytterligare avregleringar och privatiseringar av bostadsmarknaderna samt att investera mer i landsbygden.    De slutliga rekommendationerna och slutsatserna fastställer att politiken i båda länderna behöver ändras om dessa bostadskriser verkligen ska lösas och långsiktig hållbarhet på bostadsmarknaden uppnås. För att få överkomliga priser och stabila bostadsmarknader skulle attityder och politik i hela samhället behöva förändras mot att betrakta hem mer som en mänsklig rätt snarare än en vara. En annan slutsats är att lokala myndigheter / kommuner tidigare har visat sig vara kapabla bostadsutvecklare, vilket de kan bli igen men bara om de rådande systemen förändras.

In this fast-paced, globalized world, certain online sites represent a hybrid personal-public sphere'where like-minded people commune regardless of physical distance, time difference, or lack of synchronicity. Sites that feature chat rooms and forums can offer a deep-rooted sense of community and facilitate the forging of relationships and cultivation of ideologies. This dissertation investigates whether this trend is relevant to web sites concerning hip-hop. This genre is arguably one of the most pervasive and influential global cultural forms, yet it is markedly different from most other forms of globalized culture because it emerged within and is still embedded in a distinct subculture. The notion that the Internet could become a bastion for hip-hop fans is quite paradoxical: hip hop is a cultural form so deeply rooted in the sense of place and so invested in its relationship to spatiality that it could potentially pose a particular challenge to the notion of virtual communities. This research examines the virtual hip-hop experience in the UK in order to assess whether this music and the culture that surrounds it have been adopted in their original American form or whether they have been adapted to make them more relevant to their new locale. In particular, the study probes how the ideology, values, behaviors and attitudes that bestride American hip-hop are represented, consumed, and reproduced on the mediated world of web sites.

The right to seek asylum is an integral part of the international protection of refugees. Yet this right is continuously undermined by state-made obstacles such as externalization practices. In the last two years, Denmark and the UK adopted new asylum policies. These policies are emblematic of externalization. Following the historic 2015 Refugee Crisis, states have increased their efforts to limit the numbers of asylum seekers arriving on their territories. Some, like Denmark and the UK adopted extreme efforts to control migration. Drawing from Bacchi’s Policy as Discourse (2000) framework, this study demonstrates that problematizations of asylum seekers and refugees are inherent in the legitimization of restrictive policy changes in Denmark and the UK. It further argues that legitimization of the necessity of restrictive policy changes reinforces the negative perceptions towards asylum seekers, and refugees.

This thesis is a study of multiple access schemes for satellite land mobile systems that provide a domestic or regional service to a large number of small terminals. Three orbit options are studied, namely the geostationary, elliptical (Molniya) and inclined circular orbits. These are investigated for various mobile applications and the choice of the Molniya orbit is justified for a U. K. system. Frequency, Time and Code Division Multiple Access (FDMA, TDMA and CDMA) are studied and their relative merits in the mobile environment are highlighted. A hybrid TDMA/FDMA structure is suggested for a large system. Reservation ALOHA schemes are appraised in a TDMA environment and an adaptive reservation multiple access protocol is proposed and analysed for a wide range of mobile communication traffic profiles. The system can cope with short and long data messages as well as voice calls. Various protocol options are presented and a target system having 100,000 users is considered. Analyses are presented for the steady state of protocols employing pure and slotted ALOHA and for the stabilty of the slotted variant, while simulation techniques were employed to validate the steady state analysis of the slotted ALOHA protocol and to analyse the stability problem of the pure ALOHA version. An innovative technique is put forward to integrate the reservation and the acquisition processes. It employs the geographical spread of the users to form part of the random delay in P-ALOHA. Finally an economic feasibility study is performed for the spacesegment. For costs of capital (r) less than 23 % the discounted payback period is less than the project's lifetime (10 years). At r- 8% the payback period is about 5.6 years, while the internal-rate-of-return is 22.2 %. The net present value at the end of the projects lifetime is £M 70 at r-8%.

Using ethnobotanical, anthropological and social science theory and methods this work illustrates significance of studying traditional foods and their medicinal qualities for maintaining health. Set in the background of the communities¿ practises and rituals specific plant-based items, used by Sikh and Ukrainian migrant communities, are a central focus to understanding the significance of practises and related knowledge for maintaining health and the broader concept of ¿well-being¿. Literature review, participant observation and in-depth interviewing techniques were used to identify 126 species of plants mentioned. These illustrate what was a primarily female domain of knowledge now becoming superficial and spread over domains of both men and women. This study notes convenience in terms of time and transport, changes in markets in the UK, importation of goods and the use of machinery and techniques such as freezing, and intervention by healthcare professionals have all affected the way traditional foods and remedies are perceived and practised. There are key foods which will remain important for generations to come whilst the domains are changing. Specific community structures support maintenance of food practises, including langar within the Sikh community and the regular OAP Ukrainian lunchtime club and numerous food events where foods with particular religious and cultural significance are made by at least two generations. These events involve transmission of knowledge related to foods and their health qualities, including images of strength as a ¿people¿. By questioning the significance of emic perspectives healthcare professionals and policymakers could learn much from practises developed over centuries or millennia.

Structural changes in the knowledge economy have greatly affected the way business is conducted and the processes firms create value. The financial reporting system is inadequate as a result of such changes, and disclosure of intellectual capital (IC) information has gained importance for communicating with capital markets. Empirical research documents corporate governance (CG) factors influencing IC disclosure practices, as well as demonstrates the value-relevance and predictive power of IC information. The disclosure of IC information by listed firms is a topic that has attracted considerable attention from contemporary researchers, but scant empirical evidence exists. Much of the researchers has examined CG as a key determinant of IC (and nonfinancial) disclosure; in contrast, few provides evidence for explaining their controversial findings of board independence on disclosure. In addition, a lack of studies confirms the literature about the use of IC information by capital market participants. Therefore, this thesis aims to examine disclosure of IC information in relation to outside directors, auditors, and sell-side analysts respectively. The specific objectives of this thesis are to examine whether outside directors’ expertise is a determinant of IC disclosure; and the extent to which the disclosure of IC information impacts on audit effort and analysts’ forecasts. In order to address these research objectives, a content analysis of IC disclosure (a self-constructed index of 64 coded items) in strategic reports released by FTST 350 companies is used. The content analysis captures and measures IC disclosure by category (i.e., human, structural & relational capital), notion (i.e., static vs. dynamic), and connection (i.e., across categories vs. with strategies). Using multivariate regression models that were primarily developed upon information asymmetry arguments and agency theory, the specific objectives of this thesis are addressed in three empirical chapters. The findings in Chapter 3 showed that proportion of outside directors (NEDs) with cross-directorship, nonaccounting and academia expertise has a positive association with IC disclosures, whereas board independence itself has no effect on the disclosures. The findings indicates that the monitoring role of NEDs alone is inadequate in promoting IC disclosure. Rather, it supports the importance of the dual role (i.e., monitor and advisory) of a supervisory board. The results also respond to the UK CG Code in their recommendation that the combination of skills, experience and knowledge guarantees a sound information environment to the market. Nonetheless, findings raised a further concern about the quantity of IC disclosures when companies have more NEDs with accounting expertise. On whether and how disclosure of IC information impacts on audit effort, Chapter 4 found that firms with high levels of IC disclosure in the previous year pay more audit fees (proxied for audit effort) in the current year regardless of their earnings quality conditions. It was also found that firms greatly disclosing dynamic IC information are charged more than those of focusing on static IC disclosure. In addition, findings in Chapter 5 revealed that there is a negative relation between IC disclosure and analyst forecast errors, indicating that UK sell-side analysts appreciate the disclosure of IC information and thus confirming that IC information has predictive ability of explaining a firm’s future value. It was further identified that disclosed IC information absorbs the negative effect of concentrated executive ownership and opaque financial environment. Overall, the results of this thesis suggest that IC reporting process could be improved by having sufficient outside directors with certain types of expertise on the board. In doing so, improved IC disclosure helps to reduce information asymmetry (proxied by analyst forecast accuracy) between firms and outside investors, albeit firms bear a significant increase in audit fees. This study calls for guidelines for IC disclosure in the UK and the support of assurance services to enhance credibility of firm-provided IC information in a bid to promote the communication of IC information with the capital market.