This research investigates soil respiration (Rs) in a boreal jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) fire scar chronosequence at Sharpsand Creek, Ontario, Canada. During two field campaigns in 2006 and 2007, Rs was measured in a chronosequence of fire scars in the range 0 to 59 years since fire. Mean Rs adjusted for soil temperature (Ts) and soil moisture (Ms) (Rs T,M) ranged from 0.56 μmol CO2/m2/s (32 years post fire) to 8.18 μmol CO2/m2/s (58 years post fire). Coefficient of variation (CV) of Rs adjusted for Ts and Ms ranged from 20% (16 years post fire) to 56% (58 years post fire). Across the field site, there was a significant exponential relationship between Rs adjusted for soil organic carbon (Cs) and Ts (P = 1.24*10-06; Q10 = 2.21) but no effect of Ms on Rs adjusted for Cs and Ts for the range 0.21 to 0.77 volumetric Ms (P = 0.702). Rs T,M significantly (P = 0.030) decreased after burning mature forest, though no significant (P > 0.1) difference could be detected between recently burned and unburned young forest. Rs was measured in recently burned boreal jack pine fire scar age categories that differed in their burn history and there was a significant difference in Rs T,M between previously 32 v 16 year old (P = 0.000) and previously 32 v 59 year old (P = 0.044) scars. There was a strong significant exponential increase in S R T,M with time since fire (r2 = 0.999; P = 0.006) for the chronosequence 0, 16 and 59 years post fire, and for all these age categories, Rs T,M was significantly different from one another (P < 0.05). The Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) was used to model vegetation re-growth over successional time at Sharpsand Creek, though it appeared to perform poorly in simulating leaf area index and canopy height. JULES probably over estimated heterotrophic Rs at Sharpsand Creek when Ts corrected simulated values were compared with measured Rs T,M. The results of this study contribute to a better quantitative understanding of Rs in boreal jack pine fire scars and will facilitate improvements in C cycle modelling. Further work is needed in quantifying autotrophic and heterotrophic contributions to soil respiration in jack pine systems, monitoring soil respiration for extended time periods after fire and improving the ability of JULES to simulate successional vegetation re-growth.

Diese Dissertation widmet sich der theoretischen Beschreibung ultrakalter Atome in einem optischen Einschluss. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt hierbei auf inelastischen Resonanzen, die durch die Kopplung von Schwerpunkts- und Relativbewegung durch Anharmonizitäten im externen Potenzial Zustande kommen, der Entwicklung einer Methode zur theoretischen Beschreibung von ultrakalten Wenigteilchensystemen in einem vielseitigen Einschlusspotenzial und der Quantensimulation von Attosekundenphysik mit ultrakalten Atomen. / This thesis aims for a theoretical description of ultracold trapped atoms. The main focus are resonance phenomena due to the coupling of center-of-mass and relative motion, the development of a theoretical approach to treat ultracold few-body systems in versatile trap potentials, and the quantum simulation of attosecond physics with ultracold atoms.

Das Gebiet der bodengebundenen Gamma-Astronomie bietet Zugang zu Photonen im TeV-Energiebereich und hat sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten vor allem durch den Erfolg der abbildenden atmosphärischen Cherenkov-Technik profiliert. In dieser Arbeit werden zwei dieser Cherenkov-Teleskop-Systeme, VERITAS und das zukünftige CTA, mit Hilfe von Monte-Carlo-Simulationen in Hinblick auf deren Sensitivität auf hochenergetische Gammastrahlung (E > 50 GeV) untersucht. Besonderes Augenmerk wird hierbei auf die Beobachtungsmöglichkeit mit CTA unter Mondlicht gelegt. Es wird gezeigt, dass dadurch eine Beobachtungszeitverlängerung um etwa 30% ohne signifikante Sensitivitätsverluste erreicht werden kann, was besonders wichtig für zeitlich variable Quellen ist. Eine dieser variablen Quellklassen sind aktive Galaxienkerne, welche zur Zeit etwa ein Drittel der bekannten hochenergetischen Gammastrahlungsquellen repräsentieren. Die meisten davon sind Blazare, deren Emission durch nicht-thermische Strahlung aus gebündelten Strömen von Materie und Energie (sogenannten Jets) dominiert wird. Diese Jets breiten sich mit annähernd Lichtgeschwindigkeit aus und sind in Sichtlinie des Betrachters ausgerichtet. Der Blazar B2 1215+30 wurde zwischen 2008 und 2012 mit VERITAS fast 100 Stunden beobachtet. Die Datenanalyse, welche in dieser Arbeit präsentiert wird, weist die Quelle mit einer Signifikanz von neun sigma nach und offenbart Langzeitvariabilität mit einem hellen Flusszustand im Jahr 2011. Multi-Wellenlängen-Daten werden verwendet um die spektrale Energieverteilung von B2 1215+30 zu konstruieren, welche gut mit einem leptonischen Ein-Zonen-Modell beschrieben werden kann. Das verwendete Modell wird im Detail vorgestellt und mögliche Einschränkungen an den Modellparameterraum untersucht. Die Ergebnisse der Modellierung von B2 1215+30 werden diskutiert und in Zusammenhang mit anderen bekannten hochenergetischen Gammastrahlen-Blazaren gesetzt. / Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy, which provides access to photons in the TeV energy range, has been a rapidly developing discipline over the past decades. In this thesis, the performance of the current- and next-generation imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes VERITAS and CTA is evaluated using Monte Carlo simulations. Special emphasis is given to the possible extension of the duty cycle of CTA. It is shown that an increase of about 30% in observation time can be achieved through operation under partial moonlight without significant losses in performance. The increased observation time is especially important when studying astronomical objects which are variable at very high energies (VHE; E>50 GeV), such as active galactic nuclei (AGN), as this allows the extension of monitoring or multi-wavelength campaigns on these occasionally flaring sources. AGN represent to date about one third of the population of known VHE gamma-ray sources. Most of them are blazars, whose emission is dominated by non-thermal radiation of relativistic jets closely aligned to the line of sight of the observer. The blazar B2 1215+30 has been observed by VERITAS for nearly 100 hours between 2008 and 2012. The data analysis presented in this thesis yields a detection significance of 9.0 sigma and shows long-term variability with a relatively bright flux state in 2011. Multi-wavelength data are used to construct the spectral energy distribution of B2 1215+30 which is well described by a one-zone leptonic model. The model is presented in detail and possible constraints are investigated. The results of the modeling are discussed and put in context with other VHE-detected blazars.

This thesis considers how religious diversification has shaped the roles of clergy and seminaries. The focus of this qualitative, interview-based study is seminaries and clergy affiliated with various denominations of Judaism and Protestant Christianity in greater London and New York City. Religiously diversifying societies in the US and England have brought forth new challenges for clergy and seminaries, prompting new questions about how or why a faith community should or should not engage with diversity in the public square. This study investigates how seminaries and individual members of the clergy, as sources of religious authority, are responding to religious diversification in different ways - the former sluggish to recognise the impact of religious diversification in curriculum and pedagogical structures and the latter seeing it as a resource for social action initiatives, local networks, and political activism. This has created a gap between training and practice whereby clergy have assumed greater religious authority in religious life. Beyond contributing to the field of sociology of religion, this thesis concludes by allowing the experience of clergy in interreligious engagement to inform appropriate pedagogies that could be employed by seminaries.

Die Arbeit untersucht den Anregungsenergietransfer in supramolekularen Phäophorbid-a-Komplexen. Das P4- und das P16-Molekül bestehen aus vier bzw. sechzehn Phäophorbid-a-Molekülen. Die Komplexe werden in explizitem Lösungsmittel im Rahmen einer gemischt quanten-klassischen Methode untersucht. Klassische Molekulardynamik-Simulationen werden durchgeführt. Die zeitabhängige Schrödingergleichung wird gelöst, der entsprechende Hamiltonoperator hängt parametrisch von den Kernkoordinaten ab. Es wird eine Methode vorgestellt, die die Berechnung des Schwingungsbeitrags der Koordinatenabhängigkeit in harmonischer Näherung ermöglicht. Die Qualität der Methode wird bewiesen. Es werden drei verschiedene Ansätze benutzt, um das Zeitverhalten des Anregungsenergietransfers innerhalb der Chromophorkomplexe zu charakterisieren. Es werden zunächst Transferraten berechnet und entsprechende Ratengleichungen gelöst. Desweiteren werden gemittelte zeitabhängige Populationen aus der Lösung der Schrödingergleichung bestimmt. Zudem wird die Zeitskala des Anregungsenergietransfers aus der Anisotropie erhalten. Die Berechnung der Anisotropie beruht auf der Lösung einer Schrödingergleichung, welche das elektromagnetischen Feldes explizit enthält. Für alle drei Ansätze ergibt sich die gleiche Dynamik des Anregungsenergietransfers. Es werden zudem lineare und transiente Spektren der Qy-Banden der Chromophorkomplexe berechnet. Für ein einzelnes Phäophorbid-a-Molekül in Ethanol werden zusätzlich die Qx-Bande und die Schwingungsprogression bestimmt. Außerdem wird die lineare Absorption von Phäophorbid a und P16 neben einem Gold-Nanopartikel untersucht, die erwartete Verstärkung des Absorptionssignals durch die Präsenz des Nanoteilchens wird gezeigt. Abschließend wird eine neue Methode vorgestellt, die es erlaubt, die abstands- und orientierungsabhängige Abschirmung der exzitonischen Kopplung parametrisch in die gemischt quanten-klassische Methode zu integrieren. / This thesis investigates the excitation energy transfer in pheophorbide a complexes. The P4 and the P16 molecule consist of four and sixteen pheophorbide a molecules, respectively. The complexes in explicit ethanol solution are investigated utilizing a mixed quantum-classical methodology. Classical molecular dynamics simulations are carried out. The time-dependent Schrödinger equation is solved for a Hamiltonian that depends parametrically on the classical nuclear coordinates. In this thesis a method is introduced which allows the computation of the vibrational contribution in harmonic approximation. The high quality of the method is proven. Three different ansatzes were utilized to compute the time development of the excitation energy transfer within the chromophore complexes. The expansion coefficients that result from the solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation are utilized to compute averaged time-dependent populations. Also, the expansion coefficients are used to compute excitation energy transfer rates in second order of the excitonic coupling. Thirdly, the time scale of the excitation energy transfer is derived from the delay-time dependent transient anisotropy. In order to compute the anisotropy, the electromagnetic field is included directly in the Hamiltonian of the system. The excitation energy transfer dynamics is exactly the same for the three approaches. In addition, linear and transient spectra of the chromophor complexes Qy band are computed. For a single pheophorbide a in ethanol, the Qx band and the vibrational progression are calculated. Furthermore, the linear absorption of pheophorbide a and P16 next to a gold nanoparticle is studied. The amplification of the molecular absorption signal due to the presence of the nanoparticle is shown. Finally, a new method is introduced to treat distance and conformation dependent screening of the excitonic coupling parametrically within a mixed quantum-classical description.

Achieving economic equality between men and women is a challenge to every country. The approach taken politically and legally in Sweden is to encourage a greater economic independence of women from the family through paid work, as well encouraging men to assume a greater share of unpaid work, particularly parental leave, resulting in a lessening of the double burden of work for women. These efforts have made within the context of the parameters of the Swedish model with respect to labor, in which the preferred mechanism of resolution is agreement between the social partners and not legislation. To this end, the Swedish collective agreements have been analyzed specifically with respect to taking parental leave. The other parameters in the area of sex equality applicable to the Swedish system are those as defined by Community law, specifically the equal treatment and equal pay directives, against which the Swedish regulations as well as case law applying such are assessed. This work takes the Swedish approach to the problem of economic equality and compares it to the approaches as found in EU, UK and US law. In the UK, there has been a recent emphasis on a family friendly workplace, which is to be achieved at least in part through flexible working. The American approach has focused on discriminatory behavior as a societal phenomena. Comparisons to these two national systems are interesting also from an industrial relations aspect, as Sweden is the most unionized at 80 %, followed by the UK and then by the US at only 15 %. The findings of this thesis suggest that Sweden may need to reassess its approach to equality between the sexes, as well as issues of discrimination in general, incorporating aspects of access to justice into the legal system, as well as reassessing the role of the labor unions, and the Swedish model, with respect to such questions in general...

我國每年有將近4,000名基於家庭功能喪失、遭受虐待抑或本身行為等因素而進入安置機構的兒童及少年，這些兒少是我們社會中最為弱勢的一群人之一，他們在機構內是否獲得必要之協助及照顧，對於這群兒少未來的成長及發展係至關重要。然而近年來國內許多學者針對機構內兒少權益遭受剝奪或侵害的問題已提出應有所變革的呼籲及建言，希望能獲得政府及社會的關注。本文希望能藉由對於國內相關法律規範之整理以及比較法的研究，對於社會工作研究者所提出 之種種涉及機構內兒少權益的問題提出法律面的觀點及思考。 聯合國1989年兒童權利公約已明確宣示兒童為權利的主體，此一宣示對於兒童具有劃時代的意義。兒童從過去歷史中「不被看見的人」轉而成為「被保護的客體」，如今已然具有「權利主體」的地位。依據聯合國兒童權利委員會就兒童權利公約所為之闡釋，唯有將兒童的法律地位由「被保護的客體」提升為「權利主體」，即所謂「典範移轉」(paradigm shift)的思維，方能具體落實兒童的權利主體性。藉由近年來英國學者對於英國法院就兒童權利之判解實務所提出之批評及思辨，筆者嘗試說明除應於法律制定時正視兒童各項權利及其保障外，在司法審判實務上，「典範移轉」所要求的是法院應將兒童的權利置於裁判的天平並確實加以檢視。在英國，法院長期以「兒童福祉」而非「兒童權利」作為判決考量中心點的做法，亦已引發學者批評為不符合兒童權利的思潮發展。 對於國家究竟應如何提供被安置兒少所需之安置服務以及應如何確保其權利，本文係以英國為比較法之借鏡，並說明英國兒童安置之法律規範係以兒童權利為核心，特別著重就安置服務的提供應彰顯兒童的個體性，以及兒童應獲得必要的協助以確保其權利的行使。具體而言，本文指出英國為保障被安置兒童之權益建置了諸多的法律機制，其中包括藉由不同位階之法律規範及指導方針縝密地規範安置保護的執行、安置事件中法律監護人的設置、地方政府與民間安置機構委外契約就兒童安置成果約定的具體化、被安置兒童申訴機制的完備、以及由獨立性外部機關來執行安置機構的評鑑等。本文最後並藉由國際公約及比較法的省思，對我國相關法制提出初步之修法建議。 / Around 4,000 children in Taiwan today live in residential institutions due to domestic violence, family dysfunction or as a consequence of their own behaviour. These children are among the country’s most vulnerable. In this thesis, I intend to consider the rights of children living in such institutions, with a view to recommending that Taiwan’s legal framework be based on a ‘child rights’ approach’. The importance of the status of children as rights-holders has long been recognised by the international community. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child stated that a ‘paradigm shift’ is needed to change the perception of children as ‘objects in need of assistance and protection’ to holders of non-negotiable rights. To bring about this ‘paradigm shift’, as argued by leading children’s law academics in England, I shall stress that not only is there a need for children’s rights to be given prominence in domestic legislation, but domestic courts, lawyers, social workers and those who work with children must also take children’s rights more seriously. In this thesis, in an overview of the English child-care legislative framework, I shall identify the key features of a child-care system that I believe is centred on children and their rights. I shall then reflect on the present state of institutional child care in Taiwan, placing emphasis on those aspects of the English model that I consider may be used as references for its development.

This thesis presents an ethnographic account of the everyday meanings and processes associated with the idea of ‘community’ within the London neighbourhood of Kilburn. In policy and popular discourse, community is cast both as somehow able to unite people across difference, and as under threat from the proliferation of difference, which is seen as impeding mutual understanding, cooperation and belonging. Within scholarly writing, ‘community’ is often challenged as too archaic, too rigid or too ambiguous a concept to provide sufficient analytical leverage or to work as a normative ideal. Against this background, my PhD takes a look the neighbourhood of Kilburn, where amidst significant diversity, tropes of community are still widely used. I investigate how residents imagine various forms of community in relation to diversity, as well as the connections and discontinuities between these various imaginings. I draw on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork, following over a dozen community projects and groups, tracing informal local networks and getting to know residents individually. My ethnography ranges from community cafes, to religious youth groups, to urban ‘gangs’, to government-led urban regeneration projects. Despite the variation in how different individuals imagined ‘community’, there was a shared view of community as a space which facilitated the bridging of difference and the construction of shared moral projects. These spaces did not exist sui generis. Rather they were opened up through the balancing of two traits: fixity and fluidity. Fixity involved defining community in terms of a clearly identifiable and familiar set of boundary markers, which serve to give it an ‘objective’ existence. Fluidity involved suspending this attempt to define community in terms of the familiar, once people were involved, in order to allow for new, shared understandings and values to emerge. The first two chapters unpack this balancing of fixity and fluidity. Chapter 1, traces inclusion and exclusion in a range of community projects, and Chapter 2 looks at tropes of race and ethnicity, examining how such ideas might be treated as simultaneously fixed and fluid. . The two chapters unpack the transformational power of community. Chapter 3 looks at a community centre for young Muslims, as well as at a local community radio station, and argues that community spaces have the potential to foster an ethic of continual openness to difference. Chapter 4 looks at a group of ‘street youth’ and their diverse views of success, and argues that community can act as a collective repository of future potential, allowing community members to transform their ethical trajectory within their own lives. The final two chapters look at contestations over community. Chapter 5 looks at clashing uses of public spaces and argues that such spaces are often read in highly fixed ways, and as lacking the potential for community-like negotiations. Chapter 6 looks at local regeneration projects and contrasts the ways in which community is valued locally, to the ways in which it is valued by state and market actors. The thesis concludes by emphasizing the necessarily plural, dynamic, contested and grounded nature of the idea of community described here.

The voluntary blood donation issue is topical in the Czech Republic since the number of blood donors has not yet reached the number of donors existing in the neighboring countries. Because of this fact the Czech Blood Cross together with transfusion services centers in the Czech Republic and in cooperation with various organizations, e.g. Czech Radio, do their best to obtain new voluntary blood donors via blood donation campaigns. Language of these campaigns is mainly of persuasive character. As such, it is often viewed as a means of white propaganda which stems from factual information and whose aim is to persuade the consumer of the message about the legitimacy of its ideology. White propaganda also helps to build trust which is lately used. In other words, the consumer of the message becomes blood donor. The thesis analyzes persuasive linguistic means of propaganda present in online discourse of the selected campaigns. On the basis of learned facts, the thesis also tries to characterize this discourse type; moreover, it makes suggestions for designing a new blood donation campaign.

Modern psychological approaches currently being used with Muslim clients in therapy have consistently been criticised for being decontextualised, Eurocentric, individualistic, reductionist and for not taking Muslim clients’ cultural and religious values into account (Amri, & Bemak, 2013; Carter & Rashidi, 2004). Hence a need for making use of models, techniques and therapeutic interventions based on Muslim perspectives for Muslim clients has repeatedly been expressed (Haque, 2004a; Helms, 2015; Inayat, 2007; Keshavarzi & Haque, 2013; Utz, 2012; Weatherhead & Daiches, 2010). Despite recommendations for using therapeutic interventions from Muslim perspectives with Muslim clients in therapy (Abu Raiya & Pargament, 2010; Haque & Kamil, 2012; Qasqas & Jerry, 2014), empirical research on these interventions has lagged behind (Abu-Raiya & Pargament, 2011). The aim of the current study is to provide more insight into how interventions from Muslim perspectives can be administered by Muslim therapists with their Muslim clients in therapy in United Kingdom. This study explored the experiences of six Muslim therapists who were all using interventions from Muslim perspectives with Muslim clients in their therapeutic practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed, and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), and from this three main themes emerged (i) Psychotherapeutic approaches, (ii) Journey of becoming a Muslim therapist (iii) Obstacles faced by Muslim clients and therapists. The implications for further research and therapeutic practice have also been considered.