This thesis is centered on the Gadonanotubes (GNTs), an ultra-high-performance magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent material discovered in our laboratories in 2005. The GNTs are a new paradigm in MRI contrast agent design with small clusters of Gd3+ ions within ultra-short carbon nanocapsules (ca. 50 nm) cut from full-length single-walled carbon nanotubes. Here, the factors underlying the performance efficacy of the GNTs have been investigated for the first time by variable-field (-50,000 Oe to 50,000 Oe at 2K) and variable-temperature (2K to RT at 100 Oe) magnetic susceptibility measurements using a Magnetic Property Measurement System (MPMS, based on a SQUID magnetometer). Additionally, experiments focused on the effects of hydroxylation of the GNTs’ exterior surface regarding water-solubility are examined. Finally, the use of the GNTs as potential replacements for traditional metal-chelating/sequestering agents is explored. More specifically, the internal Gd3+-ion clusters of the GNTs have been radiolabeled: (1) with 153Gd3+ ions to test Gd3+-ion stability to simulated biological challenge, (2) with 225Ac3+ ions to generate a new concept for a GNT-based agent for α-radiotherapy, and finally (3) with 64Cu2+ ions to produce the first bimodal MRI/PET (PET = positron emission tomography) imaging agent derived from the GNTs.

In its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change estimated that global mean temperature will increase between 1.8 to 4.0°C by the end of the 21st century. An increase in global temperature by even a few degrees could have significant environmental and economic impacts, and mean that economic sectors that are better able to adapt to a changing climate will prosper, and those that are not may decline, relocate or disappear. Traditional resource sectors, which are highly reliant on environmental conditions, such as agriculture and forestry have been considering the implications of climate change for several decades. The tourism sector, which is also highly reliant on environmental factors, has only begun to consider the possible impacts of climate change over the past five to seven years. The integrated effects of a changing climate are anticipated to have far-reaching consequences for the rapidly growing global tourism economy and the communities that rely on the sector. In fact, the United Nations World Tourism Organization [UNWTO], United Nations Environment Program [UNEP] and World Meteorological Organization [WMO] identified climate change as the ‘greatest challenge to the sustainability of the global tourism industry in the 21st century’. The winter tourism sector has been repeatedly identified as vulnerable to climate change due mainly to the high susceptibility of mountain environments and the projected reduction in natural snow availability. The international ski industry has received the most detailed attention because of the sector’s high cultural and economic importance in many regions. The multi-billion dollar ski sector is highly vulnerable to changes in both regional and local climate and as a result has been projected to experience decreased natural snow reliability resulting in decreased season length, increased snowmaking requirements, increased operating costs, and decreased revenues in association with decreased visitation. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to examine climate change vulnerability (see glossary of terms, p. xi) (both- supply and demand-sides) for the entire US Northeast ski tourism sector in order to understand how the regional marketplace, as a whole, is likely to change in response to projected climate change. Previous research has been piecemeal in its approach (i.e. examining either supply or demand) and has largely neglected to examine climate change vulnerability of the ski sector from a systems-based perspective (i.e. examining both supply and demand for a single marketplace). Understanding how the US Northeast ski area marketplace may contract under climate change conditions including how ski area competitors may fair under future conditions, and how demand-side behavioural response is likely to occur, would allow ski area operators and managers to develop and implement appropriate adaptation strategies that can help reduce the negative impacts of change while taking advantage of any opportunities. The research revealed that there is likely to be a contraction of ski area supply, which favours those ski areas that are able to afford the increased cost of adapting to projected changes in climatic conditions. Ski areas that are situated at higher elevations or are located in the northern portion of the Northeast region, were found to be at an advantage due to lower temperatures and more precipitation falling as snow. Ski areas in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and northeastern New York were projected to maintain longer season lengths, require less snowmaking and be more likely to be operational during the economically important Christmas-New Year holiday than ski areas in Connecticut or Massachusetts. The extent to which skiers intend to change their skiing behaviour in response to the projected impacts on ski area supply were not significantly greater than the extent to which they already change their skiing habits when current conditions are poor. This suggests that the future response to climate change is likely to be similar to that which has been observed during marginal snow conditions of the past, and that demand for skiing opportunities is not likely to reduce proportionally to the expected reduction in supply. In which case, the ski areas that are able to remain operational under projected climate change, may be able to take advantage of a possible geographic market shift (i.e. greater demand/market share for ski areas that remain). If there is a net transfer of demand throughout the remaining marketplace, it would mean that some communities would need to prepare for development pressures (e.g. water use for snowmaking, real estate development, slope expansion, congestion) associated with the concentration of ski tourism in fewer areas, while others would need to prepare for economic diversification and investment in alternative industries (i.e. adapted snow-based industry or non-snow-based industry).

This study interprets the puzzling absence of war among the US, China, and Taiwan from 1990 to 2005, when identity politics across the Taiwan Strait caused high tensions. The application of realist constructivism theory to this case would produce a prediction of war there resulting from conflicting identities, which produce irreconcilable conflicts of interests over territorial claims. However, the application of four other, relevant international relations theories explains this absence of war during this period. A zero-sum game of competing identities was replaced by a positive-game resulting from three liberal theories promoting inter-state cooperation: complex interdependence; state trading identities; and issue-linkage functions and one alternative realist theory, offensive realism, which shows that the balance of power deters war. Assuming China’s increased defense spending does not alter the balance of power in its favor, the current relative peace will continue to prevail, at least in the short to medium term.

This study has its starting point in physical touch, and I interviewed three health workers; an osteopath, a nurse, and a midwife, about their sense of touch. The data collection method used is the qualitative research interview, with its main emphasis on Eugene Gendlin‟s Focusing (1981), to capture the informant‟s embodied sense of touch. The Constant Comparative Method from Grounded Theory by Strauss and Corbin (1990) is employed to analyse the data, supplied by the descriptive phenomenological method as developed by Giorgi (2009), and inspired by Gendlin‟s Focusing (1968; 1970; 1981). Two main themes and a core theme emerged from the data: 1) "Touch is everything" – The toucher and the touched, 2) "Touch is an art" – The space between and, 3) "It takes courage to be close" – Touch as a meeting between selves. Philosophical theory and humanistic existential counselling psychology theories are at the base of the discussion. This includes Merleau-Ponty (1945), Gendlin (1962; 1996), Buber (1970/1996), Rogers (1961/2004) and Josselson (1996). Theories on body, space, and touch, also in counselling, are represented by Gendlin (1993; 1992), Montagu (1986), Hall (1966/1990), Hunter and Struve (1998), Tune (2001) among others. The study shows that positive touch is important to the person, how touch is more than physical, that the body is more than a physiological machine, and how touch both happens within different types of space and creates a meeting between the selves that reside inside the bodies. It also shows how through providing certain empathic conditions; warmth, acceptance, listening and caring, a health worker or counsellor can ensure a good meeting that can potentially lead to a dialogical I-You meeting. This meeting, based on the empathic conditions provided by a counsellor who is also in tune with him or herself, may also lead to change in the both the counsellor‟s and the client‟s selves.

In its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change estimated that global mean temperature will increase between 1.8 to 4.0°C by the end of the 21st century. An increase in global temperature by even a few degrees could have significant environmental and economic impacts, and mean that economic sectors that are better able to adapt to a changing climate will prosper, and those that are not may decline, relocate or disappear. Traditional resource sectors, which are highly reliant on environmental conditions, such as agriculture and forestry have been considering the implications of climate change for several decades. The tourism sector, which is also highly reliant on environmental factors, has only begun to consider the possible impacts of climate change over the past five to seven years. The integrated effects of a changing climate are anticipated to have far-reaching consequences for the rapidly growing global tourism economy and the communities that rely on the sector. In fact, the United Nations World Tourism Organization [UNWTO], United Nations Environment Program [UNEP] and World Meteorological Organization [WMO] identified climate change as the ‘greatest challenge to the sustainability of the global tourism industry in the 21st century’. The winter tourism sector has been repeatedly identified as vulnerable to climate change due mainly to the high susceptibility of mountain environments and the projected reduction in natural snow availability. The international ski industry has received the most detailed attention because of the sector’s high cultural and economic importance in many regions. The multi-billion dollar ski sector is highly vulnerable to changes in both regional and local climate and as a result has been projected to experience decreased natural snow reliability resulting in decreased season length, increased snowmaking requirements, increased operating costs, and decreased revenues in association with decreased visitation. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to examine climate change vulnerability (see glossary of terms, p. xi) (both- supply and demand-sides) for the entire US Northeast ski tourism sector in order to understand how the regional marketplace, as a whole, is likely to change in response to projected climate change. Previous research has been piecemeal in its approach (i.e. examining either supply or demand) and has largely neglected to examine climate change vulnerability of the ski sector from a systems-based perspective (i.e. examining both supply and demand for a single marketplace). Understanding how the US Northeast ski area marketplace may contract under climate change conditions including how ski area competitors may fair under future conditions, and how demand-side behavioural response is likely to occur, would allow ski area operators and managers to develop and implement appropriate adaptation strategies that can help reduce the negative impacts of change while taking advantage of any opportunities. The research revealed that there is likely to be a contraction of ski area supply, which favours those ski areas that are able to afford the increased cost of adapting to projected changes in climatic conditions. Ski areas that are situated at higher elevations or are located in the northern portion of the Northeast region, were found to be at an advantage due to lower temperatures and more precipitation falling as snow. Ski areas in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and northeastern New York were projected to maintain longer season lengths, require less snowmaking and be more likely to be operational during the economically important Christmas-New Year holiday than ski areas in Connecticut or Massachusetts. The extent to which skiers intend to change their skiing behaviour in response to the projected impacts on ski area supply were not significantly greater than the extent to which they already change their skiing habits when current conditions are poor. This suggests that the future response to climate change is likely to be similar to that which has been observed during marginal snow conditions of the past, and that demand for skiing opportunities is not likely to reduce proportionally to the expected reduction in supply. In which case, the ski areas that are able to remain operational under projected climate change, may be able to take advantage of a possible geographic market shift (i.e. greater demand/market share for ski areas that remain). If there is a net transfer of demand throughout the remaining marketplace, it would mean that some communities would need to prepare for development pressures (e.g. water use for snowmaking, real estate development, slope expansion, congestion) associated with the concentration of ski tourism in fewer areas, while others would need to prepare for economic diversification and investment in alternative industries (i.e. adapted snow-based industry or non-snow-based industry).

Using the error correction model, we link the long-run behavior of the Canada-US real exchange rate to its short-run dynamics. The equilibrium real exchange rate is determined by the energy and non-energy commodity prices over the period 1973Q1-1992Q1. However such a single long-run relationship does not hold when the sample period is extended to 2004Q4. This breakdown can be explained by the break point which we find at 1993Q3. At the break point, the effect of the energy price shocks on Canadas real exchange rate turns from negative to positive while the effect of the non-energy commodity price shocks is constantly positive. We find that after one year 40.03% of the gap between the actual and equilibrium real exchange rate is closed. The Canada-US interest rate differential affects the real exchange rate temporarily. The Canadas real exchange rate depreciates immediately after a decrease in Canadas interest rate and appreciates next quarter but not by as much as it has depreciated.

This essay examines the uses of the grotesque in Alice Walker’s novel The Third Life of Grange Copeland. Published in 1970 the novel has been subject to various readings by diverse scholars. However, previous research has failed to take into account the displays of the grotesque in the novel. This essay argues that not only does Walker use the grotesque prominently throughout the novel, but also that Walker constructs an intricate critique of U.S. society through her depictions of the grotesque. Resting largely on the theoretical perspective of Mikhail Bakhtin this essay examines the following grotesque images: the female spectacle, the female adolescent, the hysteric, pregnant death, monstrosity, and whiteness. By exposing Walker’s uses of the grotesque, this essay offers an analysis that exposes the relationship between Walker’s grotesque images and her womanist objective. The aim of The Third Life of Grange Copeland is to critique the oppressive regimes of patriarchy and U.S. white supremacist culture and society. It is argued here, then, that the grotesque is strategically used in different manners when addressing womanist and racial issues. Walker uses the grotesque in order to alter confining gender binaries and expose and criticize the destructive aspects of patriarchal and white supremacist ideologies. Through her narrative and the diverse characters of The Third Life, Walker exposes the repercussions of oppressive white supremacist and patriarchal orders.

This paper is about the conflict between the Middle East and the Western world after the Danish newspapers’ cartoon publications of the prophet Muhammed in October 2005. The conflict resulted in massive reactions in the Middle East and the Danish-Swedish dairy company Arla Foods, was boycotted during six months in 2006. The aim of this study is to describe how the biggest Swedish daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter and three Saudiarabic newspapers Al-Hayat, Al-Watan and Shark Al-Awsat described "the Other" during the crisis in the year of 2006. Another aim is to describe how Arla Foods managed the consumer boycott. The ideas about "the Other" that were expressed in the media are seen as a discourse with the aim of maintaining and/or creating a "Us and Them viewpoint". Earlier theoretical studies are being presented, not at least Foucault, Schutz and Baumans and Mays contribution to the "Us and Them viewpoint" and their sociological approach. The main questions in the paper are; what ideas were expressed in the Saudiarabic newspapers against the Western world and the other way around; what ideas were expressed in the Swedish newspaper against the Middle East? The third question is; how Arla Foods handled the reactions in Saudi arabia due to the cartoon publications and how the company management reacted in order to reduce the damage of the consumer boycott ? The result of this study shows that an "Us-and Them viewpoint" exists in both the Saudiarabic and Swedish newspapers. Three themes can be outlined. First of all, the Swedish focus on freedom of speech and its lack of understanding on why the cartoons caused such massive reactions in the Middle East. Second, the massive criticism against the Western world for publishing the "islamphobic" cartoons and causing all the hatred. Third, the ideas of more calm and ressentment between the people, respecting Islam as a religion and freedom of speech at the same time. Arla Foods reacted to the crisis by applying risk management and also by dissociating itself from the publications by an information campaign that was published in 25 different Arabic newspapers. Finally, the company made a reset of the communication stra   strategy adopting a more global mindset although being a Scandinavian company.

The United States is the single largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. Its engagement is therefore critical to the success of any international effort to prevent man-made global climate change. It was therefore a huge step-back for the international community when President Bush soon after taking office in 2001 rejected the Kyoto Protocol. Despite a strong opposition the international community did not convince the Bush administration to reconsider its decision and re-engage in the Kyoto Protocol process. The objective of this thesis is to investigate which central elements that will increase a US inclination to participate in international agreements after the first commitment period in the Kyoto Protocol. These elements were found through a literature study of four peer-reviewed articles and an empirical analysis of four international partnership agreements. The overall conclusion is that there are several central elements that could increase a US inclination to participate in international agreements after the first commitment period in the Kyoto Protocol. These elements cover a wide range of disciplines from technology over research and development to business interests.

The interaction between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere continues to be a central research theme within climate, hydrology, and ecology communities. This interest is stimulated by research issues pertinent to both the fundamental laws and the hierarchy of scales. To further explorer such topics over various spatial and temporal domains, in this study, biosphere-atmosphere interactions are studied at two different scales, leaf-to-canopy and canopy-to-atmospheric boundary-layer (ABL) scales, by utilizing both models and long-term measurements collected from the Duke Forest AmeriFlux sites. For the leaf-to-canopy scale, two classical problems motivated by contemporary applications are considered: (1) ‘inverse problem’ – determination of nighttime ecosystem respiration, and (2) forward problem – estimation of two-way interactions between leaves and their microclimate ‘’. An Eulerian inverse approach was developed to separate aboveground respiration from forest floor efflux using mean CO2 concentration and air temperature profiles within the canopy using detailed turbulent transport theories. The forward approach started with the assumption that canopy physiological, drag, and radiative properties are known. The complexity in the turbulent transport model needed for resolving the two-way interactions was then explored. This analysis considered a detailed multi-layer ecophysiological and radiative model embedded in a hierarchy of Eulerian turbulent closure schemes ranging from well-mixed assumption to third order closure schemes with local thermal-stratification within the canopy. For the canopy-to-ABL scale, this study mainly explored problems pertinent to the impact of the ecophysiological controls on the regional environment. First, the possible combinations of water states (soil moisture and atmospheric humidity) that trigger convective rainfall were investigated, and a distinct ‘envelope’ of these combinations emerged from the measurements. Second, an analytical model as a function of atmospheric and ecophysiological properties was proposed to examine how the potential to trigger convective rainfall shifts over different land-covers. The results suggest that pine plantation, whose area is projected to dramatically increase in the Southeastern US (SE), has greater potential to trigger convective rainfall than the other two ecosystems. Finally, the interplay between ecophysiological and radiative attributes on surface temperature, in the context of regional cooling/warming, was investigated for projected land-use changes in the SE region. / Dissertation