Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Lithuania's security rests at present on several pillars, including membership in NATO and the European Union and its relations with Russia. Without doubt Lithuania's membership in NATO and the European Union is the most promising way to preserve its independence and to promote its security. At the same time, however, Lithuania wishes to maintain constructive relations with Russia and to address Moscow's legitimate political, military, and economic concerns. In view of the importance of domestic political factors, this thesis examines the hypothesis that Lithuania should base its security on a mix of deterrence strategies and reassurance policies pursued in cooperation with fellow members of NATO and the European Union. The thesis therefore analyzes post-Cold War trends in Lithuanian-Russian relations in light of theories of deterrence and reassurance. Three cases-NATO enlargement from 1997 to 2004, the Russian military troop withdrawal from Lithuania in 1991-1993, and Lithuanian-Russian relations concerning Kaliningrad-are discussed to assess the effects of reassurance and cooperative policies and to infer possible implications for the future. / Major, Lithuanian Army

Eutrophication caused by nutrient loads from human activities is considered as one of the most serious environmental threats to the Baltic Sea. Due to climate change, cyanobacterial blooms are expected to increase in the future. This could affect people’s utility of beach recreation negatively in countries surrounding the Baltic. Based on a web survey carried out in south-eastern Sweden, public’s reactions and attitudes to cyanobacterial blooms are analysed. Possible economic impact on Gotland of more widespread blooms are estimated, and public demand for better information is evaluated. The result shows that 30% of the respondents from south-eastern Sweden would consider cancelling their plans of travelling to Gotland with knowledge about forthcoming algal blooms around the island. Determinants of tourists’ tendency to cancel their travel arrangements are earlier negative experiences of algal blooms and concerns regarding their pets’ bathing. The annual local economic loss for Gotland’s tourism industry is estimated to between 15 and 221 million SEK. The median willingness to pay for a mobile application which provides one-day forecasts of algal blooms is 25 SEK on Gotland and 20 SEK in southeastern Sweden. Boat owners, people who visit beaches often and those who travel to Gotland frequently, are more likely to pay for the mobile application. People who think algal blooms are natural show less demand for information.

Temperature dependence of marine plankton respiration is an important factor in understanding the function and changes in the ecosystem of the ocean. The aim of this study is to test the temperature sensitivity (Q10) of plankton respiration. The oxygen optode method was used to measure plankton respiration. Natural water samples from the Baltic Sea was incubated at short (in situ +1, +2, +3°C) and long (in situ +5, +10, +20°C) temperature intervals with influence of dissolved organic matter (DOC). The Arrhenius equation and Q10-model was used to determine the temperature dependence (Q10) of respiration at different temperatures. There was a significant difference in Q10 between short temperature intervals at low temperatures (p=0,008) and long temperature intervals at higher temperatures. There was no significant difference between long and short temperature intervals when DOC was added (p=0,094). A significant effect could be seen with the DOC enrichment at low temperatures, where the Q10-values became significantly lower (p=0,002) after DOC addition. This effect could, however, not be seen at higher temperatures (p=0,117). Together with results from earlier studies it was concluded that the difference in temperature depends on the actual temperature and not the length of the interval. Lowered temperature dependence at raised DOC concentration, was the opposite of what was expected. The results suggest that the importance of temperature for CO2 emissions and development of hypoxia in the sea may have been underestimated.

Meteorological measurements from the research station at Östergarnsholm in the Baltic Sea between 1995 and 2001 are used to evaluate the ERA-40 data base over the Baltic Sea. This includes comparisons of mean parameters and turbulent fluxes. The statistics concern all the data available when the measuring site was exposed to open sea conditions, and includes about 1500 hours of data. Seasonal data is compared as well. Regarding all the mean parameters compared, ERA-40 is partly in line with the results from the measurements, with various scatter. Temperature is too warm, wind speed is lower as well as relative humidity and sea surface temperature is systematically overestimated. The heat fluxes are generally overestimated by ERA-40 when compared to heat fluxes calculated by the bulk formulae, sensible heat flux with a mean value of 5W/m2 and latent heat flux with 9W/m2. The overestimation is larger for high fluxes and during high wind speeds. Friction velocity is too large in ERA-40. There are indications that the ERA-40 data over the Baltic Sea is somewhat influenced by land. A second objective for this study is to detect possible trends occurring at Östergarnsholm over a long term perspective with the aid of the complete 44 year long data set. An increasing trend in temperature can be observed, which is in agreement with other long term temperature series in the region. / Sammanfattning av ”En undersökning gällande noggrannheten och trender i ERA-40 över Östersjön” Meteorologisk mätdata från forskningsstationen på Östergarnsholm i Östersjön åren 1995 till 2001 används för att evaluera databasen ERA-40 över Östersjön. Granskningen utförs genom jämförelser av medelparametrar och turbulenta flöden. Statistiken omfattar hela den datamängd som fanns tillgänglig då havsförhållanden antas råda på Östergarnsholm. Årstidsstatistik är också representerad. ERA-40 stämmer delvis överens med de uppmätta värdena, spridningen varierar för olika parametrar. Temperaturen är generellt för varm, vindhastigheten såväl som relativa fuktigheten är för låg medan vattentemperaturen överskattas systematiskt. Värmeflödena är i allmänhet överskattade i jämförelse med flöden beräknade med bulkformeln, det sensibla värmeflödet med 5W/m2 i medeltal och det latenta med 9W/m2. Modellen överskattar höga flöden mer, vilka främst är representerade vid höga vindhastigheter. Friktionshastigheten är mestadels alltför hög i ERA-40. Ett andra syfte med denna undersökning är att med hjälp av hela den 44 år långa dataserien finna eventuella trender över Östergarnsholm. Temperaturen visar en ökande trend vilket tycks stämma överens med andra långtidsserier i Sverige.

This thesis addresses the contribution of Francesc Payarols and Andreu Nin to the Catalan literary system between 1928 and 1937 via the introduction of unmediated translations from Russian into Catalan. This contribution has been studied by comparing it to previous translation activity from Russian into Catalan, to translations in literary systems that due to prestige and geographical proximity can be considered neighbouring systems to the Catalan system (the French, the British and the Spanish), and by reviewing some of the critical reception that these publications gathered in the Catalan press of the time. Selected terminology and theoretical concepts of Polysystem Theory (PST) have been used critically in the methodological framing. This study occupies the gap of knowledge in current scholarship around the work of Payarols, whilst also building on previous and contemporaneous research on Nin. The evolution of translation from Russian into Catalan is contextualised from its introduction in 1879 until the establishment of Edicions Proa in 1928, the platform from which Payarols and Nin published the majority of the texts studied. The role of the translators as agents of the system is particularly highlighted, given both the influence of their translations in creating examples of models of prose that autochthonous novelists could use, and the power of their textual choices outside of the primary authors (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov). Joan Puig i Ferreter’s agency is also explored, as the figure behind Proa’s success and one of the main promoters of the reintroduction of novels into the literary repertoire in Catalan from the late 1920s. This research studies the unmediated Catalan translations of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and a selection of nineteenth and twentieth century authors carried out by Payarols and Nin, and reviews some of the impact that these had upon Catalan writers such as Mercè Rodoreda, Sebastià Juan Arbó and Joan Sales. Overall, these translations largely exceeded the previous available items of Russian literature in Catalan, and in cases such as Dostoevsky and Chekhov, they established a textual presence to go with their already existing literary fame. This process establishes that power dynamics were in operation between these translators, and that Nin had higher esteem from the literary milieu, which in turn affected the prestige of the texts he was commissioned to translate. I then contribute to the debate on the mythologisation of Nin’s work by suggesting a revision of his texts, supported by a comparison with the recently revised versions of some of Payarols translations.

This study focuses on P.I. Tchaikovsky's last completed work, the richly symbolic Six Songs, Opus 73. It demonstrates for the first time how Tchaikovsky's significant literary talents impacted on his song output in general, and on this cycle of songs in particular, providing us also with new insights into his personality. The composer selected and sequenced the poems used for the Opus 73 set to form the cycle of texts himself. The resulting songs are underpinned by a network of internal connections, which parallel the techniques used in the original poems in remarkable ways and link subtly with coded fate messages found elsewhere in the composer's output. The study presents evidence which enhances Pyotr Il'ich's reputation as a skilled manipulator of words, ideas and music.

This thesis examines the crucial diagnostic and productive roles that the concepts of minor and major practice, two interrelated modes of cultural production set out by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in Kafka: toward a Minor Literature (1975), have to play in the present era of ubiquitous digital technology and informatics that Deleuze himself has influentially described as the control society. In first establishing the conditions of majority and majority, Deleuze and Guattari's historical focus in Kafka is the early twentieth century period of Franz Kafka's writing, a period which, for Deleuze, marks the start of a transition between two types of society – the disciplinary society described by Michel Foucault in Discipline and Punish and the control society that is set apart by its distribution, indifferent technical processes and the replacement of the individual with the dividual in social and political thought. Because of their unique conceptual location, at the transition between societies, the concepts of majority and minority present an essential framework for understanding the impact of ubiquitous digital technology and informatics on cultural production in the twentieth century and beyond. In order to determine the conditions of contemporary major and minor practice across the transition from disciplinary to control societies, the thesis is comprised of two interconnecting threads corresponding to majority and minority respectively. Drawing on the theoretical work of Deleuze and Guattari, Friedrich Kittler and Fredric Jameson alongside pioneering figures in the historical development of computation and informatics (Alan Turing, Claude Shannon and others), material observation on the technical function of digital machines, and the close examination of emblematic cultural forms, I determine the specific conditions of majority that emerge through the development of the contemporary control era. Alongside this delineation of the conditions of majority I examine the prospective tactics, corresponding to the characteristics of minority set out by Deleuze and Guattari in Kafka, which emerge as a contemporary counter-practice within the control-era. This is carried out through the close observation of key examples of cultural production in the fields of literature, film, video, television and the videogame that manifest prospective tactics for a control-era minor practice within the overarching technical characteristics of the control-era major. Through an examination of these interrelated threads the thesis presents a framework for both addressing the significant political and cultural changes that ubiquitous computation effects in constituting the contemporary control society and determining the ways in which these changes can be addressed and countered through cultural production.

What factors motivate members of minority groups to vote based on an ethnic attachment? What motivates candidates and political parties to make appeals to specific ethnic groups? I argue that ethnic voting is more likely to emerge when individual socialization experiences and dissatisfaction increase the salience of ethnic identity, contextual factors serve to politicize this salient identity, and the mobilization potential of the ethnic group is high, making it more likely that an ethnic-based appeal will be successful. I test this theory with a combination of regional-level large-N statistical comparisons, case studies, and individual-level survey data. I primarily examine party voting in the Baltic Republics and Ukraine. In these systems, I contend, ethnic voting may manifest support for traditional ethnic parties but also support for more mainstream but ethnically inclusive parties. These inclusive parties, generally overlooked in the ethnic politics literature, are an important component of ethnic representation and an important addition to research on ethnic voting. While in this work I focus on the Russian minority in the countries of the former Soviet Union, the general theory I develop may be applied to ethnic minorities in other political environments.

<p>Fisheries agencies around the Baltic Sea use hydroacoustics to assess stock sizes of herring and sprat. These assessments rely on the assumption that the acoustic properties of Baltic clupeids are the same as North Sea herring. This may lead to biased results, as system-specific differences in salinity and fish fat content may influence acoustic target strength. The acoustic properties of the Baltic clupeids were explored and a new relationship between target strength and fish length was developed (paper I). The intercept of this new relationship is 3.4 dB higher than normally used by the agencies. Applying this new relationship would reduce the acoustic stock biomass estimates by approximately 50%.</p><p>Diel variation in the vertical distribution of fish may influence acoustic abundance estimates. Fish body posture may influence target strength and if fish concentrate near the surface or bottom this may affect detectability by an echo sounder. A seabed-mounted, upward pinging echo sounder was used to study diel variation in vertical distribution, acoustic size distribution and abundance of fish (Paper II). Differences between day and night were substantial and it was concluded that night time acoustics are to be preferred, at least in our study area. The seabed-mounted echo sounder was also used to study fish swimming activity and vertical distribution in relation to light intensity and water temperature (paper III). Four phases of fish distribution were distinguished over the diel cycle (day, night, dawn and dusk). Acoustic tracking was used to estimate the swimming speed of individual fish. The speed varied among the diel periods and the greatest difference was observed between day and night with twice as high swimming speed during the day. Regression models were developed to investigate the effects of fish size and environmental factors (water temperature, light intensity at the sea surface and<i> in situ</i>, measured at the depth of the fish) on swimming speed. Fish size, light intensities and temperature were all significant variables in the models, with fish size being generally most important. These results have clear implications for fish bioenergetics models. Such models should account for seasonal, light-driven cycles in the activity-induced respiration estimates, in particular when modelling populations at high latitudes.</p><p>Vertical and horizontal fish distributions were studied from spring through autumn during two consecutive years (paper IV). The seasonal dynamics in vertical distribution patterns were consistent between years. Prior to thermocline formation, fish of all sizes concentrated near surface where water temperatures were higher than in the underlying water mass. During the summer period of pronounced thermal stratification, larger fish were found deeper than small individuals (including young-of-the-year fish), which remained close to the surface. In the autumn, when the thermal stratification diminished, the small fish moved somewhat deeper while larger individuals dispersed throughout the water column. Fish showed clear horizontal patchiness, but horizontal distributions were not significantly related to wind directions.</p>

<p>When the Baltic States declared their independence in 1991, they did not become equal members of the international community in one day. Although the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union declared the end to the Cold War, ideas, beliefs, prejudices and discourses were much harder to trigger. The study addresses the issues of newly independent states, establishing themselves in the international community, analysing the processes of learning in the interaction with the other international actors. By combining Role theory and Constructivism the author develops a framework to understand the development and change of Baltic States role conceptions. How have Baltic states perceived their role in the Baltic Sea region during the period 1993-2002? How has the western discourse treated them? What role did the application for the EU membership play in the process? What have been the individual and group features of the Baltic States? The study attempts to answer these and other questions through thediscourse analysis of public speeches.</p>