Cryptographic Software Export Controls in the EU

Certain software products employing digital techniques for encryption of data are subject to export controls in the EU Member States pursuant to Community law and relevant laws in the Member States. These controls are agreed globally in the framework of the so-called Wassenaar Arrangement. Wassenaar is an informal non-proliferation regime aimed at promoting international stability and responsibility in transfers of strategic (dual-use) products and technology. This thesis covers provisions of Wassenaar, Community export control laws and export control laws of Finland, Sweden, Germany, France and United Kingdom. This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter discusses the ratio of export control laws and the impact they have on global trade. The ratio is originally defence-related - in general to prevent potential adversaries of participating States from having the same tools, and in particular in the case of cryptographic software to enable signals intelligence efforts. Increasingly as the use of cryptography in a civilian context has mushroomed, export restrictions can have negative effects on civilian trade. Information security solutions may also be took weak because of export restrictions on cryptography. The second chapter covers the OECD's Cryptography Policy, which had a significant effect on its member nations' national cryptography policies and legislation. The OECD is a significant organization,because it acts as a meeting forum for most important industrialized nations. The third chapter covers the Wassenaar Arrangement. The Arrangement is covered from the viewpoint of international law and politics. The Wassenaar control list provisions affecting cryptographic software transfers are also covered in detail. Control lists in the EU and in Member States are usually directly copied from Wassenaar control lists. Controls agreed in its framework set only a minimum level for participating States. However, Wassenaar countries can adopt stricter controls. The fourth chapter covers Community export control law. Export controls are viewed in Community law as falling within the domain of Common Commercial Policy pursuant to Article 133 of the EC Treaty. Therefore the Community has exclusive competence in export matters, save where a national measure is authorized by the Community or falls under foreign or security policy derogations established in Community law. The Member States still have a considerable amount of power in the domain of Common Foreign and Security Policy. They are able to maintain national export controls because export control laws are not fully harmonized. This can also have possible detrimental effects on the functioning of internal market and common export policies. In 1995 the EU adopted Dual-Use Regulation 3381/94/EC, which sets common rules for exports in Member States. Provisions of this regulation receive detailed coverage in this chapter. The fifth chapter covers national legislation and export authorization practices in five different Member States - in Finland, Sweden, Germany, France and in United Kingdom. Export control laws of those Member States are covered when the national laws differ from the uniform approach of the Community's acquis communautaire. Keywords: export control, encryption, software, dual-use, license, foreign trade, e-commerce, Internet

Export of organic matter, sulphate and base cations from boreal headwater catchments downstream to the coast: impacts of land use and climate

The terrestrial export of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is associated with climate, vegetation and land use, and thus is under the influence of climatic variability and human interference with terrestrial ecosystems, their soils and hydrological cycles. The present study provides an assessment of spatial variation of DOM concentrations and export, and interactions between DOM, catchment characteristics, land use and climatic factors in boreal catchments. The influence of catchment characteristics, land use and climatic drivers on the concentrations and export of total organic carbon (TOC), total organic nitrogen (TON) and dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) was estimated using stream water quality, forest inventory and climatic data from 42 Finnish pristine forested headwater catchments, and water quality monitoring, GIS land use, forest inventory and climatic data from the 36 main Finnish rivers (and their sub-catchments) flowing to the Baltic Sea. Moreover, the export of DOM in relation to land use along a European climatic gradient was studied using river water quality and land use data from four European areas. Additionally, the role of organic and minerogenic acidity in controlling pH levels in Finnish rivers and pristine streams was studied by measuring organic anion, sulphate (SO4) and base cation (Ca, Mg, K and Na) concentrations. In all study catchments, TOC was a major fraction of DOM, with much lower proportions of TON and DOP. Moreover, most of TOC and TON was in a dissolved form. The correlation between TOC and TON concentrations was strong and TOC concentrations explained 78% of the variation in TON concentrations in pristine headwater streams. In a subgroup of 20 headwater catchments with similar climatic conditions and low N deposition in eastern Finland, the proportion of peatlands in the catchment and the proportion of Norway spruce (Picea abies Karsten) of the tree stand had the strongest correlation with the TOC and TON concentrations and export. In Finnish river basins, TOC export increased with the increasing proportion of peatland in the catchment, whereas TON export increased with increasing extent of agricultural land. The highest DOP concentrations and export were recorded in river basins with a high extent of agricultural land and urban areas, reflecting the influence of human impact on DOP loads. However, the most important predictor for TOC, TON and DOP export in Finnish rivers was the proportion of upstream lakes in the catchment. The higher the upstream lake percentage, the lower the export indicating organic matter retention in lakes. Molar TOC:TON ratio decreased from headwater catchments covered by forests and peatlands to the large river basins with mixed land use, emphasising the effect of the land use gradient on the stoichiometry of rivers. This study also demonstrated that the land use of the catchments is related to both organic and minerogenic acidity in rivers and pristine headwater streams. Organic anion dominated in rivers and streams situated in northern Finland, reflecting the higher extent of peatlands in these areas, whereas SO4 dominated in southern Finland and on western coastal areas, where the extent of fertile areas, agricultural land, urban areas, acid sulphate soils, and sulphate deposition is highest. High TOC concentrations decreased pH values in the stream and river water, whereas no correlation between SO4 concentrations and pH was observed. This underlines the importance of organic acids in controlling pH levels in Finnish pristine headwater streams and main rivers. High SO4 concentrations were associated with high base cation concentrations and fertile areas, which buffered the effects of SO4 on pH.

Community, Power, and Colonialism: The U.S. Army in Southern Arizona and New Mexico, 1866-1886

Empire is central to U.S. history. When we see the U.S. projecting its influence on a global scale in today s world it is important to understand that U.S. empire has a long history. This dissertation offers a case study of colonialism and U.S. empire by discussing the social worlds, labor regimes, and culture of the U.S. Army during the conquest of southern Arizona and New Mexico (1866-1886). It highlights some of the defining principles, mentalities, and characteristics of U.S. imperialism and shows how U.S. forces have in years past constructed their power and represented themselves, their missions, and the places and peoples that faced U.S. imperialism/colonialism. Using insights from postcolonial studies and whiteness studies, this work balances its attention between discursive representations (army stories) and social experience (army actions), pays attention to silences in the process of historical production, and focuses on collective group mentalities and identities. In the end the army experience reveals an empire in denial constructed on the rule of difference and marked by frustration. White officers, their wives, and the white enlisted men not only wanted the monopoly of violence for the U.S. regime but also colonial (mental/cultural) authority and power, and constructed their identity, authority, and power in discourse and in the social contexts of the everyday through difference. Engaged in warfare against the Apaches, they did not recognize their actions as harmful or acknowledge the U.S. invasion as the bloody colonial conquest it was. White army personnel painted themselves and the army as liberators, represented colonial peoples as racial inferiors, approached colonial terrain in terms of struggle, and claimed that the region was a terrible periphery with little value before the arrival of white civilization. Officers and wives also wanted to place themselves at the top of colonial hierarchies as the refined and respectable class who led the regeneration of the colony by example: they tried to turn army villages into islands of civilization and made journeys, leisure, and domestic life to showcase their class sensibilities and level of sophistication. Often, however, their efforts failed, resulting in frustration and bitterness. Many blamed the colony and its peoples for their failures. The army itself was divided by race and class. All soldiers were treated as laborers unfit for self-government. White enlisted men, frustrated by their failures in colonial warfare and by constant manual labor, constructed worlds of resistance, whereas indigenous soldiers sought to negotiate the effects of colonialism by working in the army. As colonized labor their position was defined by tension between integration and exclusion and between freedom and colonial control.

Cortical processing of musical pitch as reflected by behavioural and electrophysiological evidence

In a musical context, the pitch of sounds is encoded according to domain-general principles not confined to music or even to audition overall but common to other perceptual and cognitive processes (such as multiple pattern encoding and feature integration), and to domain-specific and culture-specific properties related to a particular musical system only (such as the pitch steps of the Western tonal system). The studies included in this thesis shed light on the processing stages during which pitch encoding occurs on the basis of both domain-general and music-specific properties, and elucidate the putative brain mechanisms underlying pitch-related music perception. Study I showed, in subjects without formal musical education, that the pitch and timbre of multiple sounds are integrated as unified object representations in sensory memory before attentional intervention. Similarly, multiple pattern pitches are simultaneously maintained in non-musicians' sensory memory (Study II). These findings demonstrate the degree of sophistication of pitch processing at the sensory memory stage, requiring neither attention nor any special expertise of the subjects. Furthermore, music- and culture-specific properties, such as the pitch steps of the equal-tempered musical scale, are automatically discriminated in sensory memory even by subjects without formal musical education (Studies III and IV). The cognitive processing of pitch according to culture-specific musical-scale schemata hence occurs as early as at the sensory-memory stage of pitch analysis. Exposure and cortical plasticity seem to be involved in musical pitch encoding. For instance, after only one hour of laboratory training, the neural representations of pitch in the auditory cortex are altered (Study V). However, faulty brain mechanisms for attentive processing of fine-grained pitch steps lead to inborn deficits in music perception and recognition such as those encountered in congenital amusia (Study VI). These findings suggest that predispositions for exact pitch-step discrimination together with long-term exposure to music govern the acquisition of the automatized schematic knowledge of the music of a particular culture that even non-musicians possess.

Agroforestry systems for sustainable livelihoods and improved land management in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania

Forest destruction for agriculture continues to be a major threat to the rich biological diversity in the East Usambara Mountains in the north-eastern corner of Tanzania. The highest ratio of endemic plant and animal species found on 100 km2 anywhere in the world is depending on the remaining natural forests. Forests are vitally important for the local population in many different ways, and nationally they are an important source of water and hydroelectricity. The soils, of low fertility and mostly acidic Ferrasols, mainly have the nutrients in the topsoil. After clear-cutting, the soils soon become poor when the topsoil is eroded. High-value cardamom is nowadays unsustainably cultivated in the natural forests of the East Usambaras. The general aim was to study the possibilities to develop new profitable and sustainable agroforestry systems for the benefit of the local people that could contribute to relieving the pressure on the remaining natural forests in the East Usambara Mountains. Results from a spice crop agroforestry trial, established in cooperation with a local farmer, showed a clear advantage of intercropping cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) and black pepper (Piper nigrum) with trees, especially with Grevillea robusta. The nitrogen fixing tree species Gliricidia sepium also improved the nitrogen and organic matter content of the soil over levels found in the natural forest. With improved agroforestry methods for spice production the households generated as much as13 times the net income obtained with traditional forest cultivation practices. There are thus sustainable and profitable ways to cultivate spices as cash crops in well-managed homegardens. However, the farmers need stable markets, access to credit and comprehensive extension services. The soil fertility depletion should be reversed with organic manure application and an enabling policy environment for the smallholder-farming sector. Strong farmers organisations and equal rights to resources and decision-making are needed. Organic spices have an increasing demand, and their export would be profitable for these farmers. What is, however, most needed for a change is a political will of a government that understands the importance of agricultural and forestry development for poverty reduction.

Zinc, cadmium and lead resistance mechanisms in bacteria and their contribution to biosensing

In bacteria resistance to heavy metals is mainly achieved through active efflux, but also sequestration with proteins or as insoluble compounds is used. Although numerous studies have dealt with zinc, cadmium and lead resistance mechanisms in bacteria, it has still remained unclear how different transporters are integrated into an effective homeostasis/resistance network and whether specific mechanisms for lead sequestration exist. Furthermore, since metals are toxic not only to bacteria but to higher organisms as well, it is important to be able to estimate possible biological effects of heavy metals in the environment. This could be done by determining the bioavailable amount of the metals in the environment with bacterial bioreporters. That is, one can employ bacteria that respond to metal contamination by a measurable signal to assess the property of metals to cross biological membranes and to cause harmful effects in a possibly polluted environment. In this thesis a new lead resistance mechanism is described, interplay between CBA transporters and P-type ATPases in zinc and cadmium resistance is presented and finally the acquired knowledge is used to construct bacterial bioreporters for heavy metals with increased sensitivity and specificity. The new lead resistance model employs a P-type ATPase that removes Pb2+ ions from the cytoplasm and a phosphatase that produces inorganic phosphate for lead sequestration in the periplasm. This was the first study where the molecular mechanism of lead sequestration has been described. Characterization of two P-type ATPases and two CBA transporters showed that resistance mechanisms for Zn2+ and Cd2+ are somewhat different than for Pb2+ as these metals cannot be sequestered as insoluble compounds as easily. Resistance to Zn2+ was conferred merely by the CBA transporter that could export both cytoplasmic and periplasmic ions; whereas, full resistance to Cd2+ required interplay of a P-type ATPase that exported cytoplasmic ions to periplasm and a CBA transporter that further exported periplasmic ions to the outside. The knowledge on functionality of the transporters and metal-inducible promoters was exploited in bioreporter technology. A transporter-deficient bioreporter strain that lacked exporters for Zn2+/Cd2+/Pb2+ could detect up to 45-fold lower metal concentrations than its wild type counterpart due to the accumulation of metals in the cell. The broad specificity issue of bioreporters was overcome by using Zn-specific promoter as a sensor element, thus achieving Zn-specific bioreporter.

Calm or storm? : Wind power actors perceptions of Finnish wind power and its future

Wind power has grown fast internationally. It can reduce the environmental impact of energy production and increase energy security. Finland has turbine industry but wind electricity production has been slow, and nationally set capacity targets have not been met. I explored social factors that have affected the slow development of wind power in Finland by studying the perceptions of Finnish national level wind power actors. By that I refer to people who affect the development of wind power sector, such as officials, politicians, and representatives of wind industries and various organisations. The material consisted of interviews, a questionnaire, and written sources. The perceptions of wind power, its future, and methods to promote it were divided. They were studied through discourse analysis, content analysis, and scenario construction. Definition struggles affect views of the significance and potential of wind power in Finland, and also affect investments in wind power and wind power policy choices. Views of the future were demonstrated through scenarios. The views included scenarios of fast growth, but in the most pessimistic views, wind power was not thought to be competitive without support measures even in 2025, and the wind power capacity was correspondingly low. In such a scenario, policy tool choices were expected to remain similar to ones in use at the time of the interviews. So far, the development in Finland has followed closely this pessimistic scenario. Despite the scepticism about wind electricity production, wind turbine industry was seen as a credible industry. For many wind power actors as well as for the Finnish wind power policy, the turbine industry is a significant motive to promote wind power. Domestic electricity production and the export turbine industry are linked in discourse through so-called home market argumentation. Finnish policy tools have included subsidies, research and development funding, and information policies. The criteria used to evaluate policy measures were both process-oriented and value-based. Feed-in tariffs and green certificates that are common elsewhere have not been taken to use in Finland. Some interviewees considered such tools unsuitable for free electricity markets and for the Finnish policy style, dictatorial, and being against western values. Other interviewees supported their use because of their effectiveness. The current Finnish policy tools are not sufficiently effective to increase wind power production significantly. Marginalisation of wind power in discourses, pessimistic views of the future, and the view that the small consumer demand for wind electricity represents the political views of citizens towards promoting wind power, make it more difficult to take stronger policy measures to use. Wind power has not yet significantly contributed to the ecological modernisation of the energy sector in Finland, but the situation may change as the need to reduce emissions from energy production continues.

The role of lakes in carbon cycling in boreal catchments

Lakes are an important component of ecosystem carbon cycle through both organic carbon sequestration and carbon dioxide and methane emissions, although they cover only a small fraction of the Earth's surface area. Lake sediments are considered to be one of rather perma-nent sinks of carbon in boreal regions and furthermore, freshwater ecosystems process large amounts of carbon originating from terrestrial sources. These carbon fluxes are highly uncer-tain especially in the changing climate. -- The present study provides a large-scale view on carbon sources and fluxes in boreal lakes situated in different landscapes. We present carbon concentrations in water, pools in lake se-diments, and carbon gas (CO2 and CH4) fluxes from lakes. The study is based on spatially extensive and randomly selected Nordic Lake Survey (NLS) database with 874 lakes. The large database allows the identification of the various factors (lake size, climate, and catchment land use) determining lake water carbon concentrations, pools and gas fluxes in different types of lakes along a latitudinal gradient from 60oN to 69oN. Lakes in different landscapes vary in their carbon quantity and quality. Carbon (C) content (total organic and inorganic carbon) in lakes is highest in agriculture and peatland dominated areas. In peatland rich areas organic carbon dominated in lakes but in agricultural areas both organic and inorganic C concentrations were high. Total inorganic carbon in the lake water was strongly dependent on the bedrock and soil quality in the catchment, especially in areas where human influence in the catchment is low. In inhabited areas both agriculture and habitation in the catchment increase lake TIC concentrations, since in the disturbed soils both weathering and leaching are presumably more efficient than in pristine areas. TOC concentrations in lakes were related to either catchment sources, mainly peatlands, or to retention in the upper watercourses. Retention as a regulator of the TOC concentrations dominated in southern Finland, whereas the peatland sources were important in northern Finland. The homogeneous land use in the north and the restricted catchment sources of TOC contribute to the close relationship between peatlands and the TOC concentrations in the northern lakes. In southern Finland the more favorable climate for degradation and the multiple sources of TOC in the mixed land use highlight the importance of retention. Carbon processing was intensive in the small lakes. Both CO2 emission and the Holocene C pool in sediments per square meter of the lake area were highest in the smallest lakes. How-ever, because the total area of the small lakes on the areal level is limited, the large lakes are important units in C processing in the landscape. Both CO2 and CH4 concentrations and emissions were high in eutrophic lakes. High availability of nutrients and the fresh organic matter enhance degradation in these lakes. Eutrophic lakes are often small and shallow, enabling high contact between the water column and the sediment. At the landscape level, the lakes in agricultural areas are often eutrophic due to fertile soils and fertilization of the catchments, and therefore they also showed the highest CO2 and CH4 concentrations. Export from the catchments and in-lake degradation were suggested to be equally important sources of CO2 and CH4 in fall when the lake water column was intensively mixed and the transport of sub-stances from the catchment was high due to the rainy season. In the stagnant periods, especially in the winter, in-lake degradation as a gas source was highlighted due to minimal mixing and limited transport of C from the catchment. The strong relationship between the annual CO2 level of lakes and the annual precipitation suggests that climate change can have a major impact on C cycling in the catchments. Increase in precipitation enhances DOC export from the catchments and leads to increasing greenhouse gas emissions from lakes. The total annual CO2 emission from Finnish lakes was estimated to be 1400 Gg C a-1. The total lake sediment C pool in Finland was estimated to be 0.62 Pg, giving an annual sink in Finnish lakes of 65 Gg C a-1.

Atomic scale engineering of carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes, seamless cylinders made from carbon atoms, have outstanding characteristics: inherent nano-size, record-high Young’s modulus, high thermal stability and chemical inertness. They also have extraordinary electronic properties: in addition to extremely high conductance, they can be both metals and semiconductors without any external doping, just due to minute changes in the arrangements of atoms. As traditional silicon-based devices are reaching the level of miniaturisation where leakage currents become a problem, these properties make nanotubes a promising material for applications in nanoelectronics. However, several obstacles must be overcome for the development of nanotube-based nanoelectronics. One of them is the ability to modify locally the electronic structure of carbon nanotubes and create reliable interconnects between nanotubes and metal contacts which likely can be used for integration of the nanotubes in macroscopic electronic devices. In this thesis, the possibility of using ion and electron irradiation as a tool to introduce defects in nanotubes in a controllable manner and to achieve these goals is explored. Defects are known to modify the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes. Some defects are always present in pristine nanotubes, and naturally are introduced during irradiation. Obviously, their density can be controlled by irradiation dose. Since different types of defects have very different effects on the conductivity, knowledge of their abundance as induced by ion irradiation is central for controlling the conductivity. In this thesis, the response of single walled carbon nanotubes to ion irradiation is studied. It is shown that, indeed, by energy selective irradiation the conductance can be controlled. Not only the conductivity, but the local electronic structure of single walled carbon nanotubes can be changed by the defects. The presented studies show a variety of changes in the electronic structures of semiconducting single walled nanotubes, varying from individual new states in the band gap to changes in the band gap width. The extensive simulation results for various types of defect make it possible to unequivocally identify defects in single walled carbon nanotubes by combining electronic structure calculations and scanning tunneling spectroscopy, offering a reference data for a wide scientific community of researchers studying nanotubes with surface probe microscopy methods. In electronics applications, carbon nanotubes have to be interconnected to the macroscopic world via metal contacts. Interactions between the nanotubes and metal particles are also essential for nanotube synthesis, as single walled nanotubes are always grown from metal catalyst particles. In this thesis, both growth and creation of nanotube-metal nanoparticle interconnects driven by electron irradiation is studied. Surface curvature and the size of metal nanoparticles is demonstrated to determine the local carbon solubility in these particles. As for nanotube-metal contacts, previous experiments have proved the possibility to create junctions between carbon nanotubes and metal nanoparticles under irradiation in a transmission electron microscope. In this thesis, the microscopic mechanism of junction formation is studied by atomistic simulations carried out at various levels of sophistication. It is shown that structural defects created by the electron beam and efficient reconstruction of the nanotube atomic network, inherently related to the nanometer size and quasi-one dimensional structure of nanotubes, are the driving force for junction formation. Thus, the results of this thesis not only address practical aspects of irradiation-mediated engineering of nanosystems, but also contribute to our understanding of the behaviour of point defects in low-dimensional nanoscale materials.

Political Risk in Credit Evaluation: Empirical Studies and Survey Results

Financing trade between economic agents located in different countries is affected by many types of risks, resulting from incomplete information about the debtor, the problems of enforcing international contracts, or the prevalence of political and financial crises. Trade is important for economic development and the availability of trade finance is essential, especially for developing countries. Relatively few studies treat the topic of political risk, particularly in the context of international lending. This thesis explores new ground to identify links between political risk and international debt defaults. The core hypothesis of the study is that the default probability of debt increases with increasing political risk in the country of the borrower. The thesis consists of three essays that support the hypothesis from different angles of the credit evaluation process. The first essay takes the point of view of an international lender assessing the credit risk of a public borrower. The second investigates creditworthiness assessment of companies. The obtained results are substantiated in the third essay that deals with an extensive political risk survey among finance professionals in developing countries. The financial instruments of core interest are export credit guaranteed debt initiated between the Export Credit Agency of Finland and buyers in 145 countries between 1975 and 2006. Default events of the foreign credit counterparts are conditioned on country-specific macroeconomic variables, corporate-specific accounting information as well as political risk indicators from various international sources. Essay 1 examines debt issued to government controlled institutions and conditions public default events on traditional macroeconomic fundamentals, in addition to selected political and institutional risk factors. Confirming previous research, the study finds country indebtedness and the GDP growth rate to be significant indicators of public default. Further, it is shown that public defaults respond to various political risk factors. However, the impact of the risk varies between countries at different stages of economic development. Essay 2 proceeds by investigating political risk factors as conveivable drivers of corporate default and uses traditional accounting variables together with new political risk indicators in the credit evaluation of private debtors. The study finds links between corporate default and leverage, as well as between corporate default and the general investment climate and measeures of conflict in the debtor country. Essay 3 concludes the thesis by offering survey evidence on the impact of political risk on debt default, as perceived and experienced by 103 finance professionals in 38 developing countries. Taken together, the results of the thesis suggest that various forms of political risk are associated with international debt defaults and continue to pose great concerns for both international creditors and borrowers in developing countries. The study provides new insights on the importance of variable selection in country risk analysis, and shows how political risk is actually perceived and experienced in the riskier, often lower income countries of the global economy.

Corporate Funding on the European Debt Capital Market

The integrated European debt capital market has undoubtedly broadened the possibilities for companies to access funding from the public and challenged investors to cope with an ever increasing complexity of its market participants. Well into the Euro-era, it is clear that the unified market has created potential for all involved parties, where investment opportunities are able to meet a supply of funds from a broad geographical area now summoned under a single currency. Europe’s traditionally heavy dependency on bank lending as a source of debt capital has thus been easing as corporate residents are able to tap into a deep and liquid capital market to satisfy their funding needs. As national barriers eroded with the inauguration of the Euro and interest rates for the EMU-members converged towards over-all lower yields, a new source of debt capital emerged to the vast majority of corporate residents under the new currency and gave an alternative to the traditionally more maturity-restricted bank debt. With increased sophistication came also an improved knowledge and understanding of the market and its participants. Further, investors became more willing to bear credit risk, which opened the market for firms of ever lower creditworthiness. In the process, the market as a whole saw a change in the profile of issuers, as non-financial firms increasingly sought their funding directly from the bond market. This thesis consists of three separate empirical studies on how corporates fund themselves on the European debt capital markets. The analysis focuses on a firm’s access to and behaviour on the capital market, subsequent the decision to raise capital through the issuance of arm’s length debt on the bond market. The specific areas considered are contributing to our knowledge in the fields of corporate finance and financial markets by considering explicitly firms’ primary market activities within the new market area. The first essay explores how reputation of an issuer affects its debt issuance. Essay two examines the choice of interest rate exposure on newly issued debt and the third and final essay explores pricing anomalies on corporate debt issues.

The Guide-Dog Approach:

In ecology the central problem is not the lack of theory or the lack of data but the lack of research able to link them systematically and critically. The description and analysis of such an integrated research process is the focus of the present study. Our approach is called the Guide-Dog approach, because we hope that it is able to guide all those who are blinded or perplexed by the increasing technical sophistication and fragmentation of modern science.

Use of wetland buffer areas to reduce nitrogen transport from forested catchments: Retention capacity, emissions of N2O and CH4 and vegetation composition dynamics

The use of buffer areas in forested catchments has been actively researched during the last 15 years; but until now, the research has mainly concentrated on the reduction of sediment and phosphorus loads, instead of nitrogen (N). The aim of this thesis was to examine the use of wetland buffer areas to reduce the nitrogen transport in forested catchments and to investigate the environmental impacts involved in their use. Besides the retention capacity, particular attention was paid to the main factors contributing to the N retention, the potential for increased N2O emissions after large N loading, the effects of peatland restoration for use as buffer areas on CH4 emissions, as well as the vegetation composition dynamics induced by the use of peatlands as buffer areas. To study the capacity of buffer areas to reduce N transport in forested catchments, we first used large artificial loadings of N, and then studied the capacity of buffer areas to reduce ammonium (NH4-N) export originating from ditch network maintenance areas in forested catchments. The potential for increased N2O emissions were studied using the closed chamber technique and a large artificial N loading at five buffer areas. Sampling for CH4 emissions and methane-cycling microbial populations were done on three restored buffer areas and on three buffers constructed on natural peatlands. Vegetation composition dynamics was studied at three buffer areas between 1996 and 2009. Wetland buffer areas were efficient in retaining inorganic N from inflow. The key factors contributing to the retention were the size and the length of the buffer, the hydrological loading and the rate of nutrient loading. Our results show that although the N2O emissions may increase temporarily to very high levels after a large N loading into the buffer area, the buffer areas in forested catchments should be viewed as insignificant sources of N2O. CH4 fluxes were substantially higher from buffers constructed on natural peatlands than from the restored buffer areas, probably because of the slow recovery of methanogens after restoration. The use of peatlands as buffer areas was followed by clear changes in plant species composition and the largest changes occurred in the upstream parts of the buffer areas and the wet lawn-level surfaces, where the contact between the vegetation and the through-flow waters was closer than for the downstream parts and dry hummock sites. The changes in the plant species composition may be an undesired phenomenon especially in the case of the mires representing endangered mire site types, and therefore the construction of new buffer areas should be primarily directed into drained peatland areas.

Harvesting undelimbed Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) from first thinnings for integrated production of kraft pulp and energy

The present study evaluates the feasibility of undelimbed Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) for integrated production of pulp and energy in a kraft pulp mill from the technical, economic and environmental points of view, focusing on the potential of bundle harvesting. The feasibility of tree sections for pulp production was tested by conducting an industrial wood-handling experiment, laboratory cooking and bleaching trials, using conventional small-diameter Scots pine pulpwood as a reference. These trials showed that undelimbed Scots pine sections can be processed in favourable conditions as a blend with conventional small-diameter pulpwood without reducing the pulp quality. However, fibre losses at various phases of the process may increase when using undelimbed material. In the economic evaluation, both pulp production and wood procurement costs were considered, using the relative wood paying capability of a kraft pulp mill as a determinant. The calculations were made for three Scots pine first-thinning stands with the breast-height diameter of the removal (6 12 cm) as the main distinctive factor. The supply chains included in the comparison were based on cut-to-length harvesting, whole-tree harvesting and bundle harvesting (whole-tree bundling). With the current ratio of pulp and energy prices, the wood paying capability declines with an increase in the proportion of the energy fraction of the raw material. The supply system based on the cut-to-length method was the most efficient option, resulting in the highest residual value at stump in most cases. A decline in the pulp price and an increase in the energy price improved the competitiveness of the whole-tree systems. With short truck transportation distances and low pulp prices, however, the harvesting of loose whole trees can result in higher residual value at stump in small-diameter stands. While savings in transportation costs did not compensate for the high cutting and compaction costs by the second prototype of the bundle harvester, an increase in transportation distances improved its competitiveness. Since harvesting undelimbed assortments increases nutrient export from the site, which can affect soil productivity, the whole-tree alternatives included in the present study cannot be recommended on infertile peatlands and mineral soils. The harvesting of loose whole trees or bundled whole trees implies a reduction in protective logging residues and an increase in site traffic or payloads. These factors increase the risk of soil damage, especially on peat soils with poor bearing capacity. Within the wood procurement parameters which were examined, the CO2 emissions of the supply systems varied from 13 27 kg m3. Compaction of whole trees into bundles reduced emissions from transportation by 30 39%, but these reductions were insufficient to compensate for the increased emissions from cutting and compaction.