From Iron Horse to Rauta-airot - a Semiotic View on the Domestication of Metaphors in Literary Translation

The thesis concentrates on two questions: the translation of metaphors in literary texts, and the use of semiotic models and tools in translation studies. The aim of the thesis is to present a semiotic, text based model designed to ease the translation of metaphors and to analyze translated metaphors. In the translation of metaphors I will concentrate on the central problem of metaphor translations: in addition to its denotation and connotation, a single metaphor may contain numerous culture or genre specific meanings. How can a translator ensure the translation of all meanings relevant to the text as a whole? I will approach the question from two directions. Umberto Eco's holistic text analysis model provides an opportunity to concentrate on the problematic nature of metaphor translation from the level of a text as a specific entity, while George Lakoff's and Mark Johnson's metaphor research makes it possible to approach the question from the level of individual metaphors. On the semiotic side, the model utilizes Eero Tarasti's existential semiotics supported by Algirdas Greimas' actant model and Yuri Lotman's theory of cultural semiotics. In the model introduced in the thesis, individual texts are deconstructed through Eco's model into elements. The textual roles and features of these elements are distilled further through Tarasti's model into their coexistent meaning levels. The priorization and analysis of these meaning levels provide an opportunity to consider the contents and significance of specific metaphors in relation to the needs of the text as a whole. As example texts, I will use Motörhead's hard rock classic Iron Horse/Born to Lose and its translation into Rauta-airot by Viikate. I will use the introduced model to analyze the metaphors in the source and target texts, and to consider the transfer of culture specific elements between the languages and cultural borders. In addition, I will use the analysis process to examine the validity of the model introduced in the thesis.

Kodin ja työn rajavyöhykkeellä - yhteensovittamisen jännitteitä ja ratkaisuja arjessa

The aim of this research is to study the boundary zone of home and work and the tensions people experience while reconciling home and work? How are the requirements of the family, the home and the work taken care of in everyday life? What kind of difficulties does the individual experience when reconciling home activities and job requirements together? What kind of activity policies have families created to ease the everyday life? What kind of goals and requirements do families feel behind the difficulties in adjusting home and work? What kind of changes would make the adjusting of home and work easier? The changing family life, everyday home activities and the changing Finnish working life are studied to describe the adjusting of home and work. In addition the boundary zone of home and work and its tensions are studied. 337 research persons who find reconciling home and work challenging were elected from different sectors of the working life. Research persons were gathered from the public, private and third sectors. The research material was gathered with a semi-structured qualitative questionnaire published in internet. Contents analysis was the analysis method of the research material. The tensions of adjusting home and work are various. Several activity systems meet on the boundary zone of home and work causing boundary zones to expand and tensions to increase and expand like a network. In the everyday life of an individual the boundary zone fades out and home and work overlap. Tensions can be examined as internal conflicts of the individual through the activity system of everyday life. Individuals balance between individualism and familism, feeling bad, suffering from lack of time and struggling with childcare organizing problems and inflexible employers. The solutions to reconciling home and work difficulties are situational. Often is the help of family and friends required without any solid solutions. The conflict of the goals, requirements and the reality is behind the problems as well as the tightening terms of the working life and its growing expectations. Change requests are proposed on the levels of individual, home, work and the society. Reconciling home and work is not only a challenge between the employee and the employer. It s a problem that needs multilateral solutions and changes on the levels of individual, home, work and society. The challenge remaining is to find out if it would be successful to take the everyday life as starting point to negotiate the reconciling of home and work and how the possible family, social and work political solutions appear in everyday life.

Inflammation and tissue destruction in arthritides and periodontal disease

The principal aim of this study was to examine diseases characterized by inflammatory injury, especially human arthritides and periodontitis, with specific interest to final effector enzymes of tissue destruction and address the possible future tools to prevent permanent tissue loss. We used biochemical and immunological methods applied to synovial tissue samples, samples of synovial fluid, and samples of peripheral blood. In Study IV, we used established clinical inflammatory injury indicator probing pocket depth and used it to derive a new clinical measure of systemic burden, periodontal inflammatory burden index. In study I, we showed a difference in the effector enzymes of peripheral blood leukocytes and leukocytes from inflamed synovial fluid of rheumatoid arthritis and reactive arthritis patients. The effector enzyme activities were higher in synovial fluid than in peripheral blood. In study II, we showed the presence of collagenase-3 in rheumatoid synovial tissue samples, relative resistance of the enzyme to inhibition in vitro and developed an electrophoretic method for detection of collagenase-3 in presence of collagenase-1. In study III, we carried out an open label study of doxycycline treatment of 12 RA patients. During the treatment period, we observed an improvement in several of the biochemical and psychosocial variables used to assess the status of the patients. In study IV, we showed a clearly lower level of periodontal inflammatory injury in chronic periodontitis patients referred for periodontal treatment. In this cross-sectional pilot study, we showed lower levels of inflammatory injury in periodontitis patients using statin than in those not receiving statin treatment. The difference was of same magnitude in patients using simvastatin or atorvastatin. The weighted index of inflammatory burden, PIBI, which emphasizes the burden imposed by the deepest pathological pockets on the system showed values consistent with a wider scale to ease future studies on the inflammatory burden associated with periodontitis.

Irradiation-mediated tailoring of carbon nanotubes

The ever-increasing demand for faster computers in various areas, ranging from entertaining electronics to computational science, is pushing the semiconductor industry towards its limits on decreasing the sizes of electronic devices based on conventional materials. According to the famous law by Gordon E. Moore, a co-founder of the world s largest semiconductor company Intel, the transistor sizes should decrease to the atomic level during the next few decades to maintain the present rate of increase in the computational power. As leakage currents become a problem for traditional silicon-based devices already at sizes in the nanometer scale, an approach other than further miniaturization is needed to accomplish the needs of the future electronics. A relatively recently proposed possibility for further progress in electronics is to replace silicon with carbon, another element from the same group in the periodic table. Carbon is an especially interesting material for nanometer-sized devices because it forms naturally different nanostructures. Furthermore, some of these structures have unique properties. The most widely suggested allotrope of carbon to be used for electronics is a tubular molecule having an atomic structure resembling that of graphite. These carbon nanotubes are popular both among scientists and in industry because of a wide list of exciting properties. For example, carbon nanotubes are electronically unique and have uncommonly high strength versus mass ratio, which have resulted in a multitude of proposed applications in several fields. In fact, due to some remaining difficulties regarding large-scale production of nanotube-based electronic devices, fields other than electronics have been faster to develop profitable nanotube applications. In this thesis, the possibility of using low-energy ion irradiation to ease the route towards nanotube applications is studied through atomistic simulations on different levels of theory. Specifically, molecular dynamic simulations with analytical interaction models are used to follow the irradiation process of nanotubes to introduce different impurity atoms into these structures, in order to gain control on their electronic character. Ion irradiation is shown to be a very efficient method to replace carbon atoms with boron or nitrogen impurities in single-walled nanotubes. Furthermore, potassium irradiation of multi-walled and fullerene-filled nanotubes is demonstrated to result in small potassium clusters in the hollow parts of these structures. Molecular dynamic simulations are further used to give an example on using irradiation to improve contacts between a nanotube and a silicon substrate. Methods based on the density-functional theory are used to gain insight on the defect structures inevitably created during the irradiation. Finally, a new simulation code utilizing the kinetic Monte Carlo method is introduced to follow the time evolution of irradiation-induced defects on carbon nanotubes on macroscopic time scales. Overall, the molecular dynamic simulations presented in this thesis show that ion irradiation is a promisingmethod for tailoring the nanotube properties in a controlled manner. The calculations made with density-functional-theory based methods indicate that it is energetically favorable for even relatively large defects to transform to keep the atomic configuration as close to the pristine nanotube as possible. The kinetic Monte Carlo studies reveal that elevated temperatures during the processing enhance the self-healing of nanotubes significantly, ensuring low defect concentrations after the treatment with energetic ions. Thereby, nanotubes can retain their desired properties also after the irradiation. Throughout the thesis, atomistic simulations combining different levels of theory are demonstrated to be an important tool for determining the optimal conditions for irradiation experiments, because the atomic-scale processes at short time scales are extremely difficult to study by any other means.

Monimuotoisuus ja esteettömyys : Näkövammaisten asiantuntijoiden työelämäkokemuksia

The purpose of this study is to analyse education, employment, and work-life experiences of visually impaired persons in expert jobs. The empirical data consists of 30 thematic interviews (24 visually impaired persons, 1 family-member of a visually impaired person, 5 persons working with diversity issues), of supplementary articles, and of statistics on the socio-economic status of the visually impaired. The interviewees experiences of education and employment have been analysed by a qualitative method. The analysis has been deepened by reflecting it against the recent discussion on the concept of diversity. The author s methodological choice as a disability researcher has been to treat the interviewees as co-researchers rather than objects of research. Accessibility in its different forms is a prerequisite of diversity in the workplace, and this study examines what kind of accessibility is required by visually impaired professionals. Access to working life depends on the attitudes prejudices and expectations that society has towards a minority group. Social accessibility is connected with internal relationships in the workplace, and achieving social accessibility is a bilateral process. Information technology has revolutionised the visually impaired people s possibilities of accessing information and performing expert tasks. Accessible environment, good mobility skills, and transportation services enable visually impaired employees to get to their workplaces and to navigate there with ease. Integration has raised the level of education and widened the selection of career options for the visually impaired. However, even visually impaired people with academic degrees often need employment support services. Visually impaired professionals are mainly employed in the public and third sector. Achieving diversity in the labour market is a multiactor process. Social support services are needed, as well as courage and readiness from employers to hire people with disabilities. The organisations of the visually impaired play an important role in affecting the attitudes and providing peer support. Visually impaired employees need good professional skills, blindness skills, and social courage, and they need to be comfortable with their disability. In the workplace, diversity may actualise as diverse ways of working: the work is done by using technical aids or other means of compensating for the lack of eyesight. When an employee must find compensatory solutions for disability-related limitations at work, this will also develop his/her problem-solving abilities. Key words: visually impaired, diversity, accessibility, working life

Retirement Transition and Well-being : A 16-year Longitudinal Study

The ageing of the labour force and falling employment rates have forced policy makers in industrialized countries to find means of increasing the well-being of older workers and of lengthening their work careers. The main objective of this thesis was to study longitudinally how health, functional capacity, subjective well-being, and lifestyle change as people grow older, and what effect retirement has on these factors and on their relationships. The present study is a follow-up questionnaire study of Finnish municipal workers, conducted in 1981 to 1997 at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. In 1981, a postal questionnaire was sent to 7344 municipal workers in different parts of Finland. The respondents were born between 1923 and 1937. A total of 6257 persons responded to the first questionnaire. In the end, a total of 3817 persons had responded to all four (1981, 1985, 1992, 1997) questionnaires. (The response rate was 69% of the living participants). Cross-tabulations, comparison of means, logistic regression analyses and general linear models with repeated measures were used to derive the results. The transition from work life to retirement, and the following years as a pensioner were associated with many changes. Involvement in various activities increased during the transition stage but later decreased to the previous level. Physical exercise was an exception: it became increasingly popular over the years. Perceived health improved markedly from the working stage to the retirement transition stage, even though morbidity increased steadily during the follow-up. On the other hand, functional capacity decreased over the follow-up, especially among those who were occupationally active until the retirement stage. Subjective well-being remained stable during the follow-up period. There were, however, great differences based on the type of work, favouring those whose work had been mental in nature. The impact of activity level on maintaining well-being became greater during the follow-up, whereas the effect of physical functioning diminished. Good physical functioning and an active life-style contributed to staying on at work until normal retirement age. Also work-related factors, i.e. possibilities for development and influence at work, responsibility for others, meaningful work, and satisfaction with working time arrangements were positively related to continuing working. The transition from work to retirement had a positive impact on a person s health and functional capacity. The study results support the view that it should be possible to ease one s work pace during the last years of a work career. This might lower the threshold between work and retirement and convince people that there will still be time to enjoy retirement also a few years later.

Customer Value in E-Service: Conceptual Foundation and Empirical Evidence

Customer value has been identified as “the reason” for customers to patronize a firm, and as one of the fundamental blocks that market exchanges build upon. Despite the importance of customer value, it is often poorly defined, or seems to refer to different phenomena. This dissertation contributes to current marketing literature by subjecting the value concept to a critical investigation, and by clarifying its conceptual foundation. Based on the literature review, it is proposed that customer value can be divided into two separate, but interrelated aspects: value creation processes, and value outcome determination. This means that on one hand, it is possible to examine those activities through which value is created, and on the other hand, investigate how customers determine the value outcomes they receive. The results further show that customers may determine value in four different ways: value as a benefit/sacrifice ratio, as experience outcomes, as means-end chains, and value as phenomenological. In value as benefit/sacrifice ratio, customers are expected to calculate the ratio between service benefits (e.g. ease of use) and sacrifices (e.g. price). In value as experience outcomes, customers are suggested to experience multiple value components, such as functional, emotional, or social value. Customer value as means-ends chains in turn models value in terms of the relationships between service characteristics, use value, and desirable ends (e.g. social acceptance). Finally, value as phenomenological proposes that value emerges from lived, holistic experiences. The empirical papers investigate customer value in e-services, including online health care and mobile services, and show how value in e-service stems from the process and content quality, use context, and the service combination that a customer uses. In conclusion, marketers should understand that different value definitions generate different types of understanding of customer value. In addition, it is clear that studying value from several perspectives is useful, as it enables a richer understanding of value for the different actors. Finally, the interconnectedness between value creation and determination is surprisingly little researched, and this dissertation proposes initial steps towards understanding the relationship between the two.

Perceptions Towards Adoption of Mobile Self-services: A Case Study (Available in Hanken intranet only)

This thesis is an exploratory case study that aims to understand the attitudes affecting adoption of mobile self-services. This study used a demo mobile self-service that could be used by consumers for making address changes. The service was branded with a large and trusted Finnish brand. The theoretical framework that was used consisted of adoption theories of technology, adoption theories of self-service and literature concerning mobile services. The reviewed adoption theories of both technology and self-service had their foundation in IDT or TRA/TPB. Based on the reviewed theories an initial framework was created. The empirical data collection was done through three computer aided group interview sessions with a total of 32 respondents. The data analysis started from the premises of the initial framework. Based on the empirical data the framework was constantly reviewed and altered and the data recoded accordingly. The result of this thesis was a list of attitudinal factors that affect the adoption of a mobile self-service either positively or negatively. The factors that were found to affect the attitudes towards adoption of mobile self-services positively were: that the service was time & place independent and saved time. Most respondents, but not all, also had a positive attitude towards adoption due to ease of use and being mentally compatible with the service. Factors that affected adoption negatively were lack of technical compatibility, perceived risk for high costs and risk for malicious software. The identified factors were triangulated in respect to existing literature and general attitudes towards mobile services.

Subject Teacher Training and Teaching in English

The purpose of this Master s thesis is on one hand to find out how CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) teachers and English teachers perceive English and its use in teaching, and on the other hand, what they consider important in subject teacher education in English that is being planned and piloted in STEP Project at the University of Helsinki Department of Teacher Education. One research question is also what kind of language requirements teachers think CLIL teachers should have. The research results are viewed in light of previous research and literature on CLIL education. Six teachers participate in this study. Two of them are English teachers in the comprehensive school, two are class teachers in bilingual elementary education, and two are subject teachers in bilingual education, one of whom teaches in a lower secondary school and the other in an upper secondary school. One English teacher and one bilingual class teacher have graduated from a pilot class teacher program in English that started at the University of Helsinki in the middle of the 1990 s. The bilingual subject teachers are not trained in English but they have learned English elsewhere, which is a particular focus of interest in this study because it is expected that a great number of CLIL teachers in Finland do not have actual studies in English philology. The research method is interview and this is a qualitative case study. The interviews are recorded and transcribed for the ease of analysis. The English teachers do not always use English in their lessons and they would not feel confident in teaching another subject completely in English. All of the CLIL teachers trust their English skills in teaching, but the bilingual class teachers also use Finnish during lessons either because some teaching material is in Finnish, or they feel that rules and instructions are understood better in mother tongue or students English skills are not strong enough. One of the bilingual subject teachers is the only one who consciously uses only English in teaching and in discussions with students. Although teachers good English skills are generally considered important, only the teachers who have graduated from the class teacher education in English consider it important that CLIL teachers would have studies in English philology. Regarding the subject teacher education program in English, the respondents hope that its teachers will have strong enough English skills and that it will deliver what it promises. Having student teachers of different subjects studying together is considered beneficial. The results of the study show that acquiring teaching material in English continues to be the teachers own responsibility and a huge burden for the teachers, and there has, in fact, not been much progress in the matter since the beginning of CLIL education. The bilingual subject teachers think, however, that using one s own material can give new inspiration to teaching and enable the use of various pedagogical methods. Although it is questionable if the language competence requirements set for CLIL teachers by the Finnish Ministry of Education are not adhered to, it becomes apparent in the study that studies in English philology do not necessarily guarantee strong enough language skills for CLIL teaching, but teachers own personality and self-confidence have significance. Keywords: CLIL, bilingual education, English, subject teacher training, subject teacher education in English, STEP

Treatment of illicit opioid and γ-hydroxybutyrate overdose by Helsinki emergency medical services

Aims: To examine the characteristics, incidence, treatment and outcome of presumed opioid, γ-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and γ-butyrolactone (GBL) overdoses involving users of illicit drugs in Helsinki. GHB/GBL were included in this study, despite not being opioids, due to the relative ease with which they can cause potentially fatal respiratory depression. The incidence and time interval of recurrent opioid toxicity after prehospital administration of naloxone, an opioid antagonist, was studied in presumed heroin overdose patients. Naloxone has been reported to have many adverse effects and the effects of naloxone administered during an opioid overdose on the cardiovascular system and catecholamine levels in piglets were studied. Materials and methods: Patients included in these published retrospective studies were from the following time periods: Study I: 1995-2002, II: 1997-2000, III: 1995-2000, V: 2006-2007. Presumed opioid overdose patients were examined in studies I, II and III. GHB/GBL overdoses among injecting drug users was examined in study V. Recurrent opioid toxicity after prehospital naloxone administration in heroin overdose patients was examined in study III. The effects of naloxone (80 μg/kg i.v.) on the cardiovascular system and catecholamine levels administered during morphine overdose (8mg/kg i.v.) and under propofol anesthesia with spontaneous breathing were studied in eight piglets (IV). In this thesis, previously unpublished data on the incidence of opioid overdose between 2001-2007 and comparison of the characteristics of buprenorphine and heroin overdose patients encountered in 1995-2005 are also included. Results: Helsinki Emergency Medical Service (EMS) ambulances were dispatched annually to 34,153- 45,118 calls from 1995 to 2007. Of them, 7-8% were coded as intoxications or overdoses. During this time, 436 patients were treated by the EMS for presumed opioid overdose. The peak incidence of opioid overdoses was in the year 2000 (113 cases), after which they declined to 6-26 cases annually. The annual incidence of buprenorphine related overdoses increased from 4 (4% of opioid overdoses) in the year 2000 to 8 (30% of opioid overdoses) in 2007. The annual number of GHB related overdose patients treated by Helsinki EMS increased from 21 to 73 between 2004-2007. There appeared to be a peak in the incidence of both GHB/GBL and opioid related overdoses on Saturdays. Characteristics of opioid overdose patients The median age of opioid overdose patients was 28 years (22;33, 25- and 75-percentiles), and 84% were male. Buprenorphine overdose patients had more polydrug, such as alcohol and/or benzodiazepines, use in comparison with heroin overdose patients, 70% versus 33%, respectively. Severe respiratory depression was reported less often with buprenorphine overdoses compared to heroin overdoses, in 67.0% versus 85.4%, respectively. Outcome of heroin overdose patients with cardiac arrest Ninety four patients suffered cardiac arrest due to acute drug poisoning/overdose and were thus considered for resuscitation. Resuscitation was attempted in 72 cases. Cardiac arrest was caused by heroin overdose for 19 patients of which three (16%) were discharged alive. Other agents also induced cardiac arrest in 53 patients, of which six (11%) were discharged alive. The arrest was either EMS witnessed or occurring after the emergency call for all survivors of heroin induced cardiac arrest. Characteristics of GHB/GBL overdose patients The records of 100 GHB/GBL related overdose patients from 2006-2007 were retrieved. The median age of GHB/GBL overdose patients encountered on weekend nights was 24 years (22;27, 25- and 75-percentiles) and 49% were male. Polydrug use was reported in 62-80% of the cases. Thirty nine patients were encountered on Friday-Saturday or Saturday-Sunday night between 11 pm-6 am. The remaining sixty one patients were outside this time frame. There was a statistically significant difference between these two groups in history of chronic injecting drug use (33% vs. 59%, respectively, p=0.012). Recurrent heroin toxicity after prehospital naloxone administration Study III included 145 presumed heroin overdose patients. After prehospital care, 84 patients refused further care and were not transported to an Emergency Department (ED). Seventy one (85%) of them were administered naloxone by the EMS. During a 12-h follow up period, none of these patients developed severe recurrent opioid toxicity. The remaining 61 patients were transported to an ED. Prior to transportation, 52 (85%) patients were administered naloxone by the EMS. Fifteen of them were administered naloxone also in the ED and recurrent opioid toxicity was evident either on arrival at the ED or shortly thereafter. Prehospital naloxone was administered either intravenously, intramuscularly (i.m.) or subcutaneously (s.c.). There was a tendency for more frequent recurrent heroin toxicity among the patients with only intravenous administration of prehospital naloxone (13/36) compared with the patients with intramuscular or subcutaneous prehospital naloxone (2/16), p=0.106. The effects of naloxone on the cardiovascular system and catecholamine levels in piglets The administration of morphine to piglets resulted in an obvious respiratory depression, which was reversed by naloxone. Two severely hypoxemic piglets developed cardiac arrest after naloxone administration. In the other six animals, the administration of naloxone did not provoke arrhythmias, cardiac ischemia or visible evidence of pulmonary edema. There was a statistically significant (p=0.012) increase in norepinephrine levels after morphine administration and before naloxone administration: from 1.9 (1.3-2.3) ng/ml at baseline, to 31.7 (8.3-83.0) ng/ml (median, 25 and 75 percentiles parentheses) after morphine administration. After the administration of naloxone, the catecholamine levels continued to increase in only one of the animals. Conclusions: The incidence of buprenorphine related overdoses increased during the study period, but was still lower in comparison to those involving heroin. Injecting drug users have also started to use GHB/GBL. While recreational drug users use GHB/GBL during weekend nights, a GHB/GBL overdose patient encounter during weekdays has a more probable history of injecting drug use. Patients with cardiac arrest after heroin overdose have a poor prognosis. It appears to be safe to leave heroin overdose patients on scene after prehospital treatment with naloxone. Although no statistically significant difference was observed, it seems prudent to administer part of the total naloxone dose s.c. or i.m. to reduce the risk of recurrent respiratory depression. If transported to an ED, an observation period of one to two hours after the last naloxone dose seems adequate. The treating physician must be vigilant, however, due to the high prevalence of polydrug use and high morbidity after non fatal heroin overdose. Furthermore, care should be taken regarding possible chronic disorders and drug rehabilitation should be addressed. In the experimental animal study, two animals developed cardiac arrest after receiving naloxone while in hypoxemia and bradycardia. Further studies are required to assess the effect of naloxone during opioid-induced hypercapnia and hypoxemia in animals addicted to opioids.

The German Military Entrepreneur Ernst von Mansfeld and His Conduct of Asymmetrical Warfare in the Thirty Years War

The dissertation examines aspects of asymmetrical warfare in the war-making of the German military entrepreneur Ernst von Mansfeld during his involvement in the Thirty Years War. Due to the nature of the inquiry, which combines history with military-political theory, the methodological approach of the dissertation is interdisciplinary. The theoretical framework used is that of asymmetrical warfare. The primary sources used in the dissertation are mostly political pamphlets and newsletters. Other sources include letters, documents, and contemporaneous chronicles. The secondary sources are divided into two categories, literature on the history of the Thirty Years War and textbooks covering the theory of asymmetrical warfare. The first category includes biographical works on Ernst von Mansfeld, as well as general histories of the Thirty Years War and seventeenth-century warfare. The second category combines military theory and political science. The structure of the dissertation consists of eight lead chapters, including an introduction and conclusion. The introduction covers the theoretical approach and aims of the dissertation, and provides a brief overlook of the sources and previous research on Ernst von Mansfeld and asymmetrical warfare in the Thirty Years War. The second chapter covers aspects of Mansfeld s asymmetrical warfare from the perspective of operational art. The third chapter investigates the illegal and immoral aspects of Mansfeld s war-making. The fourth chapter compares the differing methods by which Mansfeld and his enemies raised and financed their armies. The fifth chapter investigates Mansfeld s involvement in indirect warfare. The sixth chapter presents Mansfeld as an object and an agent of image and information war. The seventh chapter looks into the counter-reactions, which Mansfeld s asymmetrical warfare provoked from his enemies. The eighth chapter offers a conclusion of the findings. The dissertation argues that asymmetrical warfare presented itself in all the aforementioned areas of Mansfeld s conduct during the Thirty Years War. The operational asymmetry arose from the freedom of movement that Mansfeld enjoyed, while his enemies were constrained by the limits of positional warfare. As a non-state operator Mansfeld was also free to flout the rules of seventeenth-century warfare, which his enemies could not do with equal ease. The raising and financing of military forces was another source of asymmetry, because the nature of early seventeenth-century warfare favoured private military entrepreneurs rather than embryonic fiscal-military states. The dissertation also argues that other powers fought their own asymmetrical and indirect wars against the Habsburgs through Mansfeld s agency. Image and information were asymmetrical weapons, which were both aimed against Mansfeld and utilized by him. Finally, Mansfeld s asymmetrical threat forced the Habsburgs to adapt to his methods, which ultimately lead to the formation of a subcontracted Imperial Army under the management and leadership of Albrecht von Wallenstein. Therefore Mansfeld s asymmetrical warfare ultimately paved way for the kind of state-monopolized, organised, and symmetrical warfare that has prevailed from 1648 onwards. The conclusion is that Mansfeld s conduct in the Thirty Years War matched the criteria for asymmetrical warfare. While traditional historiography treated Mansfeld as an anomaly in the age of European state formation, his asymmetrical warfare has begun to bear resemblance to the contemporary conflicts, where nation states no longer hold the monopoly of violence.