We want Moshiach now! : understanding the Messianic message in the Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch movement

Då man rör sig i New York eller Jerusalem är det inte ovanligt att man stöter på judiska "missionärer" - ett fenomen som annars är ovanligt inom judendomen - och får ett traktat i sin hand som säger "Moshiach är här" eller "Welcome Moshiach". Det är den ultra-ortodoxa rörelsen Chabad-Lubavitch som har blivit känd för sitt utåtriktade missionsarbete och för att ha proklamerat sin ledare, Rabbi Schneerson som messias. Trots att han har varit död sedan 1994 och man från judiskt håll säger att en messias inte kan dö, lever förväntningarna på Rabbi Schneerson kvar inom rörelsen. Den akademiska forskningen har gjort gällande att denna messiastro, som tar sig ett så aktivt uttryck, är en produkt av den existentiella hopplöshet som lägrade sig över det judiska samfundet i och med Förintelsen, därför att väntan på messias omedelbara ankomst ingav livshopp. Dessutom har forskningen från ett religionssociologiskt perspektiv frågat hur en religiös rörelse överlever en så stor besvikelse som att ens ledare inte uppfyller de profetior som talats ut. Avhandlingen "We Want Moshiach NOW!" ifrågasätter den tidigare forskningen genom att påvisa de starka messianska förväntningar som fanns redan på 1700-talet vid rörelsens tillkomst. Avhandlingen tar upp vilka förväntningar som framkommer i det litterära verket "Tanja", författad av rörelsens grundare, och jämför dem med den moderna litteraturen. I "Tanja" ges även förklaringsmodeller till varför en person som man trodde var messias inte är det. Avhandlingens tes är att forskningen inte har beaktat utsagorna i "Tanja" tillräckligt mycket då man försökt förstå den samtida messiastron och de uttryck den tar.

[Old black Joe]

Soitinnus: orkesteri.

Bland åsnor och elefanter : en utvärdering av USA:s presidenter

Arbetet går ut på en systematisering rörande bedömningen av USA:s presidenter. Detta sker genom att utarbeta fyra värderingskriterier. Dessa kriterier benämns \"problem\" (= vilken typ av utmaningar presidenten har ställts inför samt på vilket sätt presidenten har löst dessa utmaningar), \"ämbete\" (= på vilket sätt presidentämbetets tyngd har påverkats av ämbetsinnehavaren), \"popularitet\" (= på vilket sätt presidenten har fått gehör för sina åtgärder hos allmänhet och de politiska eliterna) samt \"USA\" (= på vilket sätt presidenten har påverkat USA:s styrka som nation rent generellt). Tidigare utvärderingar av USA:s presidenter har tenderat att vara något jippo-betonade, även i de fall där akademiker ligger bakom. Vanligen har man haft en expertpanel bestående av allt från några dussin bedömare till närmare 1.000. Antingen har man inte haft några värderingskriterier alls att gå efter eller så har de varit något oklart formulerade - för att inte tala om de fall där de har varit så pass många att de har överlappat varandra. Vidare finns en tradition där en del forskare förkastar hela tanken på att kunna bedöma presidenter från olika tidsperioder. Strävan har varit att råda bot på tidigare missförhållanden i den diskussion som har förts på området. Eftersom samtliga presidenter dessutom har verkat under samma konstitution bör en jämförelse/utvärdering vara fullt möjlig att genomföra. De som klarar sig bäst i min utvärdering är Washington, Lincoln och F. Roosevelt. Vidare klarar sig t.ex. McKinley och Reagan bättre än de vanligen klarar sig i motsvarande bedömningar. Till de som klarar sig sämre hör t.ex. L. Johnson och J. Madison. Allra sämst klarar sig de presidenter som verkade strax före Lincoln (Pierce och Buchanan) alternativt strax efter (A. Johnson). Den sittande presidenten (Obama) samt de två mest kortvariga presidenterna (Garfield och W.H. Harrison) har lämnats bort från arbetet. Själva tyngdpunkten i arbetet ligger dock i själva systematiseringen av värderingskriterierna även om arbetet rent volymmässigt domineras av då kriterierna appliceras på de enskilda presidenterna.

Marketing Plan of Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions to USA

The purpose of the Thesis was to evaluate the business environment of electrical vehicle charging equipment (EVSE) in USA, find the key issues of entering the US EVSE markets and to form a marketing plan for possible market entry. The external market research analyzed the environment, customers, competitors and demand of EVSEs. In the internal analysis the focus was on resources and capabilities, offering, performance, business relations and US related issues. The research about the business environment was done using already available information from market studies and seminars. In external analysis there were also two semi-structured interviews from market experts used. The internal analysis was done mostly by interviews, but also company’s internal data sources were used. The interviews were semi-constructed and included eight interviewees from each part of EVSE value chain. The research findings were analyzed using SWOT analysis, which was converted to a so called TOWS matrix for extracting strategies. As a result of the Thesis, valuable information about the US markets and their requirements for EVSEs was gained. By matching the strengths of the case company and market requirements, customer segmentation and targeting were done and a marketing plan was constructed for the case company to help their management to evaluate the feasibility of possible market entry and investments to USA.

Osakkeiden hintojen muutokset makrotalouden muuttujia ennakoivina tekijöinä 2001-2011: BRIC-maat , euroalue, Japani ja USA.

The aim of this thesis is to examine stock returns as predictive indicators to macroeconomic variables in BRIC-countries, Japan, USA and euro area. We picked to represent macroeconomic variables interest rate, inflation, currency, gross domestic product and industrial production. For the beginning we examined previous studies and theory about the subject. Hypothesis of this thesis were derived from the previous studies. To conduct the results we used tests such augmented Dickey-Fuller, Engle-Granger co-integration, Granger causality and lagged distribution model. According to results stock returns do predictive macroeconomic variables and specifically changes of GDP and industrial production. There were few evidences of stock returns predictive power of inflation.

Application of capillary electrophoretic methods for determining carbohydrates and aliphatic carboxylic acids formed during wood processing

Knowledge of the behaviour of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin during wood and pulp processing is essential for understanding and controlling the processes. Determination of monosaccharide composition gives information about the structural polysaccharide composition of wood material and helps when determining the quality of fibrous products. In addition, monitoring of the acidic degradation products gives information of the extent of degradation of lignin and polysaccharides. This work describes two capillary electrophoretic methods developed for the analysis of monosaccharides and for the determination of aliphatic carboxylic acids from alkaline oxidation solutions of lignin and wood. Capillary electrophoresis (CE), in its many variants is an alternative separation technique to chromatographic methods. In capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) the fused silica capillary is filled with an electrolyte solution. An applied voltage generates a field across the capillary. The movement of the ions under electric field is based on the charge and hydrodynamic radius of ions. Carbohydrates contain hydroxyl groups that are ionised only in strongly alkaline conditions. After ionisation, the structures are suitable for electrophoretic analysis and identification through either indirect UV detection or electrochemical detection. The current work presents a new capillary zone electrophoretic method, relying on in-capillary reaction and direct UV detection at the wavelength of 270 nm. The method has been used for the simultaneous separation of neutral carbohydrates, including mono- and disaccharides and sugar alcohols. The in-capillary reaction produces negatively charged and UV-absorbing compounds. The optimised method was applied to real samples. The methodology is fast since no other sample preparation, except dilution, is required. A new method for aliphatic carboxylic acids in highly alkaline process liquids was developed. The goal was to develop a method for the simultaneous analysis of the dicarboxylic acids, hydroxy acids and volatile acids that are oxidation and degradation products of lignin and wood polysaccharides. The CZE method was applied to three process cases. First, the fate of lignin under alkaline oxidation conditions was monitored by determining the level of carboxylic acids from process solutions. In the second application, the degradation of spruce wood using alkaline and catalysed alkaline oxidation were compared by determining carboxylic acids from the process solutions. In addition, the effectiveness of membrane filtration and preparative liquid chromatography in the enrichment of hydroxy acids from black liquor was evaluated, by analysing the effluents with capillary electrophoresis.

Krigaren och transvestiten : gestaltningar av mörker och maskuliniteter i finländsk black metal

Avhandlingen undersöker gestaltningar av mörker och maskuliniteter i den finländska black metal-scenen. Normativa hegemoniska och normbrytande subversiva gestaltningar av maskuliniteter bland de mest aktiva anhängarna av den finländska black metal-scenen undersöks som uttryck för återkommande, kulturella mönster. Mönstren analyseras med hjälp av teorier om hegemonisk maskulinitet, heteronormativitet, genusperformativitet, subversivitet och protestmaskulinitet. Queerteori och (kritisk) mansforskning som har sina ursprung i feministisk forskning utgör avhandlingens teoretiska underlag. Begreppen stil och ideologi aktualiseras i en diskussion kring hur mörker, ett begrepp som är av centralt värde inom den finländska black metal-scenen, kan förstås och uttryckas av scenmedlemmarna. Mörkret, som ofta ideologimässigt består av antikristliga element, inom den finländska scenen i regel förknippade med satanism, uttrycks genom låttexter, det visuella och det musikaliska, vilka tillsammans utgör black metal-stilen.

The us subprime crisis and stock market integration: evidence from the BRICS

The aim of this study is to examine the level of stock market co-movement in the BRICS countries and three major industrialized countries (Japan, UK and USA). While analyzing the interdependence and integration of markets, two subsets are examined: before (2000 – 2007) and during the global financial crisis (2007-2011). Generally, interdependence across markets is likely to increase during a highly volatile period. This is problematic because if it were true, the main benefit of international diversification would be reduced at times when it is most needed. The results reveal the dominant role of the US financial markets over the examined time period. Empirical studies of this research paper indicate that cross-market linkages have become slightly stronger during the ongoing subprime crisis than before crisis. However, results also show that an investor may obtain some international diversification benefits by investing especially in the BRICS countries despite the fact of unstable economic condition and growing globalization.

Skill Development in Music Reading. The Eye-Movement Approach

This dissertation examined skill development in music reading by focusing on the visual processing of music notation in different music-reading tasks. Each of the three experiments of this dissertation addressed one of the three types of music reading: (i) sight-reading, i.e. reading and performing completely unknown music, (ii) rehearsed reading, during which the performer is already familiar with the music being played, and (iii) silent reading with no performance requirements. The use of the eye-tracking methodology allowed the recording of the readers’ eye movements from the time of music reading with extreme precision. Due to the lack of coherence in the smallish amount of prior studies on eye movements in music reading, the dissertation also had a heavy methodological emphasis. The present dissertation thus aimed to promote two major issues: (1) it investigated the eye-movement indicators of skill and skill development in sight-reading, rehearsed reading and silent reading, and (2) developed and tested suitable methods that can be used by future studies on the topic. Experiment I focused on the eye-movement behaviour of adults during their first steps of learning to read music notation. The longitudinal experiment spanned a nine-month long music-training period, during which 49 participants (university students taking part in a compulsory music course) sight-read and performed a series of simple melodies in three measurement sessions. Participants with no musical background were entitled as “novices”, whereas “amateurs” had had musical training prior to the experiment. The main issue of interest was the changes in the novices’ eye movements and performances across the measurements while the amateurs offered a point of reference for the assessment of the novices’ development. The experiment showed that the novices tended to sight-read in a more stepwise fashion than the amateurs, the latter group manifesting more back-and-forth eye movements. The novices’ skill development was reflected by the faster identification of note symbols involved in larger melodic intervals. Across the measurements, the novices also began to show sensitivity to the melodies’ metrical structure, which the amateurs demonstrated from the very beginning. The stimulus melodies consisted of quarter notes, making the effects of meter and larger melodic intervals distinguishable from effects caused by, say, different rhythmic patterns. Experiment II explored the eye movements of 40 experienced musicians (music education students and music performance students) during temporally controlled rehearsed reading. This cross-sectional experiment focused on the eye-movement effects of one-bar-long melodic alterations placed within a familiar melody. The synchronizing of the performance and eye-movement recordings enabled the investigation of the eye-hand span, i.e., the temporal gap between a performed note and the point of gaze. The eye-hand span was typically found to remain around one second. Music performance students demonstrated increased professing efficiency by their shorter average fixation durations as well as in the two examined eye-hand span measures: these participants used larger eye-hand spans more frequently and inspected more of the musical score during the performance of one metrical beat than students of music education. Although all participants produced performances almost indistinguishable in terms of their auditory characteristics, the altered bars indeed affected the reading of the score: the general effects of expertise in terms of the two eye- hand span measures, demonstrated by the music performance students, disappeared in the face of the melodic alterations. Experiment III was a longitudinal experiment designed to examine the differences between adult novice and amateur musicians’ silent reading of music notation, as well as the changes the 49 participants manifested during a nine-month long music course. From a methodological perspective, an opening to research on eye movements in music reading was the inclusion of a verbal protocol in the research design: after viewing the musical image, the readers were asked to describe what they had seen. A two-way categorization for verbal descriptions was developed in order to assess the quality of extracted musical information. More extensive musical background was related to shorter average fixation duration, more linear scanning of the musical image, and more sophisticated verbal descriptions of the music in question. No apparent effects of skill development were observed for the novice music readers alone, but all participants improved their verbal descriptions towards the last measurement. Apart from the background-related differences between groups of participants, combining verbal and eye-movement data in a cluster analysis identified three styles of silent reading. The finding demonstrated individual differences in how the freely defined silent-reading task was approached. This dissertation is among the first presentations of a series of experiments systematically addressing the visual processing of music notation in various types of music-reading tasks and focusing especially on the eye-movement indicators of developing music-reading skill. Overall, the experiments demonstrate that the music-reading processes are affected not only by “top-down” factors, such as musical background, but also by the “bottom-up” effects of specific features of music notation, such as pitch heights, metrical division, rhythmic patterns and unexpected melodic events. From a methodological perspective, the experiments emphasize the importance of systematic stimulus design, temporal control during performance tasks, and the development of complementary methods, for easing the interpretation of the eye-movement data. To conclude, this dissertation suggests that advances in comprehending the cognitive aspects of music reading, the nature of expertise in this musical task, and the development of educational tools can be attained through the systematic application of the eye-tracking methodology also in this specific domain.

Diversification benefits for a Finnish non-industrial private forest investor: Real Estate Investment Trusts in the USA

This thesis examined both domestic and international forest investment options for a Finnish non-industrial private forest investor. The focus was on forest-based investment instruments. The influence of movements of currency exchange rates on foreign returns were also taken into account. Annual data from 1995 to 2011 was used. The main portfolio optimization model in this study was the Mean-Variance model but the results were also validated by using the Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall models. In addition, the exchange rate risk hedging was established by using one-week-maturity forward contracts. The results suggested that 75 % of the total wealth should be invested in Finnish private forests and the rest, 25 %, to a US REIT, in this case Rayonier. With hedging, the total return on the portfolio was 7.21 % (NIPF 5.3%) with the volatility of 6.63 % (NIPF 7.9%). Taxation supported US investments in this case. As a conclusion, a Finnish private forest investor may, as evidenced, benefit in diversifying a portfolio using REITs in the US.