The main aim of "Her Idoll Selfe"? Shaping Identity in Early Modern Women- Self-Writings is to offer fresh readings of as yet little-read early modern women- texts. I look at a variety of texts that are either explicitly concerned with the constitution of the writer- self, such as the autobiographies by Lady Grace Mildmay and Martha Moulsworth, or in which the preoccupation with the self is of a more indirect nature, as in the mothers" advice books by Elizabeth Grymeston, Dorothy Leigh, Elizabeth Richardson or the anonymous M. R., or even in women- poetry, drama and religious verse. I situate the texts in the context of early modern discourses of femininity and subjectivity to pursue the question in how far it was possible for early modern women to achieve a sense of agency in spite of their culturally marginal position. In that, my readings aim to contribute to the ongoing critical process of decentring the early modern period. At the same time, I draw on contemporary theory as a methodological tool that can open up further dimensions of the texts, especially in places where the texts provide clues and parallels that lend themselves to a theoretical approach. Conversely, the texts themselves shed interesting light on feminist and poststructuralist theory and can serve as testing grounds for the current critical fascination with fragmentation and hybridity. Having outlined the theoretical and methodological framework of my study, I then analyse the women- writings with reference to a matrix of paradigmatic dimensions that encompass their most prominently recurring themes: the notion of writing the self, relationships between self and other, demarcations of private and public, the women- notorious preoccupation with self-loss and death, as well as the recurrent theme of the "golden meane". I suggest that this motif can provide the vital cue to early modern women- constitution of self. The idea of a precarious "golden meane" links in with to parallel discourses of moderation and balance at the time, but reinterprets them in a manner that can present a workable and innovative paradigm of subjectivity. Instead of subscribing to a model of decentred selfhood, early modern women- presentations of self suggest that a concluding but contested compromise is a workable strategy to achieve a form of selfhood that can responsibly be lived with.

The main goal of this publication is the development and application of an empirical method, which allows to forecast the transport of radionuclides in soils ad sediments. The calculations are based on data published in the literature. 10 case studies, comprising 30 time series, deal with the transport of Cs-134, Cs-137, Sr-85, Sr-90, and Ru-106. Transport in undisturbed soils and experimental systems like lysimeters and columns in laboratories are dealt with. The soils involved cover a large range of soils, e. g. podsols, cambisols (FAO), and peaty soils. Different speciations are covered, namely ions, aerosols, and fuel particles. Time series analysis centres around the Weibull-distribution. All theoretical models failed to forecast the transport of radionuclides. It can be shown that the parameters D and v, the dispersion coefficient and the advection velocity, appearing in solutions of the advection-dispersion equation (ADE), have no real physical meaning. They are just fitting parameters. The calculation of primary photon fluence rates, caused by Cs-137 in the soil, stresses the unreliability of forecasts based on theoretical models.

The subject of this thesis is a homological approach to the splitting theory of PLS-spaces, i.e. to the question for which topologically exact short sequences 0->X->Y->Z->0 of PLS-spaces X,Y,Z the right-hand map admits a right inverse. We show that the category (PLS) of PLS-spaces and continuous linear maps is an additive category in which every morphism admits a kernel and a cokernel, i.e. it is pre-abelian. However, we also show that it is neither quasi-abelian nor semi-abelian. As a foundation for our homological constructions we show the more general result that every pre-abelian category admits a largest exact structure in the sense of Quillen. In the pre-abelian category (PLS) this exact structure consists precisely of the topologically exact short sequences of PLS-spaces. Using a construction of Ext-functors due to Yoneda, we show that one can define for each PLS-space A and every natural number k the k-th abelian-group valued covariant and contravariant Ext-functors acting on the category (PLS) of PLS-spaces, which induce for every topologically exact short sequence of PLS-spaces a long exact sequence of abelian groups and group morphisms. These functors are studied in detail and we establish a connection between the Ext-functors of PLS-spaces and the Ext-functors for LS-spaces. Through this connection we arrive at an analogue of a result for Fréchet spaces which connects the first derived functor of the projective limit with the first Ext-functor and also gives sufficient conditions for the vanishing of the higher Ext-functors. Finally, we show that Ext^k(E,F) = 0 for a k greater or equal than 1, whenever E is a closed subspace and F is a Hausdorff-quotient of the space of distributions, which generalizes a result of Wengenroth that is itself a generalization of results due to Domanski and Vogt.

Determining the exact position of a forest inventory plot—and hence the position of the sampled trees—is often hampered by a poor Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal quality beneath the forest canopy. Inaccurate geo-references hamper the performance of models that aim to retrieve useful information from spatially high remote sensing data (e.g., species classification or timber volume estimation). This restriction is even more severe on the level of individual trees. The objective of this study was to develop a post-processing strategy to improve the positional accuracy of GNSS-measured sample-plot centers and to develop a method to automatically match trees within a terrestrial sample plot to aerial detected trees. We propose a new method which uses a random forest classifier to estimate the matching probability of each terrestrial-reference and aerial detected tree pair, which gives the opportunity to assess the reliability of the results. We investigated 133 sample plots of the Third German National Forest Inventory (BWI, 2011"2012) within the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. For training and objective validation, synthetic forest stands have been modeled using the Waldplaner 2.0 software. Our method has achieved an overall accuracy of 82.7% for co-registration and 89.1% for tree matching. With our method, 60% of the investigated plots could be successfully relocated. The probabilities provided by the algorithm are an objective indicator of the reliability of a specific result which could be incorporated into quantitative models to increase the performance of forest attribute estimations.

Two areas were selected to represent major process regimes of Mediterranean rangelands. In the County of Lagads (Greece), situated east of the city of Thessaloniki, livestock grazing with sheep and goats is a major factor of the rural economy. In suitable areas, it is complemented by agricultural use. The region of Ayora (Spain) is located west of the city of Valencia. It is one of regions most affected by fires in Spain. First of all, long time series of satellite data were compiled for both regions on the basis of Landsat sensors, which cover the time until 1976 (Ayora) and 1984 (Lagadas) with one image per year. Using a rigorous processing scheme, the data were geometrically and radiometrically corrected Specific attention was given to an exact sensor calibration, the radiometric intercalibration of Landsat-TM and "MSS. Proportional cover of photosynthetically active vegetation was identified as a suitable quantitative indicator for assessing the state of rangelands. Using Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) it was inferred for all data sets. The extensive data base procured this way enabled to map fire events in the Ayora area based on sequential diachronic sets and provide fire dates, perimeter as well as fire recurrence for each pixel. The increasing fire frequency in the past decades is in large parts attributed to the accelerated abandonment of the area that leads to an encroachment of shrublands and the accumulation of combustible biomass. On the basis of the fire mapping results, a spatial and temporal stratification of the data set allowed to asses plant recovery dynamics on the landscape level through linear trend analysis. The long history of fire events in the Mediterranean frequently leads to processes of auto-succession. Following an initial dominance of herbaceous vegetation this commonly leads to similar plant communities as the ones present before the fire. On a temporal axis, this results in typical exponential post-fire trajectories which could also be shown in this study. The analysis of driving factors for post-fire dynamics confirmed the importance of aspect and slope. Locations with lower amounts of solar irradiation and favourable water supply yielded faster recovery rates and higher post-fire vegetation cover levels. In most cases, the vegetation cover levels observed before the fire were not reached within the post-fire observation period. In the area of Lagadas, linear trend analysis and additional statistical parameters were used to infer a degradation index. This could be used to illustrate a complex pattern of stability, regeneration and degradation of vegetation cover. These different processes and states are found in close proximity and are clearly determined by topography and elevation. Following a sequence of analyses, it was found that in particular steep, narrow valleys show positive trends, while negative trends are more abundant on plain or gently undulating areas. Considering the local grazing regime, this spatial differentiation was related to the accessibility of specific locations. Subsequently, animal numbers on community level were used to calculate efficient stocking rates and assess the temporal development of their relation with vegetation cover. This calculation of temporal trajectories illustrated that only some communities show the expected negative relation. To the contrary, a positive relation or even changing relation patterns are observed. This signifies recent concentration and intensification processes in the grazing scheme, as a result of which animals are kept in sheds, where additional feedstuffs are provided. In these cases, free roaming of livestock animals is often confined to some hours every day, which explains the spatial preference of easily accessible areas by the shepherds. Beyond these temporal trends, it was analysed whether the grazing pattern is equally reflected in a spatial trend. Making use of available geospatial information layers, the efforts required to reach each location was expressed as a cost. Then, cost zones could be defined and woody vegetation cover as a grazing indicator could be inferred for the different zones. Animal sheds were employed as starting features for this piospheric analysis, which could be mapped from very high spatial resolution Quickbird image data. The result was a clearly structured gradient showing increasing woody vegetation cover with increasing cost distance. On the basis of these two pilot studies, the elements of a monitoring and interpretation framework identified at the beginning of the work were evaluated and a formal interpretation scheme was presented.