Constructing 'Buddhism': A Comparative Analysis of Buddhist Group Narratives in Scotland

This thesis examines some mechanisms underpinning the construction of the public discourse on Buddhism in Scotland in general and Buddhist group narratives about Buddhism in particular.Chapter 1 introduces the object of study as well as research questions and describes the methodology applied, which is grounded in a study-of-religions (Religionswissenschaft) perspective.Chapter 2 discusses some theoretical accounts in the study of Buddhism(s) and investigates the creation of an ontologised category Buddhism as a scholarly object within the 'world religions' paradigm. It furthermore argues for the study of 'Buddhism' to focus on the actual human agents involved as well as on historico-regional aspects of the framework within which a discourse on Buddhism is constructed.Chapter 3 provides a historical contextualisation of Buddhist groups in Scotland and examines the construction of 'Buddhism' within a selection of three Buddhist groups located in Scotland. These are the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, the community around Karma Kagyü Samyé Ling, and the Thai-Scottish Association around Wat Dhammapadipa.Chapter 4 concludes the study and provides a comparison of the Buddhism discourses constructed in these three groups. It also highlights general rules underpinning the public discourse on Buddhism in Scotland and locates this discourse in the wider field of the concept of the 'European history of religions' (Europäische Religionsgeschichte)

2017-18 Antarctic Travel Project data set

For the 2017-2018 season, we distributed paper surveys to travelers on expedition ships leaving from Ushuaia, Argentina for the Antarctic peninsula. That instrument is included here. We received 362 responses, which is the n throughout the dataset. “Unanswered” indicates that nothing was written on the survey instrument for that question. The Ushuaia Tourism Office, INFUETUR, graciously assisted us in distributing surveys to the expedition guides. Guides then distributed the surveys to their passengers onboard, collected completed surveys, and returned them to the INFUETUR office. These were then mailed to the authors to be analyzed. Once the paper responses were received at Bucknell University, the data was entered into Qualtrics for analysis by Alex Busato. Responses were collected between December 2017 and February 2018, a timeframe that corresponds to the Antarctic tourism season

2018-19 Antarctic Travel Project data set

For the 2018-2019 season, we distributed paper surveys to travelers on expedition ships leaving from Ushuaia, Argentina for the Antarctic peninsula. That instrument is included here. We received 461 responses. The Ushuaia Tourism Office, INFUETUR, graciously assisted us in distributing surveys to the expedition guides. Guides then distributed the surveys to their passengers onboard, collected completed surveys, and returned them to the INFUETUR office. These were then mailed to the authors to be analyzed. We offer our deep thanks to all those who assisted with this survey! Responses were collected between December 2018 and February 2019, a timeframe that corresponds to the Antarctic tourism season

An extreme ultraviolet Michelson interferometer for experiments at free-electron lasers

We present a Michelson interferometer for 13.5 nm soft x-ray radiation. It is characterized in a proof of-principle experiment using synchrotron radiation, where the temporal coherence is measured to be 13 fs. The curvature of the thin-film beam splitter membrane is derived from the observed fringe pattern. The applicability of this Michelson interferometer at intense free-electron lasers is investigated,particularly with respect to radiation damage. This study highlights the potential role of such Michelson interferometers in solid density plasma investigations using, for instance, extreme soft x-ray free electron lasers. A setup using the Michelson interferometer for pseudo-Nomarski-interferometry is proposed

Ultra high-speed x-ray imaging of laser-driven shock compression using synchrotron light

International audienceA high-power, nanosecond pulsed laser impacting the surface of a material can generate an ablation plasma that drives a shock wave into it; while in situ x-ray imaging can provide a time-resolved probe of the shock-induced material behaviour on macroscopic length scales. Here, we report on an investigation into laser-driven shock compression of a polyurethane foam and a graphite rod by means of single-pulse synchrotron x-ray phase-contrast imaging with MHz frame rate. A 6 J, 10 ns pulsed laser was used to generate shock compression. Physical processes governing the laser-induced dynamic response such as elastic compression, compaction, pore collapse, fracture, and fragmentation have been imaged; and the advantage of exploiting the partial spatial coherence of a synchrotron source for studying low-density, carbon-based materials is emphasized. The successful combination of a high-energy laser and ultra high-speed x-ray imaging using synchrotron light demonstrates the potentiality of accessing complementary information from scientific studies of laser-driven shock compression