Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Past and current management'

Spruce-Fir forests are relicts from the Pleistocene and can only be found within the Southern Appalachians. Analyzing the relationships between species distribution, climatic parameters, topography, and biotic interactions through ecological niche modeling creates prediction maps for conservation efforts. Maxent, Boosted Regression, and Random Forest were utilized to compare which model and variable combinations best approximate the unique mountain forest environment. Maxent with a bias file produced optimal results and was used to examine distributional changes that may occur in the future and how these changes compare to paleo-environmental distributions. Fraser fir has shown evidence of being influenced by changing climates based on historical data and in future predictions. These findings show areas of decline in 2050 and 2070. When combined with weather, climate, genetics, and ecological studies, this is a useful tool for resource allocation to areas that are predicted to be resilient in the face of climate change.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are believed to be two of the main reasons for high extinction rates of species, resulting in decreased biodiversity. According to the island biogeography theory, the species richness in a patch, here a semi-natural grassland, is dependent on the landscape composition, and therefore changes in the landscape composition will result in changes in the species richness of the grassland. However, this change in species richness may be delayed for several years, causing an extinction debt. The aim of this study was to examine the change of species richness of vascular plants in Swedish semi-natural grasslands between 2007 and 2020 and investigate if there is evidence of an extinction debt and evaluate what factors causes changes in the plant community. Data of species richness and occurrence for 40 semi-natural grasslands, as well as data of landscape changes in area and connectivity between the 1950:s and the 2000:s for these grasslands, were analysed. This study found that changes in species richness in semi-natural grasslands were affected by the changes in connectivity of the landscape. However, the effect depended on the degree of specialisation of the species to semi-natural grassland. Between 2007 and 2020, the species richness of semi- natural grasslands specialist decreased, while the species richness of non-specialist species increased. This resulted in a mean increase of overall species richness between 2007 and 2020. Observed immigration of new non-specialist species appears to suggest that, not only the connectivity, but also the habitat types in the matrix surrounding the semi-natural grasslands may substantially influence the species composition in the grassland; this is in contrast to what is predicted by the original theory of island biogeography. Species that were classified as specialist were more vulnerable to ceased management, such as grazing, than to area and connectivity decrease. This was likely because the ceased management increased the competition for light. The results also indicated that re-established management of abandoned grasslands may increase specialist species richness, highlighting the need for management actions taken in order to reverse extinction debt.

To date, there has been little research into the role of microbial community structure in the functioning of the soil ecosystem and on the links between microbial biomass size, microbial activity and key soil processes that drive nutrient availability. The maintenance of structural and functional diversity of the soil microbial community is essential to ensure the sustainability of agricultural production systems. Soils of the same type with similar fertility that had been under long-term organic and conventional crop management in Canterbury, New Zealand, were selected to investigate relationships between microbial community composition, function and potential environmental impacts. The effects of different fertilisation strategies on soil biology and nitrogen (N) dynamics were investigated under field (farm site comparison), semi-controlled (lysimeter study) and controlled (incubation experiments) conditions by determining soil microbial biomass carbon (C) and N, enzyme activities (dehydrogenase, arginine deaminase, fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis), microbial community structure (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis following PCR amplification of 16S and 18S rDNA fragments using selected primer sets) and N dynamics (mineralisation and leaching). The farm site comparison revealed distinct differences between the soils in microbial community structure, microbial biomass C (conventional > organic) and arginine deaminase activity (organic > conventional). In the lysimeter study, the soils were subjected to the same crop rotation (barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), maize (Zea mays L.), rape (Brassica napus L. ssp. oleifera (Moench)) plus a lupin green manure (Lupinus angustifolius L.) and two fertiliser regimes (following common organic and conventional practice). Soil biological properties, microbial community structure and mineral N leaching losses were determined over 2½ years. Differences in mineral leaching losses were not significant between treatments (total organic management: 24.2 kg N per ha; conventional management: 28.6 kg N per ha). Crop rotation and plant type had a larger influence on the microbial biomass, activity and community structure than fertilisation. Initial differences between soils decreased over time for most biological soil properties, while they persisted for the enzyme activities (e.g. dehydrogenase activity: 4.0 and 2.9 µg per g and h for organic and conventional management history, respectively). A lack of consistent positive links between enzyme activities and microbial biomass size indicated that similarly sized and structured microbial communities can express varying rates of activity. In two successive incubation experiments, the soils were amended with different rates of a lupin green manure (4 or 8t dry matter per ha), and different forms of N at 100 kg per ha (urea and lupin) and incubated for 3 months. Samples were taken periodically, and in addition to soil biological properties and community structure, gross N mineralisation was determined. The form of N had a strong effect on microbial soil properties. Organic amendment resulted in a 2 to 5-fold increase in microbial biomass and enzyme activities, while microbial community structure was influenced by the addition or lack of C or N substrate. Correlation analyses suggested treatment-related differences in nutrient availability, microbial structural diversity (species richness or evenness) and physiological properties of the microbial community. The findings of this thesis showed that using green manures and crop rotations improved soil biology in both production systems, that no relationships existed between microbial structure, enzyme activities and N mineralisation, and that enzyme activities and microbial community structure are more closely associated with inherent soil and environmental factors, which makes them less useful as early indicators of changes in soil quality.

To date, there has been little research into the role of microbial community structure in the functioning of the soil ecosystem and on the links between microbial biomass size, microbial activity and key soil processes that drive nutrient availability. The maintenance of structural and functional diversity of the soil microbial community is essential to ensure the sustainability of agricultural production systems. Soils of the same type with similar fertility that had been under long-term organic and conventional crop management in Canterbury, New Zealand, were selected to investigate relationships between microbial community composition, function and potential environmental impacts. The effects of different fertilisation strategies on soil biology and nitrogen (N) dynamics were investigated under field (farm site comparison), semi-controlled (lysimeter study) and controlled (incubation experiments) conditions by determining soil microbial biomass carbon (C) and N, enzyme activities (dehydrogenase, arginine deaminase, fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis), microbial community structure (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis following PCR amplification of 16S and 18S rDNA fragments using selected primer sets) and N dynamics (mineralisation and leaching). The farm site comparison revealed distinct differences between the soils in microbial community structure, microbial biomass C (conventional>organic) and arginine deaminase activity (organic>conventional). In the lysimeter study, the soils were subjected to the same crop rotation (barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), maize (Zea mais L.), rape (Brassica napus L. ssp. oleifera (Moench)) plus a lupin green manure (Lupinus angustifolius L.) and two fertiliser regimes (following common organic and conventional practice). Soil biological properties, microbial community structure and mineral N leaching losses were determined over 2½ years. Differences in mineral leaching losses were not significant between treatments (total organic management: 24.2 kg N ha⁻¹; conventional management: 28.6 kg N ha⁻¹). Crop rotation and plant type had a larger influence on the microbial biomass, activity and community structure than fertilisation. Initial differences between soils decreased over time for most biological soil properties, while they persisted for the enzyme activities (e.g. dehydrogenase activity: 4.0 and 2.9 µg g⁻¹ h⁻¹ for organic and conventional management history, respectively). A lack of consistent positive links between enzyme activities and microbial biomass size indicated that similarly sized and structured microbial communities can express varying rates of activity. In two successive incubation experiments, the soils were amended with different rates of a lupin green manure (4 or 8t dry matter ha⁻¹), and different forms of N at 100 kg ha⁻¹ (urea and lupin) and incubated for 3 months. Samples were taken periodically, and in addition to soil biological properties and community structure, gross N mineralisation was determined. The form of N had a strong effect on microbial soil properties. Organic amendment resulted in a 2 to 5-fold increase in microbial biomass and enzyme activities, while microbial community structure was influenced by the addition or lack of C or N substrate. Correlation analyses suggested treatment-related differences in nutrient availability, microbial structural diversity (species richness or evenness) and physiological properties of the microbial community. The findings of this thesis showed that using green manures and crop rotations improved soil biology in both production systems, that no relationships existed between microbial structure, enzyme activities and N mineralisation, and that enzyme activities and microbial community structure are more closely associated with inherent soil and environmental factors, which makes them less useful as early indicators of changes in soil quality.

The existing scholarly literature that addresses the transgenerational transmission of family processes fails to answer many questions concerning adults' current relationships with partners and peers. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how adults' perceptions of their family of origin climates affect their own satisfaction with emotionally significant interpersonal relationships and their fear of intimacy in these relationships. Participants were recruited from a mid-western college. A total of 281 participants were tested.The main research question was: What is the nature of the relationship between adults' perceptions of their family of origin climate and their current relationship satisfaction/fear of intimacy. It was hypothesized that adults' perceptions of cohesion, expressiveness, independence, achievement orientation, intellectual-cultural orientation, active-recreational orientation, moral religious emphasis, and organization within their families of origin would be positively related to their satisfaction with their current friendship and partner relationships and negatively related to their fear of intimacy. It was conversely hypothesized that adult's perceptions of conflict and control within their families of origin would be negatively related to their current relationship satisfaction with friends and partners and positively related to their fear of intimacy.Family of origin climate was assessed by the Family Environment Scale which measures 10 aspects of family of origin climate. These are: cohesion, expressiveness, conflict, independent, achievement orientation, intellectual-cultural orientation, activerecreational orientation, moral-religious emphasis, organization, and control. Relationshipsatisfaction was measured in two types of relationships: partner relationship satisfaction with the Relationship Assessment Scale and peer relationship satisfaction with the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, Peer Scale. The Fear of Intimacy Scale was utilized to assess participants' anxiety or fear that influences intimacy in a close relationship or at the prospect of a close relationship. Participants also completed a demographic questionnaire.Results of a canonical correlation analysis indicated that perceptions of family of origin climate did not influence current relationship satisfaction or fear of intimacy in adults. Adults' perceptions of their family of origin climates did not influence their current relationship satisfaction and fear of intimacy. Limitations of the current study and recommendations for future research are discussed.
Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

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Neste estudo é proposto que a instabilidade macroeconômica extrema causada pela hiperinflação nas décadas de 80 e 90 no Brasil causou um efeito de longo prazo no comportamento de poupança dos indivíduos. Usando dados da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílio (PNAD) de 2009 e 2011 e um questionário complementar, encontramos três evidências significantes: (1) indivíduos que possuem memória do período de hiperinflação no Brasil tem uma menor probabilidade de participar do mercado de ações; (2) há uma forte evidência que pessoas que estavam em idade formativa durante a hiperinflação são menos dispostos de possuir algum tipo de instrumento financeiro do que pessoas que tiveram a experiência desse choque macroeconômico em outros períodos de suas vidas; (3) mulheres solteiras são muito mais prováveis de ter uma poupança financeira que homens solteiros.
In this paper we study to which extent extreme macroeconomic instability have a longlasting effect in Brazilians’ investing behavior. Using data from the National Households Sample Survey (PNAD) from 2009 to 2011 and a complementary survey, we find three significant findings: (1) individuals that have memories from past hyperinflation event have a lower probability of participating in the stock market; (2) there is strong evidence that households that were in their formative years during hyperinflation event are less willing to have financial saving than those households who experience this macroeconomic shock in other periods of their lives; (3) single women are much more likely to have financial saving than single man.

This paper is a case study of Soviet political influences on Lithuanian archaeology. The work explores the application of central political rules of the Soviet Union to Lithuanian archaeology and analyses the consequences of these applications in the Post-Soviet period. The result of the study reveals that under Soviet policy, Lithuanian archaeologists developed a highly descriptive tradition. In Post-Soviet Lithuania, archaeologists continue to practice the descriptive tradition and rarely engage in theoretical debates. The work suggests possible explanations and solutions to the current problems in Lithuanian archaeology.

Life events are widely seen as having an important effect on well-being. This thesis addressed some of the gaps in the literature by examining how positive as well as negative past events are perceived by individuals as affecting different facets of current well-being. In addition, the study examined how these relationships are moderated by insight, reflection and rumination. Psychological undergraduate students (N=73) provided examples of past positive and negative life events and gave open-ended responses about what they saw as the beneficial and adverse consequences of those events for them. These responses were coded for the presence of the six dimensions of Psychological Well-being (PWB) outlined by Ryff (1989) as well as for affect. Self-report measures of insight, reflection and rumination were also completed. Beneficial effects on affect and all the dimensions of PWB, with the exception of Autonomy, were present in the open ended responses of how past positive and negative events were currently impacting on well-being. Adverse effects on affect and the PWB dimensions of Relations with Others, Self-Acceptance and Environmental Mastery were present in the responses of how past positive and negative events were currently impacting on well-being. Relations with others was the most frequently identified dimension of PWB in response to what the beneficial and adverse effects of past events were, indicating the importance of this area in clinical interventions. Personal Growth was the only PWB dimension to be more frequently identified in the responses of the beneficial effects of negative events compared to the beneficial effects of positive events. This indicates that therapeutic interventions targeting growth from previous negative events could benefit from focussing on this aspect of PWB. Reflection was positively correlated to the adverse effect of positive events, whilst rumination was positively con-elated to PWB for the adverse effect of negative events. Implications for clinical and non-clinical populations and possible future research are discussed.

By the 18th century the demand for timber for building in the East of England could not satisfied with home grown resources. Demand for timber was met by expanding the existing softwood trade, importing Scandinavian and Baltic, Pine, and Fir. From the Georgian period, the adoption of softwood as the primary timber for building construction raises interesting perceptions regarding the contemporary use of softwood in the construction of historic buildings. The choice of fabric in the conservation of any historic building often relies heavily on the perceived value and high profile rating given by conservation professionals. Also, the specifying of softwood for conservation projects requires an understanding of the historical usage of softwood; this research aims to understand the current awareness and knowledge of professionals of softwood in the conservation of historic buildings.

This research work includes 5 studies evaluating mortality, investigation, and treatment of inpatient hyponatraemia. The first, a case–control study showed that hyponatraemic patients had 17.3% inpatient mortality rate and were 12 times more likely to die during admission than normonatraemic controls, concluding that hyponatraemia is an independent predictor of mortality. The second study in the same cohort confirmed that hyponatraemia is frequently underinvestigated with 5% of patients without endocrine input having complete work-up compared to 80% of those receiving endocrine input. The third, multicentre observational study found that only 23% of participants had measurement of paired serum / urine osmolality and sodium, while 37% did not have any treatment for hyponatraemia and 63% had persistent hyponatraemia at discharge. The fourth study, a case series of 61 tolvaptan-treated SIADH patients over a 3-year period, demonstrated the great efficacy of tolvaptan, evidenced by a mean 24-hour serum sodium rise of 9 mmol/l with 96.7% of patients having increased serum sodium by ≥ 5 mmol/l within 48 hours. However, tolvaptan carried a significant risk of overly rapid sodium correction with 23% of patients with starting serum Na < 125 mmol/l exceeding correction limits. The fifth, a prospective-controlled intervention study showed, for the first time, that endocrine input is superior to routine care in correcting hyponatraemia since the intervention group achieved ≥ 5 mmol/l sodium rise in 3.5 vs. 7.1 days in controls. The endocrine input shortened hospitalisation by a mean of 3.6 days. The likely contribution of hyponatraemia by itself to excess mortality, in combination with underinvestigation and undertreatment of hyponatraemia characterising real-life clinical practice, highlight the need to improve clinical care. A key finding of these studies is that widespread provision of endocrine input can result in more effective hyponatraemia treatment and shorter hospitalisation.

This paper reviews and summarises the results of selected empirical studies on performance gaps between multinational enterprises and their domestic counterparts. Performance gaps arise in such fields as productivity, profitability, wages, skills, factor intensity and growth. Of central interest is the question to what extent is foreign ownership an explanatory factor of performance gaps? Empirical evidence supports the existence of performance gaps between foreign and domestic firms, yet foreign ownership is a much less important explanatory factor than normally assumed. Structural factors like industry, size and multi-nationality per se are more important. It is argued that such results are broadly consistent with those derived in the literatures on ownership change, on foreign entry and on spillovers. The concluding section discusses the normative issue whether there is a case for investment promotion policies to discriminate between firms on the basis of performance gaps by ownership.
Series: Working Papers Series "Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness"

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 102-113).
This thesis examines the status of sustainable development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It seeks to analyze the various factors supporting or hindering the progress of the Kingdom towards sustainable development. It will apply the framework developed by Ashford & Hall (2011) to assess the performance and interaction between economy, employment and environment while considering the forces of technology and globalization. The first part of the thesis will look at the current status of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Then, the three dimensions of sustainable development will be analyzed in great details followed by a short analysis of technology and trade. The analysis will then shift to the ambitious Saudi vision 2030 that aims to transform the Kingdom from an oil-dependent economy into a leading exporter of sustainable energy that has a diverse economy. The last part of the thesis will explore the focus areas which are limiting the Kingdom from progressing towards a greater degree of sustainable development. The major limitations include rapidly degrading environment, increasing unemployment rate, rising income inequality, endemic corruption, and minimal awareness about sustainable development. The thesis then concludes by summarizing the major points.
by Nabil Sayfayn.
S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2010.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-59).
This thesis reviews how oil price has evolved throughout time since it was discovered and commercially exploited in 1859 in Pennsylvania. Rather than a pure economic study, this thesis illustrates how major historic and geopolitical events have been influenced or driven by a frantic quest for oil. Oil has allowed the automotive industry to thrive, the industrial revolution to shift gears and has fueled economic growth especially in the USA and the western countries throughout the twentieth century. Oil has also played a major strategic role during WWI and WWII. More recently, Oil has also been used as an economic weapon in several occasions. During the first and the second oil crises, producing countries have created OPEC in order to control prices in an attempt to get autonomy from consuming countries who had historically manipulated the prices thanks to the "Seven Sisters" regrouped in an illegal but extremely powerful "Oil Cartel". In the 1980's Reagan's Administration has successfully used oil as an economic weapon to fight the Soviet Union which eventually collapsed. With "Peak Oil" now approaching (some say already reached) oil prices are more and more difficult to manipulate. As supply now struggles to match demand, oil prices are more and more driven by macroeconomics fundamentals but this doesn't mean that speculation has no impact as we have seen recently during the 2007- 2008 bubble. To end with, this thesis concludes showing that if the past evolutions of oil prices are pretty well understood, predicting future prices is an exercise that requires utter humility.
by Manuel Corsetti.
S.M.

This study reflects my own search to clarify the process of cultural change in an educational setting. In particular it clarifies for me the process through which State-wide science curriculum reform was enacted in the late 1950s and into the 1970s. This period is interesting because of a continuing perception amongst science teachers that the system-wide changes of the time were widely supported by teachers and influenced classroom practice. My aim in this study was to explore how the characteristics of this cultural change process may be applied in the current climate of school reform.The members of the local science teacher community of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s engaged in similar activities and conversations as they attended the same University then continued to enter into similar school-based activities. As a group of people with shared experiences and values, who made decisions based on similar understandings and priorities, this group may be regarded as an identifiable culture.The day to day activities of this community of science teachers were underpinned by each teacher's beliefs about scientific knowledge and processes and school science, as well as understandings about the teaching and learning process. Many of these beliefs were so fundamental as to be unquestioned, and may be referred to as referents, or myths. For the members of a culture to change their practice then, new referents must be introduced, or existing referents modified.In searching for the process by which this culture was able to access new understandings, this study examined the comparative influence of two highly visible science educators who promoted science curriculum change in the State. As a result of data collection involving interviews with twenty-five key informants and the examination of private and public archival records; the crucial role of these unique personalities emerged ++
consistently: Each of these men have been characterised as a Hero because each brought new understandings to their existing culture (Campbell, 1949).In reviewing the extended career of each Hero it was possible to draw strong parallels with mythical Greek heroes, Perseus and Theseus. This metaphorical representation not only effectively mirrored the life history of the modern-day heroes but also served to reconnect the logic of science along with that of the emotion of art - a balance well understood by the Greeks.The study found that the successful Heroes promoted significant long term change by instituting new rituals, ceremonies and artefacts throughout the science education community. Over time, these activities effectively modified older referents and created new ones, leading to new practice in the curriculum enacted by science teachers.In drawing together the stories of Perseus and Theseus, it was possible to recognise common elements in the processes by which these influential individuals were able to effect new practice in their community. Thus the study provides a template for the cultural change process in the future.In the final discussion, focus shifts to the relevance of this research to the everyday enterprise of schools and school systems. As a school practitioner z always read scholarly papers with the underpinning question; "See What?" The final chapter then, is largely hypothetical as it poses possibilities, makes predications and offers advice for readers seeking to improve the change process in their own context.

Feedback is an important element in learning as it can provide learners with both information about progress as well as external motivational stimuli, providing them with an opportunity for reflection. Motivation and metacognition are strongly intertwined, with learners high in self-efficacy more likely to use a variety of self-regulatory learning strategies, as well as to persist longer on challenging tasks. Learning from past experience involves metacognitive processes as an act of reflecting upon one's own experience and, coupled with existing knowledge, aids the acquisition and construction of further knowledge. The aim of the research was to improve the learner's focus on the process and experience of problem solving while using an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), by addressing the primary question: what are the effects of including motivational and metacognitive feedback based on the learner's past states and experiences? An existing ITS, SQL-Tutor, was used in a study with participants from first year undergraduate degrees studying a database module. The study used two versions of SQL-Tutor: the Control group used a base version providing domain feedback and the Study group used an extended version that also provided motivational and metacognitive feedback. Three sources of data collection were used: module summative assessments, ITS log files and a post-study questionnaire. The analysis included both pre-post comparisons and how the participants interacted with the system, for example their persistence in problem-solving and the degree to which they referred to past learning. Comparisons between groups showed some differing trends both in learning and behaviour in favour of the Study group, though these trends were not significantly different. The study findings showed promise for the use of motivational and metacognitive feedback based on the learners' past states and experiences that could be used as a basis for future research work and refinement.

The Hohokam Water Management Simulation (HWM) is a computer simulation for exploring the operation of the Hohokam irrigation systems in southern Arizona. The simulation takes a middle road between two common kinds of archaeological simulation: large-scale, detailed landscape and environmental reconstructions and highly abstract hypothesis-testing simulations. Given the apparent absence in the Hohokam context of a central authority, the specific aim of the HWM is approaching the Hohokam as a complex system, using principles such as resilience, robustness, and self-organization. The Hohokam case is reviewed, and general questions concerning how the irrigation systems operated are shown to subsume multiple crosscutting and unresolved issues. Existing proposals about the relevant aspects of Hohokam society and of its larger long-term trajectory are based on widely varying short- and long-term processes that invoke different elements, draw different boundaries, and operate at different spatial and temporal scales, and many rely on information that is only incompletely available. A framework for pproaching problems of this kind is put forward. A definition of modeling is offered that specifies its epistemological foundations, permissible patterns of inference, and its role in our larger scientific process. Invoking Logical Positivism, a syntactic rather than semantic view of modeling is proposed: modeling is the construction of sets of assertions about the world and deductions that can be drawn from them. This permits a general model structure to be offered that admits hypothetical or provisional assertions and the flexible interchange of model components of varying scope and resolution. Novel goals for archaeological inquiry fall from this flexible approach; these move from specific reconstruction to a search for more universal and general dynamics. A software toolkit that embodies these principles is introduced: the Assertion-Based Computer Modeling toolkit (ABCM), which integrates simulation with the logical architecture of a relational database, and further provides an easy means for linking models of natural and social processes (including agent-based modeling). The application of this to the Hohokam context is described, and an extended example is presented that demonstrates the flexibility, utility and challenges of the approach. An attached file provides sample output.

The author poses a question whether the current legal regulation of waste is proper. The question is answered by analyzing five issues: variety of the concepts of waste (waste can be perceived in distinct manners and the current concept aggravates the solution of two principal waste problems – danger to the environment and danger to human health); non-systematic use of terms (improper terms are used in Lithuanian legal acts); the jurisprudence of Lithuanian courts in explaining the concept of waste (the courts do not perceive waste properly); the twofold term of the municipal/household waste in Lithuanian legal acts (municipal/household waste is regulated by using the same term, thus it is not clear for which waste persons are taxed); the application of the municipal levy for waste management (the current model does not encourage to preserve the environment). The author concludes that the variety of the concepts of waste, the disagreements among the scholars on the question, the difficulties encoutered by the courts and non-ameliorating status of the environment show that it should be reasonable to discard the current legal regulation of waste. The two principal problems posed by waste and unsuccessfully solved by the current legal regulation are determined principally by the objects which are not in any possesion. Then waste should be perceived as an object which is not in a possesion and the legal regulation should be orientated in making all the objects to have a possesor.
Disertacijoje keliamas klausimas, ar esamas atliekų tvarkymo teisinis reguliavimas yra tinkamas. Į šį klausimą atsakoma analizuojant penkis atliekų tvarkymo teisinio reguliavimo probleminius aspektus: (1) atliekų sampratų įvairovę (atliekas galima suvokti labai įvairiai, o dabartinė atliekų samprata apsunkina dviejų pagrindinių atliekų keliamų problemų – pavojingumo aplinkai ir žmogui - sprendimą); (2) nesusistemintą terminiją (teisės aktuose vartojami netinkami terminai); (3) Lietuvos teismų praktiką aiškinant atliekų sąvoką (teismai atliekas suvokia netinkamai); (4) dvilypę komunalinių atliekų sąvoką (komunalinės atliekos teisės aktuose suvokiamos dvejopai, todėl neaišku, už kokių konkrečiai atliekų tvarkymą asmenys yra apmokestinami); (5) vietinės rinkliavos už komunalinių atliekų surinkimą ir atliekų tvarkymą taikymą (rinkliava neskatina asmenų tausoti aplinkos). Daroma išvada, kad atliekų sampratų įvairovė, teisės mokslininkų nesutarimai, ką laikyti atliekomis, teismų patiriami sunkumai nagrinėjant atliekų bylas ir negerėjanti aplinkos padėtis rodo, kad būtų tikslinga atsisakyti esamo atliekų teisinio reguliavimo. Dvi pagrindines atliekų problemas, kurias siekiama išspręsti esamu atliekų teisiniu reguliavimu, iš esmės kelia tik nevaldomi objektai. Tuomet atliekomis reikėtų laikyti tik tuos objektus, kurie nėra valdomi, o teisiniu reguliavimu siekti, kad visi objektai būtų valdomi.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) continues to be an important cause of mortality and neurological disability in resource-limited countries. Many questions remain about the best approaches to prevent, diagnose, and treat TBM, and there are still too fewanswers. The aim of this dissertation was to challenge current management strategies in childhood TBM. Accurate prediction of outcome in TBM is of critical importance when assessing the efficacy of different interventions. I conducted a retrospective cohort study of 554 children with TBM less than 13 years of age admitted to Tygerberg Children’s Hospital over a 20 year period (1985-2005) and reclassified all patients according to the criteria of all the currently available staging systems in childhood TBM (chapter 4). In this study, I found that the “Refined Medical Research Council (MRC) staging system after 1 week” had the highest predictive value of all TBM staging systems. It is created by subdivision of stage 2 (2a and 2b) of the existing MRC staging system. Additionally, I proposed and validated a simplified TBM staging system which is less dependent on clinical ability and neurological expertise than current staging systems. The simplified staging system was termed the “Tygerberg Children’s Hospital Scale” (TCH) and relies solely on the patient’s ability to visually fixate and follow and the motor response to pain on both sides. It demonstrated excellent predictive power of outcome after 1 week and did not differ significantly from the “Refined MRC staging system” in this regard. The optimal anti-TB drug regimen and duration of treatment for TBM is unknown. It has been suggested that intensive short-course (6 months) anti-TB therapy may be sufficient and safe. I conducted a prospective descriptive study of 184 consecutively treated children with TBM and found that short-course intensified anti-TB therapy aimed at treating TBM patients (anti-TBM therapy) is sufficient and safe in both HIV-uninfected and HIVinfected children with drug susceptible TBM (chapter 5). The overall study mortality of 3.8% at completion of treatment compares favourably with the median mortality rate of 33% (range 5-65%) reported in a recent review describing outcome in TBM treatmentstudies. TB-immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) is a potentially life-threatening complication in HIV-infected children with TB of the central nervous system. Little is known about the incidence, case fatality, underlying immunopathology and treatment approaches in HIV-infected children with neurological TB-IRIS. In a case series, I found that neurological TB-IRIS should be considered when new neurological signs develop after initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in children with TBM (chapter 6.1). Manifestations of neurological TB-IRIS include headache, seizures, meningeal irritation, a decreased level of consciousness, ataxia and focal motor deficit. I also discussed the rational for using certain treatment modalities, includingthalidomide. Neurological tuberculous mass lesions (tuberculomas and pseudo-abscesses) may develop or enlarge in children on anti-TBM treatment. These lesions respond poorly to therapy, and may require surgical excision, but may be responsive to thalidomide, a potent inhibitor of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). The optimal dose and duration of thalidomide therapy and the correlation with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is yet to be explored. The primary objective of our next study was to investigate whether serial MRI is useful in evaluating treatment response and duration of thalidomide therapy (chapter 6.2). A secondary objective was to determine the value of thalidomide in the treatment of these lesions. In a prospective observational study over three years, serial MRI was performed in 16 consecutive children compromised by TB pseudo-abscesses who were treated with thalidomide. The rapid clinical response of most patients suggests that thalidomide provides substantial clinical benefit in this clinical context. I also identified a MRI marker of cure that is evolution of lesions from early stage “T2 bright” with edema to “T2 black.” This finding could be useful in the future management of these patients. Transcranial Doppler imaging (TCDI) is potentially a valuable investigational tool in children with TBM, a condition often complicated by pathology relevant to Doppler imaging such as raised intracranial pressure (ICP) and cerebral vasculopathies. Serial TCDI was performed on 20 TBM children with the aim of investigating cerebral haemodynamics and the relationship between pulsatility index (PI) and ICP (chapter 6.3). In this study, I found that TCDI-derived pulsatility index (PI) is not a reliable indicator of raised ICP in children with tuberculous hydrocephalus which I attributed this to individual variation of tuberculous vascular disease, possibly compromising cerebral vascular compliance and resistance. The study did confirm the efficacy of medical therapy in children with tuberculous communicating hydrocephalus. In all cases, the ICP normalized within 7 days after initiation of acetazolamide and furosemide. In the same cohort of children with TBM I also measured cerebral blood flow velocities (BFV) in the anterior cerebral artery (ACA), middle cerebral artery (MCA) and posterior cerebral artery (PCA) on admission and after day 3 and 7. I found persistent high BFV in all the basal cerebral arteries suggesting stenosis due to vasculitis rather than functional vasospasm. Additionally, I found that complete MCA occlusion, subnormal mean MCA velocities (less than 40 cm/s) and a reduced PI (less than 0.4) correlated with radiological proven large cerebral infarcts. No side-to-side differences in MCA BFV or subnormal PI’s were detected in four TBM children with territory infarcts on admission. I attributed this to the occlusion of a limited number (one or two) of the 9 MCA perforators which has been shown not to affect the hemodynamics of the MCA. I concluded by highlighting the many questions that remain about the best approaches to prevent, diagnose, and treat TBM (chapter 2). In a second literature review, aimed at clinicians working in resource-limited countries, I describe novel approaches to the management of childhood TBM, including a treatment algorithm for tuberculous hydrocephalus, the role for short-course intensified anti-TBM treatment and home-based anti-TBM treatment (chapter 3). Even with the best diagnostic and treatment modalities, outcome in childhood TBM will remain poor if diagnosis is delayed. Our efforts should be on increased awareness and earlier diagnosis.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Tuberkuleuse meningitis (TBM) bly ‘n belangrike oorsaak van mortaliteit en neurologiese ongeskiktheid in lande met beperkte hulpbronne. Baie vrae oor die beste benaderings tot voorkoming, diagnose en behandeling van TBM bly bestaan en daar is steeds te min antwoorde. Die doel van die verhandeling was om huidige behandelingstrategieë van tuberkuleuse meningitis (TBM) in kinders uit te daag. Akkurate voorspelling oor die uitkoms van TBM is van kritieke belang wanneer doeltreffendheid van verskillende ingrypings beoordeel word. Ek het ‘n retrospektiewe kohort studie van 554 kinders jonger as 13 jaar met TBM wat in Tygerberg Kinderhospitaal toegelaat is oor `n tydperk van twintig jaar (1985 tot 2005) uitgevoer en al die pasiënte volgens die kriteria van al die huidig beskikbare stadiëringsisteme vir kinder TBM geherklassifiseer (hoofstuk 4). Die waarde van die verskillende stadiëringsisteme in die voorspelling van neurologiese uitkoms is toe bepaal. In hierdie studie het ek bevind dat die “Verfynde Mediese Navorsings Raad (MNR) stadiëringsisteem na 1 week” die TBM stadiëringsisteem met die hoogste voorspellende waarde was om neurolgiese uitkoms te voorspel. Dit is geskep deur onderverdeling van stadium 2 (2a en 2b) van die bestaande gemodifiseerde MNR stadiëringsisteem. Daarbenewens het ek ’n vereenvoudigde stadiëringsisteem vir TBM wat minder afhanklik van kliniese vermoëns en neurologiese kundigheid sal wees as die bestaande stadiëringsisteme daargestel en getoets. Die vereenvoudigde stadiëringsisteem is die “Tygerberg Kinderhospitaal Skaal (TKH)” genoem en dit is slegs gebaseer op `n pasiënt se vermoë om visueel te fikseer en te volg en die motoriese respons tot pyn aan beide kante van die ligaam. Dit het uitstekende voorspellingswaarde gehad vir uitkoms na die eerste week van siekte en het in hierdie verband nie betekenisvol verskil van die “Verfynde MNR stadiëringsisteem” nie. Die optimale anti-TB middel regimen en duurte van behandeling vir TBM is onbekend. Sommige kenners stel voor dat ‘n intensiewe kort-kursus (6 maande) van anti-TB behandeling veilig en voldoende mag wees. Ek het ‘n prospektiewe beskrywende studie op 184 opeenvolgende kinders met TBM uitgevoer en bevind dat intensiewe kort-kursus anti-TB behandeling gemik op die behandeling van kinders met TBM (anti-TBM behandeling) in beide menslike immuniteitgebrekvirus (MIV)-ongeïnfekteerde en MIV-geïnfekteerde kinders met middel-gevoelige TBM voldoende en veilig was (hoofstuk 5 ). Die mortaliteit in my studie met voltooing van behandeling vergelyk gunstig met die mediane mortaliteit van 33% (reikwydte 5-65%) wat onlangs in ‘n oorsig van uitkoms in TBM gerapporteer is. TB immuun rekonstitusie inflammatoriese sindrome (IRIS) is ‘n potensieël lewensbedreigende komplikasie in MIV-geïnfekteerde kinders met TB van die sentrale senuwee sisteem (SSS). Min is oor die voorkoms, mortaliteit, onderliggende immunopatologie en behandelingsbenaderings in MIV-geïnfekteerde kinders met neurologiese TB-IRIS bekend. In `n gevalle-reeks het ek gevind dat neurologiese TB-IRIS oorweeg moet word as nuwe neurologiese tekens na aanvang van antiretrovirale terapie (ART) in MIV-geïnfekteerde kinders met TBM ontwikkel (hoostuk 6.1). Simptome en tekens van neurologies TB-IRIS behels hoofpyn, konvulsies, meningiale prikkeling, ‘n verlaagde vlak van bewussyn, ataksie en fokale motoriese uitval. Ons bespreek ook die rasionaal vir die gebruik van sekere behandelingsmodaliteite, insluitende thalidomied. Neurologiese tuberkuleuse massaletsels (tuberkulome en pseudo-absesse) mag ontwikkel of vergroot in kinders op anti-TBM behandeling. Hierdie letsels reageer swak op terapie, vereis soms chirurgiese verwydering, maar kan op talidomied behandeling reageer, ‘n kragtige inhibeerder van tumor nekrose faktor-alfa (TNF-α). Die optimale dosis en duurte van thalidomide behandeling en die korrelasie met magnetiese resonansbeelding (MRB) moet nog ondersoek word. Die primêre doel van my volgende studie was om te bepaal of seriële MRB van waarde is om die respons op behandeling te evalueer asook die duurte van talidomied behandeling. Die sekondêre doelwit was om die waarde van talidomied in die behandeling van hierdie letsels te bepaal. In ‘n prospektiewe waarnemingstudie wat oor 3 jaar gestrek het is seriële MRB uitgevoer op 16 opeenvolgende kinders met TB pseudo-absesse wat behandel is met talidomied (hoofstuk 6.2). Die spoedige kliniese verbetering van die meeste pasiënte dui daarop dat thalidomied `n aansienlike kliniese voordeel bied in hierdie kliniese konteks. Verder het ek `n MRB merker van genesing geïdentifiseer naamlik evolusie van die letsel van vroeë stadium “T2 helder” met edeem na “T2 swart”. Hierdie bevinding is van groot waarde in die toekomstige behandeling van TBM pasiënte wat hierdie komplikasie ontwikkel. Transkraniale Doppler beelding (TKDB) is potensieël `n waardevolle ondersoekmetode in kinders met TBM, `n toestand wat dikwels gekompliseer word deur patologie verwant aan Doppler beelding soos verhoogde intrakraniale druk (IKP) en serebrale vaskulopatieë. Seriële TKBD is op 20 TBM kinders uitgevoer om serebrale hemodinamika en die verband tussen die pulsatiele indeks (PI) en IKP te ondersoek (hoofstuk 6.3). In hierdie studie het ek gevind dat TKDB-afgeleide PI nie `n betroubare aanduiding van verhoogde IKD in kinders met tuberkuleuse hidrokefalus is nie en dit aan individuele variasies van tuberkuleuse vaskulêre siekte toegeskryf, wat serebrale vaskulêre toegeeflikheid en weerstand benadeel. Die studie het die doeltreffendheid van mediese behandeling in kinders met kommunikerende tuberkuleuse hidrokefalus bevestig. In alle gevalle het die IKP binne 7 dae na aanvang van asetosoolamied en furosemied genormaliseer. In dieselfde groep TBM kinders het ek die serebrale bloedvloei-snelhede (BVS) in die anterior serebrale arterie (ASA), middel serebrale arterie (MSA) en posterior serebrale arterie (PSA) met toelating en na dag 3 en 7 gemeet. Ek het volgehoue hoё BVS in al die basale arteries gevind wat op stenose sekondêr tot vaskulitis eerder as funksionele vasospasma dui. Daarbenewens het ek gevind dat volledige MSA afsluiting, subnormale gemiddelde MSA snelhede (minder as 40 sentimeter per sekonde) en `n verminderde PI (minder as 0.4) met radiologies-bewysde groot serebrale infarksies gekorreleer het. Geen kant-tot-kant verskille in MSA BVS of subnormale PI’s is in vier TBM kinders met kleiner infarksies met toelating bespeur nie. Ek skryf dit toe aan die afsluiting van `n beperkte aantal (een of twee) van die nege MSA perforators wat nie nie die hemodinamika van die MSA beïnvloed nie. Ek het afgesluit om al die vrae wat nog bestaan oor die beste benadering ten opsigte van voorkoming, diagnose and behandeling van TBM uit te wys (hoofstuk 2). In die tweede literatuuroorsig, wat gemik is op dokters wat werk in hulpbron-beperkte lande, beskryf ek nuwe benaderings tot die hantering van pediatriese TBM, insluitend `n behandelingsalgoritme vir tuberkuleuse hidrokefalus, die rol van kort- kursus versterkte anti-TB behandeling vir TBM en tuis-gebaseerede anti-TBM behandeling (hoofstuk 3). Selfs met die beste diagnostiese en behandelingsmodaliteite, is die uitkoms van kinder TBM swak indien diagnose vertraag word. Ons pogings moet daarom op groter bewustheid en vroeёr diagnose berus.

Includes bibliographical references.
The vast majority of patients with penetrating cardiac injuries do not reach the hospital alive as the pre-hospital mortality rate for these injuries is in the region of 86%. The patients that do reach the hospital alive are potential survivors and it is obviously crucial that any cardiac injury is detected and managed appropriately. Most of these injuries present with either cardiac tamponade or hypovolaemic shock and are relatively straightforward to diagnose and require immediate surgery. There is, however, a group of patients that are relatively stable with an underlying cardiac injury and it is in these patients that a potential or occult cardiac injury needs to be identified.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references (leaf 74).
Over the last decade, there has been a proliferation of mobile payments systems (MPS). Close to 150 MPS currently exist in the world according to the Bank for International Settlement records (BIS). Mobile payments (MP) markets are at different stages of development depending on countries. However, most of them are going through their embryonic or early phases. According to the theory, at this fluid stage, where no dominant design has emerged, it is nearly impossible to predict industry evolution. This paper tests the hypothesis that (i) because the MP industry is a path dependent system rather than a hysteresis system whose state depends on their immediate history, (ii) we can actually rely on accumulated experiences (success and failures) to narrow markets options in terms of dominant players and speed of adoption. In this paper, we elaborate a classification matrix of payment services and using the Weil-Utterback system dynamic model of the diffusion of innovation we analyze the main loops at play in US, Europe and Japan. In the process we provide numerous examples of MPS and several case studies. The key take aways of our analysis are that (i) incumbents are likely to dominate the offering of mobile payments services. (ii) in the next three to five years, US rate of adoption is likely to be faster than the European one.
by Gladys Priso.
M.B.A.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2003.
Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 64 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-54).

Thesis (Ph. D. in Transportation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2012.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-284).
Cities are endowed with and accumulate assets based on their unique histories, which in turn define the choice set of the present. These assets range from the natural-sheltered ports, fertile land--to the constructed--concrete and cement, institutions and people. This dissertation examines the effects of one of these assets, urban rail, on residential location and travel behavior, from the era of horsecars and streetcars to the present in Boston. It explores the hysteretical effects of past access to rail--the extent to which the urban system retains the impacts of rail even when it no longer exists. Current density and travel behavior are measurably influenced by past access to rail. The built environment and demographic patterns are found to be the strongest mechanism for these persistent effects. Past access to rail has shaped the city, and that shape has, in turn, affected travel behavior. For density and auto ownership there is an additional measurable effect of past access unexplained by the built environment or demographic patterns. This legacy is plausibly explained by cultural effects--mnemonics--due to personal history, behavioral norms, and zoning/politics. Past access to rail has a stronger effect on density than on auto ownership. The daily choice of modes is almost entirely conditioned on current circumstances. Because places shaped by rail retain its imprint, these findings imply that there is need to consider how policy decisions will influence the city's future choice set. The greatest benefits from the endowments of urban rail are likely where redevelopment costs are low and growth potential is high--particularly light industrial areas near strong central cities. Realizing these changes requires mechanisms that allow and encourage government and private entities to be patient with the long time frames for adaptation to rail infrastructure. One such step is requiring, rather than allowing, supportive zoning and other policies within the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts capital program--including such items as increased as-of-right density, reasonable limits on parking, car sharing, and graduated drivers licensing laws. This research strengthens prior findings that similar approaches can encourage sustainable cultural norms.
by David Block-Schachter.
Ph.D.in Transportation

My research focuses on reconstructing past climate in southern Arizona using cave deposits called speleothems. However, this necessitates a broader perspective than simply a geochemical time series, and therefore, I also investigate modern cave systems using a combination of modeling and observational datasets. Finally, cave deposits are fundamentally non-renewable resources, and sampling for past climate reconstruction can be destructive, unlike other cave uses. My last investigation is focused on developing possible best practice recommendations for paleoclimate scientists and other cave stakeholders moving forward.

We developed two new stalagmite records of past climate variability in southern Arizona over the past 7000 years. Past climate reconstruction from two caves (Cave of the Bells and Fort Huachuca Cave) highlights insolation control of southern Arizona hydroclimate from 7000-2000 years before present. Additionally, comparison between two stalagmites with different seasonal sensitivities uncovers a few eras of multi-decade long droughts in southern Arizona, which align with other regional reconstructions of past climates and elucidate forcings on Southwest paleoclimate as emergent from both external (insolation) and internal climate variability in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean basins. Although the oxygen isotopic signal of cave calcite in speleothems is complex, agreement with these other records indicates that the speleothem records from these caves primarily record a climate signal.

Modeling and monitoring of modern caves both helps us interpret paleoclimate records and enhances our understanding of cave systems in their own right. Modeling of Cave of the Bells dripwaters demonstrates the effect of storage and mixing on the dripwater oxygen isotope signal; non-climate processes can imprint on dripwater variability on multidecadal timescales. Monitoring shows that on very small spatial scales, every cave is different, and even sites within the same cave respond uniquely to surface climate. Most notably, calcite oxygen isotopic composition, used to reconstruct past climate, shows seasonal variability unrelated to dripwater and surface rainfall oxygen isotope variability. Substantial oxygen isotope disequilibrium is identified at numerous caves sites in southern Arizona, and this understanding aligns with a growing number of cave studies that demonstrate the long-held assumption of isotopic equilibrium in cave systems may not always be valid or that the way in which we define isotopic equilibrium insufficiently captures the variety of processes controlling the oxygen isotopic composition of speleothems. Overall, however, monitoring can identify stalagmites that are more sensitive to surface climate and less sensitive to these in-cave processes by identifying sites with dripwater variability responses to surface rainfall variability and sites that precipitate close to oxygen isotopic equilibrium.

Finally, a major missing component in speleothem research is the fact that speleothems take thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of years to form. They are non-renewable resources on human timescales, and habitat for myriad microbes that have yet to be identified. Removal of speleothems for paleoclimate research is one of the only destructive uses of these deposits. With that in mind, I also analyze current methods of collecting speleothems and develop a framework based on two surveys of scientists and stakeholders to assist scientists and managers when evaluating potential methods of incorporating cave conservation into the speleothem sampling process.

Thus, I approach caves from a variety of angles and timescales, from the past through the present to the future, illuminating caves as complex scientific and social systems.

My research focuses on reconstructing past climate in southern Arizona using cave deposits called speleothems. However, this necessitates a broader perspective than simply a geochemical time series, and therefore, I also investigate modern cave systems using a combination of modeling and observational datasets. Finally, cave deposits are fundamentally non-renewable resources, and sampling for past climate reconstruction can be destructive, unlike other cave uses. My last investigation is focused on developing possible best practice recommendations for paleoclimate scientists and other cave stakeholders moving forward. We developed two new stalagmite records of past climate variability in southern Arizona over the past 7000 years. Past climate reconstruction from two caves (Cave of the Bells and Fort Huachuca Cave) highlights insolation control of southern Arizona hydroclimate from 7000-2000 years before present. Additionally, comparison between two stalagmites with different seasonal sensitivities uncovers a few eras of multi-decade long droughts in southern Arizona, which align with other regional reconstructions of past climates and elucidate forcings on Southwest paleoclimate as emergent from both external (insolation) and internal climate variability in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean basins. Although the oxygen isotopic signal of cave calcite in speleothems is complex, agreement with these other records indicates that the speleothem records from these caves primarily record a climate signal.Modeling and monitoring of modern caves both helps us interpret paleoclimate records and enhances our understanding of cave systems in their own right. Modeling of Cave of the Bells dripwaters demonstrates the effect of storage and mixing on the dripwater oxygen isotope signal; non-climate processes can imprint on dripwater variability on multidecadal timescales. Monitoring shows that on very small spatial scales, every cave is different, and even sites within the same cave respond uniquely to surface climate. Most notably, calcite oxygen isotopic composition, used to reconstruct past climate, shows seasonal variability unrelated to dripwater and surface rainfall oxygen isotope variability. Substantial oxygen isotope disequilibrium is identified at numerous caves sites in southern Arizona, and this understanding aligns with a growing number of cave studies that demonstrate the long-held assumption of isotopic equilibrium in cave systems may not always be valid or that the way in which we define isotopic equilibrium insufficiently captures the variety of processes controlling the oxygen isotopic composition of speleothems. Overall, however, monitoring can identify stalagmites that are more sensitive to surface climate and less sensitive to these in-cave processes by identifying sites with dripwater variability responses to surface rainfall variability and sites that precipitate close to oxygen isotopic equilibrium. Finally, a major missing component in speleothem research is the fact that speleothems take thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of years to form. They are non-renewable resources on human timescales, and habitat for myriad microbes that have yet to be identified. Removal of speleothems for paleoclimate research is one of the only destructive uses of these deposits. With that in mind, I also analyze current methods of collecting speleothems and develop a framework based on two surveys of scientists and stakeholders to assist scientists and managers when evaluating potential methods of incorporating cave conservation into the speleothem sampling process. Thus, I approach caves from a variety of angles and timescales, from the past through the present to the future, illuminating caves as complex scientific and social systems.

This report concludes the first four years (1992 -1995) of Southern Paiute involvement in the Glen Canyon Environmental Studies (GCES), a program initiated by the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) in 1982. Southern Paiutes have conducted ethnographic research and participated in the Congressionally mandated Environmental Impact Study (EIS) of Glen Canyon Dam water release policies on natural and human-made resources found in the Colorado River Corridor. These ethnographic studies have taken place in what is called the Colorado River Corridor which extends 255 miles down stream from Glen Canyon Dam to the end of the free flowing river at Separation Canyon within the Grand Canyon National Park. They have concentrated on investigating the impacts of the Dam's water releases to Southern Paiute cultural resources. Since the Final EIS was published in March 1995, emphasis has been placed on what is called the Adaptive Management Program of the GCES and attention has shifted to monitoring the water release impacts.

La riche contribution de la SC et des ONG palestinienne à travers son histoire, leurs contributions aux efforts en faveur de la construction de l'Etat et à la fourniture entre autres choses des services sociaux, et la recherche d'une solution autre que la solution à deux Etats qui s'effondre– ont présidé le choix du sujet de ma thèse : « La SC et la construction d'un Etat : Tendances passées, dilemmes actuels et défis futurs posés aux ONG ». En tant que concept théorique, la construction de l'Etat a connu un intérêt accru durant les dernières décennies avec le nombre croissant de sociétés touchées par des conflits. Cependant, le point focal de notre thèse n'est pas tant les théories abstraites de la construction de l'Etat que son histoire et ses aspects pratiques en conjonction et/ou à l'intersection de l'évolution de la SC et des ONG. La compréhension de la construction de l'Etat telle que promue par l'OCDE « Concepts et dilemmes de la construction de l'Etat dans des situations fragiles » imprègne et la rationalité et la méthodologie de notre recherche
The richness of the contribution of CS and NGOs to Palestine on its history, their contribution to state-building efforts and the provision of social services among other things, and the search of an alternative solution to the flawed two-state solution to the conflict – governed the choice of the topic of my dissertation “CS & State-Building: Past Trends, Current Dilemmas and Future Challenges Faced by NGOs”.As a theoretical concept, state-building has gained prominence during the past decades with the growing number of conflict-affected societies. Yet, the focus of our dissertation was not so much on abstract theories of state-building as on its history and practicality in conjunction and/or in intersection with the evolution of CS & NGOs. The perspective on state-building as promoted by the OECD entitled “Concepts and Dilemmas of State-Building in Fragile Situations” impregnates both the rationale and the methodology of our research

Neutrinos are the perfect cosmic messengers when it comes to investigating the most violent and mysterious astronomical and cosmological events in the Universe. The interaction probability of neutrinos is small, and the flux of high-energy neutrinos decreases quickly with increasing energy. In order to find high-energy neutrinos, large bodies of matter needs to be instrumented. A proposed detector station design called ARIANNA is designed to detect neutrino interactions in the Antarctic ice by measuring radio waves that are created due to the Askaryan effect. In this paper, we present a method based on state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to reconstruct the direction of the incoming neutrino, based on the radio emission that it produces. We trained a neural network with simulated data, created with the NuRadioMC framework, and optimized it to make the best possible predictions. The number of training events used was on the order of 106. Using two different emission models, we found that the network was able to learn and generalize on the neutrino events with good precision, resulting in a resolution of 4-5°. The model could also make good predictions on a dataset even if it was trained with another emission model. The results produced are promising, especially due to the fact that classical techniques have not been able to reproduce the same results without having prior knowledge of where the neutrino interaction took place. The developed neural network can also be used to assess the performance of other proposed detector designs, to quickly and reliably give an indication of which design might yield the most amount of value to the scientific community.
Neutriner är de perfekta kosmiska budbärarna när det kommer till att undersöka de mest våldsamma och mystiska astronomiska och kosmologiska händelserna i vårt universum. Sannolikheten för en neutrinointeraktion är dock liten, och flödet av högenergetiska neutriner minskar kraftigt med energin. För att hitta dessa högenergetiska neutriner måste stora volymer av materia instrumenteras. Ett förslag på en design för en detektorstation kallas ARIANNA, och är framtagen för att detektera neutrinointeraktioner i den antarktiska isen genom att mäta radiopulser som bildas på grund av Askaryan-effekten. I denna rapport presenterar vi en metod baserad på toppmoderna maskininlärningstekniker för att rekonstruera riktningen på en inkommande neutrino, utifrån den radiostrålning som produceras. Vi tränade ett neuralt nätverk med simulerade data, som skapades med hjälp av ramverket NuRadioMC, och optimerade nätverket för att göra så bra förutsägelser som möjligt. Antalet interaktionshändelser som användes för att träna nätverket var i storleksordningen 106. Genom att undersöka två olika emissionsmodeller fann vi att nätverket kunde generalisera med god precision. Detta resulterade i en upplösning på 4-5°. Modellen kunde även göra goda förutsägelser på en datamängd trots att nätverket var tränat med en annan emissionsmodell. De resultat som metoden framtog är lovande, särskilt med avseende på att tidigare klassiska metoder inte har lyckats reproducera samma resultat utan att metoden redan innan vet var i isen som neutrinointeraktionen skedde. Nätverket kan också komma att användas för att utvärdera prestandan hos andra designförslag på detektorstationer för att snabbt och säkert ge en indikation på vilken design som kan tillhandahålla mest vetenskapligt värde.

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2019
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 61-65).
Packaging plays an essential role in protecting a product from damage, attracting consumers to purchase a product, and facilitating storage and consumption. Yet its appreciation and value is quickly eroded once the product is purchased and/or consumed and the package becomes waste. With the passing of China's National Sword policy in 2018, post-consumer materials recycling markets are threatened and resources are not being recovered due to high contamination rates. The development of new packaging material has surged in recent years but has not corresponded with development of the necessary recycling infrastructure. Consumers want to recycle but are confused about how to most effectively do so. Packaging continues to consume our finite resources and pollute our terrestrial and marine environments. This research takes a systems approach to understanding today's emerging waste challenges and identifies key obstacles that society should collectively solve. High impact opportunity areas include alignment amongst all key stakeholders, establishing standardized signage and labels, increasing consumer education, and tackling difficult-to-recycle materials through scaling up technology, enacting policy, providing materials alternatives with corresponding infrastructure, or redesigning packaging.
by Karen Cheng.
S.M. in Engineering and Management
S.M.inEngineeringandManagement Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited
As can be evidenced by the conducting of Annual Knowledge Management Conferences, held in Washington, DC (most recently the DoD Knowledge Management Conference, October 2009), DoD understands the value of Knowledge Management (KM). The Air Force, Army and Navy appear to have created healthy knowledge sharing environments and practicing KM at mature levels; however, the Marine Corps is having a difficult time integrating the practice of KM into daily operations. While the Marine Corps Warfighting Publication (MCWP) 3-40.2 offers a methodology for how four classes of information should flow through the Information Hierarchy, to date, there is no published, standardized framework for how to adequately manage knowledge that exists in the Information Hierarchy, hence, the need for an actionable KM Framework that the Marine Corps can use to assist with current Information Management practices. The focus of this thesis is to assess current KM practices across the DoD, identify KM best practices in industry, as well as across the DoD, and ultimately develop a KM Framework that will leverage the powerful dynamics of Knowledge Flow Theory to assist in bridging the knowledge gap in the current Marine Corps Information Hierarchy.

Moduling of cotton has increased strongly since its introduction in 1973. The usage is different from gin to gin due to a variety of conditions. However, the addition of moduling has reduced the pressure on ginning capacity so that some growers can continue using trailers without slowing the speed of the harvest.

Thesis (M.S. in Management) Naval Postgraduate School, June 1997.
Thesis advisors, Mark W. Stone, Walter E. Owen. AD-A333 461. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-71). Also available online.

L'organisation de la fonction publique française connait de profondes mutations depuis le début des années 2000. Cette thèse examine la capacité du système de recrutement et de gestion des enseignants à répondre aux enjeux d'attractivité, d'efficacité et de diversité au cœur des projets actuels de modernisation du système éducatif. Le premier chapitre examine la neutralité du processus de recrutement des enseignants du secondaire vis-à-vis du genre. Il révèle que des biais d'évaluation existent et tendent à favoriser le genre minoritaire, contribuant ainsi à renforcer la mixité au sein des disciplines universitaires. Les deuxième et troisième chapitres examinent la capacité des incitations monétaires, de la demande d'enseignants et des exigences en matière de diplômes à attirer davantage et potentiellement de meilleurs candidats aux postes d'enseignant. Une hausse du niveau de diplôme requis pour enseigner (réforme de la "masterisation") ne semble pas améliorer l'efficacité du recrutement en termes d'attractivité, de profils de compétences et de diversité. Le quatrième chapitre examine la relation entre absentéisme, mobilité et conditions de travail des enseignants. Il montre que les écoles et les directeurs d'école influencent significativement les absences, les départs et le bien-être psychologique des enseignants. Le manque de soutien hiérarchique, les comportements hostiles et l'intensité du travail semblent jouer un rôle particulièrement important
The organization of the French civil service has undergone profound changes since the early 2000s. This thesis examines the capacity of the teacher recruitment and management system to meet the challenges of attractiveness, efficiency and diversity at the heart of current projects to modernize the education system. The first chapter examines the gender neutrality of the recruitment process for secondary school teachers. It reveals that evaluation biases tend to favor the minority gender and contribute to strengthening the gender diversity within university disciplines. The second and third chapters examine the ability of monetary incentives, teacher demand and degree requirements to attract more and potentially better candidates for teaching positions. An increase in the level of qualification required to teach (from bachelor's to master's level) does not seem to improve the effectiveness of recruitment in terms of attractiveness, skills profiles and diversity. The fourth chapter examines the relationship between absenteeism, mobility and working conditions of teachers. It shows that schools and school principals significantly influence teacher absences, turnover and psychological well-being. Lack of hierarchical support, hostile behaviors and work intensity seem to play a critical role

Today’s arts nonprofits are navigating a challenging landscape where competition for funding and audiences is on the rise. To intensify this issue, rates of participation in the arts have declined and funders have raised the bar requiring that nonprofits demonstrate higher levels of accountability concerning results and mission achievement. These conditions have caused nonprofits to assess their leadership, community relevancy, program effectiveness, and management practices. Consequently, audience engagement has become a prominent topic in the field, with a growing body of research and varying perspectives. Arts nonprofits are experimenting with an array of strategies and activities to increase participation. New Orleans’ Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) developed a new Strategic Framework Plan and eliminated its larger debt in 2012, and is appointing a new Executive Director. This report examines the CAC’s history and current situation, and explores ways the organization can further its institutional growth and cement its place within the community.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study project investigates the impact of major factors that influenced the Australian wine industry over the past decade. The project starts of with an in-depth look at the history of the Australian wine industry whilst simultaneously comparing the plantings and growth in production within their industry from 1994 to 1997 to that of their operations when the industry started out in 1788. The thesis concentrates on the factors that characterized the global wine industry during the mid 1990's that were: • Wine trade would continue to grow in terms of volume in spite of a continuing fall in the quantities consumed worldwide. • Commitments undertaken by signatories to the GATT's Uruguay Round Agreements in Marrakech in 1994 would ensure that trade develops not just within trading blocs but amongst them too. • New World and Eastern-European exporters would threaten EU dominance of international markets. Furthermore, focus is placed on the driving forces within the current global wine industry with special emphasis on the new world countries showing growth in production and consumption in contrast to the old world countries predominantly. Taxation gets investigated from a consumer, producer and the Australian government's point of view as well as a comparative model between Australian wine consumption and consumption in the rest of the world during the pre-tax period as well as the post-tax period. Chapter 6 looks at Vision 2025 that the Australian wine industry developed due to a need identified to become globally competent by the industry themselves. Emphasis is placed on the whole issue of one industry turning a production-driven wine economy around into a market-driven industry with every participant within the industry "marketing" a set of strategic objectives that will ultimately benefit their whole industry. Chapter 7 looks at the Australian wine industry from an objective point of view whilst benchmarking the industry against the major global wine trends as well as against quality performances of the global role players. Emphasis is placed on the differences and similarities that Australia's wine booms have in common as well as the lessons that any upcoming wine producing country have to learn form Australia's wine boom such as: o Developnew market opportunities o Develop a long-term vision for sustainable growth o Invest in the latest technologies o Develophealthy relations with growers and marketers o Investment in product differentiation through promotions o Attract the necessary resources Finally, focus is placed on South Africa's Vision 2020 and how the local industry will benefit from the objectives been set out to be achieved.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studieprojek ondersoek die impak van verskeie invloedryke faktore wat 'n beduidende rol gespeel het in die Australiese wynbedryf die afgelope dekade. Die projek begin deur te kyk na 'n indiepte studie van die Australiese wynbedryf se geskiedenis terwyl daar gelyktydig vergelyking getref word tussen die aanplantings van die Australiese wynbedryf vanaf 1994 tot 1997 aan die eenkant teenoor die operasionele sy van dieselfde industrie met sy ontstaan in 1788. Die tesis konsentreer op die faktore wat die globale wynindustrie gekenmerk het tydens die middel 1990's. Hierdie faktore was onder andere: • Die wynhandel het aanhoudende groei getoon ten spyte van die wêreldwye tendens van 'n afname in wynverbruik. • Verpligtinge aangegaan deur ondergetekendes tot die GATTUruguay rondte van samesprekinge in Marrakech in 1994 het verseker dat wynhandel nie net binne handeisblokke plaasgevind het nie, maar ook tussen hierdie handelsblokke. • Die nuwewêreld produserende lande, asook die Oos-Europese lande het 'n beduidende bedreiging vir EU-beheerde markte begin word. Verder is fokus geplaas op die dryfkragte binne die globale wynindustrie met spesiale verwysing na die nuwewêreld produserende lande wat groei toon in die aanplantings van wingerde, die produksie van wyn asook die verbruik daarvan - in kontras met die ouwêreld produserende lande. Belasting word ondersoek vanaf n verbruiker, produsent en die Australiese regering se oogpunt af. n Vergelykende model word geskets waarin daar gekyk word na Australiese wynverbruik voor die belastingimplimentering asook daarna. Hoofstuk 6 kyk na Visie 2025 wat deur die Australiese wynbedryf ontwikkel is as gevolg van 'n behoefte wat geidentifiseer is om globaal mededingend te wees. Klem is geplaas op die proses van n wynindustrie wat ontwikkel het vanaf 'n produksie gedrewe industrie na 'n markgedrewe industrie met elke deelnemer in die industrie wat die strategiese doelwitte van Visie 2025 slaafs "bemark" met die wete dat hul hele industrie uiteindelik daarby sal baat. Hoofstuk 7 kyk na die Australiese wynindustrie vanaf 'n objektiewe oogpunt terwyl die industrie gemeet word teen globale wyntendense asook teen die kwaliteitsvertonings van die globale rolspelers. Fokus is geplaas op die verskille en ooreenkomste tussen Australië se twee wyn groeitydperke asook die lesse wat daaruit te leer is vir enige opkomende wynproduserende land. Hierdie lesse is: o Ontwikkel nuwe markte o Ontwikkel 'n langtermyn visie vir volgehoue groei o Investeer in die nuutste tegnologie o Ontwikkel gesonde verhoudings met kontrak wingerdplanters en bemarkers o Investeer in produkdifferensiasie deur promosies o Verkry die nodige hulpbronne Laastens is klem geplaas op Suid-Afrika se Visie 2020 en hoe die plaaslike industrie daarby sal baat indien die uiteengesette doelwitte behaal sou word.