Univ., Diss.--Hamburg, 2005. / Literaturverz. S. XXVII - XLIII.

The long-beaked common dolphin, Delphinus capensis (Gray 1828), is one of the most enigmatic predators feeding in the annual sardine run (Sardinops sagax) off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. In recent years, unpredictable inter-annual variations in the timing, spatial extent and intensity of the sardine run have been documented, possibly resulting in changes in the suite of prey available to the common dolphin during winter. Although the diets of a number of predators during the sardine run have been studied in detail (e.g. sharks and flying seabirds), little is known about the diet of long-beaked common dolphins during this period. Each year, a low number of common dolphins are incidentally caught in the anti-shark nets in the waters of KwaZulu-Natal. These captures provide a valuable source of data on selected aspects of the ecology of the long-beaked common dolphins along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline. The objective of this study was to provide new dietary data for the common dolphins feeding in the waters of KwaZulu-Natal during winter over the period 2000 to 2009, as well as to determine if any dietary changes had taken place since the common dolphin diet was last assessed, over 15 years ago. Stomach contents from 95 common dolphins (55 females, 40 males) caught between 2000 and 2009 were analysed and compared to historical data from dolphins caught between 1974 and 1992. Mesopelagic fish and squid dominated the diet, with 23 fish and 5 squid species represented in adult dolphins. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) indicated that there was no resource partitioning between adult male and female dolphins. Numerical analyses indicated that there was a shift in the principal prey species consumed by the dolphins over the past decade, particularly during the winter. Prior to 1992, sardine comprised up to 49% of the total stomach contents, while chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) was the dominant prey item (66% by mass) recorded in the stomach contents over the period 2000 to 2009. The shift in the relative contributions of sardine and mackerel in the diets of the dolphin appeared to correspond to fluctuations in the availability of the two principal prey species. Between 2000 and 2009, the diversity of the dolphins' diets was highest during the sardine run, reflecting the presence of a wide suite of predatory teleosts in the waters of KwaZulu-Natal during the annual sardine run. Conversely, prior to 2000, the diet was dominated by sardine during the peak of the sardine run, whilst diet diversity increased after this period. Apart from sardine and chub mackerel, elf (Pomatomus saltatrix), maasbanker (Trachurus delagoa), strepie (Sarpa salpa) and flying fish (Exocoetid sp.) also formed important components of the diet both prior to 1992, and over the last decade. Blubber thickness was assessed as an indicator of animal condition. No significant change in blubber total weight (R² = 0.0016, N = 185), nor dorsal, lateral or ventral blubber thickness (R² = 0.3146, R² = 0.0003, and R² = 0.0003 respectively, N = 78) was seen over the last 30 years (1970 to 2009). Results of stable isotope analyses conducted on tissue derived from the teeth of D. capensis indicated that there has been no significant shift in the trophic position (δ¹⁵N) and potential prey consumed (δ¹³C) over the corresponding period. These data would suggest that the long-beaked common dolphins along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline can be considered as opportunistic predators generally consuming the most abundant prey species available locally. As common dolphins feed opportunistically, this dietary shift appears to indicate changes in the shoaling characteristics of the most abundant fish prey in KwaZulu-Natal during winter. Given the “Data Deficient” status of the long-beaked common dolphin on the IUCN Red Data List, and the strong climatic forcing of the sardine run, such dietary data have important implications for their conservation in the light of expanding fisheries and climate change.

The Master's Thesis deals with the common property of spouses according to both current legal regulation, and secondly future legal regulation of the Czech Republic. The main objective of this Master's Thesis is to present a comprehensive and coherent overview of the current legal regulation of common property of spouses and to compare the present situation with the regulation in new Civil Code, which takes effect in January 2014. The Master's Thesis contains three parts; first part contains the historical development, second part provides a summary of current legal regulation and the last part focuses on the comparison of the current and future legislation.

No description available.

This thesis investigates a newly developed term coined by the author called generalized identification, which is the tendency that people who identify high with one group tend to identify high with other groups as well, and how personality variables from the Five-Factor model may relate to this tendency. A common component of identification towards 10 preselected groups was calculated (N = 148), with a principal component analysis. The result reveal that the generalized identification account for 41 % of the total variance. A stepwise multiple regression analysis further showed that Openness to Experience and Agreeableness from the Five-Factor model explained 26 % of the variance in the generalized identification. However, due to low reliability when measuring personality traits, the relationship between personality and generalized identification could not be interpreted in a satisfying way, and it needs to be further explored before drawing firm conclusions.

Published Article / Research has two important objectives: the contribution to scientific discourse and the identification of solutions for the challenges societies, government, business and industry face. Research should be in the public domain. The publication and presentation of research results are important activities academics need to engage with. Through publications and presentations are societies informed of the positive influence and impact research can bring to them. This paper will focus on the importance of publications and how emerging scholars can be assisted to get their research published. A case study is presented of the Interim, an in-house academic journal.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / It is an increasing requirement that commercial satellite telemetry data product be protected from unauthorized access during transmission to ground stations. While the technology (cryptography) to secure telemetry data product is well known, the software infrastructure to support such security is costly, and very customized. Further, many software packages have difficulty interoperating. The Common Data Security Architecture [1] [2] [3] (originally proposed by the Intel Corporation, and now adopted by the Open Group), is a set of common cryptographic [4] and public key infrastructure (PKI) application programming interfaces (APIs) which will facilitate better cryptographic interoperability as well as making cryptographic resources more readily available in telemetry post processing environments.

Non-common path aberrations (NCPA) in an adaptive optics system are static aberrations that appear due to the difference in optical path between light arriving at the wavefront sensor (WFS) and at the science detector. If the adaptive optics are calibrated to output an unaberrated wavefront, then any optics outside the path of the light arriving at the WFS inherently introduce aberrations to this corrected wavefront. NCPA corrections calibrate the adaptive optics system such that it outputs a wavefront that is inverse in phase to the aberrations introduced by these non-common path optics, and therefore arrives unaberrated at the science detector, rather than at the output of the corrective elements. Focal plane sharpening (FPS) is one technique used to calibrate for NCPA in adaptive optics systems. Small changes in shape to the deformable element(s) are implemented and images are taken and analyzed for image quality (IQ) on the science detector. This process is iterated until the image quality is maximized and hence the NCPA are corrected. The work carried out as described in this paper employs two FPS techniques at Gemini North to attempt to mitigate up to 33% of the adaptive optics performance and image quality degradations currently under investigation. Changes in the NCPA correction are made by varying the Zernike polynomial coefficients in the closed-loop correction file for Altair (the facility adaptive optics system). As these coefficients are varied during closed-loop operation, a calibration point-source at the focal plane of the telescope is imaged through Altair and NIRI (the facility near-infrared imager) at f/32 in K-prime (2.12 μm). These images are analyzed to determine the Strehl ratio, and a parabolic fit is used to determine the appropriate coefficient correction that maximizes the Strehl ratio. Historic calibrations of the NCPA file in Altair's control loop were done at night on a celestial point source, and used a separate, high-resolution WFS (with its own inherent aberrations not common to either NIRI nor Altair) to measure phase corrections directly. In this paper it is shown that using FPS on a calibration source negates both the need to use costly time on the night sky and the use of separate optical systems (which introduce their own NCPA) for analysis. An increase of 6% in Strehl ratio is achieved (an improvement over current NCPA corrections of 11%), and discussions of future improvements and extensions of the technique is presented. Furthermore, a potentially unknown problem is uncovered in the form of high spatial frequency degradation in the PSF of the calibration source.

No description available.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Acquiring real-time video data, during flight testing, has become an integral component in aircraft design and performance evaluation. This unique data acquisition capability has been successfully integrated into the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter), CAIS compliant, FTIDAS (Flight Test Instrumentation Data Acquisition System) developed by L-3 Communications Telemetry-East.