A dissertation of limited scope submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Post-Graduate Diploma in Recreation and Tourism, in the Department of Recreation and Tourism at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2008. / The study on Levels of Participation in Outdoor Recreation at Malolotja Game Reserve was conducted against the background that, the Game Reserve has lot of outdoor recreation facilities. Everyone must use these facilities, so that the participation level in outdoor recreation is increased. The study was aimed at finding out the levels of participation in outdoor recreation at Malolotja Game Reserve. This aim was narrowed down to the following objectives: • To establish the levels of understanding the respondents have about the meaning of outdoor recreation activities. • To ascertain the level of participation of various stakeholders in activities provided by Malolotja Game Reserve. • To ascertain if the management of the Game Reserve is regarded as efficient by the respondents. • To find out the nature and types of recreation facilities offered at Malolotja Game Reserve. • To reveal who the respondents think is responsible for financing the Malolotja Game Reserve. • To find out how local community perceive safety and security in Malolotja Game Reserve. Data was collected through the use of sets of questionnaires, which had both * opened-ended and closed ended questions. Data was collected, it was analysed through the use of computer programme, statistical Package for Social Sciences. This programme was used to formulate frequency tables. There were various findings that the researcher obtained from respondents which were tourists, local community, authority and Swaziland National Trust Commission. It was discovered that all the tourists' respondents had a good understanding of outdoor recreation whereas local community had poor understanding of the meaning of outdoor recreation. The participation level was low in local community and moderate for tourists. Participation level was elevated in international tourists and in local community it was declining. Nature and types of facilities the study area had were satisfactory to all the respondents. Management of the facilities were regarded as inefficient and the Game Reserve gets most income from its profit and Government of Swaziland. To address the concerns of the decreasing level of participation, various recommendations were suggested. These include creation of projects to facilitate the participation level in outdoor recreation, provision of outdoor recreation facilities and activities, marketing and promotion of Malolotja Game Reserve, involving the government in development of outdoor recreation, provision of access to finance, development of information centres and lastly improve safety and security. If all this is considered the participation level in outdoor recreation could increase.

A dissertation of limited scope submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the course-work Postgraduate Diploma in Recreation and Tourism in the Centre for Recreation and Tourism at the University of Zululand, 2003. / The study was conducted in the light of the background that there is a rising concern from the government that the companies should give socio-economical benefits to the local communities. In the aspect of recreation and tourism the Department of Sports and Recreation (DSR) is expecting the reserve to give the socio-economical benefits to the local communities in a very participatory way. The reason above led to the initiatives to explore at the local reserve, which is Shongweni Resources Reserve whether it co-operates with what have been said in the white paper. For example the White Paper (1994:35) said Recreation development should be demand driven and community based. It also said communities must be empowered to participate in the planning, implementation and evaluation of recreation programmes. The people responsible for looking at that realised that there was poor relationship between the Shongweni Resources Reserve and local communities. It was from that perspective that there was a need for someone to conduct a study that would look at their relationship and the reasons and motives behind that relationship. The study had specific objectives to be explored, which are: • To determine the relationship between the local communities and the reserve. • To establish whether the communities are being involved or participate in the reserve activities. • Investigate whether there is any development initiative the reserve is offering to the local community. • Find out whether the local people are aware of the kind of socio- economic development they can get from the reserve. All these four objectives have been met because the whole study was formulated around these objectives. The study looked at the relation between local communities and the reserve and found that it is not healthy. It also looked at the communities whether they are involved or not, and found that they are very participating. The development initiatives the reserve is offering to local communities have been also explored and the findings showed that there are development initiatives the reserve is offering to the communities. The issue of whether the local people are aware of the kind of socio-economic development they can get from the reserve was also looked at, and found that the local people are not aware of the type of socio-economic development. There are also expectations that have been formulated as guidelines for the study. There were four expectations that had been formulated, and out of those four expectations half of them have been proven correctly and half of them have been proven wrong. The expectations that have been formulated are: • That there is poor relationship between the local communities and the reserve. • That the local communities are less involved in the activities of the reserve. • That there are inadequate recreation and tourism development initiatives offered to the local communities. • That the local people are not aware of the socio-economic development benefits for them in the reserve. There were different findings that were found. Most of the people considered development as medium and the community members are prepared to take the responsibilities of the development of the Shongweni Resources Reserve. They are fairly involved in the management and maintenance of the reserve. The involvement of communities in participating for the recreation activities is happening. This has happened by considering the period and the frequency of their participation, which have positive responses. The communities are also allowed to use recreation activities found in the reserve. When considering the socio-economical aspects, the reserve is giving very less economical aspects to the local communities. They are not allowed to sell their crafts and to cut wood for carving, and there are very few local employees. There are various factors that were found to be the cause of bad relationship. One of them was the communities were not clear about community benefits they should get from the reserve. The recommendations that have been surfaced are that the reserve should be transparent, socio-economical improvement, and to conduct the future study that would involve the Shongweni Resources Reserve staff to include their perspectives.

The ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) is one of the most important upland game species over much of the nation. It is also one of the most difficult to effectively manage for the increasing hunter population. The high value of agricultural lands renders habitat improvement programs by state agencies a financial impossibility except on an extremely localized basis. Therefore, the primary pheasant management tool largely remains hunting season manipulation. The federal government through various agricultural programs may have an influence upon pheasant habitat. Public Law 540 entitled "Agricultural Act of 1956," more commonly referred to as the "Soil Bank Act" (Congress, 84th, 2d Session 1956, 1957), seemed quite promising in this respect. This act provided for two programs, the Acreage Reserve and the Conservation Reserve. The first was a short term program and of negligible value for pheasants. The second was of longer duration and is the one under which remaining Soil Bank lands are included. Under the Conservation Reserve, cropland was taken out of production and a sound conservation practice established in an attempt to balance the total production and demand of surplus crops. Farmers signed contracts for periods of three to ten years. The federal government then shared the cost of establishing conservation practices and made annual payments for maintaining them during the contract periods. The Conservation Reserve program has not been extended since 1960. Consequently, all remaining contracts will have expired by the end of 1971. Relatively little Conservation Reserve land has been put into "G" practices specifically designed for wildlife. These include such things as wildlife food and cover plantings, development or restoration of shallow water areas, and construction of ponds and wildlife watering facilities. Instead, the bulk of wildlife benefits will have to be derived from the "A-2" practice, the establishment of permanent vegetative cover, since this is the one most widely employed. Any appraisal of the Conservation Reserve then is, in actuality, an evaluation of habitat provided by the "A-2" practice.

The Federal Reserve has proposed a change in its method of administering the discount window. This paper looks at the effects of this proposal on monetary control and on the money markets, assuming that banks base their behavior on profit maximization over the long run. First, the reserve supply process is postulated. The conditions under which borrowing from the Federal Reserve will improve or reduce monetary control are stated. Second, the primary reserve adjustment process is formulated to show how primary reserve adjustment can affect rates in the money market. Finally arguments are set forth to show how borrowed reserves would behave if commercial banks are attempting to maximize long run profits and under the discount window administration proposed by the Federal Reserve Committee. The conclusion is that borrowed reserves will behave to reduce money market instability but at the same time they will behave to reduce the Federal Reserve control over the stock of Reserves available to the banking system. Borrowing from the Federal Reserve Bank can be expected to behave in a way of offset Federal Reserve open market operations.

(Field trip activities in Prague focusing on the Star game reserve and their application and use in the teaching of nature science) The subject of this diploma thesis are organizational forms of teaching with a focus on excursion activities in science classes at the 2nd level of primary school and in the corresponding years of lower grammar school. The work is clearly divided into several parts. The first part deals with general information about the excursion activity as a whole. It deals with the division of individual excursions, their preparation and course. Subsequently, the possibilities of educational programs in Prague and the surrounding area are characterized, which are prepared from various institutions. Furthermore, the work specifically focuses on the Prague forest in the field of the Star game reserve, because in the last part of the text is made an educational walk connecting the history and nature of this place. An integral part of the work is a questionnaire survey dealing with the use of excursions in science teaching.

Share repurchases reached a decade-high level in 2019, just as US equity indices reached a historical zenith, a move in tandem that supports more than merely a correlative relation. However, this relationship moves beyond that of just a close tandem move in indices alongside share repurchases, but to the behavior of firms which began to leverage themselves in order to promote the evermore profitable strategy of large buyback programs. Those repurchases indicate an idiosyncratic and procyclical leveraging that, while much smaller in scope and less combustible by lack of derivative amplification, led to the gorging on unsustainable debt described by Hyman Minsky and experienced in the Great Financial Crisis in the banking industry. In this case, the 'Minsky moment' that may have inevitably popped the self-promotion bubble came in the form of the 'black swan' event of the coronavirus outbreak. This paper aims to historically frame the issues, with delimitation of the effect of buybacks from 2009 to early 2020 with scant reference to historical factors influencing the increased usage of share repurchase programs. The analysis within this historical scope will reflect empirical measures on the market-wide level of share buybacks and debt levels alongside the concurrent equity index acceleration....

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2015. / Wildlife conservation and management requires an in-depth understanding of the demographics and dynamics of the population concerned to enable sound management decisions. Yet it is often very challenging to obtain reliable information of cryptic and highly migratory species. I used photo identification and capture-recapture methods to study the population of nyala, a highly secretive species, in the Umkhuzi game reserve. The nyala species is individually identifiable by the mark pattern on their body. Photographs used for this project were taken at a waterhole in Umkhuzi game reserve between June 23rd and 01 July 2014, representing nine sampling occasions. Identification of individuals was achieved with a computer-assisted technique using open source pattern identification software called Wild-ID version 1.0.1. A total of 652 photographs were taken at the sampling site and from these pictures wild-ID identified 372 distinct animals. An encounter history for each individual during the nine sampling occasions was also produced using Wild-ID. The encounter histories of all individuals were entered into Program MARK. I used the closed population models in Program MARK to obtain population estimates. Program MARK indicated that Mh was the most appropriate model to fit this data as indicated by the AICc ranking. Mh showed population estimates as follows: adult males: 111.90 ± 16.07, adult females: 298.01 ± 36.66; young adult males: 21.33 ±19.34; juvenile males: 37.15 ±16.84; yearling males: 37.73 ±8.51; yearling females: 96.48 ±22.75 and juvenile unidentified: 69.03. ±28.96 Closure test performed to ascertain demographic and geographic closure during the sampling period showed a χ2= 21.74, p= 0.08, df = 14, for the Stanley & Burnham test and a p and z-values of 0.06 and -1.51 respectively for the Otis et al test. These results shows marginal violation of population closure, nevertheless closed population models were used to estimate population abundance due to the fact the violations are marginal and the sampling period iii was very short, nine days. The study revealed that there is as much as twice the number of females compared to males.

The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) acted in an unprecedented fashion to drive interest rates aggressively and creatively to the zero lower bound (ZLB) and employed other unconventional monetary policy (UMP) tools to provide stimulus to the U.S. economy during the financial crisis and the subsequent extended recovery period. However, despite these innovative policy tools, the U.S. economy realized a historically weak recovery. The unconventional monetary policy tools, including the expansion of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet by purchasing longer dated securities, paying interest on reserves, and providing forward guidance, structurally changed the conduct and implementation of monetary policy from the post-WWII experience. Significant research has been developed that describes and analyzes the impact and effectiveness of this experiment in using unconventional monetary policy tools to stimulate the economy. However, very little research has been conducted that studies the response of various economic actors to the Fed’s reversal of these emergency measures as it sought to rein in a potentially overheated economy or counter incipient inflation. When the Fed methodically raised interest rates from 2015 until the end of 2018 investment spending, as indicated by private nonresidential investment spending, did not slow as expected according to mainstream economics or as evident in prior periods of monetary tightening. This anomaly should also be evident in measures at the firm level as firm investment outlays comprise the bulk of the GDP reported private nonresidential investment spending. This research study determined that firm level investment spending, as represented by the growth of total assets, did not respond negatively to the Federal Reserve’s actions that raised interest rates. Other factors such as the general improvement in GDP growth, improved business confidence in the national economy, and greater optimism of near-term firm prospects explain to a far greater degree the growth in total assets compared to Fed activity. Effectively, factors contributing to improved business confidence overwhelmed the Federal Reserve’s intention to slow investment growth by raising interest rates. This research supports the Bernanke et al. (2019) proposal and Hebden and López-Salido’s (2018) research that indicate a stimulative monetary policy when rates are constrained by the effective lower bound and characterized by a lower for longer (L4L) monetary posture results in better output and inflation outcomes. Further, this research offers empirical evidence of Bernanke’s caution that although L4L results in better outcomes, there is a potential for output and/or inflation overshoot forcing the Federal Reserve to abruptly reverse policy stance, a scenario played out by the Federal Reserve soon after it stopped tightening at the end of 2018. The results here expand the work completed by Khan and Upadhayaya (2018), and Konstantinou and Tagkalakis (2011) that business confidence has a significant influence on business investment spending by analyzing the response of business decision makers during an unprecedented time as the Federal Reserve removed emergency measures and turned to a tightening regime. / Business Administration/Interdisciplinary

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) implemented the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative (MBHI) in summer 2010 to provide wetlands for waterbirds inland from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. To evaluate MBHI and associated wetland management practices, I estimated seed and waterbird densities in MBHI and non-managed wetlands in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) of Mississippi and Louisiana. Although not statistically different, wetlands enrolled in MBHI contained 1.26 and 1.53 times more seed biomass and seeds consumed by waterfowl than non-managed wetlands, respectively. I also detected 3 times more dabbling ducks and all ducks combined on MBHI wetlands. When I combined density data for all waterbird species, MBHI wetlands contained more than 2 times as many birds than control wetlands. Management via MBHI increased waterbird and potential food abundances, suggesting NRCS consider sustaining MBHI and provide financial incentives to landowners for management of wetlands in the MAV and United States.

Estuaries are valuable ecosystems that are easily affected by human activities within the watershed. One determinant of water quality for in an estuary is the presence of suspended sediments. The use of satellite sensors to remotely sense visible and near-infrared reflectance allows for suspended particulate matter (SPM) and suspended particulate inorganic matter (SPIM) concentrations to be monitored on a repetitive synoptic scale. Previously presented algorithms for relating remote sensing reflectance (Rrs) and SPM/SPIM concentrations were evaluated for the Weeks Bay estuary in Alabama. Additionally, numerous potential SPM/SPIM concentration retrieval algorithms using the Landsat-8 satellite were determined through regression analysis, as well as through the consideration of the inherent optical properties of the water body. The most robust empirical algorithm produced an RMSE of 12.50% and utilized the band combination of Ln(Band4)/Ln(Band3), while the most robust semi-analytical algorithm produced an RMSE of 16.34% and utilized the band combination of Band4/Band3.