No description available.

M.Phil. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. (Development Studies) / With the ever-increasing rate of urbanisation, developing countries are faced with a new problem - that is, the decline in the urban environment and living conditions. This scenario is likely to further deteriorate due to unprecedented levels of population growth and rural-urban and international migration. The employment-carrying capacity of urban areas is eroded by these trends, resulting in an influx of labour, which cannot be absorbed by the formal sector. As a way of circumventing poverty, the urban unemployed population resort to informal activities for survival, regardless of the legal consequences. The literature on the informal sector is very controversial. This is partly because the nature of the sector itself is contradictory and defies precise definition. More importantly, various analysts and policy-makers approach the informal sector with different expectations. These different expectations of the informal sector are, in turn, related to the preconceived points of view of the analysts as to what constitutes the proper dynamics of the informal sector and what the role of the sector is in alleviating urban poverty. Central to the views on the role of the informal sector in urban poverty alleviation have been the concerns of governments of developing countries on whether to support it or control its activities. The realisation by governments of the need for expansion of the informal sector has resulted in their intervention in this sector by means of regulations, programmes and frameworks to define how the business activities should be carried out. Interventions in the informal sector have resulted in a distortion of the production structure in favour of the formal sector. On the other hand, the very nature of informality and its inherent characteristics stimulate profitability for the hawkers (peddlers) or the small business entrepreneurs. The formalisation of the informal sector eradicates the economic dynamics, which necessitate the viability of the activities being undertaken. The consequences have been the further impoverishment of the small-scale entrepreneurs...

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2014. / Developing countries are faced with a number of health-care challenges: long waiting hours of patients in long queues is just one of such challenges. The key cause of this has been identi ed to be a lack, or uneven distribution human resources among health facilities. This sets the stage for poor and ine cient delivery of quality primary health care, especially to the rural dweller as they usually have a fewer medical professionals in their area. The impact of this a ects not only the state of health of the population, but also the economy, and population growth of the a ected community. To try and address this, the introduction of Information Technology (IT) into health-care has been suggested by many health governing bodies like theWorld Health Organization (WHO) and other authorities in health care. The ability of IT to go beyond physical boarders and extend professional care has been the key characteristic that supports its integration into health-care. This has eventually lead to the development of Health Information Systems (HIS) that support remote consultation. Despite all these innovations, there is still evidence of poor and ine cient delivery of services at health facilities in many developing countries. We propose a completely di erent approach of addressing the problem of poor and ine cient delivery of health-care services. The key challenge we address is that of lengthy queues and long waiting hours of patients in health facilities. To cut down on the use of nancial resources (whose lack or shortage is a major challenge in developing economies), we propose an approach that focuses on the routing of patients within and between health facilities. The hypothesis for this study is based on a suggestion that alterations to the routing of patients would have an e ect on the identi ed challenges we seek to address in this study. To support this claim, a simulator of the health system was built using the OMNET++ simulation package. Analysis of test-runs for di erent scenarios were then tested and the simulation results were compared against controls to validate the functioning of the simulator. Upon validation of the simulator, it was then used to test the hypothesis. With data from the di erent health-care facilities used as input parameters to the simulator, various simulation runs were executed to mimic di erent routing scenarios. Results from the di erent simulation runs were then analyzed. The results from the simulator and analysis of these results revealed that: In a case where patients where not given the liberty to consult with a doctor of their choice but rather to consult with the next available doctor/specialist, the average time spent by patients dropped by 26%. The analysis also revealed that moving a receptionist from the rst stage upon patient entry into the health facility reduced the average patient life time by 85%. This was found to be a consequence of a drop in queue length (a 28% drop in queue length). On the other hand, the analysis also revealed that the total removal of a general receptionist increased patient life-time in a facility by 30.19%. This study also revealed that if specialists were deployed to certain health facilities rather than having referred patients come to them in the urban health facilities, patient population in the urban health centers will drop by 32%. This also saw a drop in patient waiting time in the rural health centers as more doctors were available (a reduced patient-to-doctor ratio in rural health facilities). The results from the analysis support our hypothesis and revealed that indeed, alterations to the way patients are routed does have an e ect on the queue lengths and total waiting time of patients in the health system.

Thesis. 1978. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil Engineering. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaves 131-134. / M.S.

by Ip Ka Tsun Anthony and Tang Ying Wa. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-46). / ABSTRACT --- p.i / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.v / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter II . --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.4 / Selection Criteria of the Neglected Markets --- p.4 / Market Review --- p.4 / Day-of-the-Week Effect --- p.9 / Month- of - the - Year Effect --- p.11 / Spill´ؤOver Effect Across National Stock Markets --- p.11 / Granger Causality Between Aggregate Stock Price and Trading Volume --- p.13 / Chapter III. --- DATA and METHODOLOGY --- p.16 / Day-of-the-Week Effect and Month-of-the-Year Effect --- p.16 / Spill-Over Effect Across National Stock Markets and Granger Causality Between Aggregate Stock Price and Trading Volume --- p.18 / Chapter IV. --- EMPIRICAL RESULTS --- p.24 / Day-of-the-Week Effect --- p.24 / Month-of-the-Year Effect --- p.26 / Spill-Over Effect Across National Stock Markets --- p.28 / Granger Causality Between Aggregate Stock Price and Trading Volume --- p.31 / Chapter V. --- CONCLUSION --- p.36 / Direction of Further Studies --- p.38 / APPENDIX --- p.40 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.42

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 147-152. / by Felton L. Lamb, Jr. / M.S.

Thesis. 1979. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 127-130. / M.C.P.

Thesis. 1977. M.Arch.A.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / M.Arch.A.S.

Over the past decade '"Sustainable Development" (SD) has emerged as the latest development catchphrase. A wide range of nongovernmental as well as governmental organizations have embraced it as the new paradigm of development. A review of the literature that has sprung up around the concept of SD indicates, however, a lack of consistency in its interpretation. More important, while the all-encompassing nature of the concept gives it political strength, its current formulation by the mainstream of SD thinking contains significant weaknesses. These include an incomplete perception of the problems of poverty and environmental degradation, and confusion about the role of economic growth and about the concept of sustainability. The purpose of this study was to identify common elements in a political economy of the environment, relating environmental change to the dynamics of ideology and policy, and at different levels of political complexity. The intention was to provide a structural analysis of the environment in which the development process illuminates environmental change at both a philosophical and material level. The problem in achieving SD was related to the overriding structures of the international economic system, which have arisen out of the exploitation of environmental resources, and which frequently operate as constraints on the achievement of long-term sustainable practices. Insufficient accounting of ecological aspects of economic growth and development has resulted from intellectual traditions, where solutions are formulated, point in different directions. Conclusions are drawn that SD involves trade-offs between biological, economic and social systems and is found in the interactive zone between these systems. There are a number of international factors that may be necessary, but insufficient, conditions for SD on a national level, including peace, debt reduction, and more propitious terms of trade. There was seen dilemmas relating to SD, including the role of growth as the unquestioned objective of economic policy.