No description available.

Annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) is the most problematic weed to control in creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) putting greens.  The objective of this study was to transition a mixed putting green stand of annual bluegrass and creeping bentgrass to a monoculture by using fertilizers and plant growth regulators that selectively inhibit annual bluegrass.  A 25 year old loamy sand rootzone research green, planted with \'Penn-Eagle\' creeping bentgrass, with roughly 45% initial annual bluegrass coverage was utilized.  The biweekly application of ammonium sulfate (4.8 kg ha-1) with treatments of ferrous sulfate at rates of 0, 12.2, 24.4, and 48.8 kg ha-1 and in combination with seaweed extract (12.8 L ha-1) or paclobutrazol (0.37 L ai ha-1 spring and fall; 0.18 L ai ha-1 summer) were applied March to October, 2011 and 2012.  Plots receiving the highest rate of ferrous sulfate resulted in annual bluegrass infestation declines from an early trial amount of 45% to a final average of 20% but also resulted in unacceptable late-summer events of annual bluegrass collapse.  The ferrous sulfate medium rate resulted in a smooth transition from early-trial annual bluegrass infestation of 45% to an end of trial infestation of 20% and had the highest putting green quality.  Previous research has reported that consistent use of paclobutrazol can effectively and safely reduce annual bluegrass infestations.  In this trial annual bluegrass was reduced to 9% infestation after three months of application.  Two unexpected observations from this trial were that ferrous sulfate, applied at medium to high rates, significantly reduced silvery thread moss (Bryum argentum Hedw.) populations and occurrences of dollar spot (Sclerotinia homoeocarpa F. T. Bennett) disease.  Dollar spot control with ferrous sulfate has not previously been reported in the literature, so additional studies were designed to investigate this phenomenon further.  A creeping bentgrass putting green study was conducted to determine if sulfur, iron, or the two combined as ferrous sulfate decreases dollar spot activity.  Ferrous sulfate resulted in the highest turf quality and suppressed S. homoeocarpa infection, even during high disease pressure.  Fe-EDTA suppressed dollar spot infection as well as ferrous sulfate but quality declined to unacceptable levels during the summer, due to Fe-EDTA only.  Sulfur did not affect or increased S. homoeocarpa infection, indicating that a high and frequent foliar rate of iron is responsible for dollar spot control.  An in-vitro study was conducted to determine if agar pH in combination with iron concentrations affects mycelial growth of S. homoeocarpa.  Results from this trial indicated that 5.4 agar pH is an optimal pH for mycelial growth.  The 10 to 100 mg iron kg-1 concentration had little effect on mycelial growth at 5.0 and 5.5 pH, but increased growth at 4.5 and 6.5 pH.  As the iron concentration was increased from 10 to 100 to 1000 mg kg-1, mycelial growth decreased or stopped.  Our final conclusions are that seasonal biweekly foliar applications of the medium rate of ferrous sulfate (24.4 kg ha-1) safely and effectively reduced annual bluegrass infestation out of a creeping bentgrass putting green, while also effectively suppressing silvery thread moss and dollar spot incidence. / Master of Science

No description available.

A Doctoral Thesis Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, The Graduate School of Business Administration, University of the Witwatersrand February 2016 / The liberalization of foreign exchange markets occasioned by the widespread acceptance of floating exchange rate systems brought about prevalent acceptance of foreign currency (usually U.S. dollars) in many developing and transition economies. Facing both domestic and foreign imbalances, a number of developing economies have embraced foreign currencies as a store of value (asset substitution), and in some instances as a medium of exchange for domestic transactions (currency substitution). This thesis examines dollarization/currency substitution, its impact on macroeconomic fundamentals, and the challenges it poses for effective formulation and transmission of monetary policy in Ghana. The entire thesis is organised into five empirical essays, each touching on a specific subject within the broad theme of dollarization and economic instability. The first essay explores the macroeconomic determinants of financial dollarization. The evidence establishes that exchange rate depreciation and financial development drive dollarization. Additionally depreciation of the domestic currency increases demand for foreign currencies, while a more developed financial sector tends to curtail dollarization. The second essay models a long-run money demand function for Ghana within the portfolio balance framework. The results indicate that, although foreign interest rates and expected exchange rates (either separately or jointly) are relevant elements in the money demand function, there evidence is more in support of capital mobility and not currency substitution. The third essay provides evidence on how financial dollarization affects the volatility of nominal and real Ghana cedi/U.S. dollar exchange rates. The study showed that the effect of financial dollarization on nominal exchange rate volatility in Ghana is positive, thus, as demand for U.S. dollars becomes more extensive, the cedi/dollar exchange rate becomes more volatile and unstable. The fourth essay investigates the role of dollarization in the dynamics of inflation and inflation uncertainty. Contrary to common logic, the results indicate that dollarization has not played a significant role in the dynamics of inflation volatility. The study posits that, although there is no significant impact of dollarization on inflation volatility, inflation targeting affects the inflation-inflation uncertainty relationship in Ghana. The last essay considers the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission in Ghana and examines whether the degree of dollarization hinders or facilitates that process by accounting for the role of the inflation targeting. The results show that credit and exchange rate channels dominate the transmission mechanism, with the former assuming a more significant role in the inflation targeting period. Moreover, the contribution of dollarization has diminished in the post-inflation targeting era, suggesting that monetary authorities have paid more attention to the effects of dollarization in the current monetary regime. A number of policy prescriptions arising from the thesis are presented to guide domestic authorities in smoothing the path of the instability in the economy. / MB2016

No description available.

American Foreign Policy at the outset of the Twentieth century evolved from a realist to an idealist position as the United States transitioned to an imperial power. This ideal framework was formed in the crucible of China during the Spheres of Influence and the Open Door. The US had to play delicate game of helping China to maintain their territorial, and administrative integrity while at the same time protecting their newly acquired overseas interests against more established imperial actors. While there were many missteps, and failures during this transition perhaps the most the important result was the change toward the approach of US foreign policy. Not only did the United States have to balance realist geo-political goals, but it had to define what an imperial United States looked like. In a sense the United States was starting from scratch, processing to a completely different game and in order to be successful it had evolve.

This dissertation consists of three studies related to corporate governance of equity mutual funds in a framework of relations between the three closely interrelated actors of mutual fund industry. The mutual fund advisers, the shareholders and the mutual fund board being the advocate of shareholders rights. The first study analyzes the advisory fee, using a survivorship bias free data set of 176 equity funds managed by 125 different advisers. The price of professional portfolio management provided by the mutual fund adviser depends not only on the fund characteristics but also on the fund objective, the adviser's portfolio related and management based decisions, and the portfolio performance. I find that the advisers may reduce their own costs through the use of derivatives or manipulate the actual fee contract by engaging in soft dollar agreements. Advisers actively manage the advisory fee contracts responding to the outcome of their management decisions. The advisory fee increases after voluntary fee reimbursement or if the adviser is not fully reimbursed for certain services. Risk taking behavior is the main motivation behind the structure of advisory contracts. Also, I show that non-surviving funds have higher advisory fees, suggesting competitive fee pricing may be necessary for survival. The second study focuses on the relation between general board characteristics, independent director characteristics and the advisory fee which is solely an outcome of the negotiations between the fund board and the adviser, thus a good proxy for the governance skills of the board. I also examine the impact of SEC's regulation change of 2000. Mutual fund scandals that took place after the regulation change of 2000 suggested that besides the fraction of independent seats, the individual characteristics of the members that occupy board seats are crucial for mutual fund board governance. I find that boards benchmark objective average fee but not necessarily for the best interest of shareholders. Shareholders are likely to benefit from the expertise of members with higher tenure and finance backgrounds. Although increase in board independence is likely to contribute to board governance, the effect of 2000 regulation change of board independence on its arguably target group is limited. Nominating committee improves the board governance. Although the results do not suggest that an independent chairman directly improves board governance, I find modest evidence that the impact of an independent chairman is likely to depend on the expertise of the member that would occupy the chairman seat. Third study analyzes a specific tool, soft dollar arrangements using a survivorship bias free data set of 432 equity funds managed by 129 different advisers. Soft dollar arrangements affect all three actors of mutual fund industry. They are widely used by the advisers, have to be monitored closely by the fund board and eventually affect the overall wealth of shareholders. Fund advisers determine the broker base, scope of brokerage services and whether to self produce or outsource brokerage services through soft dollar arrangements. In return, shareholders expect to benefit from better fund performance and reduction in advisory fee. I find that transaction execution not necessarily motivated by additional brokerage services is likely to be responsible for high turnover. Construction of brokerage base by the adviser is not arbitrary. Advisers ex ante construct the broker base in order to minimize the brokerage commissions and considering ex post soft dollar arrangements. Transaction execution related services lead to less brokerage commissions and soft dollar use while both increase if research is a consideration for broker participation. More concentrated broker base leads to lower brokerage fee and higher soft dollar use. Results indicate that advisers enforce competition within brokerage industry for lower cost of transaction execution. Shareholders benefit from increasing soft dollar use through performance improvement and reduction in advisory fee. Yet, the cost of soft dollar arrangements seems to exceed their benefit to shareholders. If the results indicate competition within brokerage industry for lower cost of transaction execution, the undisclosed premium paid for the additional services are likely to be responsible for this adverse effect.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.