MSCAGR / Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness / The study was premised on anticipation for the existence of small businesses that `seemed to be widespread within households in the traditional authorities of Molemole local municipality. The observation prompted the researcher to investigate two aspects related to these ventures; how these small-scale businesses and other income generating opportunities impact livelihoods of members of the communities. The study was conducted in rural communities of Molemole Local municipality of Limpopo Province. Data was collected using a structured pre-tested questionnaire from members of the community. Additional data was collected from traditional leaders of the four traditional authorities namely: Machaka, Makgato, Ramokgopa and Manthata through focus group discussions. Multi-stage clustered proportional random sampling technique was used to select the sample for this study of 150 individuals from the four traditional authorities. SPSS computer software was used to analyse data from the structured questionnaires while Likert scale was used to analyse the data collected from the focus group discussion. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the data while Binary logistics regression model was used to analyse the influence of socio economic factors on the income levels of the respondents (from both businesses and other sources). The findings of the study show that biographic characteristics proved to have a great effect/impact on how rural community members generate their livelihoods (through income generation). Most of the respondents were found to be females, and this had a positive impact on their level of income. Majority of the respondents had secondary education as their highest level of education which caused them to have limited access to external employment. Services rendered by the few small businesses were found to be unsatisfactory by the community members. Traditional leaders stated that it was important for residents in their communities to own businesses as this will provide them with good income and services to the communities. The study concluded that income did improve the livelihoods of community members. Amongst others the study recommended for increased women empowerment, educational opportunities and encouragement to communities to initiate business ventures.

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In this study, hypervariable region I (HVRI) of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region, and five microsatellite loci were used to assess genetic variability and the extent of hybridization between the two fur seals (Arctocephalus tropicalis and A. gazella), that occur on Sub-Antarctic Marion Island. Both species were harvested during the 18th and 19th centuries, leading to a reduction in population size and the extinction of A. gazella at some localities. Whilst both species have recovered and are increasing in size, it is not clear to what extent sealing has affected genetic variation, although a more pronounced effect would be expected for A. gazella, given the more intensive harvesting of this species. The current study confirmed this hypothesis and revealed that A. gazella had a nucleotide diversity of 2.9 % whilst for A. tropicalis it was 4.2 %, across the HRVI mtDNA region sequenced. For microsatellite DNA, genetic variation in A. tropicalis was higher than in A. gazella in terms of the total number of alleles detected and the level of heterozygosity (HE=0.875, HO=0.845, mean number of alleles=13.6 and HE=0.799, HO=0.781, mean number of alleles=13, respectively). Diversity in both species is among the highest recorded in pinnipeds to date, and suggests that sealing did not overly affect the levels of genetic variation in these species. In terms of population structure, A. tropicalis show a high level of population structure, as indicated by the ΦST of 0.32 between Marion and Gough Island. Furthermore, the A. tropicalis haplotype tree comprising individuals from Marion, Iles Crozet, Gough, and Amsterdam islands, recovered three divergent evolutionary lineages with bootstrap values of 86% and 98%, for two of these lineages, indicating strong genetic structure and independent evolution. Shared haplotypes between Marion and other islands confirmed genetic exchanges, whilst the grouping of Marion and Gough Islands together is indicative of regular migration between these two islands. For A. gazella, the haplotype tree recovered numerous instances of grouping of individuals from Marion and Bouvetøya Islands confirming the hypothesis Bouvetøya is likely source of immigrants to Marion Island. This was further confirmed by low population differentiation between these two islands (FST = 0.062 and ΦST of 0.08). The level of hybridization between these species was low at Marion Island with only one hybrid being detected among the 134 animals for which mtDNA data were generated, corresponding to 0.75%. The same individual was identified as a hybrid, following microsatellite profiling of 146 animals, corresponding to a hybridization estimate of 0.68 %. This hybrid individual was classified phenotypically as A. gazella and genotypically was shown to have A. tropicalis ancestry. This level of hybridization is low compared to the other islands where the two species co-occur. However as the samples used in this study were primarily collected from species-specific sites, this may be an underestimate, and the studies focusing on sites where they are known to occur symaptrically, may yield higher estimates. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of emotion on several key acoustic features of vibrato including vibrato rate, extent, and steadiness (measured by FM rate COV and FM extent COV). We hypothesized that intensity of emotion would have a significant effect on vibrato rate, extent, and periodicity, although the direction of these changes was undetermined. There were 10 participants, including eight females and two males, who were graduate student singers with high competency ratings. Each participant completed a series of tasks including sustained vowels at several pitch and loudness levels, an assigned song that was determined to have neutral emotion, and a personal selection that was selected because it included sections of intense emotion. Vowel tokens were averaged for each task, and measurements of mean f0, mean dB, FM rate, FM extent, FM rate COV and FM extent COV were calculated by task for each participant. Contrast analyses were performed comparing each task against the personal selection (high emotion) task. The results suggest that FM rate and FM rate COV may have been influenced by level of emotion, and FM extent, FM rate COV and FM extent COV were likely influenced by the performance nature of the task.

The invasion of ecosystems by alien species is a growing threat to the delivery of ecosystem services. This study explored the spatial distribution of water hyacinth in the Benoni Lakes and made analysis of its impact on water availability and usability in order to understand the evolution and its propagation rates. The study used satellite imagery for lake level modelling using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems for calculations of area covered by weeds in each lake from 2002 to 2012.The modelling approach illustrates the potential usefulness in projecting invasive plants under climate change and enabled the quantification of long term changes in aquatic weeds. The results showed that aquatic infestations in lakes may be used as powerful predictors of correlations between plant abundance and climate change. The study therefore informs decision makers to identify areas where invasion is likely to occur and increase surveillance for early invaders. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)

The incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is rising, but controversy exists in many aspects of its treatment. This study described the change in incidence of DTC in Ontario, variations in management including extent of thyroidectomy and the influence of provider volume, and the impact of these parameters on recurrence and thyroid cancer-specific death (TCSD). A population-based study identified all new cases of DTC between 1992-2007. The incidence of DTC increased dramatically (annual percentage change 7.6%). Linkage to administrative databases revealed that extent of thyroidectomy is influenced by various factors including patient gender, age, year of diagnosis, surgeon specialty, and hospital setting, but not provider volume. Total thyroidectomy is associated with a lower recurrence rate. There is a significant association between provider volume and recurrence, with lower volume surgeons having a higher recurrence risk. Extent of thyroidectomy and provider volume did not influence TCSD. Such variations in management may lead to disparities in health outcomes.

The incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is rising, but controversy exists in many aspects of its treatment. This study described the change in incidence of DTC in Ontario, variations in management including extent of thyroidectomy and the influence of provider volume, and the impact of these parameters on recurrence and thyroid cancer-specific death (TCSD). A population-based study identified all new cases of DTC between 1992-2007. The incidence of DTC increased dramatically (annual percentage change 7.6%). Linkage to administrative databases revealed that extent of thyroidectomy is influenced by various factors including patient gender, age, year of diagnosis, surgeon specialty, and hospital setting, but not provider volume. Total thyroidectomy is associated with a lower recurrence rate. There is a significant association between provider volume and recurrence, with lower volume surgeons having a higher recurrence risk. Extent of thyroidectomy and provider volume did not influence TCSD. Such variations in management may lead to disparities in health outcomes.

No description available.

Planet Earth is undergoing a rapid rate of ecosystem conversion and degradation and one of the major challenges of current environmental science is to contribute to the management and conservation of biodiversity through the development of tools for assessing environmental change. The main goal of this doctoral dissertation is to contribute to the scientific literature on remote sensing tools for monitoring tropical dry forests, which is one of most important global change frontiers. This thesis is composed of five chapters which have the goals of covering the following specific goals: 1) To estimate the extent and geographic distribution of the neotropical dry forest. 2) To evaluate the potential use of satellite-detected fires as deforestation predictors in tropical dry forest and 3) To evaluate the potential of remote sensing techniques to detect edge effects in tropical dry forest. Before assessing the main goals of the thesis, in chapter two, Integrating Remote Sensing and Biodiversity research, we stress out the necessity of integrated assessments using multiple spatial and spectral resolution sensors over a wide array of ecosystems in order to find relevant ecosystem properties that would be sensitive to species richness. Chapter three, Extent and Conservation of tropical dry forests in the Americas, describes a regional scale mapping effort using coarse-scale imagery (MODIS 500-m) of the extent and geographical distribution of tropical dry forests that introduces several innovations to previous assessments. Based on these techniques, the total current extent of tropical dry forest in the Americas is 519,597 Km2. I also found that 66% of the ecosystem has been already converted to other land uses while only 4.5 % of is under protected areas. Chapter four, MODIS Active fires and deforestation in tropical dry forest landscapes, we show correlations patterns between the number of MODIS Active Fires and forest cover change in four tropical dry forest landscapes in Latin America. At the Santa Cruz site (Bolivia), correlations were strong and significant while at Chamela Site (Mexico) and the Mata Seca site (Brazil) correlations were moderate but significant as well. In the Machango site (Venezuela), active fires showed no correlation to deforestation events. In general, our findings show that fires detected by the MODIS sensor may be used as predictors of deforestation in tropical dry forest ecosystems. Chapter five, Edge influence on canopy openness and understory microclimate in two Neotropical dry forest fragments, addresses one of the most characteristic features of fragmented tropical forests: the increase in disturbance near the edges of the fragment or what is known as edge effects. Results in gap fraction and Fraction of Intercepted Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FiPAR) show that edge influence at tropical dry forest sites extend to at least 300-m. Finally, Chapter Six, Remote sensing of edge effects in dry forest fragments using CHRIS/Proba Imagery, shows an assessment of changes in the fraction of intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (FiPAR) across four edge-to-interior transects in tropical dry forests fragments and their correlation to spectral vegetation indices (SVIs) computed from the hyperspectral and multiangular CHRIS sensor on board the Proba platform. Results show that the use of spectral vegetation indices for identifying and quantifying edge effects in tropical forests have the potential to improve modeling of forest disturbance in fragmented landscapes. The work contained in these five chapters address issues that are critical to the advancement of tropical dry forest monitoring. These studies contribute to the current scientific literature on the use and application of optical remote sensing tools, not only applicable in tropical dry forests, but for tropical forest conservation at the continental, regional and local level.