How environmental factors influence distribution and persistence of African elephants(Loxodonta africana) is pertinent to policy makers and managers to formulate balanced plansfor different landuse types (i.e. wildlife management, forestry). The study focuses on movementof elephants and how they utilize foraging areas in Sioma Ngwezi landscape in Zambia. Theanalysis was based on telemetry data (global position system radio collars) acquired from 8elephants (5 matriarchs and 3 bulls) between February and July in 2018. The followingenvironmental variables were analysed; land cover, topographic wetness index, normalizeddifference vegetation index, proximity to roads and proximity to settlements. MaximumEntropy (MaxEnt) and linkage mapper were the novel tools used to predict habitat suitability,movement corridors and barriers in the landscape during the wet season. Landscapepermeability and habitat suitability were explored by using resistance raster. The studyidentified elevation, land cover and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as themost important environmental predictors that modifies the dispersal of elephants in thelandscape during the wet season. Additionally, a total of 36 potential wet season corridors wereidentified connecting 15 core areas mainly used for foraging and protection from poachers inthe landscape. Of these, 24 corridors were highly utilized and are suggested as priority corridorsfor elephant movement in the landscape. The identified wet season habitats and functionalcorridors may help to combat elephant poaching by patrolling areas with high relativeprobability of elephant presence. The findings may also help abate human elephant conflictsuch as crop raiding by managing identified corridors that run into agriculture zones in the gamemanagement area. Finally, management of these corridors has massive potential to increasemovement of elephants in the region especially since Sioma landscape is strategically locatedin the Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) connecting thesource (Hwange, Chobe and Bwabwata national parks) and the sink (the Greater Kafue andLuangwa ecosystems) linking elephants from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Botswana.

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While the Universal Declaration for Human Rights (UNDHR) guarantees rights as absolute and universal, the practical realisation and extension of these rights remain arguable in different countries. With regard to UNDHR Article 25, the right to healthcare, the South African Constitution guarantees the right to primary health care for all. This obligation is fulfilled, from a legislative perspective, by the National Health Act. In the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, sex workers are a key population on account of both their vulnerability to infection and propensity to spread infection by virtue of the work they engage in. Their unrestricted access to healthcare services is critical in terms of the national response to the pandemic. Various studies have highlighted how, despite the existence of a progressive Constitution and progressive health legislation, sex workers continue to experience significant challenges in accessing public healthcare services. This study sought to provide an explanation for the contradictions between legislative provisions and the lived realities of sex workers. A multi-pronged theoretical approach was utilised that included a trans political and queer theoretical approach, complemented by an intersectionality perspective, as an analytical tool to explore the existence of invisible networks that create conditions for discrimination and exclusion. The study revealed the existence of invisible networks that work to deter sex workers from seeking health care services and other rights-related services, leaving them to employ survival strategies that are mostly unorthodox and harmful. The report concludes with recommendations on factors to consider if the access to health care services is to be fully realised by this important sub-population group. / Mini Dissertation (MPhil (Multidisciplinary Human Rights))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Centre for Human Rights / MPhil (Multidisciplinary Human Rights) / Unrestricted

Digital literacy has been put forward as a tool that can potentially increase the speed towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A study conducted by Holmström (2020) has highlighted a fragmented digitalization of the Swedish Industrial Forest sector, but has not offered insights into digitalization of Individual Owners (IOs) – which is an important gap to fill as 50% of forest land areas in Sweden belong toIOs. This thesis represents a first attempt to document digitalization of these owners. The first objective aimedto document digital literacy among Individual Owners in Sweden – which was done by adapting an indicator proposed by Horrigan (2016), originally intended to measure Americans’ digital eagerness in adoptingtechnological means for online knowledge, to the Swedish IOs. The second purpose was to discuss the relationship between digital literacy and Sustainable Forest Management Practices (SFMP) among these owners – which was achieved through logistic models’ estimations on SFMP index, calculated based on IOs’ selfreported forest management practices. This study´s findings confirm a predominantly low digital literacy among IOs – with only 10% of them as digitally prepared. With respect to the relationship between digital literacy and the SFMP index, the results indicate a relationship between digital literacy and practices can be c ategorized as sustainable (the amalgamation of Intensive/Productivity, Conservation and Save management) only among IOsof age 66-76 years old. These owners have a higher education level, generally live-in rural areas and overall do not use their property for commercial purposes compared to other IOs. These findings underline the potential usefulness of digitalization to reach SDGs, and at the same time highlight that sustainability and digitalizationdo not necessarily come hand in hand.

Multipath effect is generated when a signal arrives at the antenna by multiple paths instead of one direct path. It is, to a large extent, dependent on the surrounding environment of the antenna and the satellite geometry. Despite all the efforts put into the mitigation of multipath errors, it remains the dominant error source that cannot be ignored for GNSS precise positioning and other GNSS applications. In this thesis report, two methods have been developed with Trimble Business Center and MATLAB to study the presence and performance of multipath effect. The first method – Trimble baseline analysis focuses on the height change pattern of the study station with regard to its reference station over time. The second method – RINEX analysis focuses on the change of the geometry-free combination of pseudorange codes and carrier phase measurements over time. These two methods have been firstly tested on station KTH and then applied on station Vidsel and station Botsmark. Various forms of results all indicate the existence of multipath effect on the three suspicious stations. The height value of the study station has a variation pattern on a daily basis because of multipath. Multipath errors also cause noise in the satellite signals, with pseudorange more affected than carrier phase. It is also worth-noted that satellite at low elevation angle is more susceptible to multipath errors than that at high elevation angle. / Flervägsfel genereras när en signal anländer till antennen genom flera olika vägar i stället för den direkta vägen från satelliten. Det är i stor utsträckning beroende på den omgivande miljön av antennen och satellitgeometrin. Trots olika metoder för att reducera flervägsfel, är det fortfarande en dominerande felkälla som inte kan ignoreras för precis positionering med GNSS och andra GNSS-tillämpningar. I denna rapport har två metoder utvecklats med Trimble Business Center och MATLAB för att studera närvaron och effekten av flervägsfelet. Den första metoden - Trimble baslinje analys fokuserar på förändring i höjden för studie stationen relativt till referensstationen över tid. Den andra metoden - RINEX analys fokuserar på förändring av den geometrifria kombination av pseudoavståndsmätningar () och fasmätningar () över tid. Dessa två metoder har först testats på KTH-stationen och sedan appliceras på stationen Vidsel och stationen Botsmark. Olika resultat indikerar förekomsten av flervägsfel på de tre stationer. Höjden för studiestationerna har ett dagligt variationsmönster på grund av flervägsfelet. Flervägsfel orsakar även buller i satellitsignalerna, var pseudoavstånd är mer drabbade än fasmätningarna. Det är också värt att noterade att satelliter med låg elevationsvinkel är mer mottagliga för flervägsfel än vid hög elevationsvinkel.

Knivsta kommun är en växande kommun och deras beräkning är att befolkningen ska öka från 20 000 till27 000 till år 2035. För det har kommunen tagit fram ett utvecklingsprogram Knivsta 2035. I den härrapporten undersöks resursflöden av dricksvatten och avlopp samt tekniska lösningar i den projekteradestadsdelen Tarv västra i Knivsta kommun. I stadsdelen förväntas 929 personer bo i blandade typer avbostäder, cirka 70 % i flerbostadshus och 30 % i småhus, såsom radhus.Målet med arbetet var att undersöka hur stora vatten- och avloppsflödena, VA-flödena, förväntas bli i Tarv västra, samt att undersöka om det finns lämpliga tekniska åtgärder som kan minska dricksvattenförbruk-ningen. För de valda tekniska lösningarna skulle även mängden potentiellt sparat dricksvatten beräknas. Resultatet är menat att kunna användas som en del av ett större beslutsunderlag på resursflöden i modernastadsdelar för Knivsta kommun.En litteraturstudie samt genomgång av tillhandahållna rapporter har lagt grunden för arbetet. För attutföra beräkningar kring vatteninsamling och dimensionering har formler från tidigare undersökningaranvänts. Dricksvattenförbrukningen för olika bostadstyper har även undersökts för att få fram ett specifiktvärde för dricksvattenförbrukningen i Tarv västra.Resultatet visade att dricksvattenbehovet i Tarv västra förväntas bli 144 liter per person och dag. Undernormala förhållanden krävs ett flöde på 9 liter per sekund. Under kritiska förhållanden förväntas flödet vara 25 liter per sekund. Spillvattenproduktionen förväntas bli 191 liter per person och dag. Att spillvattenpro-duktionen är så pass mycket högre än dricksvattenförbrukningen antas bero på spillvattentilläget som utgår från schablonvärden. Det uppskattades att det tillkommer 134 kg fast material per dag till spillvattnet.Olika tekniska lösningar kan implementeras för att minska dricksvattenbehovet. Installation av snålspolandetoaletter beräknades kunna minska vattenanvändningen med 17 %. Insamling av regnvatten beräknadeskunna spara 13 % i årssnitt. Återanvänding av BDT-vatten uppskattades kunna minska vattenanvändningenmed 21-60 %, beroende på om det används till dusch, toalett eller både och.Slutsatsen som kan dras av detta arbete är att invånarna i Tarv västra kommer förbruka i snitt 144liter vatten per person och dag, och att det finns möjligheter att minska dricksvattenbehovet i nybyggdastadsdelar genom att installera moderna tekniska lösningar. Nyckelord: Dricksvatten, BDT-vatten, Regnvatteninsamling, Snålspolande toaletter, Dimensionering,Spillvatten, Avloppsvatten

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The work tackles the social challenge of energy poverty through a human rights lens. Specifically focusing on Zambia, the work analyses how access to electricity features in international human rights instruments that Zambia is party to. It further assesses how this incorporation can be employed to address the rife energy poverty. While there lies great potential in mobilising the human rights framework to hold the Zambian government to its international obligation of securing electricity services to its citizens, for optimum results, there is need for some changes. Noteworthy is the domestication of international human rights instruments that have incorporated 'access to electricity'; full implementation of domesticating legislation and consistent engagement with the state reporting process. / Mini Dissertation (LLM (Multidisciplinary Human Rights))--University of Pretoria, 2021 / Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarship(QECS) / Centre for Human Rights / LLM (Multidisciplinary Human Rights) / Unrestricted

The current geological epoch, the Holocene, began 11,700 years ago. During this time, a thermal maximum in temperature was reached somewhere during the early-middle stage at 8-5 kyrs ago which was followed by a period of neoglacial cooling, culminating in the little ice age (LIA). During this period of neoglacial cooling, the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) experienced periods of advancement and retreat, which affected the local climate near the ice shelf. By looking at loess, a type of silt based wind-blown sediment, changes in stratigraphy can be used to correlate to changes in aeolian environment. The aim of this study is to determine what effects the neoglacial cooling had on the climate and if arctic loess can be used as a proxy to correlate climate change. This was done by using two methods of laboratory testing: grain size analysis and loss on ignition (LOI). Samples were gathered from Kangerlussuaq, Greenland in July 2021 from a 82cm deep loess-palaeosol section. The section consists of alternating loess and peat layers, indicating different depositional environments. The results show a general coarsening of the grainsize from the bottom upwards in the section, with reducing clay/silt content and increasing sand content, resulting in an overall increase in grain size mode. The LOI show a decrease in organic content from the bottom upwards. The increase of grain size mode and decrease of organic content in the loess is interpreted as being a result of changing climate at the sampling site. Previous studies have shown that the GrIS has had multiple distinct advancement events, which maybe can be correlated to the changes seen in the grain size and LOI data. A conclusion is drawn that the climate has changed due to the general cooling of temperature during deposition and glacial advancement, which leads to colder and harsher aeolian activity. This led to an increase in grainsize and reduction of organic content.

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are critical for the adoption of electrical vehicles vital for the electrification of road traffic as part of our fossil-fuel phasing out plan. This increasing demand for energy storage has expanded lithium production ten folds over the last 10 years and led to a new debate on the availability of lithium resources as well as sustainable challenges in resource exporting countries.  Batteries manufacturing is not only constrained by the available resources but also limited by the production capacity. However, the global supply chain system is influenced by geopolitical issues, which are affected by the rising resources nationalism and worldwide populism. This study is aimed to improve understanding of the current lithium supply chain system and generate explorative scenarios for lithium future production.  Understand the impact of lithium production on the EU`s energy transition scheme, and challenges and uncertainties within the supply chain system may arise in the light of sustainable development.  Employ quantitative models (logistic function and gompertz functions) to conduct qualitative analysis on inherent assumptions in scenarios. The geographical concentration of lithium resources is a prominent obstacle for expanding the lithium yield in the future due to the marginal diminishing effect and concentration of environmental impact along with the extracting procedure. The supply and demand balance of lithium could engage tight scenarios in the next decades according to our models.  Future production would be limited by the yield capacity in Latin America which holds the most currently known lithium resources. Diversifying lithium sources and expanding hard-rock lithium production would be essential to tackle the surging demand. However, Latin America will dominate lithium production by 2050,  when the current known hard-rock lithium resources turn to deplete. Bolivia holds the largest lithium resources will determine the peak of global lithium production, but hard to see its` influence shortly.   The EU accounts for one-fourth of world lithium consumption with a rather small contribution on the supply chain which also makes it extremely externally dependent. However, it could play an influential role in easing the burden of the global lithium supply chain by extracting lithium resources within its border. Furthermore, local lithium material suppliers can securitize the raw material supply chain of the EU and foster its developing battery and EV industry. From the global perspective, the EU can help with establishing a more responsible supply chain system by participating in the raw material supply chain. This thesis also analyzed how the EU can play a fundamental role in upgrading our global supply chain system and how the EU will get benefits from it.