Excess phosphorus (P) that is transported into water bodies can cause water quality problems. A high potential for P delivery occurs when there is a high transport potential from erosion, runoff, and/or leaching coupled with high soil test P and/or high rate of fertilizer P application. A management tool is needed to identify those fields that have a high transport and source potential to deliver P to surface water. The Virginia P-Index is a mass-based tool that estimates the annual risk of delivery of P from a given field to surface water. Guidelines on P application rates are then given based on the level of risk. This is a new tool and additional research and testing are needed to determine the dependability and validity of the index. The overall goal of the research was to contribute to the continued development of the Virginia P-Index as an effective P management tool. A sensitivity analysis was completed to identify the parameters to which the P-Index was most sensitive under a range of conditions. In low erosion and runoff conditions, the P-Index was most sensitive to P management factors including application rate. As erosion and runoff potential increased, the P-Index was most sensitive to the erosion risk factors including soil loss. Under conditions with subsurface leaching, the P-Index was most sensitive to the subsurface leaching factors and Mehlich I soil test P. A stochastic analysis was also conducted to determine the effects of parameter variability. Variability of the P-Index output was greater as the risk of P delivery increased and this could affect management recommendations. A survey was completed to determine expert opinion as to the appropriateness of parameter estimation methods used in the Virginia P-Index. Thirty-eight surveys were returned, representing a diverse range of participants within and outside of Virginia. Comments from the respondents were used to evaluate the appropriateness of the parameter methods. All factors were determined to be appropriate given the state of the science. Estimation methods for the following factors were determined to be less appropriate than the other sub-factors by the survey respondents: soil texture/drainage class, subsurface dissolved reactive orthophosphate (DRP), runoff delivery, and sediment delivery. The Virginia P-Index was determined to be a well thought out management tool and implementation should identify fields with the greatest risk of P delivery to surface water. Recommendations for improvement were identified including a need for additional analysis and studies. / Master of Science

當台灣一旦進行較大型的公職人員或民意代表選舉時，各個新聞媒體都會報導出其所獲得的民意調查結果，可見得媒體、民眾、政黨以及候選人，都會將民調當成很好的指標工具。 當我們獲知所公佈的民意調查資料時，都會看到報導幾乎抽樣樣本都在1000個左右，來說明其抽樣誤差約在3%。但是本文所探討的是，我們是否需要每次固定在1000個左右的樣本數，或許我們可以更快就可以看出結果，早一點讓決策者多一些時間做出決策，不但省下了多餘的時間，也可以節省相當多的金錢。 在本文中以民國八十七年的由全國意向民意調查中心所做的台北市長選舉意向調查為例，分別在五月和六月的兩次的訪問中，我們可以很清楚明顯的看出，當我們進行到六百個樣本數時，我們所訪問的資料已經出現相當穩定的結果，即使訪問更多的樣本數的樣本，對於結果的差異幾乎沒有影響，所以在此兩個例子中，我們可以在訪問過程中，就有足夠很好的證據去停止再抽樣訪問，可以和訪問完成一千多個樣本時才作決策時比較，我們可以省下三、四百個樣本數的訪問時間來思考做決策，也省下了三、四百個樣本數的成本來做其他的工作；若是並無法能夠獲得明確的結果，也是會做到原先設定的固定樣本數訪問法，一樣無法獲得相當好的結論，也是必須再繼續抽樣，才能夠看出更明顯的結果。 本文所探討的內容，並非每次訪問過程都是只要像例子中，只需六百個樣本左右即可，這是需視各個不同訪問的個案，也許訪問中各問項變動性太大，那麼就需要更多的樣本數來做觀測。

Magister Educationis - MEd / This study investigates the attitudes of students and student leaders towards democracy in terms of their demand for democracy, their perception of the supply of democracy, and their awareness of and participation in politics. Existing literature does not provide any conclusive explanation as to how and to what extent higher education contributes to democracy. Mattes and Mughogho (2010) argue that the contribution of higher education to support for democracy in Africa is limited while other scholars such as Bloom et al. (2006), Hillygus (2005), and Evans and Rose (2007a, 2007b) maintain that higher education impacts positively on support for democracy. The study follows the conceptualisation and methodology of previous studies based on the Afrobarometer public opinion surveys into the political attitudes of African mass publics (Bratton, Mattes and Gyimah-Boadi, 2005; Mattes and Bratton, 2003; 2007), and of students in African universities (Luescher-Mamashela et al., 2011; Mwollo-Ntalimma, 2011). The survey uses a stratified random sample of third-year undergraduate students at the University of Botswana. Furthermore, it isolates the subgroup of student leaders to investigate whether active participation in student politics influences support for democracy

Hormesis is a nonlinear dose-response characterized by biological responses at low doses that are opposite to those observed at higher doses. Studies and review articles on hormesis are being published at an increasing rate by researchers from diverse disciplines and debate has emerged over the role hormesis in risk assessment. As a result, a survey was conducted to assess toxicologists and risk assessors knowledge and attitudes about the hormesis dose response. Study goals were to: 1) ascertain attitudes towards hormesis and other dose-response models, 2) identify whether acceptance or rejection of hormesis is based on knowledge of hormesis, predisposing values, or demographic characteristics, and 3) evaluate potential for response bias. The survey consisted of 44 questions pre-tested by 25 toxicologists and risk assessors. The survey was distributed via email to the membership of the Society of Toxicology and the Society for Risk Analysis, 9,500 potential respondents. The overall response rate was 17% (n= 1,463) with a completion rate over 87%. Major findings were that 50% of respondents indicated sufficient data exist to support the view hormesis occurs across a wide range of species and endpoints, 59% indicated evaluating potential benefits due to hormesis should be included in risk assessments, and 65% are in favor of modifying hazard assessment protocols to identify the presence of hormesis. Respondent characteristics such as: years of experience, society membership, education, residence, employment (excluding government and pharmaceutical companies), and political, economic or social views had little influence on opinion. One of the largest positive influences was experience with hormesis based on actual research; 79% of subjects who reported observing hormesis commonly in their studies agreed hormesis is broadly generalizable. The influence of non-response bias was evaluated through several internal and external measures. Despite a lower than hoped for response rate, but because of robust external validity measures, it is concluded that respondents’ opinions are likely a reasonable representation of the societies of which they are members. Because this is a baseline survey, a follow-up survey is in order. Future survey design should separately evaluate the science of dose-response from the regulatory approach to risk assessment.

In today’s world of volatile fuel prices and climate concerns, there is little study on the relation between vehicle ownership patterns and attitudes toward potential policies and vehicle technologies. This work provides new data on ownership decisions and owner preferences under various scenarios, coupled with calibrated models to microsimulate Austin’s household-fleet evolution. Results suggest that most Austinites (63%, population-corrected share) support a feebate policy to favor more fuel efficient vehicles. Top purchase criteria are vehicle purchase price, type/class, and fuel economy (with 30%, 21% and 19% of respondents placing these in their top three). Most (56%) respondents also indicated that they would seriously consider purchasing a Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) if it were to cost $6,000 more than its conventional, gasoline-powered counterpart. And many respond strongly to signals on the external (health and climate) costs of a vehicle’s emissions, more strongly than they respond to information on fuel cost savings. 25-year simulations suggest that 19% of Austin’s vehicle fleet could be comprised of Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) and PHEVs under adoption of a feebate policy (along with PHEV availability in Year 1 of the simulation, and current gas prices throughout). Under all scenarios vehicle usage levels (in total vehicle miles traveled [VMT]) are predicted to increase overall, along with average vehicle ownership levels (per household, and per capita); and a feebate policy is predicted to raise total regional VMT slightly (just 4.43 percent, by simulation year 25), relative to the trend scenario, while reducing CO2 emissions only slightly (by 3.8 percent, relative to trend). Doubling the trend-case gas price to $5/gallon is simulated to reduce the year-25 vehicle use levels by 17% and CO2 emissions by 22% (relative to trend). Two- and three-vehicle households are simulated to be the highest adopters of HEVs and PHEVs across all scenarios. And HEVs, PHEVs and Smart Cars are estimated to represent a major share of the fleet’s VMT (25%) by year 25 under the feebate scenario. The combined share of vans, pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), and cross over utility vehicles (CUVs) is lowest under the feebate scenario, at 35% (versus 47% in Austin’s current household fleet), yet feebate-policy receipts exceed rebates in each simulation year. A 15% reduction in the usage levels of SUVs, CUVs and minivans is observed in the $5/gallon scenario (relative to trend). Mean use levels per vehicle of HEVs and PHEVs are simulated to have a variation of 753 and 495 across scenarios. In the longer term, gas price dynamics, tax incentives, feebates and purchase prices along with new technologies, government-industry partnerships, and more accurate information on range and recharging times (which increase customer confidence in EV technologies) should have even more significant effects on energy dependence and greenhouse gas emissions. / text

The objective of this thesis is to evaluate alternative weighting systems to determine if they have the potential to improve the current weighting system of the Financial Secrecy Index (FSI). The FSI, a measure of countries' contributions to global financial secrecy, currently weights its 15 qualitative components equally. A web-based opinion survey conducted in January and February 2016 among academics, journalists, experts and other persons familiar with FSI serves as the baseline for assessing new weights. The new weights derived from the survey results are not significantly different from the equal weights in 14 out of 15 components. The survey results suggest that widely held opinion is consistent with equal weight assumptions. Statistical model selection criteria from information theory that penalize model complexity prefer in majority of cases the simple model over the more complex one even though more complex model provides better goodness-of-fit statistics. Alternative methods and analysis such as Principal Components Analysis is performed and discussed. The present work finds that, statistically, the weights should not diverge from the equal weighting system in use currently. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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Im letzten Jahr wendete sich die Stadt Dresden nach dem Zufallsprinzip an ihre Einwohner, mit der Bitte, zwei Fragebögen auszufüllen. Deren Fragen richteten sich hauptsächlich auf die Lebensbedingungen am Wohnort. Die Datenerfassung für die eingegangenen Fragebögen endete im Dezember 2010. Es konnten 4.534 Fragebögen ausgewertet werden. Die rücklaufquote lag bei 46 % und ist damit die zweitbeste in der Geschichte der kommunalen Bürgerumfragen Dresdens. Wie bereits in Kommunalen Bürgerumfragen zurückliegender Jahre, insbesondere 2007, gibt die Kommunale Bürgerumfrage 2010 erneut Gelegenheit dazu, interessante Aspekte der Nutzung der Städtischen Bibliotheken, im Vergleich zu anderen kulturellen Einrichtungen Dresdens, zu hinterfragen.

Im letzten Jahr wendete sich die Stadt Dresden nach dem Zufallsprinzip an ihre Einwohner, mit der Bitte, zwei Fragebögen auszufüllen. Deren Fragen richteten sich hauptsächlich auf die Lebensbedingungen am Wohnort. Die Datenerfassung für die eingegangenen Fragebögen endete im Dezember 2010. Es konnten 4.534 Fragebögen ausgewertet werden. Die rücklaufquote lag bei 46 % und ist damit die zweitbeste in der Geschichte der kommunalen Bürgerumfragen Dresdens. Wie bereits in Kommunalen Bürgerumfragen zurückliegender Jahre, insbesondere 2007, gibt die Kommunale Bürgerumfrage 2010 erneut Gelegenheit dazu, interessante Aspekte der Nutzung der Städtischen Bibliotheken, im Vergleich zu anderen kulturellen Einrichtungen Dresdens, zu hinterfragen.

No description available.