This study analyzes the responses of enlisted reserve personnel to the 2000-2001 Navy Reserve Career Decision Survey using multivariate logistic regression. Enlisted Naval Reservists' retirement intentions are assessed with respect to the effect of demographic and military background characteristics, unit-type, and reserve experiences. Among the reserve experience variables, perceptions about the importance of training, accomplishment recognition, family impact, civilian job impact, education benefits, leadership, career development, personal meaning, and time spent working in a primary designator are all significant influences on career plans. Marital status, pay grade, time in the Selected Reserves, and prior duty status are also significant predictors. While unit type and rating variables are not individually significant, each group of variables is jointly significant. Marital status, pay grade, time in service, and reserve experience variables have the greatest effects on a respondent's intent to stay to retirement and should be considered when evaluating and creating retention policies and/or programs for the Naval Reserve organization. It is recommended that follow-on studies be conducted to compare the 2005 responses with the 2000-2001 responses to the Reserve Career Decision Survey to provide a better understanding of enlisted reserve retirement intentions in the 9/11 military environment.

Submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology) in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand. June 2015 / This dissertation critically examines the transformation of the South African National Parks with special reference to the role of the Social Ecology Directorate during the period 1994-2004. The establishment of a non-racial democratic social order required a different approach to the conservation of biodiversity which involved substantive change. This change included the organisation confronting its role in the apartheid legacy of dispossession, environmental racism and injustice. The Social Ecology Directorate and the concept of Social Ecology were established by the South African National Parks to drive a process of transformation. However, it is argued that these ideas and structures were not strong and cohesive enough to do so. Nevertheless the dissertation suggests that during this period, in a series of complex and contested processes, constrained but significant change was achieved in four areas: a shift to a more people-centred and developmental approach to conservation, restructuring to make the organisation more representative and to eliminate racism and sexism, land restitution, improved relations with neighbouring communities and greater inclusivity and openness to all South Africans through the promotion of tourism and cultural heritage. These changes laid the basis potentially for more radical change which links the conservation of biodiversity to social justice. / MT2016

Planícies amazônicas alagáveis apresentam espécies arbóreas que estão sujeitas a um pulso de inundação proveniente das chuvas anuais. Muitas destas espécies apresentam estratégias de adaptação ao alagamento, germinando suas sementes e estabelecendo as plântulas antes do próximo período de cheia. Este é o caso de Macrolobium acaciifolium (Benth) Leguminosae (Caesalpinoideae), que ocorre nas cotas altitudinais mais altas das várzeas e igapós amazônicos. Neste trabalho, pela primeira vez foi caracterizado o sistema de mobilização de reservas ao longo do período de germinação e estabelecimento das plântulas de M. acaciifolium, com o objetivo de compreender os mecanismos fisiológicos e bioquímicos relacionados à sua estratégia em face à inundação. O experimento teve duração de 56 dias, nos quais foram realizadas coletas destrutivas e análises não-destrutivas de sementes e de diferentes partes das plântulas para análises de crescimento, fotossíntese, carboidratos não estruturais (frutose, glucose, sacarose e amido), xiloglucano de reserva e análises citoquímicas correspondentes à detecção de proteínas, amido e xiloglucano de reserva. Após análises citoquímicas e de açúcares, é reportado pela primeira vez na literatura científica, a existência de uma semente que acumula simultaneamente amido e xiloglucano de reserva na parede celular. Não foi observada a presença de corpos protéicos, que é uma característica comum de armazenamento de nitrogênio em sementes de Leguminosae, o que indica que a plântula provavelmente estabelece a assimilação de nitrogênio pelas raízes ao invés de armazenar e mobilizar reservas para isto. Nas sementes de M.acaciifolium xiloglucano e amido juntos perfazem 21,6% da massa da semente quiescente. No início da germinação, parte do amido é degradado e há um aumento concomitante de xiloglucano que leva a um equilíbrio entre as duas reservas. Dos 10 aos 14 dias após a embebição (DAE), o amido dos cotilédones é exaurido com concomitante desenvolvimento das raízes e do caule das plântulas. A partir de 20 DAE, o xiloglucano passa a ser degradado e a mobilização ocorre sem alterações na estrutura do polissacarídeo na parede celular e simultâneo acúmulo transitório de galactose, glucose, xilose e amido. Os produtos de degradação do xiloglucano levam à produção de folhas e ao estabelecimento da fotossíntese. As observações feitas neste trabalho sugerem que M. acaciifolium apresenta mecanismos de adaptação aos pulsos de inundação da Amazônia durante o processo de germinação e estabelecimento das plântulas / The Amazonian floodplains display tree species that are subjected to yearly inundation pulses. Several of these species colonize these regions are well adapted to the flood pulses, germinating their seeds and establishing seedlings before the next pulse comes. This is the case of Macrolobium acaciifolium (Benth) Leguminosae (Caesalpinoideae) that occur in the upper part of the riverbanks of the amazonian várzeas and igapós. In the present work, we characterized for the first time the system of storage mobilization along the period of seed germination and seedling establishment with the objective of understanding the physiological and biochemical mechanisms related to the strategy of M. Acaciifolim to face the next flooding season. The experiment was performed for 56 days in which destructive and non-destructive analyses of the seed and different parts of seedlings were performed for analyses of growth, photosynthesis, non-structural carbohydrates (fructose, glucose, sucrose, raffinose and starch), storage xyloglucan and corresponding cytochemical analyses to detect proteins, starch and storage xyloglucan in cotyledon tissues. After cytochemical and sugar analyses, it is reported for the first time in scientific literature the existence of a seed that accumulates starch and storage xyloglucan on the cell wall simultaneously. The presence of protein bodies, a common feature of seeds of the Leguminosae, was not observed, indicating that seedlings probably establish nitrogen assimilation very quickly through the newly formed roots instead of using a storage mobilization system for this reserve type. In seeds of M. Acaciifolium starch and xyloglucan correspond to 21,6% of the quiescent seed mass. At the beginning of germination, some starch is degraded with a concomitant increase in storage xyloglucan so that the yields of the two polymers become equal. From 10 to 14 days after imbibition (DAI), all starch is mobilized to support root and stem growth. From 20 DAI, xyloglucan is completely degraded without changes in its structure and with transient accumulation of galactose, glucose, xylose and starch. The products of degradation of storage xyloglucan lead to the production of leaves and photosynthesis establishment. The observations made in this work suggest that M. Acaciifolium show unique mechanisms of adaptation to the inundation pulses in the Amazon during the germination and seedlings establishment

This thesis examines the history of Tasmania’s national parks and protected areas from 1885-2005, analysing the interests, and the organisations and individuals representing them, which have influenced outcomes. Significant organisations representing different and sometimes competing interests have been community based groups, chiefly the naturalist and scientific bodies, bushwalking clubs and environmental organisations; tourism associations, industry interests, notably forestry, mining and hydro-electricity, federal, local and state governments and government agencies, notably the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The thesis argues that the establishment and development of Tasmania’s national parks and protected areas have been shaped by the negotiations, accommodations, conflicts and shifting relative power among these competing interests. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries consensus of interest among Tasmania’s social and political elite facilitated the declaration of Tasmania’s first scenery reserves and national parks. Conflicts of interest between preserving land in its natural state and industrial development grew apparent from the 1920s however, and Tasmanian governments managed park expansion through politics of compromise in which national parks accommodated industry demands. The environment movement that emerged in the 1960s protested national parks’ ‘residual’ status and with federal government support defeated the State government’s plan to build a dam within an area proposed for a Wild Rivers National Park. Following environmentalists’ success in over-riding State government processes to expand the State’s national park estate and World Heritage Area in the early 1980s; the State government strengthened its direct control over the National Parks and Wildlife Service and focused its attention on national parks’ tourism role. Aspects of tourism in national parks are, however, incompatible with the preservation of environmental and wilderness values, which resulted in further political conflict between government-supported tourism interests and the national parks movement. This thesis complements earlier research on Tasmanian national park history by Mosley, Castles, Shackel, Mendel and Cubit by extending analysis of that history to the twenty-first century, examining the role of the National Parks and Wildlife Service in that history since the agency’s inception in 1971, and addressing both environmental and social perspectives of national park history. It concludes that by the twenty-first century Tasmanian national park policy required a framework of social values associated with national parks in which to situate environmental protection as national parks’ primary purpose.

<p>This thesis consists of three self-contained essays in the fields of banking and portfolio choice.</p><p>Banking and Optimal Reserves in an Equilibrium Model:</p><p>I address the question of reserves in banking, particularly the fact that reserves are substantially larger than the stipulated reserve requirements by Bank of International Settlements. My contribution is to show that when the underlying values of borrowers are correlated, banks should hold positive reserves, regardless of the regulation. I use a derived distribution for debt portfolios to show that intermediation in a debt market will outperform direct lending, even if intermediaries are allowed to default. The model used is a generalization of Williamson (1986), with Costly State Verification as asymmetric information. By using a factor model for the value of entrepreneurs' projects, I introduce a positive probability for banks to default. It is shown that, in equilibrium, banks choose to hold capital reserves that are almost large enough to eliminate the expected auditing cost for their depositors. The reason is that auditing does not provide any utility and hence, the cake to be split between banks and depositors is enlarged by reserves as an insurance against bad outcomes. It is also shown that the more correlation there is in the debt portfolio, the larger is the optimal reserve level. This could explain why small regional banks in Sweden often have more than twice the reserve level of their nation-wide competitors.</p><p>Optimal Rebalancing of Portfolio Weights under Time-varying Return Volatility:</p><p>This paper considers horizon effects on portfolio weights under time varying and forecastable return volatility. The return volatility is modeled as a GARCH-M, which is sufficiently general to encompass both constant and time varying means. The analysis confirms earlier results, namely that there are no horizon effects when the stochastic process, which governs asset returns, has a constant mean. However, when time varying and forecastable volatility is included in the mean equation, there are horizon effects. I show three features to be of importance for the horizon effect: First, the size of the parameter on conditional volatility in the mean equation and second, persistence in conditional volatility. Third, the asymmetry in volatility has some effect. In addition, the parameter of relative risk aversion is important. For low levels of risk aversion, only very small effects on portfolio weights are present; when the level of risk aversion increases, so does the effects on portfolio weights. Portfolio weights increase for the first 2-3 years when the investment horizon is increased; the total effect slightly exceeds 10%.</p><p>Can Parameter Uncertainty Help Solve the Home Bias Puzzle?</p><p>A well-known puzzle in international finance is the equity home bias. This paper illustrates a mechanism where exchange rate estimation risk causes equity home bias. Estimation risk is introduced into a standard mean-variance portfolio framework by having return time series with different lengths. We argue that the exchange rate return history, which is a part of the local currency return on a foreign investment, is likely to be substantially shorter than the available return histories of equity indices due to, for example, exchange rate regime shifts. To econometrically deal with return histories of different lengths we utilize a framework devised by Stambaugh (1997). The impact of estimation risk on an optimal portfolio is tested with data from Sweden and the U.S. Our results suggest that explicitly accounting for estimation risk causes the domestic investor to increase his fraction of domestic assets. While the introduction of exchange rate estimation risk is not powerful enough to explain the whole home bias observed in data, the results of this paper illustrate a mechanism that is often overlooked in discussions of international portfolio diversification.</p>

This thesis consists of three self-contained essays in the fields of banking and portfolio choice. Banking and Optimal Reserves in an Equilibrium Model: I address the question of reserves in banking, particularly the fact that reserves are substantially larger than the stipulated reserve requirements by Bank of International Settlements. My contribution is to show that when the underlying values of borrowers are correlated, banks should hold positive reserves, regardless of the regulation. I use a derived distribution for debt portfolios to show that intermediation in a debt market will outperform direct lending, even if intermediaries are allowed to default. The model used is a generalization of Williamson (1986), with Costly State Verification as asymmetric information. By using a factor model for the value of entrepreneurs' projects, I introduce a positive probability for banks to default. It is shown that, in equilibrium, banks choose to hold capital reserves that are almost large enough to eliminate the expected auditing cost for their depositors. The reason is that auditing does not provide any utility and hence, the cake to be split between banks and depositors is enlarged by reserves as an insurance against bad outcomes. It is also shown that the more correlation there is in the debt portfolio, the larger is the optimal reserve level. This could explain why small regional banks in Sweden often have more than twice the reserve level of their nation-wide competitors. Optimal Rebalancing of Portfolio Weights under Time-varying Return Volatility: This paper considers horizon effects on portfolio weights under time varying and forecastable return volatility. The return volatility is modeled as a GARCH-M, which is sufficiently general to encompass both constant and time varying means. The analysis confirms earlier results, namely that there are no horizon effects when the stochastic process, which governs asset returns, has a constant mean. However, when time varying and forecastable volatility is included in the mean equation, there are horizon effects. I show three features to be of importance for the horizon effect: First, the size of the parameter on conditional volatility in the mean equation and second, persistence in conditional volatility. Third, the asymmetry in volatility has some effect. In addition, the parameter of relative risk aversion is important. For low levels of risk aversion, only very small effects on portfolio weights are present; when the level of risk aversion increases, so does the effects on portfolio weights. Portfolio weights increase for the first 2-3 years when the investment horizon is increased; the total effect slightly exceeds 10%. Can Parameter Uncertainty Help Solve the Home Bias Puzzle? A well-known puzzle in international finance is the equity home bias. This paper illustrates a mechanism where exchange rate estimation risk causes equity home bias. Estimation risk is introduced into a standard mean-variance portfolio framework by having return time series with different lengths. We argue that the exchange rate return history, which is a part of the local currency return on a foreign investment, is likely to be substantially shorter than the available return histories of equity indices due to, for example, exchange rate regime shifts. To econometrically deal with return histories of different lengths we utilize a framework devised by Stambaugh (1997). The impact of estimation risk on an optimal portfolio is tested with data from Sweden and the U.S. Our results suggest that explicitly accounting for estimation risk causes the domestic investor to increase his fraction of domestic assets. While the introduction of exchange rate estimation risk is not powerful enough to explain the whole home bias observed in data, the results of this paper illustrate a mechanism that is often overlooked in discussions of international portfolio diversification.

The migration of Registered Indian people to and from their reserves has attracted much scholarly attention over the decades. A significant theme in early literature suggested Indian people migrated back and forth between their rural homes and urban destinations because they could not cope with life in the city and their movement in between the two places was seen by some as urban failure. To some extent Indian peoples authenticity was challenged if they chose city life. In later years scholarly literature began to explore the notions that many Indian people were quite capable of succeeding as urban dwellers, but there was still no rich understanding of migration patterns. Some scholars cautioned other scholars not to misinterpret federal statistics that lack in qualitative detail which may result in misinformed policy and program initiatives. There was a call for more qualitative studies to explain the statistics and present a better understanding of Indian migration patterns and hence population changes in cities and on reserves. Additionally, there was sufficient evidence that more Indian women were migrating to cities than Indian men, a phenomenon that required some attention.<p> Interviewing Registered Indian women about their migrating experiences was an attempt to provide additional detail and understanding of the migration patterns between rural origins and urban destinations. The interviewees in this study clearly revealed that the circular migration of Registered Indian people to and from reserves showed the significance a particular migrant has to their home reserve. This significance should not be understood only as an a reflection of inability to succeed in the city as many registered Indian women return to their reserves with higher educations to work in their communities, only to leave again for further education. Some women leave their reserves to escape domestic problems, only to return to try to work things out with their partners. Many women end up leaving again. But economies, educations, domestic problems etc. are not the only influences on migration. The sanctity of the land and the many years of history that are symbolized by reserves are also factors of circular migration between reserves and cities.

The migration of Registered Indian people to and from their reserves has attracted much scholarly attention over the decades. A significant theme in early literature suggested Indian people migrated back and forth between their rural homes and urban destinations because they could not cope with life in the city and their movement in between the two places was seen by some as urban failure. To some extent Indian peoples authenticity was challenged if they chose city life. In later years scholarly literature began to explore the notions that many Indian people were quite capable of succeeding as urban dwellers, but there was still no rich understanding of migration patterns. Some scholars cautioned other scholars not to misinterpret federal statistics that lack in qualitative detail which may result in misinformed policy and program initiatives. There was a call for more qualitative studies to explain the statistics and present a better understanding of Indian migration patterns and hence population changes in cities and on reserves. Additionally, there was sufficient evidence that more Indian women were migrating to cities than Indian men, a phenomenon that required some attention.<p> Interviewing Registered Indian women about their migrating experiences was an attempt to provide additional detail and understanding of the migration patterns between rural origins and urban destinations. The interviewees in this study clearly revealed that the circular migration of Registered Indian people to and from reserves showed the significance a particular migrant has to their home reserve. This significance should not be understood only as an a reflection of inability to succeed in the city as many registered Indian women return to their reserves with higher educations to work in their communities, only to leave again for further education. Some women leave their reserves to escape domestic problems, only to return to try to work things out with their partners. Many women end up leaving again. But economies, educations, domestic problems etc. are not the only influences on migration. The sanctity of the land and the many years of history that are symbolized by reserves are also factors of circular migration between reserves and cities.

Reserves estimation in unconventional (low/ultra-low permeability) reservoirs has become a topic of increased interest as more of these resources are being developed, especially in North America. The estimation of reserves in unconventional reservoirs is challenging due to the long transient flow period exhibited by the production data. The use of conventional methods (i.e., Arps' decline curves) to estimate reserves is often times inaccurate and leads to the overestimation of reserves because these models are only (theoretically) applicable for the boundary-dominated flow regime. The premise of this work is to present and demonstrate a methodology which continuously estimates the ultimate recovery during the producing life of a well in order to generate a time-dependent profile of the estimated ultimate recovery (EUR). The "objective" is to estimate the final EUR value(s) from several complimentary analyses. In this work we present the "Continuous EUR Method" to estimate reserves for unconventional gas reservoirs using a rate-time analysis approach. This work offers a coherent process to reduce the uncertainty in reserves estimation for unconventional gas reservoirs by quantifying "upper" and "lower" limits of EUR prior to the onset of boundary-dominated flow. We propose the use of traditional and new rate-time relations to establish the "upper" limit for EUR. We clearly demonstrate that rate-time relations which better represent the transient and transitional flow regimes (in particular the power law exponential rate decline relation) often lead to a more accurate "upper" limit for reserves estimates — earlier in the producing life of a well (as compared to conventional ("Arps") relations). Furthermore, we propose a straight line extrapolation technique to offer a conservative estimate of maximum produced gas which we use as the "lower" limit for EUR. The EUR values estimated using this technique continually increase with time, eventually reaching a maximum value. We successfully demonstrate the methodology by applying the approach to 43 field examples producing from 7 different tight sandstone and shale gas reservoirs. We show that the difference between the "upper" and "lower" limit of reserves decreases with time and converges to the "true" value of reserves during the latter producing life of a well.

Thesis (Ph. D.) in Forestry--University of Maine, 2003. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-211).