This dissertation reports on the findings of a study conducted in order to understand the impact of the attitudes and perceptions of some residents in Bloemfontein, towards rhino poaching and anti-rhino poaching initiatives in South Africa. Prominent theoretical models, such as the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the decomposed theory of planned behaviour (DTPB), and the Rosenberg and Hovland Tripartite model of attitudes and perceptions, were used to help understand Bloemfontein residents’ attitudes and perceptions towards rhino poaching and anti-rhino poaching ini-tiatives in South Africa. Data was collected from residents in areas such as the Central University of Technology, the University of the Free State, the Waterfront Mall and the Mimosa Mall, respectively. A total of 252 usable responses were obtained, and the sta-tistical package for social sciences (SPSS) as well as a descriptive statistical instrument, were used to analyse the data. The findings of the study revealed that residents’ attitudes and perceptions to-wards rhino poaching and anti-rhino poaching initiatives contribute significantlytowards their intentions to act positively or negatively in curbing or reducing rhino poaching crime in South Africa. The research findings also showed that while there are differences in attitudes and perceptions between residents across different demographic groups, demographic factors alone are weak predictors of residents’ attitudes and perceptions towards rhino poaching. The study found that perceived trust, practical approaches, intentions to act and effective community involvement significantly contribute to residents’ positive attitudes and perceptions towards anti-rhino poaching initiatives in South Africa. The implications of other factors such as corruption, economic challenges, willingness of the authorities to act, and the heightened demand for rhino horn trade, have been discussed, and suggestions for future research are made. / Environmental Sciences / M.A. (Environmental Management)

Mémoire d'orthophonie : Médecine : Nancy 1 : 2009. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Bibliogr.

Šiuolaikinio verslo sektorius yra labai sudėtingas, kadangi daugybė programinės ir kompiuterinės įrangos yra naudojama skirtingose platformose: internetinių sistemų bendravimui, verslo sistemų integravimui ir t. t. Dauguma šiuolaikinės programinės įrangos priklauso paskirstytų sistemų tipui. Ją sudaro kliento-serverio architektūra. Nagrinėjant konkrečią paskirstytą sistemą, joje klientų ir serverių kiekis gali būti gausus. Tokio tipo sistemos turi labai daug privalumų, tačiau turi ir trūkumų. Paprastai paskirstytas sistemas sudaro ne viena duomenų bazė, veikia daug servisų, kurie ne visada gali būti pasiekiami, visa tai yra galimų klaidų šaltinis. Kliento programinė įranga bendrauja tarp įvairių programinės įrangos komponentų (pavyzdžiui servisų), kaip ir jie tarpusavyje, naudodama nuotolinių procedūrų kvietimo technologijas ir žinutes. Naudojant žinučių technologiją, bendravimas tarp servisų gali būti daug patikimesnis, kadangi ši technologija užtikrina žinutės pristatymą, net ir tada, kai gavėjas yra už ryšio ribų. Šiuolaikinėse servisais paremtose sistemose, bendravimas tarp komponentų yra paremtas žinučių, naudojančių eiles, metodu. Šiame darbe bus nagrinėjama bendravimo tarp komponentų technologija, kuri paremta žinutėmis. Taip pat bus apžvelgiamos ir nagrinėjamos trečių šalių sukurtos, nemokamos technologijos, kurios skirtos bendravimui tarp paskirstytų sistemų komponentų žinučių metodu. Kadangi magistrinio darbo sistema buvo sukurta naudojant Microsoft technologijas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Nowadays a lot of systems are residing in distributed environments. These systems are composed of the client side software and server side software. That is called distributed systems architecture. Those types of systems can contain many services and many clients and may be substituted of many databases and many services. Distributed software components do not always run at the same time, networks, especially wide-area networks, are not always available and reliable. These parts communicate using remote procedure calls, or request/response messages and message queues. In this work we research third party components which are used to communicate between parts of distributed systems using messages and Microsoft message queues. The research is performed on two chosen components, which best fits in the developed system’s context. The choice of components and research based on usability problems using developed system called Business layer framework. The obtained results evaluated using user recommendation form.

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How so many species coexist while utilizing the same resources is both of ecological interest and important for the management of wildlife communities and parks. This thesis endeavours to understand how grazing herbivores co-exist, with special emphasis on understanding the mechanisms of competition and facilitation over temporal and spatial scales. I compared the dry season use of grasslands, grass species, grass height and grass greenness by white rhino and three other ungulate species, zebra, wildebeest, and impala. I was specifically interested in the extent to which white rhinos, with their capacity to graze both short and tall grass, either competed with or facilitated other grazers. In Chapter Two, I clarify the mechanisms of facilitation and competition in terms of temporal and spatial scales, and discuss why there is little evidence in the literature to support these mechanisms. I conclude that evidence for facilitation through stimulation of grass re-growth during the growing season appears stronger than that for increased resource access through removal of obstructing grass structures during the dormant season. Facilitation may benefit the nutritional gains obtained by certain species in the short term, but these benefits do not appear to be translated into the expected population consequences. In collaboration with co-author Norman Owen-Smith, we suggested this could be due to seasonal tradeoffs between facilitation and competition, as well as to restrictions on the spatial extent of trophic overlap. In Chapter 3 Norman Owen-Smith and I compared the grass height use in relation to body size. We expected that the grass height favoured would increase with the body size of the herbivore species, as suggested from past studies of resource partitioning among large mammalian herbivores. Instead we found that the largest of these species, white rhino, concentrated on the shortest grass, while the smallest species, impala, favoured grass heights intermediate between those grazed by wildebeest and zebra. Results suggest that the scaling of mouth width relative to body size, and hence metabolic demands, is the primary factor governing grass height selection, rather than body size alone. Hence grazing successions governed by body size differences may not be a typical feature of their ecology, contrary to past suggestions. Furthermore, there was considerable overlap in grass height grazed among these four species, indicating that niche separation by grass height is inadequate alone to explain their coexistence. More attention needs to be paid to other aspects such as the grass species selected and habitat structure favoured. Chapter Four compared the overlap in grassland use and grass species use, as well as grass height and grass greenness of swards utilized by the herbivores as the dry season advances. I show that all species prefer grazing lawns during times of abundance, and that zebra leave grazing lawns before other species, and wildebeest leave grazing lawns before white rhino and impala. This suggests zebra and wildebeest may be competitively excluded from grazing lawns through a reduction in grass height, by white rhino and impala, during the dry season. However, white rhino are also potentially the ‘supreme’ facilitator increasing the availability of nutritious grazing lawns, as well as increasing the quality of those lawns through grazing in the wet season. A better understanding of the trade-off between “habitat facilitation” and competitive exclusion by white rhino, allows us to better understand how grazing herbivores co-exist.

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The subject of this thesis was focused on the analysis of international trade with selected specimens of rhino species (trophies, horns, live rhinos, carvings, horn carvings, derivatives) in 2004 - 2013. The trade at the European Union, taking into accounts the position of the Czech Republic, and the global worldwide trade were evaluated in term of importer and exporter and source, purpose and origin of specimens. Evaluation was based on data from the Cites Trade Database which was further processed via contingency tables and graphs. It was found that there was a decrease of import and export in 2013. The most imported specimens were live rhinos in the world (40,5%) and trophies in the European Union, the most exported specimens were trophies in the world (39,4%) and carvings (80,7%) in the European Union. The largest importer was USA in the world (16,6%) and Spain in the European Union (3%). The largest exporter in the world was South Africa (73,9%) and United Kingdom in the European Union (4,6%). The Czech Republic was imported 0,8% of total import and exported 0,2% of total export. Imported specimens came mostly from the wild (62,1%), the country of origin was not completed and were imported mainly as hunting trophies (33,4%). Exported specimens came mostly from the wild (76,3%), the country of origin was not completed (82,2%) and were exported primarily as hunting trophies The results indicate an overall downward trend in the legal trade but also confirm the considerable interest in horns in Asia. Therefore, it is necessary to continue to monitor all transactions.