It studies recent climate variation and its consequences on the nival vegetation distributionin two basins of the Sierra de Guadarrama, Spain. The climate change was documented from eighteen different variables related to temperature, pluvial and snow precipitation, snow du ration within the period 1951-2000. To evaluate vegetation response to climate variation we determined the nival correlation of the distinct vegetation classes. To do this, we considered their spatial and / or temporal relation with distinct variables of climate, snow variation, and nival geoforms. Nival vegetation maps were made of five dates (1956 to 1998) and to quan tify and explain tendencies it was necessary to calculate surfaces and percentages of change, annual mean transformation index (ITMA’s) and transition matrixes. The results show that in the area studied there are 14 vegetation classes belonging to four groups of high, medium, low and negative nival correlation. Evolution of the last fifty years is summarized in a notable spatial reduction of vegetation with high nival correlation, moderate vegetation reduction with medium nival correlation and significant vegetation expansion with negative nival correlation. Change processes leave a main succession that consists on the herbal formation substitution highly correlated with snow duration and the abundance of fusion water, by leguminous shrubsapart from the nival influence, which slowly densify. / Se estudia la variación reciente del clima y sus consecuencias sobre la distribución de la vegetación nival en dos cuencas de la Sierra de Guadarrama, España. El cambio climático se documentó a partir de dieciocho variables referentes a temperatura, precipitación pluvial y nival, y duración de la nieve, durante el período 1951-2000. Para evaluar la respuesta de la vegetación a la variación del clima se partió de determinar la correlación nival de las distintas clases de vegetación, para lo cual, se consideró su relación espacial y/o temporal con distintas variables del clima, la duración de la nieve y las geoformas nivales. Se generaron mapas de la vegetación nival en cinco fechas (1956 a 1998) y para cuantificar y explicar las tendencias se calcularon superficies y porcentajes de cambio, índices de transformación media anual (ITMA) y matrices de transición. Los resultados muestran que el área de estudio incluye catorce clases de vegetación pertenecientes a cuatro grupos de alta, media, baja y negativa correlación nival. La evolución de los últimos cincuenta años se resume en una notable reducción espacial de la vegetación con correlación nival alta, moderada reducción de la vegetación con correlación nival media y significativa expansión de la vegetación con correlación nival negativa. Los procesosde cambio dejan ver una línea principal de sucesión que consiste en la sustitución de las formaciones herbáceas altamente correlacionadas con alta duración de la nieve y abundancia de las aguas de fusión, por matorrales de leguminosas alejados de la influencia nival, que se densifican paulatinamente.

This study will examine political party systems, with particular emphasis on the impact of ethnicity on party formation in both Nigeria (1951-1961) and Sierra Leone (1950-1967). Particularly in terms of this study, the hypothesis will be advanced that in countries as ethnically divided as Nigeria and Sierra Leone, political parties formed from a nucleus of members from one or another subsystem, such as an ethnic group, which engage in competitive elections will create sectional and ethnic tensions. The major finding of the study, is that a country or countries with sharp ethnic-cleavages, will tend to produce a multi-party system unless there are intervening factors to mitigate against such party-formation. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (MDF (Development Finance))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / Financial Services Associations (FSAs) have been established in Sierra Leone as a new form of shareholder-owned village bank since 2007, as part of an ongoing IFAD programme to assist the development of rural finance. This research report is a case study examining the viability of the FSA concept in the Sierra Leonean context, particularly with reference to previous research findings in other countries in Africa, and it includes a field survey within the communities and amongst the staff and board members of the FSAs. The findings of the study reveal a wide acceptance amongst the village communities of both the structure of the institutions and the products and services that they are capable of offering. There was no evidence of the abuse of their positions by the members of the boards with regard to their own loans and repayments, as had been reported in other studies. However, there is a pressing need for further staff training and sensitisation of the communities regarding their rights as shareholders. There is also a need for further injections of capital, and the study recommends the introduction of a wide range of additional products and services and the establishment of links with other financial institutions, such as community banks and commercial banks. It was found that there are considerable demands on IFAD’s management unit that is responsible for the FSAs. These demands are growing as the number of FSAs increases, and it is recommended that this unit be strengthened before continuing its expansion programme, to enable it to consolidate its strengths before its activities are dispersed too widely.

Seasonally snow covered alpine areas play a larger role in the hydrologic cycle than their area would indicate. Their ecosystems may be sensitive indicators of climatic and atmospheric change. Assessing the hydrologic and bio- geochemical responses of these areas to changes in inputs of water, chemicals and energy should be based on a detailed understanding of watershed processes. This dissertation discusses the development and testing of a model capable of predicting watershed hydrologic and hydrochemical responses to these changes. The model computes integrated water and chemical balances for watersheds with unlimited numbers of terrestrial, stream, and lake subunits, each of which may have a unique, variable snow -covered area. Model capabilities include 1) tracking of chemical inputs from precipitation, dry deposition, snowmelt, mineral weathering, basefiow or flows from areas external to the modeled watershed, and user -defined sources and sinks, 2) tracking water and chemical movements in the canopy, snowpack, soil litter, multiple soil layers, streamflow, between terrestrial subunits (surface and subsurface movement), and within lakes (2 layers), 3) chemical speciation, including free and total soluble species, precipitates, exchange complexes, and acid -neutralizing capacity, 4) nitrogen reactions, 5) a snowmelt optimization procedure capable of exactly matching observed watershed outflows, and 6) modeling riparian areas. Two years of data were available for fitting and comparing observed and modeled output. To the extent possible, model parameters are set based on physical or chemical measurements, leaving only a few fitted parameters. The effects of snowmelt rate, rate of chemical elution from the snowpack, nitrogen reactions, mineral weathering, and flow routing on modeled outputs are examined.

Seasonally snow covered alpine areas play a larger role in the hydrologic cycle than their area would indicate. Their ecosystems may be sensitive indicators of climatic and atmospheric change. Assessing the hydrologic and bio-geochemical responses of these areas to changes in inputs of water, chemicals and energy should be based on a detailed understanding of watershed processes. This dissertation discusses the development and testing of a model capable of predicting watershed hydrologic and hydrochemical responses to these changes. The model computes integrated water and chemical balances for watersheds with unlimited numbers of terrestrial, stream, and lake subunits, each of which may have a unique, variable snow-covered area. Model capabilities include (1) tracking of chemical inputs from precipitation, dry deposition, snowmelt, mineral weathering, baseflow or flows from areas external to the modeled watershed, and user-defined sources and sinks, (2) tracking water and chemical movements in the canopy, snowpack, soil litter, multiple soil layers, streamflow, between terrestrial subunits (surface and subsurface movement), and within lakes (2 layers), (3) chemical speciation, including free and total soluble species, precipitates, exchange complexes, and acid-neutralizing capacity, (4) nitrogen reactions, (5) a snowmelt optimization procedure capable of exactly matching observed watershed outflows, and (6) modeling riparian areas. Two years of data were available for fitting and comparing observed and modeled output. To the extent possible, model parameters are set based on physical or chemical measurements, leaving only a few fitted parameters. Thc effects of snowmelt rate, rate of chemical elution from the snowpack, nitrogen reactions, mineral weathering, and flow routing on modeled outputs are examined.

The thesis is an annotated edition of Limba folktales or "oral literature". This is unusual in recent British anthropology in spite of the earlier interest in the subject, mainly because of the reaction against evolutionism, and the more recent structuralist and functionalist approach. Various approaches to folktales and myth are laid aside as irrelevant or unhelpful. The senses in which linguistic, structural and, in particular, sociological approaches are relevant to the present study are discussed, and various criticisms made of the narrowness or misleading implications of the more recent "sociological" attitudes to oral literature in non-literate societies. The present approach is to treat such material as having the status of literature ("oral literature"), rather than as being in some way utilitarian, and to relate the stories to their social background, discuss their contents, categories, delivery, and narrators systematically, and discover something of what they mean to those telling and hearing them.

This study is about peace building in Sierra Leone, during and after the civil war (1991-2002). The initial hypothesis was that the impact of externally driven peace building activities was reduced because of insufficient attention to local culture and priorities. This hypothesis was underpinned by a number of assumptions based on the author’s personal experience and the views of Sierra Leoneans met in the early post-war period.

Thesis (MPhil (Political Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / The primary goal of this thesis is to explore, analyse and apply the New War theory to the West African case of Sierra Leone. The motivation for conducting a study of this nature was that much literature exists on the assumption that the Sierra Leonean conflict equates to a resource war. This research project attempts to bridge the gap between the New War schools of thought and those who maintain a resource war approach. Although Kaldor’s (2006) work on New Wars is significant, she does not place much emphasis on Africa. In order to supplement this, William Reno (2001) and Paul Collier (2000) have also been studied. Both write about Africa. The RUF virtually razed the Sierra Leonean society to the ground. The overtly violent methods employed were dissimilar to the interstate and intrastate wars of the past. Blatant exploitation of the country’s mineral wealth aggravated the situation. In attempting to reach a relevant finding, this study is divided into distinctive sections. Chapter two documents the theoretical background. The writings of Kaldor (2006), Reno (2001) and Collier (2000) are explored and applied. The third chapter investigates the factors in the conflict. Issues such as the resource factor (diamonds) and poverty are discussed; the failed state in Sierra Leone; criminal networks; social conditions; arms; and the role of youth and children. The general finding of this chapter indicates that Sierra Leone fits this model. Chapter four describes and analyses the actors. Identity was not an issue in the Sierra Leone war; thus a large part of Kaldor’s theory becomes redundant. In the final assessment the study establishes what Sierra Leone’s position is: New War or merely resource war? The bulk of the applied theory proved to be applicable to this case; but the study also acknowledges the mistaken views regarding Kaldor’s identity theories. Collier and Reno’s works prove to be significantly more relevant. This study was able to determine that Sierra Leone was indeed an example of New Wars, albeit considerably affected and influenced by greed.

This dissertation explores the dynamics of market relationships in a regional vegetable market in the Serra da Ibiapaba, Ceara, Northeast Brazil. During the last two decades this region has undergone a rapid socio-economic transformation involving the widespread adoption of intensive cropping patterns and modern farming technology. Vegetable, especially tomato, production has increased the economic viability of small-farm alternatives; however, farmers now find themselves caught up in market forces over which they have little control. The Ibiapaba vegetable market supplies four large urban markets within Brazil's North/Northeast, and the structure of the supply channels to each market varies significantly. Analysis of a middleman sample reveals that this market accommodates remarkable diversity--small and undercapitalized marketers, large truckowners, and several variations between these extremes. Not only is this market open to many types of market enterprise, it also provides an opportunity for upward mobility, the major mechanism of which is the purchase of a truck. The highly perishable nature of vegetable products and the organizational exigencies of long distance marketing make this profession extremely risk-laden. Not only do market participants face highly variable prices, but also rigid schedule demands. Since these products cannot be stored, middlemen must be able to maintain both regular supply lines and secure buyers, and they respond to these requirements by constantly devising, testing, and revising behavioral strategies which minimize such inherent market risks. Evidence suggests that different types of middlemen have access to different types of strategies: middlemen with abundant resources enjoy definite advantages over their less fortunate counterparts. These comparative advantages can result in greater financial reward and ultimately in a larger share of the market. Vegetable farmers also face risks in a market characterized by extreme price variation and poor local infrastructure. They also confront this instability through the elaboration of behavioral strategies which often involve a loss of relative bargaining power with middlemen. A comparison of producers from two separate municipics of the region reveals the importance of improving information flow to farmers. It is critical that farmers increase their marketing skills. This dissertation employs both standard economic price analyses as well as traditional anthropological methods to account for middleman and farmer market behavior. A model of market dynamics outlines the process middleman response to new opportunities in the socio-economic environment, and generates hypotheses regarding the long-range effects of increased market activity within a capitalist framework. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of market system performance, defined not only in terms of the efficient allocation of resources, but also with regard to distributional outcomes of market trends. The trade-off between market growth and distributional equity is considered with respect to the specific characteristics of the Ibiapaba region.

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