Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 78 pages. / Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: With increasing encroachment on natural communities by anthropogenic activity, it is important to understand the functions of natural ecosystems in an effort to conserve natural areas. A first-hand study of the population dynamics of South Florida Slash Pine (P. elliottii Engelm. var. densa) following a fire event provided insight to its recovery and dispersal following a fire. A natural fire (lightning-induced) occurred in the spring of 2000 at the T. Mabry Carlton, Jr. Reserve, Sarasota County, providing an opportunity to study aspects of slash pine in relation to fire. One objective of my research was to look at dispersal/recruitment conditions and slash pine dynamics in relation to fire. I looked at the varying degrees of tree mortality due to fire at different stands of slash pines. / ABSTRACT: I also looked at the stands in terms of stand composition and spatial arrangement of surviving adults. Finally, I studied how variable seedling establishment and survival was between stands. Few inferences could be drawn between fire and these individual analyses; however, all analyses revealed that at the scale of this study, pine flatwoods are patchy. I also looked at the dispersal of slash pines following a fire event. I modeled my research after Ribbens et al. (1994) and Clark et al. (1998), who took a phenomenological approach to dispersal modeling. This approach involved using distances between adults and seeds/seedlings and fecundity of adults to create dispersal models based on maximum likelihood estimates (MLE). I found that, while I could predict a model within acceptable parameters for most of the stands, more data was needed to predict models that better fit the data. / ABSTRACT: This finding, along with the fact that I recovered no seed data for analysis, suggests factors are contributing to dispersal and recruitment (e.g. cone-crop) that need to be accounted for in the future. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 105 pages. / Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen has been implicated in the destruction of seagrass beds and in the decline of water quality of Tampa Bay, Florida. The objective of this research was to determine the tendency for air masses of different origins to wet-deposit nitrate and ammonium species to the bay. Precipitation chemistry data was obtained via the NADP AIRMoN Gandy Bridge monitoring site for the period of 1 August 1996 through 31 December 2000. Rainfall events were classified by using the NOAA HYSPLIT trajectory model, precipitation chemistry data, and tropical storm history data. Average nitrate and ammonium concentrations and nitrogen fluxes were calculated based upon the chosen categories. The average annual nitrogen flux for nitrate and ammonium were 2.1 kg/ha/yr and 1.4 kg/ha/yr, respectively. For trajectory-classified data, the lowest nitrate and ammonium nitrogen fluxes were observed with air masses from the west and south, over the Gulf of Mexico. / ABSTRACT: The highest ammonium nitrogen flux was seen from trajectories from the east, while local trajectories demonstrated the highest average nitrate nitrogen flux. For chemically-classified data, the highest nitrate and ammonium fluxes were associated with the local combustion classification. Rainfall from tropical weather systems deposited lower average nitrate nitrogen fluxes than non-tropical events, but ammonium nitrogen fluxes were the same between tropical and non-tropical precipitation. Even the events representing the cleanest air masses contributing precipitation to Tampa Bay had nitrate and ammonium concentrations more than two times the background concentrations associated with the northern hemisphere. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This research examines the way employees perceive risk in a non-governmental healthcare organisation that provides care and support for people with mental, intellectual and physical disabilities. Thirty-four respondents from all levels and services within an NGO participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews to explore the meaning of the concept of risk from their own viewpoints, as well as their perspectives regarding types and sources of risk in their work and initiatives for controlling and dealing with such types and sources. This involved discussing the role of training in improving the awareness of employees in minimising risk, and the effect of training on the entire risk management process. Additional information was obtained by the researcher from documentation and personal observation. Themes that emerged from analysing data pointed to the interrelated link between perception and risk. Accordingly, the study found that risk is culturally constructed, individualistic, and subjective. It was evident that risk is a perceptual matter affected by beliefs, feelings, knowledge, culture, image, context, and the experience of people. The culture of fear of risk and of perceiving risk as something purely negative was dominant among the participants, who viewed risk as an unfavourable issue that does not have opportunities, which creates another source of risk – the risk of perception of risk. This research demonstrates that the perceptual aspect of risk emphasises the central role of people in any risk management process. For effective risk management, all perspectives should be considered. This requires a participatory system of managing risk, improving the awareness of people about risk, and modifying the culture of risk among them. Training has a significant role in the achievement of these fundamentals.

This thesis explores the relationship between development, Official Development Assistance (ODA) and the military in order to determine both the nature and effects of that relationship, and how the involvement of the military within ODA can be conducted in the most appropriate manner to support development. This study was conducted with regard to the current links between security and development within international relations and concerns that ODA is being drawn from a primarily development role to one that more explicitly supports national foreign and security policy ends instead. This issue is explored by defining development, ODA and the military as separate variables and then employing a grounded theory approach to develop an understanding of the relationship between them. The results of the study show that the involvement of the military within ODA and development may occur throughout the full range of operational contexts in which the military may be employed and can encompass activities throughout the scope of the functions of development. This involvement can in turn create a range of positive and negative impacts upon the conduct of ODA and development as the military serves to moderate the direction and strength of the relationship between the two. From this, the role of the military within ODA is identified as potentially an enabling, implementing and coordinating agency – primarily during times of crisis and conflict. The study then relates this role back to the wider context through considering the management of the military’s role and identifying the policies, parameters and procedures that may help to ensure that this role is conducted in the most appropriate manner for development.

This thesis aims to explore and analyse the experiences of participatory development projects in Sudan. The study focuses on participation in development, an issue that has attracted debate and discussion since the early 1970s. To contribute to this discussion and create more knowledge on this issue the White Nile Agricultural Services Project (WNASP) and North Kordofan Rural Development Project (NKRDP) were selected as case studies. Through various methods the nature and potential of participatory development approaches and interventions have been explored with the aim of identifying the factors that influenced people's participation, and suggesting ways to improve the practice of participatory development at grassroots level. The study found that although the projects encouraged and claimed to adopt participatory approaches, people were not engaged in a process through which participation could achieve empowerment or create real changes in their lives. The outcome of people's participation in the projects was influenced by development providers' policies, credibility and behaviour of staff, nature and amount of resources, socio-cultural norms, power relations, and communities' previous experiences, organisation and level of education. This suggests that primarily, designing participatory development programmes requires an in-depth understanding of prevailing social, economic, political and physical environments. Secondly, development providers should adopt approaches that accept negotiations with communities and challenge oppressive situations. Finally, if participatory development is to achieve its objectives, local communities must be provided with resources, information and skills. Based on evidence from powerful individuals in North Kordofan, this thesis suggests a moral-obligatory approach as one of the ways to improve the practice of participatory development in Sudan. This approach requires a fundamental change in development providers' policies, visions and credibility. If the essence of participatory development is adhered to, and if strategies and plans are designed collectively then there is an opportunity for making real change in the lives of those addressed by development interventions. This thesis concludes that more research is needed to explore the values, role, and impact of development providers and facilitators, as well as the nature and potential of local communities' participative values, organisations and practices.

In 1955, the New Zealand Government authorised the creation of a Special Forces unit to operate with British counterparts in Malaya to defeat a communist-inspired guerrilla insurgency. Between 1956 and 1971 elements of the New Zealand Special Air Service (SAS) were deployed on active service four times. These operational deployments included periods of time in Malaya, Thailand, Borneo and South Vietnam. The research illustrates the chronological progression of the New Zealand SAS through two of its most influential active service campaigns by examining how commitments to the Borneo ‘Confrontation’ in 1965 and 1966 directly and indirectly influenced the deployment to South Vietnam between December 1968 and February 1971. The mission of the New Zealand SAS in South Vietnam was to ‘assist in providing long range reconnaissance patrols’ that would support the larger infantry elements in defeating the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army enemy. New Zealand SAS soldiers participated in 169 Australian SAS patrols in South Vietnam. Of those, 137 were commanded by the New Zealanders themselves. The research describes what the New Zealand SAS encountered during nearly two and a half years in South Vietnam; from the tactical intensity associated with small five-man patrols often observing or contacting much larger enemy formations, to the uncompromising professional standards that were expected of all members regardless of situation or circumstances and the influences of experienced Patrol Commanders, and the frustrations and inflexibility which characterised the relationship with their Australian counterparts. The research also further examines the underlying issue of overall strategic success and value of a small nationally-identifiable and strongly independent military unit that was compelled to operate under the command of larger Special Forces coalition counterparts and the impact different political, doctrinal, tactical cultural and cognitive characteristics had on these joint-operational deployments. The size of the New Zealand SAS contribution to the Australian SAS Squadron combined with the command arrangements placed upon it, also dictated that the deployments were never likely to be able to exert influence in any ‘independent’ or nationally-identifiable sense, and the relationships, the types of patrol operations conducted, and the value of these operations, would ultimately see many New Zealand SAS veterans largely dissatisfied with the overall performance of the deployment. Nevertheless, the strength of New Zealand SAS operations in South Vietnam came from its practical application of unique New Zealand Special Forces methodology and field-craft which had been fundamentally shaped and developed in Borneo. The New Zealand SAS operations in South Vietnam and Borneo - the demonstration of the highest standards of patrol techniques, tracking, reconnaissance, ambushing and fire discipline, and above all, operational professionalism that has been the hallmark of New Zealand's military history – provided the evolutionary ‘platforms’ from which today’s highly skilled and enviable New Zealand Special Forces have emerged.

In 1955, the New Zealand Government authorised the creation of a Special Forces unit to operate with British counterparts in Malaya to defeat a communist-inspired guerrilla insurgency. Between 1956 and 1971 elements of the New Zealand Special Air Service (SAS) were deployed on active service four times. These operational deployments included periods of time in Malaya, Thailand, Borneo and South Vietnam. The research illustrates the chronological progression of the New Zealand SAS through two of its most influential active service campaigns by examining how commitments to the Borneo ‘Confrontation’ in 1965 and 1966 directly and indirectly influenced the deployment to South Vietnam between December 1968 and February 1971. The mission of the New Zealand SAS in South Vietnam was to ‘assist in providing long range reconnaissance patrols’ that would support the larger infantry elements in defeating the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army enemy. New Zealand SAS soldiers participated in 169 Australian SAS patrols in South Vietnam. Of those, 137 were commanded by the New Zealanders themselves. The research describes what the New Zealand SAS encountered during nearly two and a half years in South Vietnam; from the tactical intensity associated with small five-man patrols often observing or contacting much larger enemy formations, to the uncompromising professional standards that were expected of all members regardless of situation or circumstances and the influences of experienced Patrol Commanders, and the frustrations and inflexibility which characterised the relationship with their Australian counterparts. The research also further examines the underlying issue of overall strategic success and value of a small nationally-identifiable and strongly independent military unit that was compelled to operate under the command of larger Special Forces coalition counterparts and the impact different political, doctrinal, tactical cultural and cognitive characteristics had on these joint-operational deployments. The size of the New Zealand SAS contribution to the Australian SAS Squadron combined with the command arrangements placed upon it, also dictated that the deployments were never likely to be able to exert influence in any ‘independent’ or nationally-identifiable sense, and the relationships, the types of patrol operations conducted, and the value of these operations, would ultimately see many New Zealand SAS veterans largely dissatisfied with the overall performance of the deployment. Nevertheless, the strength of New Zealand SAS operations in South Vietnam came from its practical application of unique New Zealand Special Forces methodology and field-craft which had been fundamentally shaped and developed in Borneo. The New Zealand SAS operations in South Vietnam and Borneo - the demonstration of the highest standards of patrol techniques, tracking, reconnaissance, ambushing and fire discipline, and above all, operational professionalism that has been the hallmark of New Zealand's military history – provided the evolutionary ‘platforms’ from which today’s highly skilled and enviable New Zealand Special Forces have emerged.

This research examines the way employees perceive risk in a non-governmental healthcare organisation that provides care and support for people with mental, intellectual and physical disabilities. Thirty-four respondents from all levels and services within an NGO participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews to explore the meaning of the concept of risk from their own viewpoints, as well as their perspectives regarding types and sources of risk in their work and initiatives for controlling and dealing with such types and sources. This involved discussing the role of training in improving the awareness of employees in minimising risk, and the effect of training on the entire risk management process. Additional information was obtained by the researcher from documentation and personal observation. Themes that emerged from analysing data pointed to the interrelated link between perception and risk. Accordingly, the study found that risk is culturally constructed, individualistic, and subjective. It was evident that risk is a perceptual matter affected by beliefs, feelings, knowledge, culture, image, context, and the experience of people. The culture of fear of risk and of perceiving risk as something purely negative was dominant among the participants, who viewed risk as an unfavourable issue that does not have opportunities, which creates another source of risk – the risk of perception of risk. This research demonstrates that the perceptual aspect of risk emphasises the central role of people in any risk management process. For effective risk management, all perspectives should be considered. This requires a participatory system of managing risk, improving the awareness of people about risk, and modifying the culture of risk among them. Training has a significant role in the achievement of these fundamentals.

In 1955, the New Zealand Government authorised the creation of a Special Forces unit to operate with British counterparts in Malaya to defeat a communist-inspired guerrilla insurgency. Between 1956 and 1971 elements of the New Zealand Special Air Service (SAS) were deployed on active service four times. These operational deployments included periods of time in Malaya, Thailand, Borneo and South Vietnam. The research illustrates the chronological progression of the New Zealand SAS through two of its most influential active service campaigns by examining how commitments to the Borneo ‘Confrontation’ in 1965 and 1966 directly and indirectly influenced the deployment to South Vietnam between December 1968 and February 1971. The mission of the New Zealand SAS in South Vietnam was to ‘assist in providing long range reconnaissance patrols’ that would support the larger infantry elements in defeating the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army enemy. New Zealand SAS soldiers participated in 169 Australian SAS patrols in South Vietnam. Of those, 137 were commanded by the New Zealanders themselves. The research describes what the New Zealand SAS encountered during nearly two and a half years in South Vietnam; from the tactical intensity associated with small five-man patrols often observing or contacting much larger enemy formations, to the uncompromising professional standards that were expected of all members regardless of situation or circumstances and the influences of experienced Patrol Commanders, and the frustrations and inflexibility which characterised the relationship with their Australian counterparts. The research also further examines the underlying issue of overall strategic success and value of a small nationally-identifiable and strongly independent military unit that was compelled to operate under the command of larger Special Forces coalition counterparts and the impact different political, doctrinal, tactical cultural and cognitive characteristics had on these joint-operational deployments. The size of the New Zealand SAS contribution to the Australian SAS Squadron combined with the command arrangements placed upon it, also dictated that the deployments were never likely to be able to exert influence in any ‘independent’ or nationally-identifiable sense, and the relationships, the types of patrol operations conducted, and the value of these operations, would ultimately see many New Zealand SAS veterans largely dissatisfied with the overall performance of the deployment. Nevertheless, the strength of New Zealand SAS operations in South Vietnam came from its practical application of unique New Zealand Special Forces methodology and field-craft which had been fundamentally shaped and developed in Borneo. The New Zealand SAS operations in South Vietnam and Borneo - the demonstration of the highest standards of patrol techniques, tracking, reconnaissance, ambushing and fire discipline, and above all, operational professionalism that has been the hallmark of New Zealand's military history – provided the evolutionary ‘platforms’ from which today’s highly skilled and enviable New Zealand Special Forces have emerged.

Structural adjustment programmes have been promoted globally by international financial institutions as an answer to the financial problems of developing countries like Samoa. This thesis is a study of the history of structural adjustment programmes in the Independent State of Samoa, and focuses specifically on a case study of one particular programme: the restructuring and privatisation of the former Public Works Department (PWD). It seeks to compare the claims made for the reform process by development economists, development consultants and planners, politicians and reform managers, with the experiences of those who were involved in various roles in a particular type of reform: the privatisation of a Government utility. The PWD was chosen by the Samoan Government to kick-start its institutional reform programme. The Department had, over the years, suffered from poor management, corrupt practices, overspending and unaccounted funds which were all revealed in an Auditor General's Report tabled in Parliament in Samoa in 1994. This caused great embarrassment to the Government which had then to respond to these accusations. Government saw the reform of the PWD as a means to respond to public criticism of its lack of oversight, and discontent with the standard of the department's services in public works, institutional construction, repair and maintenance programmes. The study used a case study methodology to interview the people that were involved in the privatisation of the old Public Works Department (PWD). Various people who were, and are still, involved in the process of reforming Government institutions were interviewed. These included the politicians who both advocated and opposed the implementation of the reforms, the consultants who managed them for the Government and international agencies, and employees at all levels of the former Public Works Department. It explored PWD employees' personal and institutional experiences of the period before, during and since the reform of the agency. Despite the propaganda on the benefits that reform programmes have for the countries that implement them, the study has revealed different findings. It identifies and examines some important differences between the claims made by various stakeholders about the reforms, and the experiences of those who were directly involved in various ways. It has shown that people in different positions have different experiences of the same programmes, and that their experiences are significantly influenced by their social location and, specifically, whether they are "insiders" or "outsiders." It concludes by suggesting that since the structural reform project is likely to continue in Samoa for the foreseeable future, it is useful to identify those lessons from the PWD privatisation which might be applied to future projects to mitigate their social and organisational impact.