According to Baker (1955), success of plant invasions can be attributed to autogamous breeding systems and generalist pollination systems. A test of Baker's rule was carried out on 19 invasive alien plant species in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Natural levels of fruit set in these plants was high (median= 71.5% fruit set per plant). Breeding system experiments for 18 species showed that 17% of the species are allogamous, 72 % are autogamous and 11% are apomictic. This contrasts markedly with a general flora of 1472 species in which 65% are allogamous, only 14% are autogamous, and 21% are apomictic. Because the breeding systems of the alien species were largely autogamous, pollinators make only a small contribution to the overall reproductive success. Seventy one percent of the 14 alien species for which pollinators were obtained were pollinated by honeybees, which are super-generalists and ubiquitous in a generalist pollination systems. However, some species showed pre-adaptation to relatively specialized pollination systems, involving hawkmoths, butterflies and Xylocopa bees respectively. Thus, alien plants were not visited by a wide range of insects, but rather showed pre-adaption to one or more pre-existing guilds in the new habitat. Pollen limitation experiments showed no evidence that reproductive success in populations of the species is limited by pollen availability. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

Alien invasive vegetation threatens the functioning of natural ecosystems as well as their services, which sustain human welfare, both directly and indirectly. The proliferation of this vegetation in South Africa has been attributed to the ignorance of the social implications affiliated to their existence. Investment decisions are predominantly based on the marginal private costs of an activity, since individuals have not been made accountable for costs imposed on society in the past. Consequently, their marginal private costs always fall well short of the marginal social costs. In order to promote sustainable development as well as curtail widespread invasion by alien plants in South Africa, it is essential to close the gap between these costs and support research aimed at ascertaining monetary values for non-market goods, such as biodiversity. This study scrutinizes the economic viability of alien plant eradication in the Mhlatuze Catchment by comparing the costs and benefits associated with this eradication process. A series of formal in-depth interviews with major stakeholders residing in the upper reaches of the catchment were conducted in an attempt to evoke individuals' perceptions concerning alien vegetation together with the actual costs incurred in extirpating this vegetation. The contingent valuation method (CVM), which relies on surveys to elicit the maximum amount respondents would be willing to pay to obtain or retain some nonmarket good, was employed to glean monetary values for benefits such as biodiversity and augmented streamflow. The findings suggest that there is a positive net effect associated with alien vegetation extirpation in the Mhlatuze Catchment, since the social benefits outweigh the costs. Given the temporal and financial constraints that prevailed, it was only possible to examine some of the benefits affiliated to this process, such as increased timber harvesting, streamflow, biodiversity and reduced fire hazard. Consequently, this analysis represents a minimum estimate of the benefits, further enhancing the argument in favour of extirpation. The results lend support to calls for greater policy emphasis on, as well as funds for, the eradication of alien invasive plants. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

When the Malaysian Prime Minister announced throughout the country in November, 1989, that the New Economic Policy, which had been aimed at encouraging the Bumiputras of Malaysia divulge into business, had only achieved 19.4 percent success rate, few were surprised. This was because it had been known over the two decades of the New Economic Policy that the Malays had achieved little impact in the local entrepreneurial scene. What was surprising, was that no one questioned why the NEP had achieved so little, as compared to the hundreds of millions of Malalaysian dollars which had been allocated for the purpose of helping them become more entrepreneurial. It is the view of this researcher that the Malaysian government and publics still have not achieved the expected 30 percent NEP objective of Malay participation because the main issue at the heart of the matter, that is the fact that little is known about the characteristics of the Malays who have become entrepreneurs overnight, is not fully understood. This research, even though only focussing on Sarawak, is meant to act as the springboard for future research into understanding Malay entrepreneurial attributes and what more better way to do that other than by comparing them with the Chinese entrepreneurs in the state, whose successes in business have enabled them to dominate the state economy. Comparison of the business activity of the two races is the prime focus of this research and it is hoped that the results of this study will be useful for future policy makers as well as the entrepreneurial development programmes they design. Failure to do this will result in more wastage in the resources and manpower employed, largely because of duplication of the activities such as seminars, workshops and entrepreneurial courses which everybody seems to be organising but where nobody seems to be keeping record of who is organising what courses, who has attended what courses, who is or is not eligible to attend, or more importantly, even who can achieve the most benefit from what is being provided. This research reveals the similarities as well as the differences between the Malay and Chinese entrepreneurs in the study. These attributes are compared and analysed statistically to see whether certain characteristics (variables) for the two groups are positively or negatively correlated, and if so, how strong the correlation is. The analyses from the study is then compared to earlier studies which have all been done for the Malays and Chinese in Peninsular Malaysia. It is pertinent to note at this point that no study of this kind has ever been undertaken for Sarawak, and this study happens to be the first.

This thesis examines the history of female immigrant domestic labour in Canada from a socialist feminist perspective. Over the past hundred years, Canadian immigration policy with respect to domestic workers became increasingly regressive with the shift in the racial composition of foreign female domestics. The women's movement contributed to this change as gains in Canadian women's public rights did not effectively challenge the dominant social paradigm of women's roles, and so left intact the public-private divide and the sexual division of labour to which were allied biases of race and class. The women's movement thus became an unwitting participant in the formulation of regressive immigration policies which rebounded on the women's movement itself, reinforcing its internal divisions.

Recent theories of the social consequences of institutions point to aspects of class and ethnic relations that are not fully captured by conventional institutional perspectives. Using some of these recent theoretical contributions, this thesis analyzes the influence of institutional conditions on the mobilization of French and immigrant workers in late 19th-century northern France. Two main institutional structures are discussed: France's unique network of labour courts, and the socialist cooperatives created by Flemish workers in the 1880s. The empirical, chiefly archival evidence suggests two main conclusions: labour movements emerged and evolved strongly influenced by the judicial framing of labour relations, which they in turn sought to use and modify to their advantage; the institutional innovation of Flemish immigrant workers had a durable influence on the organization of labour politics in northern France, and contributed to their integration as active social and political participants.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-85). / vii, 85 leaves, bound 29 cm

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-79). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-145).