A decision-aid system. for determining and achieving optimal distributions of wildlife law enforcement manpower was developed. Manpower distributions were computed by means of a workload formula for a case study application in the J.E.B. Stuart Enforcement District, Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries. A linear programming model was used to determine least cost methods of achieving prescribed manpower distributions. Simulations of permanent relocations and hiring of personnel were performed to evaluate the impact of management decisions on costs of achieving prescribed distributions. In the case study, total transfer cost resulting from simulated permanent relocation of personnel was 73% that of the present distribution, total transfer cost of simulated hiring of new personnel was 94% that of the present distribution. A simulation of inappropriate location of new personnel resulted in an increase in total transfer cost of 22% over that of the present distribution. These findings were relevant only to the case study; however, the use of the system as a general purpose simulator was demonstrated. Studies were performed of the relationships of patrol area environmental attributes, agent personal background characteristics, enforcement methods, enforcement effort, and season with enforcement efficiency (quality arrest score per enforcement hour). A wildlife law violation seriousness scale was developed in order to compute the measure of enforcement efficiency. Observations were obtained from Virginia wildlife law enforcement agents during November 1977, February, May, and August 1978. Patrol area intensity of 20 environmental variables, 25 personal background variables, 5 enforcement methods variables, total enforcement hours, and 4 study periods were independent variables. Two and 3-way interactions were detected by automatic interaction detection (AID) among total quality arrest score (QAS) by patrol, total QAS by response to citizen notification, and total enforcement hours. Analysis of covariance by multiple regression procedures indicated that methods of enforcement, effort, and their interactions we.re more closely associated with enforcement efficiency than other major categories of independent variables. Total QAS by patrol, total QAS by investigation, an interaction of total QAS by patrol and total enforcement hours, total QAS by response to citizen notification, total QAS by stakeout, and effort showed the greatest association with the dependent variable. To a lesser degree, agent rank, months of service, and whether the agent had been fired from previous employment were also shown to be associated with enforcement efficiency. Only one environmental attribute, the intensity of water recreation in the patrol area, was associated with enforcement efficiency. These results generally supported assumptions employed in the decision-aid system. / Ph. D.

This study examines the need for nature conservation legislation and the enforcement thereof in the Gauteng province. The study commences with an in depth examination of the historical background to nature conservation and nature conservation legislation in order to explain why the present condition exists. Some of the guidelines of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) are considered in this regard as well as fines and penalties that are inadequate as deterrents for contraventions of nature conservation legislation. The necessity of the appointment of provincial departments of environmental affairs and the importance of environmental education as a means to an end are touched on. There is attention given to the economic importance of tourism for the realisation of economic prosperity to the regiol') and how that depends of adequate nature conservation legislation enforcement. The roles that different departments of the state and the private sector and organised pressure groups can play are also identified. An investigation has been conducted into the inner workings of the Gauteng Nature Conservation Directorate with a statistical analysis, sampling and arguments. Local and international case studies have been used as examples for analysis as well as statistics of previous trends. The study ends with conclusions which have been reached followed by recommendations which may be implemented. / Public Administration / Thesis (M. Pub. Admin.)--University of South Africa, 2001. / M. Pub. Admin.

In this thesis, Initial Value Problem of Level-set Method is applied to solid propellant combustion to find the grain burnback. For the performance prediction of the rocket motor, 0-D, 1-D or 3-D flow models are used depending on the type of thre grain configuration.

One common approach to managing the inevitable erroneous convictions and erroneous acquittals produced by criminal justice systems is to employ various means (rules and procedures) to decrease the number of erroneous convictions at the expense of increasing, even many more times, the number of erroneous acquittals. Blackstone’s famous dictum (1765) that “[i]t is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer” (“the Blackstone ratio”), and others like it, have inspired this error distributing approach to error management. A mathematical analysis is provided demonstrating that, under certain conditions (“the R-conditions”), error distributing approaches result in criminal justice systems that function worse, by all quantitative measures (including the number of innocents convicted), than similar systems in which defendants are randomly acquitted. These results follow from one of a pair of derived fundamental equations applicable to all criminal justice systems, regardless of circumstance. Thus, the results hold irrespective of the means used to avoid convicting the guilty and challenge those who wish to engage in a particular error distributing approach to show that the R-conditions do not obtain for that approach (with reasonably convincing accuracy). Further, the results presented herein identify an upper bound to the Blackstone ratio, according to one conception of that ratio. / text

The thesis deals with the construction of an adaptive 1D and 2D mesh in the framework of the cell- centered finite volume scheme. The adaptive strategy is applied to the numerical solution of problems governed by the Euler equations, which is a hyperbolic system of PDE's. The used algorithm is applicable to nonstationary problems and consists of three independent parts, which are cyclically repeated. These steps are PDE evolution, then mesh adaptation and recovery of numerical solution from the old mesh to the newly adapted mesh. Owing to this the algorithm can be used also for other hyperbolic systems. The thesis is focused on the development of our mesh adaptation strategy, based on the anisotropic mesh adaptation, which preserves the geometric mass conservation law in each computational step. The proposed method is suitable to solve problems with moving discontinuities. Several test problems with moving discontinuity are computed to compare our algorithm with Moving Mesh algorithms.

This study examines the need for nature conservation legislation and the enforcement thereof in the Gauteng province. The study commences with an in depth examination of the historical background to nature conservation and nature conservation legislation in order to explain why the present condition exists. Some of the guidelines of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) are considered in this regard as well as fines and penalties that are inadequate as deterrents for contraventions of nature conservation legislation. The necessity of the appointment of provincial departments of environmental affairs and the importance of environmental education as a means to an end are touched on. There is attention given to the economic importance of tourism for the realisation of economic prosperity to the regiol') and how that depends of adequate nature conservation legislation enforcement. The roles that different departments of the state and the private sector and organised pressure groups can play are also identified. An investigation has been conducted into the inner workings of the Gauteng Nature Conservation Directorate with a statistical analysis, sampling and arguments. Local and international case studies have been used as examples for analysis as well as statistics of previous trends. The study ends with conclusions which have been reached followed by recommendations which may be implemented. / Public Administration and Management / Thesis (M. Pub. Admin.)--University of South Africa, 2001. / M. Pub. Admin.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Indigenous communities have developed a wealth of knowledge, which plays a crucial role in providing leads for the use of genetic resources and bioprospecting. However, such knowledge is under increasing threat due to the misappropriation of the biological resources and associated traditional knowledge of indigenous communities, through both bioprospecting, as well as the inappropriate exercise of intellectual property rights. The internationally agreed Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) attempts to provide a bulwark against biopiracy and although it assists indigenous communities to regain some control, the CBD has proven inadequate in the protection of the traditional knowledge of indigenous communities. The subsequent Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Nagoya Protocol) attempts to address some of these limitations but unfortunately has its own shortcomings, as it was largely concluded on the basis of a compromise between developed and developing countries. This dissertation will undertake a critical analysis of the provisions of the CBD and Nagoya Protocol, with a view to establishing the level of protection these instruments afford indigenous communities. It will be shown that notwithstanding the drawbacks of both the CBD and Nagoya Protocol, they nevertheless represent major achievements in the journey to protect the genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge of indigenous communities. It is in this context that this dissertation will analyse South Africa’s Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) regime in relation to the protection it affords indigenous communities and in the light of the implementation challenges that such legislation presents. A particular focus will be on whether South Africa’s ABS legislation complies with the country’s international obligations relating to the protection of indigenous communities and whether South Africa’s approach to the protection of the genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge of indigenous communities, in the context of bioprospecting, is adequate or whether there exists potential for its enhancement. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Orientador: Otto Bismarck Fazzano Gadig / Abstract: The establishment of no-take marine reserves (NTRs), i.e. areas with total fishing restrictions, has been an alternative worldwide aiming to preserve both biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Brazil has important NTRs with few studies describing their relevance and efficiency for marine life. With this, the central objective of this thesis was to evaluate the effects of NTRs on fish assemblage, testing the hypothesis that the differences in richness, abundance, biomass and fish body size is more explained by protection status than environmental characteristics. Thus, innovative techniques in Brazil, Baited Remote Underwater stereo-Videos (stereo-BRUVs) and Diver Operated stereo-Videos (stereo-DOVs) were tested in the Southwestern Atlantic, comparing with traditional visual census (stationary point count and belt transects), and used to analyze the effects of the Tupinambás Ecological Station and Abrolhos Marine National Park on fish assemblages. For this, fish assemblage characteristics, such as richness, abundance, biomass and body size, were compared to areas where fishing is allowed, and the habitat complexity was estimated through the footages. Concerning methods comparison, stereo-DOV showed to be more effective, sampling more richness and abundance within less effort, and Stereo-BRUVs showed to sample a very specific assemblage, comprised mostly by mobile and large bodied fish species, usually targeted by fisheries. Within both NTRs evaluated, target species characteri... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Resumo: O estabelecimento de reservas marinhas de restrição total (No-take reserves - NTRs), ou seja, áreas com proibição total de pesca, tem sido uma alternativa mundial para preservar a biodiversidade e as funções dos ecossistemas. O Brasil tem importantes NTRs com poucos estudos descrevendo sua relevância e eficiência para a vida marinha. Com isso, o objetivo central desta tese foi avaliar os efeitos de NTRs em assembleias de peixes, testando a hipótese de que as diferenças em riqueza, abundância, biomassa e tamanho corporal dos peixes são mais explicadas pelo status de proteção do que por características ambientais. Para tanto, técnicas inovadoras no Brasil, estéreo-vídeos subaquáticos com isca (Baited Remote Underwater stereo-Videos - stereo-BRUVs) e estéreo-vídeos operados por mergulhador (Diver Operated stereo-Videos - stereo-DOVs) foram testados no Atlântico Sudoeste, comparando com os censos visuais tradicionalmente aplicados (estacionário e transecto), e utilizados para analisar os efeitos da Estação Ecológica Tupinambás e do Parque Nacional Marinho dos Abrolhos nas assembleias de peixes. Para isso, as características das assembleias de peixes em termos de riqueza, biomassa, abundância e tamanho corpóreo, foram comparadas com as áreas onde a pesca é permitida, e a complexidade do habitat foi estimada através das imagens. Em relação à comparação dos métodos, o estéreo-DOV apresentou maior eficiência, amostrando mais riqueza e abundância com menor esforço, e o estéreo-BRUV am... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Doutor

In dieser Arbeit werden zwei Klassen von Evolutionsgleichungen in einem Matrixraum-Setting studiert: Hyperbolische Erhaltungsgleichungen und aktive skalare Gleichungen. Für erstere wird untersucht, wann man Oszillationen mit Hilfe polykonvexen Maßen ausschließen kann; für Zweitere wird mit Hilfe von Oszillationen gezeigt, dass es unendlich viele periodische schwache Lösungen gibt.