The study was designed to identify and get a better understanding of the determinants of Smallholder farmers' participation in cattle markets in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District of North West Province, A hundred and nine smallholder cattle farmers were randomly selected using the simple random sample method. The list of smallholder cattle farmers was obtained from the North West Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (Ngaka Modiri Molema District). Data was collected through the use of structured questionnaire that consisted of demographic characteristics market-related constraints encountered by smallholder cattle farmers, availability of infrastructure, access to market information, cattle production, cattle nutrition, cattle health, cattle husbandry, and reasons far keeping cattle and markets participated in by smallholder cattle farmers. The data was coded, captured and analysed using the statistical package for social science (SPSS) for frequencies, percentage and profit regression analysis. The results of the study show that the majority of the respondents in this research were male (72%): married (68%); Christians (74%); not formally educated 45°o; and having less than 10 years in farming (61%). The results highlighted that majority of the smallholder cattle farmers used informal markets to market their cattle (83%); mainly used auctions (58%) as a formal marketing channel and were mostly familiar with informal (62%) marketing channels. The farmers received higher prices (65%) from the cattle markets they regularly use and were nearer. The majority of smallholder farmers (55%) do not participate in the most rewarding channels. Majority of the smallholder cattle farmers were affected by, lack of support from government (96%); limited market information (95%); financial constraints (79%); (distance to mainstream markets (60%); and bureaucracy (62%). The results of probit regression model show that out of 15 independent variables considered, the coefficients for 5 variables' were statistical/v significant, These were the number of heifers (Z= 2, 742: P<P0. 05), smallholder cattle farmers keeping of farm records (Z=2. 611: P<0. 05), the number of years in farming (Z=2,45] P<0.01), level of education Z=-1. 745,' P<0.01) and smallholder farmers slaughtering of cattle and selling as carcass (Z- 1,899: P<0, 01). / Thesis (M.Sc.(Agric Economics) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2013

This dissertation contains two essays on the aggressive behavior of corporations in product market competition. In the first essay, I investigate how market structure can impact a firm's risk of facing predation by rivals, and hence, its financial policy decisions. Using a simple model, I demonstrate that a firm faces a greater predation threat when it meets the same competitor in many markets, as this competitor is able to internalize more of the benefit, degrading the firm's ability to compete in the future through aggressive actions today. I then test the predictions of the model using 2003-2011 panel data on store location across retail store chains in the US. I find that firms tend to expand more aggressively in markets shared with a competitor experiencing a substantial increase in leverage, or a decline in a credit rating, when they face that competitor in more of the other markets. The expansion relationship was found to be stronger in data from the 2008-2009 financial crisis, a period when difficulty in rolling over or obtaining new debt made it especially hard for weak firms to absorb losses. I also show that a firm facing the same competitors in many markets choose lower levels of leverage and that it decreases that leverage when a merger in the industry increases the amount of competitive overlap it has with other firms. These results suggest that firms are aware of the predation risk due to a competitive overlap and select financial policies to minimize this risk. In the second essay, I study the impact of internally generated funds on product market competition. More specifically, I investigate the idea that firms compete aggressively when their competitors face cash flow shortfalls. Testing this idea is challenging because competitor's cash flow changes are potentially endogenous with respect to firm's behavior. I address this problem in three ways. First, I investigate firm's reaction in a given market when its competitors face cash flow shortfalls outside of that market; this analysis is conducted using store location data on retail store chains. Second, I focus on the 2008-2009 financial crisis period in which retail store chains were hit by a negative demand shock which was hardly expected ex ante. Finally, I use a shock to local economic conditions which varies across markets and the different distributions of store locations across firms as instruments for the changes in competitors' cash flows. I find that a firm expands more in a given market in which it competes with rivals which face a more negative cash flow shortfall in the other markets. This relation is stronger when the competitors were highly leveraged before the crisis. Finally, I illustrate evidence that a firm responds more aggressively to competitor's cash flow shortfalls if it competes with that competitor in many of the same markets; this result is consistent with the prediction of the model in Chapter 1. These essays contribute to the literature by adding new evidence on the predatory behavior of corporations in product market competition. / text

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We investigate the stabilization of unstable multidimensional partially observed single-station, multi-sensor (single-controller) and multi-controller (single-sensor) linear systems controlled over discrete noiseless channels under fixed-rate information constraints. Stability is achieved under communication requirements that are asymptotically tight in the limit of large sampling periods. Through the use of similarity transforms, sampling and random-time drift conditions we obtain a coding and control policy leading to the existence of a unique invariant distribution and finite second moment for the sampled state. We use a vector stabilization scheme in which all modes of the linear system visit a compact set together infinitely often. / Thesis (Master, Mathematics & Statistics) -- Queen's University, 2012-12-06 15:06:37.449

The present study examined 8 -10 month-old and 11 -13 month-old infants’ capabilities to infer constraints imposed by an explicit visual pathway on object movement of object. In a preferential looking paradigm, infants observed a ball rolling down a U– or V–shaped path. In the U-shaped path, infants observed a ball rolling from beginning to the end of the path (possible), and a ball rolling down from the beginning and stopping midway of the path (impossible). In the V-shaped path, infants observed a ball rolling from beginning and stopping midway (possible), and a ball rolling down the beginning to end of the path (impossible). Analyses of looking times showed a marginal effect on path, with longer looking times towards the possible V-shaped path by both age groups. Overall, infants had weak representations for constraints induced by an explicitly presented path on movement of the object.

This study proposed that new insights about attention, including its phenomenon and pathology, would be provided by combining perspectives of the neurobiological discourse about attention with analyses of artworks that exploit the constraints of the attentional system. To advance the central argument that art offers a training ground for the attentional system, a wide range of contemporary art was analysed in light of specific tasks invoked. The kinds of cognitive tasks these works initiate with respect to the attentional system have been particularly critical to this research. Attention was explored within the context of transdisciplinary art practices, varied circumstances of viewing, new neuroscientific findings, and new approaches towards learning. Research for this dissertation required practical investigations in a gallery setting, and this original work was contextualised and correlated with pertinent neuroscientific approaches. It was also concluded that art can enhance public awareness of attention disorders and assist the public in discriminating between medical and social factors through questioning how norms of behaviour are defined and measured. This territory was examined through the comparative analysis of several diagnostic tests for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), through the adaptation of a methodology from economics involving patent citation in order to show market incentives, and through examples of data visualisation. The construction of an installation and collaborative animation allowed participants to experience first-hand the constraints on the attentional system, provoking awareness of our own “normal” physiological limitations. The embodied knowledge of images, emotion, and social context that are deeply embedded in art practices appeared to be capable of supplementing neuroscience’s understanding of attention and its disorders.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental human rights. In Article 19 of United Nations  Declaration of Human Rights declared “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”   China claims that the citizens of People’s Republic of China have the right of freedom of speech in Chinese current Constitution. However, Chinese journalists are barely able to express news freely, and the media freedom has become to a serious problem in modern China. On the other hand, Taiwan’s media freedom is considered to be the best in Asia according to Freedom House.   In this thesis, the author will research media freedom in China through a comparative case study, where the differences between Chinese and Taiwanese media will be explored. The thesis looks at how Chinese and Taiwanese media practice media freedom and how the Chinese media is constrained.     As a comparative case study, Chinese and Taiwanese media reports on the Mong Kok civil unrest in 2016 is used since the events in Hong Kong are of interest to both sets of media. Both quantitative and qualitative research method was used to do the data collection, and in analysis of the cases, critical discourse analysis is applied along with Trilling’s three models.   The research shows that the Chinese and Taiwanese media displayed obvious differences in their reporting of the Mong Kok civil unrest, they have different news quantities, article size, photo usage, news angle, key messages and thematic structure, as well as the means of expression. According to the analysis of these differences, the Chinese media freedom was limited to a great extent. In addition, the Chinese media was socially constrained by the deep-rooted sense of Democratic Centralism and Confucian value both in national leaders and citizens.