The aim of this study is to determine the value of the Big 5 from a visitor’s perspective. This study will focus on determining the stated preference or contingent value (CV) of the Big 5 through a survey of tourists’, visiting the Kruger National Park, willingness to pay (WTP) for the conservation. The CV method is based on the principle of stated preferences, since participants are asked to state how much they are willing to pay for specific goods or services. Literature indicates that there is a relationship between education, income, professional standing, marital status, age, characteristics of visit, number of children and nationality and a tourist’s willingness to pay. By estimating the effect these variables have on a tourist’s willingness to pay will assist parks and private game reserves in future decisions concerning the conservation of wildlife. Additionally this information is also invaluable for marketing as well as pricing purposes since it gives a specific monetary value. The study found that visitors to the Kruger National Park (KNP) assigned a significant amount (34.64%) of total average spending to experience the Big 5. The value per species also differed. The main determinants of visitors’ willingness-to-pay for simply viewing the Big 5 include age, the marital status and the role of the Big 5 during decision to visit the KNP. Noticeable differences between international literature and this research are the determinants like education, income, age and country of residence. / Thesis (MCom (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Problem statement: There seem to be perceptual incongruence between systems development managers and developers. Research shows that while managers are more positive towards systems development methodologies, developers on the other hand seem to resist and not to use systems development methodologies in their entirety but instead adapt, tailor, modify and change them depending on the project at hand (contingent use). Systems development managers can exert power through a variety of influence bases. However, these power influences may be perceived differently by developers. While some might feel constrained, others might actually feel liberated by the existence of the same influence base. Main findings: IS managers are using systems development methodologies to gain control over team members. However, there was no clear perception on whether systems development methodologies were enslaving systems developers. This was indicated by the majority of the respondents neither agreeing nor disagreeing to that effect. The research showed that most organisations are adapting the use of systems development methodologies on a project to project basis, which is referred to as the contingent use of systems development methodologies. Research method followed: The positivistic research paradigm was used as it allowed the researcher to find out patterns and regularities between power, systems development methodologies’ use and success. A survey was conducted and a questionnaire was used for data collection purposes. Questionnaire data was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 21, Release 20.0.0 software package tools. Principal conclusion: Power is interpreted in terms of the type of power that can be exercised by IT professionals specifically IS developers and their respective managers at the workplace. The roles assumed and the different power types that may be exercised in organisations provide a link as to who has the final say when it comes to the use and success rate of systems development methodologies. The contingent use of systems development methodologies provides a form of “freedom” to systems developers. Based on the research findings, the research proposes an answer to the question – are systems development methodologies enslaving systems developers and empowering IS managers? / MSc (Computer Science), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The aim of this study is to determine the value of the Big 5 from a visitor’s perspective. This study will focus on determining the stated preference or contingent value (CV) of the Big 5 through a survey of tourists’, visiting the Kruger National Park, willingness to pay (WTP) for the conservation. The CV method is based on the principle of stated preferences, since participants are asked to state how much they are willing to pay for specific goods or services. Literature indicates that there is a relationship between education, income, professional standing, marital status, age, characteristics of visit, number of children and nationality and a tourist’s willingness to pay. By estimating the effect these variables have on a tourist’s willingness to pay will assist parks and private game reserves in future decisions concerning the conservation of wildlife. Additionally this information is also invaluable for marketing as well as pricing purposes since it gives a specific monetary value. The study found that visitors to the Kruger National Park (KNP) assigned a significant amount (34.64%) of total average spending to experience the Big 5. The value per species also differed. The main determinants of visitors’ willingness-to-pay for simply viewing the Big 5 include age, the marital status and the role of the Big 5 during decision to visit the KNP. Noticeable differences between international literature and this research are the determinants like education, income, age and country of residence. / Thesis (MCom (Economics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

In the late 1990s, many Western governments introduced policy programs to make information and communication technology (ICT) accessible to all. More than a decade later, however, such universal access is far from a reality. Between 2002 and 2005, in response to a request from a group of contingent workers who felt excluded from effective access to ICT training, a university research group on contingency conducted an applied research project in the form of a series of basic ICT courses. This qualitative dissertation both critically examines the training process and treats it as a case study for exploring broader issues of exclusion and resistance in the context of access to ICT. Specifically, it explores: (1) the symptoms of exclusion as they relate to ICT, social capital, and the community; (2) possibilities for resistance that can alleviate the conditions of exclusion; (3) the assumptions, theories, knowledge construction, policy methods, and processes that underlie the symptoms of exclusion; and (4) alternative assumptions, strategies, and activities that offer possibilities for resistive action. The case study provided an environment in which exclusionary and resistive experiences with access to ICT and training were examined from the perspective of excluded contingent workers, as supported by a university research group. A key finding is that generational behaviour in the domestic sphere erects barriers that contribute to the silencing and exclusion of immigrant contingent women; these barriers then reinforce similar patterns of exclusion in institutionalized ICT training. Another major finding is the need for alleviating the barrier that limited English skills create for ICT learning; addressing this issue must be part of any recommendations for curricular change. Guided throughout by a critical approach that focuses on the concept of ruling relations, this dissertation marshals critical knowledge gained from below in support of change by policymakers, educators, and community practitioners.

目前臺灣農村面臨許多的問題，設立「生態村」結合農村社區總體營造與生態旅遊，可以同時兼顧農業生產、農村生活、以及生態保育「三生」的功能，為臺灣的農村社區，指引出一條不一樣的發展途徑。南投縣埔里鎮桃米社區在結合觀光服務業與自然生態資源，轉型成為「桃米生態休閒農業村」之後，為該社區居民保有優美、豐富的生態資源並且帶來了更多的經濟收入。 臺灣生態村的類型，可分為(一)著重建築規劃設計、(二)著重社區整體規劃、(三)兼具建築技術與社區規劃，以及(四)既有農村社區轉型而成之類型，目前許多農村地區「生態村」的經營模式，多以休閒農業及發展生態旅遊為規劃方向，因此較著重於生態保育以及社區整體規劃。未來，生態村除了著重於自然環境資源的保育之外，亦可加強生態建築的規劃，營造一個重視保育、循環與低負荷的社區環境。 環境資源所具有的總價值基本上可分為「使用價值」與「非使用價值」兩種，使用價值是實際使用資源所產生的價值，而非使用價值係目前沒有使用資源所具有的價值。通常在評估環境資源的方法有(一)特徵價格法、(二)旅行成本法、(三)條件評估法，三種評估方法，而評估非使用價值目前僅有條件評估法而供使用，當然條件評估法不可避免地存有缺點，但目前國內外實證研究仍多視條件評估法為可行之方法，因此本研究係採用條件評估法探求桃米生態村之非使用價值。 桃米生態村的轉型經驗，可謂兼具天時、地利、人和，在社區居民、專家團體以及政府的共同努力，將農村社區做一、二、三級產業的垂直整合，透過居民參與，凝聚社區向心力與歸屬感，共同致力於桃米社區的發展，不僅創造了社區三級產業的收入，更可達到生態保育的效果，此實例可供許多農村社區做為社區轉型的參考依據。 在建立非使用價值評估步驟之後，依順序逐步完成問卷調查，本研究同時分析單界二元Probit與Logit模型，以及完整決策Tobit模型，最後採Tobit模型的估計結果，受訪者每戶每年願意支付桃米生態村的「存在價值」為363.98元；「選擇價值」為328.63元；而「遺贈價值」則為548.53元。

利用條件評估法 (contingent valuation method) 來評估非市場財貨之市場隱含價值時，雙界二分選擇法 (doubled-bound dichotomous choice method) 為最普遍的詢價方式。近年來，藉由此詢價方式來估計受訪者心目中的願付價值 (willingness to pay) 之研究中，更將此方法推廣至同時估計兩個以上且具有相關性的非市場財貨。只是文獻中的相關探討多半忽略其間的相關性，此外所採用的模型也有可能導致估計的願付價值會有小於零的情形產生。因此，本文引進了衍生版本的Bivariate Generalized Gamma Distribution，來解決這上述兩個問題。我們並採用「竹東及朴子地區心臟血管疾病之危險因子長期追□研究」中，第五循環的「肥胖之願付價格問卷」來作實證分析。在其餘的條件不變的情況下，分析結果顯示，居住在竹東、女性、教育程度愈高、年紀愈小、體重愈重及收入愈高的受訪者會願意支付較高的金額來接受減肥的療程；此外，認為肥胖會影響工作及社交關係的受訪者也會願意支付較高的金額。 / In a contingent valuation survey, it is quite often that subjects were asked to respond to more than one WTP (willingness-to-pay) scenarios. Under such a circumstance, responses provided by a subject are clearly correlated. Although the issue is well recognized in the past, in practice a popular strategy in analyzing this sort of data, however, simply ignore the issue and treat them as if they were totally uncorrelated. Concerning that WTP prices can take only non-negative values along with the issue of possible correlation, we propose an “extend bivariate generalized gamma distribution” that can be used to deal with data collected under a two-scenario situation. Applying it to the CVDFACTS study, where subjects were asked to evaluate a medication-only program as well as a medication-and-exercise program, we found that, other things being equal, female subjects, subjects residing in Chu-Dung County, subjects weigh more, subjects with younger age, higher income, and more years of schooling are willing to pay more. In addition, those who think obesity would affect their social activities would also have higher WTP prices.

Artificial Intelligence Planning is about acting in order to achieve a desired goal. Under incomplete information, the task of finding the actions needed to achieve the goal can be modelled as a search problem in the belief space. This task is costly, as belief space is exponential in the number of states, which is exponential in the number of variables. Good belief representations and heuristics are thus critical for scaling up in this setting. The translation-based approach to automated planning with incomplete information deals with both issues by casting the problem of search in belief space to a search problem in state space, where each node of the search space represents a belief state. We develop plan synthesis tools that use translated versions of planning problems under uncertainty, with partial or null sensing available. We show formally under which conditions the introduced translations are polynomial, and capture all and only the plans of the original problems. We study empirically the value of these translations. / La Planificación es la disciplina de Inteligencia Artificial que estudia los procesos de razonamiento necesarios para conseguir las acciones que logren un objetivo dado. En presencia de información incompleta, el problema de planificación puede ser modelado como una búsqueda en el espacio de estados de creencia, cada uno de ellos representando un conjunto de estados posibles. Este problema es costoso ya que el numero de estados de creencia puede ser exponencial en el número de estados, lo cual es exponencial en el número de variables del problema. El uso de buenas representaciónes de los estados y de heurísticas informadas resultan cruciales para escalar en este espacio de búsqueda. En esta tesis se presentan traducciones para planificación con información incompleta, que transforman el problema de búsqueda en el espacio de estados de creencia, en búsqueda en espacio de estados, donde cada nodo representa un estado de creencia. Hemos desarrollado herramientas para la generación de planes para el problema traducido, ya sea con percepción parcial o nula. A su vez, demostramos formalmente bajo qué circunstancias las traducciones son polinómicas, completas y correctas. La evaluación empírica remarca el valor de dichas traducciones

This thesis explores the theoretical basis of non-market valuation techniques; discusses in detail, the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) and the Travel Cost Method (TCM); highlights the advantages and disadvantages of various non-market valuation techniques and their suitability under different conditions; and identifies the Contingent Valuation Method as the most appropriate non-market valuation technique to apply to Pekapeka Swamp, the case study site. The overall objective of the study is to apply the most appropriate non-market valuation technique to estimate the total economic value (TEV) of the restoration and preservation of Pekapeka Swamp and to test Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s (HBRC) restoration programme for the Pekapeka Swamp using economic efficiency criteria. An appropriate contingent valuation mail survey questionnaire was designed to elicit responses to the dichotomous choice (DC) and open-ended valuation questions, and to collect socio-economic data and information on households’ attitude towards the environment. Responses to the survey questionnaire were analysed (using ordinary least squares regression for the open ended question, and logistic regression, for the DC question) to identify the factors that influence households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the restoration and preservation of the Pekapeka Swamp and to estimate TEV. A number of functional forms of the logit and open-ended WTP models were fitted from which WTP functions were estimated. Households were asked a DC question followed by an open-ended question regarding the value they placed on the restoration and preservation of Pekapeka Swamp. Out of an initial mail-out of 958 questionnaires, an overall response rate of 46.13% was achieved after two follow-ups. Results from the final usable sample of 231, after removing protests and inconsistent responses, indicate that households in the Hawke’s Bay region would pay, on average, between NZ$30.00 and NZ$76.89 per annum for five years. Unit value ranges between NZ$17,898 and NZ$45,866 per hectare per year; and net present values for the restoration and preservation programme for Pekapeka Swamp based on our ‘best estimates’ range between NZ$5.05 million and NZ$18.20 million depending on the model and discount rate used.

[Truncated abstract] The senior Imperial officers who took part in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 are comparatively well known and their service in that brief period has been well documented, as indeed has that of many of their junior colleagues. Much less, however, is known about the officers who served as commandants of the Natal Native Contingent, although more than half of them were Imperial officers on special service duties. Most of the rest were British ex-officers who lived in South Africa, while one of the remaining two was an adventurer and mercenary. Many of them had already found service with the South African force during the Ninth Cape Border War against the Ngqika and Gcaleka which had only ended in mid-1878. According to official documents, the Natal Native Contingent initially numbered more than 8,000 native troops, in three regiments, under the command of European officers and non-commissioned officers. At the time of the invasion of Zululand in January, 1879, the contingent therefore made up about 62% of the invading force. This bald statistic, as so often, hides the true story. The thesis examines each of the commandants, and the extent to which their abilities and personalities were reflected in the performance of the native troops under their command, while at the same time revealing the evolution of the Contingent itself as an arm of the invading force under Lieutenant General Lord Chelmsford ... The haste with which the regiments were assembled, their often inhuman treatment by their officers, the minimal or non-existent training they received and the way they were armed and dressed all combined to qualify their subsequent performance in the field. A comparison of the NNC is drawn with the performances of the Native Mounted Contingent, and the men of Colonel, later Brigadier General, Evelyn Wood?s Irregulars. The conclusion of the thesis is that the commandants did indeed have a profound effect on the quality and performance of the Africans who served under them. In general, the units under serving British officers performed best, while the colonial officers did less well. The mercenary officer was almost certainly the worst, but by only a slim margin.

Syftet med studien är att, med hjälp av metoden contingent valuation (CV), undersöka betalningsviljan (willingness to pay, WTP) för en reducerad risk att drabbas av mag- och tarmsjukdomar på grund av förorenat dricksvatten i Skellefteå kommun. Studien undersöker också sambandet mellan WTP och tidigare erfarenheter av förorenat dricksvatten. Respondenterna fick besvara en sluten och en öppen WTP-fråga för ett föreslaget projekt. WTP varierar mellan 39 – 67 kronor per månad utöver den nuvarande avgiften för vatten och avlopp (VA-taxan). De variabler som förklarar individuella skillnader i WTP är budnivån, upplevd dricksvattenkvalitet, huruvida personen blev drabbad vid tidigare utbrottet, om konsumtionsbeteendet har förändrats, ålder, inkomst och hushåll med barn. Resultaten visar att de respondenter som drabbats vid ett tidigare utbrott är mindre benägna att acceptera en högre kostnad. Ett förändrat konsumtionsbeteende visar däremot att respondenter i genomsnitt har en högre WTP för en minskad risk av mag- och tarmsjukdomar. / The purpose of the study is to examine the willingness to pay (WTP) for a reduced risk of gastrointestinal diseases due to contaminated drinking water in the municipality of Skellefteå using the contingent valuation method (CV). The study also examines the relationship between WTP and previous experiences of contaminated drinking water. The respondents answered to a closed and an open WTP question for a proposed project.  WTP varies between SEK 39 – 67 per month in addition to the current fee on water and wastewater. The variables that explain individual differences in WTP are the bid level, experienced drinking water quality, impact of the previous outbreak, changed consumption behavior, age, income and households with children. The results show that respondents affected by the previous outbreak are less likely to accept a higher cost. Respondents who changed their consumption behavior want, on average, pay more for a reduced risk of gastrointestinal diseases.