Against the background of a rapidly collapsing socialist empire in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, socialist China has since the late 1970s consciously endeavored to develop a "socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics." This thesis assesses the process of economic and spatial transformation in the Zhujiang (Pearl River) Delta, one of the fastest growing economic regions in China. The purposes are to identify the general pattern of economic and spatial changes, to determine the key forces responsible for such changes, and to explore the theoretical implications of these changes in the broader context of interpretation about the operating mechanism of regional development. The overall objective is to understand how a regional economy under socialism is transformed after the intrusion of global market forces. My analyses of regional data and indepth case studies reveal that the Zhujiang Delta has since 1979 moved away from the previous impasse of involutionary growth or growth without development and entered a new era of real transformative development in which dramatic growth has occurred not only in agricultural and industrial output but also in labour productivity, per capita income, and employment. The take-off of the delta's regional economy has owed little to the expansion of state-run modern manufacturing, but has been fueled primarily by numerous small-scale, labour-intensive, and rural-base industries. The spatial outcome of this rural industrialization has been a rapid urbanization of the countryside, especially of the area adjacent to and between major metropolitan centres. There has been no increasing concentration of population in large cities as the conventional wisdom of urban transition might have predicted. Regional development in the Zhujiang Delta during the 1980s was not an outcome of any active state involvement. It was instead a result of relaxed control by the socialist central state over the delta's regional economy. Local governments, along with the collective and private sectors, are found to be the chief agents responsible for the transformation of the peasant economy and the development of the transport infrastructure. The penetration of global market forces via Hong Kong into the Zhujiang Delta has significantly facilitated the process of economic, spatial, and social transformation. This study of the operating mechanism of regional development in the Zhujiang Delta presents a dialectical model of local-global interaction to combat the two prevailing schools of exogenism and endogenism. It also suggests that previous theories on Chinese regional development, which assumed a strong socialist central state monopolizing local economic affairs, might need fundamental modifications. For the Zhujiang Delta, the development of which is still in the early take-off stage, the establishment of a modern transport infrastructure has shown remarkable effects, leading to rather than following the growth of the delta's economy. Finally, the relocation of transnational capital and manufacturing production from Hong Kong to the Zhujiang Delta has not displayed a spatial tendency of high concentration in the primate city as the conventional theory of globalization would suggest. Non-economic factors such as historical, cultural, and social linkages between investors and their target regions are found to have played a major role which should not be overlooked in understanding the mechanism and spatial patterns of the internationalization of production.

Burns Bog (the Bog) is a 2800 ha protected peatland in Delta, British Columbia. Globally unique due to its form, size, chemistry, flora and fauna the Bog is distinct and managed as a wetland. In 2005, a large fire consumed 200 ha of peatland after which birch (Betula pendula) and pine (Pinus contorta) trees grew in great densities. Within the fire zone piezometers were installed to monitor water levels below the surface. A high water level promotes peat-forming processes and in 2009 water levels dropped significantly. In 2010, a 75m x 50m experimental plot within the fire zone was cleared of birch and pine trees to investigate the impacts of tree removal on bog hydrology and plant communities. Higher water levels and positive bog plant growth at the experimental site was observed in 2010 and 2011 when compared to the control site where trees remained intact.

The Brazos River, located predominantly within the state of Texas, has the highest water and sediment discharge of all rivers in the state, and ranks second behind the Mississippi River in terms of sediment load delivered to the Gulf of Mexico. This river is the only Texas river that consistently drains directly into the Gulf of Mexico forming a wave-dominated delta. The delta has experienced dramatic and rapid changes over the last 100-plus years. These changes have resulted from both natural and anthropogenic alterations to the coastal zone proximal to the river mouth and within the rivers watershed. By utilizing high-resolution geophysical data, sediment cores, water column data, and historic shoreline data this study investigated the mechanisms in which sediment is transported to the coastal ocean, the fate of that sediment as it becomes preserved in the modern geological record, and the evolution of a modern delta. Results from this study show that during for a majority of the time a salt-water intrusion in the lower river traps sediment, preventing export to the coastal ocean. The trapped sediment forms an ephemeral mud layer in the lower river that may be remobilized during increased river discharges. When river discharges increase above an observed threshold of 300 m^3/s the salt wedge is pushed seaward of the river mouth and sediment is exported via a buoyant plume. As export of sediment is episodic, accumulation of sediment on the subaqueous delta characterized as non steady-state, and resembles typical foreset delta attributes. These include physical stratification of sediment layers, episodic but relatively high rates of accumulation, and little bioturbation. Currently sediment is primarily accumulating west of the river mouth, and the majority of sediment is bypassing the system. Over the history of the delta, changes both anthropogenic and natural have shifted the relative balance of fluvial sediment supply and marine sediment dispersal. These changes have resulted in dramatic changes in the shoreline, and phases of activation and abandonment of deltaic lobes, which can be seen through historical data and imagery, and is preserved in the recent sedimentary record.

The stratigraphic organization of clastic successions deposited during the early synrift phase is controlled by the rates of tectonic subsidence and the growth of the master faults, which, coupled with eustatic sea-level changes, control the generation of accommodation. The highly heterolithic, Lower Jurassic Upper Åre and Tilje succession (100 to 300 m thick), which occurs in the Halten Terrace of offshore Norway, represents an excellent example of ancient synrift deposits that accumulated within a NNE-SSW-oriented structurally controlled embayment where sedimentation was dominated by tidal currents, with secondary influence by river and wave processes. Overall, the Tilje was deposited in a deltaic setting near the lowstand shoreline, forming a shallowing-upward succession, which is organized in two, thick, tabular second-order sequences. These sequences are separated by two main sequence boundaries (SB2 and SB3) associated with two main rift-related tectonic pulses. The first pulse formed SB2 and is believed to have exerted a major regional control on the geomorphology of the basin, causing a change from an open, wave-dominated setting (upper Åre Fm.) to a funnel-shaped, tide-dominated setting in the Tilje Fm. SB2 shows shallow incision into the underlying Åre Fm., and the overlying sediment accumulated predominantly in a distributary-mouth-bar environment. Sequence 3 rests erosively on Sequence 2, and is characterized by proximal tidal-fluvial distributary-channel fills and mouth-bar deposits showing at least 2 main oblique to axial fluvial input points, one from the N-NW and a second one from the NE, with overall increase in wave influence and deepening toward the S. Local rapid subsidence of elongated narrow hangingwalls associated with the active master faults exerted a subtle control on the succession thickness, as well as a local control on the location of the tidal-fluvial distributary channels by “tectonic axial funnelling” during the onset of the second-order base-level rises. The internal architecture and facies distribution are less complex than other thick tide-dominated successions worldwide, because the rate of creation of accommodation was sufficient to avoid channel amalgamation throughout most of the succession. / Thesis (Ph.D, Geological Sciences & Geological Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2012-05-09 23:39:27.538

This dissertation clarifies ethnoarchaeology's role in post-positivist epistemology through both a critical re-examination of ethnoarchaeology's position within archaeology and a study of household vessel exchange and consumption in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali. I argue that ethnoarchaeology meets its epistemic raison d'etre by achieving theoretical independence from archaeology's general theories. Independence is "built-in" to ethnoarchaeological study by focusing explicitly on the way material culture is used in daily practice; in particular, by re-embedding material culture in the "modern" contexts where it is used. Ceramic exchange in the Inland Niger Delta can not be understood apart from either the exchange and consumption of other industrial household vessels or the political economies women experience within patrilineal households. Household vessels are distinctly women's tools in the Delta and their consumption is an intimate part of the way women resist exploitation and the appropriation of their wealth within household political economies. The different roles vessels play are manifest in the distances these objects travel during consumption and are also materialized by their location within house compounds. Enamel vessels are used in displays of social and economic capital related to marriage that insulate women from exploitation; aluminum vessels are expensive items bought as part of marriage trousseaus; and plastics are relatively low value items given as small gifts or bought in local markets to insulate small amounts of wealth from appropriation. Pottery is relatively marginal within household economies; yet, potters rely on the income ceramic production creates. Thus, potters use extensive marketing strategies to sell their wares to a relatively disinterested clientele in order to meet their own obligations within patrilineal households and to buy the other types of household vessels that they desire. The findings of thi

In this report we will calculate the amplitude for a scalar-to-scalars (φ3 <img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?%5Crightarrow" /> φ2φ2) decay which involves a triangle loop. We compute the real and imaginary part of the amplitude separately and will argue that this is much more straightforward and practical in this case rather than having to deal with or worry about branch cuts of logarithms. We will derive simple cutting rules closely related to the imaginary part of the amplitude. In doing this, we derive a formula that deals with expressions of the form δ[f(x,y)]δ[g(x,y)], containing two Dirac delta functions.

Amphibians are of great ecological importance and a loss of species will have widespread and dire consequences. Recent population declines and extinctions have resulted in amphibians being labelled the most threatened vertebrate class on a global scale. The unique Okavango ecosystem is well known and documented, yet the amphibians of this region are poorly known. This project aimed at assessing diversity in the Okavango Delta by testing isolation as a possible driver for community composition; determining the effect of hydrology on breeding behaviour; and assessing the status and prevalence of the pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) responsible for the widespread epidemic chytridiomycosis implicated in amphibian decline. Using various monitoring techniques, observations of species occurrence were made at three locations representing different degrees of isolation over a 20 month period. Breeding indicators were observed and frogs were screened for amphibian chytrid fungus. A total of 29 species were recorded, and results indicated that there were no significant differences in community composition between the sampled localities. Species presence, however, was significantly correlated with habitat type. Thus, the availability of suitable habitat appears to be driving amphibian diversity patterns, rather than geographic isolation; and increased habitat diversity near the Delta periphery explains increased amphibian diversity in these areas. Results from breeding indicators suggested that reproduction in continuous breeders was correlated with the annual flood as well as rainfall, whilst that of explosive breeders was correlated with rainfall alone. It is thus proposed that opportunistic breeding behaviour for some amphibian species is driven by the hydrology of the ecosystem; and this may be explained by increased biological production associated with the flood pulse. Outcomes highlight the unique nature of the Okavango Delta system, and emphasises the need for its preservation. A total of 249 swab samples were collected and screened for amphibian chytrid fungus. The geographical distribution of collection samples were evenly spread throughout the localities, and were obtained from at least 25 amphibian species. Analyses proved negative for Bd for the 79.92% swabs analysed thus far and it is concluded that Bd seems absent in the study region, a result which has massive conservation implications for the region. Despite the fact that the Okavango Delta has benefitted from conservation and tourism efforts in the past, the system and its biodiversity remains threatened and effective conservation management strategies must be devised and implemented to ensure its preservation. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Environmental Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Amphibians are of great ecological importance and a loss of species will have widespread and dire consequences. Recent population declines and extinctions have resulted in amphibians being labelled the most threatened vertebrate class on a global scale. The unique Okavango ecosystem is well known and documented, yet the amphibians of this region are poorly known. This project aimed at assessing diversity in the Okavango Delta by testing isolation as a possible driver for community composition; determining the effect of hydrology on breeding behaviour; and assessing the status and prevalence of the pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) responsible for the widespread epidemic chytridiomycosis implicated in amphibian decline. Using various monitoring techniques, observations of species occurrence were made at three locations representing different degrees of isolation over a 20 month period. Breeding indicators were observed and frogs were screened for amphibian chytrid fungus. A total of 29 species were recorded, and results indicated that there were no significant differences in community composition between the sampled localities. Species presence, however, was significantly correlated with habitat type. Thus, the availability of suitable habitat appears to be driving amphibian diversity patterns, rather than geographic isolation; and increased habitat diversity near the Delta periphery explains increased amphibian diversity in these areas. Results from breeding indicators suggested that reproduction in continuous breeders was correlated with the annual flood as well as rainfall, whilst that of explosive breeders was correlated with rainfall alone. It is thus proposed that opportunistic breeding behaviour for some amphibian species is driven by the hydrology of the ecosystem; and this may be explained by increased biological production associated with the flood pulse. Outcomes highlight the unique nature of the Okavango Delta system, and emphasises the need for its preservation. A total of 249 swab samples were collected and screened for amphibian chytrid fungus. The geographical distribution of collection samples were evenly spread throughout the localities, and were obtained from at least 25 amphibian species. Analyses proved negative for Bd for the 79.92% swabs analysed thus far and it is concluded that Bd seems absent in the study region, a result which has massive conservation implications for the region. Despite the fact that the Okavango Delta has benefitted from conservation and tourism efforts in the past, the system and its biodiversity remains threatened and effective conservation management strategies must be devised and implemented to ensure its preservation. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Environmental Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

全球金融風暴近年來發生頻率愈來愈快，主要的原因就是許多企業不管是在發行或投資衍生性金融商品的比重都大幅地增加，卻沒有規避它們潛在的市場風險。因此，避險策略的好壞是風險管理上很重要的一個議題。本研究的目的主要是希望在一個Delta Neutral的投資組合下，加入Delta-Gamma Neutral策略能夠使間斷調整避險的效果變得比較好。故本研究透過加入相同標的物和到期日，但不同履約價的選擇權作為避險部位，使用蒙地卡羅模擬法，模擬投資組合在持有一段時間後，未來價值可能的情境，計算風險值來衡量其避險效果。實證結果發現，當原始投資組合部位為價平選擇權所組成，避險部位若能使用相同標的物，到期日也相同，但履約價不同的價平選擇權，不論在到期日長短，皆有很好的避險效果。 / The global financial storm has happened more rapidly. The most important reason is that many enterprises published or invested in the derivatives ratio which has greatly increased without evading the potential market risk. Therefore, the advantages and the disadvantages of hedging strategy is a crucial issue in risk management. This research’s primary goal is to consider Delta-Gamma Neutral strategy in the invested combination of Delta Neutral that render the effect of discretely rebalance hedge became much better. The research entered the same underlying and expiration date, and let the different strike price’s option as hedging position. Using Monte Carol Simulation to obtain the condition of the portfolio’s value after holding a period of time, and compute the value-at-risk to measure hedging effect. The outcome showed that the hedging effect will be nice no matter the date of expiration by using at-the-money options with the same underlying and expiration date but different strike price when the original portfolio was composed of at-the-money options.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, March, 1999. / Title from PDF t.p.