The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) is a subset of the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and for some reasons NEITI has been regarded by many actors and observers as the global EITI flagship programme or one of the foremost national chapters of EITI , along with Azerbaijan. When one considers the guiding principles and beliefs of EITI that wealth from a country?s natural resources should benefit it citizens, and this requires high standard of transparency and accountability. When one further consider that EITI growing status as a platform for progress, that is bringing greater transparency and accountability to all aspects of natural resources management including tax transparency, commodity trading and licensing, one would expect ground breaking disclosure which is required on beneficial ownership to ensure that the identity of proprietors of oil, gas and mining companies operating in EITI countries are made public. As such to a greater extent the measurement of the success of (NEITI) will be subjected to evaluation against the principles of EITI. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Public Law / LLM / Unrestricted

This thesis is an attempt to inquire into the interrelationship of transparency and structure. It focuses on the unveiling the layers of transparent and translucent materials which alternately obscure and reveal a sequence of views. The project aspires to create spaces with interplay of vision and blockage by exploring the correlations of light, transparency, translucency, opacity, diffusion, reflection, floatation and lightness. It explores the crucial relationship of its bold tensile structure with the habitable spaces. / Master of Architecture

Improper grants payments stemming from weaknesses in business processes have been a focus of the U.S. president, Congress, and federal and state governments since 2009. Researchers have demonstrated that the internal control weakness at the federal, state, and local government level has contributed to the problem of compliance. The Office of Management and Budget issued federal rules effective in December 2014 to address the problem of federal award compliance. Despite these measures, there is a gap in the literature on strategies for recipients of federal grants to meet compliance requirements. The purpose of the qualitative descriptive study was to explore how recipients can satisfy compliance requirements across the full life cycle of their grants. Systems thinking and compliance theories were selected to analyze data. Participants were 20 certified grants management specialists. The research questions included inquiry on the strategies for federal award compliance. Described were participants' strategies to improve business processes for grant compliance. Emergent thematic findings included staff and leadership training- as participants' main strategy for complying with uniform requirements, while written policies and procedures and use of grant management software- emerged as secondary strategies. Grant managers may benefit from learning about the strategies described in this study by implementing business process improvements in their organizations. Compliant recipients of grants may have a positive effect on social change with more grant funds becoming available to states, local governments, higher education, and nonprofit organizations for the public good.

No / The purpose of this paper is to present a critical viewpoint on the negative aspects of market, price and cost transparencies to consumers in terms of its costs. It adopts an inter-disciplinary approach from the marketing, economics and accounting literature. The paper explores market transparency in the ever-changing world and uses brand names like Starbucks and iPhone to illuminate instances where imperfect markets are supported by consumers. Recognizing the role that the Internet plays in promoting price transparency, it espouses how extant information can add costs and risks to the consumer’s value judgement. Finally, the paper advocates that arbitrary judgements existing in cost accounting make it difficult to compare unit cost. This could result in consumers paying extra money to benefit from cost transparency. This paper argues that three main issues may arise in providing unit cost to the consumers. First, transparency entails built-in costs, whether they are in taxes or product prices. Second, in accounting, unit cost information is currently not equitable between businesses. Finally, the paper argues that extra time and effort in making sense of unit cost information lead to questions about the viability of transparent costing. The arguments for transparency have been widely discussed, supported and promoted by many. While negative aspects are known to businesses, few consider the consumer’s perspective. By amalgamating evidence and arguments from different disciplines, this paper lends value, providing a critical perspective where transparent unit cost revelation can be more costly and less viable than what is assumed.

No description available.

Color Transparency $(CT)$ is a unique prediction of Quantum Chromodynamics $(QCD)$ where the final (and/or initial) state interactions of hadrons with the nuclear medium are suppressed for exclusive processes at high momentum transfers. While this phenomenon has been observed for mesons, there has never been a conclusive observation for baryons. A clear signal of $CT$ for baryons would be the first evidence of baryons fluctuating to a small size in the nucleus, and the onset would show the transition from nucleon-meson picture to quark-gluon degrees of freedom. The experiment $E1206107$, searching for the onset of $CT$ in protons was completed in $Hall ~C$ at Jefferson Laboratory $(JLab)$ using the upgraded $12 ~GeV ~e^{-}$ beam. It used the High Momentum Spectrometer $(HMS)$ and the new Super High Momentum spectrometer $(SHMS)$ in coincidence to measure the $e+^{12}C \longrightarrow e'+p+X$ reaction in quasi-elastic kinematics. Data were collected on a $^{12}C$ target over the range of $Q^2=8-14.3~(GeV/c)^{2}$, covering the region where a previous $p+A \longrightarrow p'+p+X$ experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory $(BNL)$ had observed an enhancement. Proton Transparency (PT) was extracted from these data. A rise in the $PT$ as a function of $Q^2$ (defined as the square of the negative of the 4-momentum transfer by the scattered electron) is predicted to be a signature of the onset of $CT$. Our data showed no significant increase and consistent with the traditional nuclear physics calculation. This \MakeLowercase{\doctype} discusses the theory and implementation of the $CT$ experiment, summarizes the data analysis and presents results on hydrogen normalization and nuclear transparency.

Intimate partner violence is also known as domestic violence or spouse abuse. It affects the physical, psychological, social, and financial well-being of many people around the world. Many researchers from health/medical, social, and psychological fields have studied intimate partner violence in an effort to prevent it or to improve overall health and well-being among victims. Ideally, decisions are best influenced by high quality evidence. However, little attention has focused on the quality of this research. This thesis focuses on the theme of transparency relating to study quality, specifically highlighting non-publication bias, biases related to outcome and study methodologies, and overall reporting quality in previously published IPV research. These lessons learned from this research have informed, in part, an original study on intimate partner violence. Finally, this thesis concludes with insights to improve methodological quality and transparency for researchers in the intimate partner violence field. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis presents the design and implementation of a transparent messaging protocol for distributed communication between processors. The processors are designed using dataflow architecture. The protocol ensures transparent asynchronous communication between distributed processes. The protocol is designed such that an application can run without change in virtually any kind of distributed configuration, where configuration is the number of controllers used in the system plus the processor allocation strategy used. It also enables an automated processor allocation strategy to transparently configure an application for any number of processor nodes without requiring any changes or recompilation. The protocol works well even for single-controller applications and for a pre-defined allocation of processors to controllers. The thesis further includes an analysis of the time required for one complete cycle of inter-processor communication. / Master of Science

This thesis examines the extent to which institutional transparency is counterproductive and potentially politicizing within the U.S. Federal Reserve system. It exemplifies a Venn diagram intersection of political and economic theory – and given the meaningful change in behavior at the Fed – to some extent organizational theory as well. This political economy orientation may be illustrated by providing a historical context – and then addressing the relevant catalysts for change: legislative action, financial crises, and the increase in social media technology. In terms of a “broader view,” these changes have occurred against a backdrop of significant changes in the application of Keynesian theories. As a result, this thesis defines modern transparency at the Federal Reserve, including its benefits and potential drawbacks, by connecting the changes in policies and procedures over the last quarter century - and by showing the impact of the evolution of modern New Keynesian interventionist programs within this new environment. The conclusions shown the New Keynesian coincidental contributions to modern interventionalist policies. But the benefits that come from improved transparency have opened the door to unintended consequences – and the main takeaway is the potential for political bias among bankers and the time inconsistencies that come from short-term modifications to otherwise long-term problems. The “secrets of the temple” are no longer secrets…but Greider would agree that the concentration of power and political influence remains the same. / M.A. / This thesis explores to what extent is increased transparency counterproductive and potentially politicizing within the U.S. Federal Reserve system. The Fed is primarily responsible for maintaining price stability, facilitating full employment, and maintaining the health of the banking system, placing it both directly and indirectly at the center of power and influence within American politics. FOMC decisions directly affect American citizens. For instance, their interest rate policies influence the cost of a mortgage, a car loan, a student loan, or possibly the value of 401k accounts – and in the 21st century, the average American is more tied to “credit” than ever before. This analysis will consider how this initiative developed, its original intent, its evolution, and why it may result in significant unintended political consequences. The conclusions illustrated that there are benefits that come from improved transparency. However, improved transparency may have opened the door to unintended consequences.

No / The Mid Staffordshire scandal is a salutary lesson that highlights unacceptable standards of poor care of patients by medical and nursing practitioners. The Francis report (2013) made 290 recommendations and a legal duty to enforce a duty of openness and transparencies has been prioritised. Fischer and Ferlie (2013) argue that rules-based regulation eroded values-based self-regulation, producing professional defensiveness and contradictions that undermine, rather than support, good patient care. The role of managers and clinical leaders will be crucial in achieving positive changes in practice; however, the return of autonomy to the practitioners remains central to re-establishing both public and professional confidence.