The purpose of this study is to document the indigenous Romance language of the Sark island located in the English Channel, known as Sark Norman. As implied by the thesis title, the original aim of the field research was to codify the orthographic form of the Sark Norman language, using previous scientific observations and the assistance of the final remaining native speakers in order to commence a gradual revitalisation of Sark Norman. In the course of the research, however, we were confronted with facts that resulted in renouncing our original aim. It emerged that the existing scientific knowledge of the Sark Norman phonology system was unsatisfactory. By contrast, some authentic historical documents, until then unknown within the scientific field, were explored and validated. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study became to introduce principal findings of the field research carried out on the Sark island in 2016 with the aim of deepening the scientific knowledge of a very unique Romance language, including disproving the biggest myths related to Sark Norman within the scientific environment.

This study investigated the potential impacts of several anthropogenic stressors on the movement and survival of African penguins in Algoa Bay, taking into account prey availability and environmental conditions (sea surface temperature and chlorophyll productivity). The primary drive for the study was based on the seismic exploration, which took place in the habitat of the endangered African penguin. The research was also carried out to understand how pelagic fishing and prey availability influence the broader behavioural and mortality aspects of penguins. To achieve this goal, I used monthly beach surveys to assess seabird mortality, admissions of penguins in rehabilitation centres and the monitoring of breeding penguins’ movement at sea through individual GPS tracking. In addition, prey distribution and abundance were monitored with acoustic surveys to assess potential changes in relation anthropogenic stressors. Breeding African penguins did not react dramatically to seismic activities, except on St Croix Island where they changed their foraging direction during the seismic period. There was no evidence of a siginficant increase in African penguin carcasses encountered or strandings along the beaches during the period of seismic activity. However, a sharp increase in encounter rate was recorded soon after seismic operations, which may potentially indicate a delay between the effect of seismic activities on penguin mortality and the encounter of the related carcasses after the operation. However, the impact of seismic surveys on penguins may be long-term rather than short term, and additional studies would be needed to reveal long-term effects of seismic activities, if any. Foraging effort of breeding African penguins increased substantially in the presence of commercial fishing activities within close proximity to the colonies. To a greater extent, at-sea movement patterns and counts of beach cast carcasses were largely influenced by prey availability. Penguins spent more time at sea, traveled longer and covered a larger foraging area during periods of relatvely low pelagic fish abundance. There was also a sharp increase in African penguin mortality during periods of low prey availability in the Bay. However, environmental conditions showed some influence over these interactions. Foraging effort of breeding African penguins increased substantially in the presence of commercial fishing activities within close proximity to the colonies. To a greater extent, at-sea movement patterns and counts of beach cast carcasses were largely influenced by prey availability. Penguins spent more time at sea, traveled longer and covered a larger foraging area during periods of relatvely low pelagic fish abundance. There was also a sharp increase in African penguin mortality during periods of low prey availability in the Bay. However, environmental conditions showed some influence over these interactions. For example a red tide event during in period of low prey availability, made it difficult to understand impacts of prey on penguins difficult. Both anthropogenic stressors and environmental conditions influenced African penguins’ behaviour and survival. Due to the worrying trend of African penguins in South Africa for the past few years, all conservation management efforts to increase penguin numbers and limit their mortality are necessary. This study highlights the negative impact of industrial fishing on this Endangered species and the rapid increase in mortality of penguins during times of low prey availability. A network of Marine Protected Areas would certainly increase food availability to African penguins by limiting competition with fisheries, and contribute to increasing the population numbers.

In the course of the 20th century the un-sustainability of international wildlife trade became apparent. European countries play a major role in wildlife trade. One third of total wildlife imports is destined to the EU which makes EU responsible for the protection of world wildlife and should motivate the EU to be a model in biodiversity protection. Regulation of wildlife trade in the EU is discussed in chapter 1. Trade in wildlife and its derivatives is among the most profitable branches of the international trade. Animals are traded in different forms. Birds are usually traded live (for the pet trade), mammals are traded for their fur, butterflies for their bodies, reptiles for their skins, the highest value is attained by trade in fish. In some categories (live birds, caviar) EU imports more than the rest of the world combined. The EU plays a major role as an importer in other categories as well. The magnitude, value and trends of international wildlife trade are discussed in chapter 2. Profitability of the wildlife trade, strong demand for some products and imperfect implementation of CITES result in the development of illegal trade. Illegal wildlife trade is dominated by organized criminal groups that also deal in drugs and human trafficking. Illegal wildlife trade is linked to severe risks and dangers to both the source country and the recipient. More on illegal wildlife trade in chapter 3. EU imports one third of all legally exported wildlife products. It is also the importer of a majority of illegal wildlife products. Having one of the highest standards of living and seeing that the care of environment cannot be limited by political borders, the author of this thesis concludes that it is logical and imperative that the EU engages in improvement of wildlife protection in less developed countries of the world. The last chapter deals with conservation of Cameroonian Dja Biosphere Reserve and with the attempt of large EU's environmental programs to improve conservation in Cameroon.

Thesis (LLM.) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / Rhinoceros (Rhinos) are poached at an alarming high rate in South Africa. The 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), prohibited the trade of rhino horns amongst its member states. Even though there are existing pieces of legislation in South Africa to curb the killing and illegal trade of rhino horns, compliance authorities rarely impose stringent sentences on culprits caught poaching rhinos. There should be stringent enforcement of laws on poachers and if caught, perpetrators should be brought to justice in order to deter aspiring or ambitious would-be perpetrators. Amendment of legislation currently used in South Africa on rhino poaching cases, if applied vigorously, would be more developmental in curbing the scourge. The syndicate are highly skilled and well equipped for the execution of illicit poaching. It is in few instances that perpetrators are arrested and prosecuted. Even if arrested and prosecuted, lenient sentences are imposed upon conviction. The most noticeable lacuna in South African Criminal Justice System, is the lack of capacity and skills in investigations and successful prosecutions of rhino poachers. Worst still, despite frequent media reports on the alarming rate of rhino poaching cases, few arrests and convictions are reported. This mini dissertation looks at rhino poaching as an organised crime, and focuses on literature review, legal framework and regulations, as well as comparative study on legislation which can be used to prosecute the perpetrators of this organised crime. The discourse recommends amendment of legislation presently used to prosecute rhino poaching offenders, and advocates that they should be stringently applied in order to curb the scourge.

Schubert's Villa in Liboc, Prague and the Phenomenon of Dilapidated Monuments. The View of Heritage Preservation on Renaissance Revival Villa Architecture The main purpose of this thesis is to emphasize the phenomenon of dilapidated renaissance revival monuments. This phenomenon will be shown on destiny of Schubert's villa, even though the villa is a national monument, it is in a very bad condition. Why is the villa dilapidated? Is it the cause of indifference of people, political or social changes? The first chapter will characterize the villa in context of renaissance revival. The chapter will describe the original condition and will emphasize the artistic value. The second chapter will evaluate the development of heritage preservation, mainly with emphasis on villa architecture. The third chapter will focus on political and social changes, which could have had an unfavourable impact. The fourth chapter will analyse nowadays bad state. The chapter will also answer the question if it is a usual phenomenon that the renaissance revival villas are dilapidated and why. Keywords Schubert's villa, renaissance revival villa architecture, heritage preservation, endangered monuments, dilapidation

An examination of the effectiveness of seeding, burning, and mowing in the reestablishment of tallgrass prairie species on overgrazed and abandoned pastureland. The study site is a 20 acre tract on U.S. Corps of Engineers land below Lake Lewisville in Denton County, Texas. The site was partitioned into thirty-nine 40 by 40 meter plots with seeding (carried out in 1996) and management treatment (burning, mowing, and no maintenance carried out in 1998) randomly applied following a two level design. For each plot, nine stratified-random 0.1 m2 subplots were examined and shoot counts for each species recorded. The effects of the treatments on individual species and species richness were analyzed with a two-way ANOVA followed by a SNK multiple range test, both on ranked data. Community level analysis was conducted with both a MANOVA on ranked data and a Canonical Correspondence Analysis on raw data. Results indicate that seeding positively affected species richness, particularly when combined with either burning or mowing in the early spring. Mowing also significantly increased species richness in areas that were not seeded, while burning negatively affected species richness on unseeded plots. Treatments significantly affected community composition with treatments having the most clear effect on spring and summer forbs.

In the management of threatened and endangered species, informed population estimates are essential to gage whether or not recovery goals are being met. In the case of Pacific salmonids, this evaluation often involves sampling a small subset of the population and scaling up to estimate larger distinct populations segments. This is made complicated by the fact that fish populations are not evenly distributed along riverscapes but respond to physical and biological stream properties at varying spatial extents. We used rapid assessment survey methods and the River Styles classification to explore fish-habitat relationships at a continuous network scale. Semi-continuous surveys were conducted across nine streams in the upper Middle Fork John Day River watershed and increased the number of sites surveyed eight-fold over other monitoring methods within the watershed. Using this increased sample size and continuous habitat metrics we improved watershed-wide steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) abundance models. We first validated the distinctions among River Styles through a classification analysis using physical metrics measured at the rapid assessment sites. Overall classification accuracy, using a combination of reach and landscape scale metrics, was 88.3% and suggested that River Style classification was identifying variations in physical morphology within the watershed that was quantifiable at the reach scale. Leveraging the continuous River Styles classification of physical habitat and a continuous model of primary production improved the prediction of steelhead abundance across the network. Using random forest regressions, a model that included only habitat metrics resulted in R2 = 0.34, while using the continuous variables improved the model accuracy greatly to R2 = 0.65. Random forest allowed for further investigation into the predictor variables through the analysis of the partial dependence plots and identified a gross primary production threshold, below which production might be limiting steelhead populations. This method also identified the rarest River Style surveyed within the watershed, Confined-Valley Step Cascade, as the morphology that had the largest marginal effect on steelhead. The inherent physical properties and boundary conditions unique to each River Style has the potential to inform fish-habitat relationships across riverscapes and improve abundance estimates on a continuous spatial scale.

No description available.

8 Abstract In my thesis, I study the topic of social work with an endangered child. I was trying to bring up the subject of those children who find themselves in a dangerous situation for them and also how situations can be handled. I describe what constitutes an endangered child and what groups they divide into. I also deal with the issue of abused children and also with the CAN syndrome, which is very important for me. I also mention here the disruption of the attachement, which is not so often taken into account by us and it is important for me to talk about it and know about it. A big chapter in my thesis is the subject of the Child at Risk System, which contains facilities for children requiring immediate assistance, child welfare facilities, specialist counselling facilities, social educational activities, facilities for children in need of immediate assistance, as well as education camps for children. I list the services that are provided to children and families at risk. At the end of the theoretical section, I focus more closely on the topic of family surrogacy and institutional care, which I have chosen to process the practical part. Given how extensive the subject of children at risk is, I focused on one group so that the practical part would yield some results. In the practical part, I chose a...

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The West Indian iguanas of the genus Cyclura are the most endangered group of lizards in the world (Burton & Bloxam, 2002). The Ricord’s iguana, Cyclura ricordii, is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (Ramer, 2004). This species is endemic to the island of Hispaniola (Figure 1), and can only be found in limited geographic areas (Burton & Bloxam, 2002). The range of this species is estimated to be only 60% of historical levels, with most areas being affected by some level of disturbance (Ottenwalder, 1996). The most recent population estimation is between 2,000 and 4,000 individuals (Burton & Bloxam, 2002). Information on potentially suitable habitat can help the conservation efforts for Ricord’s iguana. However, intensive ground surveys are not always feasible or cost effective, and cannot easily provide continuous coverage over a large area. This paper presents results from a pilot study that evaluated variables extracted from satellite imagery and digitally mapped data layers to map the probability of suitable Ricord’s iguana habitat. Bayesian methods were used to determine the probability that each pixel in the study areas is suitable habitat for Ricord’s iguanas by evaluating relevant environmental attributes. This model predicts the probability that an area is suitable habitat based on the values of the environmental attributes including landscape biophysical characteristics, terrain data, and bioclimatic variables.