The global climate is changing; there are many predictions about the ecological impacts, and even more uncertainty. Predicted ecological impacts include northward shifting biomes, invasive species, decoupling of biotic interactions, all of which are threats to the ecological integrity (EI) of Canada’s National Parks System. To maintain EI, parks must be managed for resilience with climate change in mind. Lack of human and financial resources are restrictions to managing for climate change, challenges exacerbated by government cutbacks in 2012. To overcome these restrictions a tool for informing management in a climate was designed using an existing research program and management based scenario building at the case study location of Bruce Peninsula National Park (BPNP). The tool designed for informing management is called Scenario Building, which accounts for uncertainty and focuses on the essential drivers of the local ecological community. Diversity and health in the forest community are essential drivers in the BPNP ecosystem with interactions at many tropic levels so the forest health research program was selected as the basis for scenarios. Results show a range of tree species that require a variety of soil and moisture regimes. Understanding the ecology of the keystone forest species allows for understanding of how they may reacted to predicted climate changes. Regional climate predictions based on the A2 and B1 primary climate scenarios of the IPCC were integrated with the forest health data, and two levels management option- passive and active to develop 4 scenarios that can inform management of the park. Passive and active management were defined by the number of dollars spent on active management. The 4 scenarios developed were: Scenario 1 B1 Passive Management - Status Quo, Scenario 2 B1 Active Management - Regional Resilience, Scenario 3 A2 Passive Management - Evolving Forests, Scenario 4 A2 Active Management- Anticipatory Restoration. A set of scenarios allows managers to set a management trajectory balances resilience and EI with economic viability in the face of climate change. Analysis of the BPNP scenario suite tell us that BPNP is one park that is in a good position to be able to adapt to a changing climate without major risk to EI, however significant steps can be taken to minimize losses or even improve EI by anticipating needs and investing in active management.

The ability to establish and maintain trust is regarded as a critical modern leadership skill. However, different conceptualisations of trust saw to it that the empirical and theoretical sides of research did not merge. As a result, trust has been studied in a variety of different ways and resulted in a varied and fragmented knowledge base, which this study attempts to address. The objectives of this study were to investigate conceptualizations of trust as perceived by middle- and senior level managers in a military medical basis in order to provide recommendations to management on how to build trust. Research was conducted in two phases of investigation. In phase 1 a literature review of the concept was conducted by analyzing and categorizing definitions and frameworks currently in use. In the second phase an empirical investigation was conducted by means of a descriptive and explorative qualitative research design and the use of a non-probability purposive sampling technique. The results showed that three proposed factors of trustworthiness (ability, benevolence and integrity), effective communication as well as perceived justice and fairness are fundamental to the establishment of trust. It is evident that management should draft a strategic plan to ensure that trust is established and maintained on a sustainable basis. The findings will contribute to a better understanding of the essential nature of trust and assist management in an effective approach to master trust as an essential leadership skill in order to successfully enhance business reputation and outcomes. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

The purpose of this study is to, based on qualitative interviews with managers and group interviews with care providers, understand their interpretation of integrity and also their scope for action to satisfy disable people’s integrity at sheltered housing for adults. The questions of this study are: How do the managers and the care providers interpret the concept of integrity? Which scope for action do they have to satisfy the integrity of disabled people? Method: Individual – and group interviews have been used as methods to gather empirical data. Theory: The theories of scope for action and integrity as a theoretical conception have been used to analyze the empirical material. Results: The informants of this study found it difficult to give a specific definition of integrity. The main aspects we could distinguish were that integrity was interpreted as a personal sphere and self-determination. The result of this study shows that the scope for action to satisfy the integrity of disabled people is affected by many factors. First of all the scope for action is affected by the Swedish law LSS and the assignment within the organization. The scope for action is also affected by individual adaption for each person. This study shows the importance of the relationship between the managers, care providers and the persons. At last the informants emphasize some dilemmas in their scope for action to satisfy the integrity.

The ability to establish and maintain trust is regarded as a critical modern leadership skill. However, different conceptualisations of trust saw to it that the empirical and theoretical sides of research did not merge. As a result, trust has been studied in a variety of different ways and resulted in a varied and fragmented knowledge base, which this study attempts to address. The objectives of this study were to investigate conceptualizations of trust as perceived by middle- and senior level managers in a military medical basis in order to provide recommendations to management on how to build trust. Research was conducted in two phases of investigation. In phase 1 a literature review of the concept was conducted by analyzing and categorizing definitions and frameworks currently in use. In the second phase an empirical investigation was conducted by means of a descriptive and explorative qualitative research design and the use of a non-probability purposive sampling technique. The results showed that three proposed factors of trustworthiness (ability, benevolence and integrity), effective communication as well as perceived justice and fairness are fundamental to the establishment of trust. It is evident that management should draft a strategic plan to ensure that trust is established and maintained on a sustainable basis. The findings will contribute to a better understanding of the essential nature of trust and assist management in an effective approach to master trust as an essential leadership skill in order to successfully enhance business reputation and outcomes. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

The topic of the paper is integrity right implementation problems. Author‘s right of integrity is on the list of international obligations since the beginning of the XIX century and has to be made available by all Berne convention members‘ national laws. However this International obligation only imlies a minimum standart for integrity right protection, thereby it‘s implementation issues are to be solved at national level. The goal of the paper is identification and analysis of integrity right implementation problems in modern states under the rule of law. Accordingly different legal regulation is one of the main issues of the topic. Establishing conflicts between authors and their work users, identifying persons of law in the integrity right is a great part of this paper. Consequently different sides of the conflick of interests are being elaborated, most frequent dispute cases and ways of solving them are being analised in the light of different legal regulation. His paper also contains legal tradicions of implementing integrity right in continential and common law countries that are being compared to each other, as well as different copyright laws in separate countries and court practice (lithuanian and foreign).

The body of a person, assumption of bodily inviolability is the inherent matter acknowledged all over the world. Therefore each person has an inherent right to decide on any actions related to its body.By giving consent a person exercised his right to decided on any effect on his body. The problems caused by the inappropriate way of giving consent show the gaps of the legal acts, the problems of their implementation, possibilities of their improvement, etc.The cases when the person's right to inviolability and integrity of the person is violated presuppose the discussion on the issue of legal responsibility. In order to exercise one’s right to protection of the infringed right, it is necessary to know the institution where one should apply. It is necessary to emphasize that not only the court may guarantee the appropriate protection of the right. The main pre-trial institutions, which examine the complaints concerning the damage caused by the infringement of right to inviolability and integrity of the person, are the Commission and the Inspectorate.Thus, the protection of the right to inviolability and integrity of the person is not only the application to any institution for indemnification. This is a certain process, which starts from the meaning of the concept of this right. The content of this right sets the limits, which may not be outreached by the other person.

Consistent, accurate and timely data are essential to the functioning of a modern organization. Managing the integrity of an organization’s data assets in a systematic manner is a challenging task in the face of continuous update, transformation and processing to support business operations. Classic approaches to constraint-based integrity focus on logical consistency within a database and reject any transaction that violates consistency, but leave unresolved how to fix or manage violations. More ad hoc approaches focus on the accuracy of the data and attempt to clean data assets after the fact, using queries to flag records with potential violations and using manual efforts to repair. Neither approach satisfactorily addresses the problem from an organizational point of view. In this thesis, we provide a conceptual model of constraint-based integrity management (CBIM) that flexibly combines both approaches in a systematic manner to provide improved integrity management. We perform a gap analysis that examines the criteria that are desirable for efficient management of data integrity. Our approach involves creating a Data Integrity Zone and an On Deck Zone in the database for separating the clean data from data that violates integrity constraints. We provide tool support for specifying constraints in a tabular form and generating triggers that flag violations of dependencies. We validate this by performing case studies on two systems used to manage healthcare data: PAL-IS and iMED-Learn. Our case studies show that using views to implement the zones does not cause any significant increase in the running time of a process.

This study proposes new methods for the reliability-based design of structural systems, with emphasis on offshore mooring systems. After a brief introduction to the mooring systems, two main objectives are discussed in this dissertation. The first objective is the calculation of the probability of failure of a structural system, which is an important input for a reliability-based design or any quantitative risk assessment. Two different methods are proposed for calculation of the probability of failure: a method based on the Monte Carlo simulations and a method based on the basic rules of probability, which is called the Progressive Reliability Method (PRM). Both methods are flexible to the definition of system failure. For example, the probability of a serviceability or ultimate-strength failure can be assessed using any of the two methods. It is shown that the two methods produce similar results, but PRM is preferred because it is exact and usually faster to implement. The second main objective in this dissertation is to develop a method for the optimization of the design of a structural system, given a target probability of failure. In this method, using the structural analysis of a preliminary design, the ratio of the optimal to the preliminary mean capacity of each component, which is called the Optimality Factor, is determined. Two design strategies are considered. First, an optimal design is intended to achieve the maximum system integrity. System integrity is defined as the balanced contribution of system components to its reliability. To quantify the system integrity, the Integrity Index is defined, and its calculation for various systems is discussed. Second, a designated failure scenario is considered, where some components serve as a fuse to protect some other components. This design strategy is especially applicable to mooring systems with drag anchor foundations because normally, if a drag anchor is pulled out from the seabed, it can cause significant damages to nearby subsea facilities. Using the rules of probability, a method is then developed to calculate the optimality factor of each component.

Lake-rich thermokarst landscapes, such as Old Crow Flats (OCF) in northern Yukon, Canada have been identified as amongst the most vulnerable to climate change. This has raised concerns of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation (VGFN) and Parks Canada (Vuntut National Park) about the ecological integrity of this significant wetland. The influence of climate change on the hydroecological conditions of thermokarst lakes are complex and vary across the landscape, thus long-term hydroecological monitoring is essential to adequately assess the ecological integrity of the aquatic ecosystem and how it is changing over time. In a genuine interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, this thesis establishes an integrated approach using isotope hydrology, aquatic ecology, and paleolimnology to develop a robust long-term aquatic monitoring program that has already been adopted by Parks Canada. In collaboration with Parks Canada, 14 of 58 lakes that were previously studied during the International Polar Year from 2007-09 were selected to represent monitoring lakes. Lakes were sampled in early June and late August/early September 2010-11. Water samples for analysis of hydrogen and oxygen isotope composition and chemistry (i.e., ions and nutrients) were collected to track hydrological and limnological conditions. Artificial substrates were deployed in June and accrued algae were collected at the end of the ice-free season to assess community composition and abundance. Sediment coring was conducted in a culturally-significant lake (Zelma Lake – OCF06) to reconstruct long-term baseline hydroecological conditions over the past three centuries. Radiometric dating techniques (137Cs, 210Pb) were used to develop a sediment core chronology. Baseline hydroecological conditions were reconstructed through analyses of loss-on-ignition, bulk organic carbon and nitrogen elemental and isotope compositions, and pigments. Meteorological data and a multi-year evaporation pan experiment were used to develop a robust isotope framework, which provides the basis for interpreting five years (2007-11) of lake water isotope measurements and deriving knowledge of hydrological conditions for the monitoring lakes. Using this framework and the coupled-isotope tracer method, isotopic compositions of input water (δI) and evaporation-to-inflow (E/I) ratios were calculated and provide key hydrological information for each sampling interval. δ¬I values distinguish snowmelt- and rainfall-sourced lakes, with δP representing a threshold between the two isotopic-based hydrologic regimes. A Mann-Kendall test showed that three lakes (OCF11, 26, and 49) displayed significant increasing trends in δI values indicating a potential transition from snowmelt-sourced to rainfall-sourced isotope-based hydrologic-regimes. E/I ratios >0.5 signifies lakes that are evaporation-dominated with positive water balances and E/I ratios >1 indicates lakes that are evaporation-dominated with negative water balances. Six lakes in OCF (OCF06, 19, 37, 46, 49, and 58) surpass the 0.5 threshold and three of these lakes (OCF06, 19, and 46) crossed the significant evaporation threshold (E/I > 1) during dry climatic conditions. Multi-proxy paleolimnology analysis conducted on Zelma Lake reveals different hydroecological transitions during the past ~330 years that include: phase 1 (~1678-1900) characterized by stable hydroecological conditions; thermokarst expansion (~1900-1943) marked by decreases in productivity; phase 2 (~1943-2007) distinguished by increasing productivity; and a post drainage phase following rapid drainage in 2007 characterized by further increases in productivity. The stratigraphy of Zelma Lake shows that hydroecological conditions in dynamic landscapes such as OCF are complex and require multi-proxy paleolimnological analysis. In particular, organic matter, δ13Corg, and pigment concentrations are important parameters to consider when interpreting past hydroecological conditions, thermokarst expansion, and lake drainage events.

Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging was used to examine the age-related changes in white matter structural integrity in the common chimpanzee. Fractional Anisotropy(FA), a measure derived from the diffusion tensor data is sensitive to developmental and pathological changes in axonal density, myelination, size and coherence of organization of fibers within a voxel and thus reflects the white matter structural integrity. There is substantial evidence that white matter structural integrity decreases with age in humans. The long-term goal of this study is to compare the age-related changes in the white matter structural integrity among humans and chimpanzess to provide potential insights into the unique features of human aging. Different methods, including Region Of Interest (ROI) analysis, Tract Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) are used to describe age-related changes in FA in a group of 21 chimpanzees. Strengths and limitations of these methods were discussed.