Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The decline in agricultural productivity in Nigeria is linked to a host of factors ranging from unsustainable growth policies, inadequate funding and infrastructures, low levels of value added through processing, low commodity prices, unstable markets, poor extension services and low rates of literacy. It is now well recognised that there is a need to diversify Nigerian agriculture as well as improving production performances. This study investigates the potential of cassava root tuber (CRT), as a means to promote agricultural growth. It assesses cassava production, profitability, efficiency, marketing structures and channels, constraints in production, the potential to add value by processing cassava into gari (a fermented, roasted, and dried granule) and its marketing at the farm level. These were supplemented by a critical review of policies and programmes, including trend analysis of cultivated area, production, yield and prices of major crops including cassava at the national level covering the period 1970–2009. The study surveyed 315 cassava producers (including 278 gari processors), 105 marketers involved in cassava marketing and 30 stakeholders from three regions in the Delta State, Nigeria. Descriptive statistics are used to analyse the socio-economic characteristics of the sample. In addition, profitability of CRT and gari and their marketing were assessed by benefit-cost analysis. Furthermore, productivity and efficiency of CRT and gari and their determinants were analysed using non-parametric DEA followed by Tobit regressions. Results indicate that cassava production and processing is profitable in all regions and for all farm size categories. The BCR is estimated at 2.83 and 1.22 for CRT and gari, respectively. However, the yield level of CRT and gari is very low, estimated at 7.7 t/ha and 4.7 t/ha, respectively. Also, efficiency levels are very low and vary by farm size as well as regions, with large scale producers relatively more efficient. Marketing of cassava in any form is profitable and efficient (Marketing Efficiency>1 in all cases) and profitability varies widely across regions. Provision of water was identified as the main constraint in processing, followed by shortage of electricity and poor marketing infrastructure. The review of past policies and trend analysis revealed inconsistent policies and fluctuations in agricultural productivity, but also showed increases in total production mainly driven by expansion of the area cultivated during later years, for cassava in particular. The policy implications include: (a) increased provision of modern technologies, use of improved varieties and modern technology; (b) land reform policies to consolidate farm size; (c) investment in elements of marketing infrastructure; and (d) improvements in extension services. Despite inconsistencies in policies, cassava stood out as a robust and resistant crop which provides confidence that targeted investment in the cassava sector will contribute to development of Nigerian agriculture.

The southeastern Brazilian continental margin has a debated evolution regarding postrift events and formation of topography. Apatite fission track (AFT) and apatite U-Th/He (AHe) analysis ages for the N-S transect between Rio de Janeiro and Três Rios range between 98.5±11.9 and 54.1±4.2 Ma. Ages are younger towards the coast and increase progressively inland. Highest samples (around 1500 m above sea level) have older AFT ages. A wide range of ages was not found in the area, contrasting with the large AFT age span found by other studies in adjacent portions of the Brazilian continental margin, where age ranges of up to ~200 Ma from the coast to the innermost sample in the continent have been reported. The cooling ages and the thermal history models produced with software QTQt corroborate a uniform and continuous cooling process for the rifted margin, with total depths of denudation between 2.5 and 4.4 km, attesting to the absence of post-Cretaceous rift reburial in the area. Towards the continental interior, at the back of the Serra do Mar escarpment, thermal history models point to a change in cooling rate in the Upper Cretaceous, compatible with reported reactivation of the regional Neoproterozoic structures which led to the formation of the Cenozoic Rift System of Southeastern Brazil. Collision episodes in the western margin of W Gondwana have important role on platewide stress distribution, inducing regional structure reactivation and creation throughout the South American Platform. The plate-wide deformation arising from the western plate margin collisions is possibly responsible for the formation of the many Paleozoic grabens, which were the precursors of the cratonic basins of the South American continent. Among those, evidence from zircon U-Pb detrital provenance indicates that the Ordovician Piranhas Graben in central Brazil is in fact an early manifestation of the Paraná Basin, since its progressive increase in catchment area matches the sediment sources of the Silurian Vila Maria and Devonian Ponta Grossa formations of the Paraná Basin. The present-day landscape is mainly a result of isostatic rebound due to erosional unloading, although combined with post-rift magmatism and regional structure reactivation. The post-rift continuous uplift of the southeastern Brazilian margin supplied vast volumes of clastic sediments to the Santos and Campos basins during the late Cretaceous and Cenozoic, generating high quality reservoirs for hydrocarbons.

Continental passive margins exhibit high elevation topography in many localities across the globe. The source and age of much of this topography remains a subject of great debate within the wider community, with numerous theories being presented, including significant post-rift uplift and isostatically preserved rift anks. Establishing the mechanisms that generate topography and the onshore evolution across passive margins is vital in understanding regional geological histories and their wider development. The passive margins of the NW Atlantic realm exhibit high elevation topography topped with low relief summits. The origin of this topography is debated, with both 3 km of uplift in the post-rift stage and the isostatic preservation of Cretaceous rift anks being suggested within the literature. The work of this thesis aims to resolve this debate by establishing the timing and source of uplift across the region and determining the onshore evolution prior to, during and after rifting with the application of apatite low temperature thermochronology. Contemporary analytical and modelling techniques are utilised to generate thermal histories from across both central West Greenland and SE Baffin Island, helping to de ne how the modern landscape has formed. Results from this work outline an onshore history dominated by uplift in the Cretaceous and exhumation throughout the Cenozoic. Basement samples from SW Greenland exhibit protracted cooling throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, implying low rates of exhumation have been apparent throughout. Within the Nuussuaq Basin, centralWest Greenland, thermal histories display reheating i through the Late Cretaceous/Palaeogene and cooling to present, consistent with events outlined in the basin's stratigraphy and implying uplift of the topography is likely the result of extrusive volcanism and an isostatic response to the unroo ng of the lithosphere. Spatial trends in data and thermal histories across SE Ba n Island imply much of the landscape is shaped by rift ank uplift along its SE coastline, driving exhumation of the region throughout the Cenozoic. Collectively these results suggest the elevated topography of the NW Atlantic realm is the result of rift related uplift in the Cretaceous, magmatism and widespread exhumation throughout the Cenozoic, preserved by isostatic exure. This interpretation of the region's onshore history contributes greatly to our understanding of the NW Atlantic's geological evolution. The results highlight the role of extensional tectonism, exhumation and isostasy in shaping both margin's landscapes and helps to determine the principal characteristics of the wider extensional system and the evolution of the o shore domain. Moreover, these conclusions have a wider relevance to the evolution of passive margins across the North Atlantic, improving our understanding of how topography across other margins, such as of East Greenland, Norway and the UK, has formed.

<p>This thesis aims at explaining why the UK residential electricity (retail) market enjoys high gross margins in comparison to Vattenfall’s markets in for example Sweden. Gross margin is the difference between selling price and purchase costs, in this case the wholesale electricity price. The wholesale market essentially affects all retailers in the same way and can be analysed separately, therefore it is of great interest to analyse how there can be such a wide gap between the end-user electricity price and the wholesale price. Since the UK electricity market is seen as a forerunner to other markets, being an early adopter of liberalisation of a previously state-controlled industry and seen as the most competitive market in the world, it seems a bit odd that retail electricity prices are not pushed down to a margin cost level as is expected on a perfectly competitive market.</p><p>The report concludes that there are substantially higher gross margins on the UK market and then goes on to determine which the underlying drivers to this situation are. There are two underlying socio-cultural factors that have driven the development of the market. First it is the history of deregulation that brought lower end-user prices but also bad service experiences. Secondly, the UK public has a market-friendly mentality and acceptance to how the industry works. The result is that focus has moved away from price and there is little public worry about the market being too concentrated. Two more underlying drivers are related to the properties of the market: the linkage between gas and electricity that has lessened the impact of the electricity price and the UK trading system that makes it hard for new retailers to enter the market and put a pressure downwards on prices and gross margins.</p><p>These four underlying drivers have created a market situation where price has not been perceived as the only value component of electricity and where the focus on price and gross margins has been overshadowed by other issues in the public debate. The troublesome history have produced a ‘demand for brand’ that signals safety, which has helped building substantial barriers of entry and survival for non-incumbents retailers. Together with a highly consolidated market structure, a handful of large retailers are enabled to dominate the market and push up prices with little fear of retribution from competitors or society.</p> / The attachment F is data corrections of figures 1.7 and 1.8.

As corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting becomes an increasingly adopted practice, the question concerning its utility remains. Many organizations including the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Global Reporting Initiative encourage firms to report because of purported benefits to revenue generation and cost control. This study investigates whether such boons of CSR reporting exist in the manufacturing industry by building a regression model that analyzes the relationship between gross profit margins and response to CDP questionnaires. While the results of the study are inconclusive, they hint at a positive relationship between CSR reporting and profitability. Further research with a larger data set and broader measure of CSR reporting is required to definitively state whether any significant relationship between the two variables exist.

This thesis aims at explaining why the UK residential electricity (retail) market enjoys high gross margins in comparison to Vattenfall’s markets in for example Sweden. Gross margin is the difference between selling price and purchase costs, in this case the wholesale electricity price. The wholesale market essentially affects all retailers in the same way and can be analysed separately, therefore it is of great interest to analyse how there can be such a wide gap between the end-user electricity price and the wholesale price. Since the UK electricity market is seen as a forerunner to other markets, being an early adopter of liberalisation of a previously state-controlled industry and seen as the most competitive market in the world, it seems a bit odd that retail electricity prices are not pushed down to a margin cost level as is expected on a perfectly competitive market. The report concludes that there are substantially higher gross margins on the UK market and then goes on to determine which the underlying drivers to this situation are. There are two underlying socio-cultural factors that have driven the development of the market. First it is the history of deregulation that brought lower end-user prices but also bad service experiences. Secondly, the UK public has a market-friendly mentality and acceptance to how the industry works. The result is that focus has moved away from price and there is little public worry about the market being too concentrated. Two more underlying drivers are related to the properties of the market: the linkage between gas and electricity that has lessened the impact of the electricity price and the UK trading system that makes it hard for new retailers to enter the market and put a pressure downwards on prices and gross margins. These four underlying drivers have created a market situation where price has not been perceived as the only value component of electricity and where the focus on price and gross margins has been overshadowed by other issues in the public debate. The troublesome history have produced a ‘demand for brand’ that signals safety, which has helped building substantial barriers of entry and survival for non-incumbents retailers. Together with a highly consolidated market structure, a handful of large retailers are enabled to dominate the market and push up prices with little fear of retribution from competitors or society. / The attachment F is data corrections of figures 1.7 and 1.8.

Thesis--Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program in Oceanography, 1978. / Grant 04-7-158-44104 and 04-8-M01-149. Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-184).

Products are priced in order to sell them and make a profit. Every firm, therefore, needs a pricing strategy. Such a strategy should be simple. It should ensure simplicity in tactics and decisions and minimize complications. It is difficult to set a price with the help of only one pricing model. The price of a product may vary due to factors like geographical area, different clients and time difference. Prices must always be cost-compatible. An essential step in deciding on a pricing strategy involves looking at the characteristics of pricing decisions. The classic economic theory is based upon demand and supply and attempts to balance these two concepts. In most cases it works on the basis of cost plus profit. This way of thinking about prices does not guarantee a profit, because costs and profit depend upon volume and volume is dependent on the correct price. Prices can be cut at first. In this way only a small profit will be ensured. If the price is too low it will not automatically ensure a profit. Usually little attention is paid to the market itself in deciding on a price. It is not an easy task to arrive at the 'envelope of acceptable prices". Not to fall into the standard trap of adding profit to cost, one has to have a broad overview of pricing strategies. Multiple approaches are followed in determining prices. Firstly, one can look at cost and its characteristics. By adding a profit margin to cost, one can determine a new price. It may be too low or it may be too high, resulting in the risk that customers will buy the competition's product. It is there for essential to look at strategic concepts like the competition's price as well. The way a buyer looks at certain prices and then decides whether to buy or not, also plays a very important role. All of these factors have to be taken into consideration and all aspects have to be balanced to arrive at a price. A framework for pricing decisions includes the recognition of the need for a pricing decision, determining a price, developing a model, identifying and anticipating pricing problems, developing feasible courses of action, forecasting the outcomes of each alternative and monitoring and reviewing the outcome of each action. Management's pricing decision is taken after studying all this information. Information can be given as a single answer or in detail. Costs can be divided into direct costs and absorption costs. Although prices can be determined in more ways than one, the ideal is to take more than one factor into consideration. Every aspect must carry a weight and these weights can be changed. That is why the multiple criteria decision method is so effective. With this method a few factors are taken into account. Each of these factors adds to the price definition in a certain manner with regard to each product. By changing the profit margin, the price can be adjusted until one is satisfied with the new price. A company's structure, location and nature will play a role in determining which technique is used to determine a price. The best technique is one that can be adjusted and where multiple criteria can be set. The choice of a technique is a personal choice. The multi-criteria method is flexible and prices can be determined uniformly for all products or for a single product. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Products are priced in order to sell them and make a profit. Every firm, therefore, needs a pricing strategy. Such a strategy should be simple. It should ensure simplicity in tactics and decisions and minimize complications. It is difficult to set a price with the help of only one pricing model. The price of a product may vary due to factors like geographical area, different clients and time difference. Prices must always be cost-compatible. An essential step in deciding on a pricing strategy involves looking at the characteristics of pricing decisions. The classic economic theory is based upon demand and supply and attempts to balance these two concepts. In most cases it works on the basis of cost plus profit. This way of thinking about prices does not guarantee a profit, because costs and profit depend upon volume and volume is dependent on the correct price. Prices can be cut at first. In this way only a small profit will be ensured. If the price is too low it will not automatically ensure a profit. Usually little attention is paid to the market itself in deciding on a price. It is not an easy task to arrive at the 'envelope of acceptable prices". Not to fall into the standard trap of adding profit to cost, one has to have a broad overview of pricing strategies. Multiple approaches are followed in determining prices. Firstly, one can look at cost and its characteristics. By adding a profit margin to cost, one can determine a new price. It may be too low or it may be too high, resulting in the risk that customers will buy the competition's product. It is there for essential to look at strategic concepts like the competition's price as well. The way a buyer looks at certain prices and then decides whether to buy or not, also plays a very important role. All of these factors have to be taken into consideration and all aspects have to be balanced to arrive at a price. A framework for pricing decisions includes the recognition of the need for a pricing decision, determining a price, developing a model, identifying and anticipating pricing problems, developing feasible courses of action, forecasting the outcomes of each alternative and monitoring and reviewing the outcome of each action. Management's pricing decision is taken after studying all this information. Information can be given as a single answer or in detail. Costs can be divided into direct costs and absorption costs. Although prices can be determined in more ways than one, the ideal is to take more than one factor into consideration. Every aspect must carry a weight and these weights can be changed. That is why the multiple criteria decision method is so effective. With this method a few factors are taken into account. Each of these factors adds to the price definition in a certain manner with regard to each product. By changing the profit margin, the price can be adjusted until one is satisfied with the new price. A company's structure, location and nature will play a role in determining which technique is used to determine a price. The best technique is one that can be adjusted and where multiple criteria can be set. The choice of a technique is a personal choice. The multi-criteria method is flexible and prices can be determined uniformly for all products or for a single product. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.