The research scope of the given thesis is the impact of the Social Security and Tax systems on the income distribution among population in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The study is constructed on the comparative analysis of the changes in taxes, social benefits and income among different groups of the local population. The findings of the thesis propose that while reforms in social security system may stimulate positive impact on the reduction of the gap in income distribution, tax security system in Azerbaijan does not have distributive power. Consequently, in comparison with tax reduction, an increase in social benefits is proposed as a policy with higher efficiency for the Azerbaijan. Furthermore, the analysis established that initially large gap in income distribution between older and younger families may gradually be decreased as a result of policy implementations in the social security system in Azerbaijan. Another important idea developed in the given work is possibility of applying innovative investment-based social security system in Azerbaijan.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / The Czech Republic was integrated into NATO in 1999, when the process of the enlargement of the Alliance by including Central and Eastern Europe had begun, and the idea of the EU expansion was being seriously considered. These changes and the unfavorable development of the Balkans crisis created a new security environment in the region, and the necessity for a revised European security policy. Membership in the EU became a primary strategic goal of the Czech Republic.s foreign policy. How did the NATO strategy influence the Czech security policy? What was the evolution of the security environment in the Europe-Atlantic region and the NATO-EU relationship? This thesis analyzes this process and examines its experience. The Czech Republic, as one of the candidates for integration into the EU, has created a good position for its entry. This thesis also explores recent international security relations and their strategic continuities for the creation of the new policy. Since the armed forces play an important role in the national security, the work analyzes a new concept of the Czech Republic Armed Forces reform. In the last chapter the thesis tries to define possible presumptions for the new security policy and argues some possible proposals, which is its main objective. / Lieutenant Colonel, Czech Republic Army

Ph.D. (Economics) / The main objective of this study is to assess the role of the informal sector in the economy of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by assessing its linkage with the formal sector. An attempt to assess the linkage between the formal and informal sectors was carried out by using quantitative techniques that range from the construction of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) to the building of a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to assess the impact of each of the sectors in the DRC economy. A new SAM that incorporates formal and informal sector is constructed whereby different techniques and methodologies are applied. The data sources and techniques used to build the SAM and CGE model are described. The DRC Formal Informal Sector Model (DRCFIM) is constructed based on ORANI model of the Australian economy. The generic edition of the model, ORANI-G, developed for CGE modellers was constructed by Horridge (1998). The model has a theoretical composition which is typical of a static Applied General Equilibrium (AGE) model. Nonetheless, one particularity of the DRCFIM is that it is a multi-sectoral CGE model that depicts the reflected structure of the DRC’s formal and informal sectors along with a diversity of linkages between various economic agents such as government, investors, traders and enterprises. DRCFIM is used to perform two policy simulations. The first policy simulation assessed the impact of land use on the DRC economy and the second is on trade liberalisation. In tracing the impact of the land use subsidy shock, output rises and domestic prices decline in most sectors, indicating considerable efficiency and lower costs per unit of output. Land use subsidy raises output in most sectors, stimulating the real GDP to rise by 0.34 and 0.26 percent in the short and long run respectively. Concerning the second policy simulation, we only allowed the import price to decrease by 5 percent in the model. As we would expect, gross domestic product, exports and employment rise when the import price on products is reduced by 5 percent in the short run.

M.A. (Greek) / When I was in Primary School I recall hearing and reading about the exploits and conquests of Alexander the Great. To me, Alexander the Great or Μεγαλέξανδρος was more than a great warrior who tamed Bucephalus at a young age and then proceeded to conquer the known world before the age of thirty. Personally, he was a champion for Greece and for Hellenism. Alexander the Great ensured that Greece and Hellenism would become known and respected throughout the ages. Films have been made and books have been written about him. References have even made about him and his empire in Holy Scriptures like the Bible (in Daniel 7:6, 8:5-7, 11:3-4) as the Four-Horned Goat, the Four-Winged Leopard and the metal statue and the Quran (as Dhul-Qarnayn the Two-Horned One). When I was in High School I recall how passionately the global Hellenic community reacted when a small republic on Greece’s northern frontier proclaimed its independence with the official name “Republic of Macedonia”. This event struck a deeply emotional chord within me. I viewed this occurrence as a theft of my heritage. A proud heritage that was being appropriated by a young republic that was desperate to clutch onto anything in order to assign legitimacy to its newly-found independent status. For this reason, I did not hesitate to select this research topic when I decided to proceed with my postgraduate studies. This topic may not be the most unique one, especially within European and specifically Balkan academic circles, but it is a topic that has been deeply embedded in my conscience as a patriotic Greek who was determined to tackle this issue with the simple objective of proving that “Macedonia is Greek”. But one cannot be subjective in academic and scientific research and provide a discourse that is based on evidence that has been fuelled by passion. An academic researcher has a moral obligation to be objective and to inform on the basis of factual evidence and reason. There is a fine line between subjective emotion and objective truth when it comes to matters of patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism and nationalism can lead to fanaticism which I believe can ultimately defeat logic. A person can love his or her country and heritage and at the same 4 time refrain from feeling a sense of entitlement and demanding exclusivity to national symbolic factors. The most critical element is to be free from prejudice when attempting to uncover the truth...

Thesis (M.M. (Security))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, 2012. / This study sets out to examine the causes for the continued conflicts in the Kivu particularly after the establishment of a transitional government in the DRC in 2004 and the elections in 2006. Three factors appear to account for the continued conflicts. First is the ethnic divide between the local population and the Kinyarwanda speakers that have settled in the region overtime. This conflict is mostly centered on the land issues which were not addressed in the final agreements for the establishment of the transitional government in Kinshasa, at Sun City in 2002. It should not be surprising that this sparked new fighting in 2006 after the elections. Second is the continued existence of a central power vacuum. This is mainly because the national army is neither strong nor disciplined enough to establish its hegemony in the area. Its task was made more difficult by the continued Rwandan interests in the area, which went beyond security concerns. Thus the Nkunda rebellion was only successful because of Rwandan support. Third is the continuation of the war economy centered on the exploitation of natural resources that are abundant in the area. This has helped to fund the war in the Kivus, and as long as there are profits to be made from natural resources exploitation, conflicts and violence in the area will continue. The conclusion from this study is that peace in the Kivus needs the establishment of a central administration with both military power to secure the area, in particular the mining areas and judicial authority to prosecute the warlords and armed groups that continue to benefit from the continuation of conflicts and violence in the area.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. Johannesburg, 2017 / The research was driven by the need to optimise the Ruashi Mining operation to prevent further high-grading without destroying the value of the mine. Ruashi Mining incurred a five-year stripping backlog caused by the drive to reduce costs. As a result of this, a decline in metal production was imminent in the subsequent years. The study was conducted mainly using SimSched Direct Block Scheduler (SimSched DBS) in comparison with schedules from Datamine Net Present Value Scheduler (NPVS) and MineSched. The scenarios investigated have shown that running a mine based on break-even cut-off grade does not optimise the net present value of an operation as shown through the results of Ruashi Mining. The research also proved that royalty affects the cut-off grade for Ruashi Mining, and cannot be ignored. The proper scheduling of wasting stripping resulting from cut-off grade optimisation has contributed to a timeous exposure of high grade to avert the decline in metal production. All the three scenarios have shown that high grade ore can be availed on time, thus producing a smooth metal output for the life of mine. Cut-off grade optimisation is very crucial for any mining organisation as it is the main driver of value. Ore reserves are important in the determination of a company’s share price. High cut-off grade results in fewer reserves, and vice versa. Since mineral reserves are the source of revenue, therefore, the higher the reserves, the higher the revenue. Low cut-off grade may result in the processing of material that does not give high profit at the beginning of the life of mine. This, therefore, lowers the mining company’s net present value. This makes it imperative to optimise the cut-off grade during the mine life in order to optimise the net present value. During mining operations, there are various stakeholders whose interests must be considered during cut-off grade optimisation because they derive many benefits from the mine. These stakeholders include shareholders, employees, government, the community and non-governmental organisations. Cut-off grade optimisation has shown that there is an opportunity to improve the net present value of Ruashi Mining. SimSched gives a higher net present value (NPV) compared to the current Ruashi life of mine schedule. This indicates that SimSched can be used to improve the NPV for Ruashi by producing an optimised schedule. It is important to note though that there is need for the software to have provisions to take into account the initial stockpile status so that there is a holistic approach to the schedule optimisation. The grade-tonnage curve is steeper closer to zero implying that a small change in cut-off grade has a huge impact on reserves. Based on the results of the study it was clear that optimisation in SimSched DBS results in a steeply declining cut-off grade policy compared to NPVS. In addition, optimisation in SimSched leads to highly accelerated mining rate and massive stockpiling. Royalty is a cost which has to be incorporated in cut-off grade optimisation. The study has shown that the cut-off grade for Ruashi is increased by 19.8%. Ignoring royalty may result in overvaluing of an operation. Environmental considerations favour the optimisation of the use of the mieral resources. Consideration of environmental costs lowered the cut-off grade for Ruashi by 16%. / MT 2017

Thesis advisor: Christopher Bruell / It is only in "erotic matters" that Plato's Socrates is wise, or so he claims at least on several occasions, and since his Socrates makes this claim, it is necessary for Plato's readers to investigate the content of Socrates' wisdom about eros. This dissertation undertakes such an investigation. Plato does not, however, make Socrates' view of eros easy to grasp. So diverse are Socrates' treatments of eros in different dialogues and even within the same dialogue that doubt may arise as to whether he has a consistent view of eros; Socrates subjects eros to relentless criticism throughout the Republic and his first speech in the Phaedrus, and then offers eros his highest praise in his second speech in the Phaedrus and a somewhat lesser praise in the Symposium. This dissertation takes the question of why Socrates treats eros in such divergent ways as its guiding thread and offers an account of the ambiguity in eros' character that renders it both blameworthy and praiseworthy in Socrates' estimation. The investigation is primarily of eros in its ordinary sense of romantic love for another human being, for Socrates' most extensive discussions of eros, those of the Phaedrus and Symposium, are primarily about romantic love. Furthermore, as this investigation makes clear, despite his references to other kinds of eros, Socrates distinguishes a precise meaning of eros, according to which eros is always love of another human being. Socrates' view of romantic love is then assessed through studies of the Republic, Phaedrus, and Symposium. These studies present a unified Socratic understanding of eros; despite their apparent differences, Socrates' treatment of eros in each dialogue confirms and supplements that of the others, each providing further insight into Socrates' complete view. In the Republic, Socrates' opposition to eros, as displayed in both his discussion of the communism of the family in book five and his account of the tyrannic soul in book nine, is traced to irrational religious beliefs to which he suggests eros is connected. Socrates then explains this connection by presenting romantic love as a source of such beliefs in the Phaedrus and Symposium. Because eros is such a source, this dissertation argues that philosophy is incompatible with eros in its precise sense, as Socrates subtly indicates even within his laudatory treatments of eros in the Phaedrus and Symposium. Thus, as a source of irrational beliefs, eros is blameworthy. Yet eros is also praiseworthy. Despite his indication that the philosopher would be free of eros in the precise sense, Socrates also argues that the experience of eros can be of great benefit in the education of a potential philosopher. Precisely as a source of irrational religious belief, the erotic experience includes a greater awareness of the longing for immortality and hence the concern with mortality that Socrates believes is characteristic of human beings, and by bringing lovers to a greater awareness of this concern, eros provides a first step towards the self-knowledge characteristic of the philosophic life. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Thesis advisor: Christopher Bruell / No rational decision can be made concerning how to live without confronting the problem of justice—both what it is and whether it is good to be just. In this essay I examine Plato’s articulation of these problems in the Gorgias and the Republic. Through detailed analyses of Socrates’ exchanges with several interlocutors, I establish, first, that despite some real and apparent differences, all the interlocutors share the same fundamental conception of justice, which could be called justice as fairness or reciprocal equality (to ison). The core of justice lies in refraining from pleonexia (seeking to benefit oneself at the expense of another). Second, according to this view, the practice of justice is not intrinsically profitable; it is valuable only as a means to the acquisition or enjoyment of other, material goods. This conception thus implies that committing successful injustice is often more profitable than being just. Third, the critics of justice recognize and openly acknowledge this fact; hence, their position is more coherent than common opinion. Fourth, the core of the Socratic defense of justice lies in the claims that the practice of pleonexia is incompatible with the possession of a well-ordered soul and that the possession of a well-ordered soul is necessary for happiness. Thus, despite appearances to the contrary, Socrates does not argue that justice, as it is commonly conceived, is intrinsically profitable. He is able to refute the critics of justice because the latter lack a coherent understanding of the human good. Finally, Socrates’ defense of justice nonetheless remains incomplete because he deliberately refrains from giving a sufficient account of the nature of the soul and its good. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

From October-December 2013, we conducted a study of the newly discovered primate species lesula, Cercopithecus lomamiensis, in the DR Congo. We placed 41 camera traps inside a 4 km2 grid outside the proposed Lomami National Park (LNP). We compared an analysis of 140 lesula events over 1,683 camera trap days from the heavily hunted Okulu area to a pilot study (38 events over 462 camera trap days) at the Losekola study site within the LNP. Our data show an unexpected result: capture probability of lesula (0.08) is the same at both the hunted and non-hunted sites. This is in contrast to the sharp decline in capture probability of all other medium-to-large terrestrial mammals at the Okulu site. These findings suggest lesula’s cryptic behavior is an important adaptation buffering the species from the impacts of hunting. This study also expands knowledge on minimum group size, terrestriality, diet, and times of activity. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University