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Historically wildfires have been beneficial to forests, however, human developments have encroached on forests when wildfire was artificially suppressed by federal and state agencies. The area burned by wildfire each year has increased twenty-fold in the past three decades. Large, high severity fires pose increased threats to human and aquatic communities within and downstream of the burned area due to post-wildfire effects on flooding and sedimentation. We need to understand the impacts of wildfires to be able to mitigate their damages and to recognize their potential benefits. This research addresses the questions: 1) Do wildfires impact rural and urban economies differently and what are managers doing to adapt management strategies? 2) Do floods increase after wildfire, and if so, by how much? 3) Do wildfires affect fish habitat, and if so, how? Chapter 2 provides insight into both positive and negative economic impacts on rural and urban economies after a wildfire, and brings to light manager’s inability to change their management strategies due to constraints such as budget limitations. Chapter 3 measures how floods change in nine basins after a wildfire occurred, and reveals that floods may increase up to 880 percent after a fire. Chapter 4 demonstrates that fish habitat is significantly altered after wildfires and why change is harmful to the fish. This work shows that wildfire significantly changes the burned and surrounding area, and that more work is needed for a better understanding of how to predict how a specific area will respond to wildfire.

Although adjusting to a foreign culture is not easy, being immersed in another culture is an experience lived by a growing number of persons in the globalized world. For expatriate managers, successful adjustment is imperative and fundamental in establishing overall effectiveness during overseas assignments. It is intriguing that organizations often blame the individual when expatriate assignments fail (Deresky 2002; Hodgetts and Luthans 2000; Swaak 1995a; Tung 1987) rather than recognizing that others may lack understanding of what it is like to be immersed in another culture. A study of Canadian expatriate managers who have worked in non-government organizations (NGOs) in Indonesia is presented. The research focuses on interpreting the lived experience of expatriate managers using their own words and meanings. Written descriptions from research participants were obtained via email and analysed/synthesized using Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological method (Giorgi 1975; 1985; Giorgi & Giorgi 2003). The central finding of the study is that expatriates experience paradoxical ways of being including feelings of: understanding/not understanding, discomfort/comfort, powerfulness/powerlessness, belonging/not belonging, being open to the new culture/yet holding on to own culture, freedom/restriction, being supported/not supported, and being unchanged/changed when immersed, living and working in another culture. The new knowledge and understanding obtained from this research may result in alterations to present human resource management practices and strategies utilized in facilitating and supporting expatriate assignments. These changes will enhance the experience for expatriate managers and organizations alike.

This thesis is about how people develop attachments to places, and what this means for natural resource management. The concept of ‘sense of place’ is generating strong interest in the domain of natural resource management. In particular, the concept offers considerable potential as a way of integrating social, ecological and economic dimensions of environment. This makes the concept highly relevant to an emerging agenda from a range of disciplines and management approaches concerned with the links between social systems and natural systems at local and regional scales (Berkes and Folke 1998; Cheng Kruger and Daniels 2003; Plumwood 2002).¶ Recent interest in place has led to a research agenda for exploring how this concept can play a greater role in resource management (Cantrill and Senecah 2001). Central to this research agenda are questions of how attachments to places are influenced and how sense of place changes over time. In response to the emerging role of sense of place in natural resource management and the research agenda for exploring this concept, this thesis is concerned with three questions: what are the key influences on sense of place?; what is the relationship between sense of place and activities in practice?; and how do people learn about places and respond to change? To explore these questions, the thesis presents findings from interviews with 40 participants in case studies of the Atherton Tablelands and Woodstock, north Queensland. The research employed a purposeful sampling design with the aim of capturing as many different senses of place as possible within the limits of this study. Participants represented a broad range of land uses, ethnic backgrounds, ages and durations of time in the place of the interview. The data from these interviews were analysed using qualitative methods drawing on grounded theory (Charmanz 2000) and influenced by adaptive theory (Layder 1998). The research included a focus on honouring human experience (Braud and Anderson 1998), and also recognising the importance of prior research on how people develop a sense of place (Piaget 1971; Relph 1976).¶ The analysis showed how sense of place was influenced strongly by childhood experiences, both for people who grew up in the case study locations and for people who grew up elsewhere. Other strong influences on place involved living in a similar environment overseas, seeking profit and having a sense of self focussed on agricultural production. Of particular interest is that for many participants who moved to the case study locations, their sense of the Atherton Tablelands or Woodstock was well developed prior to arriving there. This implies that influencing people’s sense of place once they have arrived in a new place will be difficult. Attempts to influence people’s sense of place before they arrive, or soon after arrival, are more likely to be successful. ¶ The ways that sense of place related to practice are presented as a series of overlapping themes. These include the practice of admiring one’s place from the comfort of home, making the land produce, and engaging with a place through activities such as hunting, camping and fishing. Participants also described the practice of caring for place, such as looking after traditional country and restoring the family farm. ¶ The ways participants learned about their places focussed on their childhood experiences, learning from elders, the role of comparisons between places, and the importance of continuity of experience. Participants described very few ways of learning about their place during adulthood. One of these was seeing places under different conditions, such as during a rat plague or after a bushfire. Another was through involvement in community events such as festivals.¶ In discussing the implications of these findings for natural resource management and policy, the thesis highlights how for several participants the key influences on sense of place were tied to non-economic values. Furthermore, this thesis shows that for many people identity and place were strongly linked and this adds to research that explains why farmers may not behave in economically ‘rational’ ways (Botterill 2001a). The thesis also discusses the links between sense of place and post-productivist values in considering transitions in regional Australia identified by Holmes (2002). The findings of this thesis emphasise the potential role for environmental education during childhood to encourage learning about places. The thesis also discusses the implications of how people learn about their places during adulthood, arguing that further support for festivals and community events can play a significant role in exploring the links between social and ecological systems.¶ In conclusion, the thesis argues that the concept of place continues to offer considerable potential for understanding change in regional Australia, and in particular a grass roots shift towards post-productivist values. This role can be developed by further supporting environmental education in childhood and community events such as festivals which help us to learn about the links between ourselves and our environments.

<p>Två begrepp som ofta diskuteras inom organisationsteori är Medarbetarskap och Human resource management. Personalen ses ofta som ett företags främsta resurs. Denna uppsats bygger på en kvantitativ undersökning bland personalen inom en Telekomkedja. Vårt syfte är att bringa klarhet i frågan om i vilken utsträckning det ”myndiga medarbetarskapet” existerar, hur olika strategiska åtgärder påverkar försäljningen, vad som påverkar medarbetarnas motivation samt hur deras lojalitet gentemot arbetsgivaren ser ut.</p><p>Undersökningen visar att personalen i Telekomkedjan trivs bra på sin arbetsplats. Det ”myndiga medarbetarskapet” existerar till stor del och personalen anser sig ha goda möjligheter att påverka. Vi har även lyckats hitta ett antal strategiska åtgärder som påverkar försäljningen positivt. Motivationsfaktorerna är främst beroende av sociala relationer och det har visat sig att relationer medarbetarna emellan är minst lika viktiga som relationen mellan medarbetaren och närmsta chefen. Medarbetarna uppger även att de har en stark lojalitet mot företaget ifråga både till den närmsta butiken där de arbetar, gentemot butikskedjan som helhet samt koncernen de tillhör.</p>

Linear forecasting models have played major roles in many applications for over a century. If error terms in models are normally distributed, linear models are capable of producing the most accurate forecasting results. The central limit theorem (CLT) provides theoretical support in applying linear models. / During the last two decades, nonlinear models such as neural network models have gradually emerged as alternatives in modeling and forecasting real processes. In hydrology, neural networks have been applied to rainfall-runoff estimation as well as stream and peak flow forecasting. Successful nonlinear methods rely on the generalized central limit theorem (GCLT), which provides theoretical justifications in applying nonlinear methods to real processes in impulsive environments. / This dissertation will attempt to predict the daily stream flow of White Clay Creek by making intensive comparisons of linear and nonlinear forecasting methods. Data are modeled and forecasted by seven linear and nonlinear methods: The random walk with drift method; the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression method; the time series Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) method; the feed-forward neural network (FNN) method; the recurrent neural network (RNN) method; the hybrid OLS regression and feed-forward neural network (OLS-FNN) method; and the hybrid ARIMA and recurrent neural network (ARIMA-RNN) method. The first three methods are linear methods and the remaining four are nonlinear methods. The OLS-FNN method and the ARIMA-RNN method are two completely new nonlinear methods proposed in this dissertation. These two hybrid methods have three special features that distinguish them from any existing hybrid method available in literature: (1) using the OLS or ARIMA residuals as the targets of followed neural networks; (2) training two neural networks in parallel for each hybrid method by two objective functions (the minimum mean squares error function and the minimum mean absolute error function); and (3) using two trained neural networks to obtain respective forecasting results and then combining the forecasting results by a Bayesian Model Averaging technique. Final forecasts from hybrid methods have linear components resulting from the regression method or the ARIMA method and nonlinear components resulting from feed-forward neural networks or recurrent neural networks. / Forecasting performances are evaluated by both root of mean square errors (RMSE) and mean absolute errors (MAE). Forecasting results indicate that linear methods provide the lowest RMSE forecasts when data are normally distributed and data lengths are long enough, while nonlinear methods provide a more consistent RMSE and MAE forecasts when data are non-normally distributed. Nonlinear neural network methods also provide lower RMSE and MAE forecasts than linear methods even for data that are normally distributed but with small data samples. The hybrid methods provide the most consistent RMSE and MAE forecasts for data that are non-normally distributed. / The original flow is differenced and log differenced to get two differenced series: The difference series and the log difference series. These two series are then decomposed based on stochastic process decomposition theorems to produce two, three and four variables that are used as input variables in regression models and neural network models. / By working on an increment series, either difference series or log difference series, instead of the original flow series, we get two benefits: First we have a clear time series model. The secondary benefit is from the fact that the original flow series is an autocorrelated series and an increment series is approximately an independently ditributed series. For an independently ditributed series, parameters such as Mean and Standard Deviation can be calculated easily. / The length of data during modeling is in practice very important. Model parameters and forecasts are estimated from 30 data samples (1 month), 90 data samples (3 months), 180 data samples (6 months), and 360 data samples (1 year).

Prior research has shown that differences in human resource management (HRM) perception/practices do exist between nations. These differences have been attributed to variations in culture. The fundamental purpose of this study was to determine whether subcultures differing in location, religion, and ethnicity significantly affect perception/ practices of human resource management within a common national context (Indonesia). A secondary purpose of the current study was to compare with those found within Indonesia by the Best International Practices Consortium or Best Practices Project (BPP). Participants in the present study were 762 agri-business employees who were members of three distinctly separate subcultures within Indonesia; Sundanese/ Javanese, Balinese, and Minahasan. Data are obtained through the distribution of written questionnaires modeled after those employed by the BPP. Within each subculture, there were numerous disparities between current perceived practices and those desired by employees. This study also revealed several significant differences in HRM practices and perceptions across the three observed subcultures in the areas of hiring, training, performance appraisal, leadership, and communications. Participants reported differences in current and desired managerial styles across subcultures. However, within these groups, current management practices matched employee preferences. The overall findings of the present study differed from those of the BPP. These differences may be attributable to dissimilarities in the samples for the two studies’ samples. This study indicates that employee attitudes and perceptions of HRM practices do differ across cultural boundaries within a common national context. This discovery has wide implications for international companies which may be looking to establish overseas enterprises in countries with diverse cultural populations.