abstract: This study investigates the vulnerability of subsistence agriculturalists to food shortfalls associated with dry periods. I approach this effort by evaluating prominent and often implicit conceptual models of vulnerability to dry periods used by archaeologists and other scholars investigating past human adaptations in dry climates. The conceptual models I evaluate rely on an assumption of regional-scale resource marginality and emphasize the contribution of demographic conditions (settlement population levels and watershed population density) and environmental conditions (settlement proximity to perennial rivers and annual precipitation levels) to vulnerability to dry periods. I evaluate the models and the spatial scales they might apply by identifying the extent to which these conditions influenced the relationship between dry-period severity and residential abandonment in central Arizona from A.D. 1200 to 1450. I use this long-term relationship as an indicator of potential vulnerability to dry periods. I use tree-ring precipitation and streamflow reconstructions to identify dry periods. Critically examining the relationship between precipitation conditions and residential abandonment potentially sparked by the risk of food shortfalls due to demographic and environmental conditions is a necessary step toward advancing understanding of the influences of changing climate conditions on human behavior. Results of this study support conceptual models that emphasize the contribution of high watershed population density and watershed-scale population-resource imbalances to relatively high vulnerability to dry periods. Models that emphasize the contribution of: (1) settlement population levels, (2) settlement locations distant from perennial rivers, (3) settlement locations in areas of low average annual precipitation; and (4) settlement-scale population-resource imbalances to relatively high vulnerability to dry periods are, however, not supported. Results also suggest that people living in watersheds with the greatest access to and availability of water were the most vulnerable to dry periods, or at least most likely to move when confronted with dry conditions. Thus, commonly held assumptions of differences in vulnerability due to settlement population levels and inherently water poor conditions are not supported. The assumption of regional-scale resource marginality and widespread vulnerability to dry periods in this region of the U.S. Southwest is also not consistently supported throughout the study area. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2010

L’Algérie est un cas d’école en matière d’ignorance en biodiversité. A ce jour, on ne dispose d'aucun inventaire complet pour aucun taxon ni aucun atlas à l’échelle du pays ! Pourtant, l’Algérie est d’une grande importance pour la biodiversité mondiale. La façade littorale de l’Algérie fait partie du hostpot de biodiversité mondial qui est le pourtour méditerranéen et compte plusieurs points rouges de biodiversité régionaux. Par ailleurs, la partie saharienne contient une diversité d’organismes endémiques adaptés aux fortes conditions de sécheresse. Les autorités algériennes déploient un projet ambitieux pour la conservation en fixant 50 % de la surface du pays comme objectif pour les aires protégées ! Mais, l’emplacement de ces aires protégées et leur gestion n’obéit pas à des critères basés sur une bonne connaissance de la diversité, mais sont plutôt panifiés à dire d’expert. L’objectif général de cette thèse c’est l’étude de la distribution de l’ignorance en biodiversité en Algérie en se concentrant sur les « Linnean, Wallacean et Darwinian Shortfalls » et de contribuer à les réduire. J’ai consacré un chapitre qui a pour but de réduire le Linnean Shortfall en proposant 1) une première checklist des reptiles et amphibiens d’Algérie qui est le fruit d’un examen précis des publications scientifiques sur ces taxons en Afrique du Nord. 2) une première pré-évaluation des statuts de conservations des reptiles et amphibiens d’Algérie pour la production de la première liste rouge nationale. La deuxième partie de ce manuscrit traite la question de l’ignorance de la distribution géographique des espèces. Le but de cette partie est de cartographier l’ignorance qui est la différence entre la diversité la richesse spécifique attendue et la richesse spécifique observée. La richesse spécifique attendue a été modélisée avec deux approches : 1 l’utilisation des modèles de niches avec la méthode de maximum d’entropie (MaxEnt) pour prédire les habitats favorables pour chaque espèce puis additionner les différentes couches binaires de présence des espèces pour calculer la richesse spécifique. 2) l’addition des couches des aires d’occurrences des espèces construite par la méthode du minimum convex polygon pour produire la carte de distribution de la richesse spécifique. Les deux approches ont montré la même tendance à l’échelle nationale, c’est-à-dire la concentration des zones les plus riches sur le long de l’Atlas Saharien et des hauts plateaux qui sont la zone de transition entre le Sahara et la partie méditerranéenne de l’Algérie. L’opposition de la partie saharienne globalement pauvre en espèce et la moitié nord plus riche. En fin, les massifs sahariens du Hoggar et Tassili forment une zone très distincte avec une richesse nettement supérieure par rapport au reste du Sahara. Pour ce qui est des lacunes, dans la Partie nord, la Kabylie, le parc national d’El Kala et la région d’Oran sont assez bien prospectées. Dans le Sahara, seuls quelques points sont assez bien prospectés comme Biskra, Béchar et quelques zones du Hoggar et Tassili. En fin, la troisième partie porte sur la distribution des lignées génétiques dans le Maghreb. Les objectif de cette partie est localiser les zones de sutures entre les lignées génétiques divergentes des populations de l’est et de l’ouest du Maghreb et d’essayer de comprendre les mécanismes qui ont conduit à ce patron de diversité génétique. Pour répondre à ces questions, j’ai effectué une phylogéographie comparées sur 11 espèces de reptiles et amphibiens à distribution continue et large dans le Maghreb. Deux zones de sutures ont été identifiées : une zone à la frontière de l’Algérie et du Maroc, l’autre EN Kabylie à l’ouest de la vallée de la Soummam. Les divergences entre les clades est et les clades ouest ont eu lieu entre la période pré-messinienne jusqu’au à la limite plio-pleistocène et se seraient maintenues dans des refuges climatiques à l’est et à l’ouest du Maghreb. / Algeria is a case study of biodiversity ignorance. To date, there are neither complete inventories for any taxa nor atlas across the country! Yet, Algeria is of great importance for global biodiversity. The coastal area of Algeria is part of the global biodiversity hostpot which is the Mediterranean perimeter and has several regional red spots of biodiversity. Moreover, the Saharan part encompasses a diversity of endemic organisms adapted to the strong conditions of drought. The Algerian authorities are deploying an ambitious project for conservation aiming to reach 50% of the country's surface as protected areas! However, the location of these protected areas and their management don’t obey to a scientific evidence based, but are rather based on experts opinion. The main aim of this thesis is the study of the biodiversity ignorance distribution in Algeria by focusing on the "Linnean, Wallacean, and Darwinian Shortfalls" and to contribute to reduce them. The first chapter aims at reducing the Linnean Shortfall by proposing 1) a first checklist of reptiles and amphibians of Algeria which is the result of an accurate review of scientific publications on these taxa in North Africa. 2) a first pre-assessment of the conservation status of reptiles and amphibians of Algeria for the production of the first national red list. The second part of this manuscript deals with the ignorance of the geographical distribution of species. The purpose of this part is to map the ignorance which is defined as the difference between the expected specific richness diversity and the observed specific richness. The predicted species richness was modelled with two approaches: 1 ecological niche modeling with the maximum entropy method (MaxEnt) to predict the suitable habitats for each species and then add the different binary layers of species presence to calculate the specific richness. 2) Minimum convex polygon method was used to create range maps of each species and were auditioned to obtain predicted species richness. Both approaches have shown the same trend at a national scale: the concentration of the richest areas along the Saharan Atlas and the high plateaux which are the transition zone between the Sahara and the the Mediterranean part of Algeria. The opposition of the Saharan with a low species richness and the northern part with a higher species richness. Finally, the Saharan massifs of the Hoggar and Tassili form a very distinct zone with a much greater wealth compared to the rest of the Sahara. In terms of gaps, in the northern part, Kabylie, El Kala National Park and the Oran region are fairly well surveyed. In the Sahara, only a few points are clearly well prospected as Biskra, Bechar and some areas of the Hoggar and Tassili. The third part deals with the distribution of genetic llineages in the Maghreb. The aim of this section is to locate the phylogeographic breaks between the divergent eastern and western populations of the Maghreb and to try to understand the mechanisms that led to this pattern of genetic diversity. To answer these questions, I carried out a comparative phylogeography on 11 species of reptiles and amphibians with continuous and wide distribution in the Maghreb. Two suture zones have been identified: one zone on the border of Algeria and Morocco, the other in Kabylia west of the Soummam valley. The divergences between the eastern clades and the western clades occurred between the pre-Messinian periods up to the plio-pleistocene boundary and were maintained in climatic refugia in the east and west of the Maghreb.

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Diploma thesis "European collaborative defense projects and the military capacity of the EU" is dealing with the realization of cooperative projects and with their influence on the development of military capacities of the European Union member states. The author examines the economic and military advantages of international defense collaboration. The optimal way of collaboration leads to lower development and production costs, higher quality of the product and better competitiveness on the market. The author uses selected European programs to test how the results are achieved in reality. Further author identifies the goals of the European Defense and Security Policy as they were set up by the European Union. Mainly the so called Petersberg Tasks. The author examines which military capabilities the European Union needs to build in order to realize the full scope of the Petersberg Tasks and whether the realized collaborative projects enhance the capabilities of the Union for these tasks.

D. Tech. (Business, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology / Organisational performance in the public sector has emerged as a critical topic in the post-1994 era in South Africa. This could ostensibly be attributed to the inability of the majority of most public organisations in the country to deliver a satisfactory standard of service to the public. An intense controversy has also emerged the world over on the selection of performance measures that are appropriate for use in public organisations. This debate is actuated by the existence of a multiplicity of performance measurement indices as well as frameworks that can be applied to manage performance in organisations. The existence of these multiple measurement mechanisms tends to confound the entire process of managing organisational performance. Another unresolved controversy focuses on the extent to which various organisational resources impact on organisational performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between organisational performance and three organisational resources; specifically, the human factor, organisational systems and organisational processes. A quantitative design was adopted in which a survey questionnaire was administered to 272 managers and employees of a South African National Government Department. Respondents were selected using a blend of purposive sampling and convenience sampling approaches. Data were analysed using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 20.0). Reliabilities were measured using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the human factors, organisational systems and organisational processes. Spearman’s correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were used to investigate the relationship between organisational performance and the sub-elements under each of the three organisational resources. The impacts of each of the three factors on organisational performance were compared using the mean-score ranking technique. Performance of the National Government Department was measured using the four performance yardsticks of the Balanced Scorecard; namely, customer satisfaction, financial performance, innovation and learning, and internal processes The findings of the study revealed that performance of the National Government Department was highest in four strategic areas; which are the promotion of good corporate ethics and values, client satisfaction, service quality and relations with external organisations. However, performance shortfalls were observed in four key areas; namely, organisational speed, attrition of manpower, overloading of employees and the overburdening of divisions with high workloads. Correlation analysis showed that there were positive relationships between organisational performance and the five human factor components; life satisfaction, quality of work life, ability utilisation, creativity and autonomy. Regression analysis indicated that there were significant and predictive relationships between organisational performance and three human factor elements; namely, quality of work life, ability utilisation and life satisfaction. Among the five human factor elements, life satisfaction exerted the greatest impact on organisational performance. Significant, positive and predictive associations were also found between organisational performance and three organisational system factors; quality, innovation and inter-organisational systems, with quality exerting the greatest impact on organisational performance. Significant, positive and predictive relationships were further observed between organisational performance and the four organisational process factors identified in the study; namely, organisational structure, organisational change, team processes and organisational change. Among these, team processes exerted the greatest influence on organisational performance. Overall, the human factor applied the greatest impact on organisational performance, followed by organisational processes with organisational systems having the least impact. Based on these findings, recommendations were made and implications for further studies were suggested. The findings of the study provide empirical confirmation of the effectiveness of the Balanced Scorecard as a tool for the measurement and management of performance in public sector organisations. Additionally, managers in different public organisations may enhance the performance of their organisations by optimising the sub-elements of the three organisational resources examined in this study.