Migration and habitat use of sea turtles in the Bahamas

Objectives: Evaluate movement and distribution patterns of sea turtles in our series of study sites in The Bahamas. This objective includes the questions of where do the turtles come from, how long are they resident in these sites, and where do they go when they leave. Collect data that will allow us to develop techniques to compare habitat quality and to serve as a foundation for studies of the role of green turtles in seagrass ecosystems. Evaluate models for estimating growth rates and carrying capacities for sea turtles based on our data from a long-term study of immature green turtles in the southern Bahamas. (Document has 7 pages.

Perspectives of Small Retailers in the Organic Market: Customer Satisfaction and Customer Enthusiasm

Abstract. In this paper we discuss the impact of customer satisfaction and enthusiasm on the performance of small retailers in the organic food market. The analysis of customer satisfaction and shop data confirm essential economic effects. The study is based on 948 customer interviews and an analysis of management ratios of 12 organic food shops in Germany. The results show that customer satisfaction is a relevant key to sales performance. Regression analysis reveals that overall customer satisfaction accounts for 32 % of sales per square meter sales area. An additional factor analysis identifies service and product quality as main determinants of customer satisfaction. Consumers consider the freshness of fruit and vegetables as representative for the quality of the whole assortment. A correlation analysis demonstrates that customer enthusiasm is a more accurate factor in the recommendation of shops than customer satisfaction. The paper ends with managerial and scientific implications

Minimal failure probability for ceramic design via shape control

We consider the probability of failure for components made of brittle mate- rials under one time application of a load as introduced by Weibull and Batdorf - Crosse and more recently studied by NASA and the STAU cooperation as an objective functional in shape optimization and prove the existence of optimal shapes in the class of shapes with a uniform cone property. The corresponding integrand of the objective functional has convexity properties that allow to derive lower-semicontinuity according to Fujii (Opt. Th. Appl. 1988). These properties require less restrictive regularity assumptions for the boundaries and state functions compared to [arXiv:1210.4954]. Thereby, the weak formulation of linear elasticity can be kept for the abstract setting for shape optimization as presented in the book by Haslinger and Maekinen

Biology of pelagic sea turtles: effects of marine debris

Objectives: 1. Quantify the sub-lethal effect of debris ingestion (nutrient dilution) on nutrient gain 2. Model sub-lethal effects of debris ingestion on nutrient intake and growth 3. Evaluation of stress from entanglement on the loggerhead sea turtle 4. Movement patterns and behavior of pelagic-stage loggerheads in the eastern Atlantic 5. Document the genetic relationships of pelagic-stage loggerheads in the eastern Atlantic with rookeries in the southeast US (Document has 14 pages; lists publications resulting from research

A multigrid perspective on the parallel full approximation scheme in space and time

For the numerical solution of time-dependent partial differential equations, time-parallel methods have recently shown to provide a promising way to extend prevailing strong-scaling limits of numerical codes. One of the most complex methods in this field is the "Parallel Full Approximation Scheme in Space and Time" (PFASST). PFASST already shows promising results for many use cases and many more is work in progress. However, a solid and reliable mathematical foundation is still missing. We show that under certain assumptions the PFASST algorithm can be conveniently and rigorously described as a multigrid-in-time method. Following this equivalence, first steps towards a comprehensive analysis of PFASST using block-wise local Fourier analysis are taken. The theoretical results are applied to examples of diffusive and advective type

Perspectives of small retailers in the organic market: Customer satisfaction and customer enthusiasm

In this paper we discuss the impact of customer satisfaction and enthusiasm on the performance of small retailers in the organic food market. The analysis of customer satisfaction and shop data confirm essential economic effects. The study is based on 948 customer interviews and an analysis of management ratios of 12 organic food shops in Germany. The results show that customer satisfaction is a relevant key to sales performance. Regression analysis reveals that overall customer satisfaction accounts for 32 % of sales per square meter sales area. An additional factor analysis identifies service and product quality as main determinant s of customer satisfaction. Consumer s consider the freshness of fruit and vegetables as representative for the quality of the whole assortment. A correlation analysis demonst rates that customer enthusiasm is a more accurate factor in the recommendation of shops than customer satisfaction. The paper ends with managerial and scientific implications.retail marketing, success factor, organic marketing, regression analysis, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Infant psychiatric disorders

Infant mental health problems include difficulties to regulate emotions or attention, crying, sleeping or feeding problems as well as aggressive behavior. Early identifications of these problems help to change developmental trajectories and improve developmental outcomes. Psychiatric assessment and classification have to take into account the rapid processes of development as well as the inseparable linkage between symptoms of the infant, psychosocial risks in the family environment, and parent-child relations. The proposed DSM-5 classification system presents a systematic description of mental health disorders which are relevant for infant psychiatry. However, the proposal has provided rather limited attention to developmental differences and parent-infant relations. Therefore, additional classification systems, like the Zero-to-Three (DC: 0-3R), are strongly recommended. In terms of assessment and in accordance with the guidelines of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, infant psychiatrists have to consider the close relation between somatic and mental health and the interplay between behaviors of the caregiver and the infant. Therefore, the assessment has to be multidisciplinary and relationship based. A standard assessment in infancy includes a clinical interview, behavior observations, caregiver questionnaires, and a pediatric screening. All assessments should pay attention to motor, cognitive, language, and social-emotional development. Because infant development is embedded in the family context, socio-economic factors, parents' mental problems, including drug abuse, domestic violence, and trauma history should be assessed. The treatment has to be oriented toward symptoms and development and has to address underlying medical conditions. The focus should be on parent-child interactions. Evidence-based interventions are based on attachment theory, use social-learning perspectives, and behavioral approache

Hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) Nesting and Beach Selection at Príncipe Island, West Africa

Hawksbills (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) are the predominant nesting sea turtle species on the beaches of Príncipe Island in the Gulf of Guinea. The extent of nesting has been largely unknown, but such information is essential for management and conservation. Our study is the first island-wide nesting assessment. Results from the survey, conducted from 1 December 2009 to 18 January 2010 (during peak nesting season), show that the potential suitable nesting area (10 km) is scattered around the island’s 50 beaches. Sea turtles nested on 32 of the beaches (hawksbills, 20; green turtles, 28) and used 7.5 km of the suitable nesting habitat (hawksbills, 5.8 km; green turtles, 7.0 km). We estimated that 101 (95% CI = 86–118) clutches were deposited by 17-29 hawksbills and 1088 (95% CI = 999–1245) clutches were deposited by 166-429 green turtles on Príncipe from November 2009 to February 2010 (nesting season). Long-term green turtle nest count data collected from 2007/08 to 2015/16 suggest a positive trend. Analyses of clutch densities in relation to beach characteristics suggested that both species preferred areas where human presence is lower, which coincided with the most sheltered areas. These findings should be used to inform coastal planning and minimize impacts on nesting beaches, as Príncipe is currently targeted for tourism development. Overall, results highlight that Príncipe beaches are very important for the conservation of West African hawksbill and green turtle populations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pegs, politics and petrification: exchange rate policy in Argentina and Brazil since the 1980s

Currency crises have long constituted one of the most important sources of politicoeconomic instability across middle-income emerging markets, with exchange rate pegs having been identified as key culprits. Given pegs’ propensity for boom-bust-cycles, it is thus puzzling that governments insist on implementing such constraining regimes and, more importantly, that they tend to postpone exchange rate flexibilisation until a disorderly exit becomes inevitable. This thesis addresses as its core puzzle exchange regime choice in middleincome emerging markets in Latin America, and especially the phenomenon of ‘exchange rate petrification’, by examining the tumultuous exchange rate history of Argentina and Brazil. Adopting a qualitative approach and using comparisons between periods and countries, it traces the process of exchange rate policymaking on the basis of participant interviews and archival and media research over a period ranging from re-democratisation in the early 1980s, through the decade of structural reforms under nominal exchange rate anchors in the 1990s until the crisis exits to inflation-targeting under ‘dirty floats’ in the new millennium. The study shows that existing studies, which narrowly focus on electoral opportunism, credibility-building motivations or structurally-determined interest group pressures derived from OECD contexts, fail to capture the reality of emerging market exchange rate politics, their distinct economic structural context and the inter-relationship between exchange rate policy and executives’ structural reform endeavours. Instead, the analysis suggests that only a model of exchange rate politics that centres on intra-executive dynamics, but incorporates their interplay with societal cleavages and the role of international financial institutions, can account for the countries’ divergent exchange rate policy and especially the differential severity of ‘exchange rate petrification’. Using the cases of Argentina and Brazil as a backdrop, the thesis offers an explanation for the problematic nature of exchange rate pegs that goes beyond the analysis offered by the economics literature, and instead highlights their inherently political nature insofar as national governments conceive of nominal pegs as coalition-building devices in the context of politically controversial structural reforms. Aside from structural factors, such as liability dollarisation, it is governments’ reluctance to surrender this political instrument that perpetuates ‘exchange rate petrification’. As ‘exchange rate petrification’ presupposes the absence of sustained exchange rate politicisation, the thesis also refines the literature’s exchange rate politicisation hypothesis by incorporating several intervening variables, such as the institutional structure of organised society, the nature of the political system and ideational factors, which may mute calls for exchange regime change and thus generate permissive circumstances for exchange rate pegs to petrify

The Recurring Great Lakes Crisis: Identity, Violence and Power - Jean-Pierre Chretién and Richard Banégas (eds)

The Recurring Great Lakes Crisis is an edited volume comprising individual case studies that examine aspects of historical and on-going violence in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Congo-Kinshasa. The purpose of the volume is to “lead to a better understanding of the changes in the perceptions of violence which constitute one of the most serious obstacles to lasting peace” (1). The case studies encompass a diverse array of aspects of each of the conflicts, from the role of the Catholic Church in Rwanda since 1957, to the political and social problems created by the label “disaster victims” in Burundi after the 1993 crisis, to the “ethnic” conflict between the Wahendu and Walema in the Ituri district of Congo between 1999 and 2003. Most case studies resulted from field research carried out by the contributors in the Great Lakes region between 2000 and 2002