Death and Destruction: Insight into the Rhino Poaching Epidemic in South Africa

The poaching of wildlife has been a concern to many involved in the protection of wildlife. Poaching is found throughout the world and has been around for thousands of years. In the past century, poaching has reached new heights and the concern of an extinction of a species has bought the topic of poaching to new light. Whilst poaching has been seen as a biological or conservation topic in the past, criminologists around the world have now started to delve into the topic. The poaching of wildlife and more so in recent years, rhino poaching, has been a concern in South Africa. South Africa has seen an increase in rhino poaching in the past 8 years, where over 4,000 rhinos have been slaughtered. This research aims to give insight into the current rhino-poaching epidemic in South Africa and looks at the problem from a criminological point of view, where possible solutions can be recommend using criminological theories for the prevention of rhino poaching

Controlling the Walrasian tatonnement process

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-70).In this thesis I examine a discrete-time Walrasian tatonnement process. The criterion for stability is examined in a two good tatonnement process. It is shown that the stability of the system depends upon the speed of adjustment and holdings of endowments as well as preferences. It is then shown that periodic solutions as well as aperiodic or chaotic trajectories occur. The analysis is then extended to multiple agents. Having established the results for the one-dimensional system, the analysis is extended to the case of three goods in which one of the goods is a numeraire. It is shown that similar dynamics to the one dimensional case exist. It is found that if one market acts in a chaotic manner then both markets act in a chaotic manner. Such that markets do not act in a chaotic manner, certain restrictions on the speed of adjustment and the holding of the non-numeraire good with respect to the numeraire good need to be enforced. Following in the footsteps of Uzawa [26], exchange out of equilibrium is examined for the case of one traded good and one numeraire as well as two traded goods and one numeraire. It is found that if any good can be exchanged for any other good there is a direct parallel between the tatonnement process and the nontatonnement process. If the numeraire is treated as a primitive currency then the policy implications differ significantly due to the amount of liquidity in the system

A Geographically Weighted Regression Analysis of General Election Turnout in the Republic of Ireland

Turnout in the 2002 general election confirm e d a downwar d trend in Irish voter pa rticipation levels, that first becam e evident in the early 1980s and was to culm inate in th e lowest turnout fo r an Irish general election since the foundation of the st ate (Figure 1). Given this context, voter turnout is a topic that requires further analysis within the Irish con t ex t, and two ap proaches to address i ng this top i c ex ists, with each approach having its own distin ctive adv a ntages and dis a dvantages. The surveying approach draws on individual-level data, and has the ad vantage of being able to draw on a wide range of variables, including social-psychological variables, an d m a ke direct inferences about the behaviour, and sources of the behaviour, of individuals. However, questionnaire surveys generally te nd to overestim ate turnout levels, with poten tial bias in su rvey re spon se rates resu lting in the under-rep res e ntation of non-voters in survey sam p les. The second type of data – aggregate data – is subject to problem s arising from the lim ited range of variables that can be accessed in seeking explanations of low turnout (u sually lim ited to data that can be drawn from census analyses) and the cross-lev e l infere nce problem that arises in any attem p t to m a ke inferences about individual-leve l behaviour from aggregate-leve l data (Achen and Shively, 1995). However, the big advantage of aggregate data lies in th e accuracy of the estim a tion of the dependent variable (turnout) and in the potential it offers for spatial and censu s-based analysis of variations in the turnout variable. Lower levels of aggregation allow fo r a larger num ber of cases to be analysed and for more detailed pictures of spatial varia tions in turnout leve ls to be gleaned

Impact Investments: Perspectives for Australian charitable trusts and foundations

Australia, like many jurisdictions around the world, has witnessed increasing interest and activity in impact investment over recent years as businesses, governments and communities seek new solutions to enable an inclusive and sustainable society. Philanthropists, foundations and charities as well as institutional investors have implemented impact investment strategies. These strategies aim to yield financial returns, as well as positive and measureable social and environmental impacts. Done well, impact investment provides the opportunity for charitable trusts and foundations to deploy a greater proportion of capital resources in support of their mission, engage with a broader range of solutions for addressing social and environmental challenges, and sustain and grow assets for future use. Charitable trusts and foundations may also use their resources in a manner that catalyses and attracts additional capital to social and environmental needs.Evans & Partners, Herbert Smith Freehills, Macquarie Funds Group, Macquarie Group Foundation, The Ian Potter Foundation and The University of Sydne

Phygitally Smarter? A Critically Pragmatic Agenda for Smarter Engagement in British Planning and Beyond

In Britain as elsewhere, planning systems are entering a “digital turn.” However, the emerging conversations around PlanTech in policy, industry, and research yield contrasting views about the promises of digital technology and “data-driven” decisions to enhance and embed public participation in the planning system. With faster, data-driven processes capable of engaging more people in more diverse ways, PlanTech offers to revolutionise planning systems. However, empirical evidence demonstrates low citizen trust in government and web-based technologies, democratic and participatory deficits, the complexity of the planning system and its opaque technocratic terminology, multi-layered digital divides, and other socio-technical factors that hinder effective and inclusive public consultations in planning. This article provides a preliminary, high-level research agenda for public consultations across Britain’s three nations that centres around a critical pragmatic design, deployment, and evaluation of blended/“phygital” (simultaneously physical and digital) information-rich ecologies of smart engagement. A review of selected national policy in Britain provides initial insight into the emphasis (or lack of) put on the adoption of digital tools within the planning process of each British nation. In doing so, the research sets out a conceptual model that complements existing models for participatory planning by adopting Beyon-Davies’ unified conception of information, systems, and technology. The conceptual model presented sets out seven Is of information-rich phygital ecologies and three interdependent “pillars” for smart engagement that enable one to gaze both deeply and broadly into opportunities for smart engagement through and beyond PlanTech

Impact Investments: Perspectives for Australian superannuation funds

Australia, like many jurisdictions around the world, has witnessed increasing interest and activity in impact investment over recent years as businesses, governments and communities seek new solutions to enable an inclusive and sustainable society. Philanthropists, foundations and charities as well as institutional investors have implemented impact investment strategies. These strategies aim to yield financial returns, as well as positive and measureable social and environmental impacts. While some investors pursue commercial financial returns, others consciously elect to accept reduced financial returns in the interests of pursuing greater impact. Anecdotal evidence would indicate that a well-executed impact investment strategy provides trustees the opportunity to build investment portfolios aligned to member’s values and with unique exposure and uncorrelated diversification to a wide range of geographies and sectors. All factors that support impact investment having a legitimate role within superannuation fund portfolios.Herbert Smith Freehills, Evans and Partners, The Ian Potter Foundation, Macquarie Funds Group, Macquarie Group Foundation, The University of Sydney

R2MLwiN:A program to run the MLwiN multilevel modelling software from within R

R2MLwiN is a new package designed to run the multilevel modeling software program MLwiN from within the R environment. It allows for a large range of models to be specified which take account of a multilevel structure, including continuous, binary, proportion, count, ordinal and nominal responses for data structures which are nested, cross-classified and/or exhibit multiple membership. Estimation is available via iterative generalized least squares (IGLS), which yields maximum likelihood estimates, and also via Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation for Bayesian inference. As well as employing MLwiN's own MCMC engine, users can request that MLwiN write BUGS model, data and initial values statements for use with WinBUGS or OpenBUGS (which R2MLwiN automatically calls via rbugs), employing IGLS starting values from MLwiN. Users can also take advantage of MLwiN's graphical user interface: for example to specify models and inspect plots via its interactive equations and graphics windows. R2MLwiN is supported by a large number of examples, reproducing all the analyses conducted in MLwiN's IGLS and MCMC manuals

Detection and Sizing of Baffle Plate Erosion and Fretting using Eddy Current Array Technology

The paper describes the evaluation of current state of the art Eddy Current Array (ECA) technology used for the detection and sizing of heat exchanger tube baffle plate erosion and fretting type defects. For validation purposes, all defects were also subject to Internal Rotary Inspection System (IRIS) ultrasonic evaluation. Results of the study indicate that a probability of detection (POD) figure of 84.6% is achievable for the ECA method with a probability of sizing (POS) mean measurement error of approximately +6.9% when compared to the IRIS sizing results

Panel 2: Corruption and the Private Sector: Is Money Laundering the New Corrupt Foreign Practices?

This roundtable of practitioners, regulators, and experts will consider the following issues:Does corruption matter in today’s globalized economy?Do current regulatory responses deter or contain corruption?How far should we “rethink” corruption