An investigation of the prerequisite conditions which enable invasion of moist grasslands by Dalbergia obovata.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville..Encroachment by Dalbergia obovata into moist coastal grasslands within eThekwini Municipality was identified as a potential threat to the conservation of this threatened habitat type. An investigation was undertaken to confirmation whether or not D. obovata was in fact encroaching into the city's grasslands and to identify the probable underlying drivers and local factors that contributed to encroachment. The investigation comprised four areas of focus. The first was an assessment of the management practices and records of D. obovata encroachment extracted from the available reserve management records of seventeen nature reserves and conservation areas. The summarised data from the records was then processed using a Chi-square test and Principal Components Analysis. The second phase focussed on the application of field surveys to record the distribution patterns of D. obovata within four selected management areas. The results were then captured in a GIS map against which the results of the Chi-square and PCA tests were compared. In phase three a simple theoretical ballistics model was developed from experimental data to predict the anomochoric distribution of D. obovata diaspores from the forest into adjacent grasslands and the critical positioning of parent plants in the host trees in relation to the edge of the canopy. The final focal area involved the mapping of individual plants within stands of D. obovata and comparison against sixteen years of historical orthophoto records in order to determine the historic patterns and rates at which D. obovata became established and propagated within the grasslands. During this part of the investigation the vegetative propagation of D. obovata by clonal propagation from lateral branches and roots was identified and which provided an explanation of how D. obovata was able to form large dense stands with no evidence of canopy contact mortality. The final conclusions were that D. obovata parent plants had to be positioned on the edge of the forest canopy for diaspores to successfully escape the canopy, that successful establishment of D. obovata in grasslands from any particular parent plant was infrequent and that D. obovata did not become established in the presence of large mixed feeder herbivores. However once established in the grasslands, the ability to spread via clonal propagation enabled D. obovata to both outcompete grass species for available resources and be resilient to conventional bush encroachment management practices which relied on controlled burning programs

Developing the Governance Space: A Study of the Role and Potential of the Company Secretary in and Around the Board of Directors

This study brings together developments in corporate governance and organization studies to examine the work of the company secretary, a mandatory legal officer in UK listed corporations, typically positioned close to the board of directors, but hitherto largely ignored in governance and organizational research. Regulation continues to use distinctions between inside executive and outside independent non-executives on boards, opening up organizational space between what one director actually does vis-a-vis another. This study combines a socio-spatial perspective of organization with theories of board behaviour to identify the potential for company secretaries to engage in a vibrant role performance in and around the boardroom. Findings show the potential for company secretaries to act as boundary spanners, ‘walking the lines and working the spaces’ that connect executive and non-executive directors, so developing the governance space in ways that enable board effectiveness

Hunch Mining: Intuition Augmented with Cognitive Computing, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence

Hunches are important tools for executives making time-critical highly complex decisions in turbulent environments. However, hunches are also elusive and exist below the surface when not being used for immediate decision making. These latent hunches can be useful for developing analytical models. This paper coins the term hunch mining to describe the process of surfacing latent hunches from corporate decision makers as well as workers and using them as models for data analytics. We present the Organizational Hunch Matrix and show how organizations can make the leap from time-consuming manual cognitive analysis to artificial intelligence and analytics driven analysis facilitated by Cognitive Computing Engineers

How Do Minimum Payment Changes Affect Credit Card Arbitrage?

This paper examines how changes in the minimum payment percentage and effective maturity of introductory offers affect credit card arbitrage.  Credit Card arbitrage involves taking a cash advance on, or making purchases against, a credit card that offers a low or zero percent introductory interest rate.  The proceeds are deposited into a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured money market account.  Profits from this strategy are dependent on factors including the minimum payment due on the credit card each month.  Recently, under pressure from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, some banks have increased the minimum monthly payment percentage on their cards.  We measure the sensitivity of Credit Card arbitrage profits to changes in the offer maturity and the required minimum monthly credit card payment.  We also analyze how offer duration changes with changes in the minimum monthly payment.  These calculations represent an important contribution to the literature because of the unique pattern of credit card loan payments

Phase-field approach to heterogeneous nucleation

We consider the problem of heterogeneous nucleation and growth. The system is described by a phase field model in which the temperature is included through thermal noise. We show that this phase field approach is suitable to describe homogeneous as well as heterogeneous nucleation starting from several general hypotheses. Thus we can investigate the influence of grain boundaries, localized impurities, or any general kind of imperfections in a systematic way. We also put forward the applicability of our model to study other physical situations such as island formation, amorphous crystallization, or recrystallization.Comment: 8 pages including 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Many Mountains, Much News: Digitizing Appalachia’s Historic Newspapers

This panel session will discuss various aspects of the digitization process and highlight actual newspaper stories now available on the Chronicling America site. Abstract: For centuries, newspapers in Appalachia were a vitally important source for reporting local and state news. Their pages circulated through the many mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, carrying reports to the people on the day’s news from Civil War battles to the Hatfield & McCoy Feud, to the violence of “Bloody Breathitt” County, to the massacre at Matewan, from the roots of mountain music to the final vote cast in the debate over the 19th amendment to the US Constitution. Today, Appalachians can now read the pages and papers coveted by their great-great-great-grandparents, discover stories from the past, and explore more than a century’s worth of rich genealogical data from birth, marriage and death notices through the website for the Library of Congress and their newspaper portal: Chronicling America. Recipients of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, three universities, West Virginia University, the University of Tennessee and the University of Kentucky, along with the Library of Virginia, are digitizing Appalachia’s historic newspapers from the nineteen century through the early years of the twentieth century for the Library of Congress National Digital Newspaper Project

COAL, GLOBAL WARMING, AND THE CLEAN AIR ACT

In the early 1990s many scientists claimed that there was a scientific consensus that the anthropogenic production of greenhouse gases was causing global warming. Carbon dioxide is produced in far greater quantities than other greenhouse gases. Over 80 percent of the carbon dioxide produced in the United States comes from coal-fired power plants. If global warming is a threat to the welfare and survival of future generations, the United States, as one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gases,has an obligation to reduce its production of these gases. In order to determine the most effective way to reduce the production of greenhouse gases in the United States, this study examines recent efforts by the Clinton and Obama administrations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.The Clinton and Obama administrations were selected for this study because both administrations were Democratic, and both had avowed political agendas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For the first two years each administration enjoyed the support of Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress, and they had similar political support for the remainder of their time in office. This study will show that President Obama’s executive approach to reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants has been more effective than the legislative approach of the Clinton administration. The study will indicate that a scientific consensus about anthropogenic global warming and the political will to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants did not exist during the 1990s. The study also shows that, despite the effectiveness of the Obama administration in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, there are many problems with the executive approach to the problem. The study suggests that the Clean Air Act has ceded to much legislative power to the Executive branch of government, and that success in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants is too dependent on the will of the Executive

Some psychological benefits of urban nature: Mental vitality from time spent in nearby nature.

A one-time era of vast energy and natural resources allowed an industrial civilization to emerge and flourish. This gift of resources allowed for the building of modern society’s infrastructure and the flood of goods and services. Those resources, however, were never limitless. The coming decline in resource availability and quality will significantly alter individual and community life patterns, and initiate a drawn-out transition to a new normal. These changes in the biophysical basis of everyday life will tax our social, emotional and attentional capacities. Individuals will struggle to remain clearheaded and effective while coping with immutable biophysical limits. It is here that psychology will play a major role since what is being faced is not a technological or political challenge but an existential one. Psychological research posits that time spent in nature restores our mental effectiveness, emotional outlook and subjective well-being. Furthermore, the full psychological benefits of nature may not require exceptional natural environments such as scenic parks, exquisite gardens or immense green spaces. Everyday nature, even that judged to be mundane, may suffice. This is an important notion since nature in small-scale neighborhood settings is inexpensive to maintain and widely accessible to the vast majority of people. This chapter explores this idea, first by developing the theoretical basis for using ordinary nature to restore mental and social effectiveness and second by presenting a study of two designed residential neighborhoods that differ dramatically on the quality and amount of nearby nature. Results of the study are consistent with theory and prior research in indicating that residents who committed to spending time outdoors in their neighborhood showed greater mental clarity and effectiveness, regardless of the quality of the surrounding natural settings. Considered together, the theory and results support the suggestion that exposure to nearby nature significantly benefits mental functioning even in the absence of superlative design features. Time spent in everyday nature, which is available to most people, is as effective as experiencing the breathtaking beauty of extraordinary natural settings. The chapter presents these findings as having important implications for citizens who must maintain their mental clarity and emotional stability while responding to trying environmental circumstances. Even under a business-as-usual resource scenario, budget constraints and existing land use patterns make it difficult to create new natural areas. A scenario that includes a reduction of net energy surplus and a descent in natural resource availability makes these findings all the more useful.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136087/1/De Young, R., K. Scheuer, T. Brown, T. Crow & J. Stewart (2017) Some psychological benefits of urban nature, in Columbus, A. M. (Ed.) Advances in Psychology Research 116 (Pp. 93-120).pdfDescription of De Young, R., K. Scheuer, T. Brown, T. Crow & J. Stewart (2017) Some psychological benefits of urban nature, in Columbus, A. M. (Ed.) Advances in Psychology Research 116 (Pp. 93-120).pdf : Main articl

Metal-Elastomer Surface Deformation Control on Super-Compressible Strain Transducer Arrays

This paper reports the metal-elastomer surface deformation control strategy of a strain transducer array capable of measuring compressive strains up to 60%. Pairs of multi-finger electrodes separated by different inter-digit gap distances are forced into contact by induced surface creasing deformation at different strains. Test structures have been developed to explore and optimize the electrode-elastomer hybrid surface deformation. The deformation is due to large compressive strains in the “x-direction” but stretching caused by the Poisson effect can also take place in the “y-direction”

Perceptions and General Knowledge of Online Social Networking Activity of University Student-Athletes and Non-Student-Athletes

The current study investigated differences between student-athletes and non-student-athletes regarding online social networking (OSN) usage. In particular, types of usage, perceptions of monitoring, and knowledge and perceptions of inappropriate online behavior were examined. Participants were student-athletes and non-student-athletes at a mid-sized university in the Rocky Mountain Region, who were asked their perceptions regarding OSN. Results of independent samples t-tests revealed student-athletes felt that students in general were more knowledgeable of the dangers associated with OSN than were non-studentathletes. Further, student-athletes found provocative pictures posted on OSN profiles to be more acceptable than did non-student-athletes. Also, monitoring of online profiles by supervisory figures was considered less acceptable to student-athletes than non-studentathletes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed