16,449 research outputs found
Asia-Pacific zoos in the 21st century : stakeholder perceptions of the roles and functions of zoos : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Management at Massey University, New Zealand
The advent of the anthropocene accentuates the transformation of ecosystems on a
global scale. This study responds to these concerns by assessing the role and function of
21st century zoos in general and the Asia-Pacific zoos in particular. The lack of
information on key zoo stakeholders (visitors, staff members, corporate sponsors and
zoo associates) is significant in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in Asia, where there
are complexities that may stem from cultural and societal differences. Furthermore,
current literature is predominantly based upon Western research and case studies, which
rarely take into account the complexities and differences of Asia. This research
considers the diversity of the Asia-Pacific region by examining the perceptions and
attitudes of the four groups of key stakeholders.
Zoos in six countries across the Asia-Pacific were visited over a period of six months to
March 2013 in order to assess the diversity of the study region. A literature survey and
meta-analysis of 138 zoo-based publications was employed to create a matrix table of
themes, stakeholders, and research outcomes. These results were used to design survey
instruments directed at stakeholder groups as well as provide a framework against
which the results of this study can be compared and contrasted. Quantitative analysis
such as Principal Component Analysis, Spearmanās Rho and Kruskal-Wallis H test
were used to analyse the results. The face-to-face and computer-based instruments were
augmented with the use of a reflective diary and personal work experience to triangulate
and validate the research results.
The results show that individual zoos across the world are facing similar challenges.
Differences in educational backgrounds and socio-cultural norms within the Asia-
Pacific region are reflected in stakeholdersā experiences, perceptions, and evaluations of
zoos. The results show that there are many differences amongst Asia-Pacific zoo
practices, visitor satisfaction, and stakeholder participation and these differences would
make it extremely difficult to coordinate activities at a regional level to give them a
single voice with a single agenda
Differential Chow Form for Projective Differential Variety
In this paper, a generic intersection theorem in projective differential
algebraic geometry is presented. Precisely, the intersection of an irreducible
projective differential variety of dimension d>0 and order h with a generic
projective differential hyperplane is shown to be an irreducible projective
differential variety of dimension d-1 and order h. Based on the generic
intersection theorem, the Chow form for an irreducible projective differential
variety is defined and most of the properties of the differential Chow form in
affine differential case are established for its projective differential
counterpart. Finally, we apply the differential Chow form to a result of linear
dependence over projective varieties given by Kolchin.Comment: 17 page
McKean-Vlasov SDEs and SPDEs with Locally Monotone Coefficients
In this paper we mainly investigate the strong and weak well-posedness of a
class of McKean-Vlasov stochastic (partial) differential equations. The main
existence and uniqueness results state that we only need to impose some local
assumptions on the coefficients, i.e. locally monotone condition both in state
variable and distribution variable, which cause some essential difficulty since
the coefficients of McKean-Vlasov stochastic equations typically are nonlocal.
Furthermore, the large deviation principle is also derived for the
McKean-Vlasov stochastic equations under those weak assumptions. The wide
applications of main results are illustrated by various concrete examples such
as the Granular media equations, Kinetic equations, distribution dependent
porous media equations and Navier-Stokes equations, moreover, we could remove
or relax some typical assumptions previously imposed on those models.Comment: 53 page
The profitability of technical analysis in the Taiwan-U.S. forward foreign exchange market
Based on technical analysis and White's and Hansen's data-snooping-robust tests, we examine the efficiency of the Taiwan-U.S. forward foreign exchange market and find that, unlike the spot market, the forward market is inefficient even under a very high transaction cost, suggesting that the failure of forward rate unbiasedness documented in the literature may be due to forward market inefficiency.data snooping, forward exchange rate unbiasedness, market efficiency, profitability, reality check, technical analysis
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