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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Knowledge degradation and loss'
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Klopp, Karl A. "Antenna gain loss and pattern degradation due to transmission through dielectric radomes." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from the National Technical Information Service, 1993. http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA267242.
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Slaydon, Sunny Leigh. "Agricultural science students' perceptions and knowledge of hearing loss." [College Station, Tex. : Texas A&M University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3095.
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Howard-Jones, Paul Alexander. "Spectral degradation of speech and its relation to the simulation of hearing loss." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.236515.
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Herman, Elizabeth M. "Exploring knowledge loss in the contact center: Key loss areas, contributing factors, and performance metric implications." ScholarWorks, 2009. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/704.
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Knowledge loss, or organizational forgetting, is often overlooked in knowledge management frameworks, yet it costs organizations money, personnel, efficiency, and customer service. The purpose of this mixed model case study was to understand, using a model of forgetting as the conceptual framework, where and why loss occurred and to examine performance implications. An inbound telephone contact center was studied because of prolific changes in that industry regarding knowledge complexity and performance. The researcher interviewed 20 participants, observed 63 calls, and reviewed 3 months of performance data including average handle time, first call resolution percentages, and time spent on after call work. Key research questions addressed areas of loss, contributing factors, and operational impacts. Using theme-based coding and chi-square goodness of fit analyses for the qualitative data coupled with descriptive analyses and frequency distributions for the quantitative data, results showed that loss occurred because of attitudinal resistance to change, unlearning, and lack of organizational standards. Average handle time and first call resolution metrics were negatively impacted. Contributing factors included culture, leadership support, and limited follow-through from lessons learned. Recommendations include establishing a formal disposal process to remove outdated knowledge from knowledge management tools and establishing incentives to encourage employees to contribute knowledge, which can lead to higher staff engagement of those tools and improved customer service. The social change significance is that addressing knowledge loss can promote fiscal sustainability and revenue generation, thereby preventing layoffs or organizational closures.
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Noethen, Daniela [Verfasser]. "Knowledge Transfer in Teams and Its Role for the Prevention of Knowledge Loss / Daniela Noethen." Bremen : IRC-Library, Information Resource Center der Jacobs University Bremen, 2012. http://d-nb.info/103462024X/34.
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Chapell, Jodie. "Biopiracy in Peru : tracing biopiracies, theft, loss and traditional knowledge." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.654546.
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This thesis concerns the different ideas, and relationships -to people, plants and knowledge - that -'biopiracy' brings together in Peru. Through assessing different concerns over the use of 'traditional knowledge', the thesis examines the multiple meanings of biopiracy which emerge through particular bundles of relationships. Contribution is made to existing literature concerning indigenous peoples and biodiversity by illustrating the complexity and multiplicity of understandings of 'biopiracy'. The thesis identifies contested meanings of 'biopiracy' and produces a typology of 'biopiracies' through an application ofTsing's (2005) concept of 'friction', and also an analysis of 'biopiracy' as an empirical subject of enquiry in the patent system. In Part One I consider 'biopiracy' and 'traditional knowledge' in international debates, and so establish the main ideological concepts that frame 'global' biopiracy. The thesis explores the plurality of biopiracy by providing nuanced accounts of 'biopirates' and 'traditional knowledge'. Part Two, is an analysis of the work of the Peruvian National Commission Against Biopiracy. This section examines the role of patent searches and of knowledge registers in producing accounts of biopiracy that: reify traditional knowledge, fracture connections with indigenous communities, and that represent the economic interests of the state. The thesis presents a quantitative account of original patent research into 'biopiracy', with an accompanying qualitative analysis that highlights the connections produced - and denied - through 'biopiracy work'. The final section presents ethnographic data from two Amazonian communities - San Francisco de Yarinacocha, and Calleria. This data indicates that particular forms of relationships to people, plants, and knowledge are privileged, as well as cast aside in the mobilisation of 'biopiracy'. Chapter Six presents an analysis of two distinct 'biopiracies': 'Biopiracies of theft' and 'biopiracies of economic opportunity'. These in turn characterise the different, contingent features of 'biopiracy' in Peru.
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Mare, Boussa Tockville <1979>. "Physical land degradation and loss of soil fertility: soil structural stability and bio-physical indicators." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2014. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/6638/.
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This study investigates the changes in soil fertility due to the different aggregate breakdown mechanisms and it analyses their relationships in different soil-plant systems, using physical aggregates behavior and organic matter (OM) changes as indicators.
Three case studies were investigated: i) an organic agricultural soil, where a combined method, aimed to couple aggregate stability to nutrients loss, were tested; ii) a soil biosequence, where OM chemical characterisation and fractionation of aggregates on the basis of their physical behaviour were coupled and iii) a soils sequence in different phytoclimatic conditions, where isotopic C signature of separated aggregates was analysed.
In agricultural soils the proposed combined method allows to identify that the severity of aggregate breakdown affected the quantity of nutrients lost more than nutrients availability, and that P, K and Mg were the most susceptible elements to water abrasion, while C and N were mainly susceptible to wetting.
In the studied Chestnut-Douglas fir biosequence, OM chemical properties affected the relative importance of OM direct and indirect mechanisms (i.e., organic and organic-metallic cements, respectively) involved in aggregate stability and nutrient losses: under Douglas fir, high presence of carboxylate groups enhanced OM-metal interactions and stabilised aggregates; whereas under Chestnut, OM directly acted and fresh, more C-rich OM was preserved. OM direct mechanism seemed to be more efficient in C preservation in aggregates.
The 13C natural abundance approach showed that, according to phytoclimatic conditions, stable macroaggregates can form both around partially decomposed OM and by organic-mineral interactions. In topsoils, aggregate resistance enhanced 13C-rich OM preservation, but in subsoils C preservation was due to other mechanisms, likely OM-mineral interactions.
The proposed combined approach seems to be useful in the understanding of C and nutrients fate relates to water stresses, and in future research it could provide new insights into the complexity of soil biophysical processes.
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Scott, Meghan Marie. "Westernization in Sub-Saharan Africa: facing loss of culture, knowledge, and environment." Thesis, Montana State University, 2007. http://etd.lib.montana.edu/etd/2007/scott/ScottM1207.pdf.
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Call, Benjamin J. "Spatial Ability Degradation in Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Students During the Winter Semester Break." DigitalCommons@USU, 2018. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/7391.
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Spatial ability represents our ability to mentally arrange, rotate, and explore objects in multiple dimensions. This ability has been found to be important for engineers and engineering students. Past research has shown that many interventions can be created to boost an individual’s spatial ability. In fact, past research has indicated that engineering students significantly increase in spatial ability without an intervention while they are enrolled in certain engineering courses. Some researchers have claimed that the spatial ability boosts are permanent after an intervention. However, most researchers do not check the validity of that claim with continued assessment after more than a week past the end of an intervention. Additionally, if engineering education researchers are trying to measure the impact of their separate spatial ability intervention while the participating engineering students are actively enrolled in engineering courses, a confounding variable is introduced as the courses can impact students’ spatial ability. To resolve this, the work presented in this paper reflects research on engineering students’ spatial ability maintenance during the winter break between semesters. It was found that newer students exhibit spatial ability improvement during the break, while older students maintain their spatial ability at the same level. A deeper statistical analysis revealed that there are other factors that play a role in spatial ability changes over the break that are more significant than how far students had progressed in their studies. Those factors include with academic performance, the sex of the students, playing music during the break, and prior life experiences.
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Meadema, Peter Fletcher. "The Influence of Layout on Degradation of the Appalachian Trail." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/85837.
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This research investigates the influence of layout and design on the severity of trail degradation. Previous trail studies have been restricted by relatively small study areas which provide a limited range of environmental conditions and therefore produce findings with limited applicability; this research improves on this limitation by analyzing a representative sample of the Appalachian Trail with significant ecological diversity. Most trail science studies have also focused on a singular form of trail degradation, whereas this study investigates trail soil loss, widening and muddiness, providing a more cohesive analysis and revealing interrelationships between trail degradation processes. ANOVA testing of the mean values of three trail impact indicators for trail transects within several trail layout frameworks confirms the broad relevance of core trail design principles, specifically the sustainability advantages of trails with low grades and side-hill alignments. Findings also reveal the importance of landform grade in determining the susceptibility of trails to degradation and the influence of routing decisions; these relationships have received relatively little attention in the literature. The results also reveal several methodological considerations for trail alignment metrics and trail impact indicators.Master of Science
Natural surfaced trails are an essential infrastructure component in parks and protected natural areas. They provide transportation routes through otherwise undeveloped areas and outdoor recreation opportunities for hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians. Over time, recreational use and natural processes such as rainfall can lead to negative ecological impacts that damage trail treads in ways that impair their utility for visitors and require costly repairs. Environmental factors like unstable soils or extreme precipitation can make trails more susceptible to degradation. However, sustainable trail layouts and effective maintenance can reduce the rate and severity of degradation. This research investigates the influence of trail layout on three chief forms of trail degradation: trail soil loss, muddiness, and widening. Many trail science studies have occurred in small protected natural areas where the limited range of represented environmental conditions reduces the applicability of their findings in dissimilar settings. This study investigates a dataset from a large and ecologically diverse representative sample of the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine which significantly broadens the relevance of its findings. Furthermore, many previous trail studies have focused on single forms of trail degradation whereas this study which investigates three, which provides a more cohesive analysis and reveals interrelationships between impacts. Findings confirm the broad pertinence of core sustainable trail design principles, specifically the benefits of low trail grades and side-hill alignments, and suggests that landform grade is an important factor which has received little attention in the literature. The study also revealed several methodological improvements and considerations which may be useful to trail scientists and practitioners.
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Van, der Walt Dorothy Edna. "The effect of mergers on knowledge loss in an IT Company : a case study." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/3365.
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Thesis (MPhil (Information Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.Although a number of studies into the reasons for merger failure point to cultural incompatibility as a major cause, little attention has thus far been given to the knowledge loss that occurs consequent to company mergers. Drawing on literature around knowledge, knowledge loss, reasons for mergers and acquisitions, organisational culture and merger failure, this case study examines the potential for knowledge loss in a company in the South African IT sector.
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Penland, Kimberly Sue. "The Relationship between Nurse Nutrition Knowledge and Unintentional Weight Loss in Nursing Home Residents." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194310.
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Unintentional weight loss is a common and significant problem among nursing home residents and an important indicator of malnutrition. Nursing home residents who lose more than 5% of their body weight in one month or 10% of body weight in six months are at increased risk for morbidity and mortality. Licensed nurses, who are responsible for maintaining the health and well-being of nursing home residents, have been shown to be deficient in nutrition knowledge. Little is known about the relationship between nurse nutrition knowledge and unintentional weight loss in nursing home residents.The purpose of this study was to revise a nurse nutrition questionnaire to reduce respondent burden and to examine the psychometric properties of the revised instrument. The revised instrument was then used to describe the relationship between nurse nutrition knowledge and unintentional weight loss in nursing homes across Northeast Indiana.A descriptive, correlational, and non-experimental design was used to describe the relationship between nurse nutrition knowledge and unintentional weight loss (UWL) in nursing home residents in Northeast Indiana. Licensed nurses (N = 101) from nine nursing homes were recruited for this study. Nurse nutrition knowledge was measured using a revised nutrition questionnaire (NKQ-R) and weight loss data was obtained from the Nursing Home Compare Database.Content validity of the NKQ-R was acceptable. Item analysis demonstrated six items below the acceptable point biserial of .15, and one question demonstrated a very high P value of 98 and had a nonfunctioning distracter response. Four of these problematic items were in subscale `3' (nutritional deficiencies of institutionalized older adults). Consistent with findings from previous studies, nurses scored below average on the nurse nutrition questionnaire, however relationships between nurse nutrition knowledge and unintentional weight loss were not supported. Level of nurse education was positively correlated with NKQ-R scores. Nursing home ownership type was significantly related to NKQ-R scores and unintentional weight loss; nurses working in not-for-profit nursing homes scored higher on the NKQ-R than nurses working in not-for-profit nursing homes, and not-for-profit nursing homes had a lower incidence of UWL than the for-profit nursing homes in this study.
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Majara, Ntina. "Land degradation in Lesotho : a synoptic perspective." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/1645.
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Picotti, Giovanni. "Modelling of critical components in solar tower plants for degradation assessment and maintenance planning." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2021. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/207821/1/Giovanni_Picotti_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis investigates the detrimental effect of degradation phenomena in key equipment of solar tower plants, paving the path for their optimal maintenance. Physical models were developed to assess the thermal behaviour of central receivers, accurately estimate the soiling of heliostats, and mitigate the impact of optical efficiency losses in the solar field through optimized cleaning strategies. A hypothetical plant located in Woomera (South Australia) was exploited as a case study to evaluate the effectiveness of the optimizations, while successful synergies between thermal and soiling models proved their suitability for the development of comprehensive degradation prediction tools.
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Stewart, Victoria Stephanie. "Weight-loss interventions performed to reduce the risk of obesity-related complications." ScholarWorks, 2014. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/109.
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The management of obesity before a woman conceives is one of the most effective efforts a woman can take in decreasing her risk of obesity-related complications during pregnancy. Evidence supports the idea that maternal obesity influences maternal and fetal outcomes, leading to maternal and fetal morbidities. Physicians acknowledge the importance of screening women for obesity, but many do not refer patients for weight-loss therapy. In this study, the health belief model was used to explore the associations between participants' obesity risk of complications during pregnancy, the number of weight-loss interventions they attempted to implement prior to pregnancy, and how they viewed the success of their interventions. Participants were a random sample of 95 obese pregnant women older than 19 years participating in the supplemental WIC program in an urban community in Newark, New Jersey. A quantitative nonexperimental correlational study using descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the data. The results of this study indicated that obese pregnant women did not perceive the risks associated with obesity as a problem, nor was there an association among the types of weight-loss methods attempted, the overall success of their weight-loss interventions, and ethnicity. Women who tried exercise and dietary restrictions or exercise only were more likely to experience success than those who tried other methods or combinations of methods (p = 0.012). The data provided can lead to better informed strategies by health care professionals to develop standards in healthcare, particularly obstetrics and gynecology offices and clinics, to help obese women be more compliant with treatment recommendations for reducing the risks of obesity-related health problems.
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Overton, Ian Clifford. "Mangrove degradation associated with shoreline sediment changes and seagrass loss in the Bolivar sewage outflow region, north of Adelaide (1949-1993) /." Title page, abstract and table of contents and only, 1993. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09AR/09aro965.pdf.
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Ukyo, Yoshio, Kayo Horibuchi, Hiroki Kondo, Hideaki Oka, Yuji Kojima, Kazuyoshi Tatsumi, and Shunsuke Muto. "Effect of Mg-doping on the degradation of LiNiO2-based cathode materials by combined spectroscopic methods." Elsevier, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2237/20830.
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Gou, Yaqing. "Analysing the spatial pattern of deforestation and degradation in miombo woodland : methodological issues and practical solutions." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/31456.
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Although much emphasis has been given to the analysis of continuous forest conversion in tropical regions, our understanding in detecting, mapping and interpreting the spatial pattern of woodland deforestation and degradation is still limited. This thesis focuses on two factors contributing to this limitation: uncertainties in retrieving woodland change from remote sensing imagery, and the complex processes that may cause woodland deforestation and degradation. Firstly, I investigate approaches to minimising uncertainty in ALOS PALSAR-derived biomass maps by modifying a widely used processing chain, with the aim of provide recommendations for producing radar-based biomass maps with reduced uncertainty. Secondly, to further improve the retrieval of woody biomass from ALOS PALSAR imagery, the semi-empirical Water Cloud Model (WCM) is introduced to account for backscattering from soil. In wooded areas with low canopy (such as the miombo woodland which dominates the study area) the effect from soil moisture on the received backscattered signal is critical. Thirdly, based on the biomass maps retrieved from the refined radar-remote-sensing-based methodology discussed above, the influence of driving variables of the woodland deforestation and degradation, and how they alter the spatial patterns of these two processes, are analysed. The threshold for defining woodland deforestation and degradation in terms of biomass loss intensity is generated through integration of radar-based biomass loss maps, an optical forest cover change map and fieldwork investigation. Multi-linear model simulations of the spatial variation of deforestation and degradation events were constructed at a district and 1 km resolution respectively to rank the relative importance of driving variables. Results suggest that biomass-backscatter relationships based on plots of approximately 1 ha, and processed with high resolution DEMs, are needed for low uncertainty biomass maps using ALOS PALSAR data. Although plots sizes of 0.1 - 0.5 ha lead to large uncertainties, aggregating 0.1 ha plots into larger calibration sites shows some promise even in hilly terrain, potentially opening up the use of common forest inventory data to calibrate remote-sensing-based biomass retrieval models. Such relationships appear to hold across the miombo woodland ecoregion, which implies that there is a consistent relationship at least in the miombo woodland. From this I infer that random error, different processing methods and fitting techniques, and data from small plots are the source of the differences in the savanna biomass-backscatter relationships seen in the literature. The interpreted WCM presented in this study for L-band backscatter at HV polarisation improves biomass retrieval for areas with a biomass value less than 15 tC/ha (or 0.025 m2/m2 in backscatter). Use of the WCM also results in better quality regional biomass mosaics. This is because the WCM helped to improve the correlation of biomass estimation for overlay areas by reducing bias between adjacent paths, especially the bias introduced by changes in soil moisture conditions between different acquisition dates for different paths. Result shows that active and combined soil moisture datasets (from the Climate Change Initiative Soil Moisture Dataset) can be used as effective soil moisture proxies in the WCM for biomass retrieval. This quantitative analysis on the driving variables of woodland deforestation and degradation suggests that large uncertainty exists in modelling the occurrence of deforestation and degradation, especially at a 1 km scale. The spatial patterns of woodland deforestation and degradation differ in terms of shape, size, intensity, and location. Agriculture-related driving variables account for most of the explained variance in deforestation, whereas for degradation, distance to settlements also plays an important role. Deforestation happens regardless of the original biomass levels, while degradation is likely to happen at high biomass areas. The sizes of degradation events are significantly smaller than those of deforestation events, with 90% of deforestation events sharing boundaries with degradation events. This thesis concludes by outlining the importance and difficulties in integrating 'distal' (underlying) drivers in modelling the spatial dynamics of deforestation and degradation. Further work on the causal connection between deforestation and degradation is also needed. The processing chain and biomass retrieval models presented in this study could be used to support monitoring and analysis of biomass change elsewhere in the tropics, and should be compatible with data derived from ALOS-2 and the future SAOCOM and BIOMASS satellite missions.
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Gao, Xiaoxu. "Exploring declarative rule-based probabilistic frameworks for link prediction in Knowledge Graphs." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för informations- och kommunikationsteknik (ICT), 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-210650.
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En kunskapsgraf lagrar information från webben i form av relationer mellan olika entiteter. En kunskapsgrafs kvalité bestäms av hur komplett den är och dess noggrannhet. Dessvärre har många nuvarande kunskapsgrafer brister i form av saknad fakta och inkorrekt information. Nuvarande lösningar av länkförutsägelser mellan entiteter har problem med skalbarhet och hög arbetskostnad. Denna uppsats föreslår ett deklarativt regelbaserat probabilistiskt ramverk för att utföra länkförutsägelse. Systemet involverar en regelutvinnande modell till ett “hinge-loss Markov random fields” för att föreslå länkar. Vidare utvecklades tre strategier för regeloptimering för att förbättra reglernas kvalité. Jämfört med tidigare lösningar så bidrar detta arbete till att drastiskt reducera arbetskostnader och en mer spårbar modell. Varje metod har utvärderas med precision och F-värde på NELL och Freebase15k. Det visar sig att strategin för regeloptimering presterade bäst. MAP-uppskattningen för den bästa modellen på NELL är 0.754, vilket är bättre än en nuvarande spjutspetsteknologi graphical model(0.306). F-värdet för den bästa modellen på Freebase15k är 0.709.The knowledge graph stores factual information from the web in form of relationships between entities. The quality of a knowledge graph is determined by its completeness and accuracy. However, most current knowledge graphs often miss facts or have incorrect information. Current link prediction solutions have problems of scalability and high labor costs. This thesis proposed a declarative rule-based probabilistic framework to perform link prediction. The system incorporates a rule-mining model into a hingeloss Markov random fields to infer links. Moreover, three rule optimization strategies were developed to improve the quality of rules. Compared with previous solutions, this work dramatically reduces manual costs and provides a more tractable model. Each proposed method has been evaluated with Average Precision or F-score on NELL and Freebase15k. It turns out that the rule optimization strategy performs the best. The MAP of the best model on NELL is 0.754, better than a state-of-the-art graphical model (0.306). The F-score of the best model on Freebase15k is 0.709.
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Goldberg, Karen. "Investigating the sustainability of medicinal plants and the loss of traditional knowledge in a rural community in Namaqualand." Bachelor's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25601.
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Up until the early 1990s conservation practices in South Africa were culturally biased, focusing largely on the value systems of the affluent. However, with the release in 1997 of the White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa's Biological diversity, the role that biological resources play in providing for the needs of all South Africans, is now emphasized. According to this policy, human needs must be considered if conservation is to be successfully implemented. Using this document as the framework for this study I chose to investigate various aspects of medicinal plant use in a rural community in Paulshoek, Namaqualand. The main aims were as follows: to evaluate the local knowledge regarding medicinal plants; to document the plants used and collected in Paulshoek; and to determine potential threats to the biological resource. This was achieved by employing a variety of social and ecological methods. It became apparent from the interactions and interviews with the residents that medicinal plants are an important resource to the Paulshoek community since more than 70% of the population regularly use herbal remedies. While there is some evidence to suggest that the local knowledge of medicinal plants is dying out, I would speculate that most of the knowledge has already been lost. Of the 15 plants used and collected in Paulshoek, most appear to be highly sustainable in the landscape. This conclusion was based on people's perceptions regarding the change in abundance of each of these species over time and by further comparing plant size between Paulshoek and adjacent commercial farms. As most medicinal species seem unaffected by either: harvesting or land use practices this indicates that it is possible to achieve a sustainable harvest. Certain species do, however, show evidence of decline. Fuelwood harvesting most probably accounts for the change in abundance of Rhus burchelli over time, while Mentha longifolia may be facing some reduction in plant fitness due to harvesting for medicinal purposes. Sceletium emarcidum is on the verge of local extinction due to a combination of intensive harvesting and high grazing pressures. In contrast, high stocking densities appear to account for the increased abundance in both Galenia africana and Ballota africana. These findings clearly show that while the resource as a whole may be fairly resilient to harvesting and land use practices, certain species are in need of urgent conservation. This study further highlights the need to look beyond the direct impacts of harvesting and consider all possible threats, if the resource is to be sustainably managed. While this case study is atypical of the state of the medicinal plant resource in most of South Africa, this survey serves as a novel protocol for evaluating the sustainability of any resource which is regularly utilized.
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Kellogg, Erin Ashley. "Predicting Quality of Life in Weight Loss Participants: The Influence of Perceived Stigma, Negative Coping, and Obesity Knowledge." The Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1313598999.
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Wheeler, Nicholas Robert. "Lifetime and Degradation Science of Polymeric Encapsulant in Photovoltaic Systems: Investigating the Role of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate in Photovoltaic Module Performance Loss with Semi-gSEM Analytics." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1473440287427776.
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Lawson, Laté Ayao. "Essays on economic growth energy use and biodiversity loss." Electronic Thesis or Diss., Strasbourg, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019STRAB011.
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L'impact de l'activité économique et de l'augmentation de la population sur l'environnement soulève de profondes questions sur l'avenir des sociétés humaines et des ressources environnementales. En ceci, les "Limites de la Croissance" ("Limits to Growth", Meadows, Meadows, Behrens et Randers, 1974) mettent en garde les sociétés humaines contre la possibilité d'un effondrement social si les tendances actuelles d'exploitation de ressources naturelles et de dégradation de l'environnement suivent leur court. La richesse de la nature étant primordiale à la richesse des nations, cette thèse en sciences économiques au travers de quatre contributions théoriques et empiriques traite de la possibilité d'une cohabitation pacifique des sociétés humaines avec la nature et discute des politiques de conservation de la nature. Nos résultats théoriques et empiriques montrent d'une part que l'expansion de l'habitat humain se fait au détriment des autres espèces biologiques (animales et végétales). D'autre part, nous montrons que les efforts actuels de conservation des espèces biologiques sont fortement orientés vers des forets dont la richesse en biodiversité s'avère douteuse. Finalement, nous montrons qu'une utilisation de plus en plus croissante des énergies primaires, donc à forts impacts écologiques, est encore à attendre des pays en développement. En termes de politiques environnementales, nos travaux appellent davantage à la réduction de l'empreinte écologique des sociétés humaines. Ceci inclut : Une exploitation favorisant la régénération des forêts et non la réduction des aires déjà couvertes ; L'élargissement des aires protégées surtout dans les pays en développement ; Une incitation des individus à orienter les préférences vers la demande de biens à faibles empreintes écologiquesThe impact of economic activities and increasing population on the environment raise profound interrogations towards the future of human societies and environmental resources. In this, the "Limits to Growth" (Meadows, Meadows, Behrens and Randers, 1974) warn human societies about the possibility of social collapse if current trends of exploitation of natural resources and environmental degradation remain unchanged. The wealth of nature being essential to the wealth of nations, this thesis in economics through four theoretical and empirical contributions addresses the possibility of a peaceful cohabitation between human and nature and discusses conservation policies of nature. Our theoretical and empirical results show on the one hand that human habitat is being expanded to the detriment of other biological species (animal and plant). On the other hand, we show that current efforts to conserve biological species are strongly oriented towards forests whose richness in biodiversity is doubtful. Finally, we show that an increasingly growing consumption of primary energies, therefore with strong ecological impacts, is still to be expected from developing countries. In terms of environmental policies, our work advocates for a reduction of the ecological footprint of human societies. This includes policies promoting forest regeneration and not the reduction of covered areas, expansion of protected areas, especially in developing countries and incentives for individuals to orient preferences towards the demand for goods with low ecological impacts
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McGee, Mary Jane. "Information Technology Management Strategies to Implement Knowledge Management Systems." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4156.
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More than 38% of the U.S. public workforce will likely retire by 2030, which may result in a labor shortage. Business leaders may adopt strategies to mitigate knowledge loss within their organizations by capturing knowledge in a knowledge management system (KMS). The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies that information technology (IT) managers use to develop and implement a KMS. The target population consisted of IT managers in a small-sized organization located in northwestern Florida who had implemented a KMS successfully. The conceptual framework for this study was organizational knowledge creation theory. The collection of public documents, execution of semistructured interviews with 5 qualified participants, literature on the topic, and member checking formed the determination of the findings of the study. Using triangulation and coding the data for emergent themes, 6 themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) training, (b) customer focus, (c) policy and governance, (d) leadership and management support, (e) communication and marketing, and (f) business process management. The application of the findings may contribute to social change by identifying strategies that leaders and IT managers from communities and government agencies use in implementing a KMS that may facilitate transparency and open flow of information to citizens, and allow access to timely, civic, and potentially life-enhancing information.
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Tian, Wenmeng. "Monitoring and Prognostics for Broaching Processes by Integrating Process Knowledge." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/78680.
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With the advancement of sensor technology and data processing capacities, various types of high volume data are available for process monitoring and prognostics in manufacturing systems. In a broaching process, a multi-toothed broaching tool removes material from the workpiece by sequential engagement and disengagement of multiple cutting edges. The quality of the final part, including the geometric integrity and surface finish, is highly dependent upon the broaching tool condition. Though there has been a considerable amount of research on tool condition monitoring and prognostics for various machining processes, the broaching process is unique in the following aspects: 1) a broaching process involves multiple cutting edges, which jointly contribute to the final part quality; 2) the resharpening and any other process adjustments to the tool can only be performed with the whole broaching tool or at least a whole segment of the tool replaced.
The overarching goal of this research is to explore how engineering knowledge can be used to improve process monitoring and prognostics for a complex manufacturing process like broaching. This dissertation addresses the needs for developing new monitoring and prognostics approaches based on various types of data. Specifically, the research effort focuses on 1) the use of in-situ force profile data for real-time process monitoring and fault diagnosis, 2) degradation characterization for broaching processes on an individual component level based on image processing; and 3) system-level degradation modeling and remaining useful life prediction for broaching processes based on multiple images.Ph. D.
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Kong, Taryn M. "Understanding Land Management and Desertification in the South African Kalahari with Local Knowledge and Perspectives." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/268615.
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Desertification, or land degradation in drylands, is a serious environmental problem in South Africa with tremendous socio-economic consequences. Land users' perspectives on land management practices and knowledge about their rangelands have been poorly represented in the discourse of land degradation in South Africa. We addressed this knowledge gap by examining three participatory methods to capture local knowledge and perspectives, as well as the relation between knowledge, attitude and practice status relative to three land management actions done by livestock farmers in the South African Kalahari. Photo elicitation captured a greater level of detail and new information compared to semi-structured interviews alone, while enhancing researchers' understanding of farmers' knowledge and perception in multiple ways. The photovoice group discussions led to farmers' engagement in reflective dialogues, which facilitated mutual learning among the farmers. We found that a high level of knowledge and positive attitude alone did not always result in actual full scale practice. Situational factors such as limited financial resources, inadequate farm infrastructure, farm size, and land tenure were given by farmers as constraints or challenges to their land management. We further examined how effective local knowledge and remotely sensed data were in assessing the veld condition in the Kalahari Duneveld. The farmers' assessment of veld condition corresponded to field measured grass, shrub and bare ground cover. The three vegetation metrics calculated from remotely sensed images (i.e., Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and the tasseled cap greenness) all correlated poorly to the measured vegetation cover because of the excess spectral noise caused by the high iron oxide content in the Kalahari sand. Local perspectives and knowledge have potential to augment traditional ground-based rangeland assessment and contribute in the combat against desertification by offering a more holistic view of land management.
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Rodriguez, Martinez Idelisse. "Loss of intellectual capital in the federal government designing a knowledge retention strategy for the Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) /." CONNECT TO ELECTRONIC THESIS, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1961/6864.
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Facione, Anethra Adeline. "Baby Boomers Retiring: Strategies for Small Businesses Retaining Explicit and Tacit Knowledge." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/2651.
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More than 35% of the U.S. workforce is composed of Baby Boomers who are eligible to retire within the next 5 years. Despite the potential loss of critical expertise, a gap in knowledge retention exists in small consulting businesses. The purpose of this case study was to explore effective strategies for retaining the tacit and explicit knowledge of retiring employees, to avoid operational knowledge drain. Exploration ensued through semistructured interviews at 2 small consulting businesses in the Washington, DC metropolitan area that are adept at innovatively retaining requisite knowledge. The conceptual frameworks of Bass' transformational leadership and Nonaka's knowledge creation led to the identification of strategies to retain tacit and explicit knowledge of retiring Baby Boomers. Seven small business leaders addressed questions on knowledge types, knowledge stimulation and sharing methods, and retention strategies to provide meaningful responses to the knowledge retention phenomenon. Data analysis included the Colaizzi and modified van Kaam methods of mining, categorizing, organizing, and describing participants' statements. Subsequently, the themes that emerged during the analysis identified reward, communication, and motivation as strategies for knowledge-share and transfer. Succession planning, mentoring, documentation, training, and knowledge sharing also emerged as effective methods for knowledge retention. The findings will contribute to social change by illuminating the roles effective leaders practice to influence and foster knowledge management, offering insight to other small businesses having difficulties remaining sustainable as the operational knowledge of Baby Boomers becomes unavailable as they retire.
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Fadairo, Olayemi. "Benefits of Conducting Postproject Reviews to Capture Lessons Learned." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/2121.
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Organizational learning has been a focus of scholars since 1970. Researchers have demonstrated that conducting postproject reviews to capture lessons learned significantly improves organizational learning. Guided by the concept of organizational learning, the purpose of this case study was to explore how 6 New York metropolitan organizational leaders used postproject reviews to prevent project managers from repeating the same mistakes, increasing cost and time overruns, and experiencing project failure. Semistructured face-to-face and phone interviews were conducted with a project sponsor and 5 project managers in the New York metropolitan area. Data were analyzed using the process of coding and condensing the codes, which produced 5 themes, including effective lessons learned, capturing lessons learned, benefits of lessons learned, barriers to postproject reviews, and leadership support. The findings of this study indicated that organizational leaders used standard templates and organizational policies to ensure project managers execute postproject reviews. Organizational leaders and project managers may benefit from the findings of this study by learning the advantages of conducting postproject reviews. This study may contribute to positive social change by organizations achieving cost avoidance when they reduce project failures and increase project success.
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Ukyo, Y., K. Horibuchi, H. Oka, H. Kondo, K. Tatsumi, S. Muto, and Y. Kojima. "Degradation analysis of a Ni-based layered positive-electrode active material cycled at elevated temperatures studied by scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy." Elsevier, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2237/20821.
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Nahid, Musarrat. "Occupational noise induced hearing loss and engineered noise control : knowledge and perception in the food products manufacturing industry in British Columbia." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/12650.
Full textAbstract:
Workplaces primarily rely on hearing protection devices (HPDs) for prevention of
occupational noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). This study was initiated to investigate the
potential barriers to the implementation of engineered noise control (ENC) which is considered
to be the best prevention measure. The study investigated knowledge and perception about NIHL
and ENC among decision-makers and workers in the food products manufacturing industry in
British Columbia.
We contacted company Health and Safety Departments. They were sent packages of
questionnaires and return envelopes for distribution among specified subjects. Follow-up phone
calls were made to increase participation. Analysis included descriptive statistics, nonparametric
methods and simple and multiple logistic regressions.
Twenty-two companies and 92 individuals participated (response rate 32.5%). Nearly
two-third of the respondents were non-management. A similar proportion was involved in health
and safety activities. The majority of the respondents perceived NIHL to be a big disadvantage
and said that they would be bothered by it. Respondents were knowledgeable about the effects of
noise exposure on health but had poor knowledge about harmful levels of noise, ENC and the
limitations of HPDs. They considered HPDs, hearing tests and education to be more effective in
preventing NIHL than ENC. Management showed poorer knowledge and lower perception than
non-management. Those involved in health and safety performed slightly better than those who
were not involved in such activities. Interventions should be undertaken to educate management
about ENC options and limitations of HPDs. Regulatory agency should create special branches
to help workplaces in choosing suitable ENC.
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Seidu, Mahamudu Baba. "Integrating indigenous knowledge with geographic information systems : a study of land degradation and rural livelihood sustainability in the northern region of Ghana." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.362339.
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Rehnman, Anna-Carin. "Lära och Leva : Kunskapsutveckling hos personer med en ärftlig dövhet/hörselnedsättning." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Specialpedagogiska institutionen, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-87278.
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The aim of this study is to explore the development of how people in different generations of a family with a hereditary hearing loss developed knowledge and to examine the role of the educational system and how it influenced this development. The research questions are: What is the prevalence of the deafness spoken of in the family chronicle? What different kinds of knowledge did the family members with deafness/hearing loss develop and how did they make use of them? In what ways may they have experienced their deafness/hearing loss as a suffering? What knowledge did they develop because the hearing loss recurred in several successive generations? The studied material includes answers from a questionnaire, different historical documents and sixteen interviews. Descendants of the first man born in the family in 1816 described as deaf. Among the descendants a total of 84 persons with a hereditary hearing loss have been found, at most in seven successive generations. The sixteen persons interviewed have spoken about themselves, their parent, mother or father-parent, with hearing loss. This has made it possible to explore the development of knowledge in different areas. The findings from the interviews are interpreted in four chapters where the development knowledge in the different generations has been related to each other and to the hearing loss. The study shows that the generations developed various forms of competence and knowledge and that this occurred mainly in the homes. The members of the family with hearing loss were educated by themselves. The role of public school was small. The last generation, however, has been able to carry out higher studies. The communicative practice at home was spoken Swedish, eye contact, a loud and clear voice and speechreading. The speech of children was read before the children themselves had to read the speech of others.
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George, Andrew D. De. "Observing the Loss of Situational Awareness and Tacit Knowledge during Personnel Change-Over in a U.S. Coast Guard Command and Control Environment." Thesis, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/17352.
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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimitedA Coast Guard Command and Control (C2) Command Center (COMCEN) is responsible for managing missions, planning and executing operations, and coordinating case or incident responses. The success of the C2 COMCEN depends on the quality of situational awareness, a predominant requirement for making decisions and taking action. A key element to accomplish situational awareness is the evolution of rich and powerful tacit knowledge produced by COMCEN personnel. The creation of tacit knowledge is the result of accumulating information, generating explicit knowledge, and combining with personal experience. Experts describe tacit knowledge as a progression of knowledge maturity under the influences external organizational culture as it travels through knowledge life-cycle phases. Management suspects that during the course of the watch and the watch-relief process, knowledge is vulnerable to constraints or degradation, thus affecting the C2 COMCEN’s ability to generate and sustain quality situational awareness. This study examines a C2 COMCEN environment and watch processes by making observations and conducting interviews for understanding influences of knowledge quality. The study also examines the watch environment, where knowledge originates, and how well knowledge flows. The literature review aids the study by providing knowledge research and studies from leading experts in the knowledge field.
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Vavra, Samantha. "Weighing in on Eating Disorders: Collegiate Swimming Coaches' Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Eating Disorders and Unhealthy Weight Loss Behaviors in Female Athletes." Master's thesis, Temple University Libraries, 2015. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/328032.
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KinesiologyM.S.
This study examined collegiate swimming coaches' knowledge and attitudes towards eating disorders and unhealthy weight loss practices within their athletes along with their perceptions of sport specific pressures in swimming. I used a modified version of the 2003 NCAA Questionnaire for Collegiate Coaches of Female Student-Athletes developed and utilized by Sherman, Thompson, Dehass, and Wilfret. I used email to distribute the link to an online version of the survey, and used SPSS to analyze the data. The results suggest that NCAA Division I, II, and III collegiate swimming coaches are aware of the prevalence along with the fact that that athletes do participate in unhealthy weight loss practices and suffer from eating disorders. This study suggests that many coaches are knowledgeable about this topic, but I was unable to conclude whether swimmers experience sport specific pressures that put them at higher risk for or lead to eating disorders. Both participant gender and NCAA division coached were found to present statistically significant differences in survey responses. Despite results being statistically significant, results are consistent with previous research examining eating disorders in sport. Results were not able to conclude if swimmers experience sport specific pressures leading to the development of eating disorders. It is hoped that future research will continue to examine the link between specific sports and the development of ED, as well as focus on providing coaches with more knowledge and education on this topic.
Temple University--Theses
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Thersthol, Jonathan, and Eskil Höglund. "Hjälp, var tog kunskapen och kompetensen vägen? : En fallstudie av Svea Hovrätt och Uppsala Kommuns arbete med att kompetenssäkra verksamheten." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-385737.
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Syftet med studien var att bidra till en djupare förståelse över hur organisationer arbetar med att kompetenssäkra verksamheten och hantera kunskapsförlust till följd av personalomsättning. Den här undersökningen utgörs av en fallstudie av Uppsala kommun och Svea Hovrätt och har en kvalitativ ansats. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med sju respondenter. Studiens teoretiska ramverk vilar på Nonaka och Konnos uppdelning av kunskapsbegreppet i implicit respektive explicit kunskap. Hansen, Nohria och Tierneys begrepp kodifiering och personalisering om överföring och bevarande av kunskap samt Hansson respektive Lindelöws olika modeller över kompetensutveckling och behållande av personal. Studiens resultat visar att det effektivaste sättet att behålla kunskap och kompetens inom organisationen är genom att behålla personalen. Arbetet med att behålla personal inkluderar lönesättning, att organisationen erbjuder utvecklingsmöjligheter och andra hygienfaktorer som anställningstrygghet. Resultatet visar att kompetensutveckling fyller flera syften, både som ett sätt att se till att rätt kompetens finns inom organisationen, men också som ett sätt för att personalen ska trivas och vilja arbeta kvar. Arbetet med kompetensutveckling innehåller delar som introduktionskurser, medarbetarsamtal, seminarier och utbildningar samt uppföljning. Ytterligare ett sätt att kompetenssäkra verksamheten är att bevara den kunskap som finns inom organisation genom kodifiering och personalisering. Det framkommer i studien att det svåra är att dela och behålla implicit kunskap som bygger på erfarenhet när en medarbetare lämnar organisationen.The purpose of the study was to contribute to a deeper understanding of how organizations work to secure the competence and handle knowledge loss as a result of staff turnover. This study consists of a case study of Uppsala kommun and Svea Hovrätt and has a qualitative approach. The empirical material has been collected through semi-structured interviews with seven respondents. The study's theoretical framework rests upon Nonaka and Konno's breakdown of the concept of knowledge in implicit and explicit knowledge. Hansen, Nohria and Tierneys concepts of codification and personalization on transfer and preservation of knowledge, as well as Hansson and Lindelöw's both models of competence development and retention of staff. The study's results show that the most effective way of retaining knowledge and competence within the organization is by retaining the staff. The work of retaining staff includes wage setting, that the organization offers development opportunities and other hygiene factors such as job security. The result shows that competence development fulfills several purposes, both as a way of ensuring that the right skills are within the organization, but also as a way for the staff to feel comfortable and want to work. The work on competence development includes parts such as introductory courses, staff appraisals, seminars and training courses and follow-up. Another way to secure the competence is to preserve the knowledge that exists within the organization through codification and personalization. It appears from the study that the difficult thing is to share and maintain implicit knowledge based on experience when an employee leaves the organization.
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Tabaková, Eva. "Rozklad a stabilita organické hmoty v půdě." Master's thesis, Vysoké učení technické v Brně. Fakulta chemická, 2017. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-316457.
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In the soil, the plant material is decomposed by several factors. In the process, one part of the carbon returns to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, whereas another part is stabilised in the soil. The aim of this study is decomposition and stability of organic matter in soil using a simple and innovative TBI method. Through this method, we examined the weight change after the incubation period of 90 days, where biomass of green tea was degraded in cambodia soil. Tea bags have provided us with valuable information on the decomposition and amount of carbon in the soil, because the biomass itself is of organic origin. This information is based on the fact that the soil and the decomposition processes have a direct impact on the change in climatic conditions. Thanks to further analytical methods, elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis and infrared spectroscopy with Furier transformation, was found indispensable information about tea composition.
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Barac, Auschka Susan. "EcoRestore : a decision support system for the restoration of degraded rangelands in southern Africa / Anuschka Susan Barac." Thesis, North-West University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/448.
Full textAbstract:
Land degradation is a process that causes the reduction in resource potential of natural
rangelands and occurs widespread throughout southern Africa. This process is mainly
characterized by the loss in vegetation cover, which leads to the occurrence of bare
and denuded patches, increased soil erosion, changes in species composition as well
as bush encroachment by indigenous and alien invasive plant species in savannah
areas.
Degradation of rangelands has drastically extended at an alarming rate during the last
few decades with the main causes being overstocking, extended periods of drought,
global climate change, overgrazing and general mismanagement of the land. Many
researchers, however, feel that rangeland degradation is mainly caused by a
combination of changes in land use practices and climate variability.
Land users have, however, been applying a variety of technologies over the years in
order to restore affected rangelands and mitigate the effect of degradation. These
technologies include passive and active intervention methods, aimed at restoring bare
and denuded areas and controlling indigenous bush and alien plant species
encroachment. Bush control can be carried out by applying different technologies,
involving chemical, mechanical, manual or biological control.
The focal point of this study is on bush encroachment, the factors causing the
problem, the possible ways of controlling this phenomenon and lastly the
incorporation of such information into a user-friendly Decision Support System
(DSS). The Decision Support System comprises of two databases as well as a related
expert system. Bush encroachment is a matter of great concern in most southern
African countries. This study therefore mainly included data from Namibia and to a
lesser extent, South Africa, as the main study areas, seeing that this form of
degradation greatly influences the biodiversity of rangelands in both these countries.
The Namibia Agricultural Union (NLU) identified the need for the development of a
user-friendly Decision Support System, in which case studies concerning the different
bush control technologies could be stored in a database. Restoration technologies,
regarding the occurrence of bare and denuded areas, that have been applied by the
land users over a period of time and in a specific environment in the past, have been
captured in a computerized database and expert system, serving as a Decision Support
System (DSS) and user-friendly consulting tool in a similar study, carried out by Mr.
Van der Merwe (1997). This DSS was based on CBR (Case Based Reasoning)
methodologies by which a number of case studies, that have previously been stored in
the database, can be searched by means of an expert system approach to advise the
land user concerning the most appropriate solution (action) to similar degradation
problems. The DSS developed by Mr. Van der Merwe was never published or made
accessible to the land user in a format that could be consulted by either CD-ROM or
the internet. Seeing that the NLU identified the need for a similar DSS containing
bush control technologies, it was decided to incorporate both these databases into a
single DSS, concerning bush control as well as the restoration of bare and denuded
patches. The newly converted DSS is currently known as EcoRestore and consists on
two databases: Grass Expert, which focuses on technologies to reclaim degraded
rangelands, and Bush Expert, which is more focused on the control of bush
encroachment and combating of alien invasives.
As mentioned, this study focussed on the development of the Bush Expert database
and will therefore only include results, discussions and conclusions of these case
studies.
The case studies in the Bush Expert database consist of results obtained by means of a
questionnaire completed by the land user, in collaboration with the agricultural
extension officer, as well as a quantitative vegetation assessment, to determine the
success rate of the applied technology.
The Bush Expert questionnaire, comprises of questions concerning personal
information of the land user (e.g. location of the farm), the situation on the farm
before bush control was applied (e.g. information on the environmental factors, such
as density of problem trees), as well as the type of control technology applied and the
situation of the rangeland after control (e.g. establishment of the herbaceous species).
The quantitative vegetation assessments involved the sampling of the woody and
herbaceous components in the area where a specific control technology was applied.
The density and height classes of the woody component were determined by means of
the belt-transect method. By using the descending-point method, the herbaceous
component was surveyed to determine the abundance/frequency of the annual and
perennial grass species.
In order to increase the success of any restoration project, it is important to take the
existing indigenous knowledge of local land users, concerning the problem of
degradation and mitigation thereof, into consideration. By doing so, the local people
and communities have greater control and responsibility over their resources and are
able to command a greater range and level of resourcefulness. Taking indigenous
knowledge into consideration finally enables the local land users to actively
participate in and influence higher-level decision-making processes by which they are
affected.
A total of 175 case studies in Namibia and nine case studies in South Africa were
surveyed. The Namibian case studies were surveyed in the central and northern arid
and semi-arid regions, and South African case studies in a limited location within the
Limpopo Province. Only 100 of the Namibian case studies have thus far been
incorporated into the Bush Expert database.
Multivariate data analyses techniques, analysis of variance and correlation analyses
were used to analyse the data obtained from the questionnaires and quantitative
vegetation surveys. Results were represented in the form of histogrammes, tables and
multivariate analysis ordinations.
From the results obtained for the Bush Expert database, it was clear that chemical
control technologies were most often applied in Namibian and South African case
studies (61%). The herbicides most commonly applied as chemical control technology
in Namibia included Grazer (20%) and Savana (15%), whilst in South Africa these
included Access (33.3%) and Tordon Super (33.3%). Herbicides were mostly applied
by means of aerial application (46%) methods in Namibia and as cut-stump treatment
(55.5%) by means of knapsack spraying or with a brush in South Africa.
The dominant woody species causing bush encroachment problems in Namibia were
found to be Acacia mellifera, Acacia reficiens and Dichrostachys cinerea, whereas in
South Africa these species included Dichrostachys cinerea, Acacia erubescens and
Acacia karroo.
The wood of the controlled problem species (dead woody material) is mostly not
utilized after control, but rather left on the land to disintegrate and thus contribute to
the organic material content in the soil. Dead branches are also used for brush packing,
which forms and ideal micro-climate for the germination and establishment of grass
seeds, which serves as an erosion control medium and protects grass seedlings against
grazing impacts. Some land users do however produce charcoal from certain
controlled woody species, in order to recover some of the input costs of bush control.
The majority of the case study sites (68%) in Namibia occurred within the 300-450
mm short- and long-term rainfall zones and in South Africa the majority of case study
sites occurred within the short-term rainfall zone of 550-600 mm (66.6%) and 400-
500 mm long-term rainfall zone (55.5%).
Case studies where chemical and manual bush control technologies were applied
indicated the highest success rates after control (81.7% and 75.2% respectively).
Success rate as an entity was greatly influenced by the type of control technology
applied, the density of the problem woody species after bush control as well as
environmental variables such as rainfall and soil clay percentage.
No definite trend could be determined concerning the application of a specific bush
control technology and a certain problem species. Land users tend to apply a chosen
control technology, according to the resources available, such as labour, mechanical
implements and finances. The only positive correlation between control technologies
and the type of problem species could be found regarding Dichrostachys cinerea. This
species was mainly chemically controlled by means of the application of certain
herbicides.
The most important lesson to be learnt from the surveys completed in the two
countries is that it is an absolute necessity to apply a proper after-care programme as a
management practice following the initial control of problem woody species. The
implementation of after-care determines the final success rate of any applied bush
control technology as a restoration practice within a rangeland. Only 11% of the case
studies surveyed for Namibia and South Africa indicated the implementation of an
after-care programme, which usually involved biological control (e.g. browsing by
boer goats or the use of controlled or accidental natural veld fires).
The EcoRestore Decision Support System is currently available as an online webversion
(www.puk.ac.za/EcoRestore), as well as a CD-ROM version. The CD-ROM
version is available in a package containing the CD and user's manual. An example of
the package is included in this dissertation.
In consulting the databases through question-and-answer procedures, the best action
will be proposed to the land user for future rangeland restoration, either the
reclamation of denuded areas or the control of bush encroachment. Since the case
studies are based on past and existing experiences and research, the land user will
have an indication of the expected outcome, should the same advised technology be
applied.
The EcoRestore DSS does not only offer a consulting tool for extension workers and
technicians, but also creates networking and participation between land users and
researchers, both locally and between neighbouring countries. The DSS is linked to
other national and international websites and databases, to offer users a wider range of
information and technologies with regard to agricultural and conservation practices.
Better awareness is created amongst land users concerning the problem of rangeland
degradation, which might encourage closer monitoring of the degradation and
mitigation processes.
The EcoRestore DSS was developed in such a way for it to be as user-friendly as
possible, in order to reach as many parties involved in current or future restoration
programmes. This study involved the development of the first version of the DSS
(Version 1.0) and is thus only the prototype system. It is proposed that the Bush
Expert database of the EcoRestore DSS, will be expanded in future and additional
bush control case studies from other southern African countries will be included. The
addition of such case studies will ultimately increase the effectivity of this DSS.Thesis (M.Sc. (Botany))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.
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Holland, Andrew D. "Examining the taphonomic challenges to the 3D digitisation of fragmented bone." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/15180.
Full textAbstract:
The utilisation of 3D digitisation and visualisation has grown considerably since 2008 and is becoming an increasingly useful tool for the digital documentation and metric analysis of archaeological artefacts and skeletal remains. It provides public access to rare and fragile specimens of palaeontological and palaeopathological importance whilst reducing the physical impact on these remains. Research in engineering and computer vision provides some insight into the impact of surface properties such as colour, specularity, reflectance and shape on the quality of the recorded 3D image, but within the archaeological and palaeontological disciplines comparable work has not yet been developed. If archaeology and anthropology are to provide long term reliable data from archaeological and palaeontological specimens in a way that doesn’t require repeated re-digitisation, we need to understand the impacts that the taphonomic histories of such samples have on our ability to 3D record them. Understanding the relationship of these taphonomic histories and the surface and optical properties will promote informed choices about the suitability of recording techniques. This thesis considers the taphonomic processes that affect the preservation of bone over archaeological, forensic and palaeontological timescales and the effect this has on the quality of 3D digital models. The digital refit of fragmentary bone samples is considered in relation to the effect of taphonomic alterations to bone. Conclusions regarding the key taphonomic factors and 3D digital model quality are drawn and areas of further work are identified.
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Klintenberg, Patrik. "More Water, Less Grass? : An assessment of resource degradation and stakeholders’ perceptions of environmental change in Ombuga Grassland, Northern Namibia." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm : Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-6707.
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António, Andreia Correia do Vale. "Estratégia de retenção de conhecimento." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/7525.
Full textAbstract:
Mestrado em Gestão de Recursos HumanosO envelhecimento da força de trabalho, cada vez mais, tende a ser considerado como uma das maiores causas da perda de conhecimento nas organizações a nível mundial, tendo o potencial de ameaçar a produtividade, capacidade de inovação, capacidade de crescimento, eficiência e criatividade. Associados à necessidade de sobrevivência e manutenção da vantagem competitiva que as organizações enfrentam, este torna-se um fator fundamental com o qual as organizações têm de saber lidar. No entanto, apesar da importância do tema, existe ainda, pouca pesquisa que analise a implementação de estratégias de retenção de conhecimento associadas ao envelhecimento da força de trabalho. O presente trabalho aborda o problema de perda de conhecimento na ALSTOM Portugal. Para este fim, descrevemos a implementação de um projeto interno, desenvolvido no sentido de melhorar a retenção de conhecimento na organização.
The aging of the workforce is increasingly being considered as one of the biggest causes of knowledge loss in companies around the globe, having the potential to threaten the organisation's productivity; innovation capacity; capacity to grow; efficiency and creativity. Associated with the need for survival and a competitive edge that organisations are facing, this becomes a fundamental issue that organisations need to be able to deal with. Nevertheless, despite the importance of this issue, there is little research studying the implementation of knowledge retention (KR) strategies related to an ageing workforce. The present paper addresses the problem of knowledge loss at ALSTOM Portugal. To this end, we describe the implementation of an internal project designed to improve knowledge retention in this specific organisation.
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Evans, Timothy. "Holes in the archaeological record : investigating unpublished sites from modern excavations in England and identifying the factors that contribute to the potential loss of archaeological knowledge." Thesis, University of York, 2015. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/12772/.
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Since the birth of rescue archaeology in the wake of the Second World War through to the embedding of archaeological consideration in the planning process, the number of investigations being undertaken each year in England has increased. With this increase has been a high profile crisis in ensuring that information from excavations is adequately published. In addition, the archaeological discipline has often struggled to collate information on the number of excavations taking place and their associated outputs. This research provides an insight into the nature of modern archaeological publication never before attempted in England, presenting quantitative evidence from an assessment of excavations and their sources from Staffordshire and North Yorkshire 1938-2007. This data presents detailed insight into familiar problems affecting publication such as time and money, but also the unexpected pitfalls and human factors that can affect the post-excavation process. It also highlights the large levels of significant sites either unpublished, or restricted to so-called grey literature. Through data gathering, and attempts to compile an accurate list of excavations for England and the study areas, the research also highlights the extent to which historic and modern recording systems have led to disparity in the databases and inventories of various organisations. However, when collated this data has the capacity to provide country and regional analyses of excavation and publication trends that facilitate the analysis of long-held, but seldom quantified, biases in the excavated record.
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Marchiondo, Kendrah T. "Perceived and Actual Personal Listening Device Volumes in College-Age Students: Is Education Enough?" Miami University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1336115427.
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Lockwood, Devi(Devi Kailasa). "The living library : an indigenous community in the Peruvian Amazon is combating climate change, deforestation, and loss of traditional knowledge by preserving their plants in the wild." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123784.
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Thesis: S.M. in Science Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2019Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 28).
Farmacia Viva Indigena, the Living Indigenous Pharmacy, is five hectares of primary forest in the Amazon preserved as an intact library of indigenous plants, many of them medicinally useful, near the river village of Paoyhan in Ucayali, Peru. The library is an indigenous climate adaptation strategy in the rainforest, and an effort to revive the Shipibo-Conibo culture of healing with medicinal plants. The pharmacy was established last year by Alianza Arkana, an NGO in Pucallpa. They have divided the land into sub-parcels, and are categorizing and archiving each of the medicinal plants contained inside. In Ucayali, the main environmental concern is deforestation. Land-use change also changes patterns of rainfall, as water is transported in the atmosphere through aerial rivers. The Living Library is an archive and repository of plants in a rainforest that is rapidly disappearing-an attempt to revitalize and preserve indigenous knowledge systems of medicinal plant life in Shipibo culture. The living library of plants in Paoyhan provides an economic alternative to deforestation. They also hope to attract ecotourism, scientists, and possibly pharmaceutical companies. Making the land useful by extracting medicines is one way of protecting it from loggers who enter legally or illegally.
by Devi Lockwood.
S.M. in Science Writing
S.M.inScienceWriting Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies/Writing
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Davitt, Marcia S. "Priming the Pump with Grass, Trees, and Waste: An exploration of biofuels policy and research discourse and its potential to alter living spaces." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/52974.
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Biofuels, a solar-sourced technology that can be processed from non-fossilized plant matter, have significant appeal as a means of securing a reliable, sustainable energy supply. They appear to offer significant potential by virtue of being harvestable from common plant life such as prairie grasses. I argue that a shared set of knowledge claims emerging from multiple energy/environmental institutions in Germany and the U.S. are linked by a shared set of assumptions. I characterize these claims as a "mainstream" discourse because together they function as a single powerful discourse that influences national policy and research priorities. In examining the potential material impacts of the discourse on regional and global habitats, I demonstrate the powerful performative capacity of the discourse. I also describe how this mainstream discourse perpetuates momentum along existing trajectories of at least three socio-technological regimes: agriculture, transport, energy. The practitioners (biofuels experts) of the discourse construct representations of the realities that form the basis of their research. I refer to these representations as maps because like a city map, they privilege some things while marginalizing others. These maps are then utilized as guides for intervening into the habitat in order to develop and implement biofuels. Implicated within the maps are practices that have the potential to reconstitute reality. For example, the mapping of a variety of plants as "energy crops" implicates practices generally associated with high-yield cash crops intended for trade on the global marketplace. The materialization of these practices will assimilate various plants, reconstituting them as bona fide energy crops, resulting in monocultured regional and global habitats.
I develop my argument by describing how knowledge production is regulated by the implicit rules that govern the discourse. This regulatory apparatus insures that certain types of knowledge as well as methods for producing that knowledge are privileged over others. I introduce several concepts--"institutional platform, thought collective, biofuels practitioner--"as analytical tools to develop my argument and explain how the discourse functions. I demonstrate how perpetual recirculation of knowledge claims through publication, citation, conferences, workshops and task forces naturalizes these claims, giving them authoritative force. This force is evidenced in an increased performative capacity as well as a higher degree of discursive hegemony. I demonstrate the material effects of the discourse at the practical level of its deployment by introducing another analytical tool --ground truthing. Geographers and military reconnaissance personnel use ground truthing to describe the process of physically inspecting the lay of the land in order to determine the accuracy of the maps. With this tool, I demonstrate the potential of the discourse to reconstitute habitats and landscapes. Finally I propose changing the terms of mainstream energy discourse through practices intended to de-scientize and democratize the discourse through incorporating alternative expertises. This includes: a} moving away from corporate control of energy solutions by situating energy-systems decisions and ownership at the local community level, and b} improving the definition of systemic problems by transitioning away from knowledge production that privileges the detached "spectator" approach over the embodied, participatory approach.Ph. D.
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Syk, Zackrisson Karin. "Utan tvivel är man inte klok : Praktisk klokhet vid en sjukgymnasts professionella möen." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för kultur och lärande, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-35652.
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By using the scientific essay as a method, I explore what facts affect the roles of me, the professional, and the patient during our first interaction. I also explore in which way the interaction could be affected by its location. My own professional experience as a physiotherapist is portrayed by two examples of patient-therapist interaction where the dialogue is “slow” and a sense of consensus, which is my goal, does not occur. Philosophers, authors and scientists help me to explore and reflect about my practical knowledge and how it can be developed. The essay shows different aspects on what losing health is about and how it influences the inequality in the interaction between the patient and the healthcare provider. Dialogue is a part of the treatment and when establishing a plan of rehabilitation it is important to get the relatives involved. By using different aspects of interpersonal meetings between me and the patient in this essay I want to develop the art of acting wisely in the moment, phronesis, which is the term philosopher Aristoteles created.
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Bethel, Matthew. "Geospatial Technology/Traditional Ecological Knowledge-Derived Information Tools for the Enhancement of Coastal Restoration Decision Support Processes." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2010. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1228.
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This research investigated the feasibility and benefits of integrating geospatial technology with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of an indigenous Louisiana coastal population in order to assess the impacts of current and historical ecosystem change to community viability. The primary goal was to provide resource managers with a comprehensive method of assessing localized ecological change in the Gulf Coast region that can benefit community sustainability. Using Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and other geospatial technologies integrated with a coastal community's TEK to achieve this goal, the objectives were (1) to determine a method for producing vulnerability/sustainability mapping products for an ecosystem-dependent livelihood base of a coastal population that results from physical information derived from RS imagery and supported, refined, and prioritized with TEK, and (2) to demonstrate how such an approach can engage affected community residents who are interested in understanding better marsh health and ways that marsh health can be recognized, and the causes of declining marsh determined and addressed. TEK relevant to the project objectives collected included: changes in the flora and fauna over time; changes in environmental conditions observed over time such as land loss; a history of man-made structures and impacts to the area; as well as priority areas of particular community significance or concern. Scientific field data collection measured marsh vegetation health characteristics. These data were analyzed for correlation with satellite image data acquired concurrently with field data collection. Resulting regression equations were applied to the image data to produce estimated marsh health maps. Historical image datasets of the study area were acquired to understand evolution of land change to current conditions and project future vulnerability. Image processing procedures were developed and applied to produce maps that detail land change in the study area at time intervals from 1968 to 2009. This information was combined with the TEK and scientific datasets in a GIS to produce mapping products that provide new information to the coastal restoration decision making process. This information includes: 1) what marsh areas are most vulnerable; and 2) what areas are most significant to the sustainability of the community.
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Yao, Yiying. "Thermal Stability of Al₂O₃/Silicone Composites as High-Temperature Encapsulants." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/50593.
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Conventional microelectronic and power electronic packages based on Si devices usually work below 150°C. The emergence of wide-bandgap devices, which potentially operate above a junction temperature of 250°C, results in growing research interest in high-density and high-temperature packaging. There are high-temperature materials such as encapsulants on the market that are claimed for capability of continuous operation at or above 250°C. With an objective of identifying encapsulants suitable for packaging wide-bandgap devices, some of commercial high-temperature encapsulants were obtained and evaluated at the beginning of this study.
The evaluation revealed that silicone elastomers are processable for various types of package structure and exhibit excellent dielectric performance in a wide temperature range (25 - 250°C) but are insufficiently stable against long-term aging (used by some manufacturers, e.g., P²SI, to evaluate polymer stability) at 250°C. These materials cracked during aging, causing their dielectric strength to decrease quickly (as soon as 3 days) and significantly (60 - 70%) to approximately 5 kV/mm, which is below the value required by semiconductor packaging. The results of this evaluation clearly suggested that silicone needs higher thermal stability to reliably encapsulate wide-bandgap devices.
Literature survey then investigated possible methods to improve silicone stability. Adding fillers is reported to be effective possibly due to the interaction between filler surface and polymer chains. However, the interaction mechanism is not clearly documented. In this study, the effect of Al₂O₃ filler on thermal stability was first investigated by comparing the performance of unfilled and Al₂O₃-filled silicones in weight-loss measurements and dielectric characterization. All test results on composites filed with Al₂O₃ micro-rods indicated that thermal stability increased with increasing filler loading. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) test demonstrated that the temperature of degradation onset increased from 330 to 379°C with a 30 wt% loading of Al₂O₃ rods. In isothermal soak test, unfilled and 30-wt%-filled silicones lost 10% of polymer weight in 700 and 1800 hours, respectively. The dielectric characterization found that both Weibull parameters, characteristic dielectric strength (E₀, representing the electric field at which 62.3% of samples are electrically broken down) and shape parameter (β, representing the spread of data. The larger the β, the narrower the distribution) can reflect the thermal stability of polymers. Both of them were influenced by microstructure evolution, to which β was found to be more sensitive than E₀. The characteristic dielectric strength of unfilled silicone decreased significantly after 240 hours of aging at 250°C, whereas that of Al₂O₃/silicone composites exhibited no significant change within 560 hours. The shape parameter of Al₂O₃-filled silicone decreased slower than that of unfilled silicone, also indicating the positive effect of Al₂O₃ micro-rods on thermal stability.
Improved thermal stability can be explained by restrained chain mobility caused by interfacial hydrogen bonds, which are formed between hydroxyl groups on Al₂O₃ surface and silicone backbone. In this study, the effect of hydrogen bonds was investigated by dehydrating Al₂O₃ micro-rods at high temperature in N₂ to partially destroy the bonds. Removal of hydrogen bonds impaired thermal stability by increasing the initial weight-loss rate from 0.025 to 0.036 wt%/hour. The results explained the importance of interfacial hydrogen bond, which effectively reduced the average chain mobility, hindered the formation of degradation products, and led to higher thermal stability.
The main discoveries of this study are listed below:
1. Al₂O₃ micro-rods were found to efficiently improve the thermal stability of silicone elastomer used for high-temperature encapsulation.
2. Characteristic dielectric strength and shape parameter obtained from Weibull distribution reflected the change of material microstructure caused by thermal aging. The shape parameter was found to be more sensitive to microscale defects, which were responsible for dielectric breakdown at low electric field.
3. Hydrogen bonds existing at filler/matrix interface were proven to be responsible for the improvement of thermal stability because they effectively restrained the average chain mobility of the silicone matrix.Ph. D.
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Furber, Matthew James Walter. "Nutrition and metabolic adaptation : the assessment and impact of dietary manipulation on metabolic and cellular perturbation." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2299/19011.
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It is well established that improved nutritional strategies can enhance both health and exercise performance. Scientific developments in recent years have furthered our understanding of cellular metabolism, which in turn, has provided an additional platform to investigate the impact of diet on health and adaptation. The overall aim of this research programme was to build on the current understanding of dietary intake in athletes and the impact dietary manipulation has on cellular and metabolic adaptation at rest and in combination with endurance training. It is postulated that nutrition is the most controllable risk factor impacting long-term health and chronic disease (World-Health-Organization, 2003), and enhanced knowledge of nutrition has been associated with improved dietary choices. A number of nutrition knowledge questionnaires have been developed to assess this; however the validity of each tool is reduced if implemented outside the target population. A valid and reliable general and sport nutrition knowledge questionnaire had not yet been developed. Using a parallel groups repeated measures study design (N = 101) the aim of the first experimental Chapter (Chapter 4) was to develop a new tool to measure general and sport nutrition knowledge in UK track and field athletes. Following the questionnaire design 53 nutrition educated and 48 non-nutrition educated participants completed the questionnaire on two occasions separated by three weeks. The results of the process demonstrated face and construct validity from the development of the question pool, content validity (the nutrition educated group scored > 30% higher that the non-nutrition educated group), reliability (test - retest correlation of 0.98, p < 0.05) and internal consistency (Chronbach's alpha value > 0.7) as such establishing a new tool (Nutrition knowledge Questionnaire for Athletes (NKQA)) for the assessment of general and sport nutrition knowledge in track and field athletes. Athletes' diets are commonly reported as inadequate and previous work has demonstrated a weak positive relationship between diet quality and nutrition knowledge. Additionally a commercially available tool, the metabolic typing questionnaire, claims to identify individual metabolic function and subsequently prescribe a personalised diet to optimise health. Thus the aim of the second experimental Chapter (Chapter 5) was to quantify nutrition knowledge (using the questionnaire developed in Chapter 4), measure diet intake and quality and investigate the efficacy of the metabolic typing questionnaire in UK track and field athletes. Using a parallel groups repeated measures design participants (UK track and field athletes n = 59, and non-athletic control group n = 29) completed a food diary, the NKQA and the metabolic typing questionnaire at two time points through the year (October and April) to investigate seasonal change. The results of the metabolic typing questionnaire concluded that 94.3% of the participants were the same dietary type and would subsequently have been prescribed the same diet. Athletes possess greater general and sport nutrition knowledge the non-athletes (60.4 ± 2.0 % vs. 48.6 ± 1.5 %) and also had better diet quality (76.8 ± 10.5 % vs. 67.6 ± 2.6 %). However no relationship was observed between individual nutrition knowledge score and diet quality (r2 = 0.003, p = 0.63). No difference in dietary intake was observed between power and endurance athletes; average diet intake consisted of 57.0% carbohydrate, 17.1% protein and 25.9% fat. The metabolic typing diet is based around three different diets: high carbohydrate, high protein and mixed diet. The results from Chapter 5 identified that the metabolic typing questionnaire was not able to differentiate between metabolic function in healthy individuals. Additionally all athletes, independent of event (power vs. endurance), consumed similar diets. With such similarities a clearer understanding of the impact such diets have at a cellular level is required. Therefore for the remainder of the thesis it was decided to investigate the impact of dietary manipulation utilising more robust measures. Mitochondria are responsible for energy production; their quantity and density have been associated with improved health and endurance performance. External stressors such as energy reduction, carbohydrate restriction and exercise are potent stimulators of transcription markers of mitochondrial biogenesis. Thus manipulating carbohydrate and energy availability in vivo may enhance cellular adaptation and limited literature exists on the impact increased protein intake has on this. The aim of Chapter 6 was to investigate the impact of acute (7-day) continuous dietary manipulation on metabolic markers, body composition and resting metabolic rate (RMR). Using a repeated measures parallel group (N = 45) design, participants were randomly assigned one of four diets: high protein hypocaloric, high carbohydrate hypocaloric, high protein eucaloric or high carbohydrate eucaloric. The macronutrient ratio of the high protein diets was 40% protein, 30 % carbohydrate and 30% fat, the high carbohydrate diets were 10% protein, 60% carbohydrate and 30% fat. Energy intake in the hypocaloric diets was matched to resting metabolic rate (RMR). Participants consumed habitual diet for 7-days then baseline measures were collected (skeletal muscle biopsy, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry scan (DXA) and RMR, habitual diet was consumed for a further 7-days and repeat testing was completed (these time points were used as a control), the intervention diet was then consumed for 7-days and post measures were collected. The results of the skeletal muscle biopsy demonstrated no group x time interaction in any marker, however a pre-post time difference subsequent to the high protein hypocaloric diet (the diet which induced the greatest metabolic stress) was observed in four transcriptional markers of mitochondrial biogenesis (pre-post intervention fold increase: PCG1-α 1.27, AMPK 2.09, SIRT1 1.5, SIRT3 1.19, p < 0.05). The results of the DXA scan demonstrated that the high protein hypocaloric group lost significantly more fat mass than the high carbohydrate eucaloric group (-0.99 kg vs. -0.50 kg, p < 0.015). Irrespective of macronutrient ratio, no energy-matched between group difference was observed in lean mass (LM) loss. However when matched for macronutrient ratio the high protein diet attenuated LM loss to a greater extent that the high carbohydrate diet, suggesting an important role of increased protein intake in the maintenance of lean mass. No time point or group difference in RMR was observed. This data suggests that a high protein low carbohydrate hypocaloric diet may provide a stimulus to promote skeletal muscle metabolic adaptation. The aim of the final experimental Chapter (Chapter 7) in this thesis was to explore the impact exercise in combination with a high protein diet on metabolic adaptation, substrate utilisation and exercise performance in well trained runners. Using a parallel groups repeated measures study design the participants (well-trained endurance runners, N = 16) consumed normal habitual diet for 7-days, then 7-days intervention diet (high protein eucaloric or high carbohydrate eucaloric, same dietary ratios as Chapter 6) and finally returned to habitual diet for 7-days, training was consistent throughout. A pre exercise muscle biopsy was taken subsequent to each diet and immediately followed by a 10 km sub-maximal run and a time to exhaustion run (TTE) at 95% of velocity at maximal aerobic capacity (vV̇O2max). Post intervention the high protein group presented significant changes in sub-maximal substrate utilisation with 101% increase in fat oxidation (0.59 g·min-1, p = 0.0001). No changes were observed in substrate utilisation in the high carbohydrate group. A trend towards a reduction in average weekly running speed was observed in the PRO group (-0.9 km·h-1), the high carbohydrate group maintained the same training speed. TTE was decreased (-23.3%, p = 0.0003) in the high protein group subsequent to the intervention, no change was observed in subsequent to the high carbohydrate diet.The high carbohydrate group demonstrated preferential increases in markers of metabolic adaptations (fold increase: AMPK = 1.44 and PPAR = 1.32, p < 0.05) suggesting that training intensity, rather than carbohydrate restriction, may be a more profound driver of metabolic adaptation. All performance measures, in both groups, returned to pre intervention levels once habitual diet was returned; however the increased gene expression observed in the high carbohydrate group remained elevated 7-days post intervention. The increased metabolic stress imposed by reducing carbohydrate intake did not increase transcriptional markers of mitochondrial biogenesis. For continuous endurance training and high intensity endurance performance a high carbohydrate diet is preferential to a high protein diet.
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Pottas, Lidia. "Inclusive education in South Africa the challenges posed to the teacher of the child with a hearing loss /." Thesis, Pretoria : [s.n.], 2004. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-09072005-105219.
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