pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Pigeons and people: mortal enemies or lifelong companions? A case study on staff perceptions of the pigeons on the University of South Africa, Muckleneuk campus

Pigeons have been a part of our lives for as long as we can remember. Some people view them with joy, others disdain. Regardless of the perception, control measures are often implemented against the birds in a bid to reduce their presence in urban environments without considering the views of members of the public in the process. Complaints about pigeon activity are, typically, given more attention than praise for these birds. However, people who are pro-pigeons are often not provided with the forum to express their views of the birds. This study explored the perceptions of staff with regard to the pigeons inhabiting the University of South Africa’s Muckleneuk campus. Two hundred and forty-six participants provided their opinions on the pigeons, their related activities and the perceived impact on staff on the campus. Recognising that both people and urban wildlife play a role of cause-and-effect in human–wildlife conflicts can contribute to understanding peoples’ relationships and perceptions of animals which transgress the boundaries between urbanisation and nature. By considering peoples’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards urban wildlife, management strategies can be significantly informed in the process of mitigating conflict. The study has shown that the negative perception of pigeons, which was assumed to be the position of all the people affected by the pigeons at the University of South Arica’s Muckleneuk campus, is in fact incorrect. Participants would rather encourage the nesting and breeding activities of the pigeons on campus, as they felt that the human–pigeon interactions and the viewing of squabs in nests contributed positively to their work environment. Pigeon control strategies should therefore not solely be on the biological aspect of a perceived pigeon problem, but should also include the human association.ABEERU
Applied Behavioural Ecological and Ecosystem Research UnitEnvironmental Science
Approaches to African communication management and public relations : a case for theory-building on the continent

Most of the scholarly body of knowledge of public relations built up over the last three decades has been undertaken in Western countries. Naturally, these conceptual frameworks have been suited to those areas of the world. The focal point of the calls for a shift to a new, inclusive global economic order is the growing influence of the developing economies of the world. This, in turn, has important implications for public relations and communication management in these regions and internationally. Academic researchers could embark on building an African body of knowledge of public relations and theories based on an African philosophy and worldview. Against this background, the debate around whether a generic model of public relations in and for Africa is possible has been the subject of considerable debate. It has also been argued that shared, common African philosophical approaches can be identified, and that these have an important role in communication throughout Africa. This article describes some of the influences that might shape African theory-building and raises a number of questions along the way such as: Can there be an exclusively African public relations model? What is the balance between Western and African influences in the synthesis of a hybrid model? What has Africa to offer to Western theory?http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1479-1854/ff201
Towards a theoretical framework for the governing of stakeholder relationships : a perspective from South Africa

Including stakeholder approaches into mainstream strategy has been a topic of recent research in the disciplines of strategic management and strategic communication management. The King III Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa (September 2009) illustrates the pragmatic approach to this integration with its chapter on ‘Governing Stakeholder Relationships’. This inclusive approach to governance creates awareness among business, government and civil society, of the role that stakeholder relationship management, and therefore strategic communication management, can play in the development, implementation and monitoring of corporate strategies in a sustainable manner. A theoretical framework for an integrated approach—as developed in this article—will guide responsible strategic communication management with specific reference to the governing of stakeholder relationships. It will demonstrate that communication management principles, such as stakeholder relationship management, can assist an organisation in achieving its objectives—even to a point of becoming objectives in themselves.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1479-1854hb2016Marketing Managemen
Differing Opinions Do Not Spoil Friendships: Managing Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Infrastructure Projects in Jordan

This research investigates the approaches, strategies and challenges facing the management of the implementation phase of public-  private partnership (PPP) projects in Jordan. Jordan is a newer but common user of PPPs in the Middle Eastern region, where PPPs  not only are of economic strategic importance but also entail significant investment risk given resource scarcity. This research  involves semi-structured interviews with senior managers representing different partnering organisations in two case study organisations  in Jordan. The research finds that, despite the management difficulties confronting PPPmanagers, strategies adopted by them  limit the impact of these challenges. The research makes an important theoretical contribution in providing a detailed analysis of  effective PPP management approaches in response to difficulties at the implementation phase, which had not been systematically  explored in extant PPP research, and broadens PPP research to the Jordanian context. Moreover, the research contributes greater  understanding of how partnerships should be effectively managed.Full Tex
Governance and stakeholder involvement in the Dutch pension industry, lessons for developing countries

Contains fulltext :
                  131890.pdf (postprint version ) (Open Access)
                
                  Contains fulltext :
                  131890_pub.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)The article discusses governance structure and stakeholder involvement in pension plan reforms. Although the global financial crisis has put pressure on pension reforms, some reforms were implemented earlier because of sustainability issues that had emerged on the basis of, among other issues, demographic trends. We show, based on Dutch experiences, that stakeholders and individual participants in particular were only partially involved in these changes. On the basis of these findings, we propose some tools to improve stakeholder involvement, which can contribute to sustainable support from stakeholders to pension plans.7 oktober 201413 p
Challenge funds in international development:definitions, variations and research directions

The use of challenge funds to promote economic and social development continues to grow but has been the subject of relatively little research. This article draws on institutional economics (particularly principal-agent theory) to define challenge funds and review how they differ from other development funding mechanisms, taking into account their purpose, financial terms, interagency relationships, screening processes, selection mechanisms, implementation and risk sharing characteristics. It then draws on web-based data for 50 challenge funds to analyse variation in some of these characteristics. The paper identifies evaluability as an important influence, including the relative importance attached to promoting the financial performance of grantees relative to the indirect social benefits of their activities. We conclude with suggestions for further research into the design and performance of challenge fund
Dilemmas in donor design: organisational reform and the future of foreign aid agencies

With growing uncertainty over the value and impact of traditional bilateral foreign aid to advance development in poor countries, there is disquiet about the future of national public agencies and ministries with responsibility for managing and delivering international assistance. Growing reputational damage to foreign aid has triggered a lively discussion in development policy circles about the best structural configuration for organizing and governing international development functions within donor countries. To date, public administration scholars with expertise in questions of bureaucratic design and performance have yet to weigh in on this debate. This article is an attempt to present current controversies about donor governance and offer guidance for resolving current dilemmas by exploring the potential contributions of public administration
Public financial management reform in South African provincial basic education departments

Since the transition to democracy in 1994, the South African government has engaged
in a sustained programme of public financial management (PFM) reform across the
national, provincial and local spheres of government. This study evaluates the progress
of the nine provincial education departments (PEDs) in implementing the Public
Finance Management Act of 1999, and explores the factors which facilitated or impeded
reform. A public financial management progress (PFMP) index is constructed to track
each PED‘s performance from 1997/98 to 2013/14 and then used to benchmark its
progress over time and relative to the education sector as a whole. The indicators
comprising the PFMP index assess key PFM functions (budgeting, accounting, financial
auditing and audits of performance information), financial leadership and the
effectiveness of governance institutions such as audit committees. While there has been
considerable progress in PFM, distinct differences in the quality and effectiveness of
PFM practices across the nine PEDs remain. Stable top administrative leadership,
availability of PFM skills, varying degrees of accountability and departmental capacity to establish PFM systems that conform to new accounting standards drive variances in
reform outcomes.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-162X2018-10-31hb2016School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA
On twinning: the impact of naming an EU accession programme on the effective implementation of its projects

The introduction of the Twinning instrument as its principal institution-building mechanism in countries applying to join the European Union saw the appearance of a vocabulary very much at divergence with the language associated with other Technical Assistance programmes. The arbitrary and connotational character of this heavily metaphorical terminology has differentiated Twinning from other programmes in the minds of those involved in the programme. At the same time, however, it has also resulted in a measure of ambiguity and confusion among project partners - principally over their roles and responsibilities. This problem could be overcome by targeting any one of the three points in Peirce's semiotic model: by changing the signs of twinning; by re-attuning the users' interpretants; or by bringing the object, the Twinning programme itself, closer to how the signs of twinning are actually perceived and understood
National integrity systems in small Pacific island states

Studies of ‘national integrity systems’ are part of the new international concern with corruption and its prevention. Alan Doig and Stephanie McIvor coordinated studies of 18 countries, and reflected on their method in Public Administration and Development (2003). This article compares their
conclusions with an overview of a subsequent study of 12 small island states in the South Pacific using the same method. Though the sample was not chosen with scale in mind, smallness may explain some of the similarities between the Pacific Island cases, particularly the risks associated
with offshore financial centres, trust funds and investments. Their relative size and weakness has also made them targets for direct intervention by Australian police and officials to rebuild anti corruption institutions. The article goes on to show how the evidence from the Pacific Island cases raises questions about some of the standard proposals for anti corruption reform: stronger parties, an ICAC, civil society coalitions and greater accountability and transparency
New vistas for development management: examining radical-reformist possibilities and potential

This article provides an overview of contemporary development management scholarship, suggesting that a longstanding division between radical and reformist development management research continues to exist. The article offers a closer examination of critical development management (CDM), the most recent example of radical development management thought that is connecting scholars in critical management studies to those identifying with post-development theory. CDM's suggestion that all development management is perniciously managerial is scrutinised and challenged on both theoretical and normative grounds. Overall, an argument is sketched out to support a future for development management that is neither defined nor destined for failure. The future of development management scholarship can and should concern itself with a non-managerial development practice that bridges the divide between radicals and reformers
Deglacial development of (sub) sea surface temperature and salinity in the subarctic northwest Pacific: Implications for upper-ocean stratification

Based on models and proxy data, it has been proposed that salinity-driven stratification weakened in the subarctic North Pacific during the last deglaciation, which potentially contributed to the deglacial rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide. We present high-resolution subsurface temperature (TMg/Ca) and subsurface salinity-approximating (δ18Oivc-sw) records across the last 20,000 years from the subarctic North Pacific and its marginal seas, derived from combined stable oxygen isotopes and Mg/Ca ratios of the planktonic foraminiferal species Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (sin.). Our results indicate regionally differing changes of subsurface conditions. During the Heinrich Stadial 1 and the Younger Dryas cold phases, our sites were subject to reduced thermal stratification, brine rejection due to sea-ice formation, and increased advection of low-salinity water from the Alaskan Stream. In contrast, the Bølling-Allerød warm phase was characterized by strengthened thermal stratification, stronger sea-ice melting, and influence of surface waters that were less diluted by the Alaskan Stream. From direct comparison with alkenone-based sea surface temperature estimates (SSTUk′37), we suggest deglacial thermocline changes that were closely related to changes in seasonal contrasts and stratification of the mixed layer. The modern upper-ocean conditions seem to have developed only since the early Holocene
CO2 drawdown following the middle Miocene expansion of the Antarctic Ice Sheet

The development of a permanent, stable ice sheet in East Antarctica happened during the middle Miocene, about 14 million years (Myr) ago. The middle Miocene therefore represents one of the distinct phases of rapid change in the transition from the “greenhouse” of the early Eocene to the “icehouse” of the present day. Carbonate carbon isotope records of the period immediately following the main stage of ice sheet development reveal a major perturbation in the carbon system, represented by the positive δ13C excursion known as carbon maximum 6 (“CM6”), which has traditionally been interpreted as reflecting increased burial of organic matter and atmospheric pCO2 drawdown. More recently, it has been suggested that the δ13C excursion records a negative feedback resulting from the reduction of silicate weathering and an increase in atmospheric pCO2. Here we present high-resolution multi-proxy (alkenone carbon and foraminiferal boron isotope) records of atmospheric carbon dioxide and sea surface temperature across CM6. Similar to previously published records spanning this interval, our records document a world of generally low (~300 ppm) atmospheric pCO2 at a time generally accepted to be much warmer than today. Crucially, they also reveal a pCO2 decrease with associated cooling, which demonstrates that the carbon burial hypothesis for CM6 is feasible and could have acted as a positive feedback on global coolin
Response of Iberian Margin sediments to orbital and suborbital forcing over the past 420 ka

Here we report 420 kyr long records of sediment geochemical and color variations from the southwestern Iberian Margin. We synchronized the Iberian Margin sediment record to Antarctic ice cores and speleothem records on millennial time scales and investigated the phase responses relative to orbital forcing of multiple proxy records available from these cores. Iberian Margin sediments contain strong precession power. Sediment “redness” (a* and 570–560 nm) and the ratio of long-chain alcohols to n-alkanes (C26OH/(C26OH + C29)) are highly coherent and in-phase with precession. Redder layers and more oxidizing conditions (low alcohol ratio) occur near precession minima (summer insolation maxima). We suggest these proxies respond rapidly to low-latitude insolation forcing by wind-driven processes (e.g., dust transport, upwelling, precipitation). Most Iberian Margin sediment parameters lag obliquity maxima by 7–8 ka, indicating a consistent linear response to insolation forcing at obliquity frequencies driven mainly by high-latitude processes. Although the lengths of the time series are short (420 ka) for detecting 100 kyr eccentricity cycles, the phase relationships support those obtained by Shackleton []. Antarctic temperature and the Iberian Margin alcohol ratios (C26OH/(C26OH + C29)) lead eccentricity maxima by 6 kyr, with lower ratios (increased oxygenation) occurring at eccentricity maxima. CO2, CH4, and Iberian SST are nearly in phase with eccentricity, and minimum ice volume (as inferred from Pacific δ18Oseawater) lags eccentricity maxima by 10 kyr. The phase relationships derived in this study continue to support a potential role of the Earth's carbon cycle in contributing to the 100 kyr cycle
Seasonal patterns of shell flux, δ18O and δ13C of small and large N. pachyderma (s) and G. bulloides in the subpolar North Atlantic

Past water column stratification can be assessed through comparison of the δ18O of different planktonic foraminiferal species. The underlying assumption is that different species form their shells simultaneously, but at different depths in the water column. We evaluate this assumption using a sediment trap time-series of Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (s) and Globigerina bulloides from the NW North Atlantic. We determined fluxes, δ18O and δ13C of shells from two size fractions to assess size-related effects on shell chemistry and to better constrain the underlying causes of isotopic differences between foraminifera in deep-sea sediments. Our data indicate that in the subpolar North Atlantic differences in the seasonality of the shell flux, and not in depth habitat or test size, determine the interspecies Δδ18O. N. pachyderma (s) preferentially forms from early spring to late summer, whereas the flux of G. bulloides peaks later in the season and is sustained until autumn. Likewise, seasonality influences large and small specimens differently, with large shells settling earlier in the season. The similarity of the seasonal δ18O patterns between the two species indicates that they calcify in an overlapping depth zone close to the surface. However, their δ13C patterns are markedly different (>1‰). Both species have a seasonally variable offset from δ13CDIC that appears to be governed primarily by temperature, with larger offsets associated with higher temperatures. The variable offset from δ13CDIC implies that seasonality of the flux affects the fossil δ13C signal, which has implications for reconstruction of the past oceanic carbon cycle
Late Quaternary climatic and oceanographic changes in the Northeast Pacific as recorded by dinoflagellate cysts from Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California (Mexico)

A high-resolution record of organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst production in Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California (Mexico) reveals a complex paleoceanographic history over the last ~40 ka. Guaymas Basin is an excellent location to perform high resolution studies of changes in late Quaternary climate and paleo-productivity because it is characterized by high primary productivity, high sedimentation rates, and low oxygen bottom waters. These factors contribute to the deposition and preservation of laminated sediments throughout large portions of the core MD02-2515. In thisstudy we document dinoflagellate cystproduction at a centennial to millennial scale throughout the late Quaternary. Based on the cyst assemblagesthree dinoflagellate cyst zones were established and roughly correspond to Marine Isotope Stages (MISs) 1 to 3.MISs 1 and 3 are dominated by cysts of heterotrophic dinoflagellates, whereas MIS 2 is characterized by enhanced variability and a greater proportion of cysts produced by autotrophic taxa. The most dominant dinoflagellate cyst taxa found throughout the core were Brigantedinium spp. and Operculodinium centrocarpum.Dansgaard-Oeschger event 8 is observed in the dinoflagellate cyst record where it is characterized by an increase in warm taxa, such as Spiniferites pachydermus. Other intervals of interest are the YoungerDryas where warmerconditions are recorded, and the Holocene which is characterized by the consistent presence of tropical species Stelladinium reidii, Tuberculodinidum vancampoae, Bitectatodinium spongiumand an increase in Quinquecuspis concreta.Changes in cyst assemblages, concentrations and species diversity, along with geochemical data reflect majororbital to millennial scale climatic and oceanographic changes