Analysis of Economic Efficiency of Wildlife Law Enforcement in Serengeti Ecosystem Tanzania

Law enforcement remains to be the main strategy used to combat poaching and account for high budget share in protected area management. Studies on efficiency of wildlife law enforcement in the protected areas are limited. This study analyzed economic efficiency of wildlife law enforcement in terms of resource used and output generated using three different protected areas (PAs) of Serengeti ecosystem namely Serengeti National Park (SENAPA), Ikorongo/Grumeti Game Reserves (IGGR) and Ikona Wildlife Management Area (IWMA). Three years (2010-2012) monthly data on wildlife law enforcement inputs and outputs were collected from respective PAs authorities and supplemented with key informant interviews and secondary data. Questionnaire surveys were conducted to wildlife law enforcement staff. Shadow prices for non-marketed inputs were estimated, and market prices for marketed inputs. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to estimate economic efficiency using Variable Return to Scale (VRS) and Constant Return to Scale (CCR) assumptions. Results revealed that wildlife law enforcement in all PAs was economically inefficient, with less inefficiency observed in IWMA. The less inefficiency in IWMA is likely attributed to existing sense of ownership and responsibility created through community-based conservation which resulted in to decrease in law enforcement costs. A slacks evaluation revealed a potential to reduce fuel consumption, number of patrol vehicles, ration and prosecution efforts at different magnitudes between studied protected areas. There is equal potential to recruit more rangers while maintaining the resting time. These finding forms the bases for monitoring and evaluation with respect to resource usage to enhance efficiency. It is further recommended to enhance community participation in conservation in SENAPA and IGGR to lower law enforcement costs. Collaboration between protected area, police and judiciary is fundamental to enhance enforcement efficiency. Despite old dataset, these findings are relevant since neither conservation policy nor institution framework has changed substantially in the last decade.

A modified generalized scaling law for the similitude of dynamic strain in centrifuge modeling

Soil strain is the key parameter to control the elasto-plastic deformation and even the failure processes.To overcome the defect that the strain of the model soil is always smaller than that of the prototype in Iai′s generalized scaling law(GSL),a modified scaling law was proposed based on Iai′s GSL to secure the same dynamic shear strain between the centrifuge model and the prototype by modulating the amplitude and frequency of the input motion at the base.A suite of dynamic centrifuge model tests of dry sand level ground was conducted with the same overall scaling factor(λ=200)under different centrifugal accelerations by using the technique of“modeling of models”to validate the modified GSL.The test results show that the modified GSL could achieve the same dynamic strain in model as that of the prototype,leading to better modeling for geotechnical problems where dynamic strain dominates the response or failure of soils.Finally,the applicability of the proposed scaling law and possible constraints on geometry scaling due to the capability limits of existing centrifuge shaking tables are discussed.

Study on Game Theory of Social Law Enforcement

Based on the basis of the two stage dynamic game of complete information and purely tactful perfect equilibrium theory, the non cooperative gaming between the police department and the criminals is analyzed. Dynamic game can be proved to forecast and explain potential tactful choices of the police department and the criminals at various stages, so as to analyze the essence of the law enforcement by the theoretical models.

On the Eve of the Enforcement of the Arbitration Law——An interview with Xu Dayou, vice-chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and of the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission

The Arbitration Law of the People’s Republic of China will go into effect on September 1, 1995, which has become the focus of world attention. This is an important law promulgated by China for handling economic disputes. All the parties concerned are making intense preparations for the successful enforcement of the Law. As the first nongovernmental organisation engaged in arbitration affairs, the China Council

Achievements Outstanding In Protecting Minors——Report on enforcement of Law on the Protection of Minors (excerpts)

The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors and the Law ofthe People's Republic of China on the Prevention of Juvenile Crimes were passed on September 4, 1991 and June 28,1999 and came into force on January 1, 1992 and November 1, 1999. Over the past decades, China has scoredoutstanding achievements in implementing the two laws. In order to strengthen supervision of the implementationof the two laws and better protect the lawful rights and interests of the under-aged, the National People's CongressStanding Committee set up a Law Enforcement Check Group in July 2003, which carried out a nationwidecheck of the implementation of the two laws. On August 25, NPC Vice-Chairperson Gu Xiulian reported on theresult of the check to the fourth meeting of the Tenth NPC standing committee. She described the generalsituation in the implementation of the two laws as 'good' and also identified some problems and put forwardsome recommendations with regard to the enforcement and implementation of the two laws.The following are the excerpts of the report:

Guideline for Making,Enforcement of Laws

Respect for and protection of human rights is a constitutional principle for China. China＇s Constitution states： ＂The ,State shall respect and protect human rights＂ In practice, this constitutional principle serves as an important guideline for the making and enforcement of laws.

Smart all-time vision:The battery-free video communication for urban administration and law enforcement

The Chinese government is dedicated to enhancing the level of informatization in administrative law enforcement to ensure fairness and increase credibility.Currently,law enforcement has exposed such problems as insufficient force,difficulties in collecting evidence,and low evidential power.These problems contradict the principles of rule of law and standardization.Many local governments have implemented advanced information technologies for urban administration and law enforcement,including big data,artificial intelligence,and IoT.Among these technologies,IoT is the core communication infrastructure for innovative law enforcement platforms.However,traditional video communications rely on batteries or dedicated power sources,leading to maintenance challenges and high power consumption.In this paper,we propose AT-Eye,a new video communication paradigm for all-time law enforcement video monitoring,which is battery-free and high-throughput.The key enabler of AT-Eye is ambient backscatter technology,which enables energy harvesting and video communication simultaneously.Unlike previous methods,our proposal introduces a novel CCK-based modulation for tag cameras and achieves 4-way concurrency.The modulation is simple because it uses phase difference and it is energyefficient because generating square waves is adequate.Moreover,to ensure full compatibility with COTS WiFi,we modulate the physical service data unit.Therefore,data recovery is possible using only commercial NICs.We conduct comprehensive experiments to examine our proposal and experiment results show that AT-Eye achieves a throughput of 10.8 Mbps with COTS radios.We also simulate a 16-way battery-free tag camera system,demonstrating AT-Eye’s feasibility of high-definition video communication.

Experimental and simulation studies on similitude design method for shock responses of beam-plate coupled structure

The similitude theory helps to understand the physical behaviors of large structures through scaled models. Several papers have studied the similitude of shock issues. However, the dynamic similitude for shock responses of coupled structures is rarely incorporated in open studies. In this paper, scaling laws are derived for the shock responses and spectra of coupled structures. In the presented scaling laws, the geometric distortion and energy loss are considered. The ability of the proposed scaling laws is demonstrated in the simulation and experimental cases. In both cases, the similitude prediction for the prototype's time-domain waveform and spectrum is conducted with the scaled model and scaling laws. The simulation and experimental cases indicate that the predicted shock responses and spectra agree well with those of the prototype, which verifies the proposed scaling laws for predicting shock responses.

Design of an Index System for Deep Groundwater Management Efficiency Evaluation: A Case Study in Tianjin City, China

An effective evaluation system can provide specific and practical suggestions to the deep groundwater management. But such kind of evaluation system has not been proposed in China. In this study, an evaluation index system is specifically developed to evaluate deep groundwater management efficiency. It is composed of three first-level indicators(law enforcement capability, management ability, and management effectiveness) and eleven second-level indicators. The second-level indicators include seven mandatory indicators and four optional indicators. Piecewise linear function is used to normalize the quantitative indicators, and expert scoring method and questionnaire survey method are used to normalize the qualitative indicators. Then a comprehensive indicator weighting evaluation method is used to evaluate the first-level indicators and the target topic. A case study is carried out to evaluate deep groundwater management efficiency in Tianjin City. According to the evaluation score in each period, the management efficiency of every district in Tianjin City gradually improved. The overall evaluation score in the early deep groundwater extraction period is 0.12. After a series of deep groundwater protection efforts, this score reached to 0.61 in 2007, and met the regulation criteria. The evaluation results also showed that the further groundwater management efforts in Tianjin City should be focused on building a dynamic database to collect comprehensive deep well-log data; and on a reasonable design and distribution of the groundwater monitoring network. It demonstrated that the index system is suitable to locate the deficiencies of current groundwater management systems and to guide further improvements. It can then be used to protect deep groundwater.

Effect of educational intervention on attitudes toward the concept of criminal responsibility

AIM To evaluate the effect of educational intervention on individuals' knowledge of and attitudes toward forensic mental health.METHODS We conducted a questionnaire regarding attitudes toward various ideas about forensic mental health. The respondents attended a 1-h seminar regarding forensic mental health after answering the questionnaire. On completion of the seminar, the respondents answered another questionnaire containing many of the same questions as contained in the pre-seminar questionnaire.RESULTS A total of 86 individuals attended the seminar, and 78 responded to the questionnaire. Only 13(18.8%) participants were supportive of the concept of criminal responsibility initially, and there was a statistically significant increase in those who became more supportive after the seminar, with 22(33%) being supportive after the seminar(Wilcoxon signed-rank test, P < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that participants who were skeptical about forensic mental systems and those with fewer opportunities to see media reports regarding psychiatry were likely to become supportive of criminal responsibility after the intervention.CONCLUSION These results suggest that public attitudes toward criminal responsibility and mental health can be influenced via educational interventions.

Does Environmental Laws and Policies Work?A Review Of Ghana’s Case

Enforcing environmental laws and policies has been one of the pressing agenda globally.Despite the mandate given to the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA)by the Act 490,there are still numerous environmental issues unaddressed in Ghana.This paper is geared towards unravelling and identifying the current additions that have been made to existing literature on environmental laws and policies in Ghana.This paper made a wide-ranging general literature review to outline significant contributions concerning environmental laws and policies.Numerous environmental laws and policies were identified but have been fragmented and are not codified in a particular document.It is evident from the review of literature existing that there are still areas for advanced research on the topic of environmental laws and policies placing more emphasis on institution concerned with environmental issues at global level.The study recommended the need for capacity building for environmental personnel and data due to the numerous technological advancement to better assist the implementation and enforcement of environmental laws in Ghana.

The Governmental Responsibility of Relief Measure in the Process of Implementing Anti-Domestic Violence

The first Anti-Domestic Violence Law of the People's Republic of China came into effect on March 1, 2016, which filled the vacancy of anti-domestic violence law in the legal system of China. The anti-domestic violence law is aimed at preventing and avoiding domestic violence, protecting lawful rights and interests of family members, maintaining a peaceful, harmonious and civilized family relation and promoting family harmony and social stability. The process of implementing the anti-domestic violence law is not accomplished at one stroke;instead, it is a systematic engineering needing to be done with efforts from all directions. The government, as the strongest supporter of citizens, shall take corresponding responsibilities in the process of implementing the anti- domestic violence law, especially the governmental responsibility of relief measure in the process of implementing anti-domestic violence.

Legal Systems and Economic Development:The Case of Aruba Post-Coronavirus

This paper intends to critically review some of the challenges rooted in Aruba’s civil law legal heritage in stimulating a post-corona economic recovery which should ideally be driven towards economic diversification.It also seeks to contextualize the effect of Aruba’s civil law system on economic growth compared to other Caribbean states with similar size,population,and tourism dependency but with legal systems rooted in the common law.This paper’s methodological approach is meta-analytical and includes a critique of the labor laws as well as the substantive role of the state in driving economic performance that is a normative feature in some civil law states.It posits that Aruba’s economic responsiveness,to the coronavirus should consider legal origins as a factor that limits its capacity and capability to execute an effective restructuring of tired economic paradigms and introduce new economic models that would challenge its mono-economic status.

Reflection and operationalization of the common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities principle in the transparency framework under the international climate change regime

“Common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”(CBDRRC) is the most significant guiding principle in the international climate change regime, created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and inherited by the Paris Agreement 24 years later. This paper examines the operationalization of the CBDRRC principle in one of the cornerstone rules of the regimedits transparency provisions, both in existing practice under the convention and possible evolvement in negotiations under the Paris Agreement, from the perspectives of both international rule-making and domestic implementation. The authors have found a continuous enhancement of the transparency framework since the 1990s, and gradual consolidation of a bifurcated system between developed and developing countries into a common one. The authors argue that the transparency framework, as part of the procedural rules, should be designed to facilitate transparent information sharing in accordance with substantive commitments under international climate change laws. Thus, it indirectly reflects historical responsibilities for climate change, while the framework should also be designed as feasible and reflective of the respective capabilities of nations. Finally, the evolution of the transparency framework will aim to enact common and enhanced provisions while differentiating between developed and developing countries in the near term, and greater transparency-related capacity-building for developing countries.

Hydroelastic Response of VLFS with An Attached Submerged Horizontal Solid/Porous Plate Under Wave Action

The hydroelastic responses of a submerged horizontal solid/porous plate attached at the front of a very large rectangular floating structure(VLFS)under wave action has been investigated in the context of linear water wave theory.Darcy’s law is adopted to represent energy dissipation in pores.It is assumed that the porous plates are made of material with very fine pores so that the normal velocity across the perforated porous is linearly associated with the pressure drop.In the analytic method,the eigenfunction expansion-matching method(EEMM)for multiple domains is applied to solve the hydrodynamic problem and the elastic equation of motion is solved by the modal expansion method.The performance of the proposed submerged horizontal solid/porous plate can be significantly enhanced by selecting optimal design parameters,such as plate length,horizontal position,submerged depth and porosity.It is concluded that good damping effect can be achieved through installation of solid and porous plate.Porous plate has better damping effect at low frequencies,while solid plate has better damping effect at high frequencies.The optimal ratio of plate length to water depth is 0.25-0.375,and the optimal ratio of submerged depth to water depth is 0.09-0.181.

A METROD PREDICTING RESPONSE OF SEDIMENT YIELD TO POSSIBIE CHANGE OF PRECIPITATION DUE TO GLOBAL GREENHOUSE WARMING:AN EXAMPIE FROM NORTH FRINGE OF THE LOESS PLATEAU, CHINA

Starting from the supposition of time-space substitution, the Langbein-Schumm's Law was applied to deal with response of fluvial erosion System to the changes in mean annual Precipitation induced by global green-house warming. As a result, a simple method was put forward to predict change in sediment yield, with Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in the northern fringe of the Loess Plateau of China as an example. Results show that, even the change in mean annual precipitation is the same, the direction and magnitude of the resultant chang in sediment yteld would be quite different in fferent physico-geographical zones. When mean annual precipitation is increased, sediment yield in arid or semi-arid areas with a mean anntal Peripitation of less than 400 mm will be increased, while sediment yield in sub-humid or humid areas with a mean annual precipitation of more than 400 mm will be decreased.Additionally, the complex response of fluvial erosion system in time series due to the lag of change in vegetation behind the changn in precipitation has also been qualitatively discussed in this paper.

Population Dynamics of Large Herbivores and the Framing of Wildlife Conservation in Zimbabwe

This article reviews: 1) The role of natural and human-induced controls in influencing large herbivore populations;2) how human controls (i.e., policy instruments, incentives and provisions) influence human activities and wildlife conservation;and 3) media framing of wildlife conservation using Zimbabwe as a case study, in particular Gonarezhou National Park and adjacent areas. The review shows that droughts are important in influencing large herbivore populations in semi-arid ecosystems;political instability and economic collapse does not necessarily lead to increased illegal hunting in situations where policy instruments, such as laws, are enforced. A higher perceived effectiveness of Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources was partly associated with a decline in human-wildlife conflicts and there was a spill-over effect of frames from the political domain into wildlife conservation following Zimbabwe’s land reforms in 2000. It is concluded that natural bottom-up processes (e.g., droughts) influence large herbivore population dynamics whereas policy instruments, incentives, provisions and societal frames mainly have a top-down effect on wild large herbivore populations in savanna ecosystems.

Scalable and Accessible Crash Hot Spot Detection for Traffic Law Enforcement

Law enforcement agencies have begun utilizing traffic and crash data to improve traffic law enforcement delivery. However, many agencies often do not have the resources or expertise to harness fully the benefits this data offers. A free to use, scalable traffic crash hot spot detection tool was developed to aid law enforcement agency decision makers, statewide to the local municipality level. The tool was developed to identify crash hot spots algorithmically with a range of customizable parameters based on location, date and time, and crash factors, enabling quick, dynamic queries. These capabilities provide the ability for law enforcement agencies to conduct “what if” analyses and make data-driven allocation decisions, placing officer resources where they are most needed. The two-step algorithm first identifies potential hot spots based on crash density and then ranks each hot spot using a standardized z-score measure of relative significance. To test the viability of the tool, a pilot was conducted identifying 27 hot spots across Wisconsin where targeted enforcement was then deployed. Despite officer skepticism, results from the pilot found officers at sites targeted for speeding and seatbelt violations were nearly twice as likely to initiate traffic stops compared to non-targeted hot spots. Empirical Bayes before-and-after crash analyses found fatal and injury crashes reduced significantly by nearly 11% during the months with targeted enforcement, while property damage crashes and total crashes were unchanged. Overall, the results show the algorithm can identify hotspots where, coupled with targeted enforcement, traffic safety improvements can be made.