Paddlefish Management in Missouri

Paddlefish populations have begun to decline throughout their historic range but are still found in 22 states in the southeastern and midwestern United States. This capstone project investigates problems facing paddlefish management including, pollution, habitat loss, poaching, and the illegal caviar trade. A combination of four management options is beneficial for the species by increasing public knowledge and awareness of what paddlefish require for survival, allowing paddlefish to be used as a natural resource. After comparing a typical state paddlefish management plan and the plan developed and used in Missouri, it is apparent that a national paddlefish management plan template is necessary for affected states. A plan provides direction for effectively maintaining paddlefish stocks, according to state specific management goals.

The Adequacy of Wildlife Management on an Endangered Species: A Design Template for Ecosystems Management in Alabama

The Alabama beach mouse (ABM) was listed an an endangered species in 1985. The ABM has been cited as being minimally managed since its listing. The Sierra Club points out the lack of Primary Consituent Elements (PCE) that are required by the Endangered Species Act of 1973. While traditional habitat status is mired in legal and bureaucratic delays, effective management remains less than optimal. Ecosystem management presents with it, new observable and technological tools that may present a panacea in the ABM's paradox. This Capstone looks at the possible implementation of an ecosystems management alternative in aiding the persistence of a small isolated and endangered species.

River Recreation Management in Western States: Results of a Recreation Management Survey

This Capstone represents a qualitative analysis of survey responses concerning river recreation management policies and techniques in the Western United States. Respondents were asked about management topics including permits and fees, monitoring, enforcement, resource management, recreational experience, and current and future demand for whitewater rafting. Responses with consistent results include those for questions concerning permits for commercial uses, justification of fees, and enforcement, while responses with variation in results were received for questions concerning permits for private uses, agency self-sufficiency, monitoring, and use capacity. Most respondents do not expect a significant increased demand for commercial or private boating in the next five years. Respondents that do expect an increase do not see a need for additional commercial outfitters.

Internalization of quality management in service organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the internalization of quality management (QM) on the basis of quality certifiable standards – also referred to as meta-standards – in service organizations. More specifically, the paper analyzes the case of the internalization of a quality standard in the Spanish hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the relationships between the measures of internalization, benefit, QM tools and motivation, using partial least squares in the framework of the structural equation modeling technique. Findings – The results show that the hotels that have internalized the standard to a greater extent are more likely to be driven by internal motivation, develop more QM tools and achieve greater benefits than the hotels with a lower degree of internalization. Originality/value – As previous studies have examined these issues in relation to the internalization of ISO standards, the present study adds to this important stream of research and contributes by advancing the understanding of these issues through the case of a specific standard for the hotel industry.

Smart Monitoring Embedded Service for Energy-Efficient and Sustainable Management in Data Centers

Information technologies (IT) currently represent 2% of CO2 emissions. In recent years, a wide variety of IT solutions have been proposed, focused on increasing the energy efficiency of network data centers. Monitoring is one of the fundamental pillars of these systems, providing the information necessary for adequate decision making. However, today’s monitoring systems (MSs) are partial, specific and highly coupled solutions. This study proposes a model for monitoring data centers that serves as a basis for energy saving systems, offered as a value-added service embedded in a device with low cost and power consumption. The proposal is general in nature, comprehensive, scalable and focused on heterogeneous environments, and it allows quick adaptation to the needs of changing and dynamic environments. Further, a prototype of the system has been implemented in several devices, which has allowed validation of the proposal in addition to identification of the minimum hardware profile required to support the model.