Digital Commons Network^™

Cultural Politics Of Community-Based Conservation In The Buffer Zone Of Chitwan National Park, Nepal, Yogesh Dongol

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation research examines the socio-economic and political effects of community-based conservation initiatives within the Bagmara buffer zone community forests of Chitwan National Park, Nepal. In particular, the study investigates the role of buffer zones creation in structuring the way rural property rights have been defined, negotiated, and contested, in reinforcing or reducing patterns of ethnic dominance and exclusion, and in influencing how cultural identities are constituted and renegotiated. Using a political ecology framework with a specific focus on theoretical concepts of environmentality and territorialization, I conducted 12 months ethnographic and quantitative survey field research in the buffer zone communities …

Study Of The Effectiveness Of Cost-Estimation Models And Complexity Metrics On Small Projects, Lein-Lein Chen

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Software cost overruns and time delay are common occurrences in the software development process. To reduce the occurrences of these problems, software cost estimation models and software complexity metrics measurements are two popular approaches used by the industry.

Most of the related studies are conducted for large scale software projects. In this thesis, we have investigated the effectiveness of three popular cost estimation models and program complexity metrics in so far as their applicability to small scale projects is concerned.

Experiments conducted on the programs collected from FIU and NCR corporation indicate that none of the cost estimation models precisely …