Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-218).

M.A. (African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV), which belongs to the family Hepadnaviridae, is responsible for acute and chronic hepatitis. The vaccines presently used to immunize patients against HBV are recombinant subunit vaccines consisting of viral surface antigens (S protein). However, they are expensive and their use is limited in poor countries. For that reason, HBV remains an important worldwide health problem. Of the 2 billion people who have been infected with the HBV, more than 350 million have chronic (lifelong) infections, who face increased risk of developing cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. In this study, high-level expression of recombinant Hepatitis B surface Antigen (rHBsAg), PreS2-S was achieved in the methylotrophic yeast, Pichia pastoris. For this aim, a single copy of HBV M gene (PreS2-S) was inserted at the downstream of the alcohol oxidase (AOX1) promoter of the pPICZA vector. rHBsAg protein could then be expressed intracellularly by induction with methanol. High cell density fermentation was followed by chromatographic separation to obtain pure rHBsAg. Humoral response after immunization with the purified protein was observed in mice using commercial Hepatitis B surface antigen kits. It was verified by the atomic force microscopy that rHBsAg has been produced in the desired conformation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2001. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-188).

Syftet med studien är att undersöka huruvida det är möjligt att generera högre avkastning genom fundamental analys med fokus på värdeinvestering och Joseph Piotroskis modell (2000) Fundamental Signal Score (F-SCORE). Modellen testas på den svenska aktiemarknaden under perioden 2007-2015. Genom att skapa 27 fiktiva portföljer, beräkna årlig avkastning och jämföra dem mot marknadsindexet SIXRX utvärderas modellens möjligheter att skapa marknadsjusterad avkastning på den svenska aktiemarknaden. Vidare undersöks modellens statistiska samband med avkastning samt kvoten mellan bokfört värde och marknadsvärde (B/M). Studien visar att H_F-portföljen bestående av företag med höga F-SCORES (7-9) gav upphov till bättre marknadsjusterad avkastning än både HBM-portföljen, bestående av företag med höga B/M-tal samt L_F-portföljen med F-SCORES mellan 0-3. Resultatet indikerar att det är möjligt att hitta undervärderade tillgångar och slå marknaden fem av nio gånger genom tillämpning av F-SCORE på den svenska aktiemarknaden. Detta innebär att den effektiva marknadshypotesen (EMH) inte är lika effektiv som teorin antyder. / The aim of this paper is to examine whether it is possible to generate higher returns through the use of fundamental analysis with focus on value investing and Joseph Piotroski’s (2000) model called Fundamental Signal Score (F-SCORE). The model is tested on the Swedish Stock Market during the period 2007-2015. By forming 27 fictive portfolios, calculating yearly returns and comparing them to the SIXRX benchmark, the model’s possibility to generate market-adjusted returns on the Swedish Stock Market is evaluated. Furthermore, the model’s correlation with the returns and book-to-market ratio (B/M) are tested statistically. The study shows that the H_F-portfolio consisting of companies with high F-SCORES (7-9) gave rise to better market-adjusted returns than both the HBM-portfolio, consisting of companies with high book-to-market ratios, and the L_F-portfolio with F-SCORES between 0-3. The results indicate that it is possible to find undervalued assets and beat the market five out of nine times by using the F-SCORE on the Swedish Stock Market. Therefore, the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) is not as efficient as the theory applies.

This Master's thesis emphasizes on the analysis of three key factors, that affected the development of the Union of South Africa during the interwar era - the struggle for equality of Afrikaners with Britons, pre-apartheid legislation and a political rivalry of Boer Generals Jan Smuts and James Hertzog. This thesis aims on answering the question, whether the interwar policy of the Union was more affected by the matter of race segregation or by attempts to secure adequate political equality of the Afrikaners. The thesis is dividend to three main chapters, in which the author analyzes all the phenomenon. The nature of so called Afrikanerdom and the interwar political situation are being described, as well as the development of the non-white community in the Union and its attempts of political emancipation. Racial legislation is also explained closely. This thesis focuses on proper explanation of serious social problem of the selected era - the problem of poor whites and describes the way, the South African government tried to deal with it. Key Words Union of South Africa, Jan C. Smuts, James B. M. Hertzog, Afrikanerdom, Interwar Policy

Statistics and public reports indicate that stock investment has developed to a popular and growing investment trend among individuals, where the underlying motivational factor is the possibility to generate a return on the investment, and therefore make money. A recurrent and controversial question in the financial context is how the individual investor should proceed to generate a return higher than the market. Although scientific research claims the market to be efficient, situations occur where individual performers manage to surpass the market, which is explained by deviations from the market’s efficiency. The deviations are known as market anomalies, and from the beginning of time several key ratio-anomalies have existed and disappeared. Despite their disappearance, some of these key ratios continue demonstrating the ability of forecasting returns. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to use these key ratios to investigate the semi-strong form of market efficiency on the Swedish stock market during the period of 2013-2019. The execution will be done using key ratio-constructed stock portfolios based on the P/E-ratio, the B/M-ratio, and a combination of these. The portfolios will be compared both among themselves and towards a benchmark index with the intention to analyze if a significant return can be determined. According to the results, portfolios based on the P/E-ratio as well as the combination of the P/E-ratio and the B/M-ratio, can be used in portfolio construction to generate significantly risk-adjusted return on the Swedish stock market. This implicate that, during this investigation period, the Swedish stock market is not completely efficient according to the semi-strong form of market efficiency.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:48:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 HanielMB_DISSERT.pdf: 4925062 bytes, checksum: b4c15cc32318b96fa9ccd3be61b6e7e6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-01 / PLCs (acronym for Programmable Logic Controllers) perform control operations, receiving information from the environment, processing it and modifying this same environment according to the results produced. They are commonly used in industry in several applications, from mass transport to petroleum industry. As the complexity of these applications increase, and as various are safety critical, a necessity for ensuring that they are reliable arouses. Testing and simulation are the de-facto methods used in the industry to do so, but they can leave flaws undiscovered. Formal methods can provide more confidence in an application s safety, once they permit their mathematical verification. We make use of the B Method, which has been successfully applied in the formal verification of industrial systems, is supported by several tools and can handle decomposition, refinement, and verification of correctness according to the specification. The method we developed and present in this work automatically generates B models from PLC programs and verify them in terms of safety constraints, manually derived from the system requirements. The scope of our method is the PLC programming languages presented in the IEC 61131-3 standard, although we are also able to verify programs not fully compliant with the standard. Our approach aims to ease the integration of formal methods in the industry through the abbreviation of the effort to perform formal verification in PLCs / Controladores L?gico Program?veis (PLCs Programmable Logic Controllers, em ingl?s) desempenham fun??es de controle, recebendo informa??es do ambiente, processando-as e modificando este ambiente de acordo com os resultados obtidos. S?o comumente utilizados na ind?stria nas mais diversas aplica??es, do transporte de massa ? ind?stria do petr?leo, g?s e energias renov?veis. Com o crescente aumento da complexidade dessas aplica??es e do seu uso em sistemas cr?ticos, faz-se necess?ria uma forma de verifica??o que propicie mais confian?a do que testes e simula??o, padr?es mais utilizados na ind?stria, mas que podem deixar falhas n?o tratadas. M?todos formais podem prover maior seguran?a a este tipo de sistema, uma vez que permitem a sua verifica??o matem?tica. Neste trabalho fazemos uso do M?todo B, que ? usado com sucesso na ind?stria para a verifica??o de sistemas cr?ticos, possui amplo apoio ferramental e suporte ? decomposi??o, refinamento e verifica??o de corretude em rela??o ? especifica??o atrav?s de obriga??es de prova. O m?todo desenvolvido e apresentado aqui consiste em gerar automaticamente modelos B a partir de programas para PLCs e verific?-los formalmente em rela??o a propriedades de seguran?a, estas derivadas manualmente a partir dos requisitos do sistema. O escopo do trabalho s?o as linguagens de programa??o para PLCs do padr?o IEC 61131-3, mas sistemas com linguagens que apresentem modifica??es em rela??o ao padr?o tamb?m s?o suportados. Esta abordagem visa facilitar a integra??o de m?todos formais na ind?stria atrav?s da diminui??o do esfor?o para realizar a verifica??o formal de PLCs

本論文為驗證台灣股市是否存在價格持續性或盈餘持續性的現象；再驗證不同股票投資風格（如大型股與小型股、成長型股票與價值型股票），加上價格持續性組成投組後是否也存在動能持續現象；價格持續性和盈餘持續性是否相關；以及加入盈餘品質後，價格持續性及盈餘的持續的效果如何，並依此建構投資策略，測試是否可以在台灣股市獲取超額報酬。 本研究的實證結果可歸納為以下4點： 一、台灣股市存在股價動能效果及盈餘動能效果。 過去六個月表現好的投組，未來6個月及1年都有較佳的表現，投組形成後4年，即有明顯的回歸平均的現象。未預期盈餘高的投組在未來6個月到4年的報酬率都較高。不論是價格持續性或盈餘持續性，投組形成後6個月的動能持續現象較強，因此投組形成後1年的持續效果可能來自前6個月的貢獻。至於分析師盈餘預測修正幅度，投組形成後正向修正幅度大的投組，未來的股價表現反而不佳，統計檢定的效果也不顯著，顯示國內若要以分析師對盈餘預測的修正幅度來做為盈餘持續性的代理變數，盈餘預測的品質還尚待加強。 二、權益帳面價值對市值比及市值與價格持續性的關係。 權益價值對市值比較高的價值型股票及市值較小的小型股，未來報酬的表現情形都較成長股及大型股佳，且過去6個月表現好的投組，未來的表現也比較好。但在投資大型股時，過去6個月報酬影響未來報酬程度較大。 三、價格持續性與盈餘持續性的關係。 標準化後未預期盈餘高的投組表現通常會比較好，但未預期盈餘低且過去6個月報酬率高的投組，仍有可能會替投資人帶來極高的報酬。 四、盈餘品質與價格持續性及盈餘持續性的關係。 盈餘品質（EQ）高的投組通常表現會比較好，但不論EQ高低，短期價格及盈餘持續性現象都存在。而EQ較低的股票，之後一但股票報酬持續表現良好，投資人也會修正對該公司的評價，有過度反應的情形發生，導致未來的報酬率較高。

Thesis (DPhil (History))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLSIH ABSTRACT: This study is a political biography of D.F. Malan (1874–1959), the first of the apartheid-era Prime Ministers, and covers the years 1874 to 1954, when Malan retired from politics. It endeavours to provide a warts-and-all account of D.F. Malan which challenges prevalent myths and stereotypes surrounding his public persona and his political orientation. While the overwhelming focus is on Malan’s political career, special attention is paid to his personal life in order to paint a multi-faceted picture of his character. The biography is written in the form of a seamless narrative and employs a literary style of writing. It is based on archival research which utilised Malan’s private collection, as well as the private collections of his Nationalist contemporaries. Malan takes the centre stage at all times, as the biography focuses on his perceptions and experiences. Malan’s views regarding Afrikaner nationalism, which was his foremost political priority, are described, and are related to his views of British imperialism as well as other ideologies such as communism and totalitarianism. This study demonstrates that there is a notable link between Malan’s perceptions of race relations and his concerns about the poor white problem. It reveals that Malan’s racial policy was, to some extent, fluid, as were his views on South Africa’s constitutional position. Debates about South Africa’s links to Britain and the nature of the envisioned republic preoccupied Afrikaner nationalists throughout the first half of the twentieth century – and served as an outlet for regional and generational tensions within the movement. Malan’s clashes with nationalists such as Tielman Roos, J.B.M. Hertzog and J.G. Strijdom are highlighted as an indication of the internecine power struggles within the National Party (NP). By emphasising these complexities, this study seeks to contribute to a nuanced understanding of the South African past. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie is politieke biografie van D.F. Malan (1874–1959), die eerste van die apartheid-era Eerste Ministers, en dek die jare 1874 tot 1954, toe Malan uit die politiek getree het. Dit poog om onversuikerde beeld van Malan te skets wat heersende mites en stereotipes aangaande sy openbare beeld en sy benadering tot die politiek uitdaag. Die fokus is hoofsaaklik op Malan se politieke loopbaan, maar besondere aandag word aan sy private lewe geskenk om sodoende veelsydige portret van sy karakter te skilder. Die biografie is in die vorm van naatlose narratief geskryf en maak van literêre skryfstyl gebruik. Dit is gebaseer op argivale navorsing, waartydens daar van D.F. Malan se privaat versameling gebruik gemaak is, sowel as die privaat versamelings van sy tydgenote. Malan is ten alle tye die sentrale figuur en die biografie fokus op sy persepsies en ervarings. Malan se denke oor Afrikaner nasionalisme, wat sy vernaamste prioriteit was, word beskryf en in verband gebring met sy opinie van Britse imperialisme, sowel as ander ideologieë soos kommunisme en totalitarisme. Die studie wys op die verband tussen Malan se denke oor rasseverhoudinge en sy besorgdheid oor die armblanke vraagstuk. Dit dui daarop dat Malan se rassebeleid tot sekere mate vloeibaar was. Dit was ook die geval met sy benadering tot Suid-Afrika se konstitusionele posisie. Afrikaner nasionaliste het tydens die eerste helfte van die twintigste eeu baie aandag geskenk aan debatte oor Suid-Afrika se verhouding tot Brittanje en die aard van die voorgenome republiek. Dit was tot mate weerligafleier vir reeds bestaande spanning tussen die onderskeie streke en generasies. Malan se botsings met nasionaliste soos Tielman Roos, J.B.M. Hertzog en J.G. Strijdom word belig as aanduiding van die diepgewortelde magstryd binne die Nasionale Party (NP). Deur op hierdie kompleksiteite klem te lê, poog die studie om bydrae te lewer tot meer genuanseerde begrip van die Suid-Afrikaanse verlede.