This study was to determine the extent to which the use of high-level questioning, through eliciting responses to selected poems, affects children's value claims. Twenty-seven seventh-grade boys comprised the control group, and twenty-seven eighth-grade boys comprised the experimental group. The experimental group took part in values-clarification experiences for sixteen weeks. The control group received no value instruction. The Values Inventory was administered to both groups at the beginning and at the end of the sixteen weeks. Testing of the hypotheses resulted in eight of the hypotheses being significant at the .01 level, indicating that values-clarification experiences using high-level questioning and selected poems did affect children's value claims.

This diploma work analyses financial situation of a company in the years 2002 - 2006 based on the choosen methods of financial analysis. The work objective is disclosure of problematic areas. There is performed the analysis of present situation of claim controlling and proposal of possible ways of improvement of claim controlling in the company.

This diploma work targets the processional exist business management and helps to keep high quality of the manufacturing process. I find out strenghts and weaknesses with the analysis of the company. Further I will solve concrete claim, which has to be solved effectively and flexifly, in order that the firm fulfils the requirements of their customers and creates new opportunities to sustain the long term economic growth.

This thesis deals with an elaboration vehicle inspection methodology of used by a loss adjuster and especially with an application of the inspection results in a forensic engineering. A theoretical part attends to an insurance with focus on problematics of valuing of insurance events in the field of motor vehicles and categorization of a motor vehicles itself. This thesis contents an analysis of working methods used by the loss adjusters in both theoretical and practical ways. A methodology was elaborated based on an analysis and requierements on forensic expert work.

The influence of globalization is strengthening in all markets including the insurance market. In the past few years, new trends are bringing out various changes. People are becoming aware of the risks associated by not being covered by insurance and the exposure of financial loss that they could face. Due to this awareness, there are more questions that need to be raised by the insurer. Are the clients being provided enough coverage? What types of criteria should be set? All these questions are being asked by the insurance provider in order to alleviate any problems/loss and identify all the risks up front in order to prepare for these possible scenarios. Most people in the Czech Republic are becoming more aware of the bad current situation of the social system. Therefore, more people are coming to private financial insurance consultants. Life insurance have experienced many changes the past 10 years in which it is now able to offer the same complex coverage as in rich western countries. Clients are now looking for variety and flexibility. The question is how to set up these products correctly? I have been involved in professional insurance for the past several years and have developed methodical guidelines using both my knowledge and experience aimed at helping these clients be covered for these unforeseen circumstances and protect their finances.

This thesis explores an alternative method of making Architecture based on ideas presented by Bruno Latour in “Give me a gun and I will make all buildings move” and concepts discussed by Peter Eisenman within “Diagram: An Original Scene of Writing.” The static nature of representation within Euclidian Space requires a re-evaluation of the generative qualities inherent within diagrams. Managed through an identified mechanism, the thesis investigates the excavation of potential within Pretoria Central’s lost spaces by generating programme, response and resolution from elements inherent in the diachronic context. / Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

Class Actions Abstract This thesis deals with class actions. These are currently (and rightly so) a much-discussed topic. On March 6, 2020, the government submitted a government bill on collective proceedings, which is controversial, primarily due to its inspiration in the American class action lawsuit. The main thorn in the side of the bill's critics is that the government proposal includes the opt-out proceedings, i.e. the type of proceedings that forces the class members to deregister. It is present in the current proposal along with the opt-in proceedings, which are guided by the opposite principle. This thesis examined, in particular, the appropriateness of adopting collective proceedings into the Czech legal order and the potential problems that the proposed arrangement may cause. Regulations on collective redress in the US (which has been an original idea source for the government bill) and the Netherlands (which shares some aspects with the current version of the bill after its January amendment) were also examined. From the methodological point of view, analytical, normative, comparative, and synthetic approaches were mainly used in this thesis. First, an analysis of legislation, literature and case law was performed. The current government bill on collective proceedings was extensively commented...

Abstract Game contingent claims (GCCs), as introduced by Kifer (2000), are a generalization of American contingent claims where the writer has the opportunity to terminate the contract, and must then pay the intrinsic option value plus a penalty. In complete markets, GCCs are priced using no-arbitrage arguments as the value of a zero-sum stochastic game of the type described in Dynkin (1969). In incomplete markets, the neutral pricing approach of Kallsen and Kühn (2004) can be used. In Part I of this thesis, we introduce GCCs and their pricing, and also cover some basics of mathematical finance. In Part II, we present a new algorithm for valuing game contingent claims. This algorithm generalises the least-squares Monte-Carlo method for pricing American options of Longstaff and Schwartz (2001). Convergence proofs are obtained, and the algorithm is tested against certain GCCs. A more efficient algorithm is derived from the first one using the computational complexity analysis technique of Chen and Shen (2003). The algorithms were found to give good results with reasonable time requirements. Reference implementations of both algorithms are available for download from the author’s Github page https://github.com/del/ Game-option-valuation-library

In March of 2017, New Zealand passed the Te Awa Tupua Act, a law that established the river Whanganui as a legal entity, with the same rights and obligations as a person. This commitment from the New Zealand government gave rise to the possibilities of protecting the ecosystem surrounding the river, but also strengthen the rights of the indigenous people, the Māori's, which consider Whanganui a part of their ancestry and heritage. The aim of this research is to study the ethical argumentation that motivates the recognition of the Whanganui River as a legal entity and connect that with the theoretical approach presented by Mikael Stenmark in Miljöetik och Miljövård: Miljöfrågornas Värderingsmässiga Dimension. The study will also seek to observe how the argumentation is influenced by a minority perspective, more specifically the Māori, and the oppression of their people since the colonization of New Zealand. The theoretical foundations for this study is the environmental ethics framework presented by Stenmark, which can be summed up in three main approaches: anthropocentrism, ecocentrism and biocentrism. A content-oriented ideational analysis lays the groundwork for mapping what moral positions and perceptions that motivates the recognition of the Whanganui River as a legal entity. In addititon, the study has transcribed videos with indigenous people which has been categorized and structured according to the theoretical framework. The analysis concludes that the colonial intergenerational oppression on the Māori's and the observed negative impact on the river corresponds with the well-being of the Māori people. This observed correlation, combined with a modified holistic ecocentrism, is the foundation to which a selected group of Māori's justify and motivate the Te Awa Tupua Act. This essay also problematize that environmental ethics is characterized by a context that need to be supplemented with an updated and multifaceted view of our nature and indigenous people, which draws attention to more positions that in history have not been given enough space in academic context.

Three methods for claims reserving are compared on two data sets. The first two methods are the commonly used chain ladder method that uses aggregated payments and the relatively new method, double chain ladder, that apart from the payments data also uses the number of reported claims. The third method is more advanced, data on micro-level is needed such as the reporting delay and the number of payment periods for every single claim. The two data sets that are used consist of claims with typically shorter and longer settlement time, respectively. The questions considered are if you can gain anything from using a method that is more advanced than the chain ladder method and if the gain differs from the two data sets. The methods are compared by simulating the reserves distributions as well as comparing the point estimates of the reserve with the real out-of-sample reserve. The results show that there is no gain in using the micro-level method considered. The double chain lad- der method on the other hand performs better than the chain ladder method. The difference between the two data sets is that the reserve in the data set with longer settlement times is harder to estimate, but no difference can be seen when it comes to method choice. / Tre reservsättningsmetoder jämförs på två dataset. De första två metoderna är den välkända chain ladder-metoden som använder sig av aggregerade utbetalningar samt den relativt nya metoden double chain ladder som förutom utbetalningarna använder sig av antalet anmälda skador. Den tredje metoden baseras på mikro-nivå och kräver information om varje enskild skada, såsom anmälningstid och antalet utbetalningsperioder. De två dataseten som används är ett som innehåller skador med typiskt kortare avvecklingstider och ett som innehåller skador med typiskt längre avvecklingstider. Frågorna som behandlas är om man vinner något på att använda en mer avancerad metod än chain ladder och om det skiljer sig åt mellan dataseten. Metoderna jämförs genom simulering av reserven, men också genom att jämföra punktskattningar med den verkliga reserven. Resultaten visar att man I detta fall inte vinner något på att använda mikro-metoden. Double chain ladder å andra sidan presterar bättre än chain ladder. Skillnaden mellan de två dataseten är att det är svårare att estimera reserven när avvecklingstiden är längre, men ingen skillnad ses när det gäller val av metod