This thesis deals with the preparation of consolidated financial statements of the com-pany and the subsequent assessment of the performance of the consolidated group. The main part deal with scien-characterization methods consolidation, procedure for the pre-paration of consolidated financial statements and exclusion relations. Theoretical knowledge is then ap-forged to a specific preparation of the consolidated financial sta-tements of the company.

In the introductory part of the thesis, there is a description of machining technologies used in the production of body. This is followed by a detailed analyse of the current technology of production of this component with an emphasis on finding its problematic parts, including a proposal of the options of the rationalization. After the methods of rationalization assesment, a new technological process was developed and the alternative tools were proposed. Considerable time and money savings were achieved by this rationalization. In the discussion section, there were designed some options of solving problems arising during the installation of this rationalization into working.

MA (History) / Department of Development Studies / The study examines the process of democratic consolidation in South Africa since 1994. This study unpacks the trends, developments and challenges which have taken place since 1994 towards the entrenchment of democracy in the country. The research will explore the nature of the rule of the ANC in the light of efforts, successes and failures in consolidating democratic rule in the country. The major problem which prompted this study is that, claims of South Africa as a democratic state have not been scrutinised by academics, and this study seeks to question the validity of the phrase “New democracy” which is commonly used by both politicians and academics in referring to the government since 1994. The study will be informed by notions of democracy and will utilise the indicators of democracy to locate whether South Africa can be viewed as a true democracy, or if it offers some elements, but neglecting some of the key components of democracy. The other critical issue will be to determine the extent to which democratic institutions have been strengthened in the country. This will be basically a literaturebased study, which depends more on reviewing policies enacted by the government and determining if the policies entail democratic consolidation. The overall assumption is that more still needs to be done towards entrenching democratic institutions that address socio-economic inequalities that persist in the country. Theoretically the study builds from the liberal discourse and its fundamental notions of democracy and good governance

L’extension de la procédure collective pour confusion des patrimoines permet de soumettre une pluralité de débiteurs à une unique procédure collective. Les récentes réformes ont profondément modifié la nature de ce mécanisme : longtemps perçu comme une véritable sanction, ce dernier tend de plus en plus à être utilisé comme un simple outil de restructuration, voire de protection. Ses effets autrefois redoutés sont aujourd’hui recherchés. La thèse révèle la complémentarité de ces derniers dans le traitement des situations de confusion des patrimoines et propose plusieurs solutions permettant d’assurer leur prévisibilité. Elle suggère également plusieurs pistes de réflexion permettant de mettre en adéquation les cas de recours au mécanisme à la nature particulièrement originale des effets produits par ce dernier. / Extending a collective insolvency procedure in the case of estate compels a number of debtors to comply with a unique collective procedure. Recent reforms have deeply modified the nature of this mechanism: for a long time perceived as a sanction, it is now used as a simple tool for restructuring, and to an extent a tool for protection. Its consequences were once dreaded, whereas now they are coveted. This thesis enhances the complementarity that exists between the latter when dealing with situations of estate confusion and offers several solutions enabling foreseeability. Furthermore, it opens up to several lines of thoughts that can correlate cases when resorting to this mechanism to the particularly original effects generated by the latter.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether additional school consolidations in Comanche County will improve the educational opportunities of all students.

This dissertation studies mergers and acquisitions (M&As) from two perspectives. On one hand, M&A serves an external force of combining two different entities and thus facilitates technology integration and development. On the other hand, it also plays an important role in corporate governance. Chapter 1 studies the role of M&A in a firm's innovation process, while Chapter 2 and 3 study how activism and appraisal litigation governs the market for corporate control. In Chapter 1, I examine the motives as well as the consequences of M&A transactions between companies with varying degrees of technological overlap. High-overlap deals, with more collaboration between inventors from the merging companies, produce more patents and go deeper in the existing fields. In contrast, low-overlap deals, with a higher percentage of new inventors, experience larger technology shifts and develop patents in unexplored areas with higher commercial value. Importantly, M&A completion facilitates technology transformation to a greater degree than the two companies, especially pairs with low overlap, could have accomplished on their own. Overall, the direction of innovation is an important motive for technology-driven acquisitions. In Chapter 2, we examine ``activist risk arbitrage,'' in which a shareholder attempts to improve terms of an announced M&A through public campaigns. Activists target deals with low premiums and those susceptible to managerial conflicts of interest, including going-private deals and deals in which CEOs receive outsized payments. Activist arbitrageurs are associated with a significant decrease in the probability that targets will be sold to the announced bidders, and an increase in the premium paid, both ex post among surviving deals and ex ante among all deals. Activist arbitrage serves as a governance mechanism in M&A and earns higher returns than passive arbitrage. In Chapter 3, we present the first large-sample empirical study of the recent trends in the appraisal remedy--the right of shareholders of companies completing an eligible merger to petition the court for an improved price for their shares. Appraisal petitions have increased markedly over our sample from 2000 to 2014, and the composition of those bringing these suits has shifted from individual shareholders toward specialized hedge funds. Appraisal petitions are more likely to be filed against mergers with perceived conflicts of interest, including going-private deals, minority squeeze outs, and acquisitions with low premiums, which makes them a potentially important governance mechanism. Appraisals yield sizable excess returns to the petitioners, with an average annualized return of 32.9 percent, which suggests that appraisals also act as a litigation arbitrage. Finally, we explore the likely effects of two recent changes to the Delaware appraisal statute---regarding the minimum stake and interest payment---on the incentives to file appraisal petitions.

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2017 / This study investigates the effects of M&A to investment returns in South Africa. The value of M&A executed in emerging economies (EM) is around $129 billion (The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), 2014) and this figure is projected to double in the next ten years bringing positive economic development in EM. In light of this perspective, there is renewed interest in understanding the economics of M&A in developing countries. Our aim was to assess the extent of mergers and acquisition on shareholder returns in South Africa using a case study approach. A case study approach was adopted in order to analyse the impact of specific events on shareholder value by date. Two prominent mergers involving acquiring companies from Developed Markets (DM) were selected namely AB Inbev (Belgium) and Walmart (US). As anticipated, the results show that each merger update announcement had an impact on the share price of the target based on the type of announcement. Positive news increased the share price and bad news adversely impacted the share price. Post the merger, Massmart’s headcount increased and profitability decreased. The same could not be measured for SABMiller as the company has been delisted. / MT2017

The aim of this study is to analyse the state of Indonesia’s democracy 23 years after the fall of Suharto. By applying a qualitative case study, that uses Linz and Stepans maximal definition of democratic consolidation as the theoretical framework, an analytical scheme is operationalized and developed to answer the research questions. The empirical material is then analysed based on that analytical scheme.   The study shows that Indonesia’s democracy is experiencing challenges in all arenas, except for perhaps the political society, as Indonesia holds regular elections that are considered free and fair. The results, thus, indicate that the democracy in Indonesia cannot be considered consolidated.    These results contribute to contemporary research by strengthening the theory that democracy encompasses more than just elections, as well as the use of a theoretical framework to identify weaknesses in a democracy. This is in turn of both interdisciplinary and practical value, for instance within international development cooperation.   Keywords: Democracy, democratic consolidation, Linz and Stepan, Indonesia

The hippocampus supports the initial formation and recall of episodic memories, as well as the consolidation of short-term into long-term memories. The ability of hippocampal neurons to rapidly change their connection strengths during learning and maintain these changes over long time-scales may provide a mechanism supporting memory. However, little evidence currently exists concerning the long-term stability of information contained in hippocampal neuronal activity, likely due to limitations in recording extracellular activity in vivo from the same neurons across days. In this thesis I employ calcium imaging in freely moving mice to longitudinally track the activity of large ensembles of hippocampal neurons. Using this technology, I explore the proposal that long-term stability of hippocampal information provides a substrate for episodic memory in three different ways. First, I tested the hypothesis that hippocampal activity should remain stable across days in the absence of learning. I found that place cells – hippocampal neurons containing information about a mouse’s position – maintain a coherent map relative to each other across long time-scales but exhibit instability in how they anchor to the external world. Furthermore, I found that coherent maps were frequently used to represent a different environment and incorporated learning via changes in a subset of neurons. Next, I examined how learning a spatial alternation task impacts neuron stability. I found that splitter neurons whose activity patterns reflected an animal’s future or past trajectory emerged relatively slowly when compared to place cells. However, splitter neurons remained more consistently active and relayed more consistent spatial information across days than did place cells, suggesting that the utility of information provided by a neuron influences its long term stability. Last, I investigated how protein synthesis, known to be necessary for long-term maintenance of changes in hippocampal neuron connection strengths and for proper memory consolidation, influences their activity patterns across days. I found that along with blocking memory consolidation, inhibiting protein synthesis induced a profound, long-lasting decrease in neuronal activity up to two days later. These results combined demonstrate the importance of rapid, lasting changes in the hippocampal neuronal code to supporting long-term memory.

A dislocation density-based constitutive model has been developed and implemented into a crystal plasticity quasi-static finite element framework. This approach captures the statistical evolution of dislocation structures and grain fragmentation at the bonding interface when sufficient boundary conditions pertaining to the Ultrasonic Consolidation (UC) process are prescribed. The hardening is incorporated using statistically stored and geometrically necessary dislocation densities (SSDs and GNDs), which are dislocation analogs of isotropic and kinematic hardening, respectively. Since the macroscopic global boundary conditions during UC involves cyclic sinosuidal simple shear loading along with constant normal pressure, the cross slip mechanism has been included in the evolution equation for SSDs. The inclusion of cross slip promotes slip irreversibility, dislocation storage, and hence, cyclic hardening during the UC. The GND considers strain-gradient and thus renders the model size-dependent. The model is calibrated using experimental data from published refereed literature for simple shear deformation of single crystalline pure aluminum alloy and uniaxial tension of polycrystalline Aluminum 3003-H18 alloy. The model also incorporates various local and global effects such as (1) friction, (2) thermal softening, (3) acoustic softening, (4) surface texture of the sonotrode and initial mating surfaces, and (6) presence of oxide-scale at the mating surfaces, which further contribute significantly specifically to the grain substructure evolution at the interface and to the anisotropic bulk deformation away from the interface during UC in general. The model results have been predicted for Al-3003 alloy undergoing UC. A good agreement between the experimental and simulated results has been observed for the evolution of linear weld density and anisotropic global strengths macroscopically. Similarly, microscopic observations such as embrittlement due to grain substructure evolution at the UC interface have been also demonstrated by the simulation. In conclusion, the model was able to predict the effects of macroscopic global boundary conditions on bond quality. It has been found that the normal pressure enhances good bonding characteristics at the interface, though beyond a certain magnitude enhances dynamic failure. Similarly, lower oscillation amplitudes result in a lower rate of gap closure, whereas higher oscillation amplitude results in an enhanced rate of gap relaxation at the interface. Henceforth, good bonding characteristics between the constituent foils are found at an optimum oscillation amplitude. A similar analogy is also true for weld speed where the longitudinal locations behind the sonotrode rip open when higher weld speeds are implemented in the UC machine, leading to lower linear weld density and poor bonding characteristics.