This paper presents an analysis on Due Diligence process as a tool to reduce the Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) risk of failure which is used by the acquirer to gather quantitative but also qualitative information about the target in the pre-merger deal, before to sign the agreement of the deal. However, the process is sometimes unknown or underestimated since the executives sometimes want the deal to be closed as soon as possible, and neglect some critical factors which can be important to get a true vision of the target and therefore increase the chance of success of the deal in future. In the view of the enormous economic significance in M&A transactions numbers and volume, it is alarming that more of half of all transactions do not lead to the desired objectives. To investigate in this problem, some studies have emphasized Due Diligence impact to increase M&A chance of success. Indeed, Due diligence is viewed as the only way to find out as much information as possible on the target company. It is a way to conduct a comprehensive investigation into this potential target. In this thesis, we will focus on Financial Due Diligence which is an unavoidable way to evaluate the target to allow getting financial information, but show its limits. That is the reason why, we will highlight the role of the Strategic Due Diligence in this paper, which fulfill the FDD limits since it allows the bidder to thinks strategically as each deal is unique in what its value drivers are. Finally, in this paper we concluded that the SDD is the way companies should perform the DD to increase the M&A chance of success since each deal is unique in what its value drivers are and that is what SDD is all about. To support our paper, we have addressed two interviews with 2 financial analysts who work in audit companies located in Stockholm to gather their points of view on the subject. Moreover, both of our case studies on BNP Paribas and HP provide illustrative example on how financial and strategic Diligence can be conduct.

This thesis aims to analyse the change and continuity issue in German Foreign Policy. In this study, the basic aim is to identify the basic parameters of the West German foreign policy during the Cold War and identify the implications of the reunification on foreign policy of Germany. Actually, after the reunification, the economically giant Germany has started to pursue a more self-reliant foreign policy course but there is not a radical shift from the basic parameters and the core values. The concept of &amp / #8216 / civilian power&amp / #8217 / and the international climate within which the foreign policy is formulated, will be given priority. It is argued that from the Gulf War in 1990-1991 to the Kosovo War of 1999, German contribution to military operations has increased. However, Germany has done this within a multilateral context and the aim has been to keep the values of respect for democracy and human rights. Thus, continuity dominates over change in German foreign policy, with regard to its policy record during the 1990s.

One of the major problems concerning the production of food crops is the controlling of plant diseases to maintain the high quality and yield. Wheat diseases are caused by parasitic bacteria, fungi and viruses that are a major hazard in wheat production. Therefore, understanding of any resistance mechanism is prerequisite for the successful utilization of wheat crop species in modern agriculture. The phenomenon of induced resistance by fungi, bacteria, microbial elicitors and chemicals has been investigated widely and resulted in many discoveries that conclude a general realization that the disease resistance signaling pathway in plants shares a number of common elements with those leading to innate immunity but a few of them have been characterized at the molecular level yet. Therefore our goal in this study is to identify genes activated or repressed after treatment of wheat plants with biological elicitor fungus, Trichoderma harzianum, and chemical inducers, benzo (1,2,3) thiadiazole-7-carbothioic acid S-methyl ester (BTH) and &szlig / -aminobutyric acid (BABA). mRNA differential display technique, which is a powerful tool to identify those genes that are differentially expressed between the two cell types has been extensively used in this study. The variety &#039 / Avocet S&#039 / is used to identify putative genes activated or repressed after treatment of wheat plants with biological elicitor fungus, Trichoderma harzianum, and chemical inducers, BTH and BABA comparing to untreated &#039 / Avocet S&#039 / wheat plants. The differentially expressed cDNA bands were cloned and sequenced. Nucleotide sequences of differentially expressed cDNA bands were searched in the Genbank. Sequence alignments between the fragments that represent a certain gene were also searched in ClustalX-1.81 computer programs. The sequences of the differentially expressed fragments were also confirmed by real time PCR that verify the gene expression differences observed between the biologically or chemically treated and untreated plants as a result of defense induction. The confirmed genes were found to be involved directly or indirectly in the induced disease resistance. These genes are important in terms of understanding the mechanism of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) signalling defense and helpful in producing transgenic wheat.

This thesis explores young women's relationship with feminism, contributing to an enhanced understanding of feminist dis-identification. Feminist research offers various explanations for young women's repudiation of feminism; this study adds a further dimension to current debates by adopting a performative approach which explores how difference, and particularly sexuality, mediates young women's responses to feminism. Employing and developing the broader theoretical frameworks of postfeminism, individualisation, neoliberalism, and difference, this thesis intervenes in current debates by highlighting the role of heteronormativity in negotiations of feminism. The study is based on forty, semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews with a diverse group of German and British women, aged 18-35. A discursive analysis of the interviews provides an insight into young women's talk, thoughts, and feelings about feminism. Exemplifying a postfeminist logic, two broad patterns were discernable in the research participants' talk: feminism was either considered as valuable, but anachronistic and therefore irrelevant to the present, or fiercely repudiated as extreme and dogmatic. While most research participants reported they would not call themselves a feminist, their stance towards feminism shifted depending on the cultural resources they drew on to discuss feminist politics. Reflecting the broader cultural currents of neoliberalism and individualisation, the respondents frequently rejected the need for a collective movement by positioning themselves as individuals who were capable of negotiating structural constraints autonomously. The research participants were aware of persistent gender inequalities, but located them predominantly in the public sphere and/or 'other' parts of the world, claiming they had not personally experienced gender discrimination. Feminists were overwhelmingly portrayed and constructed as unfeminine, man-hating, and lesbian. Although the respondents could not name any concrete examples of feminists who corresponded to this stereotype, the construction of 'the feminist' haunted their accounts. As the performative approach illustrates, discussions of feminism gave rise to complex negotiations and performative citations of normative femininity. Performances of femininity were racialized and classed, intersecting with feminist dis-identification in multiple ways. The perception of feminism as inclusive or exclusive figured as an important theme in the interviews. This thesis adds to our understanding of feminist dis-identification by employing various theoretical tools, drawing on empirical accounts, and by revealing the structuring role of heteronormativity in negotiations of feminism.

No description available.

The R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars are an enigmatic class of hydrogen-deficient supergiant stars, which along with the companion classes of Hydrogen-deficient Carbon (HdC) stars and Extreme Helium (EHe) stars, have been touted as being a result of mergers of low mass carbon-oxygen (CO) and helium (He) white dwarfs. Such mergers of white dwarfs are expected to be the genesis of several interesting stellar objects such as Type Ia supernovae, neutron stars and AM CVn stars, amongst others. The RCBs, HdCs and EHes are mostly near-solar mass single stars, which along with having predominantly helium atmospheres that are extremely exhausted in hydrogen and rich in carbon, are also host to some extraordinary nuclear isotopic ratios. The RCBs and EHes have 12C/13C >= 100, enhancements of up to 3 orders in fluorine compared to solar and significant amounts of s-process elements. The most outstanding characteristic of RCBs is that they, along with the HdCs, have the lowest O-isotopic ratios measured in any star in the Universe viz., 16O/18O ~ 1-10. We perform nucleosynthesis calculations with conditions found in the three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of CO and He WD mergers and compare the nuclear yields thus obtained with those measured in the surfaces of RCB stars. We do not find an agreement between the calculated yields and the measured ones and thus conclude that RCBs are not formed immediately after the merger of the white dwarfs. This leads us to surmise that the surface chemical composition of RCBs may be due to the result of nuclear processes occuring in a longer evolutionary period following the merger. To this end, we first construct chemical compositions of the merged white dwarfs based on the results of the hydrodynamic simulations. We then impose these compositions on homogeneous, spherically symmetric, one-dimensional stellar models and evolve these models through the giant phase of RCBs. Along with convection zones that develop in the stellar envelope, we induce a continuous envelope mixing profile that is meant to represent processes related to rotation in these merged objects. We then analyse the nuclear yields from the surface of these models and compare them with those of RCBs. Our models achieve the aforementioned striking characteristics of RCBs, viz., the low O-isotopic ratios, high C-isotopic ratios, high fluorine and s-process element enhancments. Along with these, for the first time, we have reproduced simultaneously, the range in observations of almost all the other elements measured in RCBs. Moreover, our one-dimensional models also place useful constraints on so far unexplored three-dimensional processes, thus providing directives for future studies about them. / Graduate

Workload and complexity measures are, as of today, often imprecise and subjective. Currently, two commonly used workload and complexity measuring formulas are Monitor Alert Parameter and the “Bars”, both using the same measurement variables; amount of aircraft and time. This study creates formulas for quantifying ATC complexity. The study is done in an approach environment and is developed and tested on Stockholm TMA by the creation of 20 traffic scenarios. Ten air traffic controllers working in Stockholm TMA studied the complexity of the scenarios individually and ranked the scenarios in reference to each other. Five controllers evaluated scenario A1-A10. These scenarios were used as references when creating the formulas. The other half of the scenarios, B1-B10, ranked by another five controllers, was used as validation scenarios. Factors relevant to an approach environment were identified, and the data from the scenarios were extracted according to the identified factors. Moreover, a regression analysis was made with the ambition to reveal appropriate weights for each variable. At the first regression, called formula #1, some parameter values were identical. Also, some parameter weights became negative in the regression analysis. The basic requirements were not met and consequently, additional regressions were done; eventually forming formula #2. Formula #2 showed stable values and plausible parameter weights. When compared to a workload measuring model of today, formula #2 showed better performance. Despite the small amount of data samples, we were able to prove a genuine relation between three, of each other independent, variables and the traffic complexity.

This thesis analyses the pecularities of German imperialism in the Near East. The economic aspect of German imperialist policy is reflected in the Baghdad Railway Project, and the political aspect in the German support for pan-Islamism. in this thesis, it is argued that both of these policies were dominated by an anti-colonialist discourse, which formed the distinct nature of German imperialism in the Near East. in order to prove this argument, the works of advocates of German expansion in the Near East has been analysed as the main sourced of influence on the German public opinion.

Carboxypeptidase N (CPN) is a plasma carboxypeptidase that was discovered in the 1960s as a regulator of inflammation and vascular tone. Through the removal of carboxy-terminal basic residues, CPN alters the activity or binding specificity of inflammatory mediators and vasoactive peptides. CPN shares significant homology with carboxypeptidases known to mediate antifibrinolysis through the removal of basic residues from fibrin clots, which would otherwise stimulate fibrinolysis. Despite the similarity of these enzymes, CPN is generally regarded as lacking a role in fibrinolysis. This thesis demonstrates that CPN is indeed a capable antifibrinolytic enzyme, and that the antifibrinolytic activity of CPN was previously undisclosed due to the presence of a circulating CPN inhibitor, which is likely the free CPN2 subunit. This inhibitor is described for the first time here. Furthermore, potential mechanisms of inhibition and mechanisms of enhancing activity of CPN are proposed based upon the additional structural characterization of CPN presented here.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-01-29Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:49:05Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 marques_ha_me_prud.pdf: 1098327 bytes, checksum: 37aabdd60dc21333c03db5177953ea93 (MD5) / Dados de receptores GPS de dupla freqüência são, em geral, processados utilizando a combinação ion-free, o que permite eliminar os efeitos de primeira ordem da ionosfera. Porém, os efeitos de segunda e terceira ordem, geralmente, são negligenciados no processamento de dados GPS. Nesse trabalho, esses efeitos foram levados em consideração no processamento dos dados. Foram investigados os modelos matemáticos associados a esses efeitos, as transformações envolvendo o campo magnético da Terra e a utilização do TEC advindo dos Mapas Globais da Ionosfera ou calculados a partir das pseudodistâncias. Numa outra investigação independente, os efeitos residuais de primeira ordem da ionosfera, resultantes da dupla diferença da pseudodistância e da fase da onda portadora, foram considerados como incógnitas no ajustamento. Porém, esses efeitos residuais foram tratados como pseudo-observações, associados aos processos aleatórios random walk e white noise e, adicionados ao algoritmo de filtro de Kalman. Dessa forma, o modelo matemático preserva a característica de número inteiro da ambigüidade da fase, facilitando a aplicação de algoritmos de solução da ambigüidade, que no caso desse trabalho, utilizou-se o método LAMBDA. Para o caso da consideração dos efeitos de segunda e terceira ordem da ionosfera, foram realizados processamentos de dados GPS envolvendo o modo relativo e o Posicionamento por Ponto Preciso. Os resultados mostraram que a não consideração desses efeitos no processamento dos dados GPS pode introduzir variações da ordem de três a quatro milímetros nas coordenadas das estações. / Data from dual frequency receiver, in general, are processed using the ion-free combination that allows the elimination of the first order ionospheric effects. However, the second and third order ionospheric effects, generally, are neglected in the GPS data processing. In this work, these effects were taken into account in the GPS data processing. In this case, it was investigated the mathematical models associated with the second and third order effects, the transformations involving the Earth magnetic field and the use of TEC from Ionosphere Global Maps or calculated from the pseudoranges. The first order ionosphere residual effects, resulting from pseudorange and phase double difference, were taken into account as unknown in the adjustment. However, these effects were treated as pseudo-observables and it was associated with the random process random walk and white noise and added to the Kalman filter algorithm. Therefore, the mathematical model preserves the phase ambiguity “integerness”, facilitating the application of ambiguity resolution approaches, which in the case of this work, it was used the LAMBDA method.