This paper examines the relationship between national culture differences and five-day cumulative abnormal returns of acquirers around cross-border merger announcements. The sample consists of 1,200 cross-border deals by frequent acquirers from emerging countries for the period of January 1, 1985 to June 30, 2008. The main objective is to analyze the relation between the difference in Hofstede (1984)’s four cultural dimensions --- power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance and the merger performance. The results imply the compatibility of some cultural dimensions, individualism in particular, that result in gains in merger. The results also show that the cultural effects vary with the firm size. In addition, the evidence provides support for the hubris hypothesis by Roll (1986).

Sexual promiscuity, whereby females copulate with more than one male, is a quite common phenomenon in socially monogamous birds, and especially in songbirds. This behavior is assumed to influence the evolution of various anatomical traits associated with male ability to outcompete other males in the process of sperm competition. High promiscuity is, in a multi- species comparison, associated with higher relative testis mass, but may also affect sperm phenotypes and other male phenotypes. Sperm morphology is clearly differentiated across avian species and some studies suggest that stabilizing post-copulatory selection on sperm length is responsible for a clear association of between male variation in sperm length and levels of promiscuity. However, the association between other phenotypic traits and promiscuity remains less clear. In this study, I focus on sperm characteristics in relation to the estimated levels of promiscuity in songbirds of tropical and temperate zone climates, and across an altitudinal gradient in the tropics. I found that the coefficient of variation in sperm length, both between males (CVbm) and within males (CVwm), was indeed a good index of promiscuity. I also reveal the size of cloacal protuberance as an anatomical trait intimately associated with the level of sperm...

MSc., Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / Little is known about the longevity of grassland suffrutex plants and the relationship between longevity and plant morphological structures and seedling growth strategies. The aim of this study was to determine the longevity of four grassland suffrutex plant species, namely Berkheya insignis, Callilepis laureola, Protea insignis and Tephrosia kraussiana. Seed viability, seedling growth, morphology, habitat and population structure and demography were also assessed and related to plant age. The rhizomes, seeds (if available) and canopies of B. insignis, C. laureola, P. simplex and T. kraussiana were removed from a site near Port Edward in the Pondoland region, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in April 2008. Seeds were available for P. simplex and T. kraussiana only. Seed germination and viability were tested in the field and laboratory using germination trials and tetrazolium tests. Greenhouse and field grown seedlings were used to monitor seedling growth and to record seedling morphology. The aerial and rhizome morphologies of adult plants excavated from the field were also recorded. The largest of these rhizomes were aged using radiocarbon dating. Attempts were made to develop morphological surrogates for plant age as no method currently exists. Plant density, demographies, number of inflorescences and various environmental variables of wild populations of B. insignis, C. laureola, P. simplex and T. kraussiana were sampled from the Red Desert Nature Reserve and the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve. Species morphologies varied, however important similarities suggest convergent evolution. These included a single vertical main stem rhizome with multiple side branches, early rhizome development in seedlings, and high root: shoot ratios. Seed viability was high in the laboratory but low seedling emergence was observed in the field. Seedling growth was rapid for T. kraussiana and slow for P. simplex. The population stage structure for all four species comprised primarily adults with few or no juveniles. Wild population plant height and main stem diameter followed normal distributions. Number of stems, basal area, canopy area and the number of floral structures had distributions favouring the smaller size classes. Soil P, N, K and organic carbon were important soil nutrients in a PCA analysis of the habitats of the four species. Radiocarbon dating yielded the following ages: B. insignis: 49-51 years, C. laureola: 49-50 years, P. simplex: 49-51 years and T. kraussiana: 51 years. There was a significant relationship between rhizome mass and canopy area, basal area, height, number of stems and main stem diameter. Since rhizome mass had a positive relationship with age- a relationship between age and aerial structures is likely. Therefore, creating surrogates for age may be possible. Overall, these species have moderate longevity, are poor seed producers with possibly slow population growth and are closely associated with soil nutrients. Therefore, these and other suffrutex species are particularly vulnerable to habitat destruction and climate change. The results of this study indicate that there needs to be a greater focus on below ground growth during ecological assessments in order to better understand the ecology of our diverse grassland biome plants.

The well documented agency problem remains an ongoing debate, with the board as a central point of corporate governance providing a control mechanism. The effective composition and functioning of the board is therefore highlighted as being key to overcoming agency‐problems (Hermalin and Weisback, 2003; Adams and Ferreira, 2009). This research report explores the relationship between the structural aspects of the board, including the average age of board members, the size of the board of directors and the specific positions women and ethnic persons hold on the board of South African listed companies, and intellectual capital performance measured using VAIC™ (Pulic, 2000), as well as market adjusted share returns. The population consists of all South African companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange during 2011 with the final sample consisting of 193 companies after transformation of the data. The results of the regression analyses indicated no significant relationship between intellectual capital performance and board size, or specific positions being held by women or ethnic persons. A significant positive relationship however exists between the average age of the board of directors and intellectual capital performance. As a result, companies may be able to enhance their intellectual capital performance by increasing the average age of their board members. Key words: Board structure, Diversity, Ethnic, Gender, Age, Board size, Intellectual capital, Performance, South Africa.

ABSTRACT This work applies the concepts of the attainable region for process synthesis in comminution. The attainable region analysis has been successfully applied for process synthesis of reactor networks. The Attainable Region is defined as the set of all possible output states for a constrained or unconstrained system of fundamental processes (Horn, 1964). A basic procedure for constructing the attainable region for the fundamental processes of reaction and mixing has been postulated in reaction engineering (Glasser et al., 1987). This procedure has been followed in this work to construct the candidate attainable region for size reduction processes as found in a size reduction environment. A population balance model has been used to characterise the evolution of particle size distributions from a comminution event. Herbst and Fuerstenau (1973) postulated the dependency of grinding on the specific energy. A specific energy dependent population balance model was used for the theoretical simulations and for the fitting of experimental data. A new method of presenting particle size distributions as points in the Euclidian space was postulated in place of the traditional cumulative distribution. This allows successive product particle size distributions to be connected forming a trajectory over which the objective function can be evaluated. The curve connects products from successive batch grinding stages forming a pseudo-continuous process. Breakage, mixing and classification were identified as the fundamental processes of interest for comminution. Agglomeration was not considered in any of the examples. Mathematical models were used to describe each fundamental process, i.e. breakage, mixing and classification, and an The application of the attainable region analysis in comminution Abstract algorithm developed that could calculate the evolution of product particle size distributions. A convex candidate attainable region was found from which process synthesis and optimisation solutions could be drawn in two dimensional Euclidian space. As required from Attainable Region Theory, the interior of the bounded region is filled by trajectories of higher energy requirements or mixing between two boundary optimal points. Experimental validation of the proposed application of the attainable region analysis results in comminution was performed. Mono-sized feed particles were broken in a laboratory ball mill and the products were successfully fitted using a population balance model. It was shown that the breakage process trajectories were convex and they follow first order grinding kinetics at long grind times. The candidate attainable region was determined for an objective function to maximise the mass fraction in the median size class 2. It was proved that the same specific energy input produces identical products. The kinematic and loading conditions are supposed to be chosen as a subsequent event after the required specific energy is identified. Finally the fundamental process of classification was added to the system of breakage and mixing. The attainable regions analysis affords the opportunity to quantify exactly the reduction in energy consumption due to classification in a comminution circuit, thus giving optimal targets. Classification showed the potential to extend the candidate attainable region for a fixed specific energy input. The boundary of the attainable region is interpreted as pieces of equipment and optimum process conditions. This solves both the original process synthesis and successive optimisation problems.

Body size has a potential to influence almost any trait in animal biology. The thesis contains four case studies (I - IV) covering four various situations and four various taxa, mainly squamate reptiles (Lepidosauria). Body size is a connecting factor for all these studies, in which I and my co-authors tried to elucidate various implications of body size. I. The sex ratio in Cuban boa (Chilabothrus angulifer) litters is often male or female biased. The neonates are so large, that are able to accept the same type of prey as are adults (in contrast to the other Chilabothrus species). We found that both the sexes are of the same size and shape at birth. Large size of the neonates a long lifespan lead to considerable generation overlaps. This could clarify our findings that small females produce sons whereas the larger ones deliver daughters. Males are smaller than females, probably also less philopatric and refuse food during breeding season. We can conclude that females manipulate the sex ratio of neonates according to its own body size, in order to decrease the probability of competition with their own offspring. II. Mangrove-dwelling monitor lizard (Varanus indicus) shows one of the greatest degrees of sexual size dimorphism among monitor lizards. We recorded the growth of the individuals from...

Oligonucleotides may become a new class of therapies with the potential of curing many today untreatable diseases. Oligonucleotides becomes increasingly more difficult to separate with an increase in length since the relative difference in retention of these very similar compounds becomes increasingly smaller. Therefore, coelution of impurities formed during synthesis may result in insufficient purity, which is necessary for therapeutic treatments. Oligonucleotides are also relatively large biomolecules, possibly consisting of hundreds of nucleotides. As a result, oligonucleotides may have limited diffusion through the stationary phase pores which affects separation performance. Surprisingly few studies have be published in this research area and a wider knowledge in how this affects separation is needed. In this master thesis, separation of deoxythymidine oligonucleotides with 5-30 mers in length were separated with 60, 100, 200 and 300 Å pore size reversed phase C4 columns. It was concluded that pore size resulted in more restricted diffusion if insufficient pore size was used. Poor peak performance was also observed with too large pore sizes which lead to less efficient separations.

Sammanfattning En lägre grad av upplevd trivsel vid universitet är ett relativt vanligt fenomen bland studenter, som kopplas till bland annat psykisk ohälsa, stress och dåliga betyg. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att belysa studietrivseln bland olika klasstorlekskategorigrupper som uppger sig att vara i genomsnitt extroverta. Frågeställningar relevanta för att besvara syftet var: Finns det en skillnad i genomsnittligt självskattad studietrivsel mellan olika klasstorlekskategorier? Går det att predicera studietrivsel beroende på antalet studiekamrater en student läser tillsammans med? Finns det en korrelation mellan studietrivsel och till vilken grad individen har ett stort socialt nätverk? Finns det ett positivt samband mellan personlighetsdraget extraversion och storleken på det sociala nätverket? I studien användes en webb-enkät som deltagarna fick besvara via en länk på Facebook. I studien deltog 100 deltagare, varav 66 kvinnor, 32 män och 2 "icke-binär".  Enkäten bestod av fyra delar med fyra olika mätinstrument – självskattad studietillfredställelse/studietrivsel påståenden användes för att mäta deltagarens upplevda trivsel med sin studiesituation, Socialt nätverk (AVSI - Availability of Social Integration Questionnaire) användes för att mäta antalet studiekamrater i klassen som deltagaren kände sig ha socialt stöd ifrån i klassen, och Extraversionsskalan ifrån (TIPI- The Ten Item Personality Inventory) användes för att mäta deltagarens grad av personlighetsdraget extraversion. Resultatet visade att studiens stickprov i högre grad hade personlighetsdraget extraversion. En ANOVA för oberoende mätningar indikerade att det fanns en signifikant skillnad i självskattad studietrivsel mellan klasstorlekarna. Korrelationsanalys indikerade att det fanns en koppling mellan studietrivsel och socialt nätverk. Regressionsanalys visade att klasstorlek var prediktor för studietrivsel. Endast 7,3 % av variansen i studietrivsel kunde förklaras av variansen av prediktor-variabeln klasstorlek, vilket är lite. Studiens resultat indikerar att studenter trivs mer i somliga klasstorlekar än i andra. / Abstract A lower degree of experienced satisfaction is a common phenomenon among university students and is associated with negative outcomes like mental problems, stress and poor grades. The aim of this study was to investigate self-reported study satisfaction amongst students in different class size categories, which in average reports themselves as extrovert, at different universities across Sweden. The four questions that this study intended to answer were: Is there a difference between students' average study satisfaction depending on the class size? Can study satisfaction be predicted depending on class size? Is there a correlation between study satisfaction and the number of friends that the student perceives he or she have in the class? And is there a positive correlation between the personality trait extraversion and the number of friends that the student perceives he or she have in his/hers social network? The study was a quantitative web -survey that participants answered via Facebook. The study involved 100 participants, 66 women and 32 men and 2 "non-binary". The survey was composed of three parts consisting of three separate measuring instruments – Study satisfaction Questionnaire was used to measure the participants’ sense of study satisfaction, Availability of Social Integration Questionnaire (AVSI) measured the participants’ quantity of classmates in the class and Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) was used to estimate the personality trait extraversion.   The results show a correlation between the personality trait extraversion and social network. The regression showed that class size is a predictor for study satisfaction for students. Only 7,3 % of the variance in study satisfaction could be explained by the variance of the variable class size, which is not much.  The study's results show that in some class sizes students feel more study satisfaction then in others.

As more and more investors look to diversify their portfolios further, their attentions have moved past emerging markets in recent years, towards the so-called frontier markets. Frontier markets are less developed and liquid than emerging markets but offer tremendous opportunities for investors willing to allocate capital into them. This thesis will look into the applicability of global, as well as Frontier Fama-French-Carhart four-factor models within these markets and what the consequences are in terms of the efficient market hypothesis. The factor models will try to explain returns based on Size, Value and Momentum, as the literature has shown that asset pricing models tend to have difficulties explaining these strategies. Our findings indicate that Global Fama-French factors do partially explain long-only returns, yet Frontier Fama-French-Carhart factors appear more suitable. However, the results indicate that there is a factor missing in Frontier Fama-French-Carhart factors, which could explain the excess returns. Moreover, as we did not find statistically significant and positive intercepts for all applied Momentum strategies against the Frontier and Global Fama-French-Carhart factors (not even in the robustness test), we cannot reject the weak efficient market hypothesis. However, dollar-neutral Size and Value strategies (also the combined portfolio with dollar-neutral Momentum) seem to consistently outperform Frontier and Global factors.

[pt] As estimativas do tamanho e forma da zona plástica, tradicionalmente usada na Mecânica da Fratura Linear Elástica (MFLE), são baseadas na suposição que o fator de intensidade de tensões KI (ou KII ou KIII) é o único parâmetro necessário para descrevê-las. Quando as zonas plásticas são obtidas a partir da solução de Inglis para o campo de tensões em volta de um furo elíptico, ou da solução completa de Westergaard para uma placa com uma trinca central, pode-se observar que as estimativas tradicionais subestimam a localização da fronteira elastoplástica. Isto acontece devido às estimativas tradicionais da zona plástica que não levam em consideração a influencia da tensão nominal no campo de tensões. Como na maioria dos casos a tensão nominal atinge 80% da tensão de escoamento do material é muito importante gerar estimativas melhoradas da zona plástica em volta da ponta da trinca, as quais são apresentadas neste trabalho. / [en] The estimates of the size and shape of the plastic zones, traditionally used in Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM), are based on the supposition that the stress intensity factor (SIF) KI (or KII or KIII) is the only necessary parameter to describe them. However, when the linear elastic stress analysis problem is solved in an Inglis plate, or the cracked infinite plate is analyzed using the stresses generated by the complete Westergaard function, it is verified that those traditional estimates significantly underestimate the position of the elastoplastic border. This happens because those solutions ignore the influence of the nominal stress on the stress field. However, as in most of the practical cases nominal stresses of up to 80% of the yielding strength are used, it is worthwhile to generate better estimates ahead for the plastic zones of the cracks, which are presented in this work.