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This essay aims to analyse the motives behind President Donald Trump’s choice to remove Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), a provision of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. The true motives are analysed through the lens of Rational Choice theory. The choice of theoretical framework can account as an explanation as to why the law was removed. The essay is moreover based upon drafts originating from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The public has since the removal of the AFFH doubted the motives presented by the President, thus giving room for further scientifical exploration on the subject. The author has chosen to conduct a quantitative text analysis to present the given arguments by the administration and the Republican party and furthermore to present alternative motives. The analysis presents an argumentation analysis to further explore the strength in the arguments presented from the relevant actors. The theoretical framework provides an explanation of the choices made, namely by offering a new dimension in which to examine the true motives behind the choice to remove AFFH.

While there is a concern that Sustainable Tourism has not been entirely adopted in practice (Graci, 2008), this thesis shows that Sustainable Tourism has been implemented by South Korean Tour Operators under the name of Fair Tourism. Fair Tourism is a rising trend as Sustainable Tourism in South Korea, and discussion on this new sector of the industry has increased in recent years (S. Gil Lee, 2016). This thesis adds to that discourse with three research objectives: 1) Define the concept of Fair Tourism. 2) What activities constitute Fair Tourism from practitioners’ viewpoint? 3) Examine how Fair Tour operators manage their sustainable supply chain based on the SCOR model.<div><br></div><div>To understand practitioners’ perception of Fair Tourism, this study has applied social constructionism, which recognized that human beings construct meanings through individual interaction (Walker, 2015). Semi-structured interviews with fifteen Fair Travel operators and thematic analysis have been applied for methodology (Elo & Kyngäs, 2008; McIntosh & Morse, 2015). This study has two significant findings. First, the findings have revealed a generally accepted definition of Fair Tourism by both researchers and operators. The definition includes Ensuring Economic Contribution to The Destination, Environmental and Social Sustainability, and Mutually Respectful Relationship. This generally acknowledged definition has helped Fair Tour operators develop the sector. Second, this thesis found that operators genuinely respect their suppliers. Operators regard their suppliers as partners who share responsibilities and benefits, leading to satisfactory outcomes for all partners (Macaulay et al., 1999). Their relationship with partners is long-term and deep rather than transactional.</div><div><br></div><div>Theoretically, this thesis contributed to the finding that Sustainable Tourism can be practicable under the name of Fair Tourism, demonstrating practitioners’ replies that are 100 percent consistent. This study applied a novel approach, focusing on the operators’ point of view, while previous studies on Fair Tourism focused on defining the term and the industry's demand (Byun, 2016; M.-K. Kim & Cho, 2019; Shin et al., 2018). Given that Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model has been developed for the analysis of the manufacturing industry, this study has advanced this manufacturing performance measurement framework and applied it to the tourism industry.</div>

In this thesis a general framework and accompanying guidelines for how to classify financial instruments within the fair value hierarchy (included within IFRS 13) is presented. IFRS 13 introduces a broad and loosely defined regulation of how to classify a financial instrument which leaves room for misinterpretation and uncertainties. In this thesis the pricing of financial instruments and behaviour of the market data used as inputs in the models has been investigated. This is to give better insight into what is classified as significant market data, how it is used and how it is approximated. Instruments that have been investigated are autocalls, swaps, European options and Asian options. The result is presented as general recommendations for how to classify the specified instruments with clearer boarders introduced between the levels in the hierarchy. Methods and deductions introduced in the thesis could also further be implemented in classification of closely related financial instruments but has been limited in this thesis due to time restrictions.     Nyckelord på svenska IFRS, Finansiella instrument, Klassificering, Fair value, Fair value hierarchy, Autocall, Swap, Europeisk option, Asiatisk option, Implicit volatilitet, Korrelation, Marknadsaktivitet, Räntesatser / I denna uppsats är ett generellt ramverk och medföljande riktlinjer för hur man klassificerar finansiella instrument inom fair value hierarkin (inkluderad i IFRS 13) presenterat. IFRS 13 introducerar en bred och löst definierad regulation om hur klassificering finansiella instrument ska gå till som lämnar rum för feltolkningar och oklarheter. I denna uppsats har prissättningen av finansiella instrument och beteende av marknadsdata som används i modellerna undersökts. Detta ger en bättre inblick i vad som klassificeras som signifikant marknadsdata, hur den används och hur den kan approximeras. Instrument som har undersökts är autocalls, swaps, europeiska optioner och asiatiska optioner. Resultatet presenteras som allmänna rekommendationer för hur man klassificerar de angivna instrumenten med tydligare gränser som införts mellan nivåerna i hierarkin. Metoder och slutsatser som är presenterade i uppsatsen kan även vidare användas vid klassifikation av liknande finansiella instrument men har i denna avhandling begränsats på grund av tidsskäl.

In dieser Ausgabe wird die Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI) in ihrer aktuellen Struktur (Stand Juli 2024) kurz vorgestellt. Es werden Beispiele für Services und Tools der NFDI-Konsortien und Basisdienste genannt, die Forschende für ein erfolgreiches Forschungsdatenmanagement nutzen können.

For more than two decades there has been a growing niche for ethically sourced coffees, at the same time as a revitalisation and development of sourcing models focused on indicators of coffee quality and measures of taste. Small independent and multinational buyers and roasters have become progressively interested in sourcing coffee in a way that privileges sustainable and/or high quality indicators, and are increasingly engaged in debates about solidarity versus mainstreaming, quantity versus quality, and provider of caffeine versus taste. Research on one coffee producing country, Guatemala, suggests how these debates have affected the historical evolution of the coffee market. This ethnographic study traces the qualifications of Guatemalan coffee and argues that responses to both the enactment of the technologies, as well as the perceived limitations of sourcing models have produced new articulations of ethics and taste. Producers and small entrepreneurs located in Guatemala reconfigure the practices of cultivation, processing, and selling/buying in relation to circulating market indicators. They create locally situated attachments to the coffee through skill transfer and knowledge exchange and in this way they imitate and also transform international valuations of taste, ethics and quality. This thesis works to make visible the range and diversity of processes and agencies involved in the production of markets for ethical coffee and considers coffee as vital and mobile; an active producer of public effects rather than a passive object moved through a commodity network. This view enables a more open, relational and mobile account of both coffee and of ethics, one which is capable of making clear the important and emerging role of taste. This thesis extends the qualifications of coffee to the daily enactments of cultivation and the skills and techniques that work to reveal taste. On this view, taste mediates the agency of the materials in both high quality and sustainable coffees and this expands and extends ethics to interpersonal, material and bodily relations that link producers and consumers in multiple ways.

This dissertation focuses on the interdependency between causality, context and history in selected novels by E.L. Doctorow: The Book of Daniel (1971), Ragtime (1974), Loon Lake (1980), World's Fair (1985) and The Waterworks (1995). Doctorow' s fiction is marked by an apparent paradox: while it underscores fictionalization and sometimes distorts late nineteenth and twentieth century American history, it simultaneously purports to be a valid representation of the past. The novelist's implementation of causality which is a significant component of "the power of freedom", constitutes fiction's ability to convey truth without relying on factuality or "the power of the regime". According to Doctorow, the documented fact is already an interpretation which induces the perception that all documentation is subjective. The author composes fictional contexts that disregard the pretence of reliability in non-fictional texts. Doctorow focuses on how contexts are formed: the contexts are usually defined through the experience of characters who have been exposed to an event or events that were generated by motivations, for example, emotions of fear, racism, conviction, desire and greed, i.e., the catalysts that form history. Each of the novels discussed focuses on various aspects of society and the fate of specific individuals. The Book of Daniel proposes that a human being can only survive physically and spiritually by remaining a social entity. Ragtime focuses on the persistent illusion in history that society is fragmented. The various "faces" of society encountered by the main character in Loon Lake, mirror one another and reflect spiritual poverty. Consequently, Loon Lake demonstrates that the search for personal fulfilment does not require a physical journey, but an inner or spiritual exploration. World's Fair postulates that reality is never exclusively defined by either fortune or misfortune alone. The Waterworks offers perhaps one of the most significant evaluations of history as it perceives that the world in which we live is essentially unknown to us. We have neither the practical means to obtain a total perspective of what occurs in society (especially among politicians and the financially powerful) nor do we have sufficient skills to distinguish what the motivations of individuals' actions really entail. / Thesis (M.A.) Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2000.

This dissertation focuses on the interdependency between causality, context and history in selected novels by E.L. Doctorow: The Book of Daniel (1971), Ragtime (1974), Loon Lake (1980), World's Fair (1985) and The Waterworks (1995). Doctorow' s fiction is marked by an apparent paradox: while it underscores fictionalization and sometimes distorts late nineteenth and twentieth century American history, it simultaneously purports to be a valid representation of the past. The novelist's implementation of causality which is a significant component of "the power of freedom", constitutes fiction's ability to convey truth without relying on factuality or "the power of the regime". According to Doctorow, the documented fact is already an interpretation which induces the perception that all documentation is subjective. The author composes fictional contexts that disregard the pretence of reliability in non-fictional texts. Doctorow focuses on how contexts are formed: the contexts are usually defined through the experience of characters who have been exposed to an event or events that were generated by motivations, for example, emotions of fear, racism, conviction, desire and greed, i.e., the catalysts that form history. Each of the novels discussed focuses on various aspects of society and the fate of specific individuals. The Book of Daniel proposes that a human being can only survive physically and spiritually by remaining a social entity. Ragtime focuses on the persistent illusion in history that society is fragmented. The various "faces" of society encountered by the main character in Loon Lake, mirror one another and reflect spiritual poverty. Consequently, Loon Lake demonstrates that the search for personal fulfilment does not require a physical journey, but an inner or spiritual exploration. World's Fair postulates that reality is never exclusively defined by either fortune or misfortune alone. The Waterworks offers perhaps one of the most significant evaluations of history as it perceives that the world in which we live is essentially unknown to us. We have neither the practical means to obtain a total perspective of what occurs in society (especially among politicians and the financially powerful) nor do we have sufficient skills to distinguish what the motivations of individuals' actions really entail. / Thesis (M.A.) Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2000.

Published Article / The financial crisis of the 21st century arising from the credit and sub-prime crisis has resulted in the accounting for financial instruments being placed under intense scrutiny. In reaction to this, the International Accounting Standards Board commenced a comprehensive review of financial instruments and the related accounting standards. This article analyses the disclosure of financial instruments by performing a literature review of the principles underlying financial instruments disclosure, followed by an empirical study of the current practices of the disclosure of financial instruments by selected companies on the JSE Limited. This article indicates that in certain aspects of the disclosure practices related to financial instruments, the "through the eyes of management" approach is not followed in the companies selected - a principle established in International Financial Reporting Standard 7 (IFRS 7).

The analysis undertaken, firstly aims to identify the extent to which equities, their indexes and their derivatives priced in accordance with their fair value. Secondly, presuming that the traded values of the instruments do not in all instances equate to the fair value, the research aims to develop an effective means to identify and manage profitable opportunities arising from the mispricing. General concepts relating to profitability, trade identification, risk and continuous improvement of the processes are addressed. This includes recommendations on the management of the risks through a structured reporting process. The research looks at arbitrage trading in the South African market from the perspective of an empirical review into the market's participation in equity and equity derivative arbitrage. In addition to this empirical analysis, a time series analysis into various arbitrage strategies is conducted with the view to determining their relative profitability. The first component of the empirical research focuses on the arbitrage trading strategies adopted by a sample of 80 institutions. Where the institutions trade arbitrage strategies, the research undertook to establish what methods are used to identify, trade and manage the index arbitrage, single stock futures arbitrage, risk arbitrage, statistical arbitrage and volatility arbitrage trading opportunities that present themselves within the South African Market. Information gathered did not only focus on the actual trading strategies but also determined the relative cost structures, profitability and risk management processes that are employed to support these trading initiatives. The time series analysis focused on index futures, single stock futures, risk, dual listed and statistical arbitrage methods, and reflects the results before and after transaction costs. These arbitrage strategies were applied to the ALSI Top 40 index or its associated shares and generally spanned a period of about four years. Finally the research presents an arbitrage business model that is aimed at providing a blue print for arbitrage trading which covers: new arbitrage strategy, implementation, market risk, execution, profit, traders, cost Finally, the research provides a multiple regression method for application in identifying further arbitrage trading opportunities within the South African environment. / School of Business Leadaership / DBL