Minorities have gained more civil rights with the cooperation of both major political parties in the United States, yet the actions of the Republican Party are often conflated with racism. This is partially the result of clashes in ideological visions, which explain the different political positions of partisans. However, during his 1980 run for the White House, a concerted effort was made to tie Ronald Reagan to racism, as he was accused of pandering to white Southerners. Therefore, this thesis also focuses on “Southern strategies” used by both the Republican and Democratic parties to exploit race, which have spilled into the new millennium.

The game of football has transformed from just being a game into a huge economic market attracting investors from all over the world. As clubs spend more and more money on player acquisitions, player registrations (considered intangible assets) now represent a significant part of the total assets of major European football clubs. Due to this, treatment of player registrations has become a significant accounting issue. The purpose is to analyze and compare from the perspective of an investor, how a sample of European football clubs account and disclose values of player registrations. The purpose aim to answer the questions how and what kind of information each club discloses on their financial statements. Also, are current accounting procedures and disclosure harmonized, and do they present a true and fair view of top European clubs financial status. A descriptive case study was the most appropriate as it aims to answer the questions “how” and “why”. A sample selection filter was set in the beginning of the process together with the research questions. The final sample was set to be: Arsenal FC, Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus FC and FC Porto. The purpose of the selection filter was to get a study both fair on economical as well as competitive sports level. Primary data consist of information from annual financial reports, and in order to enhance validity, interviews with professionals have been conducted and used.  Findings show similarities as well as differences in disclosure and treatment of football player registrations. All clubs meet the minimum requirements from IAS 38 and UEFA. However, how and what kind of information each clubs disclose differ substantially and due to lack of valuation models and the possibility to capitalize home-grown players and free agents, the value of player registrations is not presented in a true and fair view.

A report on social consequences of neoliberal trade policies and the commodification of food, and the international efforts of small farmers to counteract the worst of these consequences. Social justice movements like fair trade and local food have emerged with the aim to expose the direct impacts on food producers. These movements co-exist while achieving their respective and mutual goals. Themes explored are: the fight against neoliberal globalization and mainstream trade, labour practices (workers' rights, fair wages, safe work environments,) sustainability (environmental practices, food security,) community and economic development and consumer awareness of aforementioned issues. Although these are global issues, close attention is paid to recent mobilization efforts in Canada and Manitoba among small food producers, farmers’ unions and related non-government organizations.

The prospects of studying multi-strange and charmed antihyperon-hyperon physics and CP violation in hyperon decays in the upcoming PANDA experiment at FAIR, Germany, have been studied in this thesis. The angular dependence on polarisation parameters in the decay of the spin 3/2 Omega hyperon was calculated using the density matrix formalism. Expressions for the angular distributions in the Ω -> ΛK and the subsequent Λ -> pπ decays were derived. Simulations were performed for the pbar p -> Ξ+ Ξ-, pbar p -> Ω+Ω- and pbar p -> Λc-Λc+ reactions. Special attention was given to the reconstruction of spin variables. It is shown that PANDA will register tens of events per second for the pbar p -> Ξ+Ξ- reaction. This should be compared to the previously existing data of a handfull of events. For the other two reactions the event rates will be lower, but still reasonably high. This will be the first measurements of these reactions. It is shown that spin variables can be reconstructed in all three reactions for all production angles of the hyperons. Simulations concerning the possibility to measure CP violation parameters in hyperon decays were also made for the reactions pbar p- > Λbar Λ and pbar p -> Ξ+Ξ-. It was found that false signals from detector asymmetries disappears if no particle identification criterium is used and the analysis is restricted to events were the hyperon decays occur close to the beam axis. The effect of the magnetic field in the PANDA detector on the measurement of hyperon spin variables was investigated for the case of pbar p -> Λbar Λ. The effect was observed to be small for polarisation and negligible for spin correlations.

The rapid diffusion of digital technologies since the 1970s has produced significant cultural change within industrialised societies and this dissertation examines the particular challenge that digital technologies and a burgeoning digital culture pose to copyright law. The hypothesis is that the international copyright regime, based on the private ownership of intellectual property, is being undermined by the collaborative and sharing dimensions of a networked digital culture. The argument is premised on evidence that digital culture is now so pervasive and so disruptive of traditional social and economic institutions that current copyright laws are no longer capable of managing the production and distribution of the knowledge, information and entertainment products that are fundamental to the operation of the global information economy. Ideological and cultural differences have led to conflict and ‘copyfights’ between the owners of copyright works and the digital creators who produce and share copyright works outside the commercial marketplace, and often, outside the law. Defending their legal rights, the owners have generally adopted a copyright maximalist approach. They have successfully argued for stricter laws to protect their valuable private property rights and have enforced the law against digital pirates and new technologies that they claim threaten their businesses and the orderly operation of the knowledge economy. The digital sharers have adopted a ‘copyleft’ approach. Demonstrating little respect for laws that inhibit digital creativity and innovation, and supportive of a public domain of accessible cultural works, they argue for less stringent legal controls over copyright works and for a new intellectual commons in which knowledge, information and entertainment products are shared, rather than privately owned. Analysis of the culture clash between owners and sharers and between their private and public interests demonstrates that the 21st century copyfights are divisive and expensive. This dissertation, as well as addressing the challenge that digital culture poses to copyright law, suggests possibilities for legal reform and opens up new terrain for further study into the question of who should own and benefit from the knowledge and information that form our cultural heritage. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

[Truncated abstract] Following the introduction in 1999 of Australian Accounting Standard Board (AASB) 1041: 'Revaluations of Non-Current Assets' (Australian Accounting Standards Board 2001a), this study set out to examine the impact of the introduction of this new standard on: the number (percentage) of Australian firms revaluing various classes and submajor classes of non-current assets; and the value relevance and reliability of the information provided with respect to various sub-major classes of non-current assets. The study also set out to examine the apparent motivations for Australian companies electing the fair value (FV) basis, rather than the historic cost (HC) basis, for reporting property, plant and equipment (PP&E). The sample analysed in this study consisted of Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed firms that were included in each of the Connect4, Aspect Financial and Core Research Data (CRD) databases. After excluding firms not covered by all three databases and firms where there were missing data problems, 398 and 424 firms were left in the 1999 and 2002 samples, respectively. Of the 398 and 424 firms, there were 194 firms that were common to both sample periods and a separate analysis of these 'common' firms allowed a 'like-for-like' comparison to be made. The financial year ending June 30, 1999 provides data under the previous standard AASB 1010 (Australian Accounting Standards Board 2000) before the introduction of AASB 1041, while the financial year ending 30 June 2002 provides data under AASB 1041 (the new standard). ... At the disaggregated level (that is, for various sub-major classes of non-current assets), it appears that there was a decline in the number (percentage) of firms choosing to revalue investment property, property, and plant and equipment, while there was no change in the number (percentage) of firms choosing to revalue listed or unlisted investments. It appears that AASB 1041's requirement to revalue frequently when the FV basis was adopted discouraged firms from choosing the FV basis for some asset classes, presumably because the costs associated with frequent revaluations outweighed the perceived benefits. In terms of value relevance, the results suggest that where the variables of interest are scaled there was no improvement in the value relevance of the information provided by Australian companies following the introduction of AASB 1041. However, the results from the unscaled regressions do not support this conclusion and instead suggest that the introduction of AASB 1041 was associated with an overall improvement in the value relevance of the information provided with respect to the various sub-major classes of non-current assets investigated in this study. Resolution of this conflicting result is beyond the scope of this dissertation and is an issue worthy of future research. In terms of reliability, the results suggest that the introduction of AASB 1041 was generally associated with: an improvement in the reliability of information reported with respect to non-current assets reported at FV; and a deterioration in the reliability of information reported with respect to non-current assets reported at HC. Finally, with respect to the potential motivations behind a company's choice of the FV basis for reporting PP&E, the results suggest that firms are motivated to revalue PP&E to: improve their borrowing capacity; for signalling purposes; and to reduce information asymmetry.

Nürnberg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2006--Erlangen. / Literaturverz.

Univ., Diss.--St. Gallen, 2007.

Zugl.: Köln, Univ., Diss., 2008 u.d.T.: Rohlfs, Torsten J. W.: Der @Einfluss der unternehmensspezifischen Bonität auf die Zeitwert-Bilanzierung von versicherungstechnischen Verpflichtungen eines Schaden-/Unfallversicherungsunternehmens

Mannheim, Univ., Diss., 2008.