The purpose of this study was to measure merger performance on a longitudinal basis using a micro perspective. Specifically, this study looked at the performance of a sample of mergers drawn from the food and kindred products industry, Standard Industrial Classification code 20, for a period of five years before and five years after the merger using two performance measures. The performance measures, namely market returns to stockholders and return on investment, have been used extensively in the literature to study the performance of mergers and acquisitions, albeit on macro samples. The study offered significant statistical support for the hypothesis that mergers benefit the acquiring firm and its stockholders, as well as for the hypothesis that merger performance in the latter time period of study (1977 to 1984) was better than in the former (1968 to 1977). However, no significant difference in performance was found across merger types. The study discussed the managerial implications of these findings and offered directions for future research in the area of merger performance.

The aim of this thesis is to examine Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred as a work of post-apocalyptic literature that uses American slavery as its apocalyptic event. I will argue that Kindred critiques the use of linear time and the narratives of progress that are commonplace within the science fiction genre by focusing on an apocalypse from America’s historical past, instead of creating an apocalypse in an imagined future. To do this, I will examine how the novel challenges the reader’s understanding of time and history alongside another work of post-apocalyptic literature, Walter M. Miller Jr’s novel A Canticle for Leibowitz. I will also utilize apocalyptic theory to argue that Kindred should be considered a post-apocalyptic novel, and by comparing it to Butler’s other works of apocalyptic fiction. Ultimately, Kindred expands the possibilities of postapocalyptic fiction by demonstrating that we are already living in a post-apocalyptic reality. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Slavery is something that cannot be taken lightly. Even Butler says no matter how harsh the slavery in her novel is, it does not compare to how gruesome actual slavery was: “As a matter of fact, one of the things I realized when I was reading the slave narrative…was that I was not going to be able to come anywhere near presenting slavery as it was. I was going to have to do a some-what cleaned-up version of slavery, or no one would be willing to read it” (qtd. in Kenan 497). Octavia Butler knew that if she presented slavery directly and in a way that called people, most likely white males, that there would not be an audience for the novel. Instead she had to present slavery as something society shaped, rather than a specific group of individuals. An analysis of Octavia Butler’s Kindred reveals that societal expectations alter the dynamics of such interracial relationships as those between Dana and Kevin, Dana and Rufus, and Rufus and Alice, determining their success or failure without regard to the foundations upon which these relationships were initially built.

Kindred, an MFA exhibition held at the Tipton Gallery located in downtown Johnson City from Feburary 22nd to March 4th. Kindred presents two bodies of work, which are a collection of drawings, etchings, monoprints, and lithographs, that center around a personal mythology and symbolism of self-identity and discovery. These works explore the physical and spiritual connection behind being a fraternal twin through the metaphorical use of animal imagery. The ideas discussed in this paper center around the process of creating a personal mythology and symbolism through my observations of animals and how I relate that experience to other mythologies that inspire me. This process of creating narratives and iconography coincide with the writings of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung. This paper also includes the inspiration of other artists, such as Beth Cavener and Dennis McNett, who also use animal imagery to explain a kind of kinship.

Octavia Butler’s Kindred is often looked at as a historical science fiction novel. While there are critics who have discussed the slave narrative aspects of the novel, the way Butler tackles authorship and what it means to re-write history has been overlooked. By examining the way Butler uses authorship to question authorial authority, one can see the way Butler uses her protagonist to revise history and reclaim historical figures. This process of reclamation and revision enables Butler to examine the historical gaps that have been created and the way enslaved blacks have been caricatured and further dehumanized. Through her protagonist, Butler is able to endow these historical figures with complex identities and emotions and challenges what it means to be a viable authorial voice.

The multicultural classroom is becoming more prominent in Sweden. Students from different cultures and ethnicities meet to learn in the same environment. In a changing society, the need to develop acceptance towards others is more important than ever.  Thus, in this essay, post-colonial and social influence theories have been applied to the analysis of Octavia E. Butler’s novel Kindred. This essay argues that by integrating post-colonial literature in the EFL- classroom, students can gain deeper intercultural knowledge and learn to understand the power of the social environment concerning its influential effects on people’s racial attitudes and prejudices.

This essay’s primarily focus is on the common discourse about the persisting effects of the past in the present in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale(1985)and Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred (1979).These novels are the testimonies of the protagonists Offred and Dana who shares their experience of traumatic violence and oppression. Dana, with her ability to time travel, will see her present time in clearer light as she experiences the life of a slave on an antebellum plantation. Offred, the Handmaiden owned by the totalitarian regime Gilead, portrays her contemporary life in parallel to remembering her former and thus describing Gilead’s increasing authority. Based on different theorists and concepts in the field of cultural memory studies, this essay examines the tension between memory and history, the distantness towards the past and the problematics with representations of traumatic events. As I argue that the voices of Dana and Offred calls attention to the importance of perspective and of sharing stories, they are also an act of hope, therapy and resistance; an act that also make possible a critique of the processes of the production of historical knowledge.

This thesis uses the observations of Nancy J. Peterson on historical wounds as a springboard to discuss Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred and its use of both white and black characters to reexamine the origins of the historical wounds and why they are so difficult to deal with even today. Other scholarly works will be used to further investigate the importance of each character in the story and what they mean to the wound itself. Specifically, Dana is analyzed alongside the other main characters: Rufus, Alice, and Kevin. Though Dana’s relationships with these characters, Kindred’s version of the past can be examined in order to determine why the past is so difficult to overcome and what the novel does to come to an understanding or reconciliation with it. This, in turn, allows for the present to be compared to Butler’s representation of the past as a way of reexamining history.

Syftet med denna studie är att belysa hur närstående till personer som vårdas palliativt upplever stödet de får från sjukvårdspersonal. Frågeställningarna i studien bygger på två centrala frågor. Vilket stöd upplever närstående att de får och hur upplevde närstående detta stöd? Den metod som har använts i detta arbete är litteraturstudie. Tio vetenskapliga artiklar användes som gav svar på frågeställningarna. Resultatet visar att information av olika slag under denna tid var det övervägande behovet av stöd hos närstående. Andra fynd som upptäcktes var känslomässigt stöd, avlastning och undervisning "hjälp till självhjälp". Diskussionen är uppdelad i en metoddiskussion och en resultatdiskussion. I resultatdiskussionen belyses främst betydelsen av information som ges till närstående, hur den ges och när den ges. Som slutsats kan sägas att det är av stor betydelse att lyfta fram vikten av information till närstående under denna svåra tid i deras liv. Det måste satsas på undervisning till vårdpersonal på alla vårdinrättningar och utvecklas en standard eller ett vårdprogram för informationsgivning till närstående. / The aim of this litterature study is to illuminate how significant others experience the support they get from staff. This study emphasized two central questions. What kind of support does significant others experience they get and their experiences of this support? The method used was a litterature review. Ten articles dealing with the questions were used. The result finds out that information of different kind are the outweigh need of support for significant others. Other findings were emotional support, need of assistance end education related to caring "empowerment". The discussion is divided in one part related to the method and one related to the result.In the discussion of the results illuminates the significance of information as it is given to significant others, and also how and when it is given. As a conclusion it is of great importance to show the meaning of information to significant others during this difficult time in there life. We find it necessary to develop a standard or a programme in caring focused on information to significant others.

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