Yes / We study liquidity on the London Stock Exchange. We find that the average bid-ask spread declines, but that the skewness of the spread increases. These results are robust to firm size, trading volume and price level. Our findings hold when the bid-ask spread is estimated utilising high frequency data. We find that the bid-ask spread prior to earnings announcements dates is significantly higher than that of post earnings announcements, suggesting that asymmetric information has driven the increase in liquidity skewness. We also find that the effect of earnings announcements is more pronounced in the 2007 global financial crisis, consistent with the notion that extreme market downturns amplify asymmetric information. Our overall evidence also implies that increased competition and transparent trading environments limit market makers' abilities to cross-subsidize bid-ask spreads between periods of high and low levels of asymmetric information. / National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71571197)

Yes / Purpose – While it is essential to further research the growing diversity in western metropolitan cities, little is currently known about how the members of various ethnic communities acculturate to multicultural societies. The purpose of this paper is to explore immigrants’ cosmopolitanism and acculturation strategies through an analysis of the food consumption behaviour of ethnic consumers in multicultural London. Design/methodology/approach – The study was set within the socio-cultural context of London. A number of qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, observation and photographs were used to assess consumers’ acculturation strategies in a multicultural environment and how that is influenced by consumer cosmopolitanism. Findings – Ethnic consumers’ food consumption behaviour reflects their acculturation strategies, which can be classified into four groups: rebellion, rarefaction, resonance and refrainment. This classification demonstrates ethnic consumers’ multi-directional acculturation strategies, which are also determined by their level of cosmopolitanism. Research limitations/implications – The taxonomy presented in this paper advances current acculturation scholarship by suggesting a multi-directional model for acculturation strategies as opposed to the existing uni-directional and bi-directional perspectives and explicates the role of consumer cosmopolitanism in consumer acculturation. The paper did not engage host communities and there is hence a need for future research on how and to what extent host communities are acculturated to the multicultural environment. Practical implications – The findings have direct implications for the choice of standardisation vs adaptation as a marketing strategy within multicultural cities. Whilst the rebellion group are more likely to respond to standardisation, increasing adaptation of goods and service can ideally target members of the resistance and resonance groups and more fusion products should be exclusively earmarked for the resonance group.

No

Thesis (MHumanRehabSt)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Internationally, ensuring that all persons, in particular the vulnerable and marginalised, have access to their human rights is advocated now more than ever. Access to education is one of these rights. For persons with disabilities, which includes learners with permanent mobility impairments (PMIs), realising the right of access to education can be achieved through developing an inclusive education system. This study set out to understand what mainstream high schools in East London consider as challenges in enrolling and accommodating learners with PMIs, and how decisions are based to include or exclude these learners. A cross-sectional, descriptive study, using a mixed methods design and which was exploratory in nature was used to address the study aim and objectives. The method of inquiry was achieved through survey research. The study setting was East London, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The study population comprised 21 mainstream high schools in the city, as represented through a member of the educational staff. Only 12 schools (57%) actually participated in the study. These schools were either public or independent, English-, Afrikaans-, isiXhosa- or bilingual-medium, single gender or coeducational schools, with or without learners with PMIs in the school in urban or peri-urban East London. No sampling was done. Data was collected via e-mail through a self-administered questionnaire. It was found that four learners with PMIs were enrolled in the participating schools. The majority of participating schools did not receive applications from learners with PMIs. The greatest barrier to inclusion was related to infrastructure challenges. I had the impression that the participants’ understanding of ‘inclusion’ and ‘mainstreaming’ was confused, and it appeared that the main idea was to mainstream. Recommendations made for practice include completing access audits of mainstream high schools, developing human resources, developing consulting services, monitoring the implementation of the Education White Paper 6, and making global changes in line with inclusion of persons with mobility impairments. It is hoped that this study might serve as a pilot study for a provincial study in the Eastern Cape. Such a study should determine the prevalence of learners of high school age with PMIs,and the percentage of these learners in mainstream high schools. Further, it could determine perspectives regarding inclusion of learners with mobility impairments in mainstream high schools from all involved stakeholders. A study could also be conducted to determine whether or not, and why, learners with PMIs apply for enrolment in mainstream high schools. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die internasionale neiging is om te probeer verseker dat alle individue, en spesifiek die wat deel vorm van marginale groepe, soos mense met gestremdhede, se regte beskerm word. Toegang tot onderwys is een van dié regte. `n Inklusiewe onderwysstelsel kan help om die reg tot onderwys te verseker vir persone met gestremdhede, insluitend leerders met permanente mobliteitsgestremdhede. Die doel van die studie was om vas te stel watter uitdagings hoofstroom hoërskole in Oos-Londen voorsien of ervaar met die toelating van leerders met permanente mobiliteitsgestremdhede in die skole. Verder wou die navorser ook vasstel op grond waarvan leerlinge met permanent mobiliteitsgestremdhede in die skool toegelaat word al dan nie. `n Beskrywende, dwarssnitstudie was gedoen. Beide kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe navorsingsmetodes is gebruik om te verseker dat die doel van die studie ten volle aangespreek kon word. Die metode van ondersoek was deur opname-ondersoek behaal. Die studie was in Oos-Londen, in die Oos-Kaap Provinsie van Suid-Afrika gedoen. Die studiepopulasie het bestaan uit 21 hoofstroom, hoërskole in die stad. Geen steekproefneming was gedoen nie. Twaalf van die skole het toestemming verleen om aan die studie deel te neem. Data is ingesamel by die 12 skole (57%). Demografiese eienskappe van die skole het gewissel: daar was openbare en onafhanklike skole, Engels, Afrikaans, isiXhosa en tweetalige skole, enkelgeslag en gemengde skole, en skole met en skole sonder leerders met permanente mobiliteitsgestremdhede in stedelike of peri-stedelike Oos London. Data is ingesamel deur `n vraleys wat deur die deelnemers self voltooi was. Die vraelys is deur middel van e-pos of per hand by die skole afgelewer. Die studie het bevind dat daar vier leerders met permanente mobiliteitsgestremdhede in die deelnemende skole ingeskryf was. Die meerderheid van die deelnemende skole het geen aansoeke van leerders met permanente mobiliteitsgestremdhede ontvang nie. Volgens die deelnemende skole sal ontoeganklike infrastruktuur die grootste struikelblok veroorsaak met die toelating van leerders met permanente mobiliteitsgestremdhede. Voorts wou dit voorkom asof die fokus van skole nie op inklusiewe onderring was nie, maar eerder op die aanpassing van indivudele leerlinge by die hoofstroom.Die volgende aanbevelings uit die studie behoort te help om inklusiewe onderrigspraktyke te vestig in die studie skole: Toeganklikheidsoudits van die hoofstroom hoërskole, ontwikkeling van menslike hulpbronne, konsultasie met raadgewende dienste, die monitering van die implementering van die Onderwys-Witskrif 6, en globale veranderinge om persone met mobiliteitsgebreke te akkommodeer. Verder kan hierdie studie dien as 'n loodsstudie vir 'n soortgelyke provinsiale studie in die Oos-Kaap. Dié studie kan poog om die prevalensie van leerders met permanente mobiliteistgestremdhede van hoërskool-ouderdom in die provinsie te bepaal asook watter persentasie van die leerders in hoofstroom hoërskole is. Voorts kan die studie die perspektiewe van al die betrokke belanghebbendes bepaal. ‘n Studie kan ook gedoen word om te bepaal of leeders met permanente beperking in mobiliteit wel aansoek doen vir inskrywing in die hoofstroom hoërskole.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

It is commonly accepted that, prior to the rise of paediatric medicine as a formal medical specialisation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, medical care of children was primarily conducted by women in the context of the household. However, as this thesis argues, there was vibrant medical interest in children prior to the development of formalized paediatric medicine. Over the course of the eighteenth century, a network of medical practitioners interested in children’s health sought to establish their authority over the subject and, in doing so, devoted increased attention to children, channelling general medical interest into the basis for future medical specialisation. As this thesis argues, medical authority over children’s health was gradually constructed over the eighteenth century through printed texts, institutional experience, medical understandings of disease, and efforts to devise therapeutic practices suitable to children. Key to these developments were the efforts made by medical men to supplant women as authorities on children’s health. Also crucial was the role played by institutions in providing spaces for medical practitioners to encounter children. Institutions, such as the Dispensary for the Infant Poor and the London Foundling Hospital, increased the opportunities for medical practitioners to gain experience treating child patients. As this thesis demonstrates, it was the children of the poor who provided medical practitioners with the hands-on experience necessary to bolster their emerging claims of authority. As such, institutions and poor children both had essential roles to play in the development of medical interest in children, and the translation of that interest into claims of medical authority.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-212).

The subject of this dissertation is the Zoological Gardens of the Zoological Society of London (f. 1826) in the nineteenth century. Located in Regent s Park, it was the express purpose of the Gardens (f. 1828) to function as a testing-ground for acclimatisation and to demonstrate the scientific impor­tance of various animal species. The aim is to analyse what the Gardens signified as a recreational, educational and scientific institution in nineteenth-century London by considering them from four different perspectives: as a pan of a newly-founded society, as a part of the leisure culture of mid-Victorian London, as a medi­ator of popular zoology and as a constituent of the Zoological Society's scientific ambitions. After an introduction which describes the devlopment of European zoos, Chapter two recapitu­lates the early years of the Society and the Gardens. The original aims of the Society—science and acclimatisation located in a museum and zoological garden—as stated in various prospectuses, are examined. The implications of acclimatisation, it being a problematic practice, are outlined and the connections between acclimatisation, the Society, the Gardens and the British Empire are also briefly considered. The founding of the Gardens is extensively described as well as how the animals were obtained and how exhibits were arranged. Chapter three is based primarily on the popular response to the Gardens in the 1850s when, after a period of decline, the institution once again became a common London visiting-place. The most important questions of this chapter concern the public and how it reacted to the Gardens of this period. The financial problems preceding the five years between 1850 and 1855 ^ described as well as how the Society managed to regain its popularity. This process was closely linked to the decision in 1847to let non-members of the Society enter the Gardens, and the implications of this resolution are discussed. As a background to the Gardens' popularity, two other London recreations are also described: the Colosseum Panorama and the Surrey Zoological Garden. The Surrey Zoological Gar­den especially is interesting, as it was a rival of the Society's Gardens, and the different attractions of these establishments are considered. Chapter four focuses on the official and non-official guidebooks to the Gardens and the implica­tions of these as mediators of popular zoology. The historical and cultural connection between the guidebooks and travel handbooks is oudined and also how the genre as a whole is constructed. The progress and development of the Society's guidebooks during the nineteenth century is described and the differences between these guidebooks and the non-official ones are examined. Finally, with the aid of Victorian children's books, I argue that the guidebooks can literally be considered as travel handbooks since a visit to the Gardens may be regarded as a journey of knowledge. Chapter five is an in-depth study of the zoological science of the Gardens. The scientific work of the Society is briefly described, starting with the Committee of Science and Correspondence, and the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. The Proceedings reports that base their findings on animals in the Gardens are then described together with minor detours into the history of taxonomy and morphology. / digitalisering@umu

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-119).