Meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI) is an essential epigenetic process, which transcriptionally silences X and Y chromosomes during spermatogenesis. It is accompanied by substantial chromatin remodeling resulting in a formation of so called sex or XY body, which is a characteristic of male pachytene spermatocytes. In spite of MSCI indispensability for male fertility, its biological role and molecular nature still remain rather unclear. However, the described link between chromosomal asynapsis and transcriptional silencing demonstrated that MSCI is tightly associated with the asynapsis of largely non-homologous sex chromosomes and is a specific form of more general mechanism called meiotic silencing of unsynapsed chromatin (MSUC). The essential role of MSCI was demonstrated using mouse models, such as carriers of X- autosome translocations, where anomalous synapsis of sex chromosomes leads to impairment of MSCI and male sterility. Intriguingly, the exclusive spermatogenic arrest is a hallmark of not only X-autosome translocations but even various autosomal rearrangements, including autosomal translocations, inversions, or other structural mutations. Because the rearranged autosomes often intimately associate with the sex body, it...

Notre étude essaye de décrire comment les interactions entre la RSE et la performance financière sont influencées en se basant sur la théorie du management par les ressources et la vision instrumentale de la théorie des parties prenantes tout en considérant la RSE comme un bien public qui s’inscrit dans le prolongement des logiques d’intérêt général et qui contribue à la maximisation du bien-être collectif. Nous testons le rôle de la réputation de l’entreprise dans la relation de la performance sociétale vers la performance financière. Empiriquement, nous utilisons des données de panel de 7 ans (2006-2012) pour 324 entreprises états-uniennes. La performance sociétale est mesurée selon des critères de performance ESG (environnementale, sociale et de gouvernance) par l’agence de notation extra-financière MSCI. En ce qui concerne la performance financière, nous utilisons une mesure boursière (le Q de Tobin) et une mesure comptable (ROE). Les résultats montrent l’existence d’une relation qui a la forme d’un cercle vertueux entre la performance sociétale et la performance financière avec la mesure boursière de la performance financière. Quant à la réputation, l’étude montre qu’elle a un impact significatif sur la relation de la performance sociétale vers la performance financière. Les résultats soulignent aussi que la relation positive significative de la performance sociétale vers la performance financière se retrouve notamment au niveau de la performance sociale et de la performance de gouvernance de la performance sociétale de l’entreprise. Notre étude désigne la performance de gouvernance et la performance environnementale comme des performances qui peuvent influencer la réputation de l’entreprise. / Our study seeks to describe how the interactions between CSR and financial performance are affected based on the theory of resource-based view (RBV) and the instrumental view of stakeholder theory while considering CSR as a public good which constitutes a coherent extension of the general interest and which contributes to the maximization of social well-being. We are testing the role of corporate reputation concerning the relationship of CSR to financial performance. Empirically, we use panel data of 7 years (2006-2012) for 324 US companies. CSR is measured according to ESG performance criteria (environmental, social and governance) by the MSCI Extra-Financial Rating Agency. Regarding the financial performance, we use a market measure (Tobin's Q) and an accounting measure (ROE). The results emphasize the existence of a relation that has the shape of a virtuous circle between CSR and financial performance with the market measure of financial performance. As for reputation, the present study shows that it has a significant impact on the relation of CSR to financial performance. The results also emphasize that the significant positive relationship of CSR to financial performance can be found particularly in social performance and governance performance. Our study indicates the governance and environmental performances likewise the performance which can influence the reputation of the company.

Purpose: Aims of this paper is to evaluate a comparative study between China and Russia funds in respect of the risks and returns. We also want to examine what has affected the funds in their respective domestic stock market.                                                             Method: The study is based on qualitative methodology to complement the quantitative survey by first gathering of secondary data from Morningstar, and fund manager´s stories on fund and banking companies' websites.  Primary data is conducted by the interview with fund manager. The sample consists of all land funds for China and Russia has found more than 10 years on the stock market. Results and Conclusion: The survey shows that China funds will generate better in decline than Russia Funds in both return and risk-adjusted Sharpe ratio. Because the China funds had better risk diversification and its holdings spread across different industry area while Russia funds is more directed towards oil and gas industry. The upturn managed Russia Funds better to recovery than China Funds in terms of return and risk-adjusted Sharpe ratio, which was due to China funds were cautiously optimistic, with the government's stimulus package, while Russia Funds earned at the price of oil in the world increased and a greater willingness to take risks of the global financial system. During the 10 years period, Russia funds better growth compared to China Funds in the total seen by far. For Russia have large oil resources and raw materials including exporting to the fast growing Asian. In China, due to good growth in the consumption good and growing middle class in the country, but also increased projects in financial and infrastructure.

<p><strong>Purpose:</strong> Aims of this paper is to evaluate a comparative study between China and Russia funds in respect of the risks and returns. We also want to examine what has affected the funds in their respective domestic stock market.                                                            </p><p><strong>Method:</strong> The study is based on qualitative methodology to complement the quantitative survey by first gathering of secondary data from Morningstar, and fund manager´s stories on fund and banking companies' websites.  Primary data is conducted by the interview with fund manager. The sample consists of all land funds for China and Russia has found more than 10 years on the stock market.</p><p><strong>R</strong><strong>esults and Conclusion</strong>: The survey shows that China funds will generate better in decline than Russia Funds in both return and risk-adjusted Sharpe ratio. Because the China funds had better risk diversification and its holdings spread across different industry area while Russia funds is more directed towards oil and gas industry. The upturn managed Russia Funds better to recovery than China Funds in terms of return and risk-adjusted Sharpe ratio, which was due to China funds were cautiously optimistic, with the government's stimulus package, while Russia Funds earned at the price of oil in the world increased and a greater willingness to take risks of the global financial system. During the 10 years period, Russia funds better growth compared to China Funds in the total seen by far. For Russia have large oil resources and raw materials including exporting to the fast growing Asian. In China, due to good growth in the consumption good and growing middle class in the country, but also increased projects in financial and infrastructure.</p>

The Turtle Trading Rules was a successful trend-following trading strategy for commodities in the 1980s but has lost recognition in recent days. The strategy revolved around rules for entering and exiting trades as well as position sizing for each trade. The rules was based on the fundamental aim to capture market trends while at the same time maintaining a controlled risk exposure. This thesis aims to revise the Turtle Trading Rules, here applied on major market indexes, and to examine its viability through different financial metrics. This is done by first implementing the aforementioned trading strategy to the indexes, and later by synthesizing market data through Geometric Brownian Motions. The latter primarily to examine how the strategy perform in different financial environments, what market traits favor the strategy, and to complement the previous examination without altering the core principles of the Turtle Trading Rules. The results suggest that the revised rules for major market indexes is not viable. This because of the poor return, the highest achieved 20-year return and average annual return was 25.1 % and 1.4% respectively (without taking trading fees into account). Furthermore, the strategy applied on synthetic data suggests that favorable traits are highly cyclical data with low volatility, which seldom is the case for real financial time series. The results further indicate that the main issue lies in the rules not being able to distinguish noise from actual entry and exit triggers. Moreover, the drawdown further suggest that it is the exit rather than the entry rules that are to blame for the poor performance during the cycle of a trade. / Turtle Trading-reglerna var en framgångsrik trendföljande handelsstrategi för råvaror på 1980- talet men har sedan dess tappat i populäritet. Strategin kretsade kring regler för inträde och utträde ur ordrar samt kring positionsstorleken för varje order. Reglerna byggde på det grundläggande syftet att fånga marknadstrender och samtidigt upprätthålla en kontrollerad riskexponering. Den här avhandlingen syftar till att revidera Turtle Trading-reglerna, som här tillämpas på utvalda marknadsindex, och att undersöka dess lönsamhet genom olika finansiella mått. Detta görs genom att först implementera den tidigare nämnda handelsstrategin till indexen, och senare genom att syntetisera marknadsdata genom geometriska brownska rörelser (Geometric Brownian Motions). Det senare för att i första hand undersöka hur strategin fungerar i olika finansiella miljöer, vilka marknadsdrag som gynnar strategin, och för att komplettera den tidigare granskningen utan att ändra grundprinciperna i Turtle Trading-reglerna. Resultaten tyder på att de reviderade reglerna för marknadsindexen inte är tillräckligt lönsamma. Detta på grund av den låga avkastningen, den högst observerade 20-årsavkastningen och den genomsnittliga årliga avkastningen var 25,1 % respektive 1,4% (utan hänsyn till handelsavgifter). Dessutom antyds när strategin tillämpas på syntetiska data att tydliga cykliska variationer samt låg volatilitet är fördelaktiga egenskaper, vilket sällan är fallet för reella finansiella tidsserier. Resultatet indikerade vidare att grundproblemet ligger i att reglerna inte kan skilja brus i datan från faktiska inträde och exit triggers. Dessutom tyder drawdown-graferna på att det är exit snarare än inträdesreglerna som är orsaken till det dåliga resultatet i utförandet av köp- och säljprocessen.

<p> </p><p><strong>Bakgrund och problem: </strong>Den svenska börsutvecklingen har de senaste 10 åren haft stora svängningar, varav två höga toppar och två bottnar. Fonderna som följer börsutvecklingen har olika fondkaraktär i avseende om risker och avkastningar. Trots många turbulenta år i världen, fortsätter fondspararna i Sverige att investera i fonder som blivit allt populärare som investeringsalternativ. Men vilken Sverige- eller Rysslandsfond har gått bäst under perioderna?</p><p><strong>Syfte: </strong>Syftet är att utvärdera Sverige- och Rysslandsfonder under två perioder där börsen stiger samt två perioder då börsen sjunker med hjälp av utvärderingsmått.</p><p><strong>Avgränsning: </strong>Avgränsning utförs genom att välja de fyra största Rysslandsfonderna respektive Sverigefonderna. Genom dessa kommer vi att följa upp och jämföra med den svenska aktiemarknaden under tio år, uppdelade i fyra delperioder.</p><p><strong>Metod: </strong>Undersökningen gjordes med kvantitativ metod för att samla in hård data från Morningstar och sedan beräkna utifrån de teorier och prestandamått som finns.</p><p><strong>Resultat och slutsats: </strong>Utifrån de riskjusterade måtten har de svenska fonderna gått bättre i tre av fyra perioder. Dels på grund av att Sverigefonderna haft lägre avkastning men också lägre risk vilket har givit bättre riskjusterade resultat i jämförelse med de ryska fonderna som haft höga avkastningar och höga risker. Under den andra perioden hade Rysslandsfonderna bättre riskjusterade resultat. Detta betyder inte att Sverigefonderna har generat högre monetära värden utan snarare haft bättre avkastning givet den risk som investeraren tagit.</p><p> </p>

Bakgrund och problem: Den svenska börsutvecklingen har de senaste 10 åren haft stora svängningar, varav två höga toppar och två bottnar. Fonderna som följer börsutvecklingen har olika fondkaraktär i avseende om risker och avkastningar. Trots många turbulenta år i världen, fortsätter fondspararna i Sverige att investera i fonder som blivit allt populärare som investeringsalternativ. Men vilken Sverige- eller Rysslandsfond har gått bäst under perioderna? Syfte: Syftet är att utvärdera Sverige- och Rysslandsfonder under två perioder där börsen stiger samt två perioder då börsen sjunker med hjälp av utvärderingsmått. Avgränsning: Avgränsning utförs genom att välja de fyra största Rysslandsfonderna respektive Sverigefonderna. Genom dessa kommer vi att följa upp och jämföra med den svenska aktiemarknaden under tio år, uppdelade i fyra delperioder. Metod: Undersökningen gjordes med kvantitativ metod för att samla in hård data från Morningstar och sedan beräkna utifrån de teorier och prestandamått som finns. Resultat och slutsats: Utifrån de riskjusterade måtten har de svenska fonderna gått bättre i tre av fyra perioder. Dels på grund av att Sverigefonderna haft lägre avkastning men också lägre risk vilket har givit bättre riskjusterade resultat i jämförelse med de ryska fonderna som haft höga avkastningar och höga risker. Under den andra perioden hade Rysslandsfonderna bättre riskjusterade resultat. Detta betyder inte att Sverigefonderna har generat högre monetära värden utan snarare haft bättre avkastning givet den risk som investeraren tagit.

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Environmental, Social and Governance measurements have significantly increased in usage due to growing concerns for environmental and sustainability problems in today’s world. However, with no commonly agreed-upon criteria for ESG ratings, the scoring measure creates confusion both at the investor and company level. Besides, ESG agencies have different processes and parameters for measuring ESG compliance, which contributes to the problem. The study examines four ESG rating agencies’ rating models and ESG scores to get a better understanding of deviations in ESG scores among Nordic companies. By also studying the correlation amongst ESG scores and market capitalizations in firms, the paper hopes to shed light on if any relationships exist between them. Our results show that the four major ESG raters in the study showed a weak to a non-significant correlation against each other. The maximum correlation found was 0.419 between Thomson Reuters and MSCI. RobecoSAM and MSCI showed the lowest significant correlation at 0.291. Sustainalytics was detected not to show any significant correlation with the other raters. Correlation among market capitalization and ESG Raters was detected to not correlate to a greater extent. Only one ESG rater, RobecoSAM, showed a significant size to score-correlation at 0.278 with market capitalization. Thus, market capitalization does not seem to have any significant influence on ESG agencies’ decisions to set scores. Précising the study’s findings, the raters’ methods deviate from one another, but also how ESG raters make use of underlying factors.

This dissertation studies the reaction of trading behavior of investors, especially institutional investors, to the public information in Taiwan. Two kinds of public information are chosen in this dissertation. One is open-ending closed-end funds under the regulation set up by Taiwan authority. The other is the change of stocks in MSCI Taiwan Index that is decided by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), a well-known foreign institution in constructing various indices. Consistent with earlier studies using U.S. data, our results show that open-ending is a wealth-enhancing event for shareholders. We also provide evidence of the existence of noise traders in the closed-end fund market. The evidence is derived from the trading behavior of domestic institutional investors and small individual investors, who ignore price discounts when open-ending is imminent. The trading by noise traders impedes price adjustments to the discounts, and provides profit opportunities to arbitragers. Furthermore, we show that foreign investors gain considerable wealth, largely at the expense of domestic institutional investors and small individual investors, in the open-ending process. On average, their gains account for 30% of the total gains associated with open-ending, or NT$562 millions per case. On the issue of the change of stocks in MSCI Taiwan Index, we find that MSCI prefers to select the securities with good performance, high liquidity, and large firm size into MSCI Taiwan Index while tends to drop the securities with poor performance, lower liquidity, and small firm size from MSCI Taiwan Index. Besides, consistent with the previous studies, prices increase (decrease) significantly for stocks added to (deleted from) the MSCI Taiwan Index after the announcement date. As well as the deletions, the price decreases for unchanging stocks after the announcement date. However, there is no evidence to find that foreign investors have information advantage in MSCI news over domestic investors. Foreign investors increase (decrease) their holdings on stocks included in (excluded from) the MSCI Taiwan Index after the announcement date. Moreover, price pressure hypothesis is not supported. Visibility hypothesis, information content hypothesis, downward sloping demand curves hypothesis are supported. Finally, for additions and deletions, the market-adjusted returns are driven by the contemporaneous excess buy of foreign investors and the contemporaneous excess sells of domestic corporations and individuals.