Magister Educationis - MEd / The use of contexts in school mathematics is receiving much attention both nationally and internationally. This as well as the scarcity of research focusing on the topic stimulated me to research the contexts preferred by learners of mathematics. The large-scale project is called the Relevance of School Mathematics Education (ROSME) project. The current study essentially deals with that section of the larger project which investigates the issues and situations that learners in grades eight, nine and ten would prefer to deal with in mathematics. Broadly, this study focuses on the contexts preferred by grade 8, 9 and 10 learners as a domain in which to embed school mathematics. / South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis was based on a larger international comparative study called the ROSE (Relevance of Science Education) project. The study investigated the affective factors pupils perceive might be of relevance for the learning of science and technology using the ROSE survey questionnaire, and was aimed at providing data that might form part of an empirical basis for local adaptation of the science curriculum. / South Africa

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La notion de contrat préparatoire est étudiée en tant que telle dans cette étude, plus que les contrats préparatoires individuellement. L’objectif était de découvrir la légitimité de la notion de contrat préparatoire. La notion de contrat préparatoire est une notion née de la doctrine, enrichie par la pratique, délaissée par la jurisprudence et inexistante dans le cadre de la loi. Ceci étant, la notion existe. Son identification n’est pas aisée. Elle est parfois assimilée à d’autres notions existantes telles que celle d’avant-contrat, parfois opposée à ces mêmes notions. Les contours de la notion de contrat préparatoire sont flous pour la doctrine, très partagée. Définir des critères d’identification négatifs et positifs est une tâche complexe tant les contrats préparatoires diffèrent selon la conception que l’on en a. Des critères ont été dégagés. La notion de contrat préparatoire recouvre l’ensemble des contrats ayant pour objet la préparation de la conclusion du contrat définitif. Prise ainsi, la définition semble large et permet d’inclure un grand nombre de contrats. L’étude de la pertinence de la notion de contrat préparatoire aboutit toutefois à une réduction drastique de ce qu’est la notion. L’absence de régime commun propre à la catégorie que pourrait être la notion de contrat préparatoire nous conduit à réduire sa pertinence à un usage pratique et pédagogique, la notion n’étant point pertinente en tant que telle. Tel est le cas tout au moins jusqu’à la prochaine réforme du droit des contrats qui pourrait créer un régime commun de sanction des contrats préparatoires propre à dégager des critères effectifs de la notion. / The concept of preparatory contract is considered as itself in this work, more than preparatory contracts separately. The objective was to discover the legitimacy of the concept of preparatory contract. The concept of preparatory contract is a concept born to the doctrine, enriched by practice, neglected by the courts and non-existent under the law. Whereas, the concept exists. His identification is not easy. It is sometimes equated with other existing concepts such as pre-contract, sometimes opposed to those concepts. The determination of the concept of preparatory contract is unclear for very divided doctrine. Define negative and positive identification criteria is a complex task when the preparatory contracts differ so much depending on the conception that we have. Criteria have been cleared, the notion of preparatory contract covers all contracts relating to the preparation of the conclusion of the final contract. Taken like that, the definition seems wide and is used to include a large number of contracts. Only the study of the relevance of the concept of preparatory contract eventually leads to a drastic reduction of what the concept is. The lack of clean common system to the category could be the notion of preparatory contract leads us reduce its relevance to practical and educational purposes, the notion being legally relevant points ; until the next implementation of the reform of contract law which could create a common system of punishment of preparatory own contracts to generate effective criteria of the concept .

Relevance has been applied to various conditions in the marketing literature but no single definition has been developed. A single clear definition will be helpful to researchers investigating relevance in the marketing and consumer behavior fields. Confusion also exists in the literature regarding to what extent a symbolic visual in an advertisement is relevant. Many researchers are also calling for empirical evidence of a linkage between relevance and response through a theoretical measure of relevance. The central theory used in this dissertation is Sperber and Wilson's (1995) theory of relevance (TOR). TOR can help researchers and marketing managers by explaining how consumers may interpret visuals in advertising. TOR explains why some visuals thought to be unconnected with the product become relevant in advertising. This study makes the assertion that TOR has been underutilized and even ignored by some researchers in past marketing literature. Thus, TOR is used to provide greater explanatory power of consumers' interpretation and response to advertising visuals than what is currently realized by researchers and marketing managers. A reliable measure of relevance was developed using TOR as a foundation. Experiments were conducted to empirically test TOR and support was found for most aspects of the theory. This dissertation makes several contributions to the consumer behavior literature. These contributions include: 1) clarifying the definition of relevance in advertising, 2) developing a tentative measure of relevance, 3) providing an explanation of how non-relevant visuals produce effects expected for relevant visuals as occurred in experiments conducted by Mitchell and Olson (1981) and Miniard, Bhatla, Lord, Dickson and Unnava (1991), 4) showing how relevance of symbolic visuals in advertisements relates to specific consumer responses, and 5) offering suggestions for how the theory of relevance can be used by researchers and marketing managers to gain a better understanding of consumers' interpretation of advertising visuals.

A relevância da informação contábil está na capacidade de uma informação fazer a diferença na tomada de decisão dos usuários da contabilidade, em razão da alteração de suas expectativas quanto ao desempenho das entidades. Os investidores e credores tomam suas decisões fundamentadas na contabilidade com um objetivo em comum: o provimento de capital. Nesse contexto, as decisões desses usuários são a negociação de ativos ou ações das empresas pelos investidores, refletida nos movimentos do preço das ações, e a concessão de crédito às empresas pelos credores, refletida no financiamento obtido pelas empresas tomadoras de crédito. Os mecanismos de proteção adotados por esses usuários (BURKART; GROMB; PANUZI AL, 1997; STRAHAN, 1999; BEBCHUK; KRAAKMAN; TRIANTIS, 2000; NIKOLAEV, 2010; ARMSTRONG; GUAY; WEBER, 2010) e suas diferentes necessidades informacionais (HEALY; PAPELU, 2001; BALL; ROBIN; SADKA, 2008; PEEK; CUIJPERS; BUIJINK, 2010), assim como a função intrínseca dos modelos de VR (value relevance) e CR (credit relevance) trouxe a premissa de que as informações contábeis utilizadas por esses dois agentes econômicos são diferentes em suas decisões de provimento de capital. Os dados contábeis relevantes são em grande parte evidenciados para os investidores nos estudos de VR (DEVALLE; ONALLI; MAGARINI, 2010; CLARKSON et al., 2011; TSALAVOUTAS; DIONYSIOU, 2014; BARTH et al, 2014; CLOULT; FALTA; WILLETT, 2016). No entanto, há poucas evidências a respeito da relevância contábil para os credores (HOLTHAUSEN; WATTS, 2001; FLOROU; KOSI, 2015), sendo que o mercado de crédito corresponde a uma fonte de recursos substancial para as empresas (BEIRUTH, 2015; BEIRUTH et al., 2017). Os estudos de CR (HANN; LU; SUBRAMANYAM, 2007; KOSI; POPE; FLOROU, 2010; WU; ZHANG, 2014) atestaram que as informações contábeis úteis para a estimativa do risco de crédito são relevantes para os credores e impactam a decisão dos analistas de agências de classificação de risco. Assim, a partir da premissa subjacente de que as informações contábeis para credores e investidores são diferentes, o objetivo geral da pesquisa foi verificar se as informações contábeis relevantes são diferentes para os credores e para os investidores em suas decisões de provimento de capital. Os objetivos específicos foram identificar se as informações contábeis são menos relevantes para os credores por empréstimos na condição de maior risco informacional (menor enforcement) e se são mais relevantes nas situações de maior risco de crédito (maior alavancagem e baixa classificação dos ratings de crédito). A análise contemplou as empresas de 25 países no período de 2010 a 2015, com a aplicação do modelo de VR e do modelo proposto para o credor por empréstimo (VCR). Os resultados indicaram que todas as informações foram relevantes para os investidores, porém nem todas foram relevantes para os credores. Esta evidência significa que os modelos de decisão desses dois grupos de usuários são diferentes entre si. Na decisão do credor para o provimento de capital, as informações contábeis foram menos relevantes na condição de risco informacional, enquanto, nas condições de maior risco de crédito, essas informações foram mais relevantes. / The relevance of accounting information lies in the ability of information affecting the decision-making of accounting users, due to the change of their expectations for the performance of entities. Investors and creditors make their decisions based on accounting with one common goal: the provision of capital. In this context, decisions of these users are the trading of companies\' assets or shares by investors, reflected in the stock price movements, and the granting of credit to the companies by creditors, reflected in the financing obtained by borrowers. Protection mechanisms adopted by these users (BURKART; GROMB; PANUZI AL, 1997; STRAHAN, 1999; BEBCHUK; KRAAKMAN; TRIANTIS, 2000; NIKOLAEV, 2010; ARMSTRONG; GUAY; WEBER, 2010) and their differing informational requirements (HEALY; PAPELU, 2001; BALL; ROBIN; SADKA, 2008; PEEK; CUIJPERS; BUIJINK, 2010), as well as the intrinsic function of VR models (value relevance) and CR models (credit relevance) brought the premise that accounting information used by these two economic agents are different in their decisions of capital provision. The relevant accounting data are largely highlighted for investors in the studies of VR (DEVALLE; ONALLI; MAGARINI, 2010; CLARKSON ET AL, 2011; TSALAVOUTAS; DIONYSIOU, 2014; BARTH et al., 2014; CLOULT; WILLETT, 2016). However, there is little evidence regarding accounting relevance for creditors (HOLTHAUSEN; WATTS, 2001; FLOROU; KOSI, 2015), since the credit market corresponds to a source of substantial resources for businesses (BEIRUTH, 2015; BEIRUTH et al., 2017). CR studies (HANN; LU; SUBRAMANYAM, 2007; KOSI; POPE; FLOROU, 2010; WU; ZHANG, 2014) attested that useful accounting information for the estimation of credit risk are relevant for creditors and impact the decision of the analysts of credit rating agencies. So, from the underlying premise that accounting information to creditors and investors are different, the general objective of this research was to verify if relevant accounting information is different for creditors and investors in their provision of capital decisions. The specific objectives were to identify whether accounting information are less relevant for creditors by loans in higher-risk informational condition (lowest enforcement) and if they are more relevant in situations of higher credit risk (greater leverage and low ranking of credit ratings). The analysis included companies from 25 countries in the period from 2010 to 2015, with the application of the VR model and of the proposed model to the creditor by loan (VCR). The results indicated that all information were relevant for investors, although not all were relevant for creditors. This evidence means that the decision models for these two groups are different from each other. In the creditor\'s decision of credit granting, accounting information were less relevant under informational risk condition, while under higher credit risk this information were more relevant.

The diploma thesis is focused on reporting of intangible assets according to Czech accounting legislation and International Financial Reporting Standards. Based on the comparison of intangible assets reporting, the impact of the differences on the financial situation of selected business units operating in the energy industry is mentioned. It contains a proposal for a procedure to assess the relevance of displayed information about intangible assets to selected groups of users of financial statements.

The theft and exfiltration of sensitive data (e.g., state secrets, trade secrets, company records, etc.) represent one of the most damaging threats that can be carried out by malicious insiders against institutions and organizations because this could seriously diminish the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the organization’s data. Data protection and insider threat detection and prevention are significant steps for any organization to enhance its internal security. In the last decade, data loss prevention (DLP) has emerged as one of the key mechanisms currently used by organizations to detect and block unauthorized data transfer from the organization perimeter. However, existing DLP approaches face several practical challenges, such as their relatively low accuracy that in turn affects their prevention capability. Also, current DLP approaches are ineffective in handling unstructured data or searching and comparing content semantically when confronted with evasion tactics where sensitive content is rewritten without changing its semantic. In the current dissertation, we present a new DLP model that tracks sensitive data using a summarized version of the content semantic called document semantic signature (DSS). The DSS can be updated dynamically as the protected content change and it is resilient against evasion tactics, such as content rewriting. We use domain specific ontologies to capture content semantics and track conceptual similarity and relevancy using adequate metrics to identify data leak from sensitive documents. The evaluation of the DSS model on two public datasets of different domain of interests achieved very encouraging results in terms of detection effectiveness. / Graduate

Magister Legum - LLM / Global climate change is a serious, severe, and potentially irreversible problem. If no actions are taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures and sea levels will rise, wreaking havoc on earth, particularly in developing countries. The Stockholm Declaration of 1972 facilitated the first international consensus concerning the application of CBDR to international environmental problems. This was in reaction to the developing countries refusal to adhere to the same standards as the developed countries as they perceived this as a burden to their economic growth, which is unjust due to the developed countries historical culpability.

The European Union is proposing that the additional protection for geographical indications afforded to wine and spirits in section 23.1 of the TRIPS agreement be extended to include geographical indications of other agricultural products. Those opposing increased protection for geographical indications represent those countries which do not have a strong history of traditional food products and are generally considered new world countries. South Africa, as part of the new world, has as of yet failed to take a position on the matter. In light of this debate, this study sets out to investigate the relevance of geographical indications in a South African context in order to make recommendations for South Africa’s position in the debate at multi-lateral level. The topic is approached by first contextualizing the subject matter where after the economic rationale for the protection thereof is explored. A comprehensive literature study identifies the factors which contribute to a product’s potential to benefit from geographical indication protection. Based on these factors, three South African products, Rooibos, Klein Karoo ostrich and Honeybush, are analyzed and an ex ante judgment made as to their potential to benefit from geographical indication protection. It is hypothesized that geographical indications are indeed relevant in a South African context given that there are many South African products which are considered to be highly localized with a strong association between the region and the product. The Rooibos scenario is used to illustrate the need for timely protection of our national assets and sets the tone for the discussion of the two further case studies. It is found that despite widespread reputation, Klein Karoo ostrich may not ideally benefit from geographical indication protection given its lack of specificity. In contrast, it is found that Honeybush tea is a highly localised product with strong specificity and therefore stands to benefit from geographical indication protection. The study concludes that there are indeed South African products which could potentially benefit from geographical indication protection. Based on this, recommendations are made for South Africa’s position in the debate at multi-lateral level. It is recommended that the South African government take note of the potential of geographical indications to foster rural development and the need to protect our national assets from foreign appropriation. It is further recommended that this be done by firstly coming out in support of the European proposal for a mandatory system of registration for all products bearing a geographical indication and secondly, by providing for the development of an institutional framework within which to protect geographical indications domestically. / Dissertation (M.COM (Economic Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted