<p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </p> <p align="left">The aim of this research project was to seek a reinterpretation of the Christian motif of' bearing one's cross'. This motif has been widely criticized by feminist theologians as an instrument that exacerbates the oppression of women, since it encourages self-sacrifice and in this way legitimizes abusive relationships.</p>

Original sin in economy literature is defined as the inability of countries to borrow in domestic currency from abroad (even from local markets with long maturities and fixed-rate). There are two dimensions of the problem, international and domestic. In this thesis, some of theories on determinants of international original sin phenomenon are investigated. The results suggest that absolute size of the economy is a significant determinant of the international original sin. Financial and economic development is also found to be necessary in order to redeem from the original sin problem. Existence of strong policies and institutions, monetary credibility, and flexible exchange rate regime are found as other significant factors in terms of explaining the phenomenon. Countries that faces credit market imperfections and poor contract enforcement more prone to original sin problem.

Nowadays, there is a debate about the possibility that sin stocks bring higher returns than other ones to the investors. This thesis is a case study on a mutual fund: The Vice Fund. This US fund has a specific investment strategy: it invests in sin stocks. We compared this mutual fund to The Timothy Fund because they have similar characteristics such as – date of inception, total assets, home country and investment universe, expect the investment strategy. Indeed, The Vice Fund invests in sin stocks and The Timothy Fund does not. Two benchmarks are also used in the study: the S&amp;P 500 Index as a domestic benchmark and the MSCI World Index as an international benchmark. This thesis is a case study using a deductive approach on a quantitative ground. The study is done on ten years long from 2003 to 2012. We divided the entire period into three different sub-periods depending of the S&amp;P 500 Index trend. The first and the last sub-periods are bullish and the second one is bearish. In order to analyse both the financial performances and the risks of The Vice Fund we use several tools. We calculated returns and risk-adjusted ratios: the Treynor’s ratio, the Sharpe’s ratio and the Jensen’s ratio. Because these ratios are less accurate in bearish markets, we calculated the normalized Sharpe ratio by doing linear regressions and we also calculated the modified Sharpe ratio. In order to perform these calculations, we used DataStream as a database to obtain prices and dividends for the two mutual funds and the prices for the two benchmarks. We got also the one-month T-bill to have a risk-free rate. We found that The Vice Fund had a better average returns performance whatever the market conditions over the period studied. However the difference between weekly results with The Timothy Plan Fund and the benchmarks is not statistically significant. The risk- adjusted ratios confirmed the superiority of the risk-adjusted financial performance of the sin fund.

Augustine of Hippo argues that all suffering is the result of the punishment of sin. Misinterpretations of his meaning are common since isolated statements taken from his works do give misleading and contradictory impressions. This dissertation assembles a comprehensive account of Augustine’s understanding of the causes of suffering to show that these views are substantive and internally consistent. The argument of the dissertation proceeds by confronting and resolving the apparent problems with Augustine’s views on sin and punishment from within the broader framework of his anthropology and metaphysics. The chief difficulty is that Augustine gives two apparently irreconcilable accounts of suffering as punishment. In the first, suffering is viewed as self-inflicted because sin is inherently self-damaging. In the second, God inflicts suffering in response to sin. This dissertation argues that these views are united by Augustine’s concern with the theme of ‘order.’ The first account, it argues, is actually an expression of Augustine’s doctrine that evil is the privation of good; since good is for Augustine synonymous with order, we can then see why he views all affliction as the concrete experience of disorder brought about by sin. This context in turn allows us to see that, by invoking the notion of divinely inflicted punishment in both its retributive and remedial forms, Augustine wants to show that disorder itself is embraced by order, either because disorder itself must obey laws, or because what is disordered can be reordered. In either case, Augustine’s ideas of punishment may be seen as an expression of his conviction that order in the universe is unassailable. It is hoped that these observations contribute to a greater appreciation not only of Augustine’s theory of punishment, but also of the extent to which the theme of order is fundamental to his thought.

Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka vilka tankar elever i år 6 har om sin framtid men också att ta reda på vad dessa elever anser är viktigt att lära sig i skolan inför framtiden samt att se vilken användning de finner för det de lär i skolan. Jag vill också se om det finns några skillnader mellan barnens tankar i två olika bostadsområden. Den litteraturstudie som ligger till grund för den empiriska undersökningen berör främst tidigare undersökningar som har gjorts inom ämnesområdet. Den empiriska undersökningen består av intervjuer med 21 barn från två skolor i olika bostadsområden. Intervjuerna har sedan analyserats ur ett kvalitativt perspektiv. Förutom redovisningen av alla intervjuer presenteras också fyra elevporträtt, vilka beskriver elevintervjuerna i sin helhet. Resultatet visar att eleverna är medvetna om sin framtid och att det är något de tänker på. Det visar också att eleverna i stor utsträckning finner användning för det de lär sig på olika sätt, främst i skolverksamheten. Resultatet visar också att eleverna är ganska eniga om vad de tror ärnyttigt att lära sig för framtiden och vad de anser mindre viktigt och användbart. Diskussionen och avslutningen tar upp tankar om vikten av att i skolan visar på kunskapernas nytta och användning både för elevernas nutida vardag och för deras framtid.

These poems represent the vanishing world of the South and that tale is perpetuated by a series of fathers and sons which often act as the narrators. Each father passes his knowledge of language, hunting, lore, loss, and even sins onto the sons who repeat the tradition. The voice and age of the narrators evolves from the heavily dialectical to a more educated and contemplative voice as the thesis progresses.

Augustine of Hippo argues that all suffering is the result of the punishment of sin. Misinterpretations of his meaning are common since isolated statements taken from his works do give misleading and contradictory impressions. This dissertation assembles a comprehensive account of Augustine’s understanding of the causes of suffering to show that these views are substantive and internally consistent. The argument of the dissertation proceeds by confronting and resolving the apparent problems with Augustine’s views on sin and punishment from within the broader framework of his anthropology and metaphysics. The chief difficulty is that Augustine gives two apparently irreconcilable accounts of suffering as punishment. In the first, suffering is viewed as self-inflicted because sin is inherently self-damaging. In the second, God inflicts suffering in response to sin. This dissertation argues that these views are united by Augustine’s concern with the theme of ‘order.’ The first account, it argues, is actually an expression of Augustine’s doctrine that evil is the privation of good; since good is for Augustine synonymous with order, we can then see why he views all affliction as the concrete experience of disorder brought about by sin. This context in turn allows us to see that, by invoking the notion of divinely inflicted punishment in both its retributive and remedial forms, Augustine wants to show that disorder itself is embraced by order, either because disorder itself must obey laws, or because what is disordered can be reordered. In either case, Augustine’s ideas of punishment may be seen as an expression of his conviction that order in the universe is unassailable. It is hoped that these observations contribute to a greater appreciation not only of Augustine’s theory of punishment, but also of the extent to which the theme of order is fundamental to his thought.

Investment decisions grounded in personal values and societal norms has seen a growth in the last decades, to a point where large institutional investors are abstaining from certain industries that share a specific characteristic altogether. The affiliation with sinful industries that promote human vice is not viewed as socially responsible in the eyes of the public, a reason why socially responsible investment funds that screen out these companies has experienced an increase in popularity. This study sets out to investigate the performance of American sin stocks in an attempt to increase the awareness of how these shunned industries has performed. While the existing literature provides evidence which proves sin stocks outperforms the market, we will provide further evidence concentrating on a mix of industries previously not focused on. Additionally we will extend the observation period beyond what has been done in the past. In this study, the definition of sin incorporates the industries of alcohol, defense, gambling and tobacco, and investigates the performance of a survivorship-free sample of 159 companies between July 1973 and June 2012. As performance measure, the four factor model is employed to capture any abnormal performance in relation to the market with three additional risk factors. In addition, we set out to investigate the performance of the different industries individually, to find if there is any that acts as a driver of the performance. Further, we look into the persistency of the performance over time. We find that the sample outperforms the market with 5.8% annually, and where the tobacco industry stands out with the highest abnormal return, the other industries grouped together still produce significant outperformance. The sinful index examined in this degree project has shown persistent performance, with no obvious trends of growth or decline. Unlike what has been found in previous research, the sample has shown a substantial difference in performance depending on the weighting scheme applied, not only individually for the industries, but also collectively.

En presente trabajo se estudian las condiciones de servicio, así como el proceso que ocurre al producirse la rotura del suelo en cargas rápidas sobre arcillas: a) Elaboración de un modelo elasto-plástico, en el cual se reproduzca la plastificación progresiva del material, definiendo un nuevo criterio de rotura que pueda incluir los factores más representativos del comportamiento de la arcilla, incluso la anisotropía y la heterogeneidad de la misma que no eran considerados anteriormente. b) Introducción de este modelo reológico en un nuevo modelo de elementos finitos. De entre las diferentes posibilidades se ha elegido un modelo híbrido en tensiones y deformaciones, para lo cual partiendo del principio variacional de REISSNER, se ha generalizado para estudiar la fase plástica. La discretización se ha efectuado con los elementos triangulares y cuadrangulares híbridos. c) Se aplica el modelo en una zapata en faja indefinida actuando sobre una capa de arcilla deformable sobre una base rocosa rígida con interfaz lisa, variándose todos los parámetros que en él intervienen y deducción de una serie de conclusiones sobre la influencia de los factores estudiados en el comportamiento de la arcilla. / In this paper we study the conditions of service, and the process that occurs at ground breaking in fast load on clays: a) Development of elastic-plastic model in which to play the pushover of the material, defining a new failure criterion which may include factors represent the behavior of the clay, including the anisotropy and heterogeneity of the same were not considered previously. b) Introduction of the rheological model in a new finite element model. Among the different possibilities we have chosen a hybrid model stresses and strains for which starting from the Reissner variational principle has been generalized to study the plastic phase. The discretization was made with triangular and quadrangular elements hybrids. c) Model was applied in a strip footing on indefinite acting on a layer of deformable clay on a rock hard smooth interface, by varying all the parameters involved in it and deduction of a number of conclusions about the influence of the factors studied the behavior of the clay.

En este trabajo se abordan dos problemas clásicos en el estudio de los anillos de endomorfismos. El problema de la caracterización, que relaciona propiedades de un anillos con el anillo de endomorfismos de ciertos objetos notables y el de la unicidad, que establece hasta qué grado el anillos base está determinado por el anillo de endomorfismos del objeto elegido.Las relaciones se establecen en términos del lenguaje de las categorías, y para ello, primero se desarrolla una versión de la teoría de Morita para el caso de los anillos sin uno