本論文分為兩部分，第一部份探討日經225和摩根台指成分股調整的價格變動效果。第二部份則是探討分析師對於股票被納入日經225和摩根台指的盈餘預測反應和絕對預測誤差。 / Two essays are comprised in this dissertation to examine the effects of changes in price and the analyst responses of earnings forecasts to stocks Indices adjustments. Stock markets vary in nature from one country to another and the characteristic of stock index adjustments also alter significantly. The analytical results can provide better information for investors and management to make better decisions. In the first essay, we examine price effects associated with changes in the composition of the Nikkei 225 Index and MSCI Taiwan Index. The analytical results show the price effects on stocks experiencing adjustments in the Nikkei 225 Index are consistent with the price pressure hypothesis. The price effects of composite stocks changed for the MSCI Taiwan Index are consistent with the downward sloping demand curve hypothesis. Based on classifying the characteristics of composite stocks into three categories, we find that large-scale added stocks dominate the price trend of the whole added sample in the Nikkei 225 Index. Also, added stocks with upwards revision earnings forecasts make more abnormal returns than the added stocks with downwards revision earnings forecasts in the Nikkei 225 Index during the post-announcement period. The electronic stocks earn larger abnormal returns than non-electronic stocks in the MSCI Taiwan Index. That can enable investors to profit by buying electronic stocks and added stocks with upwards revision earnings forecasts. The price reactions for the composite stocks in the Nikkei 225 Index and MSCI Taiwan Index around the Internet bubble burst have significantly difference. In the second essay, we study the earnings forecast changes and absolute forecast errors made by analysts of the Nikkei 225 Index and MSCI Taiwan Index. Depending on the properties of brokerage firms that analysts work for, we divide them into local analysts and foreign analysts to separate who are more accurate than one the other. The results show that in comparison with the matching firms in Japan, the magnitudes of mean forecast revisions and absolute forecast errors are smaller made by analysts focusing on firms newly added to the Nikkei 225 Index. For firms newly added to the MSCI Taiwan Index, the magnitude of changes in analysts EPS forecasts do not differ clearly from those of their peer groups. Absolute forecast errors made by analysts focusing on firms newly added to the MSCI Taiwan Index are smaller than those made by analysts focusing on the matching firms. This phenomenon demonstrates firms that are newly added to the Nikkei 225 Index and MSCI Taiwan index exhibit significantly improved performance. In terms of the relative accuracy of local and foreign analysts, the results display that the forecasts of foreign analysts are less accurate than those of local analysts in Japan and the forecasts of foreign analysts are more accurate than those of local analysts in Taiwan.

Östersjön har alltid varit en viktig knutpunkt för de länder som angränsar dit för att göra det möjligt att handla med varandra och på så sätt skapa en internationell marknad sinsemellan varandra. Under 1700-1800-talet tog produktionen fart och tack vare merkantilismen utvecklades den internationella handeln. För att fastställa deras växelkurs har många länder använt sig av olika myntfot såsom till exempel guldmyntfoten där valutans värde bestämdes utifrån värdet på motsvarande mängd guld vilket innebär att växelkurserna var fasta. Utifrån guldmyntfoten utvecklades teorierna lagen om ett pris och köpkraftsparitet med principerna om att en enhet valuta ska ha samma köpkraft även i andra länder vilket innebär att en vara ska kunna köpas för samma mängd av valutan oavsett om det är inrikes eller utrikes. Dessa teorier har studerats flertalet gånger, både för kort och lång sikt, med fåtalet länder till ett större antal. Denna studie använder sig av teoriernas grundidé och testar huruvida PPP i dess absoluta samt relativa form håller för Östersjöns handelsområde. För att kunna testa detta har två ekonometriska tester av de variabler som används gjorts, stationäritetstest och kointegrationstest. Stationäritetstestet visade att alla variabler förutom de tidsserier som användes för att testa relativ PPP led av icke-stationäritet och därmed behövdes differentieras för att kunna användas för att testa PPP. Kointegrationstestet visade att ingen av tidsserierna led av kointegration vilket medförde att vidare korrigeringsmodeller ej behövdes göras. Resultatet från de ekonometriska skattningarna visade på att absolut och relativ PPP ej kunde bekräftas, ej heller förnekas, då inga signifikanta koefficienter kunde konstateras. Vid testandet av real växelkurs för relativ PPP gavs signifikanta tidsserier men ej i enlighet med nollhypotesen och därmed förkastades nollhypotesen om att relativ PPP håller. Utifrån resultatet dras slutsatsen att PPP ej kan bekräftas utan att vidare studier måste göras. / The Baltic sea has always been an important transit hub for neighboring countries and the sea have made ​​it possible for the countries to trade with each other and thus create an international trade among themselves to each other. During 1700-1800's, the production took off and because of the mercantilism international trade developed. To establish their exchange rate, many countries have followed different standards, such as the gold standard where the currency's value was determined from the value of the corresponding quantity of gold which implies that the exchange rates were fixed. Based on the gold standard different theories was developed, such as the law of one price and purchasing power parity with the principles that a single currency will have the same purchasing power in other countries, which implies that a commodity should be bought for the same amount of currency, whether it is domestic or foreign. These theories have been studied several times, both for the short and long term, with the few countries to a greater number. In order to test this, two econometric tests of the variables were made​​, stationarity test and cointegration test. The stationarity test showed that all variables except the time series that was used to test relative PPP suffered from non-stationarity and therefore needed to be differentiated to be used to test the PPP. The cointegration test showed that no one of the time series suffered of cointegration and therefore further correction models was not needed to be done. The results from the econometric estimates showed that absolute and relative PPP could not be confirmed, nor denied, since no significant coefficients were identified. In the testing of real exchange rate for relative PPP significant time series were given but not in accordance with the nullhypothesis and therefore the null hypothesis is rejected that the relative PPP holds. From the results it is concluded that the PPP cannot be confirmed without that further studies must be done.

本研究的目的主要為探討學生在解決絕對值相關題目時所遇到的困難，進而瞭解學生在解此類問題時出現錯誤之原因，希望研究的結果能夠提供教師作為補救教學或改進教學策略的依據，增進教學成效，並作為未來教學及研究的參考。 　　本研究採調查法，並輔之以訪談蒐集資料。第一階段為問卷調查，經由對絕對值相關概念作文獻探討，以及與多位數學教師討論之後，研究者以自編之絕對值相關概念試題本進行施測，藉此瞭解學生在各向度的答題情況，並且作為選擇訪談對象的依據。第二階段為無結構開放式訪談，主要訪談學生作答時之想法與解題策略，所有訪談皆全程錄音，並轉錄成文字檔後進行內容分析，進一步瞭解學生在概念上錯誤的內涵，以及探討解題困難產生的原因。 　　研究結果發現，學生在絕對值相關概念之錯誤可歸納出五大原因：過度簡化絕對值定義之口訣、無法進行絕對值概念中「幾何概念」與「算術概念」之間的轉化、不瞭解絕對值概念中各同義詞之間的關係、以偏概全絕對值之定義以及文字符號概念之理解困難。文後尚有提供絕對值相關教學改善的建議。 / This study aims to explore the kinds of difficulties encountered by junior high school students in solving problems related to absolute value as well as analyzing and identifying the probable causes of such difficulties. It is hoped that the results from this attempt can provide teachers with useful information regarding how to improve their instructional practices and plan remedial instruction, thereby enhancing their teaching effectiveness. The main methodology for this study is survey design supplemented with clinical interviews that allowed for in-depth information collection regarding problem solving strategies and difficulties from selected respondents. During the first stage, a literature review was conducted on research studies that focused on absolute values. This was followed by discussions with several junior high school mathematics teachers relating to learning difficulties they observed. Subsequently, a paper and pencil test instrument on absolute values with three main dimensions was compiled by the author to test the learning status of the participating students. Their performances would form the basis for selecting them to participate in the second stage of the study, namely, the interview phase. All clinical interviews were unstructured and they were recorded and transcribed into verbal records. Analyses were then performed to identify the presence of conceptual misunderstandings and explored the causes of such difficulties. It was found that students’ conceptual errors on absolute values can be classified into five different types, namely, oversimplifying the definition of absolute value into mnemonic phrases, inability to perform inscriptional transformation between geometric properties and arithmetical concepts of absolute values, incomprehension of the relationships among the synonyms related to the concept of absolute value, over-generalizing the definition of absolute values and difficulties in understanding the connotation behind letter symbols. Several suggestions regarding instructional practices as well as future direction of research based on the present findings were provided at the end of this study.

La recherche menée propose une contribution à l’analyse de la performance des hedge funds dansun contexte d’instabilité des marchés financiers. Ce travail de thèse tourne autour de deux axes deréflexions. Le premier axe se propose d’examiner la structure de dépendance entre les mesures alternativesde performance absolue, en mettant en évidence l’impact du changement de base de donnéeset de période d’analyse sur le classement des indices. Dans ce cadre, nous proposons de comparer laperformance de cinq indices de stratégies issus de trois différentes bases de données. L’analyse esteffectuée sur trois périodes : une période avant crise, une période de crise et une période globale.Nous avons pu montrer que l’évaluation de la performance et la dépendance entre les indicateurssont des éléments fortement sensibles à la période d’analyse. De plus, cette analyse confirme qu’iln’existe pas d’indice "universel" pouvant représenter l’univers des hedge funds. Le deuxième axede réflexion est lié à l’analyse de la stabilité des performances des hedge funds sur trois horizons :le court terme, le moyen terme et le long terme. Il ressort de notre étude que la persistance desperformances des hedge funds n’est pas un phénomène de long terme et que le niveau de persistanceest fortement dépendant de la stratégie d’investissement et de l’indicateur de performance utilisé. / This dissertation provides a contribution to hedge funds performance analysis in a financialmarket instability context. The objective of this thesis is twofold. The first aim is to examine thedependence structure between alternative measures of absolute performance, highlighting the impactof the database switch and analysis period changing on the leaderboard of hedge funds indexes.In this framework, we propose to compare the performance of five hedge funds indexes extractedfrom three different databases. The analysis is conducted over three periods : a pre-crisis period, acrisis period and an overall period. Our findings show that the performance evaluation and dependancebetween performance indicators are highly sensitive to the analysis period. In addition, wefind that there is no "universal" index that can represent hedge funds universe. The second thesis’spurpose is related to the hedge funds performance stability over three horizons : the short term,the medium term and the long term. Firstly, it appears that hedge funds performance persistence isnot a long term phenomenon. Secondly, the persistence level is highly dependent to the investmentstrategy and to the performance indicator used.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

La purification est une métaphore désignant le moteur de la philosophie de la religion de Hegel. Elle est d’abord à l’œuvre dans la création de la Nature qui se consume pour produire la conscience de soi divine à travers l'esprit humain. En second lieu, elle s’opère dans l’objectivation des productions spirituelles de l’homme qui sont purifiées jusqu'à ce que l’Esprit soit auprès de soi dans le christianisme. La troisième purification est morale et trouve son fondement dans la Genèse, le judaïsme étant le premier à avoir identifié l'unité des natures humaine et divine. Le mythe témoignera également de la culpabilité en tant que l'homme n'exprime pas immédiatement sa divinité, mais sa finitude. La réalisation du divin impliquera donc la purification de la naturalité au profit de la substantialité. Le christianisme explicitera cette tâche par l’héroïsme de Jésus et cet héroïsme se perpétuera jusqu’à ce qu’émergent un individualisme moderne et une religion assurant la cohésion sociale : le protestantisme luthérien. Cet individualisme sera toutefois défectueux puisqu’il produira éventuellement davantage d’égoïsme que de réconciliation, ce qui donnera lieu à certaines critiques de l’analyse hégélienne du christianisme. En effet, Hegel croit toujours que la vitalité religieuse est nécessaire au fonctionnement de l’État, bien qu’elle soit dorénavant incapable de diffuser les sentiments de culpabilité et de responsabilité dans le corps social. Néanmoins, comme les valeurs du christianisme ont été épurées de leur contingence en passant dans les mœurs et dans l’État, il s’avérera que le corps social peut se passer d’une tradition religieuse vivante / Purification is what moves the content of Hegel’s philosophy of religion. It is first active in the creation of Nature, which consumes itself in order to liberate the divine self-consciousness through human spirit. Secondly, it is active in the process of the objectivation of human spiritual productions, which are purified until Spirit comes to know itself in the world. The third form of purification is moral and gets its theoretical foundation in the Genesis. According to Hegel, Judaism was the first belief system to identify the unity between divine and human natures; however, the myth is also about the birth of guilt as man does not immediately express his divinity, but his finiteness. As such, the divine process implies purification from naturality in favour of substantiality. Christianity will explicit this task through Jesus’s heroism and heroism in general will maintain itself until the rise of modern individualism and the rise of a religion capable of producing social cohesion—Lutheran Protestantism. However, individualism will eventually show its defectiveness since it will create more egoism than reconciliation. This problem will be the opportunity to criticize Hegel’s analysis of Christianity. Indeed, it seems that Hegel came to believe that religious vitality was necessary to the State's proper functioning, even though Christianity is no longer capable of creating guilt and responsibility by itself. Nevertheless, as Christian values are now purified forms their contingencies and are now recuperated by customs and the State, it appears that society can now function without such a tradition.

National Identity as a Corrective of the Absolute Primacy of European Law. The aim of this thesis is to analyse national identity within Article 4(2) TEU and the potential of such article to serve as a legal ground for derogation from obligation imposed by EU law. From a wider perspective, the thesis attempts to assess whether introduction of Article 4(2) TEU redefined the relation between national legal orders and EU law. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter deals with the pivotal principle of EU law primacy. The chapter explains two distinctive approaches adopted by the CJEU (absolute primacy) and the Member States (relative primacy). In the second chapter, the author firstly provides brief history of obligation to respect national identity in the Treaties. Secondly, she examines the content of term "national identity". The author claims that Article 4(2) TEU has a composite (pluralistic) structure, thus, the national courts and the CJEU plays different roles in application of the obligation to respect national identity. The national identity is inherently linked to the constitutional law of Member States, therefore, it must be defined by its constitutional courts. At the same time, the CJEU lacks the competence to interpret national identity as such, however, it is...

CHANGES OF RAINFALL-RUNOFF REGIME IN THE ŠUMAVA / BOHEMIAN FOREST REGION Abstract: The goal of this thesis is the evaluation of changes in rainfall-runoff regime in the Šumava region from time and spacial point of view. The thesis includes research and applied part. The research part is dedicated to the methods of evaluation of runoff changes and their possible causes in the Šumava region. In the applied part there is an analysis of precipitaion - runoff regime for long-term time series of average annual and monthly discharges and also annual and monthly precipitations for selected gauging stations in Czech, German and Austrian part of Šumava using absolute and relative homogenity tests and Mann - Kendall test for long-term trend. One of the main aims of this thesis is the identification of possible orographical effect or the difference between windward and leeward part of Šumava. In conclusion the achieved results are evaluated, discussed and compared with subject publications. Key words: absolute homogenity, Mann - Kendall test, runoff, discharge, relative homogenity, precipitation, trend, Šumava, changes

La présente thèse se propose d’aborder l’intelligence singulière de Marguerite Duras et pour ce faire, elle retient l’ensemble des écrits : romans, textes de théâtre, écrits journalistiques, scénarios, textes divers. Elle prend en compte le difficile héritage de la Shoah et du stalinisme, et à partir de l'extrême déshumanisation qui a marqué le XXe siècle, elle s’interroge sur le nihilisme propre à la modernité, plus particulièrement sur la manière dont le nihilisme est susceptible de gagner la littérature puisqu’il appert qu’il entre fortement en résonance avec l’univers durassien. La réflexion ne saurait s’en tenir à la sphère historique et elle investit nécessairement le champ philosophique. Le plus important néanmoins n’est peut-être pas tant de révéler le phénomène que de chercher à saisir comment l’œuvre se débat face au néant qui la guette et par conséquent résiste. Dès lors se fait jour un anti-nihilisme au sein de la littérature et la notion de sensible devient par là-même centrale. C’est en effet à une déperdition du sensible que l’on assiste quand le nihilisme se manifeste ; mais le sensible ne se borne pas à jouer le rôle d’un indicateur ; il est bien plus le principe permettant de combattre le néant. Par lui, le cogito brusquement se tait et l’empiétement, figure que notre analyse emprunte à Merleau-Ponty, advient ; par lui, l’intelligence se dérobe à l’intelligible, admet la contradiction et prend le large ; par lui, le désir, expression d’« un plus fort que », se trouve établi au fondement de l’homme, garant de son humanité ; par lui enfin la transcendance est ramenée vers l’immanence de façon qu’il devient possible d’envisager la métaphysique à partir de la chair. / The present thesis aims to examine the unique intelligence emerging in Marguerite Duras's works, and to showcase this, it encompasses a range of her writings including novels, plays, newspaper articles, scenarios and other essays. It takes into account the difficult heritage of the Shoah and Stalinism, and from the extreme dehumanisation that marked the 20th century, it questions itself on nihilism in relation to modernity, specifically the manner in which nihilism is likely to influence literature as it would appear that it is very much present in the Duras universe. The reflection doesn't just cover the historical aspect, it expands fundamentally into a philosophical dimension. The most important thing, however, is probably not so much to reveal the phenomenon but to try and understand how the works struggle to face the coming emptiness and therefore resists. From then on, anti-nihilism rises within literature and as a result, sensitivity becomes central. Indeed, a loss of sensitivity is observed when nihilism manifests itself, however, sensitivity is not just an indicator; it is rather the enabling principle to combat emptiness. With it, the cogito disappears suddenly and the encroachment, thought borrowed from Merleau-Ponty, appears. With it, intelligence shies away from the intelligible, admits contradiction and takes off. With it, desire, the expression of something beyond our control, establishes itself as the foundation of the human being, guaranteeing his humanity. With it finally, transcendence returns to immanence so that it becomes possible to consider metaphysics from the flesh.

This thesis is focused on estimation of general economical situation of the firm Oděvní podnik, a.s. from year 2003 to 2009. The thesis is divided into two main parts. In first part the methodology is defined. Second part evaluates the company through the use of methods, which are defined in first part. The main methods I used are ratio analysis and analysis of absolute indicators. One part of this thesis is focused on application of bankruptcy and creditworthy models. The aim was to find out if this models are able to predict the bad financial situation, in which the company at present is.