Growth, that is a sensitive indicator of children's health, should be evaluated in relation to suitable reference data. Under the term "physiological growth of chidren" is understood growth of long-term breast-fed infants that is - in the first months of their life - different from the growth of infants, who were not breast fed. This Thesis is focused on evaluation of impacts the long-term breast-feeding has on the growth of children in their pre-school age and on the differences in comparison with the children, who were breast- fed only minimally or not at all. Data used for this Thesis elaboration were obtained from a questionnaire and by measuring the essential physical proportions of children in different nursery and primary schools in Prague. Thereafter; by analysing the received data, we have come to the conclusion that long-term breast-feeding does not have any significant impact onto stature, weight nor head circumference of pre-school children. Some differences were detected concerning the BMI values and thickness of skin folds; however, the results were out of accord with our expectations that the long-term breast-fed children will have lower BMI values than the children, who were breast-fed just minimally. Comparing the Z-score of the long-term breast-fed children with regard to the data from the...

Purpose: To investigate if Altman´s Z´-score model, which calculates financial distress, can be applied on companies established in Sweden and if the financial crisis in 2008 made previously healthy companies go bankrupt. Methodology: Quantitative studies with a positivistic foundation. Empirical data will be collected in order to examine if there is generalizability among the studied objects. Conclusions will be made by comparing the empirical data with the theoretical foundation. Financial distress in firms will be measured. Theoretical perspectives: Altman´s Z´-score model, designed to predict financial distress in private firms. Empirical foundation: A selection of 93 private firms that have gone bankrupt in the years 2008, 2009 or 2010. The firms selected all have a turnover that exceeds 20 million SEK. The years examined will be 2005 to 2009. Conclusion: As this study is carried out, the conclusion is that Altman´s Z´-score model cannot be applied on companies established in Sweden.

The diploma thesis deals with the financial analysis of European joint stock companies in the pharmaceutical sector in order to expand the investment portfolio of a field-oriented fund of qualified investors. Selected companies are subjected to financial analysis by selected ratios. Based on these data, they are compared with each other by the method of intercompany comparison according to specified weights and verified in terms of their possible bankruptcy. With the help of these outputs, a proposal to expand the fund's investment portfolio is subsequently formulated.

Analysis of the selected company was made on firm which provides SPA treatment. Results of analysis of external enviroment are negative influence of political and economic factors. Most positive impact have technological factors. Best results of the financial analysis reached indicators of liquidity, debt and indicators of bankruptcy models. Low return of assets and turnover time of claim are deficiencies. Current position of company is very good in terms of financial stability.

The banking sector is experiencing an increasing interest in evaluating environmental performance, social responsibility, and corporate governance (ESG), since the internationalcontext aroused discussions on advantages of incorporating ESG-related policies. Therefore,significant relationships between ESG engagement and financial performance and stabilityare expected. This study aims to analyse the impact of ESG engagement on financial stabilityin the banking sector including the period of economic distress. A sample size of 72 listedEuropean banks is studied during the period 2017-2022, using regression analysis. Z-score,Non-performing loan ratio and Tobin’s Q are proxies used to measure banks’ financialstability. Combined ESG score and individual Social, Environmental, and Governance pillarsfrom Refinitiv Eikon database are the target variables. Contrary to expectations, the findingsreveal that ESG engagement does not have a significant positive impact on financial stabilitywithin the banking sector. However, interestingly, among the three ESG pillars the social oneseems to decrease financial stability of banks in some estimations. It is also notable that theregression coefficients for target variables are quite low, especially in comparison withfinancial performance variables ROA and ROE, which indicates that ESG engagement maynot be the most influential factor in banks’ financial stability.

Background: Football is one of the biggest sports in the world. Just as the rest of the world has been affected by the pandemic, the Allsvenskan has also been affected. What is analyzed in this study are various financial key figures through the Altman z score which shows whether the clubs can cope with financial insolvency. Purpose: The aim of the study is to analyze how the Allsvenskan football clubs have handled the situation from covid-19. The study will also touch on the club's economic state before and after the pandemic to see if the state has changed since the crisis. Method: This study is based on a quantitative method through a deductive approach where the collected data comes mainly from annual reports from nine (9) Allsvenskan football clubs. The data was collected during several occasions as the study targets from 2017-2022. Conclusion:What the study concluded is that the clubs have not recovered financially from the covid 19 pandemic if they are based on the altman Z’ score. The years 2016-2018 had a higher Z’ score than the years 2019-2022 had in total.-- The spectators or fans increased after the pandemic. There is no statistical connection if a team gets more points that there is more audience.

銀行或金融機構面對的風險眾多，包括信用風險、市場風險、作業風險、法律風險、系統風險與國家主權風險等。2001年公佈的巴塞爾新資本協定(Basel II)，對於信用風險有全新的規範，使得金融機構為了提升競爭力，而致力改革。國內銀行也需加強信用風險管理，減少壞帳，增加獲利，以面對全球化的考驗。 判斷公司違約情形是風險管理者的主要責任，管理者利用各種模式，加以評估公司狀況，而面對模式的不同，會產生不同的結果，使管理者缺乏單一指標，可供遵循。本研究以此為出發點，以統計模式構建組合預測，期能簡化管理者的決策過程。 首先介紹多種信用風險模式，及國內外相關實證。然後針對兩種信用風險模式，Z-score與Merton選擇權模式，研究在台灣的適用情形。Z-score代表公司財務資訊，為一個落後指標；Merton選擇權模式代表市場資訊，是一個領先指標；本研究將兩項指標應用Logit迴歸予以組合，期能得到一個較佳的指標。組合結果顯示，組合預測能夠整合Z-score與Merton選擇權兩種模式，得到一個較好的預測正確率，判斷公司是否可能發生危機。在危機發生前一年時，判斷正確率高達90%，但是離危機發生時點越遠，組合預測的結果會近似於鑑別分析結果，其主要原因為Merton選擇權模式的不適用。 本研究提出了若各種預測指標對同一家公司的信用風險評估不同，則可以經由組合預測，得到一個綜合結果，以減少指標間互相衝突所造成的差異，與風險作業人員誤判的可能，並可提供風險管理者作為執行業務的參考。

財務報表是投資大眾據以了解企業財務體質的主要來源，然而安隆事件的發生，造成投資人依賴財務報表的信心幾近崩潰。近期國內博達科技公司在財報中有帳列現金63億元情況下，因無法償還即將到期的29.8億公司債，而無預警的向法院聲請重整，爆發財務危機事件，似乎又是一樁企業以虛飾誇大之財務報表，誤導投資人，致使無數投資人損失慘重之案例。究竟財務報表能夠表達的企業營運情況是什麼？我們到底可不可以利用財務報表，即使是經過美化的報表，看出企業有行為不軌的蛛絲馬跡？ 本研究是在傳統財務比率分析方法失效時，打算從另一個角度，尋找企業違約前之徵兆。利用選擇權理論法模型，以及Z-Score模型來檢視博達公司的信用風險，試著以信用風險模型探索其信用危機發生前之警訊。最重要的是，為使一般投資人皆可利用此信用風險模型作為信用風險管理的參考，故所有資料來源均為集中市場公開資訊，不論是股價、各種財務報表及公告資訊，均是利用臺灣證券交易所網站（www.tse.com.tw）中取得資訊。 本研究運用兩種理論模型實證結果，選擇權理論法模型並無出現特別警訊，反而是Z-Score模型結果令人滿意，不論是Altman區別函數，或是替代之「本土型」區別函數計算結果，均在博達公司財務危機事件發生一年前就以區別分數顯示其有財務危機之警訊。甚至針對博達公司倍受質疑的業績灌水、營收虛增問題，調整銷貨收入，並重新代入Z-Score模型後，Z值之預警效果更加提前反映及顯著。

Recent failure of such companies as Enron, Worldcom and Parmala showed that there are internal reasons contributing to company’s financial distress. Financial distress is a condition when a company fails to meet its debt obligations. Board of directors is liable for long-term decisions and their ineffective work in monitoring and controlling management can influence companies’ performance. With that in mind, in this degree project, we would like to answer the following research question: “What is the relationship between characteristics of Board and probability of financial distress, measured by Altman’s Z-score models in Sweden and Denmark?”   The epistemological and ontological choices for our study were positivism and objectivism with deductive approach. We have calculated Z-scores of Swedish and Danish companies in order to detect distressed and healthy companies. Further on, the information about board composition in each company was collected; mainly we were interested in board independence, board size, board ownership, COB ownership, CEO duality and employee representatives.   In order to examine if there is a relationship between board composition and financial distress, we have done Multiple and Binary Regression analyses. Based on the results we can state that board independence, board ownership and employee representatives and market capitalization (control variable) have significant relationship with probability of financial distress. Our study is interesting since we have looked at employee representatives, as a board characterectic that is specific for Nordic countries and that was not studied before. In addition, we have found that there is no CEO duality in Sweden and Denmark, since all companies in our sample followed the Companies’ Acts. COB ownership, the additional variable we wanted to test and board size have shown no significant relationship.

Background: Obesity-related diseases are arising as a major problem among children. inflammation has recently been identified to play an important role in the relationship between obesity.- as well as stunting-related diseases. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the association between serum tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations and a variety of cardiometabolic and anthropometric indices of children in a township outside Potchefstroom, South Africa. Methods: Blood samples of 115 girls and 78 boys (mean age 15.6 ± 1.35) in the Physical Activity in the Young (PLAY) study were cross-sectionally analysed. Trained fieldworkers collected the demographic, Tanner growth stage and habitual physical activity information. Physiologists measured the children’s blood pressure. Anthropometric measurements were taken by. trained post-graduate students with level 1 or 2 qualifications in anthropometrics. A standard test battery was administered by trained postgraduate students in Human Movement Science to assess muscular strength. flexibility and endurance of the children. Blood samples were collected, centrifuged and stored frozen until further analyses. Results: Stunted girls had a significantly higher serum TNF-α concentration than the non-stunted girls (p=0.03). The factor analyses showed that the inflammatory. status clustered with the height for age-z-scores (HAZ) scores and the waist-hip-ratio (WHR). The HAZ-score of the over-fat boys (- 1.46) was significantly smaller than the lean boys (- 1.14, p=0.0 1). whereas the over-fat girls had a trend for a smaller HAZ-score (-1.07) than the lean girls (-0.89). No significant differences were found between the over-fat and the lean children-s inflammatory status. TNF-α and CRP levels tended to be higher in the over-fat children than in lean children. The girls' scrum IL-6 and CRP concentrations correlated significantly with their body mass index (BMI) and WHR (p<0.05 )and their TNF-α and IL-6 concentrations correlated significantly with their WHR (p<0.01 and p<0.05, respectively). Conclusion: In comparison to the non-stunted girls, stunted girls had a statistically significantly higher TNF-α concentration. Unusual fat distribution that is found in over-fat and stunted children may be associated with low-grade inflammation in children. More research is needed on these associations with markers of inflammation in a long-term longitudinal study. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Nutrition))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.