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Problem background and discussion: Emerging countries economies are growing substantially; one of these is India which stock market has been one of the best performing in the world in recent years. Analysts are forecasting further development and some claims that India has the most business- and investment-stimulating political leaders in the world. However, stock markets in emerging countries are highly volatile and normally more risky than in developed economies. One approach to emphasise the more common risks in emerging countries are by including Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating into the fundamental investment model. However, there is a conflict of what previous studies suggest regarding ESG investments. Some argues there is a positive relation and others a negative relation between ESG factors and risk- adjusted return. Research question: “Is there a relation between risk-adjusted return and ESG performance at the Indian stock market?” Objective: The objective is to determine if there is a relationship between ESG performance and risk-adjusted return in India. Another objective is to determine if there is a relationship between ESG performance and risk-adjusted return among companies with high Total ESG rating as well as for companies with low Total ESG rating. Theoretical framework: ESG is an established approach to describe sustainability issues, where screening is a process designed to select those companies that meet ESG criteria. A basic description of Capital Asset Pricing Model CAPM, which calculates an asset's expected return, has been used to calculate risk-adjusted return. Efficient Market Hypothesis EMH is the basic theory of market efficiency and is used to explain any non-linear relationship between ESG factors and risk-adjusted returns. Adaptive Market Hypothesis AMH has been taken into account as it deals with financial behaviour. Method: A quantitative study using a deductive approach has been selected to perform this study. The practical approach is a cross sectional study where the relationship in the Indian market has been analysed and significance-tested during 2014. ESG information for 126 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has been purchased from Sustainalytics, a global leader in research for responsible investment. Empirical findings and analysis: The results of the study demonstrate no significant relationship between Total ESG rating and risk-adjusted return during 2014. In the examination of individual categories, Environmental and Social rating does not have a significant association with the risk-adjusted Return. Though, the results display a negative relationship between Governance rating and risk-adjusted return. This relationship is also obtained among companies in with low Total ESG rating but not companies with high ESG rating. Conclusion: Results implies that investors have not been able to use the information of Total ESG performance to obtain a better risk-adjusted return on the Indian stock market in 2014. However, this can be achieved by using Governance rating.

Introduction: The majority of the European population live in urban areas (UAs). Policy making in urban areas is complex and the use of summary and aggregate measures for public health are important tools. Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) are important for national and international comparison. However, DALYs have not been calculated at urban level. Alcohol is an important European urban public health problem. Therefore the aim of this study was to calculate urban level DALYs attributable to alcohol consumption in Europe(AA-DALYs) and years of life lost (AA-YLL). This work was one of the deliverables of the European Urban Health Indicator System Part II (EURO-URHIS 2), a European Commission funded project. Methodology Design: This is a cross sectional study with four components to be able to calculate comparable DALYs. The boundary study determined the denominator to ensure comparability and facilitate identification of the UAs to be included in the study. The systematic review and national level DALY calculations were used to develop the methodology for calculating AA-DALYs, including AA-YLL. The main methodology was to calculate AA-DALYs and AA-YLL were calculated for comparison between UAs, but also to measure the relationship between alcohol policy strength (measured using the Alcohol Policy Index) and harms to health. Results: It was possible to calculate urban level AA-DALY and AA-YLL for males and females and for different age groups in 20 different UAs. There was no association at either national (p=0.15) or urban level with AA-DALYs and AA-YLL and API score. Clustering of the countries by European region may have influenced the lack of association as well as the need for further refinements of the API to include enforcement. Mean male (female) AA-YLL was 12.75 (3.23) per 1000 population (p<0.0001). Mean male (female) AA-DALYs was 18.85 (3.88) per 1000 population (p<0.0001). There were significant differences between mean male and female AA-DALYs and AA-YLL which were not present when the protective indicators were removed from the calculation. The mean effect size between all ages and the 15-79 year age groups were significant for AA-DALYs and AA-YLLs (p<0.0001).Conclusions: Comparable AA-DALYs and AA-YLL can be calculated at urban level. National level DALYs mask the intra-national differences observed within cities. AA-DALYs and AA-YLL can be used as a summary measure to help policy makers determine the outcomes of their alcohol policy strategies in cities of Europe. Morbidity data availability undermines AA-DALY estimates, but AA-YLL estimates were based on robust data on causes of death at the urban level. Future work will replicate this method for more risk factors for YLL.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions have been the subject of numerous studies over the years. The effect of the method of payment in M&A transactions has been studied in first world countries where information transfer is regarded as being highly efficient. The aim of this research was to study the effect of the method of payment to both acquirer and target companies post the announcement of M&A transactions within the context of emerging economies. South African JSE listed firms were used as a proxy for emerging market companies.Event study methodologies are only as sound as the statistical methodologies used to conduct the tests as well as the accuracy with which expected returns can be calculated. This being so, the aim of the research was to apply rigorous testing using various event study methodologies and making use of the literature to ensure that the findings were robust and the testing thorough. The various testing methodologies did not always provide the same findings further emphasising that the results are only as conclusive and robust as the methodologies used.Using the well substantiated event study methodology it was found that target companies do not significantly outperform acquirer firms. Although target companies showed a 12.5% increase over the longest event window being a 120 day window, whilst acquirers only reported 6.40% the difference was not found to be significant. The additional returns to target companies are likely due to the bid premium to stave off competition.Results indicate that acquirer companies using shares as the method of payment do send a negative signal to the market that their shares used as the currency of exchange in the M&A transaction is inflated. As a result acquirer companies using shares underperformed acquirer companies using cash as the method of payment.Finally target companies bought where cash was used as the method of payment outperform targets bought using shares as the method of payment. This is likely due to the capital gains tax implications in the year the M&A transaction takes place where cash is the method of payment.Although South Africa is regarded as being a less efficient market than first world economies with regards to information transfer, based on the study (which focused on large capitalisation companies with high trading volumes) South Africa does show similar results to those of first-world economies for acquirer cash against acquirer share returns as well as for target cash against target share returns, when looking at the method of payment as a market signal in M&A transactions. This research did not however find significantly higher positive returns for target companies against acquirer companies returns. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Two interval estimation methods for a general linear function of binomial proportions have been proposed. One method [Zou GY, Huang W, Zhang X. A note on confidence interval estimation for a linear function of binomial proportions. Comput Statist Data Anal. 2009;53:1080–1085] combines Wilson interval estimates of individual proportions, and the other method [Price RM, Bonett DG. An improved confidence interval for a linear function of binomial proportions. Comput Statist Data Anal. 2004;45:449–456] uses an adjusted Wald interval. Both methods are appropriate in varying coefficient meta-analysis models where the risk differences are allowed to vary across studies. The two methods were compared in a simulation study under realistic meta-analysis conditions and the adjusted Wald method was found to have the best performance characteristics.

Gustafsson, Carina. (2005). PRIV – en möjlig studieväg för motiverade elever. (Program aiming individual choice – a manageable way of learning for motivated pupils). Skolutveckling och ledarskap, Lärarutbildningen 60 poäng, Lärarutbildningen, Malmö högskola.Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka om det är möjligt för elever med studiemisslyckanden i grundskolans kärnämnen att genomföra en gymnasial omvårdnadsutbildning med godkända betyg som resultat. Intervjuer med fem före detta elever från Omvårdnadsprogrammets PRIV-klass genomförs och kompletteras med intervjuer av fyra lärare vilka ansvarar för undervisning i den aktuella klassen. Resultatet visar att eleverna inte alltid är medvetna om vilka undervisningsinsatser som är speciellt anpassade för deras behov. Dessutom visar resultatet att de aktuella lärarna lyckas arbeta med elevgruppen utan specialpedagog i arbetslaget under en stor del av utbildningstiden. Studieresultaten visar att studiemotivation underlättar för eleverna i den undersökta PRIV-klassen att klara sin utbildning väl, med hjälp av genomtänkta lärarinsatser. De intervjuade eleverna är sysselsatta inom vårdyrken sex månader efter avslutad utbildning.Nyckelord: anpassad undervisning, godkänt betyg, motivation, PRIV, sysselsättningCarinaGustafsson AllansroÖsterleden 1301-45270 21 GlemmingebroHandledare: Elna JohanssonExaminator: Lotta Anderson / Gustafsson, Carina. (2005). PRIV – en möjlig studieväg för motiverade elever. (Program aiming individual choice – a manageable way of learning for motivated pupils). Skolutveckling och ledarskap, Lärarutbildningen 60 poäng, Lärarutbildningen, Malmö högskola.The aim of this essay is to investigate if it is possible for pupils, who failed in essential subjects in nine-year compulsory school, to pass examination in nursing education. Five ex-pupils from nursing education’s PRIV-class (program aiming individual choice) were interviewed. So were four teachers who had been responsible for the teaching in the class spoken of. The result of the investigation shows that the pupils not always are aware of how teaching methods are specially composed to cover their needs. In addition the result shows that the teachers in question are successful in working with this group of pupils, although a pedagogue specialist not is part of the teaching team during a big part of the time of education. The result of the investigation shows that motivation for studying makes it easier for pupils in the PRIV-class spoken of to end their education with fine grades, if helped with carefully prepared teaching methods. Six months after graduation the ex-pupils are working in nursing or social service.Keywords: adjusted teaching, motivation, occupation, passing examination, PRIV.Carina GustafssonAllansroÖsterleden 1301-45270 21 Glemmingebro Supervisor: Elna JohanssonExaminer: Lotta Anderson

<p> Many medical studies are performed to investigate the effectiveness of new treatments (such as new drugs, new surgery) versus traditional (or placebo) treatments. In many cases, researchers measure a continuous variable at baseline and again as an outcome assessed at follow up. The baseline measurement usually has strong relationship with post treatment measurement. Consequently, the ANCOVA model using baseline as covariate may provide more powerful and precise results than the ANOVA model.</p> <p> However, most epidemiologic studies will encounter the problem of missing covariate data. As a result, the patients with missing baseline measurements will be excluded from the data analysis. Hence, there exists a tradeoff between the ANOVA with full data set and the ANCOVA with partial data set.</p> <p> This study focuses on the variance of the estimator of treatment means difference. In practical situation, the standard error of the estimator obtained from the ANCOVA model with partially missing baseline relative to the standard error obtained form the ANOVA with full data relies on the correlation between baseline and follow-up outcome, the proportion of the missing baseline, and the difference of the group means on the baseline. In moderate sample size studies, it is also affected by the sample size.</p> <p> The theoretically required minimum correlations for the ANCOVA model were calculated to obtain the same precision with the ANOVA model assuming the missing proportion, sample size and difference of group means on covariate are available. The minimum correlation can be obtained through checking the reference table or figures.</p> <p> The figures of asymptotic relative efficiencies provide the asymptotic variance and the length of the confidence intervals of the estimated difference obtained from the ANCOVA model relative to the ANOVA model for all the range of the correlation between baseline and follow up.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

This study compares alternative weighting strategies with traditional weighting strategies, to identify if investors could receive better risk-adjusted returns on the Swedish stock market. The reason for the emergence of the thesis is based on the criticism and questions raised against the traditional strategies, that they might be ineffective and suboptimal for investors. Previous studies extend our theoretical background where the market price of an asset is not representative of the intrinsic value. Data from listed firms on the Swedish market between 2003 and 2024 have been collected, to compose the Fundamental, Risk-adjusted, and Risk-timing portfolios. Our benchmarks have consisted of value-weighted-, equally weighted-, maximum Sharpe ratioand OMXS-30 portfolios. The empirical result of this study suggests that there is an indication that the portfolio strategies outperform the benchmark portfolios.

Cost-utility analysis is one method of determining the cost effectiveness of nursing interventions. It is heralded by the World Health Organization as the measure to determine allocation of resources. This method of measurement includes calculation of both the cost of quality-adjusted life years (QALY) and the cost of disability-adjusted life years (DALY). The purpose of this article is to present cost-utility analysis as a relevant measure for describing the value of registered nurses. First the article will present a short overview of cost effectiveness, along with a discussion of two cost-effectiveness measures, cost-effective analysis and cost-utility analysis. Then the measurement of quality-adjusted life years and disability-adjusted life years will be presented. The article will conclude by challenging nurses to develop cost-utility analyses into a meaningful and useful methodology that can provide nursing with a process to measure the economic outcomes of our nursing interventions.

Cost-utility analysis is one method of determining the cost effectiveness of nursing interventions. It is heralded by the World Health Organization as the measure to determine allocation of resources. This method of measurement includes calculation of both the cost of quality-adjusted life years (QALY) and the cost of disability-adjusted life years (DALY). The purpose of this article is to present cost-utility analysis as a relevant measure for describing the value of registered nurses. First the article will present a short overview of cost effectiveness, along with a discussion of two cost-effectiveness measures, cost-effective analysis and cost-utility analysis. Then the measurement of quality-adjusted life years and disability-adjusted life years will be presented. The article will conclude by challenging nurses to develop cost-utility analyses into a meaningful and useful methodology that can provide nursing with a process to measure the economic outcomes of our nursing interventions.