The primary objective of profit-maximizing companies has long been seen as satisfying its shareholders. However, this orthodox view of corporate governance has been modernized as corporate social responsibility have become more relevant. In essence, corporate sustainability performance has evolved and is now divided into environmental, social and corporate governance, also known as ESG, closely scrutinized by all stakeholders.  The main purpose of this study is to investigate how ESG disclosures about Swedish-listed companies affect their market value. By analyzing these results, using both conventional and complementary theories in behavioral finance, the researchers in this study also aspires to add new perspectives to the research field on why and how the market reacts as it does. This aim was then fulfilled by quantifying the impact of 195 ESG news on market capitalization using three-event studies.  The results are sufficiently reliable to confirm both hypotheses of the study. The findings support both theories and previous research in the sense that deviations from the social contract between firms and stakeholders damage firms' legitimacy. Furthermore, the study’s results show that market reactions are asymmetric. Firstly, with the implication that the negative impact of negative news exceeds the corresponding positive impact of positive news. Secondly, with the meaning that positive news results in a negative impact on market value.  This can be attributed to market psychological factors and other factors, such as Swedish investors' valuation of sustainability work. In addition, the opposite market reaction to positive news is consistent with studies suggesting that certain ESG news are perceived as greenwashing. Against this background, the study concludes that companies' sustainability work and ESG compliance are not profitable to the extent previously advocated. However, the indirect cost of not acting in a socially responsible manner is greater than the opposite. / Det primära målet för vinstmaximerande bolag har länge ansetts vara att tillfredsställa aktieägarna. Denna ortodoxa syn på bolagsstyrning har dock moderniserats i takt med att hållbarhet och samhällsansvar blivit mer aktuellt. I huvudsak har bolagens hållbarhetsarbete utvecklats och delas numera upp i miljöfrågor, sociala frågor och bolagsstyrning, även kallat ESG, något som noga granskas av intressenter.  Det primära syftet med denna studie är att undersöka ESG nyheters inverkan på svensknoterade bolags börsvärden. Genom att analysera dessa resultat, med såväl konventionella som kompletterande teorier inom beteendeekonomi, ämnar författarna även att kunna bidra med nya perspektiv till forskningen om hur, men även varför, marknaden reagerar som den gör. Detta syfte har sedan uppfyllts genom att kvantifiera 195 ESG nyheters inverkan på börsvärde med hjälp av tre eventstudier.  Resultaten är tillräckligt tillförlitliga för att bekräfta studiens båda hypoteser. Fynden stödjer såväl teorier som tidigare forskning, i den mening att avvikelser från det sociala kontraktet mellan företag och intressenter skadar företagens legitimitet. Vidare visar studiens resultat att marknadsreaktionerna är asymmetriska. I första hand i det avseendet att den negativa inverkan från negativa nyheter överstiger den positiva inverkan från positiva nyheter. I andra hand i den bemärkelsen att positiva nyheter leder till en negativ inverkan på marknadsvärde.  Detta kan hänföras till marknadspsykologiska faktorer och andra faktorer, som exempelvis svenska investerares värdering av hållbarhetsarbete. Vidare är den motsatta marknadsreaktionen till positiva nyheter i linje med studier som antyder att vissa ESG nyheter kan tolkas som grönmålning. Mot denna bakgrund konkluderar studien att bolagens hållbarhetsarbete och efterlevnad av ESG inte är lönsamt i den utsträckning som tidigare förespråkats. Dock är den indirekta kostnaden för att ej agera socialt ansvarsfullt större än motsatsen.

Bewegungsstabilität wird durch die Fähigkeit des neuromuskulären Systems adäquat auf Störungen der Bewegung antworten zu können erreicht. Einschränkungen der Stabilität werden z. B. mit Sturzrisiko in Verbindung gebracht, was schwere Konsequenzen für die Lebensqualität und Kosten im Gesundheitssystem hat. Nach wie vor wird debattiert, wie eine geeignete Bewertung von Stabilität vorgenommen werden kann. Diese Arbeit behandelt den maximalen Lyapunov Exponenten. Er drückt aus, wie sensitiv das System auf kleine Störungen eines Zustands reagiert. Eine Zeitreihe wird zunächst mittels zeitversetzter Kopien in einen mehrdimensionalen Raum eingebettet. In dieser rekonstruierten Dynamik berechnet man dann die Steigung der mittleren logarithmischen Divergenz initial naher Punkte. Die methodischen Konsequenzen für die Anwendung dieser Systemtheorie auf Bewegungen sind jedoch bislang unzureichend beleuchtet. Der experimentelle Teil zeigt klare Indizien, dass es bei Bewegungen weniger um die Analyse eines komplexen Systemdeterminismus geht, sondern um verschieden hohe dynamische Rauschlevel. Je höher das Rauschlevel, desto instabiler das System. Anwendung von Rauschreduktion führt zu kleineren Effektstärken. Das hat Folgen: Die Funktionswerte der Average Mutual Information, die bisher nur zur Bestimmung des Zeitversatzes genutzt wurden, können bereits Unterschiede in der Stabilität zeigen. Die Abschätzung der Dimension für die Einbettung (unabhängig vom verwendeten Algorithmus), ist stark von der Länge der Zeitreihe abhängig und wird bisher eher überschätzt. Die größten Effekte sind in Dimension drei zu beobachten und ein sehr früher Bereich zur Auswertung der Divergenzkurve ist zu empfehlen. Damit wird eine effiziente und standardisierte Analyse vorgeschlagen, die zudem besser imstande ist, Unterschiede verschiedener Bedingungen oder Gruppen aufzuzeigen. / Reductions of movement stability due to impairments of the motor system to respond adequately to perturbations are associated with e. g. the risk of fall. This has consequences for quality of life and costs in health care. However, there is still an debate on how to measure stability. This thesis examines the maximum Lyapunov exponent, which became popular in sports science the last two decades. The exponent quantifies how sensitive a system is reacting to small perturbations. A measured data series and its time delayed copies are embedded in a moredimensional space and the exponent is calculated with respect to this reconstructed dynamic as average slope of the logarithmic divergence curve of initially nearby points. Hence, it provides a measure on how fast two at times near trajectories of cyclic movements depart. The literature yet shows a lack of knowledge about the consequences of applying this system theory to sports science tasks. The experimental part shows strong evidence that, in the evaluation of movements, the exponent is less about a complex determinism than simply the level of dynamic noise present in time series. The higher the level of noise, the lower the stability of the system. Applying noise reduction therefore leads to reduced effect sizes. This has consequences: the values of average mutual information, which are until now only used for calculating the delay for the embedding, can already show differences in stability. Furthermore, it could be shown that the estimation of the embedding dimension d (independently of algorithm), is dependent on the length of the data series and values of d are currently overestimated. The greatest effect sizes were observed in dimension three and it can be recommended to use the very first beginning of the divergence curve for the linear fit. These findings pioneer a more efficient and standardized approach of stability analysis and can improve the ability of showing differences between conditions or groups.

The goal of this thesis is to analyze the textual composition of René Goscinny’s Astérix and Le petit Nicolas, demonstrating how they differ and why. Taking a statistical look at the comparative qualities of each series of works, the structural differences and similarities in language use in these two series and their respective media are highlighted and compared. Though one might expect more complicated language use in traditional text by virtue of its format, analysis of average word length, average sentence length, lexical diversity, the prevalence of specific forms (the passé composé, possessive pronouns, etc.), and preferred collocations (ils sont fous, ces romains !) shows interesting results. Though Le petit Nicolas has longer sentences and more relative pronouns (and hence more clauses per sentence on average), Astérix has longer words and more lexical diversity. A similar comparison of the albums of Astérix written by Goscinny to those of Uderzo, paying additional attention to the structural elements of each album (usage of narration and sound effects, for example) shows that Goscinny's love of reusing phrases is far greater than Uderzo's, and that the two have very different ideas of timing as expressed in narration boxes.

This thesis evaluates the mean-variance analysis framework by comparing the performance of an optimized portfolio consisting of stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial Average to the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average index itself. The results show that the optimized portfolio performs better than the corresponding index when evaluated on the period between 2015 and 2019. However, the variance of the returns are high and therefore it is difficult to determine if mean-variance analysis performs better than its corresponding index in the general case. Furthermore, it is shown that individual stocks can still influence the movement of an optimized portfolio significantly, even though the model is supposed to diversify firm-specific risk. Thus, the authors recommend modifying the model by restricting the amount that is allowed to be invested in a single stock, if one wishes to apply mean-variance analysis in reality. To be able to draw further conclusions, more practical research within the subject needs to be done. / Denna uppsats utvärderar ramverket ”mean-variance analysis” genom att jämföra prestandan av en optimerad portfölj bestående av aktier från Dow Jones Industrial Average med prestandan av indexet Dow Jones Industrial Average självt. Resultaten visar att att den optimerade portföljen presterar bättre än motsvarande index när de utvärderas på perioden 2015 till 2019. Dock är variansen av avkastningen hög och det är därför svårt att bedöma om mean-variance analysis generellt sett presterar bättre än sitt motsvarande index. Vidare visas det att individuella aktier fortfarande kan påverka den optimerade portföljens rörelser, fastän modellen antas diversifiera företagsspecifik risk. På grund av detta rekommenderar författarna att modifiera modellen genom att begränsa mängden som kan investeras i en individuell aktie, om man önskar att tillämpa mean-variance analysis i verkligheten. För att kunna dra vidare slutsatser så krävs mer praktisk forskning inom området.

Bakgrund: Med ökade styrräntor och stigande inflation har det blivit viktigt att förstå hur dessa förändringar påverkar ekonomin, företag och aktiemarknaden. Forskning visar att räntebesked kan påverka både aktiemarknaden och banksektorn med effekter på avkastning och volatilitet. Bankerna har som bekant en särskild funktion i den svenska ekonomin genom att svara för finansiering och betalningstjänster till näringsliv och offentlig sektor. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka de effekter som uppstår vid förändringar i Riksbankens styrränta på den svenska aktiemarknaden och inom banksektorn.  Metod: En kvantitativ eventstudie med en deduktiv forskningsansats har genomförts. Undersökningen består av sju olika observationer på ränteförändringar av aktier på den svenska OMX Large Cap-listan. De olika observationerna är räntehöjningar rapporterade av Riksbanken mellan åren 2019-2023.  Teori: Studien utgår från den effektiva marknadshypotesen vilket kompletterats med tidigare forskning om ränteförändringar och bankers påverkan av räntehöjningar.  Slutsatser: Studien finner inte bevis för statistiskt signifikant samband mellan Riksbankens räntehöjningar och den svenska aktiemarknaden. Inom banksektorn fanns inte heller tillräckliga bevis för att visa på en abnormal avkastning vid tillkännagivandet av ett räntebeslut. Resultatet stöds av den effektiva marknadshypotesen. De få resultat som visade på abnormal avkastning bör därför studeras vidare. Externa faktorer borde inkluderas för att förklara skillnaderna i reaktionerna på den svenska aktiemarknaden. / Background: With increasing policy rates and rising inflation, understanding how these changes impact the economy, businesses, and the stock market has become crucial. Research has shown that interest rate announcements can affect both the stock market and banks, influencing returns and volatility. Banks play a central role in the Swedish economy by offering financing and payment services. Purpose: This study aims to examine the effects of changes in the Swedish central bank's policy rate on the Swedish stock market and banking sector. Methodology: A quantitative event study with a deductive research approach was conducted. The study consists of seven different observations on interest rate changes affecting stocks listed on the Swedish OMX Large Cap List. These observations cover interest rate hikes reported between 2019 and 2023. Theory: The study is based on the efficient market hypothesis, complemented by previous research on interest rate changes and the impact of rate hikes on banks. Conclusions: The study shows no significant relationship between Swedish central bank's interest rate hikes and the overall stock market. Similar findings were observed within the banking sector. This can be explained by the efficient market hypothesis, which suggests that all relevant information is already reflected in stock prices. The efficient market hypothesis also supports the lack of market reactions, thus future research should consider external factors that could explain differences in reactions within the Swedish stock market.

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If communicating via a teleconference phone the desired transmitted signal (speech) needs to be crystal clear so that all participants experience a good communication ability. However, there are many environmental conditions that contaminates the signal with background noise, i.e sounds not of interest for communication purposes, which impedes the ability to communicate due to interfering sounds. Noise can be removed from the signal if it is known and so this work has evaluated different ways of estimating the characteristics of the background noise. Focus was put on using speech detection to define the noise, i.e. the non-speech part of the signal, but other methods not solely reliant on speech detection but rather on characteristics of the noisy speech signal were included. The implemented techniques were compared and evaluated to the current solution utilized by the teleconference phone in two ways, firstly for their speech detection ability and secondly for their ability to correctly estimate the noise characteristics. The evaluation process was based on simulations of the methods' performance in various noise conditions, ranging from harsh to mild environments. It was shown that the proposed method showed improvement over the existing solution, as implemented in this study, in terms of speech detection ability and for the noise estimate it showed improvement in certain conditions. It was also concluded that using the proposed method would enable two sources of noise estimation compared to the current single estimation source and it was suggested to investigate how utilizing two noise estimators could affect the performance.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Statistics / Paul I. Nelson / The null hypothesis of equal distributions, H0 : F1[equals]F2[equals]...[equals]FK , is commonly used to compare two or more treatments based on data consisting of independent random samples. Using this approach, evidence of a difference among the treatments may be reported even though from a practical standpoint their effects are indistinguishable, a longstanding problem in hypothesis testing. The concept of effect size is widely used in the social sciences to deal with this issue by computing a unit-free estimate of the magnitude of the departure from H0 in terms of a change in location. I extend this approach by replacing H0 with hypotheses H0* that state that the distributions {Fi} are possibly different in location and or scale, but close, so that rejection provides evidence that at least one treatment has an important practical effect. Assessing statistical significance under H0* is difficult and typically requires inference in the presence of nuisance parameters. I will use frequentist, Bayesian and Fiducial modes of inference to obtain approximate tests and carry out simulation studies of their behavior in terms of size and power. In some cases a bootstrap will be employed. I will focus on tests based on independent random samples arising from K[greater than and equals]3 normal distributions not required to have the same variances to generalize the K[equals]2 sample parameter P(X1>X2) and non-centrality type parameters that arise in testing for the equality of means.

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Prior to 30 June 1999 companies in South Africa were not allowed to buy back their own shares. Amendments to the Companies Act, the Companies Amendment Act (Act 37 of 1999) radically changed the philosophy around capital maintenance. The result of this amendment is that a company is allowed to buy back its own shares and finance the backbuying of its shares under certain circumstances. A sample of 140 companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange for the period 2000 to 2005 was selected. The backbuying of shares by the relevant company, subsidiary and trust was analysed for the period 2000 to 2005. For the purposes of this empirical study, the financial sector, as well as the alternative exchange, that is focussed on good quality small and medium-sized high growth companies, were excluded during sample selection. The outcome of this exploratory study is the identification of the fact that a share buyback took place or not in Tables 4.1 and 4.2; a summary of the number of shares bought back in Table 4.3; and, in Table 4.4, a summary of the number of shares bought back, expressed as a percentage of the weighted average number of shares in issue. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Maatskappye in Suid-Afrika was voor 30 Junie 1999 deur die Maatskappywet verbied om hul eie aandele terug te koop. Wysigings aan die Maatskappywet, naamlik die Wysigingswet op Maatskappye (wet 37 van 1999) het ’n radikale verandering bewerkstellig in die filosofie rakende kapitaalinstandhouding. Die gevolg van dié wysigingswetgewing is dat maatskappye sedert 30 Junie 1999 hul eie aandele kan terugkoop en in sekere omstandighede die aankoop van hul eie aandele finansier. ’n Steekproef van 140 genoteerde maatskappye op die Johannesburgse Aandelebeurs is geselekteer vir die tydperk 2000 tot 2005. Die terugkooptransaksies van aandele deur die betrokke maatskappy, filiaal en trust is opgesom vir die tydperk 2000 tot 2005. Hierdie empiriese ondersoek het die finansiële sektor, asook die alternatiewe beurs van die Johannesburgse Aandelebeurs, wat fokus op goeie kwaliteit klein en mediumgrootte maatskappye met groot groeipotensiaal, tydens die steekproefseleksie uitgesluit. Die resultate van hierdie empiriese ondersoek is die identifisering en opsomming van die terugkooptransaksies van aandele vir die steekproef in Tabelle 4.1 en 4.2; ’n opsomming in Tabel 4.3 van die getal aandele teruggekoop; en ’n opsomming in Tabel 4.4 van die getal aandele teruggekoop, uitgedruk as ’n persentasie van die gemiddelde getal uitgereikte aandele.

Les tests de dispositifs de communication sans fil peuvent être réalisés en utilisant des simulations numériques ou des sondeurs de canaux. Bien que ne reflétant pas un environnement électromagnétique réaliste, une chambre réverbérante peut néanmoins émuler un canal de propagation comparable à un cas réel si l’on modifie convenablement ses propriétés. Les propriétés des signaux générés dans une chambre réverbérante sont fonction de différents paramètres. Au cours des trois années de thèse, nous avons analysé et mis en oeuvre plusieurs techniques pour mesurer et contrôler ces paramètres à l’intérieur d’une chambre réverbérante. D’abord, différents estimateurs du facteur K sont testés et leurs propriétés sont évaluées. Nous présentons les limites de fonctionnement utiles dans lesquelles différents estimateurspeuvent être utilisés. Ensuite, nous proposons deux nouveaux estimateurs qui utilisent comme données d’entrée seulement l’enveloppe du signal. Ils apportent en outre des améliorations sur la gamme des valeurs détectables du facteur K. Une des possibilités pour contrôler un canal de propagation à l’intérieur d’une chambre réverbérante est d’utiliser des matériaux absorbants. Nous présentons une méthode pour estimer la surface équivalente moyenne d’absorption en utilisant une seule antenne. Cette méthode exploite la mesure de la bande de cohérence du canal de propagation. Ensuite, nous étendons notre analyse à la prédiction de la surface équivalente moyenne d’absorption lorsqueles dimensions géométriques et les propriétés électromagnétiques des absorbants sont connues. On crée ensuite un modèle de canal de propagation en exploitant les régimes transitoire et permanent du signal. Avec ce modèle, selon les informations disponibles, on peut extraire le facteur K, la surface équivalente moyenne d’absorption et différents paramètres temporels (i.e., profil de l’étalement des retards). Nous poursuivons avec deux applications possibles des chambres réverbérantes. Tout d’abord, on évalue le gain d’une antenne à partir de mesures du coefficient de réflexion decette antenne. Nous étendons notre analyse à l’évaluation du diagramme de rayonnement de l’antenne et de son erreur d’estimation. Nous estimons aussi la désadaptation de l’antenne et son ouverture à 3 dB. La deuxième application porte sur l’évaluation du gain de diversité dans la chambre réverbérante. Nous isolons les influences des efficacités des antennes, des puissances des composantes brassées, et des facteurs K sur l’évaluation du gain de diversité.On obtient une relation simple de la corrélation de puissance en fonction de la corrélation complexe lorsque les facteurs K sur différents branches ne sont pas identiques. Nous montrons que lors d’un fort déséquilibre de facteur K il est impossible de conclure sur le gain de diversité à partir de la seule évaluation de la corrélation d’enveloppe ou de puissance. À l’aide de simulations statistiques on compare le gain de diversité mesuré avec les valeurs simulées. / The testing of wireless devices is generally done using numerical simulations or channel sounders. Though a reverberation chamber does not reflect a real transmission environment, its properties can also be appropriately modifiedto emulate one. This emulation may be achieved thanks to various parameters. Our PhD thesis has been devoted toanalyze and implement several techniques to measure and control these parameters inside reverberation chambers.First we evaluate different K-factor estimators and their capabilities. We present the useful limits in which severalcomplex, phase and envelope K-factor estimators can be used. Then, we propose two new envelope-based estimatorsimproving the useful range of detectable values of K-factor. One of the possibilities to control a propagation channel inside areverberation chamber is to use absorbing materials. We present a method to estimate the average absorbing crosssection by using only one antenna. This is done with measurements of coherence bandwidth of the channel. Then,we extend our analysis to predict the average absorbing cross section when we know the physical dimensions of aparallelepiped absorber as well its electromagnetic properties. Next, we create a model of the reverberation chamberpropagation channel using the transient regime and steady state of the signal. With this model, depending on the availableinformation, we can extract the K-factor, the average absorbing cross section and different time spreads parameters (i.e., mean delay spread and the root mean square delay spread). We continue with two possible applications of the reverberation chamber. First, we evaluate the gain of an antenna from only the measurement of reflection coefficient. We extend our analysis to the evaluation of antenna pattern and its estimation errors. We also estimate the antenna mismatch and half power beamwidth. The second application deals with the evaluation of the diversity gain in reverberation chamber. We isolate the effects on the diversity gain due to different antenna efficiencies, stirred powers and K-factors. Then, we estimate a simple relation of the power correlation as a function of the complex correlation when the K-factors on different branches are not identical. We show that using an envelope/power correlation as a criterion to characterize the diversity may bias the conclusions without taking into account other parameters. Using statistical simulations we compare the measured diversity gain with the simulated values.