In this retrospective study, medical records of 47 consecutive patients (94 eyes) who underwent simultaneous bilaterale small-incision cataract surgery between januar 2010 and December 2015 in outreach surgical camps in rural Cameroon were reviwed. At the 4 week follow-up, 84,04% of the eyes showed increased visual acuity of one line or more. No cases of post operative endophtalmitis were recorded. Under the strict observation of endophtalmitis prophylaxis, simultaneous bilaterale small-incision cataract surgery is an option to reduce the cataract blindness backlog in rural areas of developing countries.

This thesis contributes to a better understanding of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). The second Chapter investigates the potential downside of BITs on sovereign default risk. The legal risk of arbitral proceedings imposed by BITs might increase sovereign default risk. This risk channel is especially relevant in countries with low executive constraints. Even if a sovereign does not expropriate, there may be negative effects on sovereign bond prices. Thus, sovereign debt may become more expensive after a BIT signature. The third Chapter investigates how BITs affect foreign portfolio equity investment. BITs with strong investor protection increase bilateral portfolio equity investments in countries with high political risk. In low-risk countries, no effect is detected. Policymakers should consider their political risk when deciding on investment treaties. When the political risk is low, one cannot expect an investment-enhancing effect from BITs. The fourth Chapter encourages policymakers to comply with concluded investment treaties. The first arbitral proceeding permanently lowers the bilateral portfolio investments, even from countries not involved in the investment dispute. A conviction of the host state seriously deters foreign portfolio investors. However, initiating proceedings and decisions favoring the respondent state can also deter some portfolio investors. Concerning portfolio investments, policymakers should avoid arbitral proceedings as far as possible.

Bilateral cochlear implantation is accepted medical practice since 2008 in clinically suitable adults and children to enhance bilateral processing benefits. Bilateral implantation may lead to the restoration of some bilateral hearing advantages, such as improved speech recognition in noise, localisation, head shadow effect, summation, and squelch. The majority of the advantages stated in literature, though, are characteristic of the simultaneously implanted cochlear implant population. Simultaneous implantation is not yet a reality in South Africa due to funding constraints, therefore determining the bilateral processing abilities in sequentially implanted adults is essential. Determining bilateral processing benefits achievable with sequential implantation could result in evidence-based recommendations in terms of candidacy considerations, surgery protocols, motivations for medical aid funding for simultaneous cochlear implantation, and relevant measures to determine the bilateral processing benefit attainable. Furthermore, it might enhance audiologists‟ insight regarding post-implantation performance of sequentially implanted patients and enable them to counsel prospective candidates realistically. The aaim of this study was to determine the bilateral benefit attained by sequentially implanted adults. A quantitative, cross-sectional research approach was followed in a one group post-test-only exploratory research design. A purposive convenient sampling method with specified selection criteria was used to select 11 adult clients of an established cochlear implant programme in Pretoria. Tests of sound localisation in the horizontal plane and speech perception in noise were performed. During the test of sound localisation, performance with only the first or only the second implant was found to be very similar. For the majority of participants the second cochlear implant (CI 2) was the superior performing implant during xviii speech perception in noise testing, in spatially separated speech and noise conditions where noise was directed to the first implant, as well as in spatially coincident speech and noise. A statistical significant bilateral benefit (p < 0.05) was attained by sequentially implanted adults for sound localisation. A bilateral benefit for speech perception in noise was observed when noise was directed to the first implant and in the diotic listening condition with average benefits of 1.69 dB and 0.78 dB, respectively. It was not statistically significant (p > 0.05), however, and was smaller than bilateral benefit values achieved by simultaneously implanted adults in previous studies. The head shadow effect at 180° was found to be the strongest and most robust bilateral spatial benefit. Squelch and summation benefit values ranged from negative values to 2 dB and 6 dB, respectively. This corresponded with values found in previous studies. The improvement in speech perception in spatially distinct speech and noise from adding the ear with a better SNR (signal to noise ratio) indicated that the contribution of CI 2 seems to be greater than that of CI 1 for bilateral spatial benefit. It can be concluded that adults with sequential implants may achieve some extent of bilateral benefit even with many years of unilateral implant use, when speech processors differ, when the second implant is done ≥ 10 years after the first implant, and in cases of prelingual deafness. A key benefit of sequential implantation appears to be related to the advantage of having hearing on both sides so that the ear with the more favourable environmental signalto-noise ratio is always available. AFRIKAANS : Bilaterale kogleêre inplanting is sedert 2008 aanvaarde mediese praktyk vir klinies geskikte volwassenes en kinders, ten einde bilaterale prosesseringsvoordeel te verhoog. Bilaterale inplanting kan lei tot die herstel van sommige van die voordele van bilaterale gehoor, soos verbeterde spraakherkenning in lawaai, klanklokalisering, die kopskadueffek, sommering en selektiewe onderdrukking (“squelch”). Die meeste van die voordele wat in die literatuur bespreek word, is egter kenmerkend van dié persone by wie twee kogleêre inplantings gelyktydig gedoen is. Gelyktydige inplanting is as gevolg van beperkte befondsing nog nie in Suid-Afrika 'n werklikheid nie, daarom is dit noodsaaklik om te bepaal watter bilaterale prosesseringsvoordele by opeenvolgend-geïnplanteerde volwassenes voorkom. Die bepaling van watter bilaterale prosesseringsvoordele met opeenvolgende inplanting bereik kan word, sou kon lei tot getuienis-gebaseerde aanbevelings met betrekking tot besluite oor die geskiktheid van kandidate, protokol vir sjirurgie, motiverings vir die befondsing van gelyktydige kogleêre inplantings deur mediese voorsorgfondse, en toepaslike maatstawwe om te bepaal watter mate van bilaterale prosesseringsvoordeel haalbaar sou wees. Dit sou verder oudioloë se insig kon verbreed met betrekking tot die na-operatiewe prestasie van opeenvolgend-geïnplanteerde persone en hulle sodoende in staat stel om voornemende kandidate van realistiese raad te bedien. Die doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal wat die bilaterale prosesseringsvoordele is wat deur opeenvolgend-geïnplanteerde volwassenes verkry kan word. 'n Kwantitatiewe navorsingsbenadering met 'n dwarsprofiel van „n enkelgroep is gevolg, met 'n post-toets verkennende navorsingsontwerp. 'n Doelgerigte gerieflikheidssteekproef met 'n gespesifiseerde seleksiekriteria is gebruik om 11 volwasse kliënte van 'n gevestigde kogleêre inplantprogram in Pretoria te selekteer. Klanklokalisering in die horisontale vlak en die waarneming van spraak in lawaai is getoets. Tydens die toets vir klanklokalisering is gevind dat prestasie met slegs die eerste of slegs die tweede inplanting soortgelyk was. Vir die meeste deelnemers aan die studie het die tweede kogleêre inplanting (KI 2) die beste prestasie gelewer tydens spraakwaarneming in lawaai, in omstandighede waar spraak en lawaai ruimtelik geskei is en die lawaai op die eerste inplanting gerig is, asook in omstandighede waar spraak en lawaai ruimtelik saamvoorkomend aangebied is. 'n Statisties beduidende bilaterale voordeel (p < 0.05) is deur opeenvolgend-geïnplanteerde volwassenes vir klanklokalisering behaal. 'n Bilaterale voordeel vir spraakwaarneming in lawaai is waargeneem waar lawaai op die eerste inplanting gerig is en ook in diotiese luistertoestande, met 'n gemiddelde voordeel van 1.69 dB en 0.78 dB, onderskeidelik. Dit was egter nie statisties beduidend nie en was ook kleiner as die bilaterale voordeelwaardes wat in vorige studies deur gelyktydig-geïnplanteerde volwassenes behaal is. Die kopskadu-effek by 180° was die sterkste en mees robuuste bilaterale ruimtelike voordeel. Voordeelwaardes vir selektiewe onderdrukking en sommering het gewissel van negatiewe waardes tot 2 dB en 6 dB onderskeidelik. Dit stem ooreen met waardes wat in vorige studies gevind is. Die verbetering in spraakwaarneming in ruimtelik geskeide spraak en lawaai wat verkry is deur die oor met 'n beter STR (sein-tot-ruis ratio) by te voeg, het daarop gedui dat die bydrae van KI 2 tot bilaterale ruimtelike voordeel waarskynlik groter as die bydrae van KI 1 is. Die gevolgtrekking kan gemaak word dat volwassenes met opeenvolgende inplantings 'n mate van bilaterale voordeel verkry selfs na vele jare van unilaterale inplantingsgebruik, wanneer die spraakprosesseerders in die twee inplantings van mekaar verskil, wanneer die tweede inplanting ≥ 10 jaar na die eerste plaasvind, en in gevalle van prelinguale doofheid. 'n Sleutelvoordeel van opeenvolgende inplanting hou klaarblyklik verband met die voordeel van gehoor aan albei kante te hê sodat die oor met die gunstigste sein-tot-lawaai ratio altyd beskikbaar is. / Dissertation (MCommunication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / Unrestricted

In der Magisterarbeit spricht man ueber die Restitution in vertraeglichen Beziehungen. Man bringt die Herkunft des Instituts von Restitution in altere Roma vor, man analysiert der Begriff der Restitution und seine juristischen Natur in Litauen und der Zivilrecht des Auslands. Der Autor beschreibt kurz die Art und Weise des Restitution. Am meistens schenkt man die Aufmerksamkeit eingehender Analyse der Grundlage von der Anwendung der Restitution in vertraeglichen Beziehungen. In der Praxis am haeufigsten ist vorkommende Grundlage die Ungueltigkeit des Geschaeftes, ueber sie am meistens spricht man in der Arbeit.

Die Organisation von Handelsstrukturen bringt seit je her weitreichende soziale, politische sowie ökonomische Implikationen mit sich. Da die zugrundeliegenden Dynamiken von Handelssystemen a priori unbekannt sind bieten Konzepte aus der Theorie komplexer Systeme nützliche Werkzeuge, um neue Muster zu entdecken, sowie neue Hypothesen zu den Vorgängen innerhalb der Handelssysteme zu entwickeln. Einen nützlichen Ansatz stellen dabei komplexe Netzwerke dar, da Handelsströme zwischen ökonomischen Einheiten sinnvoll als Knoten und Verbindungen im Netzwerk darstellbar sind. In dieser Arbeit erweitern wir spezielle Methoden auf komplexen Netzwerken, um die Netzwerk-Topologie des Handels auf globaler und auf nationaler Ebene zu untersuchen. Auf dem Level einzelner Industriesektoren erhalten wir neue Einblicke in die topologische Struktur des internationalen Handelsnetzwerks. Dazu führen wir neue Netzwerkmaße ein, welche die Funktion von Knoten in Subgraphen unter dem Blickwinkel, dass das Gesamtsystem durch ein Netzwerk aus mehreren Subnetzwerken dargestellt wird, beschreiben. Im Zuge der Globalisierung gewinnen bilaterale Handelsabkommen bei Entscheidungsträgern an Aufmerksamkeit und werden in zunehmender Zahl verhandelt. Wir entwickeln in dieser Arbeit einen neuen Ansatz, um die Auswirkungen dieser Abkommen auf die beteiligten Ökonomien zu analysieren und zu quantifizieren. Weiterhin behandeln wir die Fragestellung, in welchem Maß Handel als ein Übermittler von Nachfrage- und Angebotsveränderungen auf andere Industrien angesehen werden kann. Schließlich betrachten wir Handelsnetzwerke auf der Ebene von einzelnen Firmen und beschreiben die Funktion von einzelnen Knoten, insbesondere deren Rolle innerhalb von 3er-Motiven. Obwohl alle Methoden und Maße, die wir im Zuge dieser Arbeit einführen, aus Fragen im Kontext des Handels motiviert sind, sind die methodischen Konzepte auf komplexe Netzwerke in anderen Forschungsrichtungen anwendbar. / The organization of trade and its patterns and structures have always had far reaching implications among social, political and economic dimensions. The underlying dynamics of trade systems are often a priori unknown and concepts from complex system theory provide useful tools to discover new patterns and to develop new hypotheses on the mechanisms of the system. Complex networks offer a particularly useful approach to trade systems, as trade flows between economic entities can be intuitively and meaningfully represented as nodes and links in a network. In this thesis, we extend specific methods of complex networks with a focus on the relations between different subnetworks to investigate the network topology of trade on both the global and national scale. On an aggregation level considering individual industries as nodes, we obtain new insights about the topological structure of the international trade network by introducing new network measures that characterize the roles of nodes in subnetworks from a network of networks perspective. During the process of globalization bilateral trade agreements have received rising attention among policy makers and have been negotiated at an increasing pace. Here, we develop a framework to analyze and quantify impacts of these agreements on the involved economies. A further question that we address is to what extent trade can be regarded as a mediator of demand and supply spillovers to other industries. Finally, we look into trade networks at the scale of individual business firms and describe the role of nodes with a focus on 3-node motifs. Although all new methods and measures introduced in this thesis are motivated by questions in the context of trade, the methodological concepts are widely applicable to complex networks of other research disciplines.

This paper analyzes the impact of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) on sovereign bond returns of 25 emerging markets from 1993 to 2016. Under a BIT, foreign investors can use an international arbitration scheme to enforce compensation claims against the domestic government in case of direct or indirect expropriation. We focus on the so far unexplored effects of legal risk associated with BITs on sovereign creditworthiness. We find small unconditional effects of BITs on sovereign bond returns. Taking the heterogeneity of BITs and political regimes into account, we find robust and strong negative effects. In countries with high political risk of expropriation (measured by low executive constraints), we find that the implementation of investor-friendly BITs is associated with a significantly negative impact on sovereign bond returns, accounting for roughly 15% of bond returns’ standard deviation.

We study the impact of US presidential election TV debates on intraday exchange rates of 96 currencies from 1996 to 2016. Expectations about protectionist measures are the main transmission channel of debate outcomes. Currencies of countries with high levels of bilateral foreign trade with the US depreciate if the election probability of the protectionist candidate increases during the debate. We rationalize our results in a model where a debate victory of a protectionist candidate raises expectations about future tariffs and reduces future net exports to the US, resulting in relative depreciation of currencies with high bilateral trade integration.

Interactions involving multiple parties and necessitating their agreement are pervasive in both market and non-market settings. As the number of participants increases, these situations become progressively complex to describe and analyze. Despite the prolific nature of such scenarios, a comprehensive conceptual framework addressing such settings is often lacking. The focus of this dissertation lies in a distinct type of multilateral interaction, where a commitment of a group, or a coalition, of participants is required for achieving a positive surplus. The analysis encompasses three scenarios, namely, government formation in parliamentary democracies, bilateral trading on a market with multiple buyers and sellers, and resource allocation in the US presidential campaign. This dissertation proposes an approach that provides axiomatic foundations for a theory of coalition formation in these settings, and, for two of these scenarios, simultaneously provides an empirically accurate forecast methodology.

No description available.