The Medical Examiner of Virginia (ME) dataset and the Virginia Department of Forensic Science Driving Under the Influence of Drugs (DUI) datasets were used to determine whether people have the potential to develop tolerances to diphenhydramine, cocaine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone, and morphine. These datasets included the years 2000-2004 and were used to compare the concentrations of these six drugs between people who died from a drug-related cause of death (of the drug of interest) and people who were pulled over for driving under the influence. Three drug pattern groups were created to divide each of the six drug-specific datasets in order to compare concentrations between individuals with the drug alone, the drug and ethanol, or a poly pharmacy of drugs (multiple drugs). An ANOVA model was used to determine if there was an interaction effect between the source dataset (ME or DUI) and the drug pattern groups. For diphenhydramine and cocaine, an interaction was statistically significant, but for the other drugs, it was not significant. The other four drug-specific datasets showed that the DUI and ME were statistically significantly different from each other, and all of those datasets except for methadone showed that there was a statistically significant difference between at least two drug pattern groups. Showing that all of these datasets showed differences between the ME and DUI datasets did not provide sufficient evidence to suggest the development of tolerances to each of the six drugs. One exception was with methadone because there were 14 individuals that had what is defined as a "clinical 'lethal' blood concentration". These individuals provide some evidence for the possibility of developing tolerances.The main outcomes of this study include suggesting changes to make to the ME datasets and the DUI datasets with regard to the way data is kept and collected. Several problems with the fields of these datasets arose before beginning the analysis and had to be corrected. Some of the changes suggested are currently being considered at the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner as they are beginning to restructure their database.

Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous optons pour une recherche de la responsabilité pénale du dirigeant d’entreprise s'articulant autour des deux plus grandes infractions du droit pénal de l'entreprise : l'abus de biens sociaux et la banqueroute. Au-delà de l'étude de ces deux infractions présentant de nombreux points communs, ces deux incriminations ont donné lieu à une jurisprudence abondante et critiquée, tant leurs éléments manquent encore cruellement de clarté. Nous mettons ainsi l’accent sur le fait que ces incriminations apparaissent d'une certaine complexité liées notamment aux notions d'intérêt social et d'intérêt personnel non définit par le législateur. Cette complexité a dès lors pour conséquence de nuire d'abord à l'information des dirigeants sociaux et ne les incite pas suffisamment à modifier leurs comportements. Elle perturbe ensuite l'office du juge pénal en le menant à une analyse trop extensive. Quant aux sanctions pénales, elles semblent, a priori, insuffisantes ou inadaptées puisque les statistiques judiciaires1 révèlent une augmentation conséquente et constante des condamnations. Les exigences de clarté, de prévisibilité, de dissuasion et de réparation dans leurs textes d’incriminations et la jurisprudence qui en découle sont remises en cause, une réflexion globale s’impose. / The two biggest criminal infragement : misuses of company assets and bankruptcy. Beyond the study of those two infragements having many common threads, those two incriminations resulted to a plentiful and criticized jurisprudence because they still lack of clarity. In that respect we highlight that those infragements appears with a certain complexity related to social interest and personal interest undefined by the legislator. In that respect we highlight that those infragements appears with a certain complexity related to social interest and personal interest undefined by the legislator. This complexity harms the information for company executive and do not motivate them to change their behaviour. It disrupts the penal justice, leading to a too extensive analysis. As for the criminal sanctions, they seem inadequate since judicial statistics shows a consistent and constant increase of criminal sentences. The clarity demand, the predictability, the dissuasion, and reparation in their criminalization texts and the resulting jurisprudence reconsideration are call into questions. A total reflexion appears revelant.

The aim of this study was to investigate how social workers on a Chief Guardian unit work from their conditions when recruiting guardians. More specifically, we wanted to see how the law, the practise and the professionals’ tacit knowledge affect their judgement of guardians and how the organisation and the government of the Chief Guardian unit affect their work. The Chief Guardian unit is a municipal supervisor that control and supervise the work of the guardian. Media has criticized the Chief Guardian unit, by highlighting examples of unfit guardians. The Swedish National Audit Office (Riksrevisionen) has expressed a number of shortcomings of the supervision by the County administrative boards of Sweden (Länsstyrelsen). Because the Chief Guardian units lack a common governmental monitoring, internal solutions are created by every individual unit. In this qualitative study we have tried to understand how the social workers practise their profession. Through semi-structured interviews with eight social workers in three different Chief Guardian units, we have interpreted the views of their work. The theoretical framework was primarily founded on Polanyi´s theory of tacit knowledge and the ideas of occupational and organizational professionalism. The results of our study showed that the reality for the social workers is a mix of occupational and organizational professionalism. All the informants describe their work as heavily controlled by laws and regulations, but with a certain freedom of how to conduct their work. They find the tacit knowledge and the collegial support very important when it comes to assessing guardians. All the informants state that an organizational change is crucial to guarantee the legal security of guardians and caretakers.

Magister Commercii - MCom (Business and Finance) / The dawn of democracy in South Africa (SA) in 1994 i.e. post-apartheid era came with inherent societal gender deficiencies and in all Sectors of the SA economy women experienced challenges. Specifically in the Banking Sector women were under represented in leadership and executive positions. The legal framework changed to correct the inequalities of the past resulting in various charters encouraging the private and public sector to transform.

Submitted by Elba Lopes (elba.lopes@fecap.br) on 2018-01-16T15:55:23Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Adolpho Cyriaco Nunes de Souza Neto.pdf: 806566 bytes, checksum: 3ab6b4aea584e8eb38a7bd6f6199c151 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-01-16T15:55:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Adolpho Cyriaco Nunes de Souza Neto.pdf: 806566 bytes, checksum: 3ab6b4aea584e8eb38a7bd6f6199c151 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-20 / This study intends to verify the presence of earnings management (EM) in the periods surrounding CEO changes in Brazil. Earnings management can be defined as the use of managerial discretion when making accounting choices, within the limits of the standards, with the intention of producing a skewed view of the entity???s earnings to obtain gains. The work is classified as an explanatory research, with a quantitative and empirical approach, and uses the financial results of 227 companies listed on the BM&FBOVESPA between 2010 and 2016. For the CEO who is leaving the company, the reasons for undertaking earnings management include, among others, the possible need to hide a poor performance, obtain financial advantages, and build a successful professional image. In the case of the CEO who enters the company, the EM can be used to establish a depressed earnings base in the year of his/her entry, improving the conditions to present an evolution of earnings in later years. In order to verify these hypotheses, two EM detection models based on accruals were used, the modified Jones and the modified Jones with ROA. The results of the study demonstrate that, although there is no evidence that the average EM level is influenced by the CEO being in his/her last year in office, there was a statistically significant presence of earnings management in the first year of the incoming CEO with the intention of reducing reported profits, confirming the hypothesis of creating a depressed comparison basis so that the earnings of subsequent years are analyzed more favorably. / Esse estudo busca averiguar a presen??a do gerenciamento de resultados (GR) nos per??odos afetados pela substitui????o de CEOs no Brasil. O gerenciamento de resultados pode ser definido pelo uso da discricionariedade gerencial na realiza????o de escolhas cont??beis, dentro dos limites da norma, com a inten????o de produzir um resultado enviesado da entidade, buscando a obten????o de benef??cios. O trabalho classifica-se como uma pesquisa explicativa, com abordagem quantitativa e g??nero emp??rico, e utiliza os resultados financeiros de 227 companhias listadas na BM&FBOVESPA entre os anos de 2010 a 2016. Para o CEO que est?? deixando a empresa, as raz??es para realizar o gerenciamento de resultados incluem, entre outras, a poss??vel necessidade de ocultar uma performance ruim, obten????o de vantagens financeiras e a constru????o de imagem de profissional bem-sucedido. No caso do CEO que ingressa na empresa, o GR pode ser utilizado para estabelecer uma base de resultados deprimida no ano de sua entrada, visando melhorar as condi????es para apresentar uma evolu????o dos resultados nos anos posteriores. Para a verifica????o dessas hip??teses foram utilizados dois modelos de detec????o do GR baseados em accruals, o Jones Modificado e o Jones Modificado com ROA. Os resultados demonstram que, apesar de n??o haverem evid??ncias que o n??vel m??dio de GR ?? influenciado pelo CEO em seu ??ltimo ano no cargo, detectou-se a presen??a, estatisticamente significante, do gerenciamento de resultados no primeiro ano do CEO entrante com a inten????o de redu????o do lucro corrente reportado, confirmando a hip??tese de criar uma base de compara????o deprimida para que os resultados dos anos subsequentes sejam analisados de maneira mais favor??vel.

Water pollution has become a global issue with impacts in all countries but particularly those undergoing rapid urbanisation such as China. The review for this thesis established that in 2015 China had 3,910 urban treatment plants with daily treatment capacity of 167million cubic metres. This treatment capacity was able to serve more than 90% of the population in urban regions. Compared to the previous 20 years, these treatment facilities represented a major improvement. However, the thesis uses recent annual environmental reports to show that this level of treatment is still not enough to avoid serious water pollution, more than 30% of Chinese rivers were classified as polluted. The main reason for this it is suggested is that most of treatment infrastructure is for urban areas and the rural areas still lack even basic treatment and rural communities represents about half the total Chinese population. The statistics reported in Chapter 2.1 indicates only 25.3% of towns and 11% of villages are connected to treatment facilities. It was concluded that this lower treatment rate was the major factor impacting on the water environment. Therefore, it is important to improve treatment infrastructure in China remote areas. The literature suggested that trickling filter (TF) technology had advantages as wastewater treatment in this type of situation namely Chinese rural areas. This thesis therefore reports on research to upgrade the TF basic processes to remove newly prioritized nutrient pollutants using novel, sustainable and easily available local media, these were; zeolite, maifan stone, recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), brick, blast furnace slag and dolomite. The media were screened using simple absorption tests first focussing on P removal and then a short-listed group tested under dynamic pilot scale. Further static experiments were carried out on this group to understand the mechanisms involved. The pilot tests used the selected concrete and brick. The best performers against traditional media controls and the results showed pollutant removal (COD, TSS, Turbidity, TOC and N) in line with previous models. The media, except concrete, however released phosphorus. This was further confirmed by batch tests with different operating conditions which found the media released P when the initial P concentration was below 10mg/l or above 15mg/l. Concrete was not affected and continued to adsorb P under all conditions (Chapter 4). It was recommended that tests using crushed concrete for tertiary treatment be carried out. Concrete was further studies by isotherm models the best fit was the Langmuir equation with a maximum adsorption of 6.88mg/g. The mechanism of adsorption was ionic attraction determined by kinetic study and thermodynamic models. The adsorption capacity was compared with other literature, and the results from this study suggested a larger size of crushed concrete (2-5mm) could be used for P removal as effectively as smaller sizes. In order to determine the phase of the P adsorbed, sequential extractions were carried out. The results confirmed labile or easily removed P (LBP) dominated (44%) followed by refractory or occluded P (O-P), Ca-P, Mg-P and Al-P. The literature, suggested LBP would be easily available to plants and the RCA could be reused for plant nutrient supply. Different grades of RCA in terms of their original water to cement ratio (W/C) were also tested for P removal. The study showed high W/C ratio removed more P due to the greater porosity and larger pore sizes than the lower W/C ratio.

No description available.

This research project examines how managers in local-government-owned business organisations justify their adoption of an entrepreneurial orientation and their interpretation of their role in entrepreneurial terms. To explore these justifications, interviews were conducted with the senior management of four local-government- owned business operations and one local council. They were: Metrowater, The Edge, Taieri Gorge Railway, Chatham Islands Council and Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust. These interviews were then analysed, utilising a critical discourse method. In addition, interviews were also conducted with senior managers in the Rotorua District Council and Taupo District Council who provided a sharp contrast to the former organisations and suggested a means by which the neo-liberal approach within the sector might be countered. Through speaking with the various local govermnent business managers contacted for this project, I concluded that managers of local-government-owned business operations have a strong institutional identification with the private sector. This identity is so strong that many of the managers interviewed have rejected the very notion that they are public employees of any sort. The managers have adopted an entrepreneurial approach because they see this as essential to gain professional legitimacy with their peers in the private sector. This has caused them to place distance between themselves and the owners of the business that they manage (that is, the councils), and the local citizens they ostensibly serve, to the extent that they have described their job as providing goods and services to customers rather than providing services for citizens. I will show that the adoption of such an attitude is inappropriate when placed within the context of local-government-owned and operated business concerns. From the point of view of European settlement, New Zealand is a very young country, especially in the administrative sector. To provide a background to this project and to suggest the main lines of development of local government in New Zealand, I have included a prologue that outlines the history of local government in New Zealand.

The CEO bonus of banking companies has become a hot media topic around the world accelerated by the recent financial crisis of 2007-2008 where the excessive pay and risk-taking in the banking sector were recognized. This has raised public concerns around executive remuneration and the transparency of the companies. According to the regulations, the bonus of the CEO is indexed to the firm´s performance. However, the compensation of many CEO’s has been paid out during the financial crisis although the firms have lost money. This has consequently led to rigorous regulations of the financial institutions with the attempt to ensure long-term focus and consider outstanding risk through variable remuneration payments.   Although the remuneration, and specifically annual bonus, has caught a lot of attention by the public and the media, it has been mostly overlooked by regulatory authorities and academics up until today. This research represents the first attempt to examine the disclosure and transparency of CEO annual bonus plans of twenty leading EU banks through the employment of in-depth and descriptive approach.. The purpose of this study is to explore the issue of CEO annual bonus plan with respect to the disclosure of the information provided in the banking companies’ financial reports of 2011. The level of transparency of the companies are scrutinized and measured accordingly to five bonus features, which may contribute to the transparency of annual bonus plans. The bonus plan is regarded as transparent if the majority of the following bonus criteria are fulfilled by the companies; (1) the application of simple targets through a single performance condition; (2) the application of published targets accessible to shareholders; (3) the disclosure of methods applied in order for shareholders and other stakeholders to determine whether the given performance target(s) has been fulfilled; (4) bonus payments in form of cash; (5) the disclosure of annual bonus cap.   The findings of this study show that a significant part of the banks can be considered as non-transparent due to the failure of fulfilling the given bonus plan features, meaning that the issue of disclosure and transparency of annual bonus plans should raise concern for shareholders and regulators, both on the EU-level and nationally. This study evidently shows that the level of information disclosed as to bonus plans of CEO various tremendously between the countries and sometimes also between the companies in the same country, which indicate the issue of disclosure and transparency of annual bonus plans need to be enhanced through regulations.

In an information era of new knowledge-based economy, how should the traditional medical industry respond? Do medical professionals have any awareness of knowledge management? If yes, what is their attitude towards knowledge? What are the features? Based on the infusion methodology of knowledge management, if a hospital seeks to adopt an information system for knowledge management (KM), the hospital will have to go through the process of integrating the strategy, the process, the information technology and the awareness of the people and the organization. Subjects of this study were medical professionals, and Arthur Andersen¡¦s knowledge management model was taken as reference. The structure of the study is divided into two sections, i.e. ¡§employees¡¦ awareness of knowledge management¡¨ and ¡§employees¡¦ awareness of the hospital¡¦s knowledge management¡¨. In the former section, factor analysis reveals that medical professionals tend to view knowledge management as the planning and integration of personal knowledge management. Medical professionals recognize that knowledge is an important personal asset, and some inexpressible tacit knowledge still exists in one¡¦s knowledge that needs to be valued. Furthermore, they also believe that in order to increase the value of knowledge assets, it is necessary to share knowledge. In the latter section, factor analysis reveals that medical professionals recognize that a hospital should have a properly planned process to gain knowledge and should create an innovative and practical environment to accumulate knowledge-based assets for the hospital. As for personal property, in the section of ¡§employees¡¦ awareness of knowledge management¡¨, the study manifests obvious difference on the variables of personal property which includes scale of hospital, age, gender, working years, educational background, type of work and management post. On the other hand, the study shows that in the section of ¡§employees¡¦ awareness of the hospitals¡¦ knowledge management¡¨, there is obvious difference on the variables of personal property including scale of hospital, age, working year, educational background while the property of the gender, type of work and management post remain relatively the same. Moreover, the study also shows that if employees are more satisfied with the self-awareness of knowledge management, they are more likely to agree with every dimensions of the knowledge management of the hospital they work in. On the other hand, if all dimensions of the hospital¡¦s knowledge management are recognized by the employees, the variable of the self-awareness of knowledge management reflected on the employees will also be positive. This demonstrates that the demand of employee¡¦s personal awareness will be influenced by the working environment, and vice versa. Outstanding employees will affect the operation performance of the hospital. Similarly, a properly managed hospital will enhance the performance of the employees. It is apparent that the two are related to each other from the feature analysis of the study. Thus, if the hospital can invest in improving the structure of the knowledge assets of the hospital and enhance education and propagation, any improvement of the ability of knowledge management of either employers or employees will definitely benefit the other party. In regards to the four elements including the promotion of knowledge management, high-level leadership enterprise culture, information technology and measurement indicators, the canonical correlation analysis and the regression analysis show that the four elements have been highly approved by the medical professionals. In terms of high-level leadership, the establishment of the Chief Knowledge Office (CKO) has been applauded by the employees. At the meantime, the employees¡¦ ability of using computers and the willingness of sharing information have been greatly influenced by the culture of the enterprise. As for information technology, the information reveals the close relationship between the employees¡¦ ability of using computer and the result of the hospital performance of using the information technology. For measurement indicators, in order to make medical professionals recognize the introduction of knowledge management, performance evaluation of all phases of the introduction of knowledge management should be properly conducted. It is recommended by the study to adopt the theory of the balanced scorecard to be the measurement indicators for evaluation the practical performance of the three components of knowledge assets because the framework of both theories are quite similar. Furthermore, the study reveals that employees who have worked longer and who are older will be more likely to recogize the management of knowledge self-supervision and are more willing to share their knowledge. Apparently, when a hospital tries to introduce knowledge management to the employees, it will be more efficient and more effective if the hospital can make full use of the participation of senior employees.