O foco desta pesquisa está em observar a influência social do catolicismo conservador no interior da Igreja no Brasil e, para além dos limites clericais, também no que diz respeito ao âmbito jurídico-político nacional. A ideia é analisar o possível prestígio daquelas alas católicas marcadamente ortodoxas e o seu potencial de persuasão, tanto no que se refere às fileiras institucionais eclesiásticas, quanto no que concerne às esferas propriamente estatais. Toma-se como ponto de partida a observação dos embates múltiplos do clero em reação à divulgação oficial do 3º Programa Nacional de Direitos Humanos (PNDH-3), em finais de 2009. Esse é o material específico da investigação. A escolha desse conjunto bem delimitado de acontecimentos tensos de produção de discursos não menos tensos baseia-se na constatação de uma certa singularidade histórica sua, na qual esses processos aparecem como que revestidos de características novas, para não dizer de um novo caráter, quando comparados com outras conjunturas nada remotas de relações Igreja- Estado em nosso país. / The subject of the forthcoming research is the social influence of conservative Catholicism within the Church in Brazil and, beyond clerical limits, also in the national legal and political system. The idea is to analyze Catholic conservatisms prestige and its potential ability to persuade, both with regard to institutional ecclesiastical ranks, as well as the state sectors. As a starting point, the research observes several of the clergys resistances that occur in reaction to the official release of the 3rd National Human Rights Program in late 2009. The research specifically focuses on these resistances. The observation of a unique history, in which these processes appear coated with new features, not to mention a new character when compared with other situations of church-state relations in our country, is the basis for the choice of this well-defined series of tense events, events that produce speeches equally tense.

Esta pesquisa investiga se os resultados contábeis de empresas publicados no Brasil apresentam reconhecimento tempestivo e assimétrico de perdas econômicas na ocorrência de sinais contemporâneos de mau desempenho, atributo de conservadorismo condicional. Através da análise de dados balanceados em painel, efetuaram-se regressões multivariadas utilizando os Modelos de Componentes Transitórios nos Lucros, de Apropriações Contábeis e Fluxos de Caixa, de Apropriações Discricionárias e modelos correlatos. Foram examinados os números contábeis de amostra de 110 Companhias de Capital Aberto e de 2.700 Companhias de Capital Fechado, coletada junto à SERASA, compreendendo o período de 1995 a 2004, abrangendo cerca de 20.000 demonstrações contábeis de sociedades por ações brasileiras. A tese de que os lucros publicados por essas empresas não contêm o atributo do conservadorismo condicional ? as empresas brasileiras não antecipam oportunamente o registro de perdas econômicas ? não pôde ser rejeitada aos níveis usuais de significância estatística. Adicionalmente, foram caracterizados, estatisticamente, evidências de gerenciamento de resultados contábeis, o que distingue o comportamento preponderantemente oportunista dos gestores responsáveis pela divulgação dos agregados contábeis. Ademais, tal característica assinala a baixa eficiência informacional das demonstrações contábeis em sua função de servir como suporte para a elaboração e o monitoramento de contratos entre as firmas e seus públicos de interesse. As companhias de capital fechado não apresentaram ? também com significância estatística ? diferenças relevantes na qualidade informacional de seus relatórios em relação às suas congêneres de capital aberto. Os resultados da pesquisa sugerem que condições institucionais locais ligadas às formas contratuais adotadas pelas firmas brasileiras não incentivam economicamente a demanda de informações contábeis publicadas para o monitoramento ex-post dos contratos com as empresas pesquisadas. Enfim, a ausência dos atributos dos relatórios contábeis aqui estudados conduz à ilação de que não são publicados com a intenção de reduzir a assimetria informacional existente entre agentes associados às firmas e os gestores destas. Ao contrário, pode-se aduzir que o comportamento observado busca preservar benefícios privados do controle das empresas para os gestores, não se constatando a presença de eficiência informacional nos relatórios contábeis pesquisados. / This research project examines whether the published numbers in the financial reports in Brazil present an asymmetric and timely recognition of economic losses upon occurrence of contemporary signs of a poor performance, which is an attribute of conditional conservatism. Through the analysis of balanced panel data, multivariate regressions were made using the Earnings Transitory Components, Accrual Accounting and Cash Flows and Discretionary Accrual Models and other correlative models. Financial reports of a sample of 110 public companies and 2,700 private companies were examined. These financial reports, encompassing about 20,000 financial statements of Brazilian corporations, were obtained from SERASA and covered the period 1995-2004. The thesis that the published profits by these companies do not contain the conditional conservatism attribute? the Brazilian companies do not timely anticipate economic losses? could not be rejected considering the usual levels of statistical significance. Moreover, evidence of earnings management have been statistically characterized, which points out a preponderantly opportunist behavior from the managers in charge of disclosing accounting numbers. Furthermore, such feature indicates poor informational efficiency of the accounting statements when used as a supporting tool for the preparation and monitoring of contracts between companies and their stakeholders. The closely-held companies did not show-- also with statistical significance-- relevant differences in the informational quality of their reports compared to other publiclyheld companies of similar nature. The results from the research suggest that local institutional conditions associated with contractual arrangements adopted by Brazilian companies do not economically encourage a demand for published accounting information for the ex-post monitoring of contracts with the researched companies. Finally, the absence of these accounting reports? attributes leads us to the conclusion that they are not published with the purpose of reducing informational asymmetry between agents associated with those companies and their managers. Otherwise, it can be inferred that this behavior aims to preserve the managers? private benefits of company?s control, not being observed informational efficiency in the researched financial reports.

Psychological biases in the form of sentiment can affect various economic decisions including accounting choices. Broadly defined, the term sentiment refers to unjustified beliefs about the future cash flow prospects of the firm (Baker and Wurgler 2006). Asymmetric timely loss recognition (ATLR) is particularly prone to managerial sentiment because the decision to recognize economic gains and losses is based, in part, on managers’ beliefs about the likelihood of future economic events affecting the firms. In this study, I examine the effect of psychological biases about future performance on current accounting choices via the effect of market-level managerial sentiment on ATLR. I find that ATLR decreases with managerial sentiment and that periods of high managerial sentiment are associated with lower concurrent write-offs but higher subsequent write-offs. This study enhances the implications of sentiment on firms’ accounting choices by identifying a time-varying macroeconomic determinant of ATLR that is based on psychological biases about future performance.

This paper uses the collapse of the junk bond market in the early 1990s as a natural experiment to examine the effect of asymmetric timely loss recognition (ATLR) on speculative-grade (SPG) firms' access to private debt markets and underinvestment. For a sample of 450 firm-years over the period 1988-1991, I find that SPG firms that recognize economic losses in a timelier fashion experience a smaller reduction in debt financing and investment from the pre- to post-collapse period relative to SPG firms that recognize economic losses in a less timely fashion. I also document that the effect of ATLR on debt financing and investment is more pronounced for SPG firms that lack collateral and are not followed by sell-side equity analysts. These findings support the notion that ATLR improves a firm's ability to access private debt markets, thereby attenuating underinvestment. They also suggest that both collateral and sell-side equity analysts serve as substitutes for ATLR to facilitate SPG firms' access to private debt markets. Further analyses reveal that ATLR increases for SPG firms from the pre- to post-collapse period and this increase is more pronounced for SPG firms with net issuance of debt. This evidence suggests that firms adjust ATLR to obtain debt financing in response to private lenders' demand for it.

I am investigating a New Age spiritual movement called the Law of Attraction that has been the source of recent media attention due to the recent publication of a self-help book called The Secret. The book investigates this phenomenon, which is a theory that takes positive thinking to the extreme. The theory states that reality can be literally manifested through one's thoughts. I am interested in this trend because it supports consumerist values, entrepreneurship, and self-actualization while using socialist rhetoric to promote capitalist values. I am also interested in the implications that this rhetoric holds for women and marginalized groups. I will investigate how the theory draws on quotes from spiritual leaders, famous scientists, and revered world figures and abstracts their meanings by placing them in a paradigm for their own use. I will also look at how they use the authority of science and an appeal to traditionally Christian language to promote blind faith in this principle. I will look at how this movement positions consumerism and consumption as a means of self-actualization and spiritual salvation and analyze how the theory lends itself to the ideals of capitalism. Finally, I will emphasize how the Law of Attraction disregards women and marginalized groups by ignoring systemic restrains by focusing only on the power of the individual with a blatant disregard for social institutions and systems. This project will be a textual rhetorical analysis that will incorporate an ethnographic study, textual analysis, and a critical theoretical approach to theory. The goal of this project is to interrogate a contemporary self-help and New Age spiritual movement that is symptomatic of the contemporary preoccupation with self-actualization and the discourse of positive-thinking.

Hollywood has long had a reputation as a liberal institution. Especially in 2019, it is viewed as a highly polarized sector of society sometimes hostile to those on the right side of the aisle. But just because the majority of those who work in Hollywood are liberal, that doesn’t necessarily mean our entertainment follows suit. I argue in my thesis that entertainment in Hollywood is far less partisan than people think it is and moreover, that our entertainment represents plenty of conservative themes and ideas. In doing so, I look at a combination of markets and artistic demands that restrain the politics of those in the entertainment industry and even create space for more conservative productions. Although normally art and markets are thought to be in tension with one another, in this case, they conspire to make our entertainment less one-sided politically. From the role that China plays in Hollywood productions to examining the politics of The Matrix and other pop culture staples, I work to deconstruct the notion that Hollywood and its entertainment are solely a liberal endeavor. Less polarization in entertainment brings forth a variety of important implications, one such being that Hollywood will continue to act as an institution that provides intellectual diversity and entertainment for all.

O argumento principal que defendo nesta tese é que a formação de uma nova direita no Brasil é um amálgama ultraliberal-conservador cuja origem remonta à organização de contra-públicos digitais durante o auge do lulismo, entre 2006 e 2010. Para sustentar meu argumento realizo uma reconstrução histórica da atuação política da direita brasileira na esfera pública desde a década de 1940, passando pela formação destes contra-públicos na metade dos anos 2000 até as eleições de 2018, quando a nova direita chega ao poder. Meu foco principal, porém, recai na trajetória do contrapúblico ultraliberal, uma vez que este foi o único cujos membros foram capazes de se organizar institucionalmente na sociedade civil de forma precoce, isto é, ainda durante o auge do lulismo, o que foi decisivo para desencadear a Campanha Pró-Impeachment de Dilma de Rousseff (2014-2016) e para fortalecer outras iniciativas políticas que foram importantes para a constituição da nova direita. Empiricamente, me apoio em 30 entrevistas em profundidade realizadas com lideranças e militantes que participaram deste processo e dados coletados em uma pesquisa de campo levada à cabo entre o segundo semestre de 2015 e o primeiro semestre de 2018. / The mais argument of this thesis is that the Brazilian New Right in an ideological combination of libertarianism with conservatism and its origins are connected to the formation of digital counter-publics during the height of Lulas terms, between 2006 and 2010. In order to explain how this happened, I make a historical reconstruction of the Brazilian Political Right performance on the public sphere activities from the 1940s on, passing by the formation of these counter-publics in the middle of the 2000s, until the 2018 elections, when the new right comes to power. My main focus, however, lays on the trajectory of the libertarian counter-public, since this was the one whose members were able to organize themselves institutionally at an early stage, that is, during the height of Lulas terms, which was decisive to trigger Dilma Rousseffs Pro-Impeachment Campaign (2014-2016) and to strengthen other political initiatives that were important for the constitution of the Brazilian New Right. My empirical data is based on 30 in-depth interviews with political leaders and activists who took part in this political process and on informations gathered in a field research carried out between the second half of 2015 and the first half of 2018.

This thesis is a narrative history of the major groups and individuals on the Australian extreme right since 1950. It assesses their genesis, growth, successes and failures as well as their origins in regard to Australia’s domestic situation and international influences. Various arguments are put forward: groups that emerged in the post World War 2 period are different than preceding groups; the Social Credit movement is in decline; the ideas of neo-Nazi and fascist groups, while powerful, are generally no longer viable; anti-immigration and racial nationalist groups were an attempt to forge an indigenous movement; the role of individual activists are an important element in extreme right political activity; the Confederate Action Party was destroyed by internecine fighting; the Citizens Electoral Council is representative of a movement with the potential to promote dissent in society and may become one of the more important groups of the extreme right; Pauline Hanson’s movement eventually proved damaging to the extreme right. It is concluded that the extreme right has exerted a significant negative influence over Australian society, influencing both national and international trends / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Bibliography : leaves 397-413. / xi, 413 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of History, 1994

We propose an approach to address data uncertainty for discrete optimization problems that allows controlling the degree of conservatism of the solution, and is computationally tractable both practically and theoretically. When both the cost coefficients and the data in the constraints of an integer programming problem are subject to uncertainty, we propose a robust integer programming problem of moderately larger size that allows to control the degree of conservatism of the solution in terms of probabilistic bounds on constraint violation. When only the cost coefficients are subject to uncertainty and the problem is a 0 - 1 discrete optimization problem on n variables, then we solve the robust counterpart by solving n + 1 instances of the original problem. Thus, the robust counterpart of a polynomially solvable 0 -1 discrete optimization problem remains polynomially solvable. Moreover, we show that the robust counterpart of an NP-hard α-approximable 0 - 1 discrete optimization problem remains α-approximal. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)