Student Number: 9305986E School of Accountancy Faculty of Commerca, Law and Management / Academic and commercial interest in the corporate governance practices of publicly listed companies has increased significantly in the past five to ten years. High-profile corporate failures such as Enron and Worldcom have heightened the interest in corporate governance practices. This research study's primary aim is to explore the contribution of board structure to company performance in South Africa. The majority of prior corporate governance literature has centered and focused on the relationship between board structure and company performance where performance is measured in terms of traditional measures. This research study follows the themes of Mitchell Williams, which diverges from this prior body of literature in two primary ways; first the relationship between board structure and company performance is investigated where performance is defined by intellectual capital performance and second unlike the majority of prior literature that utilised data from the United States, data was collected and analysed from a sample of South African companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange.

Digitalization has reshaped the internationalization process of most firms, especially giving a new way for digital firms. Most of the previous research was based on the internationalization of developed countries, and the perspectives of emerging markets were relatively limited, and digital firms were also no exception. Exploring the uncharted territory of international business was the main motivation for writing this thesis, which aims to investigate motives and the internationalization path through the case study of four companies from China, the most representative emerging market. The findings show that the motivation of digital firms from emerging markets is influenced by internal factors and contextual factors such as institutional settings. Their choice of markets is determined by the social distance and digital level of the host countries, as well as market potential. They tend to actively choose to enter foreign markets by developing strategic local networks and striking a balance between replicating domestic strategies and localization. Besides, adapting to the local business environment and how to deal with digital security issues are challenging their performance in new markets.

Research shows corporal punishment is associated with negative outcomes in offspring. These negative outcomes can present themselves during childhood and emerging adulthood. One negative consequence can be alcohol abuse. The consequences of alcohol abuse in emerging adults are reasons to research corporal punishment’s effects to support positive parental discipline. The current study examined the relationship between past-year corporal punishment and alcohol abuse in the emerging adulthood population. Results of the current study showed corporal punishment was correlated positively with alcohol use, externalizing problems, and authoritarian parenting style, and negatively correlated with maternal authoritative parenting style and permissive parenting style. Males reported higher amounts of paternal corporal punishment and higher amounts of alcohol consumption. Finally, it was determined that risk factors for alcohol abuse included male gender, Caucasian ethnicity, and positive history of family alcohol abuse, and that psychopathology mediated the relationship between corporal punishment and alcohol use and abuse.

The presence of pollutants known as emerging contaminants in water and wastewater is a topic of growing interest. Emerging contaminants, which include endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), are compounds that remain relatively unknown, although their adverse effects have been proven. Emerging contaminants are not satisfactorily removed by traditional treatment methods; therefore, there is a need for innovative techniques. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have been recognized as successful removal methods for these problematic pollutants. However, technical success is not the only factor that must be considered. Process engineering, environmental, and economic and social parameters were considered. A holistic analysis was completed using a ranking system to determine the performance of several AOPs (ozonation, UV, photocatalysis, the Fenton reaction, and integrated processes). Ultimately, H2O2/O3 presented the highest average ranking (3.45), with the other processes showing similar performance, with the exception of TiO2 photocatalysis (2.11).

Parents influence their children’s religiosity through many factors including parenting practices, parental religiosity, and parental psychopathology. Little research, however, has been conducted on how different parental psychopathologies, such as anxiety, depressive, and antisocial problems, affect the transmission of religiosity from parent to child. Participants reported the psychopathological behaviors of their parents via the Adult Behavior Checklist as well as personal and parental religiosity using a new religious scale. Structural equation modeling was used to measure whether parental psychopathology, parent gender, and participant gender would moderate the relationship between perceived parental and emerging adult religiosity. Results indicated that maternal interactions were significant for depressive and antisocial problems but gender analyses revealed that the interactions were significant only for females; similarly although no overall interaction occurred, the maternal interaction was significant for anxiety problems only for females when gender analyses were conducted. The results did not suggest a 3-way interaction among variables.

Memristor-based nano-crossbar computing is a revolutionary computing paradigm that does away with the traditional Von Neumann architectural separation of memory and computation units. The computation of Boolean formulas using memristor circuits has been a subject of several recent investigations. Crossbar computing, in general, has also been a topic of active interest, but sneak paths have posed a hurdle in the design of pervasive general-purpose crossbar computing paradigms. In this paper, we demonstrate that sneak paths in nano-crossbar computing can be exploited to design a Boolean-formula evaluation strategy. We demonstrate our approach on a simple Boolean formula and a 1-bit addition circuit. We also conjecture that our nano-crossbar design will be an effective approach for synthesizing high-performance customized arithmetic and logic circuits.

Many types of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), including per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), have been found in leachate of operating municipal landfills. However, information on CECs in leachate of historic landfills (≥3 decades since closure, often lacking engineered liners or leachate collection systems) and the related risk posed from groundwater plumes discharging to nearby aquatic ecosystems is limited. In this study, 48 samples of leachate-impacted groundwater were collected from 20 historic landfills in Ontario, Canada. The CECs measured included artificial sweeteners (ASs), PFAS, organophosphate esters (OPE), pharmaceuticals, bisphenols, sulfamic acid, perchlorate, and substituted phenols. Several landfills, including ones closed in the 1960s, had total PFAS concentrations similar to those previously measured at modern landfills, with a maximum observed here of 12.7 μg/L. Notably elevated concentrations of several OPE, cotinine, and bisphenols A and S were found at many 30-60 year-old landfills. There was little indication of declining concentrations with landfill age, suggesting historic landfills can be long-term sources of CECs to groundwater. A full-year field study was performed on a 0.5-km reach of an urban stream receiving contaminated groundwater from nearby historic landfills. Elevated concentrations of ammonium, the AS saccharin, an indicator of old landfill leachate, and CECs (e.g., maximum total PFAS of 31 μg/L) in the shallow discharging groundwater were relatively stable across the seasons but were spatially restricted by hyporheic exchange and discharge of other groundwater. This indicates a patchy but long-term exposure for endobenthic organisms, which are rarely monitored. Stream water concentrations were more dilute, but increased markedly across the landfill stretch, and showed signs of increases in winter and after rain/snowmelt events. These findings provide guidance on which CECs may require monitoring at historic landfill sites and suggest how landfill monitoring programs could be improved to fully capture the risk to receiving water bodies. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Historic landfills are a known source of groundwater contamination. This study investigated whether these landfills contain new groups of chemicals, called contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), which are suspected to pose serious environmental and human health risks. This study found many CECs at high concentrations in most of the 20 historic landfill sites investigated, even those closed up to 60 years. A full-year investigation at one historic landfill site showed that organisms living in the sediments of a nearby stream are exposed to high concentrations all year long. Concentrations in the stream increased as it flowed past the landfill, and may be higher in winter and after rains, times monitoring is rarely done. The elevated concentrations of harmful contaminants in this water are potentially threatening the stream ecosystem. Operators of historic sites should consider testing for CECs and ensure that monitoring strategies accurately evaluate the risk posed to the environment.

Parental discipline behaviors and trait impulsivity are related to the development of psychological problems in children. Less research has examined these relations during emerging adulthood, despite the continued importance of parenting and increases in impulsivity during this time. Thus, the current study examined the association of impulsivity with current parental discipline practices and psychological problems as reported by college-attending emerging adults. Specifically, paternal and maternal discipline practices were examined as moderators between impulsivity and psychological problems with gender as an additional moderator. Participants (N = 911, 38.2% women, 78.0% White, aged 18 to 25) completed self-report measures on current discipline behaviors by parents, the five facets of trait impulsivity, and internalizing and externalizing psychological problems. Path analysis revealed that impulsivity facets (sensation seeking and positive urgency) and parental discipline behaviors were associated with reported internalizing problems particularly in emerging adult college-attending women. Gender moderated the relation between sensation and internalizing problems, with men reporting less problems in the context of high sensation seeking. Women reported more internalizing problems compared to men in the context of low positive urgency and low perceived positive paternal discipline. Results imply that contextual factors (e.g., positive college experience expectancies and gender role belief) may relate to less psychological problems in men, and disappointment and lack of approval from fathers may relate to emotion regulation problems and more internalizing problems in women. Interventions aimed at providing parents education on emerging adults’ mental health factors and improving parent-child communication during this period may improve emerging adults’ psychological well-being.

Given that more and more young people are living at home well into their twenties, and parents no longer see their children as adults until well into their mid to late twenties (Nelson, Walker, Carroll, Madsen, Barry, & Badger, 2006), parents may continue to "parent" for much longer than we have typically believed. Although parenting may still play an important role, little research has been done examining parenting in emerging adulthood, including its correlates and outcomes. As such, there is a need for a measure of parenting that is appropriate for use in emerging adulthood. The current study attempted to develop a measure that identifies and assesses behaviors that reflect various styles of parenting during emerging adulthood including authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting. Specifically, the purposes of this study were: 1) to examine whether or not authoritative, authoritarian and permissive parenting styles could be identified in parents of emerging adults and 2) to assess the validity and reliability of the parenting measure that emerges from the factor analysis for both parents' self reports and spouse reports. Based on the factor analyses of items in the parenting scale, it appears that authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting can be identified as distinct and separate parenting styles in parents of emerging adults. The results of the study further suggest that the parenting measure is a reliable and valid measure for use with parents of emerging adults.

Recent studies indicate that financial independence is important to the transition to adulthood. This study, grounded in a marital horizon theory of emerging adulthood, examines the role of emerging adult and parent financial patterns on emerging adults' marital horizons. Correlations, stepwise-regressions and a MANOVA were conducted using a sample of 403 emerging adults and 326 parents that were recruited from five college sites across the United States. Results demonstrated that significant differences existed between finances and emerging adults' marital horizons. Specifically, emerging adults with higher financial criteria and who received more parental financial assistance were more likely to report not being ready for marriage. These findings support the notion that finances significantly influence an emerging adult's marital horizon.