Dividend policy, its determinants, and its impact on firm value are of significant academic interest, and many theories and explanations have been posited on the subject over the years, but there has not been a universal agreement. This thesis examines the links between dividend policy, various aspects of stock liquidity and price informativeness. We study a sample of UK firms over the period from 1996-2013. We show that, on average, stocks of dividend payers have significantly lower bid–ask spread and a lower illiquidity ratio than their counterparts of non-dividend payers. We also find that stocks of high-dividend payers are more liquid than those of firms that pay low or no dividends. These findings are consistent with the predictions of asymmetric information that posit that paying dividends reveals inside information to the market and hence decreases the level of asymmetric information, leading to higher stock liquidity. In the subsequent analysis, we suggest and examine a new channel through which dividend policy can impact firm value. Specifically, we show that dividend payers are less exposed to shocks in the aggregate market liquidity than non-dividend payers. Similarly, we find that the systematic liquidity risk is negatively associated with amount of dividends. Finally, in the context of signalling and agency costs models, we show that dividends are negatively related to stock price informativeness and that this relationship is stronger for firms with lower stock liquidity. The findings imply that dividend policy can both affect and be affected by stock markets.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain how privacy concerns impact the relationship between personalization and the factors of advertising value on smartphone advertising. Design/methodology/approach: A explanatory research design with a quantitative approach was conducted, utilizing an online questionnaire with a total of 103 respondents. Conclusion: The result indicates that privacy concerns only moderates the relationship between personalization and entertainment. It was also shown that privacy concerns had a direct impact on irritation Research limitations: The result is not generalizable as a non-probability sample was used, and only respondents between the 18-35 answered the questionnaire. Originality/value: A new perspective of how the moderation of privacy concerns impacts the relationship between personalization and the factors of advertising value. Keywords: Smartphone advertising, advertising value, informativeness, entertainment, irritation, credibility, incentives, privacy concerns. Paper type: Research paper

A presente pesquisa pretende mostrar os desafios que os professores em geral e, em especial, por conta da proposta desta dissertação, os professores do Ensino Fundamental II enfrentam para que seus alunos sejam produtores proficientes de textos orais e escritos. Com base na concepção dos fatores de textualidade desenvolvidos por Beaugrand e Dressler (2002), sustentamos a hipótese de que o texto argumentativo, produzido na escola em condições tradicionais de ensino, sofre de baixo grau de informatividade, entre outros motivos, principalmente por carecerem de um projeto de ensino desta disciplina. A grande questão que se apresenta é como atingir esse propósito. Em geral, redação escolar não é considerada pelas direções, equipes pedagógicas e, algumas vezes, pelos próprios professores como uma disciplina que possa ser ensinada, pois acreditam que o conhecimento gramatical da língua materna e a leitura de textos literários e não literários constituam instrumentos suficientes para que o aluno por si só seja capaz de produzir bons textos. O objetivo maior desta dissertação é refletir acerca dos aspectos relacionados à informatividade nos textos argumentativos produzidos por alunos do nono ano do EF II de uma escola particular do Município do Rio de Janeiro, pertencentes à classe média alta. O corpus da presente pesquisa é constituído de quinze redações com seguintes condições de produção: sete delas foram produzidas com a motivação de um texto apresentado pelo professor, e oito com apenas a apresentação do tema escolhido, também, pelo professor. A partir da análise do corpus e confirmando a hipótese de que é possível e necessário ensinar o aluno a produzir textos, sugere-se uma sequência didática que dá conta do passo a passo pertinente ao aprimoramento da progressão das ideias do tipo textual referido / This research aims to show the challenges that teachers in general and in particular on account of the purpose of this dissertation, the elementary school teachers face II for their students to be proficient producers of oral and written texts. Based on the conception of textuality factors developed by Beaugrand and Dressler, sustain the hypothesis that the argumentative text, produced in traditional school in terms of education suffers from low degree of informativeness, among other reasons, mainly because they lack a project teaching this subject. The big question that arises is how to achieve this purpose. In general, school essay is not regarded by the directions, and pedagogical teams, sometimes by teachers themselves as a discipline that can be taught. Because they believe the grammatical knowledge of language and reading literary and non-literary texts are sufficient tools for the student alone is capable of producing good texts. The main objective of this thesis is to study aspects related to informativeness argumentative and expository texts produced by ninth graders EF II from a private school in the city of Rio de Janeiro, belonging to the upper middle class. The corpus of this study consists of fifteen essays with production following conditions: seven were produced with the motivation of a text presented by the teacher, and eight with only the presentation of a chosen topic, too, by the teacher. From the analysis of the corpus and confirming the idea that possible and necessary to teach students to produce texts, we suggest a teaching sequence that reflects the walkthrough relevant to the improvement of the progression of ideas of the text types listed

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2016-07-29T11:47:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 7359679 bytes, checksum: d79a6bd251745039d3d82aa059e7e946 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-29T11:47:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 7359679 bytes, checksum: d79a6bd251745039d3d82aa059e7e946 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-30 / Seeking to contribute to discussions about the text production of teaching in high school this work deals with the informativeness as a resource in the construction of the written text of the argument. After observing a constant lack of data considered sufficient in the texts presented by the students in the classroom, we try to bring the problem some referrals that can assist beyond current teachers, who are in training. Structured in four chapters, this work deals with theoretical framework about language, language and text; opinion article and didactic situation in the first. In the second, the record of practiced intervention to test the didactic situations designed to ensure that students understand the need to acquire sufficient information to build a good text. In the last two, we have, respectively, the analysis of written and rewritten of opinion articles requested in the classroom. The practice has developed into a private school in the city of Recife / PE in a third-year middle class formed by forty-two students with ages that vary from sixteen to eighteen. As theoretical support to develop the work, we rely mainly on three authors: Antonio Marcuschi, Ingedore Koch and Irandé Antunes. These authors have guided us in order that we put into question the hypothesis that the most informative was the text, it would be the best argument. / Buscando contribuir para as discussões acerca do ensino de produção texto no ensino médio este trabalho trata da informatividade como recurso na construção da argumentação do texto escrito. Após observar uma constante ausência de informações consideradas suficientes nos textos apresentados pelos alunos em sala de aula, tentamos trazer para o problema alguns encaminhamentos que possam auxiliar além dos atuais professores, os que estão em formação. Estruturado em quatro capítulos, esse trabalho trata no primeiro do referencial teórico sobre língua, linguagem e texto; artigo de opinião e situação didática. No segundo, o relato da intervenção praticada para testar as situações didáticas pensadas a fim de que os alunos entendessem a necessidade da aquisição de informação suficiente para se construir um bom texto. Nos dois últimos, temos, respectivamente, as análises das escritas e das reescritas dos artigos de opinião solicitados em sala. A prática se desenvolveu em uma escola particular da cidade do Recife/PE, em uma turma de terceiro ano médio formada por quarenta e dois alunos com idades que variam entre dezesseis e dezoito anos. Como suporte teórico, para desenvolver o trabalho, nos apoiamos majoritariamente em três autores: Antônio Marcuschi (2008), Ingedore Koch (2008, 2011 e 2015) e Irandé Antunes (2008, 2009ª E 2009b). Esses autores nos guiaram para que puséssemos em questão a hipótese de que quanto mais informativo fosse o texto, melhor seria a argumentação.

A presente pesquisa pretende mostrar os desafios que os professores em geral e, em especial, por conta da proposta desta dissertação, os professores do Ensino Fundamental II enfrentam para que seus alunos sejam produtores proficientes de textos orais e escritos. Com base na concepção dos fatores de textualidade desenvolvidos por Beaugrand e Dressler (2002), sustentamos a hipótese de que o texto argumentativo, produzido na escola em condições tradicionais de ensino, sofre de baixo grau de informatividade, entre outros motivos, principalmente por carecerem de um projeto de ensino desta disciplina. A grande questão que se apresenta é como atingir esse propósito. Em geral, redação escolar não é considerada pelas direções, equipes pedagógicas e, algumas vezes, pelos próprios professores como uma disciplina que possa ser ensinada, pois acreditam que o conhecimento gramatical da língua materna e a leitura de textos literários e não literários constituam instrumentos suficientes para que o aluno por si só seja capaz de produzir bons textos. O objetivo maior desta dissertação é refletir acerca dos aspectos relacionados à informatividade nos textos argumentativos produzidos por alunos do nono ano do EF II de uma escola particular do Município do Rio de Janeiro, pertencentes à classe média alta. O corpus da presente pesquisa é constituído de quinze redações com seguintes condições de produção: sete delas foram produzidas com a motivação de um texto apresentado pelo professor, e oito com apenas a apresentação do tema escolhido, também, pelo professor. A partir da análise do corpus e confirmando a hipótese de que é possível e necessário ensinar o aluno a produzir textos, sugere-se uma sequência didática que dá conta do passo a passo pertinente ao aprimoramento da progressão das ideias do tipo textual referido / This research aims to show the challenges that teachers in general and in particular on account of the purpose of this dissertation, the elementary school teachers face II for their students to be proficient producers of oral and written texts. Based on the conception of textuality factors developed by Beaugrand and Dressler, sustain the hypothesis that the argumentative text, produced in traditional school in terms of education suffers from low degree of informativeness, among other reasons, mainly because they lack a project teaching this subject. The big question that arises is how to achieve this purpose. In general, school essay is not regarded by the directions, and pedagogical teams, sometimes by teachers themselves as a discipline that can be taught. Because they believe the grammatical knowledge of language and reading literary and non-literary texts are sufficient tools for the student alone is capable of producing good texts. The main objective of this thesis is to study aspects related to informativeness argumentative and expository texts produced by ninth graders EF II from a private school in the city of Rio de Janeiro, belonging to the upper middle class. The corpus of this study consists of fifteen essays with production following conditions: seven were produced with the motivation of a text presented by the teacher, and eight with only the presentation of a chosen topic, too, by the teacher. From the analysis of the corpus and confirming the idea that possible and necessary to teach students to produce texts, we suggest a teaching sequence that reflects the walkthrough relevant to the improvement of the progression of ideas of the text types listed

Essa pesquisa faz um recorte da música eletrônica através de suas linguagens, práticas documentárias e processos informativos, estudados a partir de contextos socioculturais, para observar sua constituição como um gênero musical popular. A informatividade da música eletrônica foi compreendida em seus complexos de relações terminológicas e conjecturas diversas, ilustrando e identificando interrelações, propriedades estéticoformais, categorizações e características discursivas e linguísticas. Conceitos da Ciência da Informação e das humanidades foram utilizados para analisar como esse gênero irresoluto e fragmentado por muitas definições, processos anticategóricos e conflitos de distinção cultural, acaba por definir-se como um campo de intensa materialidade informativa e histórica, que segue tendo na ideia de \"música eletrônica\" seu universo simultaneamente amplo e circunscrito. Objetos, fenômenos, o devir musical, categorias e as linguagens dessa música foram estudados sob os vértices da informatividade, como proposta por Bernd Frohmann, conceito processual que surge a partir da ideia dos documentos como definidores e reveladores de contextos, problemáticas e discursos. Essa pesquisa conclui como a informatividade da música eletrônica logra documentá-la como tal: um gênero musical histórico, institucionalizado e documentado, coeso e problematizado por preponderantes aspectos informativos, referenciais e de categorização - um fenômeno da Cultura e da Informação. / This research outlines electronic music through its languages, documentary practices, informative processes and their sociocultural contexts, to observe its constituion as a popular music genre. The informativenesse of electronic music is seen from its complexes of terminology relations and several conjectures, that illustrate and identify interrelations, aesthetic and formal properties, categorizations, discursive and linguistic characteristics. Concepts from Information Science and other humanities have been used to analyze how this irresolute musical genre, fragmented by anti-categorical and cultural distinction conflits, ends up being defined as a field of intense informative and historical materiality. This music still relies this wide and also circumscribed universe on the idea of \"electronic music\". Objectos, phenomena, the music becoming, categories and languages of this music have been studied under the informativeness theorical vertices, as proposed by Bernd Frohmann, a procedural concept that arises from the ideia of documents as defining elements of contexts, discourses and problems. This research concludes how informativeness manages to document electronic music as such: a historical, institutionalized and documented musical genre, cohesive and also very problematized by its preponderant informative, referential and categorical aspects - a Cultural and Informative phenomenon.

Background: Word retrieval deficits are a common, pervasive feature of aphasia. Semantic feature analysis (SFA) is a popular treatment technique for word retrieval impairment. Preliminary evidence of its use in small aphasia-group settings suggests improved word retrieval in discourse-based tasks with improvements in communicative informativeness (Antonucci, 2009; Falconer & Antonucci, 2012). Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the training of SFA within discourse during a small (two-member) aphasia group treatment to ascertain if gains would be made in word retrieval abilities and communicative informativeness. Method: Two female participants with chronic aphasia, aged seventy seven and sixty eight, participated weekly in group treatment for five consecutive weeks where stimuli were used to elicit increasingly naturalistic discourse. A multiple-baseline design was used and a case series analysis conducted. Baseline measures, treatment data and data from the six week follow-up (SWFU) session were analysed using the protocols developed by Nicholas and Brookshire (1993) and Mayer and Murray (2003). Results: Both participants demonstrated certain modest gains in overall communicative informativeness but these were not maintained at the SWFU session. Gains in informativeness ranged from 12% to 13.4% for participants, which agree with improvements in other studies (Antonucci, 2009; Boyle & Coelho, 1995; Falconer & Antonucci, 2012). P2 (presented with anomic aphasia) performed better than P1 (presented with Broca’s aphasia and a component of apraxia of speech [AOS]) with regards to communicative informativeness (%CIUs) and had greater access to semantic knowledge (i.e. could access lexical forms at an improved rate). Conclusion: The small group setting may offer advantages to facilitate communication skills and increase participation in everyday conversation. Further research is needed to identify benefits for individuals with differing aphasia types and severity, optimal intensity and frequency of group treatment and the role of peer support during group interaction. Key Words Aphasia, stroke rehabilitation, word retrieval, semantic feature analysis, connected speech, discourse, group therapy, communicative informativeness, functional communication. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / MA / Unrestricted

Background: Social Media Content consists of characteristics by which have been found by previous research to have an influence on consumers' purchase intention. The social media content can be created by any social media user, who are referred to as content creators, whereby the degree of impact the social media content has on consumers' purchase intention is difficult to predict. There are specifically three social media content characteristics that have been shown to be more strongly related to consumers’ purchase intention than others, which are Usefulness, Informativeness and Interactivity. Previous research suggests that further investigation regarding consumers’ purchase intention in relation to the online context is of relevance to research since social media content is an influential factor regarding consumers’ purchase intention, for an increased explanation of consumers’ purchase intention. Purpose: The purpose is to explain the relationship between social media content characteristics and consumers’ purchase intention. Methodology: This explanatory research is using the deductive approach within the quantitative study and following a cross-sectional research design in order to detect patterns from the empirical investigation. Based on a theoretical foundation of previous research, the study presents three hypotheses which by support from the empirical investigation, consisting of 239 responses to a self-completed questionnaire, were either rejected or accepted. Findings: The acceptance of one out of three hypotheses were based on the authors revealing findings about there being a significantly positive relationship between the social media content characteristic Interactivity and consumers’ Purchase Intention. The findings also provide implications that the relationship has been accepted based on a combination of certain aspects. These are that consumers have a desire to take part in online conversations, they want their voice heard by being able to express opinions and also that they will immerse themselves in a social media platform if they find the content of the platform interesting. These findings allowed for the authors to suggest a new modified research model demonstrating the relationship between the social media content characteristic Interactivity and consumers’ Purchase Intention. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, this research provides a conclusion that there is a significant positive relationship between the social media content characteristic Interactivity and consumers’ Purchase Intention

Complex engineered systems evolve, with a tendency toward self-organization, which can, paradoxically, frustrate the aims of those seeking to develop them. The systems engineer, seeking to promote the development in the context of changing and uncertain requirements, is challenged by conceptual gaps that emerge within engineering projects, particularly as they scale up, that inhibit communication among the various stakeholders. Overall optimization, involving multiple criterion, is often expressed in the language of the individual parties, increasing the complexity of the overall situation, subsuming the participants within the evolution of the complex engineered system, containing the objective and subjective in counterproductive or inefficient ways that can arrest healthy development. The conventional pragmatic systems engineering approach to the resolution of such situations is to introduce architectural discipline by way of separation of concerns. In complex engineered systems projects, the crucial interface, at any level of abstraction, is between the technical domain experts and higher level decision makers. Bridging the ensuing conceptual gap requires models and methods that provide communication tools promoting a convergence of the conversation between these parties on a common "common sense" of the underlying reality of the evolving engineered system. In the interest of conceptual clarity, we confine our investigation to a restricted, but important general class of evolving engineered system, information gathering and utilizing systems. Such systems naturally resolve the underlying domain specific measures by reduction into common plausible information measures aimed at an overall sense of informativeness. For concreteness, we further restrict the investigation and the demonstration to a species that is well documented in the open literature: weather radar networks, and in particular to the case of the currently emerging system referred to as CASA. The multiobjective problem of objectively exploring the high dimensionality of the decision space is done using multiobjective genetic algorithms (MOGA), specifically the John Eddy genetic algorithms (JEGA), resulting in well-formed Pareto fronts and sets containing Pareto optimal points within 20% of the ideal point. A visualization technique ensures a clear separation of the subjective criterion provided by the decision makers by superficially adding preferences to the objective optimal solutions. To identify the integrative objective functions and test patterns utilized in the MOGA analysis, explorations of networked weather radar technologies and configuration are completed. The explorations identify trends within and between network topologies, and captures both the robustness and fragility of network based measurements. The information oriented measures of fusion accuracy and precision are used to evaluate pairs of networked weather radars against a standardized low order vortex test pattern, resulting in a metrics for characterizing the performance of dual-Doppler weather radar pairs. To define integrative measures, information oriented measures abstracting over sensor estimators and parameters used to estimate the radial velocity and returned signal from distributed targets, specifically precipitation, are shown to capture the single radar predicted performance against standardized test patterns. The methodology bridges the conceptual gap, based on plausible information oriented measures, standardized with test patterns, and objectively applied to a concrete case with high dimensionality, allowed the conversation to converge between the systems engineer, decision makers, and domain experts. The method is an informative objective process that can be generalized to enable expansion within the technology and to other information gathering and utilizing systems and sensor technologies.

Dividend policy, its determinants, and its impact on firm value are of significant academic interest, and many theories and explanations have been posited on the subject over the years, but there has not been a universal agreement. This thesis examines the links between dividend policy, various aspects of stock liquidity and price informativeness. We study a sample of UK firms over the period from 1996-2013. We show that, on average, stocks of dividend payers have significantly lower bid–ask spread and a lower illiquidity ratio than their counterparts of non-dividend payers. We also find that stocks of high-dividend payers are more liquid than those of firms that pay low or no dividends. These findings are consistent with the predictions of asymmetric information that posit that paying dividends reveals inside information to the market and hence decreases the level of asymmetric information, leading to higher stock liquidity. In the subsequent analysis, we suggest and examine a new channel through which dividend policy can impact firm value. Specifically, we show that dividend payers are less exposed to shocks in the aggregate market liquidity than non-dividend payers. Similarly, we find that the systematic liquidity risk is negatively associated with amount of dividends. Finally, in the context of signalling and agency costs models, we show that dividends are negatively related to stock price informativeness and that this relationship is stronger for firms with lower stock liquidity. The findings imply that dividend policy can both affect and be affected by stock markets. / University of Bradford