Denna studie undersöker ifall det förekommer earnings management (EM) vid stock-for-stock-förvärv på den svenska marknaden. Tidigare forskning har gett tydliga tecken på att EM sker inför företagsförvärv och det finns starka incitament att använda sig utav det. Detta undersöks genom att studera om det sker en ökning av diskretionära periodiseringar, som mäts genom Modified Jones Model, åren innan förvärvet till skillnad från tidigare år. Studien undersöker även om målföretagets relativa storlek har en påverkan på EM. Undersökningens resultat från första hypotesprövningen indikerar att EM förekommer i svenska bolag redan tre år innan stock-for-stock-förvärv. Resultatet från den andra hypotesprövningen visade ingen signifikant skillnad mellan grupperna Små förvärv och Stora förvärv medan resultatet från den tredje visade att storleksförhållandet mellan företagen har en inverkan på användningen av EM. Detta visades genom att företagen med de tio största förvärven har en signifikant högre summa diskretionära periodiseringar än de med de tio minsta förvärven.

Den här uppsatsens syfte har varit att undersöka hur tre framgångsrika idrottare: brottaren Tomas Johansson, friidrottaren Ludmila Engquist samt friidrottaren Marion Jones, som alla tre dopade sig under sin aktiva karriär, beskrevs i dagstidningarna Aftonbladet och Dagens Nyheter dels då de stod på toppen av sin karriär och dels tiden efter de avslöjades som dopade. Skillnader och likheter i rapporteringen om dessa idrottare har analyserats utifrån perspektiven etnicitet, nationalitet och kön samt om de undersökta texterna bidrar till ett skapande av ett ”vi” och ett ”dom andra”. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för undersökningen är att olika stereotyper tar sig form i texter och att det finns och används etniska, nationella och könsliga stereotyper för att beskriva idrottare samt att dessa attribut som tillskrivs idrottarna är olika viktiga beroende på situation. Metoden som har använts är en kvalitativ textanalys där ett urval av artiklar från Aftonbladet och Dagens Nyheter har analyserats. Resultatet visar att alla idrottarna blev hyllade när de vann och efter de hade avslöjats som dopade blev de alla fördömda. Deras etnicitet, nationalitet och kön kommer fram i de journalistiska texterna både när de var hyllade och fördömda men används på olika sätt och har olika betydelse beroende på tidpunkt. Den individuella bakgrunden kan vid vinsten lyftas fram som något starkt och positivt för att vid dopningsavslöjandet bli förklaringen till varför denne dopat sig. Materialet visar också att de två kvinnliga idrottarna som är med i undersökningen blir inplacerade i stereotypen om kvinnan som den styrda och mannen som den styrande. Det visas också exempel på att journalisterna i det undersökta materialet aktivt skapar ett ”vi” och ett ”dom andra”. För att beskriva det egna benämner journalisterna de andra.

In this paper, we explore the relationship between a Global Mood Time Series, provided by Wall Street Birds, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) from April 2011 to December 2011. My econometric results show that there is no long run equilibrium relationship between the level of global mood and the level of the DJIA. These results apply to the whole period, as well as in the six-month subperiods. Furthermore, daily changes in global mood do not Granger cause DJIA returns. However, changes in global mood do appear to be useful in forecasting the volatility of the DJIA, and my results suggest that GARCH models of volatility of large-cap indexes, and potentially the market as a whole, could be strengthened by including online sentiment measures of Big Data. Measuring global mood, and quantifying its impacts, can potentially lead to superior portfolio construction as forecasting volatility is an important input in portfolio optimization. The results, as a whole, suggest that Big Data can have important implications for investment decision-making.

This study proposes an approach to a solution for the problem of the perceived ‚separatedness‛ of language from reality which employs the rhetorical concept of ethos, the doctrinal concept of the Chalcedonian definition of the nature of the incarnated Christ, and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of ‚answerability.‛ As an alternative to theories of reading and interpretation based on the arbitrariness of linguistic meaning, radical skepticism, and the death of the author, the approach defined in this study emphasizes affirmation of the centrality of the human person and the necessity of close, loving attention as the grounds of both aesthetic vision and ethical action. Developing three exemplary readings of novelized epics including Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh, David Jones’s In Parenthesis, and Chenjerai Hove’s Bones, the study demonstrates how loving, careful attention to ethos—the definition of which is expanded to include relationships between language and character in literary works, genres, characters, authors, and teachers—is the prerequisite for answerability in literary relationships. Whether one is primarily interested in authors, characters, genres, canon, readers, or critical reception, attention to ethos illuminates the ways in which responses to literary works are conditioned by and analogous to responses to persons. The complex and irreducible relationships between the ‚word‛ and the ‚person‛ require an individual answerability for which there is no alibi. Ultimately, the ‚word‛ and the ‚world‛ are united in the answerable person, whether that person is an author, a character, a reader, a critic or a teacher.

Après avoir introduit les spécificités des différents outils de CAO optiques existants, on contribue au développement d'une approche orientée "Circuit" basée sur l'utilisation de matrices-S, après sa généralisation, pour les composants optiques grâce à l'utilisation du formalisme de la matrice de Jones.<br />Plusieurs composants passifs tels que guide, miroir, isolateur ou encore coupleur optique ont été modéléisés tout d'abord de manière descriptive, puis de manière plus technologique en insérant dans chacun des modèles les spécificités liées à la technologie de fabrication. Nous générons ainsi une bibliothèque de composants à base de fibre optique, d'optique intégrée sur verre ou encore à base de semi-conducteur.<br />Cette bibliothèque de composants est ensuite implémentée dans un simulateur RF de type "Circuit" nous permettant de simuler des circuits optiques. Plusieurs exemples sont étudiés parmi lesquels des interféromètres de Fabry-Perot ou de Mach-Zehnder, des filtres en longueurs d'ondes ou encore des circuits intégrés sur verre.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 75 pages. / Thesis (M.S.C.E.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Analytical baseflow separation techniques such as those used in the automated hydrograph separation program HYSEP rely on a single input parameter that defines the period of time after which surface runoff ceases and all streamflow is considered baseflow. In HYSEP, this input parameter is solely a function of drainage basin contributing area. This method cannot be applied universally since in most regions the time of surface runoff cessation is a function of a number of different hydrologic and hydrogeologic basin characteristics, not just contributing drainage area. This study demonstrates that streamflow conductivity can be used as a natural tracer that integrates the different hydrologic and hydrogeologic basin characteristics that influence baseflow response. Used as an indicator of baseflow as a component of total flow, streamflow conductivity allows for an empirical approach to hydrograph separation using a simple mass balance algorithm. / ABSTRACT: Although conductivity values for surface-water runoff and ground-water baseflow must be identified to apply this mass balance algorithm, field studies show that assumptions based on streamflow at low flow and high flow conditions are valid for estimating these end member conductivities. The only data required to apply the mass balance algorithm are streamflow conductivity and discharge measurements. Using minimal data requirements, empirical hydrograph separation techniques can be applied that yield reasonable estimates of baseflow. This procedure was performed on data from 10 USGS gaging stations for which reliable, real-time conductivity data are available. Comparison of empirical hydrograph separations using streamflow conductivity data with analytical hydrograph separations demonstrates that uncalibrated, graphical estimation of baseflow can lead to substantial errors in baseflow estimates. / ABSTRACT: Results from empirical separations can be used to calibrate the runoff cessation input parameter used in analytical separation for each gaging station. In general, collection of stream conductivity data at gaging stations is relatively recent, while discharge measurements may extend many decades into the past. Results demonstrate that conductivity data available for a relatively short period of record can be used to calibrate the runoff cessation input parameter used for analytical separation. The calibrated analytical method can then be applied over a much longer period record since discharge data are the only requirement. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The parQ method, up to now only capable of calculating the density of states in the canonical ensemble, is extended to the grand canonical ensemble and compared to the Wang-Landau algorithm, a local-update flat-histogram method. Both algorithms have been implemented so that the performance and the respective benefits with increasing simulation time can be determined and compared.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 17, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Andrew Hoberek. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

In this paper, we examine Fox colorings of virtual knots, and moves called k-swap moves defined for virtual knot diagrams. The k-swap moves induce a one-to-one correspondence between colorings before and after the move, and can be used to reduce the number of virtual crossings. For the study of colorings, we characterize families of alternating virtual knots to generalize (2, n)-torus knots, alternating pretzel knots, and alternating 2-bridge knots. The k-swap moves are then applied to prove a "virtualization" of the Kauffman-Harary conjecture, originally stated for classical knot diagrams, for the above families of virtual pretzel knot diagrams.

The residential designs of Fay Jones embody the ideals of organic architecture in the highest degree. Working in the tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright, Jones produced a wide range of houses that represent an intensely personal endeavor. Although the chapels and public pavilions designed by Jones are his most famous works, the meticulous construction detailing and elaborate material joints in Jones' houses reward long-term residents, who discover new details and new compositions of light and shadow for years after moving into their homes. The careful working and reworking of details contribute to a unifying generative idea that enforces the part-to-whole relationship of organic building, but it is also an outpouring of Jones' belief that caring is an “imperative moral issue.” It is difficult to occupy a Jones building or study the work without getting swept up in Jones' notion that “[one] must idealize, even romanticize, what [one] is doing.” Through a consideration of clients' relationships with Fay Jones and the spaces they occupy, this study reflects on Jones' hope that “perhaps the inhabitants can be more comfortably and more meaningfully integrated into the natural forces of life.” Jones' thoughts about architecture, recorded in his journals and lecture notes, reinforce the accounts of key, residential clients who benefited from Jones' earnestness about building and living. The carefully arranged joint details of Jones' designs form a physical representation of the close relationships of Jones, his clients, and the craftsmen who built the work. / text