Background: A spin-off is strategic instrument used to restructure an organisation and thereby maximize shareholder value. Theory and advocates argue that engaging in spin-offs will generate improved financial performance of the parent company as well as for the divested unit. Previous studies on the topic have primarily focused on the perspective of the parent com-pany and little attention has been given to the post spin-off performance of the divested unit, in particular on the Swedish market. Consequently this study will focus on the performance of divested units of spin-offs performed on the Swedish market. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the financial performance of the divested unit prior versus post the spin-off event in order to find poten-tial performance alterations. Method: The study is conducted through an inductive approach based on quanti-tative data. In order to fulfil the purpose of comparing the financial per-formance, four financial ratios are used; Return on Assets, Market-to- book ratio, Sales Growth and Share Price. Statistical sign-tests are subse-quently conducted in order to find possible significant alterations in the financial performance. Results: The results of the statistical tests all show unified findings in which no statistical significant change in performance post the spin-off event can be found. However negative tendencies are found for Return on Assets and positive tendencies were found for the variables M/B ratio and Sales Growth. The fourth variable, Sales Growth does not show a tendency in any direction. Similar results were found when classifying the sample into relative size and timing of the spin-off event. Conclusion: Spin-offs on the Swedish market do not on average perform better as stand alone units. Vague positive tendencies could however be found on the variables connected to market expectations, and negative tendencies could be found for the variables measuring efficiency and profitability.

Persistent conflicts between stakeholders and complex trade offs among forest values have created a difficult decision environment for sustainable forest management. Tools developed for decision support in land use planning are essential for managing these challenges. This research study is an interactive assessment of a land use planning Decision Support Tool (DST) in the Invermere Timber Supply Area (TSA), located in the East Kootenay area of British Columbia. The aim of this study is to explore whether stakeholders' initial stated preferences change and whether trade-offs are made between various forest values upon observation of a long-term forecast of these values using a DST. Representatives from various stakeholder groups in the area were assembled for individual sessions to interact with the multi-criteria DST. Participants were required to state their preferences for six forest values using a weighting scheme. The DST developed an output for each forest value based on the participants' preferences. Upon review of the DST output, the participant had the opportunity to alter their initial preferences iteratively until a desirable output was found. The results indicate that participants' preferences changed after reviewing the DST outputs and that participants are willing to make trade-offs between various forest values using a DST to find a desirable solution. However, the preference order of the forest values changed only slightly from the participants' initial to preferred scenarios; instead participants made drastic changes to the weighting of each value to find a desirable output. Participants also stated their willingness to use DSTs for land use planning decision-making, although underlying assumptions built into the model must be improved before stakeholders can trust the tool as an aid for decision-making. Studies such as this can further the development of DSTs to help find desirable decisions for sustainable resource management and to help create a productive and engaging process.

Flexible life-history traits and dispersal may allow generalist populations to persist across a range of habitats despite experiencing contrasting selection pressures. Invertebrates exploiting temporary ponds must develop quickly and disperse as adults, or have wide environmental tolerances. Conversely, permanent-pond invertebrates must avoid a suite of predators (e.g., fish and dragonflies). This gradient of pond permanence can result in life-history trade-offs that influence fitness, population dynamics, and genetic structure. In addition, recruitment between habitats may balance juvenile life-history trade-offs and be crucial to sustain generalist invertebrate populations in ponds with unpredictable hydrology. Through a multi-year survey of three pond complexes in the Canterbury high-country and a series of mesocosm experiments using two generalist pond invertebrates, Xanthocnemis zealandica damselflies and Sigara arguta waterboatmen, I found these two species had alternative life-history strategies that influenced their distributions across the pond-permanence gradient. With longer juvenile development, X. zealandica benefited from flexible life-history traits: temporary-pond X. zealandica had accelerated development and short-term desiccation tolerance, but were excluded from ponds with long dry periods, whereas, permanent-pond X. zealandica had extended development and predator avoidance behaviours (e.g., reduced movement and refuge-use). In contrast, S. arguta had an opportunistic life-history strategy with a fixed, rapid development response that allowed them to inhabit more temporary ponds, but they were intolerant of drying and limited to permanent ponds that contained shallow refuges from fish. These results illustrate how alternative life-history strategies enabled two generalist species to achieve broad realised niches. Recruitment between habitats also appeared to be important for balancing trade-offs and maintaining meta-populations across the pond-permanence gradient. To evaluate the importance of X. zealandica dispersal among and within pond complexes I used microsatellite analyses. While there was unique genetic population structure between the North and South Islands, at lower spatial scales there was little variability in genetic diversity and limited genetic structure in populations, likely due to gene flow among different habitat types. Overall, this work shows how an interaction of juvenile strategies and adult dispersal could reduce life-history trade-offs, resulting in weak selection pressures across an unpredictable disturbance gradient. Whether increasingly unpredictable hydrological patterns under climate-warming favour generalist species will likely depend on how well generalist life-history traits and dispersal allow exploitation of a range of habitat types and resilience to variable selection pressures. Higher mean summer rainfall in New Zealand may allow both species to exploit more temporary ponds, whereas longer dry periods between extreme precipitation events could limit X. zealandica distributions. Thus, species with generalist strategies are likely to be favoured under warming, but their specific life-history strategies will likely promote or limit their ability to exploit more unpredictable habitats.

Ecological immunology is the study of the ecological and evolutionary factors that explain variation in the function of, and investment in, the immune system. Within this field, reproduction-based trade-offs are an important focus, where studies often address the immunological costs associated with the expression of secondary sexual traits used in mate choice. Specifically, the Immunocompetence Handicap Hypothesis (ICHH) links the expression of secondary sexual traits to immune function, stating that testosterone promotes the expression of these traits while suppressing the immune system. In doing so, testosterone may maintain the honest expression of such traits, but also ultimately cause sex differences in immunity because males tend to have high levels of testosterone. I explore aspects of these topics using two model systems: the Psittaciformes (Parrots: Chapter 2) and the Charadriiformes (shorebirds), in particular the sex-role reversed Red phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius). In Chapter 2, I employed a phylogenetically informed approach to investigate the relationships among immune investment, plumage colouration and longevity in parrots. I found that immune investment was greater in more colourful species, as well as in those with a slower pace-of-life (i.e., longer incubation periods), but not specifically in those with longer lifespans. In Chapter 3, I investigated the role that reproductive behaviours play in determining sex differences in corticosterone levels. One explanation for sex differences in the stress response is that selection favours a reduced response in incubating birds to reduce nest abandonment. I generally found little support for sex differences in corticosterone being driven by behaviours related to incubation. Moreover, in phalaropes, sex differences in corticosterone were already present prior to incubation. In Chapter 4, I found that males have higher levels of testosterone than females, but that females were immunosuppressed compared to males. However, I found evidence that testosterone may regulate immune function in females, but not males. The observation of female-biased immunosuppression is consistent with Bateman’s Principle, and although there was some evidence of a testosterone-mediated handicap acting through immune function, these results attest to a fundamental lability in the relationship between testosterone and immunity. In Chapter 5, I demonstrated that plumage colouration in phalaropes is condition-dependent and so potentially conveys useful information to conspecifics. Yet, the relationship was negative in both sexes such that more colourful individuals had poorer immunocompetence, which was contrary to predictions. In Chapter 6, I demonstrated that phalaropes pair assortatively (positively) based on plumage colouration, but negatively based on aspects of size. I discuss the results of this dissertation in the light of life history theory, as well as in the context of mechanisms maintaining signal honesty.

Thesis (doctoral)--Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-322).

Submitted by Kleber Silva (kleberbs@ufba.br) on 2017-05-31T20:12:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese-sandroandrade-2014.pdf: 6962942 bytes, checksum: 6e55349061fd33f307cf9f2896c56436 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vanessa Reis (vanessa.jamile@ufba.br) on 2017-06-07T10:57:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 tese-sandroandrade-2014.pdf: 6962942 bytes, checksum: 6e55349061fd33f307cf9f2896c56436 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-07T10:57:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese-sandroandrade-2014.pdf: 6962942 bytes, checksum: 6e55349061fd33f307cf9f2896c56436 (MD5) / Ao longo dos últimos anos, uma série de novas demandas contribuíram para aumentar ainda mais a complexidade essencial de sistemas de software. Como consequência, desenvolver sistemas computacionais que atendam satisfatoriamente a essas demandas requer um controle intelectual que rapidamente se aproxima dos limites humanos. Os Sistemas Self-Adaptive (SSA) representam uma solução promissora para este problema. Um SSA é caracterizado pela transferência, para run-time, de uma ou mais atividades do processo de desenvolvimento de software, suportadas por uma infraestrutura de adaptação que permite o raciocínio e execução automáticos de atividades antes realizadas off-line pelos desenvolvedores. Esta tese apresenta o projeto, implementação e avaliação de uma abordagem para projeto arquitetural automatizado de SSA, baseada na representação sistemática de conhecimento refinado de projeto e na aplicação de técnicas de otimização multiobjetivo. Para isso, uma nova linguagem (DuSE) para especificação de espaços de projeto e métricas de qualidade particulares a um determinado domínio de aplicação foi proposta, associada a uma plataforma de otimização de arquiteturas de software. A DuSE viabilizou a infraestrutura de metamodelagem necessária para a especificação do SA:DuSE -- espaço de projeto responsável pela captura sistemática das principais dimensões de projeto de SSA baseados em teoria de controle. A abordagem foi avaliada em relação à sua capacidade de manifestação de trade-offs, potencial de antecipação dos atributos de qualidade evidenciados e impacto na efetividade e complexidade dos projetos quando comparada a abordagens alternativas. Resultados indicam que a abordagem efetivamente captura o caráter multiobjetivo do projeto de SSA e que promove um melhor suporte à investigação de alternativas e tomada de decisão no projeto de aplicações deste domínio.

This research has investigated the long-run performance of corporate restructurings through unbundling transactions on the JSE between 2000 and 2012. The corporate unbundling transactions considered by the research are spin-offs and sell-offs. From the two unbundling transactions, four samples were derived, that is, 21 spin-offs, 14 parent-spin-offs, 14 sell-offs and 20 parent-sell-offs. The share price performance of these samples was investigated by a matching firm methodology under the buy and hold abnormal returns. The research found that positive abnormal returns are present for both samples for up to four years after unbundling. Secondly, with the exception of parent-sell-offs, significant abnormal returns were experienced by both samples for up to four years after unbundling. It was also found that a spin-off is a preferable corporate unbundling strategy to a sell-off over a long-run period. This research implies that companies with heavy structures should unbundle in order to unlock shareholders’ value. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

- 9 - Incubation strategies of selected duck species Summary of the PhD. thesis Avian incubation is an energetically demanding process. It holds true especially for uniparental incubators in which all incubation efforts are restricted to one individual. All ducks species breeding in northern hemisphere are representatives of birds with uniparental care. High demands of clutch formation and incubation make from ducks perfect model for testing factors influencing parent investment decisions. On the other hand parental investment to actual breeding attempt depends on many factors including breeding season duration, food supply, female's age, risk of predation or resilt of previous nesting attempt. So investigation of this complex problematic is extremely difficult. This thesis is focused on the most important phase of breeding cycle - incubation of clutch. Clutch incubation is associated with high energy cost to maintenance optimal temperature conditions for developing embryos. Morover incubation process can has large effect on female's body mass because of reduction of feeding time. Incubation strategy of success female include many partial tactic reducing predation risk of clutch and incubating female or eggs cooling. The incubation strategies of three ducks species were investigated in this thesis - Mallard...

Persistent conflicts between stakeholders and complex trade offs among forest values have created a difficult decision environment for sustainable forest management. Tools developed for decision support in land use planning are essential for managing these challenges. This research study is an interactive assessment of a land use planning Decision Support Tool (DST) in the Invermere Timber Supply Area (TSA), located in the East Kootenay area of British Columbia. The aim of this study is to explore whether stakeholders' initial stated preferences change and whether trade-offs are made between various forest values upon observation of a long-term forecast of these values using a DST. Representatives from various stakeholder groups in the area were assembled for individual sessions to interact with the multi-criteria DST. Participants were required to state their preferences for six forest values using a weighting scheme. The DST developed an output for each forest value based on the participants' preferences. Upon review of the DST output, the participant had the opportunity to alter their initial preferences iteratively until a desirable output was found. The results indicate that participants' preferences changed after reviewing the DST outputs and that participants are willing to make trade-offs between various forest values using a DST to find a desirable solution. However, the preference order of the forest values changed only slightly from the participants' initial to preferred scenarios; instead participants made drastic changes to the weighting of each value to find a desirable output. Participants also stated their willingness to use DSTs for land use planning decision-making, although underlying assumptions built into the model must be improved before stakeholders can trust the tool as an aid for decision-making. Studies such as this can further the development of DSTs to help find desirable decisions for sustainable resource management and to help create a productive and engaging process. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

Inter corporate asset sales provide a viable alternative to mergers and acquisitions to create shareholder value for both the buyer and seller companies. Intercorporate asset sales are defined as the sale of autonomous operational assets which does not entail a change in ownership control of the seller.Mergers and acquisitions research found greater value was created by cash funded transactions compared to equity funded transactions. Contrary to mergers and acquisitions, asset sale research found equity funded transactions created greater value compared to cash funded transactions. This research provides a deeper understanding of the effect the method of payment has on the value created when selling assets, enabling management of acquiring and divesting companies to realise their maximum value creation potential.The population consisted of intercorporate asset sale transactions announced and concluded for the 11 year period from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2011. The exact population was not known, therefore judgmental sampling was used to identify companies. Only companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange All Share Index were considered for qualifying asset sale transactions. In total 112 companies were reviewed for asset sales yielding 214 qualifying transactions which were divided in sub samples of 43 equity buyers, 68 cash buyers, 30 equity sellers and 73 cash sellers.Based on the event study methodology the short term metric of abnormal share price returns and the medium term metric of abnormal operating financial performance were used to calculate and compare the value created by equity and cash funded transactions. Both metrics concluded that equity funded asset sales created greater value compared to cash funded asset sales.Inferences were made between asset sales and mergers and acquisitions and the researcher concluded by proposing a model to optimise shareholder value. Based on the accounting performance of the buyer and the intrinsic value of the asset or target, the model is used to select the optimum combination of corporate activity and the method of payment to unlock the optimum shareholder value. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted