This thesis is a study of aboutness. It defends the claim that we have singular thoughts about ordinary objects and argues that an essential part of how we do so is by maintaining singular representations. This proposal allows us to avoid traditional, unsatisfying conceptions of the scope of singular thought while restoring the sense in which such thought is a distinctively epistemic achievement. Reconnecting the study of aboutness with epistemology promises to alleviate the sense of directionlessness in the contemporary literature, offering a firmer grip on the phenomenon along with new, systematic resources for its investigation. Chapters 1-2 explore the effects of contextualist machinery on orthodox views about singular thought. It is widely thought that if there is to be a plausible connection between the truth of a de re attitude report about a subject and that subject's possession of a singular thought, then there can be no acquaintance requirement(s) on singular thought. Chapter 1 shows that this view rests on a faulty picture of how we talk about attitudes. Indeed, the truth of a de re attitude report cannot be taken to track the singular/non-singular distinction without collapsing it. A new, contextualist picture is needed. That there must be a distinction between singular and non-singular intentionality is emphasized in Chapter 2, where a key explanatory role for singular thought - brought out by a thought experiment due to Strawson - is examined. I show that the role does not call for any distinctive kind of mental content. Once we abandon the two widespread views questioned in Chapters 1-2, our grip on the phenomenon of singular aboutness is loosened: it is not constitutively tied to the kinds of attitude-reporting data or mental content by which it is often assumed to be revealed. Where are we to look for insight? What makes something the object of a singular thought? According to Russell, it is a datum of intuition that singular thought involves a kind of knowledge; a theory of aboutness will precisify the intuitive notion of 'knowing which thing one is thinking about' in order to capture this demand in a philosophically revealing way. If Russell is right, teasing out this connection to knowledge will allow us to see what it takes for a particular thing to be the immediate subject matter of thought. Chapter 3 discusses Evans's theory of this kind. Chapter 4 examines recent work by Dickie. While serious concerns emerge in each case, insights recovered are used to precisify Russell's requirement, leading to a novel picture of singular representation and the epistemic character of this achievement. While the chapters follow a narrative, providing an extended rationale for the proposal in Chapter 4, each may be read in isolation by those familiar with the philosophical issues. For those who are not, the Introduction provides sufficient background.

Orientador: Lídia Maria Viana Possas / Banca: Olney Queiroz Assis / Banca: Luís Antônio Francisco de Souza / Resumo: O Poder Familiar é considerado a soma de direitos e obrigações assumidas pelos pais ou responsáveis legais, instituído com o objetivo de garantir a proteção legal dos interesses de subsistência, saúde e de educação dos filhos. Referido poder é atribuído aos pais pelo Estado e este é fiscalizador do exercício legal do mesmo. Ao Estado compete fiscalizar e controlar a relação entre as partes integrantes do Poder Familiar (pais e filhos), para que os direitos e deveres sejam cumpridos, sem desrespeito aos ditames da lei e os seus limites. Para efetivação deste estudo, a metodologia utilizada foi a História Oral, em que se buscou por meio de relatos registrados pelo gravador, verificar a representação que os operadores do direito têm a respeito dos problemas que culminam na destituição do Poder Familiar, bem como a conseqüente política judiciária na comarca de Marília. Ressaltou-se ainda as significativas alterações legislativas em que o poder antes concedido apenas ao pai (Pátrio Poder) passou a ser exercido igualmente pelo pai e mãe (Poder Familiar). Alterações estas que decorrem da transição de comportamentos e valores (modernidade), ocasionado pela modernização. Por fim, analisou-se o discurso jurídico dos entrevistados à luz das construções das relações de gênero. / Abstract: The Familiar Discretion is considered the sum of rights and obligations assumed by parents or guardians of law, established with the objective of ensuring the legal protection of the interests of subsistence, health and childcare. Said power is given to parents by the state and this is the lawful exercise of supervisory the same. State falls to monitor and control the relationship between the parts of the Power family (parents and children), so that the rights and obligations are met, without disrespect to the dictates of the law and its limits. To accomplish this study, the methodology was the Oral History, which sought by reports recorded by the recorder, check the representation that the operators have the right to respect for the problems that culminate in the dismissal of Power Family, and the consequent Judicial politics in the district of Newark. It was also underscored the significant legislative changes in the power granted just before the father (vernacular Power) came to be exercised equally by the father and mother (Family Power). These changes arising from the transition of behaviors and values (modernity), caused by modernization. Finally, analyzed both the legal discourse of those interviewed in light of the construction of gender relations. / Mestre

The thesis deals with the main principles of Corporate Governance. It focuses on the most important legal regulations and codes in this area, on the role of external and internal audit in Corporate Governance, as well as on its connection with accounting standards. Two basic models are described -- Anglo-American and Continental European model. These models are compared particularly in terms of ownership control, board structure and investor protection. After that, the situation in the Czech Republic is analysed. Finally, the information disclosed in annual reports of corporations from four countries are examined and compared

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of a Masters in Commerce. March 2016 / The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a systematic difference in the textual characteristics of information in the chairman’s statement of profitable and unprofitable companies on the JSE main board. This would indicate the existence of impression management in management commentary. The difference of profitable and unprofitable companies was analysed in relation to six pre-determined textual characteristics. The primary conclusion drawn is that impression management does exist in the chairman’s statements of companies listed on the main board of the JSE. Another finding of the study was that ‘extremely unprofitable’ companies are less likely to employ impression management. The findings of this research indicate that users of annual reports should be alert to the existence of reporting bias introduced by management in its commentary. Users of the annual report should carefully consider the usefulness of management commentary in their decision making, discounting these disclosures for the use of impression management techniques employed in corporate reporting strategies. Studies on impression management techniques in narrative disclosures within the annual report have not been piloted in South Africa before. This is the first study of linguistic variation employed in management commentary within the South African context. The study was exploratory in nature and did not set out to identify the causes of impression management being employed within the South African context. Future research may explore this further and may also be extended to determine whether impression management is present in other sections of the annual report and even the integrated report. Key words: Chairman’s statement, impression management, management commentary, reporting bias / MT2017

Submitted by Rosina Valeria Lanzellotti Mattiussi Teixeira (rosina.teixeira@unisantos.br) on 2017-10-27T18:27:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Sidney da Cunha Vida Silva.pdf: 869381 bytes, checksum: 096a4b49b17b2a4568b0ddc0de3d9732 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-27T18:27:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sidney da Cunha Vida Silva.pdf: 869381 bytes, checksum: 096a4b49b17b2a4568b0ddc0de3d9732 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-13 / The environmental issue tends to be somewhat prone to degradation, since the man uses its natural resources, in the midst of your financial/economic growth. In this way, is something worrying about your exploration, since, the constitutional text punctuation in your device art. 225 "everyone is entitled to an ecologically balanced environment, common use of people and essential to healthy quality of life, and to the Government and the collective duty to defend it and preserve it for present and future generations". However, in addition to the society, the Government also has the power to defend it and preserves it, in this way, the Legislature has emerged the need for creation of Committee to discuss and approve measures related to the protection of the environment, signaling a willingness not only to how to debate, discuss and create opinion on civil society, as well as the primordial function of proposing vote and boost laws justifying your nomenclature, namely to reconcile protection of the environment with the promotion of sustainable development in Brazil, in order to influence legislation and be a crucial Forum in formulating national policies that relate to the environment. / A questão ambiental tende a ser algo propenso a degradação, uma vez que o homem utiliza-se de seus recursos naturais, em meio a seu crescimento econômico/financeiro. Desta forma, é algo preocupante quanto a sua exploração, haja vista que, o texto constitucional pontua em seu dispositivo art. 225 ¿Todos têm direito ao meio ambiente ecologicamente equilibrado, bem de uso comum do povo e essencial à sadia qualidade de vida, impondo-se ao poder público e à coletividade o dever de defende-lo e preservá-lo para as presentes e futuras gerações¿. Contudo, além da sociedade, o poder público também tem o condão em defende-lo e preserva-lo, deste modo, o Poder Legislativo despontou a necessidade de criação de comissão própria para discutir e aprovar medidas relacionadas à proteção do ambiente, sinalizando assim a disposição não apenas de debater, discutir e criar movimentos de opinião na sociedade civil, como também a função primordial de propor, votar e impulsionar leis que justifiquem a sua nomenclatura, ou seja, conciliar a proteção ao meio ambiente com a promoção do desenvolvimento sustentável no Brasil, de forma a influenciar, legislar e ser um fórum decisivo na formulação de políticas nacionais que se relacionem com o meio ambiente brasileiro.

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Continuity of patient care is an essential element of primary care because it should result in better quality care and disease management, especially for older adults who often have multiple chronic illnesses. Even though continuity of care has been studied for decades, it remains difficult to define and quantify and, there is no consensus about best practices for assessing whether or not a patient experiences it or a practitioner provides it. Moreover, no theoretically-driven measures for the assessment of continuity of care exist, and there have been few rigorous evaluations of its association with subsequent health and health service utilization outcomes. The principal purpose of this dissertation research was to better understand continuity of care for older adults by identifying the components of the patient-provider relationship that are important from the patient perspective, understanding how commonly used provider-proxy continuity measures relate to the patient experience, and evaluating whether the patient experience or provider-proxy assessments are associated with improved health and health services utilization. I used survey data from the 2,997 Medicare beneficiaries who participated in the 2004 National Health and Health Services Use Questionnaire (NHHSUQ) linked to their Medicare claims for 2002-2009. The NHHSUQ contained patient-reported data on usual primary provider, usual place of care, and the quality and duration of the relationship with their provider. By linking this information to their Medicare claims, I was able to evaluate both patient-reported and provider-proxy (claims-based) measures of continuity of care from two years prior to the survey, and evaluate the impact of continuity on health and health service utilization for five years after the survey. Study results indicate that the older adult patient experience of continuity is reflective of both relationship duration and patient-provider interaction during the care visit, and that most provider-proxy continuity assessments did not relate to patient perceptions. And, the patient and provider-proxy experiences of continuity had different relationships with important health outcomes. These results enhance our understanding of continuity of care for older adults and inform policymakers and researchers about aspects of continuity that are important for the health of older adults and the appropriate use of health care resources.

Large accounting firms have been structuring their audit divisions along industry lines for some years. Industry specialisation is seen as a means of differentiation between otherwise similar accounting firms. At the individual level industry specialists are identified as being so designated within their firm. They spend a substantial amount of their time auditing clients in that industry. The purpose of this study is to determine what industry specialist auditors do that is different and similar when working on industry-based tasks, one of which they specialise in. Behavioural decision theory is used to investigate the differences and similarities in the decision-making processes of industry specialist and other auditors. It is known that industry specialists perform better on tasks set in their industry. The purpose of this study is to learn why. To that end, the pre-information search, information search and decision processing phases of the decision-making process are examined. It is expected that industry specialists are more efficient and effective at each stage of the decision-making process when completing a case set in the industry they specialise in. Two controlled experiments were conducted in the offices of each of the Big 4 international accounting firms. Participants included manufacturing and superannuation industry specialists from each firm. Each participant was invited to take part in both experiments, which were conducted consecutively via the internet. The first experiment comprised two cases, one set in each industry setting (manufacturing and superannuation). Participants completed both cases. The purpose of the first experiment was to conduct a within-subject examination unveiling similarities and differences between industry specialists and other auditors during the pre-information search, information search and decision processing phases of the decision-making process. Their performance on each case was also monitored and measured. Significant results were found for information search and performance. Moderate results were found for one proxy each of the pre-information search and the decision processing phases. The relationship between efficiency at each stage of the decision-making process and performance was also measured. A significant relationship was found for the pre-information search and decision processing phases. The second experiment comprised two strategic business risk tasks set in each industry setting (manufacturing and superannuation). Participants completed both sets of tasks. The purpose of the second experiment was to examine effectiveness during the pre-information search (listing key strategic business risks), information search (listing key inputs) and decision processing (listing key processes) phases of the decision-making process and their ability to identify and list key outputs (accounts and assertions) for an identified risk (technological change for the manufacturing industry task and solvency due to insufficient funding for the superannuation industry task) within each industry setting. The results were very significant overall. Industry specialist auditors were able list more key strategic business risks, inputs, processes and outputs when the task was set in the industry in which they specialise. The relationship between effectiveness at each stage of the decision-making process and performance was also measured. A significant relationship was found between effectiveness in listing key inputs and effectiveness in listing key outputs (accounts).

The purpose of this study was to examine assignment writing as a phenomenon of academic writing. This was done through exploring the experiential accounts of members of a university writing community. Their accounts described the community's perceptions and experiences of literacy practices needed to write assignments, of how students developed these practices, and, of what constituted success in the writing. A multi-method, embedded, case-study approach was used. Quantitative data were derived from first-year, second-year, and fourth-year respondents' perceptions and experiences related to assignment writing. A cross-sectional comparison of groups showed consistent year-level effects. Fourth-year students were more confident as writers than first-year and second-year students, and had less difficulty with declarative and procedural aspects of writing assignments. These findings were replicated in a repeated-measures study using a sub-group of first-year and fourth-year students. However, when students contextualised their responses by nominating a subject and referring to their completion of its written assignment, first-year students reported less difficulty with the declarative aspects while fourth-year students were more positive in the procedural aspects. Year-level effects were found for what they reported as helpful in acquiring declarative and procedural knowledge of writing. First-year students reported a wider range of sources as helpful than fourth-year students did, with two exceptions. More of the latter had found information gained in consultations helpful in understanding an assignment question. Additionally more had found friends helpful. Second-year students generally were more positive than first-year and fourth-year students about the usefulness of information in helping them understand an assignment question and in writing it in an academic genre. Knowing how to write predicted success more strongly and consistently than any other factor. Qualitative data informed findings from the quantitative analyses by providing experiential accounts about students' perceptions of themselves as assignment writers, their experiences when writing assignments, and how these experiences developed literacy practices that contributed to success. Additionally, qualitative data were collected from lecturers who convened first-year subjects and those who convened fourth-year subjects. The qualitative data indicated students' strong reference to experiences of writing and of seeking help. Both had shaped their self-perceptions as writers and these had changed over time. First-year students believed that knowing what lecturers wanted in writing assignments was an important factor in success. They described their efforts to access this information and to give lecturers what they thought was wanted. Fourth-year students recognised the same factor, but were more self-reliant in approaching an assignment task. The change to greater internal control appeared to be an outcome of encountering inconsistent and confusing information from external sources over their four years of writing assignments. For their part, lecturers of first-year students said that successful students knew what to write and how to write it. However, lecturers of fourth-year students believed knowing what to write should be subsumed by knowing how to write, and concentrated on the procedural aspect. They believed a coherent assignment resulted when students conceptualised subject matter in ways that enabled them to write academically. Findings in this study extend recent reconceptualisations of literacy as 'literacies' and socio-cultural, socio-cognitive theories about literacy as social practice. They demonstrate limitations of an apprenticeship model for acculturation and suggest a more agentic role for novice members in accounting for learning outcomes as students develop as assignment writers. The experiential accounts reported by members of the academic writing community described their shared and idiosyncratic perceptions of literacy practices and relations of these practices with success in assignment writing. Their descriptions enhance our understanding of the complexity and consequences of these experiences. They also account for why calls for the community to be more visible and explicit in sharing communal expectations of what is privileged and valued in academic assignment writing generally may not be a solution. Based on findings here, this is not a solution. Expectations need to be co-constructed within the community, among students, and lecturers within the context of the writing task. An outcome of understandings reported here is the development of a model from which factors, conditions and critical events that situate learning within a rhetorical conundrum may be described and predicted. This model offers a framework for members of a writing community to explicate individual experiences and expectations in ways that help everyone make sense of those critical events that contribute to a rhetorical conundrum and shape encultured knowledge.

The communication of information between employers and employees is gaining increased attention in the theory and practice of industrial relations. The views of trade unions on aspects of information communication have been neglected despite the ability of trade unions to affect the success or failure of attempts by employers to communicate with their employees. The purpose of this research report is to establish some tentative conclusions as to trade union views on information communication in general, and the more specific method of communication involving employee reports. Findings of the report are based on data collected by means of a mall questionnaire survey involving all unions affiliated with the Labor Council of New South Wales in May, 1979. Analysis is performed manually using non parametric tests in accord with the nominal characteristic of the data. The most significant finding of the report is that the majority of trade unions are in favour of employers issuing employee reports. This view is not affected by the size of the unions, the public sector concentration of the unions, nor the political ideology of the unions. Trade unions also believe that the most important information for inclusion in employee reports is safety and health information, closely followed by future employment levels and prospects, pay and conditions, and balance sheets.