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Titel: Sambandet mellan ESG-betyg och prestation. Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Sabina Berg och Gustaf Halvardsson  Handledare: Jan Svanberg  Datum: 2022 – januari Syfte: I och med att hållbarhetsrapportering hamnat alltmer i fokus hos företag och intressenter, har ett växande intresse uppkommit gällande denna rapporterings påverkan på företags prestation. Slutsatser inom tidigare forskning har varit motstridiga. Studiens syfte är att undersöka sambandet mellan hållbarhetsrapportering (ESG) och prestation inom banksektorn i EU-länder, Storbritannien, USA och Australien. Metod: Korrelationer har undersökts mellan ESG-betyg och ROA samt ROE från 199 bankföretag åren 2018-2020 i Australien, Storbritannien, USA samt EU-länderna. Data har hämtats från databasen Refinitiv Eikon och materialet har analyserats med hjälp av statistikprogrammet IBM SPSS. Resultat och slutsats: Studiens resultat visar ett svagt negativt samband mellan ESG och bankers prestation där den mest reducerande pelaren är den styrningsrelaterade. Vidare visar resultatet att det finns ett svagt negativt samband mellan ESG och bankers avkastning på eget kapital i EU-länderna och ett svagt negativt samband mellan ESG och bankers avkastning på totalt kapital i Australien, Storbritannien och USA. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar teoretiskt med ett branschspecifikt resultat till den motstridiga tidigare forskningen inom ämnet ESG och prestation. Studiens praktiska resultat riktar sig till investerare och intressenter med mål att bidra med kunskap om hur ESG-engagemang kan påverka prestation i länder med direktiv för hållbarhetsredovisning och länder utan direktiv för hållbarhetsredovisning. Förslag till framtida forskning: Ett förslag är att utföra liknande studier inom andra branscher och länder då slutsatserna kan skilja sig mellan dessa. Förslagsvis kan framtida studier utgå från andra ESG-betyg än Refinitivs betyg för att se om detta har någon betydelse för resultatet. Nyckelord: Hållbarhetsrapportering, CSR, ESG-betyg, E-betyg, S-betyg, G-betyg och prestation. / Title: The relationship between ESG and performance. Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Sabina Berg and Gustaf Halvardsson Supervisor: Jan Svanberg Date: 2022 – January Aim: As sustainability reporting has become a more focused area for both companies and other stakeholders, an increasing interest has arisen of this reportings impact on the performance of the company. The conclusions on previous studies have been contradictory. The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between sustainability reporting (ESG) and performance within the bank sector in EU, Great Britain, USA and Australia. Method: The used method is investigating correlations between ESG ratings and ROA as well as ROE from 199 banking companies in the years 2018-2020 in EU, Great Britain, USA and Australia. The analyzed data has been retrieved from the database Refinitiv Eikon and analyzed using the statistics program IBM SPSS. Result and conclusions: The result of the study shows a slight negative correlation between ESG and the bank sectors performance where the most reducing pillar is governance. Further the result shows a slight negative correlation between ESG and banks ROE within the EU and a slight negative correlation between ESG and banks ROA in Great Britain, USA and Australia. Contributions of the thesis: The study contributes with a theoretical branch specific result in contrast to previous research in the subject of ESG and performance. The practical result of the study is addressed to investors and other stakeholders with the aim of giving knowledge of ESG engagements impact on banks performance, both in countries without legal directives and countries with legal directives of ESG reporting. Suggestions for future research: One suggestion is to conduct similar studies in other branches and countries as the conclusion may differ between them. As a suggestion, future studies can be based on other ESG measure than Refinitivs Eikon to see if that may give another outcome of the study. Keywords: Sustainability reporting, CSR, ESG-score, E-score, S-score, G-score and performance.

The electric power grid forms the foundation for several other critical infrastructures of national importance such as public health, transportation and telecommunication systems, to thrive. The current power grid runs on the century-old technology and faces serious challenges of the 21st century - Ever-increasing demand and the need to provide a sustainable way to meet the growing demand, increased requirement of resilience against man-made and natural disasters, ability to defend against cyber attacks, increasing demand for reliable power, requirement to integrate with alternate energy generation and storage technologies. Several countries, including the United States, have realized the immediate need to modernize the grid and to pursue the goal of a smart grid. Majority of recent grid modernization efforts are directed towards the distribution systems to be able to meet these new challenges. One of the key enablers of a fully functional Smart Grid are microgrids — subsystems of the grid, utilizing small generation capacities at the distribution system level to increase the overall reliability and power quality of the local grid. It is one of the key directions recommended by national electric delivery technologies roadmap in United States as well as policy makers for electricity delivery in many countries. Microgrids have witnessed serious research activity in the past few years, especially in areas such as multi-agent system (MAS) architectures for microgrid control and auction algorithms for microgrid electricity transaction. However, most of the prior research on electricity transaction in microgrids fails to recognize and represent the true nature of the microgrid electricity market. In this research, a comprehensive microgrid electricity market has been designed, taking into account several unique characteristics of this new market place. This thesis establishes an economic rationale to the vision of wide-scale deployment of microgrids serving residential communities in near future and develops a comprehensive understanding of microgrid electricity market. A novel concept of Community Microgrids is introduced and the market and business models for electricity transaction are proposed and validated based on economic forecasts of key drivers of distributed generation. The most important contribution of this research deals with establishing a need for a trustworthy model framework for microgrid market and introducing the concept of reputation score to market participants. A framework of day-ahead energy market (DAEM) for electricity transaction, incorporating an approach of using the reputation score to incentivize the sellers in the market to be trustworthy, has been designed and implemented in MATLAB with a graphical user interface (GUI). Current implementation demonstrates a market place with two sellers and nine buyers and is easily scalable to support multiple market participants. The proposed microgrid electricity market may spur the deployment of residential microgrids, incorporating distributed generation, thereby making significant contribution to increase the overall reliability and power quality of the local grid. / Master of Science

Yes / This paper introduces the concept of user validity and provides a new perspective on the validity of interpretations from tests. Test interpretation is based on outputs such as test scores, profiles, reports, spread-sheets of multiple candidates’ scores, etc. The user validity perspective focuses on the interpretations a test user makes given the purpose of the test and the information provided in the test output. This innovative perspective focuses on how user validity can be extended to content, criterion and to some extent construct-related validity. It provides a basis for researching the validity of interpretations and an improved understanding of the appropriateness of different approaches to score interpretation, as well as how to design test outputs and assessments which are pragmatic and optimal.

Yes / This study uses short selling activity to test whether the relation between fundamentals and future returns is due to rational pricing or mispricing. We find that short sellers target firms with fundamental performance below market expectations. We also show that short selling activity reduces the return predictability of fundamentals by speeding up the price adjustments to negative fundamental signals. To further investigate whether the returns earned by short sellers reflect rational risk premia or mispricing, we exploit a natural experiment, namely Regulation of SHO, which creates exogenous shocks to short selling by temporarily relaxing short-sale constraints. Evidence from the experiment confirms that the superior returns to short sellers result from exploiting overpricing. Overall, our study suggests that the return predictability of fundamentals reflects mispricing rather than rational risk premia.

A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology (Health Research Methodology) / Introduction: There is no single agreed-upon tool to forecast hydronephrosis obstruction and surgical risk in the literature. Previous scoring systems have relied on renal scan parameters for this task, which are not performed or read consistently across hospitals. We aim to determine the utility of a hydronephrosis obstruction early scoring system in identifying severe UPJO-like hydronephrosis suggestive of surgery. Methods: We reviewed a prenatal hydronephrosis database (2008-23) to identify patients with unilateral UPJO-like hydronephrosis. Patients with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), megaureter, or other anomalies were excluded. We collected data on the first ultrasound and surgical outcome for the Society for Fetal Urology (SFU) grade, anteroposterior pelvic diameter (APD), and percent difference in renal length – the renal length index (RLI). I undertook a multivariable logistic regression to determine the predicted value of these sonographic measurements. Model development and internal validation were performed, and model performance (calibration and discrimination) was reported. Results: Of the 465 UPJO-like hydronephrosis patients, 76.1% (354) were male and had a mean age at baseline of 3.8 ± 3.8 months. 34.8% (162) had an obstructive renal scan and 27.7% (129) underwent pyeloplasty. The developed model to predict surgery using the aforementioned variables with excellent model performance (AUC 0.92). A simplified model using SFU 3-4, APD > 13mm and RLI >12% also predicted surgery with great model performance (AUC 0.89) and improved clinical user-friendliness. Conclusion: Our clinical predictive model can accurately predict surgery in both derivation and validation cohorts of patients with antenatal UPJO-like hydronephrosis. This non-invasive tool can greatly aid in patient counselling. / Thesis / Master of Health Sciences (MSc) / Hydronephrosis (HN) is a kidney condition prevalent in 1-5% of pregnancies, typically detected through third-trimester ultrasounds. Although 70% of cases resolve spontaneously, the remaining 30% are at higher risk of renal failure if unaddressed. Traditional scoring systems have depended on renal scans, which expose patients to radiation and suffer from inconsistency across healthcare facilities. Using data from pediatric patients with HN, this study identified key predictive factors for surgical management such as severe dilation of kidneys associated with thinning, affected kidney length more than 12% longer than healthy kidney and anteroposterior diameter of the renal pelvis > 13mm. A new scoring system based solely on renal ultrasound parameters was formulated. This system establishes different risk categories, which have been validated for use in daily clinical practice. This offers urologists a reliable, radiation-free tool to gauge individual surgical risks and provides a foundation for tailored patient counselling.

Master of Music / Department of Music / Frank C. Tracz / This document is written in support of a conducting recital given in partial fulfillment of the Master’s of Music Education with an Emphasis in Instrumental Conducting at Kansas State University. It encompasses the historical research, theoretical analysis, and rehearsal recommendations and considerations necessary to prepare the selected works for performance. The pieces analyzed are Michael Daugherty’s Motown Metal, Stanley Leonard’s Antiphonies, and Ira Hearshen’s second movement, “after the Thunderer” from Symphony on Themes of John Philip Sousa. I seek to highlight the significance of these works to the literature of their mediums, and show how they are valuable pieces of literature in the contemporary repertoire. In addition, I offer my philosophies on music learning and literature selection as a means to better understand the process entailed in laying the groundwork for successful authentic learning experiences for conductor and students.

Bakgrund: Att tidigt upptäcka symtom på allvarlig klinisk försämring hos en patient är av stor vikt för att minska lidande och förhindra allvarliga komplikationer. För detta har flera skattningsinstrument utvecklats, däribland olika early warning score-system. Dessa har implementerats på flera håll i världen men det finns indikationer på att det brister i följsamheten till dessa. Syfte: Studiens syfte var att undersöka följsamheten till Early Warning Scores samt de faktorer som påverkar följsamheten. Metod: Studien genomfördes som en litteraturöversikt där 14 vetenskapliga artiklar inkluderades. Studierna hade kvantitativa, kvalitativa och blandade ansatser. Artiklarna söktes i databaserna PubMed, CINAHL och Web of Science. En innehållsanalys av studiernas resultat genomfördes och resultatet sammanställdes i ett antal kategorier. Resultat: Följsamheten visade sig vara högre till observationer av patientens vitalparametrar än till de åtgärdsriktlinjer som finns. Faktorer som påverkar följsamheten var sjuksköterskans kliniska erfarenhet, samarbete mellan professioner, bemanning, felkalkylering, dokumentation och rapportering. Konklusion: Följsamhet till EWS brister på många sätt och flera faktorer påverkar följsamheten. Faktorerna som påverkade följsamheten är sjuksköterskans kliniska erfarenhet, samarbete mellan professioner, felkalkylering, bemanning, dokumentation och rapportering. / Background: Early recognition of serious clinical deterioration is of great importance for minimizing suffering and serious adverse events. For early recognition, several physiological track and trigger systems have been developed, among them the early warning scores. These have been implemented in many places across the world but there is uncertainty about adherence to these systems. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate adherence to Early warning score-systems and to evaluate what factors affect this adherence. Method: The study was conducted as a literature review including 14 articles with quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods approaches. Searches were made in the PubMed, CINAHL and Web of Science databases. Content-analysis was used to identify themes. Results: Adherence seems higher to observations than to clinical responses. The main factors affecting adherence are the clinical experience of nurses, collaboration between professions, staffing, miscalculation, documentation and reporting. Conclusion: Adherence to EWS is lacking in many ways and several causes for this have been accounted for. Factors affecting adherence was the clinical experience of nurses, cooperation between professions, staffing, miscalculation, documentation and reporting.