The aim of the diploma thesis is to analyze and to compare the foreign policies of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia in the period from 1991 until 2004 and to reach a conclusion, whether the frequent and very common generalization of the foreign policies of those states is correct. The first part of the paper explores the main approaches to the analysis of foreign policy and state's national interest. In this part of the paper, the appoach to analysis of the state's national interest, offered by the Copenhagen school of theory is chosen, and this approach is then used in the second chapter of the diploma. The second part of the paper, examines the threats of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in political, societal, military and economic sectors. Finally, the conclusion describes the results of the analysis of each sector and provides the assessment and comparison of the main problems of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and of the ways in which the states were trying to solve them in the chosen time period. It is shown, that despite the fact, that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were often facing similar challenges, they did also have an abundant number of different and specific problems of their own, were not able to work in concert, and often showed resistance to be deemed as "Baltic". This leads to the conclusion that treating their foreign policies as a joint "Baltic foreign policy" is incorrect and can be misleading.

Thesis (LLM ( Labour law)) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / Refer to document

Contrairement à ce que plusieurs académiciens ont traditionnellement envisagé, la question principale qui a animé cette recherche s’est axée à indiquer comment les secteurs subalternes ont-ils exprimé leurs défis politiques pendant la période de 1770 à 1830 dans l’ancienne Gobernación de Popayán et comment ces actions ont marqué les relations entre les secteurs subalternes et les autres secteurs de la société de l’époque (composés principalement des criollos et péninsulaires). Alors, le propos principal de cette recherche a été celui de caractériser la culture politique des secteurs subalternes, exprimée à travers des actions collectives contentieuses pendant la période de 1770 à 1830 dans la Gobernación de Popayán, tenant en compte la transition politique qui s’est passé avec le processus d’indépendance qui eut lieu au début du XIXème siècle. Le but principal de cette recherche a donc été de comprendre les échangés, les tensions entre les secteurs subalternes et les groupes sociaux représentés par les élites créoles et péninsulaires, et comment au travers les actions collectives, les subalternes purent exprimer notions ou valeurs comme justice, liberté, et procurèrent aussi d’établir des mécanismes de solidarité d´action conjointe et mobilisation collective tout au long de ces années troubles / Contrary to what many scholars have traditionally contemplated, the main question that prompted this research centered on how the subordinate sectors expressed their political challenges during the period 1770 to 1830 in the former Gobernación de Popayán and how these actions marked the relations between the subordinate sectors and the other sectors of the society of the time (mainly composed of Criollo and Peninsular). The main purpose of this research was to characterize the political culture of the subordinate sectors, expressed through contentious collective actions during the period from 1770 to 1830 in the Gobernación de Popayán, taking into account the political transition that took place passed with the process of independence that took place at the beginning of the XIXth century. The main aim of this research was to understand exchanges, tensions between the subaltern sectors and the social groups represented by the Creole and Peninsular elites, and how through collective actions the subordinates could express notions or values as justice, freedom, and also to establish mechanisms of solidarity for joint action and collective mobilization throughout these turbulent years.

Financial failure is an important subject for both the economical development of the country and for the self - evaluation of individual companies. Increase in the number of financially failed companies points out the misuse of the country resources. Recently, financial failure threatens both small and large companies in Turkey. It is important to determine factors that affect the financial failure by analyzing models and to use these models for auditing the financial situation. In today&rsquo / s Turkey, the statistical methods that are used for this purpose involve single level models applied to cross-sectional data. However, multilevel models applied to panel data are more preferable as they gather more information, and also, enable the calculated financial success probabilities to be more trustworthy. In this thesis, publicly available panel data that are collected from The Istanbul Stock Exchange are investigated. Mainly, financial success of companies from two sectors, namely industry and services, are investigated. For the analysis of this panel data, data exploration methods, missing data imputation, possible solutions to multicollinearity problem, single level logistic regression models and multilevel models are used. By these models, financial success probabilities for each company are calculated / the factors related to the financial failure are determined, and changes in time are observed. Models and early warning systems resulted in correct classification rates of up to 100%. In the services sector, a small number of companies having publicly available data result in a decline in the success of models. It is concluded that sharing data with more subjects observed in a longer time period collected in the same format with academicians, will result in better justified outputs, which are useful for both academicians and managers.

Bakgrund: Denna studie har genomförts för att bringa klarhet i hur väl relativvärdering fungerar som investeringsstrategi mellan åren 2005 och 2014 på de nordiska marknaderna. Huruvida det finns någon skillnad mellan hur väl strategin fungerar om marknaderna sorteras efter branschtillhörighet samt om tidigare välanvända nyckeltal kan generera olika hög avkastning i olika branscher är ett outforskat område. Tidigare studier på området har antingen undersökt hela marknader eller enskilda branscher där resultaten delvis har tolkats med hjälp av aktiemarknadspsykologi.Syfte: Syftet med studien är att analysera huruvida det finns skillnader i hur väl relativvärdering fungerar som investeringsmetod inom olika branscher för att generera överavkastning; samt huruvida det statistiskt går att säkerställa om det finns en koppling mellan bransch och nyckeltal.Genomförande: Studien använder en kvantitativ metod där aktierna sorteras i kvartilportföljer baserade på dess branschtillhörighet och sin värdering relativt branschkonkurrenter. Portföljerna omplaceras på årlig basis och avkastning räknas ut på månadsbasis samt kumulativt. Portföljerna utvärderas sedan med hjälp av välanvända riskmått samt en diversifieringsprocess och aktiemarknadspsykologi.Resultat: Relativvärdering kan användas för att generera överavkastning i samtliga branscher utom i energibranschen. En skillnad i avkastning, beroende på i vilken bransch, kvartil och nyckeltal som används för investeringen kan konstateras. Diversifiering sänker effektivt risken samtidigt som avkastningen inte sjunker i samma takt. Aktiemarknadspsykologi kan endast till viss del kopplas till skillnaderna i avkastning mellan portföljerna. / Background: This thesis has been executed in order to bring clarity into the matter whether relative valuation works as an investment strategy in the Nordic region between the years 2005 and 2014. Whether the strategy performs differently if the markets are sorted by sector affiliation, as well as if previously commonly used key ratios can generate different returns in different sectors is an unexplored area. Previous studies have focused on examining entire markets or specific industries where the results partially have been interpreted with behavioral finance.Aim: The aim of the thesis is to analyze whether there are any differences in how well relative valuation works as an investment method in different sectors, in order to generate excess return; as well as if it is statistically possible to find a connection between sectors and key ratios.Completion: A quantitative approach is used where the stocks are sorted into quartile portfolios in accordance with their sector affiliation and based on their valuation relative to sector competitors. The portfolios are then rebalanced on a yearly basis and returns are calculated on monthly and cumulative basis. Furthermore the portfolios are evaluated using risk measures, a diversification process and behavioural finance.Results: Relative valuation can be used to generate excess return in all sectors except in the energy sector. A discrepancy in returns is shown, depending on which sector, quartile and key ratio that is used for the investment. Moreover, diversification effectively lowers the risk without lowering the return at the same pace. Behavioural finance can only partially explain the differences in return between the portfolios.

Knowledge Management (KM) helps extend the knowledge of individuals or groups across organisations in ways that directly affect performance. Further, it is a formalised and integrated approach to identify and manage an organisation's knowledge assets. The study is an exploratory investigation of the implementation of IT-based Knowledge Management Systems. It is also a comparative study of the Kuwait and UK public sectors with the specific aim of building a best practice model for KM implementation in conjunction with IT. This includes examination of the relevant literature, a comprehensive analysis of case studies of KM implementation in 91 organisations presented in the literature, in order to arrive at the most critical factors of KM implementation and their degree of criticality, and an exploratory survey of 68 organisations both in the UK and Kuwait relating to their experiences in implementing initiatives such as KM and the role of IT in that process. In view of the intensive and extensive data for interdependence relationships between variables, statistical techniques were used, and in-depth studies of 16 leading organisations, to understand how the KM implementation processes and the critical factors identified were addressed and implemented. This study identifies critical factors of success in KM domain that applicable to Kuwaiti organisations. These factors were categorised under four different headings: (1) Technology, (2) KM processes, (3) Change management, (4) Top management commitment. A generic holistic model for effective KM implementation is proposed.

Determining the cost of implementing a nuclear energy policy is very important due to the high costs associated with nuclear programs. Such programs may be unattainable to certain countries due to the many requirements that ensure a safe and secure nuclear sector. The IAEA has a large number of publications that indicate the requirements for implementing nuclear energy sectors. By using these publications, a framework was developed costing each of the main sectors of a nuclear energy program. These sectors correspond to the sectors that the South African government proposed for its nuclear energy policy. The main sectors are: * Basic infrastructure development * Nuclear power plant (NPP) sector * Nuclear fuel cycle (NFC) sector * Industrial involvement An outline of the framework is attached as Appendix A. A more elaborative development of the framework is given in Chapter 2. The Government proposes the development of 20 GWe (Eskom Holdings Limited, 2010:3) of nuclear power over the next 20 to 25 years along with the development of the entire nuclear fuel cycle and an industrial base that will ensure that South Africa is independent of other countries and has the capability to develop nuclear power plants and associated technology. By applying the framework it was possible to estimate the costs of the different sectors. It was found by the author that the basic infrastructure and power plant sector will cost approximately R 889 billion (2008 Rand value), excluding financing costs. The fuel cycle sector is very sensitive to global resistance and will require considerable planning to ensure that international bodies and countries are satisfied with the local intention of pursuing fuel cycle implementation. To ensure that costs are minimized the implementation of the different fuel cycle steps is crucial and will depend on the rollout plan of the power plants and the local demand for fuel and the influence of security of fuel supply. To implement the entire front end and reprocessing step it was estimated that the cost will amount to approximately R 52,3 billion. The cost of implementing the industrial sector development was not determined, due to the many factors involved. The different requirements in the sector may be supplied by similar industries currently active in South Africa. Most of the current industries will require further accreditation and may have to increase capacity if South Africa is to become a global supplier of nuclear technology. Sources indicated that the different sectors will require trained personnel numbers in the region of 77 000 (direct jobs). The amount of indirect jobs that will be created will be in the regions of 300 000. Government therefore has a huge responsibility to ensure that training and education programs are developed that can supply the demand of trained personnel. The different industries involved should also ensure that the relevant personnel are trained in advance, to obtain the required accreditation and experience. The final outcome of the revised Integrated Resource Plan (IRP2) was not yet available when this dissertation was completed. The outcomes of the future nuclear programs may therefore be different from the extent of developments and investments estimated by this study. The cost of reactors and basic infrastructure will have to be scaled to the revised objectives while the costs of the fuel cycle may change considerably due to a possible decrease in local demand. These changes will affect the economy of scale on many of the sectors of development. The framework is generic and may be applied to different nuclear development programs and countries. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Nuclear Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Determining the cost of implementing a nuclear energy policy is very important due to the high costs associated with nuclear programs. Such programs may be unattainable to certain countries due to the many requirements that ensure a safe and secure nuclear sector. The IAEA has a large number of publications that indicate the requirements for implementing nuclear energy sectors. By using these publications, a framework was developed costing each of the main sectors of a nuclear energy program. These sectors correspond to the sectors that the South African government proposed for its nuclear energy policy. The main sectors are: * Basic infrastructure development * Nuclear power plant (NPP) sector * Nuclear fuel cycle (NFC) sector * Industrial involvement An outline of the framework is attached as Appendix A. A more elaborative development of the framework is given in Chapter 2. The Government proposes the development of 20 GWe (Eskom Holdings Limited, 2010:3) of nuclear power over the next 20 to 25 years along with the development of the entire nuclear fuel cycle and an industrial base that will ensure that South Africa is independent of other countries and has the capability to develop nuclear power plants and associated technology. By applying the framework it was possible to estimate the costs of the different sectors. It was found by the author that the basic infrastructure and power plant sector will cost approximately R 889 billion (2008 Rand value), excluding financing costs. The fuel cycle sector is very sensitive to global resistance and will require considerable planning to ensure that international bodies and countries are satisfied with the local intention of pursuing fuel cycle implementation. To ensure that costs are minimized the implementation of the different fuel cycle steps is crucial and will depend on the rollout plan of the power plants and the local demand for fuel and the influence of security of fuel supply. To implement the entire front end and reprocessing step it was estimated that the cost will amount to approximately R 52,3 billion. The cost of implementing the industrial sector development was not determined, due to the many factors involved. The different requirements in the sector may be supplied by similar industries currently active in South Africa. Most of the current industries will require further accreditation and may have to increase capacity if South Africa is to become a global supplier of nuclear technology. Sources indicated that the different sectors will require trained personnel numbers in the region of 77 000 (direct jobs). The amount of indirect jobs that will be created will be in the regions of 300 000. Government therefore has a huge responsibility to ensure that training and education programs are developed that can supply the demand of trained personnel. The different industries involved should also ensure that the relevant personnel are trained in advance, to obtain the required accreditation and experience. The final outcome of the revised Integrated Resource Plan (IRP2) was not yet available when this dissertation was completed. The outcomes of the future nuclear programs may therefore be different from the extent of developments and investments estimated by this study. The cost of reactors and basic infrastructure will have to be scaled to the revised objectives while the costs of the fuel cycle may change considerably due to a possible decrease in local demand. These changes will affect the economy of scale on many of the sectors of development. The framework is generic and may be applied to different nuclear development programs and countries. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Nuclear Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

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Compared to developed countries, Brazil is relatively distant from the results of innovation. The Brazilian position although has made a significant improvement, going from seventy-two place to sixty-four place, continues with the weakened position mainly in three indices: evalu-ation of institutions (political environment, regulatory and business), redit and R & D. when it refers to the innovation process, bottlenecks are related not only to the high-tech sector, but the majority of economic activities, since the pattern of production in Brazil is still essentially primary. The segment of high technological complexity for decades was marked by visible distortions in the trade balance, resulting in continual trade deficit condition. The same condi-tion occurred in the productive segment of Industrial health (Pharmaceutical and EMHO seg-ment) Economic Complex. Commercial fragility of CEIS between 2000 and 2010 was due to two logics: the productive, structural logic and low investment in innovation indicators as-sessed by the PINTEC (Research on Technological Innovation). The foreign trade of the CEIS showed high participation of imports in the value of industrial transformation industrial, while the share of exports was small, although the sectors increase the volume of exports from 2004. The survey through of the analysis ordinal Spearman the performance was associated CEIS with total expenditures on health and federal health expenditures in the share of domes-tic production (in GDP). The export performance of pharmaceutical sector was positively as-sociated with increased rates of international patent classification in area of pharmaceutical sciences. In relation to capacity innovative the PINTEC indicators point to the need to strengthen the industrial base through innovation, of increased training expenditures, spending on procurement of external expertise in research and development, and increase the rate of introduction of innovations aimed at the domestic market and expand cooperative relations. All this emerges from the understanding of sector dynamics of innovation, sectoral policies and guidelines planned in view of the dynamic nature of competitiveness. / Em comparação aos países desenvolvidos o Brasil encontra-se relativamente distante em rela-ção aos resultados de inovação. A posição brasileira embora tenha apresentado uma significa-va melhora no ranking da inovação mundial, passando do 72º para 64º lugar (2013/2102), ainda permanece com posição fragilizada, principalmente em três índices: avaliação das insti-tuições (ambiente político, regulatório e empresarial), crédito e P&D. Quando se refere ao processo de inovação, os gargalos não se relacionam apenas ao setor de alta tecnologia, mas à maioria de atividades econômicas, uma vez que, o padrão de produção do Brasil ainda é es-sencialmente primário. O segmento de alta complexidade tecnológica durante décadas foi marcado por visíveis distorções na balança comercial, resultando na contínua condição defici-tária do comércio. A mesma condição verificou-se no segmento produtivo do Complexo Eco-nômico Industrial da Saúde (segmento farmacêutico e de EMHO). A fragilidade comercial do CEIS entre 2000 e 2010 decorreu de duas lógicas: da lógica produtiva, estrutural e dos baixos investimentos em inovação avaliados pelos indicadores da PINTEC (Pesquisa de Inovação Tecnológica). O comércio exterior do CEIS apresentou elevada participação das importações no valor de transformação industrial, enquanto a participação das exportações foi pequena, apesar dos setores aumentarem o volume de exportações a partir de 2004. A pesquisa verifi-cou através da análise de correlação ordinal de Spearman que o desempenho do CEIS esteve associado com as despesas totais em saúde e com os gastos federais em saúde na participação da produção doméstica (no PIB). O desempenho das exportações do segmento farmacêutico foi associado positivamente com o aumento do índice de classificação internacional de paten-tes na área das ciências farmacêuticas. Em relação à capacidade inovadora, os indicadores da PINTEC apontaram a necessidade de intensificar o tecido industrial através da inovação, do aumento de gastos com treinamento, dos dispêndios em aquisições de conhecimentos exter-nos, em pesquisa e desenvolvimento, além de aumentar a taxa de introdução de inovações direcionadas ao mercado nacional e ampliar as relações de cooperação. Tudo isso emerge a partir da compreensão da dinâmica setorial de inovação, das políticas e diretrizes setoriais planejadas tendo em vista a natureza dinâmica da competitividade.