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[pt] A presente pesquisa de doutorado tem como objetivo analisar o uso que algumas mulheres fazem da rede social para emagrecer na contemporaneidade. De maneira mais específica, como o Instagram foi incorporado à rotina de mulheres que buscavam eliminar o excesso de peso, através da abertura de uma conta fitness virtual exclusiva para compartilhar a sua prática diária de exercícios físicos e alimentar. Foram entrevistadas 28 mulheres brasileiras entre 19 e 40 anos que eliminaram de 10 a 80 quilos no período de um ano através do compartilhamento diário de fotos e informações acerca do seu processo de emagrecimento no Instagram. Como resultado da pesquisa, foi constatada a importância do grupo (curtidas, comentários positivos e re-compartilhamentos) para a manutenção da busca pelo objetivo primário que, em muitos casos, expandia o espaço das redes sociais para a vida off-line. Além disso, o registro diário das mudanças corporais no diário de telas virtual possibilitou a crença de que seria possível talhar o corpo para atingir o objetivo almejado: emagrecer. Nesse contexto, a tecnologia se coloca como instrumento fundamental que possibilita a conexão e interação entre pessoas. A rede social se tornou o espaço de sociabilidade na contemporaneidade, podendo conectar pessoas que se assemelham em estilo ou objetivo de vida, como é o caso das #instafitness. A partir do uso comum da rede, mulheres se encontram e formam um grupo cuja finalidade é a mesma: perder peso. A formação grupal se torna um aspecto importante, na medida em que um espaço na virtualidade, que reflete o olhar, se constrói com a finalidade de partilhar sentimentos e emoções dolorosas sobre o corpo acima do peso e a dificuldade de se inserir no universo feminino em virtude da gordura. / [en] The article aims to explore the women s use of social media as a tool for losing weight. Instagram was integrated to the daily routine of women that were seeking to eliminate fat excess by opening an exclusive account to share their regular routine of exercises and diet. Data for this study were based on 38 interviews of Brazilian women aged between 19-40 years old, which reduced up to 80 pounds in one year just by sharing their virtual diary of pictures (contents of exercises and meals) on Instagram. The outcome results remark the importance of the group (likes, positive comments and shares) for the maintenance of the primary objective that, in many cases, expanded to the offline life. Furthermore, the daily record in the virtual screen diary of the body changes increased the belief that it would be possible to tame the body to achieve their main goal: lose weight. In this context, technology becomes an important instrument that enables connection and interaction. The social network has become the space of sociability in the contemporaneity, being able to connect people who in similar style or objective of life, as the case of instafitness. From the common use of the network, women meet and form groups whose have the same purpose. Group formation is an relevant aspect, because it creates a virtual space, that reflects the regard, with the purpose of sharing painful feelings and emotions regarding the overweight body and the difficulty of being seen as part of feminine universe because of the fat.

<p>A critical factor in transit mode share analysis is the level of accessibility to transit services. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationships between accessibility and the built environment, and the use of transit. To do so, the proportion of transit users is modeled as a function of socio-economic characteristics, transit level of service, and built environment characteristics. While accessibility to transit has been the object of previous research, accessibility <em>by</em> transit is a factor that has received only limited attention in prior transit modal share research. The case study is the city of Hamilton, and the geographic unit of analysis is the Dissemination Area. A logistic model for proportions with a spatial filter (for spatial autocorrelation) and an over-dispersion parameter is found to provide the best fit and statistical properties. The results of analysis at the meso-scale show that accessibility by transit contributes positively to usage of transit. The possibility that factors at the micro-scale may also influence use of transit, suggests the development of a methodology, based on the use of spatial filtering, to systematically select walkability audit sites. The proposed methodology is demonstrated by means of a case study of neighborhoods in Hamilton. Statistical analysis of walkability audit information shows that the proposed selection strategy can be used to better target limited resources for field-based work, and produce valuable insights into the micro-level factors that may affect transit use.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

For over 30 years, federal and state governments have been engaged in a collective effort to improve the water quality and living resources in the Chesapeake Bay (CB), focusing particularly on reducing delivered nitrogen and phosphorus loads. However, achievement of water quality objectives remains elusive. In Virginia, agriculture represents the single largest source of nutrient loads to the Chesapeake Bay. Despite aggressive regulatory efforts in other nutrient source sectors, state authorities rely on educational programs and voluntary financial assistance programs to induce landowners to adopt best management practices (BMPs) that reduce agricultural nutrient loads. This study explores two economic aspects of efforts to reduce agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution in the Virginia portion of the CB watershed. Firstly, current and possible future transactions costs associated with specific aspects of agricultural NPS participation in water quality trading (WQT) programs are examined in Chapter 1. A case study approach is used to consider the possible cost consequences of expanding the use of NPS credits from agricultural 'working lands' BMPs in Virginia. Findings indicate that overall transactions costs for nutrient trades involving agricultural NPS in Virginia are currently relatively low, due to the type of activities being credited: simple land conversions. Based on best available evidence, the administrative transactions costs of creating credits on agricultural 'working lands' using management and structural BMPs will be 2 to 5 times more costly on a per project basis than for credits generated from land conversions. Compliance monitoring protocols were found to be a significant driver of costs for credits generated from working agricultural lands. These results suggest an important cost/risk tradeoff between verification cost and compliance certainty for program designers to consider. The second study (Chapter 2) considers the economic cost of meeting pollution reduction targets for the Virginia portion of the CB Watershed. Existing cost models are based on simplifying behavioral assumptions about public transactions costs, conservation adoption rates, and implementation costs of agricultural BMPs. This study builds on the existing literature and uses the estimates of transactions costs from Chapter 1 together with information on producer BMP adoption rates to examine the implications of including transactions costs and differential BMP costs and adoption rates when estimating the minimum costs of achieving specified nutrient reduction goals in Virginia. The paper uses a cost-minimizing mathematical programming approach and models a number of different cost scenarios. Results indicate that inclusion of transactions costs substantially affects estimates of total costs of meeting nutrient reduction goals; on average total costs increased by 44 percent, but ranged between 19 and 81 percent depending on the scenario analyzed. Analysis of the modelled scenarios shows that those BMPs that account for the most implementation costs do not necessarily account for the most transactions costs (and vice versa). This suggests that transactions costs should be acknowledged to vary with the type of practices being implemented, rather than being approximated as either a fixed amount or a fixed proportion of implementation costs. In addition, the analysis highlights the disproportionate costs associated with achieving nutrient reductions via high-cost adopters, and suggests there may be a role for education or extension to assist landholders to lower opportunity costs of participating in conservation. / Master of Science

In the last two decades, corporate governance rules in Sweden have been arguably improved, giving more protection to minority owners. We thus investigate the impact of dual-class shares on firm valuation on the Swedish stock exchange. Companies from Nasdaq Stockholm are observed during the years 2018-2022, where an OLS regression analysis is made to explore the relationship of the firm valuation measurement Tobin’s Q and other firm variables. Based on regression analysis we do not find an association between the categorical dual-class share structure and Tobin's Q. However, we find a negative association between size of the wedge - the divergence between voting and cash flow rights of the largest owner - and Tobin's Q, attributed to agency costs.

It is in the area of the regulation of a company's share capital and distributions to shareholders that the inherent conflict between creditors and shareholders, and the fragile balance among shareholders internally, intersect. The share capital of a company underlies its corporate structure and represents not only its initial own funds from which creditors can be paid, but also the relative equity interests of the shareholders. The balance between shareholders can be disturbed by capital reorganisations through increase, reduction or variation of share capital or through disproportionate contributions by, or distributions to, shareholders. Share repurchases are particularly risky in this regard. Creditor interests are affected when their prior right to payment is endangered by distributions to shareholders. This study analyses the South African Law relating to share capital and distributions against the background of a comparative study of the laws of England, New Zealand, Delaware and California, as well as the provisions of the American Model Business Corporations Act. Two main approaches to creditor protection are evident. The capital maintenance doctrine, which is followed in England and Delaware, protects creditors by emphasising the notional share capital of the company as a limit on distributions. In contrast, the solvency and liquidity approach focuses on the net assets of the company and on its ability to pay its debts. New Zealand, California and the Model Business Corporations Act represent this approach. Regulatory responses to shareholder protection range from insistence on compliance with procedural requirements to minimal statutory intervention in the internal affairs of companies, instead relying on general principles of fairness and good faith. There is little correlation between a particular system's approach to creditor protection on the one hand, and to shareholder protection on the other. England, New Zealand and South Africa prescribe specific formalities, while the American approach is more relaxed. South Africa is a hybrid system. Its transition from capital maintenance to solvency and liquidity has been incomplete and its protection of equity interests is relatively unsophisticated. A number of recommendations are made for an effective and coherent approach that will safeguard the interests of creditors and shareholders alike. / School: Law / LL.D.

In most cases in a deceased person’s estate, there are problems with co-ownership where more than one family member inherits the deceased family estate assets. To escape the perils of co-ownership the beneficiaries consensually agree to divide the inherited communallyshared asset/s. This agreement can take place immediately after the death of the family estate owner or some time later regarding some or all of the said assets. On the conclusion of the division agreement, the contractual party who receives the awarded assets enjoys sole ownership and the other contractual parties by agreement retract their ownership. In a jurisprudential content analysis of forty-six recorded family deceased division agreements from Old Babylonian Larsa and Nippur, essential elements are identified which are the framework and qualification requirements for a family deceased division agreement. Within this framework the concepts, terms and elements of the agreement are categorised as natural and incidental elements, which reflect the specific law traditions and choices of contractual parties and show the unique scribal traditions in the different Old Babylonian city-states of Larsa, Nippur and Sippar. The aim of the study is to shed a more focused light on the interpretation of recorded Old Babylonian division agreements and to show that the division agreement was a successful, timeless, estate administration mechanism and tool to obviate any undesirable consequences of co-ownership of the bequeathed property. / Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Ancient Near Eastern Studies)

It is in the area of the regulation of a company's share capital and distributions to shareholders that the inherent conflict between creditors and shareholders, and the fragile balance among shareholders internally, intersect. The share capital of a company underlies its corporate structure and represents not only its initial own funds from which creditors can be paid, but also the relative equity interests of the shareholders. The balance between shareholders can be disturbed by capital reorganisations through increase, reduction or variation of share capital or through disproportionate contributions by, or distributions to, shareholders. Share repurchases are particularly risky in this regard. Creditor interests are affected when their prior right to payment is endangered by distributions to shareholders. This study analyses the South African Law relating to share capital and distributions against the background of a comparative study of the laws of England, New Zealand, Delaware and California, as well as the provisions of the American Model Business Corporations Act. Two main approaches to creditor protection are evident. The capital maintenance doctrine, which is followed in England and Delaware, protects creditors by emphasising the notional share capital of the company as a limit on distributions. In contrast, the solvency and liquidity approach focuses on the net assets of the company and on its ability to pay its debts. New Zealand, California and the Model Business Corporations Act represent this approach. Regulatory responses to shareholder protection range from insistence on compliance with procedural requirements to minimal statutory intervention in the internal affairs of companies, instead relying on general principles of fairness and good faith. There is little correlation between a particular system's approach to creditor protection on the one hand, and to shareholder protection on the other. England, New Zealand and South Africa prescribe specific formalities, while the American approach is more relaxed. South Africa is a hybrid system. Its transition from capital maintenance to solvency and liquidity has been incomplete and its protection of equity interests is relatively unsophisticated. A number of recommendations are made for an effective and coherent approach that will safeguard the interests of creditors and shareholders alike. / School: Law / LL.D.

In most cases in a deceased person’s estate, there are problems with co-ownership where more than one family member inherits the deceased family estate assets. To escape the perils of co-ownership the beneficiaries consensually agree to divide the inherited communallyshared asset/s. This agreement can take place immediately after the death of the family estate owner or some time later regarding some or all of the said assets. On the conclusion of the division agreement, the contractual party who receives the awarded assets enjoys sole ownership and the other contractual parties by agreement retract their ownership. In a jurisprudential content analysis of forty-six recorded family deceased division agreements from Old Babylonian Larsa and Nippur, essential elements are identified which are the framework and qualification requirements for a family deceased division agreement. Within this framework the concepts, terms and elements of the agreement are categorised as natural and incidental elements, which reflect the specific law traditions and choices of contractual parties and show the unique scribal traditions in the different Old Babylonian city-states of Larsa, Nippur and Sippar. The aim of the study is to shed a more focused light on the interpretation of recorded Old Babylonian division agreements and to show that the division agreement was a successful, timeless, estate administration mechanism and tool to obviate any undesirable consequences of co-ownership of the bequeathed property. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Ancient Near Eastern Studies)